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 PRINCETON, N. J 
 
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 ^r.i7'^c;.p37i897 
 
 " Little, 
 
 ji" iversary of the 
 ^^^'^^- Dastorate of thp. R^vl^ 
 
REV 
 
 DANIEL L. FURBER, D. D. 
 
 At the age of 70. 
 
JUBILEE ANNIVERSARY 
 
 OF THE PASTORATE OF THE 
 
 REV. DANIEL LITTLE FURBER, D. D., 
 
 OF THE 
 
 flRSl CliliRCi IN NEWION, MflSSIiCillSEllS 
 
 NEWTON CENTRE, 
 1897. 
 
 PRINTED BY THE CHURCH. 
 
Introductory. 
 
 Daniel Littlb Furber was born in Sandwich, N. H., October 
 14, 1820; fitted for college at Portland and Fryeburg, Me.; and was 
 graduated from Dartmouth College in 1843. He studied theology at 
 Andover, remaining for a fourth year to hear Professor Park's first 
 course of lectures. He was ordained to the Christian ministry and 
 installed as pastor of the First Church in Newton, Massachusetts, 
 December i, 1847. The moderator of the Council was Dr. Lyman 
 Gilbert, of West Newton. The sermon was preached by Dr. Nehe- 
 miah Adams of Boston. Other parts by Dr. Silas Aiken, Rev. 
 Leonard Swain, Rev. Christopher Marsh, Rev. S. W. Hanks, Rev. 
 John Whitney and Rev. James M. Bacon. 
 
 In 1850 he was married to Mrs. Maria B. Peabody of Han- 
 over, N. H., and for thirty-two years she labored in the Gospel by 
 his side. Soon after her death, in 1882, he resigned the active pas- 
 torate, after thirty-five years of service, and has retained his connection 
 with the church as pastor-emeritus. 
 
 As the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination approached, it seemed 
 fitting that so rare an event should be appropriately observed and that 
 an opportunity should be given to express the gratitude and lore of 
 the church and the community for one whose long life had been so 
 fu41 of benediction. 
 
 At the request of many old friends, Dr. Furber repeated on Sun- 
 day morning, November 28, 1897, a sermon first preached in the same 
 pulpit in the first year of his pastorate. In the audience were twenty-five 
 
iv GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 who heard it at that time, and one at least remembered it with pecu- 
 liar interest, lince it led to her conversion. On the anniversary 
 Sunday, December 5, 1897, Dr. Furber preached an historical discourse 
 in the morning, and at the evening service the active pastor reviewed 
 some of the political, social and theological changes of the half-ccntury. 
 Many old friends of the senior pastor were present at the services of 
 both Sundays. 
 
 The Wednesday following was devoted to the further celebration 
 of the jubilee. Many former members and friends from abroad were 
 in the large audience which gathered at the church at two o'clock to 
 hear the congratulatory addresses. Dinner was served at six to these 
 guests and those members of the church who had joined during Dr. 
 Furber's active ministry. The day was happily closed by a reception 
 in the evening, when the chapel was thronged with friends from all 
 parts of the city. 
 
 It has s»emed desirable that a fitting memorial of so interesting 
 an anniversary should be preserved, and this volume has therefore 
 been prepared by the committee of the church in charge of the 
 celebration. 
 
STILLNESS A DIVINE ATTRIBUTE OF GOD. 
 
 A SKRMOM 
 
 By REV. D. L. FURBER, D. D. 
 
 First preached April 2, 1858; repeated November 28, 1897. 
 
Stillness a Divine Attribute of God. 
 
 "And after the fire a still small voice." I Kings xix; 12. 
 
 The voice was addressed to Elijah. He had fled in dis- 
 may to Horeb, and hid himself in a cave. The Lord had a 
 communication to make to him. He first sent a great and 
 strong wind which rent the mountains and broke in pieces the 
 rocks ; and after the wind, an earthquake ; and after the earth- 
 quake, a fire; and after the fire, a still small voice. The 
 Lord was not in the wind, or the earthquake, or the fire, 
 and we are not told of any effect produced by them upon 
 Elijah. But when he heard the voice he reverently covered 
 his face with his mantle and stood in the door of the 
 cave to listen. The Lord was in the voice as he was 
 not in the noisy and terrific signs which preceded it. 
 This account suggests a truth which I would endeavor 
 in a few particulars to illustrate, viz. : the manner in 
 which God chooses to reveal himself to men is in calm- 
 ness and silence. Whatever the design was of making 
 those convulsions of nature his pioneers, he was not in them, 
 nor did he by them make any communication to Elijah. 
 
8 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 Perhaps the design was, by bringing the confusion of the 
 elements into immediate contrast with the stillness of the 
 voice, to impress upon the prophet a sense of the tranquility 
 in which the Supreme Being resides, and teach him that the 
 fretful impatience in which he then was should give place to 
 a reverent calmness before God. 
 
 L As a first illustration of the truth just stated I remark 
 that, so far as we are concerned, God is silent in his being. 
 We have not heard his voice at any time, or seen his shape. 
 We live upon his earth, and enjoy his bounty, but as he is 
 invisible, so he is inaudible. He is no more revealed to our 
 ear than he is to our eye or our touch. We can see the 
 grandeur of his works, we can hear the deep tone of his 
 thunder in the sky, we listen to the moaning of the winds, 
 to the sweep of the whirlwind and the blast of storms, but 
 these are not God. He may use the lightnings as his minis- 
 ters and may kindle the fury of tempests over our heads, 
 but he is far above them, in a heaven of unchanging seren- 
 ity, or he is near us in the midst of these agitations, by the 
 same small voice which speaks in our calmer hours. 
 
