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Digital file copyright by Cornell
University Library 1993.HERE we raise the statue of the Puritan Pilgrim who
walked undismayed the solitary heights of duty and
of everlasting service to mankind. Here let him
stand, the soldier of a free church calmly defying the hierarchy,
the builder of a free state serenely confronting the continent
which he shall settle and subdue. The unspeaking lips shall
chide our unworthiness, the lofty mien exalt our littleness, the
unblanching eye invigorate our weakness; and the whole poised
and firmly planted form reveal the unconquerable moral energy
—the master-force—of American civilization. So stood the
sentinel on Sabbath morning guarding the plain house of
prayer, while wife and child and neighbor worshipped within.
So mused the Pilgrim in the rapt sunset hour on the New
England shore, his soul caught up into the dazzling vision of
the future, beholding the glory of the nation that should be.
And so may that nation stand forever and forever, the mighty
guardian of human liberty, of God-like justice, of Christ-like
brotherhood.”
George William Curtis.“New England was the translation into prose of the dreams which
haunted Milton his whole life long.”—Frederick Denison Maurice.
“The whole history of English progress since the Restoration, on
its mor^l and spiritual side, has been the history of Puritanism.”—
/. R. Green.
“It was conscience in the Pilgrims which brought them to these
shores; inspiring a courage, confirming a resolution and accomplishing
an enterprise for the parallel of which men vainly search the records
of the world.”—Robert 'Winthrop.
“The embarkation of the Pilgrims'and the lone path of the May-
flower upon the 'astonished sea’ were' a grander sight than navies of
mightiest admirals run beneath the lifted clouds of battle; grander than
the serried ranks of armed men moving by tens of thousands to the
music' of an unjust glory. If you take to pieces and carefully inspect
all the efforts, all the situations, of that moral sublime which gleams
forth, here and there, in the true or the feigned narrative of human
things—deaths of martyrs, or martyred patriots, or heroes in the hour
of victory, revolution, reformations, self-sacrifices, fields lost or won—
you will find nothing nobler at their source than the motives and the
hopes of that ever-memorable voyage. These motives and these
hopes—the sacred sentiments of duty, obedience to the will of God,
religious trust, and the spirit of liberty—have inspired, indeed, all the
beautiful and all the grand in the history of man. The rest is common-
place. ‘The rest is vanity; the rest is crime/”—Rufus Choate.Unbetltng of tfjc ^inbotos of
iPlpmoutf) CJjurct)
Beptcftng tfje History of IDuritanism
anti its
influence Upon tfje Snstitutfons
anli people of tfje Republic
December 29/1907
*
^Iptoutj) Cjmrcj)
1847
$a0tor£
Henrp J^arb Peecljer, 18474887
2.pman Abbott	18874899
jHetoeU Utoigljt JltUte, 1899=
rInfluence of |Buritantsmt upon t^e gjn*
jStttutiottjS anO people of ttye ISepubltc.
First Series. Upper Windows. Unveiled December 29th, 1907.
1.	John Hampden and John Pym Appealing for the Bill of Rights
before Charles I. Political Liberty.
2.	John Milton Pleading for the Liberty of the Press. Intellectual
Liberty.
3.	Oliver Cromwell Announcing to George Fox Liberty of Worship,
and the Beginnings of Religious Toleration and Charity.
4.	The Prayer of John Robinson on the Deck of the Speedwell at
Delfthaven.
5.	The Signing of the Compact of the Mayflower.
6.	The Landing of the Pilgrims.
7.	John Eliot Preaching to the Indians.
8.	The Founding of Harvard College.
Second Series. Lower Windows. To be completed during 1908.
1.	Roger Williams and Personal Liberty; Rhode Island.
2.	John Hooker’s Plea for Independency; The Contribution of Con-
necticut.
3.	The Contribution of “Brave Little Holland,” and the Dutch in New
York.
4.	The Quaker’s Gospel of the Inner Light and the Peace Movement
in Pennsylvania.
5.	The Cavalier, and the Contribution of the Episcopacy, Virginia.
6.	The Huguenot, and His Influence upon the South.
7.	The Overflow of Puritanism upon the Great West.
8.	The World Movement, the Haystack Prayer Meeting at Williams
College, and the Founding of the American Board in 1806.
Third Series. Opposite the Pulpit.
1.	Abraham Lincoln Writing the Emancipation Proclamation.
2.	Henry Ward Beecher Raising the Flag at Fort Sumter.
3.	Harriet Beecher Stowe Writing '‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”
4.	Lecture room and parlors. Eight Portraits of the PicKieers of
Religious Liberty.
4tatement of tlje	of ^lymouty
C^utcl) anti t&e l^enr? ^at;D Beecher
Jflemortal Committee.
1.	The completion of the windows setting forth the Influence of
Puritanism upon the people and institutions of the republic.
2.	The completion of the Endowment Fund of $100,000.
3.	The Erection of the Institute and Working building. Large Me-
morial room containing the portraits, paintings, photographs, busts,
manuscripts, and other relics of Henry Ward Beecher, Dr. Lyman
Beecher*, his father, Harriet Beecher Stowe, his sister, etc., etc. Read-
ing rooms, lounging room, etc., in the basement, for Young Men's
Club. Class rooms for evening work, etc. (The names of 2,600 young
men and 1,200 young women, living on Brooklyn Heights, and working
in New York or Brooklyn, have been obtained.)
4.	The Committee and the Church own or control one lot to
the east of the church, the two lots for the Institute and Memorial
Hall on the right side, and the four lots opposite Plymouth. The mem-
bers look forward to a little park, and the interment of the remains of
Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher, and-the completion of a bronze
memorial, along the general lines of the St. Gaudens Shaw Memorial,
on Boston Common.
