The Newtown bee., 1905-09-01
Ten Pages.
LOCAL AFFAIRS.
A b. CENTENNIAL SER MON.

i A BI-CENTENNlAL SERMON.
! THE NEW ENGLAND LEAvEN.-A Sci
| MON PREACHED IN THE NEWTOWl
| CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH BY TIL
| PASTOR, REV OTIS w. BARKER, SUN
II DAY MORNING, AUGUST 6, 1905. w
III CANNOT LABEL WITH LOCAL NAME
OUR CELEBRATION.--A SCORE OF
MORE OF THE NATlONALITIEs o.
EUROPE REPRESENTED IN THE LIFI
OF OUR WESTERN wNs.--wIIL TIL
NEW ENGLAND LEAVEN LEAVEr
THE WHOLE LUMP?-THE OLD WAL
SONGS OF ISRAEL MADE TO LIvI
AGAIN.-THE PURITAN FOREFATHEI
HAS BEEN PRAISED OvERMUCH. TIL
LONELINESS AND EMILE OF LIFE II
THE WILDERNESS WILDS.
DUSTON AND HER GREAT EXPLOIT.
Text: Matt. 10: 80, Another parable spalIt
He unto them, The kingdom of heaven is like
unto leaven, which a woman took and hid il
three measures OF meal till the whole was
leavened."
What is all this for? Why, for these
last few days, have we been INDUCING
Have we for one moment stopped to
consider that this splendid celebration
would mean really nothing apart from
our national life? We cannot pack
away little fragment of this great
country and label with some local
say, '"ThiS is ours" The great stream
Of our national life may run into tiny
eddies and miniature bays, but the
strong, swirling current rolls majesti-
cally on. We are only a part of 2
mighty whole. We can only have a
celebration like this because we have
something to celebrate; and that
something is not a date so much as it
Is great events and wonderful deStinies
and noble women and grand men.
1t is said that millions of our human
race have been cursed by their ances-
try. Their sires lived under despot-
ic government where they were made
to serve an iron will. The later gener-
alton feel the poison in the blood; they
come into the world all back head and
no forehead. Not so with US. We
have come of a godly and goodly line.
anniversary exercises from what
worthy stock they are sprang? Shall
they appreciate what it means to be
the logical and spiritual heirs of their
Puritan forefathers? That is the
question which deeply concerns US to-
day. Charles Sumner, the great
statesman, when speaking at a New
England dinner in 1873, said as he |
looked toward Henry Ward Beecher,
sitting near him: 81 have often
thought that if it had been my priv
lege to preach the Gospel and to ill
pulpit as grandly as you have done
yours l would sometime take the text,
"A little leaven leaveneth the whole
lump and speak Of the great influence
of the Puritans in the history of our
land" You see | have not followed
even this suggestion, coming from SO
august man, because when Paul uses
these words he uses them to signify
the leavening power of evil; but no in
fuence in our Nations history is
stronger for good than that of the
noble bard who planted firmly their
feet on Plymouth Rock on one wintry
day.
A GREAT PROBLEM CONFRONTs US
as nation just now. 1t is this: Shall
we be able to stem the flow of immi-
grafton that is now so strongly setting
toward these shores? Shall we be able
to receive it into our Nations life, and
it, and Americanize it, and
uplift it from the plane of the sly?
This tide in the last fiscal year reached
high water mark; more than million
souls f1oated here with the f1otsam and
jetsam of the waters. Representa-
tives of one, or at most two, national
ties gathered around the camp fires of
the Pilgrims; representatives of a
score or more nationalities assemble
about the camp fire of the California
or stroll through the streets of
our western towns. A score of men,
DR. Strong tells us, are found working
in a factory in New York City, who
are come here directly from Haran, the
ancient land out of which the progeni-
tor Of the Jewish race was called. The
stream of the nations life, in it's flow
ing, has been sadly contain mated
since the Mayhower days. That is
sure. Is the current which these
worthy men of 1921 set moving yet SO
strong that it will overpower all coun-
ter currents that seek to impede it's
course? The characteristics of the
Puritan are strong, impressing and en-
during. Will they endure through all
the years? "Histories make US wise,''
says Bacon. ga moral and philosophy
cal respect for our ancestors elevates
the character and rehnes the heart"
says Webster; and no one can look
even briefly into the history which this
day brings to our view without being
made more Of man, nobler patriot
and taking larger grasp on the work
which this mai ton has been ordained of
God to do.
What, then, are the characteristics
Of our Puritan slres, those things
which have acted as leaven in the ma
tion's life? A striking Characteristic
is this: Our Puritan forefathers had a
sublime faith in God. l put the en-
phasis upon the adjective, for there is