 IL In the second place, God reveals himself silently in the 
 proofs of his being. No breathless herald comes to announce 
 the reign of the King of Kings. His name is not sounded 
 on high with the blast of trumpets. No flaming proclamation 
 is flung out upon the face of the sky, emblazoned with letters 
 of fire, declaring that Jehovah exists. The effect of the sim- 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 9 
 
 pie majesty of his works is too convincing to be aided by 
 pomp and glare. The expanse of the heavens tells us of 
 God without speech and without language. The firmament 
 does not trumpet forth his handiwork, but it shows it to us. 
 His name is written in minutest yet in plainest characters 
 upon the tablet of the earth. Not a plant or a flower in the 
 most obscure and lonely spot but refers to its contriver as 
 directly as those wonders of creation which attract all eyes. 
 The heaven, the earth and the sea have no speech, their 
 voice is not heard, yet they tell of their author. So do 
 *'fire and hail ; snow and vapors ; stormy winds fulfilling his 
 word." The cloud and the hurricane do his bidding. But 
 how much more impressively does nature declare its God 
 when its agitations have ceased, when its winds have gone 
 down at the sunset and the spangled heavens glitter above us. 
 In the unuttered eloquence of the nightly firmament, as the 
 darkness steals on and the hosts of Heaven begin their march, 
 God speaks to us. The tranquihty of nature begets thought- 
 fulness of mind, and then we say there is a God who made 
 all these things. When the elements are wild with tumult 
 and confusion, our minds only sympathize with their disorder, 
 and are far from reflection. But when in the stillness of 
 a summer's evening the eye takes in the sweep of the heavens 
 and beholds them peopled with worlds, we are carried back 
 to the point in eternity when this vast machinery of systems 
 had no existence and immensity was a solitude. And we 
 
lO GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 think of him who sent forth h>s word into that solitude and 
 crowded it with rolling spheres. 
 
 The ocean lashed into fury is a symbol of power; so is 
 the plunging of a cataract into its abyss, or the mad career- 
 ing of a wild tornado. But how much greater is that power 
 that ruleth the raging of the sea; that stilleth the noise of 
 the waves ; that locketh up tiie winds in their caves and re- 
 turneth the depth to its storehouses, saying, "Peace, be still.'* 
 He must be God who made the heavens. How much more 
 when he did it by the mere breath of his mouth. We extol 
 the inventions of science, and admire the machinery which, 
 with much creaking and clanking, does its office. But the 
 fields of space are dense with orbs which fly each in its 
 appointed path without jar or deviation. How noiseless is 
 this great proof of God's being ! We cannot look behind the 
 curtain upon the hand which guides those orbs ; we cannot 
 hear the working of that mighty power which moves them. 
 There is no clumsy display of struggling and panting forces. 
 
 " In solemn silence, all 
 Move round this dark, terrestrial ball, 
 P'orever singing, as they shine, 
 ♦The hand that made us is divine.'" 
 
 in. Thirdly, God is silent in conducting the events of 
 the moral world. When we are told that he rules as absolutely 
 in the world of mind as he does in the world of matter, that 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. II 
 
 his plan is as perfect and definite in one as in the other, our 
 credulity is almost taxed. When we are told that he is 
 present in all our acts, securing the progress of that plan, 
 that our daily conduct is only the opening of the leaves of 
 the book in which he wrote our individual history ages be- 
 fore our birth ; when we are told that the succession of 
 human events is a vast drama, composed by the infinite mind 
 from eternity, having all its parts accurately assigned, and 
 no name left out, and that every thought, purpose and act, 
 good or bad, is in strict fulfilment of its own part in the 
 drama, we are filled with wonder. We are not conscious of 
 being controlled, we feel that we are not coerced, we know 
 that we act freely and responsibly, and yet it is all just as 
 God would have it. He would have us do right and be 
 blest, but if we will not, then we are pursuing precisely the 
 course he has marked out for us. We cannot deviate from 
 it in a single instance without throwing confusion and jar 
 into the moral universe, as if a planet should stray from its 
 orbit and destroy the balance of its system. Does God guide 
 with an unseen hand the course of planets? How much 
 more subtle and spiritual must be that influence which acts 
 upon the more delicate mechanism of the human mind, not 
 disturbing the freedom of a single act, not even touching the 
 human consciousness, and yet securing its results as infallibly 
 as do the laws of nature theirs. We can easily believe that 
 a power may act upon unconscious matter while the mode 
 
12 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 of its action is hid from us. But how a free mind, doing 
 always what it pleases, can be so influenced as to do in- 
 variably what another pleases, and still be unconscious of 
 the influence, that baflles us. There is a sense in which 
 everything we do has a sort of supernatural character, so 
 closely intermingled is the divine agency with all our actions. 
 And yet we know they are all perfectly natural. We cannot 
 realize that the Supreme Being stoops to give direction to 
 our thoughtless words and our idle deeds, and that the most 
 accidental and chance things that we do are precisely the 
 accidents and chances which he had designed to permit, and 
 which he unfailingly secures, however fortuitous they might 
 seem to us. To every chance, however doubtful, there is a 
 result. That result is what God intended. The balance 
 hung long poised in the air, but at the last it preponder- 
 ated as it should, and because we saw not the finger that 
 touched the balance we called it chance. We often find 
 ourselves halting between two given courses of action. Which 
 shall we pursue? The motives for one seem to us as weighty 
 as those for the other. We feel that we can choose either. 
 We finally incline to the one, and leave the other. God 
 was in that decision. It was certain with him that we should 
 decide as we did, and had we done otherwise it would have 
 disturbed his system of moral government. The harm might 
 be trifling at first, but it would gradually bring on disorder 
 and confusion. Thus does God, by a mere feather, which 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. I 3 
 
 a breath might blow away, turn the ponderous scales of the 
 world's destiny. 
 
 There was once a night in which King Ahashuerus could 
 not sleep ; and because he could not he desired some one 
 to read to him. By the reading he was reminded that Mor- 
 decai the Jew deserved well of the king. Just at that 
 moment, Haman, who stood highest in the king's court, 
 stepped in to request that Mordecai, whom he hated, might 
 be hung. Had his request been granted the whole Jewish 
 nation would have perished. The gallows had been actually 
 erected for Mordecai, and had Haman's request been made 
 one hour sooner it would doubtless have been granted. Was 
 it purely by accident that so terrible a calamity was averted 
 from the Jews? Why could not the king sleep? Why did 
 he call for reading? How happened it that anything should 
 be read to him concerning Mordecai? Was it all chance 
 that Haman should have been one hour, perhaps one min- 
 ute, too late to secure his object? Ah, how silently was the 
 hand of God at work in those events ! And how uncon- 
 sciously to themselves were the king and Haman working 
 out the deliverance of God's people from the very ruin 
 which they had determined to bring upon them. 
 