(See last .two pages of this booklet.)
5Appealing for the Bill of Rights
Tk ODERN Democracy and
^ I liberty began with the
Plea for the Bill of
Rights before Charles the First.
The : plea was made by John
Hampden called “the most patri-
cian gentleman of his era/’ and
John Pym, the first mail in history
to be spoken of as “The Old Man
Eloquent.” The two patriots or-
ganized a movement against the
doctrine of the divine right of
. kings. They denied the king’s
“John Hampden and John pym ap-. right to impose taxes and person-
pealing for the Bill of Rights Before
Charles i. Political Liberty. ally expend the people’s money.
Designed by F. S. Lamb
Executed by j. & r. Lamb	At - the . risk ofthe Tower or the
headsman’s axe, they insisted upon the rights and duties of
the people’s elected representatives. When Charles demanded
the persons of three members of-the House whose criticisms
of the throne were offensive, the Speaker answered “I have
no ears with which to hear your commands, no hands with
which to arrest these members, no eyes with which to see them,
until the House of Commons, by a majority of votes, bids
me so do.” Their plea for the rights of the people was made
in the House of Parliament. Hampden is speaking, and about
Charles are grouped the Earl of Strafford, Archbishop
Laud, Prince Rupert and Lord Digby.
6and John Pym
before Charles I. Political Liberty
3n jHemoriam
JAMES LEONARD CORNING,
Born August 21st, 1828—Died September 1st, 1903.
7John Mil to n
for the Liberty of the Press.
JOHN MILTON made the
first plea for the freedom
of the Press. He believed
that the people had full power
to distinguish between truth and
falsehood, wisdom and error. He
insisted . that the printing-press
must sow. the land with the good
seed of universal Wisdom and
knowledge. .To this end the
author, the philosopher, and states-
man rhust. be free to publish their
views.;: He made a thrilling pro-
' test against the imprisonment of
a writer because his pamphlets and
books were unfriendly to the exist-
ing government. The influence of the Areopagitica has been
world-wide. No record exists of the argument, save in a
printed form. The window- therefore represents Milton as
seated in his study, surrounded by manuscripts and illu-
minated missals, and writing his plea for intellectual liberty.
Although a Puritan by conviction, John Milton was a
courtier, and throughout his entire career as Secretary of
State during Oliver Cromwell’s . Protectorate, the poet
dressed in the rich costume of the era.
“John Milton writing the plea
for the liberty of th;e press ”
Designed by F. |3. Lamb
Executed by J. R". Lamb
8P lea d i n g
Intellectual Liberty
J# iWemortam
SAMUEE;BOWNE DURYEA,
Born March 27th, 1845—Died June 7th, 1892.
9Oliver Cromwell
to George Fox Liberty of Worship, and the
HfttV URING his boyhood Oliver
I . B Cromwell witnessed the
flogging .and mutilation of
a Non-conformist clergyman. The
old minister was at Once author,
orator and preacher. The youth
was stirred to a fury of indigna-
tion . when he heard later that
three- hundred of the moral teach-
ers of England had been im-
prisoned or exiled. Then and
there he registered a vow that if
God ever gave him the oppor-
“ Oliver Cromwell announcing . .	.	- r	...	.	1	•	1
to Geo. fox Personal	tumty . of smiting ecclesiastical
Liberty of Worship”	. _
Designed by f. s. Lamb	intolerance and bigotry, that he
Executed by J. & R. Lamb	1	1	1	i 1
would strike the hardest blow
that he could. Some years passed by, and Cromwell had
climbed to England’s greatest palace, Whitehall. As Lord
Protector of the Commonwealth, one day he heard that
George Fox, the Quaker, had been thrust into jail, because
he would not conform. Oliver Cromwell brought the
Quaker out; and- gave him his liberty. He announced his
judgment that the commonwealth.should be founded upon
liberty, toleration and charity in religion. After his release
George Fox went to Hampton Court, where the interview
with the Lord Protector took place.
IOAn nouncing
Beginnings of Religious Toleration and Charity
3n jWemortam
HENRY EDWARD MORRILL, M.D.
Born December 29th, 1813—Died March 6th, 1874.The L as t P r ayer of
on the Deck of the
HEN some of the Puritans
found they could not live
a free life and work out
their own mission and destiny
under bishop and king, they re-
moved to Holland. There they
dwelt apart, for twenty years.
They maintained an absolute
democracy, political and ecclesi-
astical. Their leader was John
Robinson, a man of unique genius
and character, the author of the
proverb, “More light is yet to
break forth from God’s throne.”
Robinson was one of the pioneers
and heroes of religious liberty.
He believed that to the Pilgrim
Fathers, as to Abraham, God
;	had said in His providence, “Get
thee out from thy country and thy kindred to a land
which I will show thee. And I will bless thee, and in thee
and thy children after thee shall all the nations of the earth
be blessed.” ; On the 20th of September, 1620, John Robin-
son and the;Pilgrim Fathers marched down the street of
Delfthaven reciting a psalm. Kneeling on the deck of the
Speedwell he committee! the pilgrim band into the guidance
of that God who holds the sea in the hollow of His hand, and
bringeth the storm-tossed into the desired haven. About
Robinson are grouped the leaders of the company.
“Last Prayer of John Robinson
on Deck of the Speedwell
Designed by F. S. Lamb
Executed by J. & R. LambJohn Robinson
Speedwell at Delfthaven
3ftt iWemortam
JOHN TASKER HOWARD,
‘‘Founder of Plymouth Church.”
1808—1888,
and SUSAN TAYLOR RAYMOND, his wife,
1812—1906.