 There was a time when a weightier matter than the 
 safety of the Jews was depending upon the decision of a 
 Roman governor. An enraged multitude held Christ as their 
 prisoner and demanded his death. But the power to pro- 
 
14 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 cure it had been taken from them. They brought him to 
 the bar of Pilate. Pilate returned answer, "I find no fault 
 in this man." They brought the charge of blasphemy, but 
 the mind of the heathen judge could see nothing in that. 
 They brought the charge of sedition. The judge sent them 
 to Herod. They came back with their prisoner uncon- 
 demned. Then said Pilate : " I have examined him and 
 find no fault in him; no, nor yet Herod, for I sent you to 
 him, and no cause of death is found in him ; none of the 
 charges which you bring are found to lie against the man. 
 I will therefore chastise him and release him." 
 
 What a moment was that ! The redemption of the 
 world, to human view, almost defeated. The only tribunal 
 at which there was any probability that Christ could be con- 
 demned declares him innocent, and acquits him. But the 
 fierce and maddened crowd, with uproarious clamor, demand 
 his crucifixion and accomplish it. Did God have anything 
 to do with bringing about that result? Let Peter answer: 
 "Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and fore- 
 knowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have 
 crucified and slain." 
 
 IV. I remark again in the fourth place, God reveals 
 himself silently in the human conscience. In keeping with 
 the stillness of his being and its proofs, in keeping with 
 the noiseless turning of all the wheels of nature and of pro- 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. I 5 
 
 vidence, is that small voice within us which reminds us of 
 our duties. 
 
 It was never designed that we should be first benumbed 
 with terror and crushed under displays of omnipotence before 
 we could acknowledge our obligations. It was only upon a 
 debased and rebellious race that those fearful signs were 
 brought to bear : the fire, the thunder, the smoking moun- 
 tain and the trumpet waxing louder and louder. These 
 things had their effect upon the Jews, awing them into sub- 
 mission, silencing their murmurings, and fitting them to hear 
 the voice of God in milder forms. Occasionally Jehovah 
 sees fit to address the senses of men, awakening them from 
 their indifference by what is striking and terrifying. Oc- 
 casionally the elements of nature are wrought into madness, 
 the face of the sky is blackened with clouds, the earth is 
 drenched with torrents, and avalanches slide from their 
 mountain beds upon gardens, and fruits, and villages. But 
 these devastating storms are not the common course of 
 nature. They are its episodes. Ordinarily the sky is clear, 
 and the winds are gentle, and the day is calm and still. So 
 it is when God speaks to men of their duties. Sometimes 
 in a voice of thunder, but ordinarily in the inaudible man- 
 dates of conscience. The word which he speaks to us is 
 not heard by other men. It is always urgent, yet always 
 silent. No terrific rebuke breaks forth upon us to our 
 consternation, yet we are never at ease in our sins. No 
 
I 6 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 messenger from the unseen world comes to enforce upon us 
 the commands of God, but we hear a voice which no one 
 else can hear urging us to love and obey them. 
 
 V. Still another mode in which God comes to men silently 
 is by his Spirit. The greatest effects which he produces 
 seem to be attended with the least display. That certainly 
 is a secret power which, when the time arrives for a given 
 event, so supplies a free mind with motives as to secure its 
 fulfilment; that free mind acting always in perfect consist- 
 ency with itself. But in those effects which the Spirit pro- 
 duces, an individual is induced to act at variance with his 
 previous character. He does things which he never did 
 before, and which are entirely inconsistent with his known 
 habits of life. In other words, the character of the man is 
 changed. Now, how mysterious is that agency by which a 
 character is changed, and yet the subject of the change 
 scarcely knows when it occurred and, perhaps for that very 
 reason, doubts whether it really has occurred. He is con- 
 scious of loving what before he hated and of being ready to 
 build up that which before he pulled down, and he supposes 
 that God has produced this change. But he cannot tell pre- 
 cisely when it was done. He was not aware of any other 
 influence than that of the truth upon him, and of the action 
 of his conscience in harmony with it. He had many times 
 passed through more violent excitements than this, his sensi- 
 bilities had been wrought to a much higher j.itch, but, like 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 1 7 
 
 the wind, and the earthquake, and the fire, they had spent 
 their fury, subsided, and left no good result. Now an influ- 
 ence, so still and calm as to be hardly distinguishable from 
 the operations of conscience, has accomplished the new 
 creation. The work is done, and we know it by its fruits. 
 No secret charms or spells were thrown over the mind to 
 disturb its normal action ; no wondrous sights or mysterious 
 sounds were summoned to bewilder the senses. So natural 
 and so rational are the exercises of the mind in its change 
 that it often seems to one that other persons and things have 
 changed rather than itself, as, when we are floating upon a 
 placid stream, the objects on the shore seem moving, while 
 we are stationary. He who at the creation spoke and it 
 was done, speaks and a soul is renewed. And the language 
 which he utters is personal and direct. It is not like the 
 general eloquence of nature, which is addressed to all; it 
 is a particular message to one, and it is heard by no other. 
 It is not nature speaking to man; it is the God of nature 
 and of grace speaking to me. You and me he calls dis- 
 tinctly and by name, as he did the child Samuel in the 
 temple. Eli did not hear the call. It was not addressed 
 to EU. Our neighbors may not hear, our most intimate 
 friends may not know when the Spirit is calling to us. His 
 call is less audible than the call of Samuel ; it is a smaller 
 voice than that which came to Elijah, but we feel its rebuke 
 in the question, "What doest thou here?" Why dost thou 
 
1 8 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 fail to do my bidding? Tarry not: "This is the way: walk 
 ye in it." Soft as it is, this is the voice which has been 
 heard and obeyed by every child of God in every age and 
 land. It is a sound which has gone out to the ends of the 
 earth, and the winds of heaven are yearly wafting it to every 
 clime. Whether borne upon the fierce gales of the ocean or 
 upon the "spicy breezes" of tropic islands, it has fallen alike 
 softly upon the ear and by gentle and powerful persuasions 
 won the heart. When the enemy has come in like a flood 
 it is this which has raised up a standard against him. This 
 is the breath which has breathed upon slain armies in the 
 valleys of sin and made them live. It is this which has made 
 the wilderness a fruitful field, and the fruitful field to be 
 counted for a forest. 
 
 How wonderful is the preservation of the church in a 
 world of enemies and persecutors ! Often have its friends 
 despaired, but God has spoken secretly in the heart of a 
 despiser, a persecutor, a blasphemer, and caused him quietly 
 to lay down his weapons and seize the banner of the cross. 
 Or, when lethargy and stupor have threatened to curdle the 
 last sources of vitaHty in Christian hearts and the pulsations 
 of spiritual hfe have almost ceased, an unseen and unheard 
 influence has been felt cutting loose the bands of sloth, arous- 
 ing the heart from its deadness, dissolving its clotted masses, 
 and sending new hfe beating and sparkling through every 
 vein and artery. It has visited churches that were languish- 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 19 
 
 ing, and breathed into them the breath of life. It has 
 dawned upon them in their darkness as a day-star from on 
 high; it has answered their prayers; it has crowned their 
 hopes; it has saved souls. 
 
 L In conclusion, I remark, first, that if God is re- 
 vealed to us silently in so many ways, then we also should 
 be calm and thoughtful. Would one know more of God? 
 The world is full of him to a thinking mind, while to the 
 hurrying, bustling and thoughtless he is revealed nowhere. It 
 is only in our contemplative hours that we realize his pres- 
 ence ; that we are impressed with the calm majesty of the 
 heavens; that we see his skill in the minutest lines of the 
 flower that grows in the remotest shade. It is only when 
 we observe and reflect that we see God's purposes meeting, 
 in each event of our world and moving on with dramatic 
 exactness to their final result. It is only when we think that 
 we perceive the nicer admonitions of conscience and calls of 
 the Spirit. All things work together for the good of God's 
 people, but they scarcely believe it, for they cannot see the 
 machinery by which the work is done: 
 
 n. I remark in the second place, we should not rely 
 upon noisy and demonstrative measures for advailcing the 
 interests of religion ; they are not in harmony with the silent 
 operations of the spirit, and they unfit the mind for his work. 
 The kingdom of God cometh not with observation. Not by 
 might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. And 
 
20 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 if the Spirit operates by gentle and silent influences, then all 
 human means should be conformed to his mode and should 
 prepare his way by producing a calm, collected and thought- 
 ful mind. We may be sure that the way in which God 
 speaks to man is best. How softly fall the rain, and the 
 dew, and the snow ! He giveth snow like wool. How 
 noiseless is the ascent of vapor to form the clouds ! How 
 peaceful is the approach of dawn when the light disperses 
 the darkness and takes its place ! In the realm of morals 
 how silent is the power of godly example, and yet how 
 potent it is 1 
 
 We are apt to suppose that wonders, and signs, and 
 miracles in the heavens would lead men to repentance. But 
 these things would only excite and amaze them. Tney 
 would fill the mind with curiosity and wonder, and divert 
 it from thoughts of itself and of God. If we hear not Moses 
 and the prophets, neither should we be persuaded though 
 one rose from the dead. 
 
 in. Finally, the unconverted should be specially heed- 
 ful of the mode in which God addresses them. Do not look 
 for a miracle to secure your conversion. Your most shadowy 
 and evanescent thoughts of your duty may be from above. 
 The cause is unknown to you, but for some reason the mind 
 flutters with a momentary restlessness, a passing self-rebuke, 
 and all again is calm. It is the still small voice. It bids 
 you pause, think, turn. It has whispered to you a thousand 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 21 
 
 times, but the noise, and din, and turmoil of the world have 
 
 drowned it. Oh listen, I pray you ! No louder call may 
 ever come to you ! 
 
 INSPIRED VERSES. 
 Among those who listened to the sermon printed here- 
 with, which was delivered in the Baptist church, was Rev. 
 John B. Hague, a retired Baptist clergyman, who was im- 
 pelled to compose the following verses on the same day in 
 which he had listened to the sermon : 
 
 ♦•Whate'er of beauty dwells 
 
 In flower and leaf and tree, 
 With still, yet earnest, voice it tells, 
 Father Divine, of Thee. 
 
 Whate'er of grandeur crowns 
 
 The mountain's sable brow, 
 And forests deep, with darksome frowns, — 
 
 Thou mad'st them, Father, Thou. 
 
 Whate'er of splendor glows 
 
 In morn's or evening's sun, 
 Bathing the earth in radiance, flows 
 
 From Thee, All Glorious One. 
 
 The dew-drops, stars of earth. 
 
 The glittering vault of heav'n. 
 In silence tell by whom their birth 
 
 And beauty rare were given. 
 
 Brighter than sun or star, 
 
 Grander than mourrtain's brow, 
 Than flower or dew-drop fairer far, 
 
 How glorious. Lord, art Thou." 
 
REV. D. L. FURBER, 
 
 At the age of 27. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL 
 
 1847'-1897. 
 
 ANNIVERSARY SERMON 
 
 PREACHED BY 
 
 REV. D. L. FURBER, D. D., 
 December 5. 1897. 
 
Semi-Centennial. 
 
 1847— 1807. 
 
 Acts 20:17 — 27. 
 
 "And from Miletus he (Paul) sent to Ephcsus and called the elders 
 of the church. And when they were come to him, he said unto 
 them, Ye know from the first day that I came into Asia, after what 
 manner I have been with you at all seasons, . . and how I kept 
 back nothing that was profitable unto you . . testifying . . . repent- 
 ance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. . . . For I 
 have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." 
 