13The Signing of
on the
t y
/h
try
3 M'l
| <rmiiuk
“Signing of the Compact on
Board of the Mayflower ”
Designed by F. S. Lamb
Executed by J. & R. Lamb
F.1
1
ROM the beginning the
Pilgrim Fathers recognized
the all but insurmountable
obstacles to the founding of a
colony and the subduing a con-
tinent. Forecasting these diffi-
culties, they determined to enter
into a solemn compact for mutual
aid- and comfort, in the interest
of unity of action, and strength
against all enemies. • The genius
of the compact is, each for all,
and all for each. The principles
set forth have been called the
seed corn from which grew the
~ ~	Declaration and the ^Constitution.
The log book of the Mayflower runs thus : “This day, be-
fore we came to harbour, observing some noFwell affected
to unity and concord, but giving some appearance of fac-
tion, it was thought good there should be an association
and agreement that we should combine together in one
body, and to submit to such government as we should by
common consent agree to make and choose.” In this win-
dow appear Carver, Bradford and Winslow, all governors
of the colony at later dates.
14the Compact
Mayflower
3n Jlemoriam
AUGUSTUS STORRS,
Born June 4th, 1817—Died March 4th, 1892
15The Landing of
JCH to the surprise of
the leaders, the May-
flower touched the coast
of Massachusetts instead of the
Virginias. After careful explora-
tion of the shore, by men sent
forth to spy out the land, Plymouth
was selected as the site of the
colony. “We came to a conclu-
sion “by the most voices to set on
the main land on the first place,
on a high ground, where there
is a great deal of land cleared,
and hath been planted with corn
three or four years ago; and there
is a sweet brook that runs under
the hillside, and as many delicious springs of good water
as can be dtunk, and where we may harbour our shallops
and boats exceeding well.” In the foreground ,of the win-
dow are Brewster,, Governor Carver and Priscilla Alden,
representing the church, the civil government and the
family. In the distance is the Mayflower, and in the back-
ground men debarking from the. vessel..
“The Landing of the Pilgrims”
Designed by F; S.'Lamb
Executed by J. & R. Lamb
16the Pilgrims
3fn JWemortam
MARY B., wife of HENRY HENTZ.
Died Nov. 22nd, 1904.
7Jo h n El i o t
t o the
“John Eliot Preaching to, the
Indians”
F ROM the moment of their
landing the Pilgrim Fathers
and the Puritans planned
the education of the Indians.
From London came a letter from
John Eliot, who coveted the task of
missionary to the forest children.
Soon after an invitation was sent
from the colony that was accepted
by Eliot, who landed in Boston
in 1631, and immediately began
his preparation for evangelizing
the Indians. He soon found a
young chief who spoke the Eng-
lish fluently, and, . working to-
gether, Eliot and the -Indian made
the first dictionary and grammar
ESb^.&SRL^b.:	- and translated the Bible into the
Indian tongue. Eliot soon be-
came known as the. Apostle, to the Indians, and the story
of his influence, reaching England,, moved. John Hampden
to visit the colony.. Tradition tells us that John Hampden
walked from Boston to the banks of the Connecticut, where
John Eliot was then encamped with a tribe of Indians. In
a few years Eliot built up a strong Indian church. On his
return to Boston, the Apostle to the Indians recommended
the policy of peace and good will, urging a treaty of friend-
ship along the lines afterwards wrought, but so successfully
by William Penn in Philadelphia. Had Eliot’s recom-
mendations prevailed, it is believed that the white man’s
relation with the Indian during the past centuries might
have been one of peace and friendship, Instead of bitter hate
and cruel warfare.
18P r e a c h i n g
Indians
3ht JflemoriamThe Founding of
“The Founding of Harvard
College”:	"
Designed by F. SV. Lamb
Executed by J. & R. Lamb
TWELVE years after their
landing at Plymouth, the
Puritans united to found
Harvard College, in the interest
of the higher education. Free
institutions and the democracy
‘ assumed that every colonist was
not simply a patriot towards his
country, and a Christian toward his
God, but a scholar toward the in-
tellect. In the monarchy it is
necessary to educate only the
~ royal family and the upper ruling
class. In the republic, where all
are kings and rulers, all must
be made scholars. Training in
the fundamentals was not enough.
Men. must be made wise toward
political problems, economic prob-
lems, social problems, and moral problems. At a time when
they had scarcely enough strong, men to act as trustees,
and to serve as teachers, the Puritans founded an institution
of the higher education, anticipating a day when young men
would crowd their rooms. The founder of the college
was John Harvard; who died six years after the first
timbers were lifted into their place.. The record of Harvard
University says, when John Harvard died in 1638, it was
found that it had pleased God to stir up his heart to give
one-half of his estate toward the erecting of a college, and
all his library. The committee that met John Harvard,
and received at his hands the gift, was composed of twelve
prominent members of the colony. In the window there
appear the figures of Governor Winthrop, the minister John
Cotton, Shepard and others.
20Harvard College
3to iWemortam
JOHN BOYLE.
I83O---1906.FREDERICK STYMETZ LAMB
Artist
STUDIED at the Beaux Arts, and with Mon. Le Fevre
and Boulanger. Honor student under M. Millet. Or-
ganizing member of the Municipal Art Society, and the
National Society of Mural Painters, and the National Arts
Club, and the American Society for the Preservation of
Scenic and Historic Places.
Among many other important works is Mr. Lamb’s
design of the entire scheme of glass, for the Leland Stanford
University.
Recipient of Gold Medal from the French Government
in recognition of his work in glass.