 It is just fifty years today since I preached my first 
 sermon as pastor of this church. It is true that my 
 active ministry ceased fifteen years ago, but my interest in 
 the church did not cease. I have rejoiced in its peace 
 and prosperity, have been connected with its activities, and 
 have participated in the joys and sorrows of so many of 
 the families of the congregation that I seem to have had, 
 in a certain sense, an ahiiost uninterrupted pastorate. The 
 people whom I see in the pews to-day are not the same 
 that I saw here in 1847, but a church preserves its iden- 
 tity through successive periods of time, and those of us 
 who loved this church in the years that arc past love it 
 
26 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 Still. Many of the children and grandchildren of those 
 who once occupied these seats are present to-day, and 
 ''they are beloved for the fathers' sakes." I will read 
 the names of the parents of this younger generation : 
 Luther Paul, Asa Cook, John Ward, Jonathan Stone, Ephraini 
 Jackson, Joshua Loring, Bartholomew Wood, Matthias Collins, 
 Moses Crafts, Ezra Hutchins, Ephraim Ward, William 
 Brackett, Philip Goodrich, John H. Hazelton, S. N. Wood- 
 ward, David Hall. None of these men are here to-day. 
 
 Other names, not now represented by children or grand- 
 children, are Samuel Hyde, Benjamin Kingsbury, Isaac 
 Kingsbury, Charles Brackett, Nathan Trowbridge, Charles 
 Pulsifer, Amasa Crafts, J. D. Towle, John Stearns, William 
 Wiswall, Ephraim Grover, Edward Collins, Frederick Collins, 
 R. W. Turner, William Aiken, Timothy Randall, Edward 
 Brooks, T. Delap Smith. 
 
 The congregation regularly worshipping here now does 
 not comprise a single one of the heads of families, either 
 male or female, who were here at the beginning of my 
 ministry', and whose names have now been read. 
 
 There have been three pastors of this church whose 
 terms of service have been longer than mine. Mr. Hobart 
 preached here forty years, Mr. Cotton forty-two and a half 
 years, and Dr. Homer nearly forty-six years before he had 
 a colleague. Long pastorates were formerly very common. 
 A most striking illustration of this is furnished by the 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 27 
 
 descendants of Isaac Williams, one of the first deacons of 
 this church. He had a son, a grandson, a great-grandson, 
 and a great-great-grandson, each of whom had an active 
 pastorate of fifty years or more in one place. The min- 
 istry of the first of the four began in 1685, the ministry 
 of the last of the four ended in 1834. Since 1850 but 
 few half-century pastorates have been celebrated. 
 
 Fifty years ago there was no railroad to this place. 
 In going to Boston we went by omnibus to Newton Cor- 
 ner, where , we took the train. In driving to Boston we 
 went through Brighton. We drove to Brookline through 
 Brighton, for Beacon street had not then been constructed. 
 AVhen our railroad was opened in November 1852, it was 
 so poorly managed that it was of no great benefit to the 
 place, and people coming to Newton to live usually went 
 to one of the villages on the north side of the town in- 
 stead of coming here. At the time of which I speak Sum- 
 ner street and Grant avenue had not been made, nor any 
 of the streets which now connect them, nor Willow street, 
 nor Bowen street. There was no street where Lake avenue 
 now is, on the west side of the lake, and only one small 
 house in the vicinity of the lake. In 1855 I lived at the 
 farther end of Pelham street, and could see the railway 
 station from the windows of my house. There were no 
 houses between to obstruct the view. Fifty years ago there 
 were only two Congregational churches besides this in the 
 
2 8 GOLDEN JUEILIE. 
 
 town: the one at West Newton, and the Eliot church.. 
 There was no church of any kind at Newtonville and none 
 at Newton Highlands. People from both of those places 
 came to this church, and a few from Upper Falls. 
 
 Dr. S. F. Smith used to say he thought primitive cus- 
 toms were perpetuated here more than in most other places. 
 One of these was the custom which the men had of linger- 
 ing outside the meeting-house on Sunday morning until near 
 the time for the service to begin. This gave them an op- 
 portunity to talk with each other and to see who came to 
 church. The order of public worship was different from what 
 it is now. We had no anthems and no responsive read- 
 ings. When the choir sang we kept our seats, but in 
 piayer-time we stood. In the singing of the last hymn 
 the people turned around in their pews so as to face the 
 choir. In our choir were about twenty singers, assisted by 
 a bass viol and other instruments, but it was not long 
 before we had an organ. Congregational singing came in 
 i860, but I had preached a sermon in favor of it in 1851, 
 nine years before it began to come into general use. Our 
 singing and organ playing at present are excellent, and if 
 worship by a quartette is the best way, then we ought to 
 be very well satisfied ; but the worship of God in song is so 
 lofty an exercise, and when properly entered into is performed 
 with such exalted feeling, that the ear craves the effect of 
 grandeur, and this cannot be produced by four voices. It 
 
GOLD/.N JUBILEE. 29 
 
 could be produced by twenty-five o: thix'ty ' voices leading 
 the congregation. 
 
 I wou'd like to call to mind in my review several 
 memorable Sabbaths in which important events have de- 
 manded our attention. The most memorable of all is the 
 Sabbath following the assassination of President Lincoln. The 
 starthng news came to us on Saturday. On Sunday tl;e 
 meeting-house was draped in mourning; I might almost say 
 the countenances of the people were draped in mourning, 
 for distress vva.> upon every face. 1 read my text, " Be 
 still, and know that I am God." I spoke of the dread tul 
 calamity v/hich had befallen the nation, and tiien of t'/.e 
 hold which the President had upon the hearts of the peop'.e. 
 Eveiyune lovv,d him and trusted him, and we felt his death 
 as a personal bereavement. As 1 went on in this way 
 the audience responded with audible sobs. Truly the people 
 did love and confide in him as the man v/hom God had 
 raised up to carry us through the tremendous crisis that 
 was upon us. 
 
 On November lo, 1872, as we came to church one 
 said to another, "Do you know that Boston is burning?" 
 It had been burning all night, and it continued to burn 
 all that day. We could not help thinking of the time when 
 the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the 
 elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth 
 and the works that are therein shall be burned up. The 
 
30 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 great Chicago » fire occurred the year before. Rev. L. T. 
 Chamberlain, who was then pastor of the New England 
 church in Chicago, came here and told in this pulpit the 
 story of the loss to his church, and we gave him one thou- 
 sand dollars. That, I think, was the largest collection we 
 ever made in one day. The Boston fire occurred when the 
 horses were sick, and could not be used in removing goods 
 from burning buildings. It was pathetic to see street cars 
 drawn through the streets by fifty or sixty men pulling them 
 with long ropes. We then saw how indispensable is that 
 noble animal which God has given to be the servant of 
 man. 
 
 In December, 1872, my twenty-fifth anniversary was 
 observed. A sermon was preached, followed by the sacra- 
 ment of the Lord's supper, in the administration of which 
 Professor Park of Andover took part. In his prayer he 
 made a touching allusion to :he visit which I had re- 
 cently made to the Garden of Gethpemane. Some of you 
 have expressed the wish that we could have him with us 
 to-day and I heartily join you in that wish. I am more 
 indebted to him than to any other man, living or dead. 
 
 The first Sabbath in the year 1S79 ^^'^s an interesting 
 day 10 us, when we finished the payment of a debt that 
 we had been carrying nine years. The deb: was incurred 
 by the enlargement of the meeting-house and the chapel 
 in 1SC9 at a cost of twenty-two thousand dollars. In six 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 3 1 
 
 years we reduced the debt to twelve thousand. In Janu- 
 ary, 1876, we adopted the system of weekly offerings, one 
 half of the money to go for the debt, and half to be- 
 nevolence. In this way we paid three thousand dollars a 
 year for three years, and then only three thousand re- 
 mained. On the first Sabbath of 1879 ^^ resolved to pay 
 the whole. After a sermon on liberal giving we set the 
 ball rolling, and in thirty minutes the debt had vanished. 
 Then we sang the doxology in such a way that you would 
 have thought we had just got the news of Pharaoh and 
 his host being drowned in the Red Sea. The debt was 
 gone, and the practice of making weekly offerings was es- 
 tablished. 
 
 October 6, 1889, was one of our memorable Sabbaths, 
 when you listened for two hours to the story of the long his- 
 tory of this ancient church, then another hour in the evening, 
 besides the Sunday-School observances in the afternoon. 
 Even this did not finish the history, and another hour was 
 devoted to it on a subsequent Sabbath. Professor Park was 
 with us again on that Sabbath and offered the prayer. 
 He has always felt a deep interest in this church on ac- 
 count of the connection of his ancestors with it. His 
 father was baptised here, his grandfather was the first per- 
 son whom Dr. Homer received into the church. The 
 Professor was here two or three days at the time of our 
 celebration. Each morning before breakfast he walked to 
 
32 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 the old burial ground on Centre street, and wandered 
 about among the graves of the first ministers and first 
 settler.^. On Sunday he heard the sermon, which had a 
 good deal to say about the early ministers, and that night 
 he said the first three ministers appeared to him, Mr. 
 Eliot, Mr. Hobart, and Mr. Cotton. Whether it was a 
 dream, or the effect of excited imagination, he did not 
 know, but those three men stood around his bed with 
 long white hair and a ghostly look, as if they had just 
 come up out of their graves. He was so much excited 
 that he started for home the next morning. He said that 
 if he were to stay here another night he should not 
 sleep at all. 
 
 I should like to speak in the next place of the 
 growth of the principle of fellowship in our Congregational 
 churches. At the beginning of my ministry there was no semi- 
 annual conference of neighboring churches, no Congregational 
 Club, no such Monday ministers' meeting as we now have, no 
 Young Men's Christian Associations, no Young People's 
 Societies of Christian Endeavor, no National Congregational 
 Council, no Year Book into which the statistics of the 
 denomination could be gathered and published, no de- 
 nominational spirit, and scarcely any denominational con- 
 sciousness. We had never tried to plant Congregational- 
 ism outside of New England. Our ministers had taught 
 their people that Congregationalism and Presbyterianism 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 3, 
 
 were about the same thing, and that if any of them 
 should ever go west of the Hudson river to live it would 
 be best for them to join a Presbyterian church. Our two 
 theological seminaries at Andover and New Haven advised 
 their students if they should be settled at the West to 
 become Presbyterians. Rev. George Punchard said fifty 
 years ago, "We have done a great deal for the West, and 
 yet scarcely one in fifty of the churches which we have 
 helped to plant there is a Congregational church." The 
 great rich Presbyterian churches of New York city have 
 been built up by CongregationaHsts. The majority of the 
 Professors in Union Theological Seminary have been Con- 
 gregationaHsts. The church of which Dr. Parkhurst is pas- 
 tor never has had a Presbyterian minister. They have all 
 been CongregationaHsts. 
 
 In 1S52 a general convention of the CongregationaHsts 
 of the country met at Albany to consider what ought to 
 be done. It was decided to abandon the plan of union 
 with Presbysterians by means of which two thousand Con- 
 gregational churches had become Presbyterian, and it was 
 decided to raise fifty thousand dollars to help build Con- 
 gregational meeting-houses at the West. Henry C. Bowen, 
 a descendant of the first minister of this church, headed 
 the subscription with ten thousand dollars. The money was 
 raised, and from that day to this our churches have gone 
 on giving something every year for church building. At 
 
34 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 that time we had in the whole country two thousand 
 churches. Now we have fifty-six hundred. We are a small 
 denomination, we might have been a large one if that had 
 ever been an object with us. Besides what we have done 
 for the Presbyterians, we have given a million or two for 
 educating the colored people of the South, most of whom 
 are Baptists and Methodists. We are the most magnani- 
 mous denomination in the world. We give more money 
 in proportion to our numbers than any denomination except 
 the Moravians, but we do not much care where the money 
 goes, provided it goes where it will do good. 
 