The studies for these windows were made from the best
authenticated portraits. As to the costumes, it should be
remembered that the Puritan reaction against bright colors
followed the accession of Charles the Second. Prior to that
epoch, Puritan and Cavalier alike wore bright colors, em-
phasized social distinctions, and made dress a badge of rank,
standing and dignity. These distinctions were guarded as
zealously in America, the land of liberty, as in England.
The best authorities are agreed that the Pilgrim Fathers,
and the Puritans of Boston, paid close attention to their
attire, to its richness, arid elegance. In his researches, Mr.
Lamb has found among the importations full records of the
clothing purchased, including coats, cloaks, and dresses of
crimson, purple, green, orange, blue, russet, lavender, and
all the associated shades. Every authority has Been consulted
and no pains have been spared in the interest of accuracy and
fidelity to history.
22Sermon by Newell Dwight
Hillis ::	December 29, 1907
“tEfje influence of iPtirifamsim Upon
tfje people ant Institutions
of tfje Republic ”
TEXT:—“And in the Last Days I Will Pour Out
My Spirit Upon All Flesh/'
THIS text opens wide the floodgates, that the tide of
inspiration may sweep in upon all men. It foretells the
coming democracy of genius, and the universality of
inspiration. Instead of His antiquity, it asserts the modernity
of God. With one stroke, it sweeps away the idea that nine-
teen hundred years ago God spoke to men for the last time.
God is not “of old"-—God is as new as the morning sunrise,
as fresh as the last rose that unrolls its secret, while His power
is as recent as the last sheaf that ripened. All natural laws
are God's organized thoughts; all penalties are expressions of
His just will; all social gains register His upward march.
Every individual dwells as it were in the mind and heart of
God. Man wakes and sleeps midst God's encamping angels.
Cities rise and fall, states and empires come and go, but God
abides, eternally young, eternally strong, with resources un-
diminished, with wisdom and power and holiness unimpaired.
In despondent hour let no man think himself alone. What
God was to Moses, God is to every patriot. What God said
to the poets and the prophets, God says to all lovers of their
kind. What God did for the apostles and martyrs, God does
for all who serve their fellows. Our God is always marching
23on. The triumphal procession of the horsemen and chariots
that accompany Him through the pathless air creates that
movement that men call the forward movement of history.
It is this recognition or denial of an immanent God that
distinguishes men and civilizations as stationary or progressive.
The false conservative worships the past, exalts memory, and
looks backward toward what God did. Egypt has a stationary
civilization, and so has China. Both sealed their treasures of
art, truth and character in a mausoleum. Forgetting to-mor-
row and despising to-day, they revere only the achievements of
their ancestors, until their institutions have grown as dry
and lifeless as the mummies sleeping in their tombs. Some
men and nations are progressive; their face is toward the
future. Remembering what God and their fathers did, they
meet new times with new methods, new emergencies with new
truths and weapons. With eyes open and big with wonder,
they search for the new footprints just made upon the sands,
and for the new word of wisdom flung across the sky, in God's
latest and last thought. What is the greatest fact in the
moral universe? This: God is. God was for our fathers;
God shall be for our children—but for us—for slave, for
orphan, for men of office and prosperity, for statesman and
hero, for dying mother and little child, this is the outstanding
word—God is. Just as the ocean’s tide bears easily upon the
wave the bubble; just as the mountain bears lightly the snow-
flake that lies upon its peak, so God bears upon His mind and
heart the human soul. Even the immortal hope is born of this
truth—“God is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.”
Relative Atheism and Absolute Atheism
For various reasons men deny this assertion of the
democracy of God. Some for joy disbelieve that He will pour
out His spirit upon all flesh. That all are to be prophets, that
all are to have power and inspiration, that God is to break the
24alabaster box of genius upon all the people is a statement too
good to be true. Atheism is either absolute, or relative. Abso-
lute atheism leads God to the edge of His universe and bows
Him out of existence; reduces life to a mere dance of atoms;
makes man the creature of fate and circumstance; makes the
scholar and the hero journey for seventy years, toiling toward
a black hole in the ground where the leaf shall be man’s sister
and the worm his brother. Relative atheism affirms God for
one country—for example, Palestine—but denies Him to China,
India and Africa. It affirms Him for one epoch, the Old
and New Testament days, but denies Him to the last nineteen
centuries. It asserts that when the last apostle was buried, the
divine form withdrew from the scene, after which the roseate
hue died out of the air, and our earth was wrapped in gray and
drab, in the light of common day. Now and then, men arise
who have faith in spots. Some indignantly, deny the Biblical
statements. What? Pour out His spirit upon.all flesh? No,
no! God pours it out upon one order of flesh, named cardi-
nals or bishops, who have peculiar functions, but not upon
other men. What? Pour out His spirit upon all flesh? No,
exclaims another. God pours His spirit out upon one man in
Rome, not upon others. What? Pours out His spirit upon
all flesh ? Incredible! The apostle should have said that God
pours it out upon the “elect” class, not upon those whom
He has passed by as “non-elect.” What? Pours out His spirit
upon all flesh through the one hundred and thirty millions in
Russia ? No! The prophet should have said upon one ruling
order, the nobles and the Czar. Poured out His spirit upon all
ages, so that he leaves no generation without its prophet, and
its poet, and its witness, through missionary and martyr ?
Upon Robertson and'Livingstone, upon Bushnell and Beecher,
and Brooks, upon Tennyson and Browning, and Emerson,
upon Millet and George Frederick Watts? Does not that drag
the apostle and the prophet down to the level of ordinary men ?
No ! No ! But then have faith in God.
25Fear, Unnecessary
We need not fear the Bible’s statement. This truth does
not lower Mount Olivet to the level of the foothill; it means
that the omnipotence of God has exalted the foothill to the
level of Mount Olivet and Sinai. You cannot make too much
of the inspiration lent to prophet and apostle, but you may
make too little of that ever-present God who leaves no genera-
tion without a witness. A prophet is one who sees the truth
clearly, feels it passionately, surrenders himself to God’s truth
absolutely, and so becomes a torch to guide the people through
the darkness and the night. Wordsworth was a prophet when
he saw man coming trailing clouds of glory. Tennyson had
the prophetic spirit when he felt that by prayer, as by chains
of gold, man was bound fast to the feet of God. Carlyle, with
a holy fire burning in his bones, had the prophet’s spirit when
he stood for God’s everlasting yea and His everlasting nay.
In true, prophetic spirit Lowell added one new parable in the
vision of Sir Launfal. As for the martyrs, David Livingstone
carries forward the apostolic spirit. Remember that God hath
five Bibles, all inspired. There is the Bible of nature, written
on tables of stone and sky; there is the Bible of human nature,
containing God’s laws on the tablets of the heart; there is the
Bible of history, with the record of His unfolding will; there
is the Bible of revelation, the Old and New Testaments, con-
taining the record of His outpouring spirit upon some prophets
and apostles in one country and one race; there is the Bible
that is the book of His heart in the life of God’s dear Son,
whose feet touched our earth at Bethlehem, and sprang back
to His Father’s side at Olivet. One of His Bibles, the book,
is closed. To the others every day He adds a fresh page. Let
no man, therefore, worship what God once did, so that he
forgets what God does and is. All this illustrates a form of
atheism, relative, to be sure, but essentially an assault upon
that God whose wine is ever freshly poured. You may darken
your eyes, but the foot-prints of shimmering light still lie
26across the hills. You may fill your ears with the clatter of the
street and the din of industry, but the music still sounds on.
For those that will, for all humble, trustful hearts, God still
keeps His tryst with man midst the corn in the cool of the day;
keeps it in the republic as truly as in the fields of Chaldea,
four thousand years ago.
The Puritan Era an Era of Unique
Inspiration
From time to time the immanence of God is illustrated in
events, while history expounds the truth. The Puritan epoch
interprets the modernity and democracy of God. A brief con-
trast with other epochs will make this clear. The Renaissance
was the reformation of the intellect in Italy. The Reforma-
tion was the renaissance of the conscience in Germany. The
Elizabethan age of Shakespeare was the flowering of the reason
in England. The political revolution in England was the
flowering of the conscience. The Pilgrim Fathers’ founding
of the New England was the flouring and fruiting of the will,
taught by the new intellect, refreshed by the newly quickened
conscience, and supported by the presence of the over-ruling
God. Upon the Puritans God poured out His spirit. In that
hour God alone seemed great. To do God’s will became
the only thing worth while. They wanted to worship God and
obey Him in a liberty that should make them as free as the
birds, with prayers and thoughts as untrammeled as the wind.
When the bishop said, Thou shalt pray only in reading this
prayer, and the king said, Thou shalt live under these laws,
and limitations closed around, through laws that they
could not accept, the Pilgrim Fathers withdrew to Hol-
land. They were led by Cambridge men of the highest culture.
In his history of England Green tells us that the progress of
England for the last two hundred and fifty years has been
27nothing but the history of these Puritans, half of whom
remained at home and half of whom came to found a New
England.
The impulse that brought them was purely religious.
On the prow of Columbus’ vessel stood the Spirit of Science;
the unseen pilot on Francis Drake’s ship was the Spirit of
Adventure; Cortez was moved by the love of gold; but the
spirit of Religion guided the destiny of the little Mayflower,
that was freighted with issues more important to democracy
than that of any ship that ever put out to sea. These Pilgrim
Fathers claimed for themselves, in the hour they sailed, the
command given to Abraham, “Get thee out from thy country
unto a land which I shall show thee, and in thee and in thy
children shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” Their
watchwords were five: liberty, equality, opportunity, intelli-
gence, and integrity. Liberty for every man to work out his-
own destiny; equality, that men of every order and degree of
talent, like shrub and vine, oak and palm, might unfold each
his own gift and do his own work in God’s way; oppor-
tunity, that all should have a chance to work and grow, the
banker’s son and the widow’s boy alike bearing the image
of God, both being free to climb as high as ambition, in-
dustry and talent warrant; intelligence and integrity, that
sound knowledge and moral worth are the foundation of all
individual excellence and national greatness. In retrospect,
all men now perceive that Plymouth Rock, where our Pilgrim
Fathers landed, is the true Bethlehem of democracy, the cradle
of liberty. Therefore, in these windows we seek to register
the story of God’s providence. What God thought it worth
while to do, we think it worth while to celebrate and remem-
ber. Some churches limit the windows in their buildings to the
age of the prophets and the apostles. No man can over-esti-
mate the importance of such recognition through ecclesiastical
art and architecture.
28A Plea for a New Art Movement
But the time has fully come for us to widen our thought.
When we proposed these windows, setting forth the immanence
of God, the continuance of His loving providence, and assert-
ing that God is pouring out His spirit upon all flesh, through
the Puritans, some men called it sacrilegious. But when long
time has passed, the storm of controversy and criticism will
die out of the air. Men will understand that the setting forth
of what God did for our fathers does not deny what God did
also for the prophets and apostles. It rather supplements and
completes the story. Once medieval art was bound in grave
clothes. When liberty to choose m w subjects came, the renais-
sance of art came also. Is not God pouring out His spirit upon
American artists? Has not the era of conventional angels,
and conventional prophets, and conventional apostles fully
passed? Do not say that the era of romance and poetry is
gone. It has just come. God poured out his spirit on Millet.