 It is interesting to remember, now that slavery is gone, 
 that our denomination furnished some noble champions of 
 liberty. Judge Samuel Sewall two hundred years ago pub- 
 lished a protest against kidnapping and holding negroes in 
 bondage. Seventy-five years later Samuel Hopkins of New- 
 port uttered the same sentiments in the presence of slave- 
 holders and slave-traders in his own congregation. Mrs. 
 Stowe said that her father's family prayers, uttered with 
 strong crying and tears against slavery, made her hate the 
 institution from her very soul, and we know what she and 
 her brother Henry did tov/ards breaking down the accursed 
 system. Dr. Leonard Bacon wrote a book on slavery which 
 Abraham Lincoln read and afterward referred to as having 
 led him to those clear convictions on the subject which 
 resulted in the Emancipation Proclamation. It probably led 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 35 
 
 to the remark which he once made, "If slavery is not 
 wrong, then nothing is wrong." 
 
 Among the changes which have taken place in pre- 
 vailing usnges and sentiments it is obvious that family 
 prayer is not now observed as it formerly was. I 
 attribute the neglect to the terrible strain and competition 
 of modern life, rather than to any decay of religion, and 
 yet I wish parents would consider that they are depriving 
 their children of what might be one of the sweetest memo- 
 ries of their childhood when they come to mature years. 
 Family prayer need not occupy much time. A few minutes 
 each day are enough to show that the home is a Christian 
 home and to suffuse the family Hfe with that genial atmos- 
 phere of household piety by which the feet of the young 
 are so gently and so surely drawn into the paths of ever- 
 lasting peace. Robert Burns was far enough from being 
 a saint, but his ''Cotter's Saturday Night" shows what eifect 
 family prayer may have upon a man of poetic sensibility. 
 The sacredness of the Sabbath is most ruthlessly invaded 
 by the Sunday newspapers, the railway trains and bicycle 
 riding. Theatre going, card playing, dancing, and I fear 
 wine drinking als®, are common among church members. 
 These things were not allowed by the Christian sentiment 
 of fifty years ago, and that sentiment was largely formed 
 by the powerful revival of 1831. Have we, then, lost a 
 part of our religion, and is this the reason why stimulants 
 
36 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 and questionable amusements arc needful to make life enjoy- 
 able? 
 
 There is a changed attitude in recent years in regard 
 to the authority of the Bible. In the minds of many 
 people a text of Scripture does not weigh so much as it 
 used to. Formerly an appeal to the Bible settled beyond 
 dispute all questions of faith and practice. Now we have 
 to appeal to human reason to confirm and establish what 
 the Bible says. Formerly, if it were a question of Sabbath 
 observance, we said : " Remember the Sabbath day to keep 
 it holy." Now we have to say : " Don't you know that 
 you need a day of rest, and that you will live longer, and 
 have better health, and enjoy life better, and in the long 
 jun actually do more work, by working six days in the 
 week than by working seven? And don't you see how 
 God in making His laws has been consulting your good 
 all the time?" Formerly, if a question were raised in 
 regard to future retribution, we repeated the words of Christ 
 and said: "These shall go away into everlasting punish- 
 ment," and there the matter ended. But now we have 
 to say: "Don't you know that by a law of human nature 
 there is a constant tendency toward nnal permanence of 
 moral character, and that a man becomes more and more 
 fixed and settled in his decisions all the way through life, 
 so that when he is old it is almost impossible to turn him 
 from them, and what is to ninder that tendency from going 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 37 
 
 on forever?" If you say the love of God may hinder it, 
 the love of God is trying to do it now and does no^ 
 succeed. As Whittier says in his poem of "The Answer," 
 
 "What if, habit-hound, thy feet 
 
 Shall lack the will to turn! 
 What if thine eye refuse to see, 
 
 Thine ear of Heaven's free welcome fail, 
 And thou a willing captive be, 
 
 Thyself thy own dark jail." 
 
 The authority of the Bible is questioned sometimes on 
 critical grounds, and sometimes on the ground that what 
 is called the Christian consciousness cannot accept its 
 teachings. A man finds a certain doctrine taught in the 
 Bible, and says, "I cannot think that that is so. My 
 Christian consciousness is at variance with it," and thus 
 he sets himself above the Bible. We are sometimes 
 directed to find Christ first and then test the Scripture by 
 him. But where arc we going to find Christ if not in 
 the Bible, and if the Bible is fallible how can we be 
 sure that we find him at all? Ai the late Professor 
 Lewis F. Stearns said, "Christian consciousness is human 
 and subject to error, and it must be measured and judged 
 by the standard of the Bible." Professor Stearns died re- 
 cently, a young man, and left behind him a book called 
 "Present Day Theology," that is, theology brought down 
 to date. He was confided in by all theological parties, 
 
38 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 and this was what he said. He says also in regard to the 
 theory of a future probation : " At death the time of pro- 
 bation is ended and the unforgiven sinner has the doom 
 of eternal death resting upon him." 
 
 This leads me to speak of a matter which I have 
 often noticed in the last twelve or fifteen years, on 
 the part of ministers and of candidates for the ministry 
 before ecclesiastical councils. I mean an avoidance of 
 those passages of Scripture in which Christ teaches the 
 doctrine of future retribution. If this avoidance indicates 
 a tendency toward a hope of final salvation for all souls, 
 this is one of the workings of the Christian consciousness 
 of which I was just speaking. It is human consciousness 
 against the Bible, that is, against Christ.* I have noticed 
 this more among ministers than among laymen, and if 
 they are silent upon this subject the tendency will in- 
 crease. Neither this nor any of the doctrines of grace 
 will hold their own unless they are preached. Dr. George 
 Leon Walker of Hartford, w^ho was chairman of the Visi- 
 tors of Andover Seminary, says in a book which he has 
 
 *The 119th psalm has a great deal to say about the word of God. If 
 the psalm were to be re-written by some of our modern theorists, what a 
 change would come over it. 
 
 AUph, Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of 
 their own consciousness. 
 