Men had thought that the only sacred subjects were a prophet
with a staff, but Millet took a peasant boy and girl, with their
hoes. He steeped the clods in poetry, bathed the hoe handles
in romance, and made them glisten like the sceptre of God.
This old Puritan meeting-house will henceforth publish the
story of the Pilgrim fathers, and the pioneers of modern
religious liberty, and declare the democracy of Jesus and the
universality of God. And when the controversy has died away,
we hope and pray that men all over this land will give up the
old conventional art, and through the windows in library and
chapel and church the sons and daughters of the republic may
come to feel that the God who once walked with holy men in
Palestine still walks and works with the soldiers who keep the
state in liberty, with our surgeons and physicians who keep
the state in health, with our educators who keep the state
in wisdom and knowledge, with our publicists and statesmen
who keep the state in law and ethics, with our merchants and
29manufacturers who feed and clothe the people, with our poets
and prophets who inspire and support the pilgrim host. There
are no better themes for stained glass, in solemn aisles and
glorious windows of libraries and galleries, than the themes of
modern liberty, religious and political, where God hath made
known His will to men. In the full confidence of a new era
of art, in our chapels and libraries and churches, we have
assembled this day to celebrate the completion of this work,
setting forth the influence of Puritanism upon the people and
institutions of the republic.
Puritanism and Political Liberty
The history of liberty holds no greater chapter than these,
set forth. Here is the beginning of Puritanism, and its first
assault upon feudalism and the struggle for the rights of the
people. Charles was a czar ; his rule was absolute. His gov-
ernment represented the divine right of kings,'that citadel of
iniquity and cruelty. A hundred laws were on the statute
books, punishing the plebeian with hanging. Thirty-two thou-
sand poor men were rotting in the debtors’ dungeons. A few
patrician families owned ninety-nine one-hundredths of' all
the land. John Pym, the first man in history to be called “The
Old Man Eloquent”; John Hampden, called the most patrician
gentleman of his time, carrying forward John Hooper’s plea,
assaulted feudalism, attacked tyranny, and became voices for
the seven millions of poor. These heroic leaders demanded
political rights for the millions, and, like Samson,‘pulled down
the structure of feudalism. Their plea was the fountainhead
and spring of modern liberty and democracy.
There is a window-—it represents John Milton’s plea for
the liberty of: the press. Milton was the ‘scholar and ‘flower
of the Puritan intellect:	Oft he listened to the seven-fold
hallelujah chorus of Almighty God. His soul was like a star
and dwelt apart. “He had a voice whose sound was like the
30sea, he was pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free. He
walked like an archangel down life’s plain, common way. He
taught men virtue, manners, freedom, power and an uncon-
querable mind.” He believed that the man of vision should
have the right, without let or hindrance, to publish his views
through pamphlet or book. He held that God had given the
people plenary power to distinguish between truth and false-
hood and that free discussion would sift the wheat fronv the
chaff. That sublime plea of- John Milton created a revolution.
To-day the press is the people’s university, the workingman’s
college, and we celebrate the founder and father of our intel-
lectual liberty.
There is a window—depicting Oliver Cromwell’s interview
with George Fpx. In his youth Oliver Cromwell saw an
old minister, who would not conform, punished in the market
place. Archbishop Laud had this scholar publicly flogged, slit
his nostrils, cropped his ears and burned his forehead with two
letters, S. S. (Sower of Sedition). That winter the archbishop
exiled 300 of the moral teachers and stripped them of their
goods. Others were thrown into jail, while some were muti-
lated. Their crime was that they refused to read the printed
prayers sent them by Laud. They insisted upon praying to
God through extempore prayer. In that hour Cromwell regis-
tered a vow that if God ever gave him the opportunity he would
strike a blow against ecclesiastical narrowness and cruelty.
Years later he became Lord Protector, and dwelt in England’s
greatest palace, Whitehall. Hearing that George Fox had
been thrust into jail because he would. not conform, Oliver
Cromwell brought the Quaker out and gave him liberty, assert-
ing that that commonwealth was most surely established that
was based upon the personal liberty of every citizen. Gone the
era when men are mutilated, tortured or stripped of goods
because they will not conform! Here and now, therefore,
let us celebrate the Puritan who stood for toleration, liberty
and charity.	- ■There is a window—setting forth John Robinson’s last
prayer on the deck of the Speedwell, On the morning of that
day the little Pilgrim band marched down the street, while
John Robinson read a psalm. The women sang the psalm
with sobs and tears. The men responded with a far-away look
in the eyes; the children, not understanding, clung to their
parents’ garments. Robinson, unique in his genius and author
of that proverb, “More light is yet to break forth from His
word,” offered the last prayer. Tradition says that he
committed the Pilgrims unto Him “who holds the sea in the
hollow of His hand,” and calleth the storm back to His hand,
as a bird returneth to its nest. By prayer, as a golden chain,
John Robinson bound the Mayflower to the throne of God, and
that chain was never broken until they dropped anchor in the
harbor of Plymouth.
Here is a window—it sets forth the signing of the
compact in the cabin of the Mayflower. That was the first
federation. It holds the seed corn that ripened into the
Declaration and the Constitution. Its genius is each for all,
and all the citizens for each; the eighty millions standing for
the single citizen, every citizen standing for the eighty millions.
That compact held the leaven of all present and future con-
stitutions. There is a window. It represents the landing of
the Pilgrim Fathers. Through John Carver, the first governor,
it depicts political liberty; through William Brewster it capital-
izes religious liberty and the importance of moral culture in
the Republic; through Priscilla, famed in song and story, it
represents the family as the first of American institutions.
Dante says that, in his vision, when the chariot of God’s angels
passed by, it left the air roseate in color, and could we have
drawn near to that scene at Plymouth Rock perhaps we would
have seen the angels with their song of peace on earth, good-
will toward men, curving their flight near to that spot where
yesterday Indians had their tepees, and filled the air with war
cries and stained the earth with blood. Yonder is a window—■
32where John Eliot preaches to the Indians. It sets forth the
overflow of Puritanism, the spread of the missionary spirit, the
democracy of genius, the universality of inspiration, for red
men and black men and white men alike. Here is one window
more. Twelve years after the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers
they founded Harvard College. In the monarchy, only the
royal family must be educated, for they are the ruling class.
In the republic, all the citizens must become scholars toward
the intellect as well as patriots toward their country, and
Christians toward their God. It is a plea for the library and
the chapel, an argument for the gallery; the college and the
university. It asserts the democracy of God, the coming age
when wisdom shall be universal, genius diffused, when all shall
be scholars, s patriots and Christians, for man's sake and for
God's sake.
Dedication
In the faith, therefore, that the God of. our Pilgrim
Fathers is our God, and shall be the God of our children after
us; in this old meeting-house, consecrated to democracy, and
standing for absolute independency of the church; where there
are no orders, no classes and no ranks, where we neither look
up nor look down, but look out, upon all our brethren, because
all are in the image of God; here, where a thousand pleas have
been made for the slave, for the poor, for liberty, for loyalty,
for equality, opportunity, intelligence and integrity, we are
come to celebrate the guiding hand of God in our history, to
swear fidelity to the great convictions of our fathers, and to
commemorate the history and influence of Puritanism upon the
people and institutions of the republic.
33•• I. ‘
John Hampden and John Pym Appealing for the Bill
of Rights Before Charles I.
In that solemn faith we dedicate this first window in
memory of James Leonard Corning, called once by Mr.
Beecher, “My son in the faith/' himself an illustration of the
kind of man developed by Mr. Beecher's teachings; an author,
a lecturer, a preacher, an art critic, a friend; to the glory of
God and the continuance of His spirit and influence upon the
earth, we dedicate this window depicting John Hampden's plea
for political liberty, in the hope that the plea will finally be
victorious, not simply for England, and the republic, but for
Russia and China and all the peoples of the earth.
II.
John Milton Pleading for the Liberty of the
Press.
To the memory of Samuel Bowne Duryea—in his youth
called to office in Plymouth Church; whose thoughts even in
death were turned toward the continuance of this work, and
the needs of the people of his beloved city; who made himself
immortal through his bequest, who lives and works through
the institutions that his gold supports; to the citizen, the patriot
and benefactor, we dedicate this window, setting forth John
Milton's plea for the liberty of the press, in the hope of a
day when our land and world will be sown with the good seed
of wisdom and knowledge.
III.
Oliver Cromwell Announcing to George Fox
Liberty of Worship.
To the continuance of the spirit, the teaching and the
character of . Dr. Henry Edward Morrill, long the superintend-
34ent of our school, exalted to many officers in our church, a
scholar, wise in counsel, tolerant in spirit, gentle in judgment,
beautiful in character, himself an illustration of the fact that
a beautiful soul is the fruit that our earth ripens for God, we
dedicate this window, depicting Oliver Cromwell granting
theological liberty to the Quaker, George Fox, and proclaim-
ing toleration and charity in religion, as the genius of freedom.
IV.
The Prayor of John Robinson on the Deck of
the Speedwell.
To the memory of John Tasker Howard, to be ever known
as the founder of Plymouth Church, honored once by Mr,
Beecher’s designating him as “My own pastor,” a man who
was the counselor, father and adviser of us all, a man just,
kindly and benignant; and to the memory of Susan Raymond
Howard, who brought a woman’s moral and aflfectional in-
tuitions to bear upon our church’s life, who taught us how to
put love into theology, justice into ethics, and culture into the
common life, we dedicate this window, in which John Robin-
son’s prayer binds fast to the throne of God, by a chain of gold,
the little ship of the Pilgrim Fathers.
V.
The Signing of the Compact in the Cabin of the
Mayflower.
To Augustus Storrs, merchant, patriot and long the
honored trustee of this church, treasurer of our funds, who
stood like a rock in his pastor’s defense when troubles came
in like a flood, a man of oak in his strength, of vine and flower
in his gentleness, speaking truth in the hidden parts, we dedi-
cate this window, with its story of the compact in the May-
flower, its plea of each for all, and all for each,: in the earnest
hope that the seed corn of the compact that ripened into ..the
35sheaf of our institutions may yet become bread for all the
hungry peoples of the earth.
VI.
The Landing of the Pilgrims.
In grateful and admiring memory of Mary B. Hentz,
wife of Henry Hentz, we dedicate this window, setting forth
the Landing of our Pilgrim Fathers, through the person of
John Carver, illustrating the political institutions, through
William Brewster, religious truth, and through Priscilla Alden,
setting forth the family as the first of American institutions—
in memory of this beautiful woman, whose gentle spirit shows
us that a mother’s heart is the child’s best school-room, whose
purity, overflowing goodness and disinterested sympathy made
all to be her debtors, we dedicate this window, with the Pilgrim
Fathers Landing at Plymouth, which is, and ever will be, the
Bethlehem of the republic.
VII.
The Founding of Harvard College.
To John Boyle, for fifty years an honored merchant
among the city’s most prosperous men, for fifty years an
almoner of universal bounty, toward the hospitals, the Sunday
schools, the churches of Brooklyn, who, from the hour that he
united with Plymouth Church, distributed gold like a prince
—to John Boyle, merchant, patriot, student of the beautiful,
collector and distributer of art treasures, patron of school and
library, we dedicate this window, setting forth the founding
of . Harvard College with its plea for the higher education and
the necessity in the republic of making all men scholars toward
the intellect, as well as patriots toward their country and
Christians toward their God.
Obedient to the divine command, therefore, we praise
famous men of old, and celebrating their heroism, their forti-
tude and their faith, here and now, we swear fidelity to the
great convictions of our fathers.
36What his contemporaries said
“Mr. Beecher was asked to raise the flag at Fort Sumter because
'but for his speeches in England there might have been no flag to
raise.’”—Abraham Lincoln.
“No such eloquence has been heard since Demosthenes made
his plea against the tyranny of Philip.”—William Taylor,■ D.D.
“The Shakespeare of the Anglo-Saxon pulpit.”—Spurgeon.
“He humanized theology and taught the world the love of God.
He was the greatest preacher since the Apostle Paul.”—Joseph Parker,
D.D.
“I want to see three graves in your country—the grave of Wash-
ington, Abraham Lincoln and Henry Ward Beecher.”—William J.
Dazvson, author of “Makers of English Poetry.”
His Memory Cherished
In a single week last autumn twenty-five people from foreign lands
came to Brooklyn to find Mr. Beecher’s grave. Thousands from dif-
ferent States in the Union visit Plymouth Church yearly.
What Independence Hall is to Philadelphia, what the Old South
is to Boston, what Mount Vernon is to Washington, what the shrine
of John Wesley and his old church are to London, we wish to make
this Memorial Hall of Patriotism, Plymouth Church, the Tomb and
Beecher Park to all men, without regard to race, class, or creed,
and especially to the children and youth of our city and country.
Ex-President Grover Cleveland, Hon. David J. Brewer, Justice
of the Supreme Court; Hon. Seth Low, Maj^or of New York; Rev.
F. W. Gunsaulus, D.D., of Chicago, and the Rev. Newell Dwight
Hillis, all members of the Committee, spoke at the memo-
rial meeting at the Academy of Music in Brooklyn, on March
8, 1903. Nearly three hundred gentlemen have accepted positions on
the General Commitee and are heartily committed to this movement.
They include members of the Cabinet, distinguished officers of the
army and navy, Judges, Governors, Senators, other high public
officials, university and college presidents and clergymen of all
denominations from Maine to California.
37President Roosevelt’s
Letter
• President Roosevelt, a member of the General Committee,
wrote:
January 14, 1903.
White House, Washington.
My dear Dr. Hillis:—
It is a matter of genuine regret to me that I cannot take
part in the meeting of the proposed Beecher Memorial. Un-
fortunately it is simply impossible for me during the session
of Congress to make any additional engagements. I am glad
that the people of Brooklyn and of Greater New York are
taking the lead in the proposition to build this memorial, which
shall suitably commemorate Mr. Beecher’s work. What Mr.
Beecher did, especially at the crisis of the great contest for
liberty and union, should never be permitted to die out of the
memory of our people; and I congratulate you on taking the
initiative in the movement to commemorate it. With all
good wishes,
Sincerely yours,
Theodore Roosevelt.
Rev. Newell Dwight Hillis
and Members of Committee.
38Extract from Sermon of the
Pastor
NOW that he has been twenty years dead, what do men say of
him? The greatest leader in the Congregational Church in
England has said: ‘Beecher carried more genius than any
other man of his century/ Spurgeon called him ‘the Shakespeare of the
Christian pulpit/ Dr. William Taylor disagreed with Mr. Beecher in his
theology, blit after his death said of Beecher’s address in Liverpool, ‘the
world has heard no such eloquence since Demosthenes.’ Among the
private papers of Governor Oliver P. Morton, of Indiana, whose un-
timely death was a national misfortune, is one paper in which he says
that he laid out his whole political life along lines pointed out by Henry
Ward Beecher, in a ride the two young men took through the forests
of Indiana in 1845. The great war governor adds: ‘I believe him to
be the broadest statesman the country has produced.’ Lying on his
death bed, John C. Calhoun asked that Mr. Beecher’s article on ‘Shall
We Compromise?’ should be read to him a second time. ‘That man,’
he said, ‘understands the subject and has gone to the bottom of it.
He will be heard from again/ Just before his death, in Boston,
Phillips Brooks referred to Mr. Beecher and said: ‘I regard him as ;
the greatest preacher Protestantism has ever produced.’ ”
His lectures to young men have been translated into twenty foreign
languages. Go into any cathedral or chapel or building where a
minister of the established church preaches in England, and no matter
who speaks, Robertson always preaches the sermon. In our own
country there are innumerable voices and many creeds, but I think
there is no preacher in our land but would gladly confess that some
portion of his message he owes to Mr. Beecher. He sowed and
reaped in many fields, he lectured often, but his pulpit was his real
throne; he was a reformer, and killed many a nest of serpents; some-;
times he fought with lions. He was an editor and strengthened one
great journal, the Independent, and founded the Christian Union. He
became tongue for the dumb, and voice for the Indian, the Chinese
and the negro. During the long conflict with slavery, God honored
him by making all bad men his bitter enemies. He lived three and
seventy years, through the most heated and tumultuous career of
our history, and forged many a thunderbolt against iniquity. He
changed the very climate, theologically, in which we lived, and his
influence made a cosmic change in our spiritual world. What man’s
life has been more fruitful of good? What man’s influence has jour-
neyed beyond the seas and been more permanent?
39Henry Ward Beecher at 6o.