 Beth. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking 
 heed thereto according to his own ideas. 
 
 Mem. Oh how I love my own conclusions. They are ray meditation 
 all the day. 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 39 
 
 recently published that we have eminent leaders in our 
 churches whose Universalism is as pronounced as that of 
 John Murray himself, but their standing as Congregational 
 ministers is not at all impaired thereby. If that is so, 
 what does it signify in regard to the denomination as a 
 whole, ministers and laymen both? It signifies at the least 
 great indifference in regard to doctrinal tests of fitness for 
 the ministry. A Justice of the Federal Supreme Court is 
 reported to have said recently that ministers are making a 
 fatal mistake, in not holding forth, as ministers used to, 
 the retributive justice of God. He says they are fallen 
 into a sentimental style of rhapsodizing over the love of 
 God, and are not appealing to the fear of future punish- 
 ment as Christ did. '*And we are seeing the effects of 
 it," said he, "in the demoralization of private virtue and 
 the corruption of the public conscience." Professor Nor- 
 ton of Harvard College says virtually the same thing when 
 he says that laxity of morals and increase of crime have 
 followed laxity of belief. 
 
 Let me turn to a brighter side of the picture. This 
 is seen in the multiplied organizations which we now have 
 for Christian service. Associations for doing good in one 
 way and another, their name is legion. Even those who 
 go to the theatre and dance and play cards think they 
 must be doing good in some way and they do it. The 
 young people give money for missionary work, especially in 
 
40 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 Christian Endeavor Societies, and the rich give large s^ms 
 for education and philanthropy. 
 
 Another thing to be grateful for is the attention now 
 bestowed upon the young. So much is done for them in 
 Sunday-Schools and Christian Endeavor Societies that great 
 numbers of them are brought very early into the church. 
 This leaves the proportion of persons who are not church 
 members in any given congregation smaller than it used 
 to be, and perhaps this is one reason why we do not 
 work tor revivals as we used to do. 
 
 Another bright feature in the outlook is the intro- 
 duction of congregational singing. What a changed aspect 
 a congregation now presents from what it used to, while 
 worshiping in song. Formerly all kept their seats and 
 were silent. Now they stand and pour out their voices 
 as though they were fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah, "Th-e 
 tongue of the dumb shall sing." Christ cast a dumb 
 spirit out of a boy, and we still need to have a similar 
 miracle wrought upon many of us, for we do not sing as 
 the English do yet. In England it seems as if the 
 whole congregation were singing, and they sing with a 
 heartiness and volume of intonation which we do not hear 
 in this country. Dr. Allon of London, in whose church 
 was the best congregational singing to be heard anywhere, 
 said there should be no such thing as an audience during 
 the singing, for every person in the house should sing. 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 4T 
 
 His large choir had no performances of their own. When- 
 ever they sang, the people sang, anthems and all. But 
 they met for practice every week, not all of them, but 1 
 should think about two hundred the night I heard them. 
 
 The growth of this old First Church has been slow, 
 but steady and healthy. More persons were received into 
 it during my term of service than in twice the number of 
 years preceding. But no thanks to me for that, for the 
 growth of the place explains it. There were more can- 
 versions in the former period, and this fact raises the 
 question of the expediency of employing revivalists and 
 revival measures for doing church work. This was done 
 in the former period, and not in the latter. I have al- 
 ways wanted this church to do its own work, to feel the 
 full weight of its responsibility, to carry upon its heart the 
 burden of souls, so that we should labor and pray as if 
 everything depended upon us. It seemed to me that if 
 we were to call in a revivalist we should feel relieved of 
 that responsibility, and should lean upon him. But still I 
 know it is a serious question, when the work of the 
 Lord drags in a church, as it sometimes will, whether 
 something extraordinary ought not to be done. Let me 
 refer you for a moment to the state of things in this 
 church between 1827 and 1832, when large numbers were 
 gathered in. In November, 1826, Dr. Lyman Beecher in- 
 vited neighboring churches to meet at his church in Bos- 
 
/|2 GOLDEN JUBiLtE. 
 
 ton, for prayer and conference. The day of the meeting 
 was called by Dr. Homer "the great day of prayer in 
 Mr. Beecher's church." As the interest in this church 
 began from that time, it is quite likely that the contagion' 
 of Dr. Beecher's revival spirit was caught from that meet- 
 ing. But here in Newton were two laymen, William Jack- 
 son and Increase Davis, as full of enthusiasm for the 
 Lord's work as they could hold. They went about from 
 house to house talking with people and praying with them 
 and entreating them to become reconciled to God. They 
 held meetings in private houses. Mr. Davis got so 
 warmed up in the work that he said he ?nust preach and 
 he could not wait for an education either. He started for 
 northern New Hampshire, where, as a home missionary, he 
 was the means of the conversion of hundreds of souls.. 
 Mr. Jackson kept on with his work here. He spent so 
 much time in it that people thought his business would 
 be ruined, but he says he never made so much money in... 
 his life. He called in outside help. Two ministers were 
 here several months working in the same way that he 
 worked. Seventy-one persons were received into the church, 
 all new converts, in one year, and twenty-five the next 
 year. Miss Hannah Loring was one of the twenty-five. 
 She has been a member of this church sixty-nine years. 
 In October, 1831, a four -days' meeting was held, in which 
 Dr. Beecher and Dr. Wisner were among the preachers.. 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 43 
 
 The next year sixty-five new converts were received. Mr. 
 Daniel Stone and Mrs. Horace Cousens, who are still with 
 us, were received that year. When I think of such in- 
 gatherings as these I cannot help asking myself whether 
 I have made a mistake in relying so exclusively upon the 
 ordinary means of grace. In saying this, I do not mean 
 to make any suggestion in regard to the future, for as 
 things now are I believe that with our Sunday-School and 
 Christian Endeavor Societies, and with the work of the 
 pastor in the Junior Endeavor Society every week, we may 
 hope for as large additions to the church in the long run 
 as we had in the days when more strenuous methods 
 were employed. 
 
 I desire now to speak of matters more personal to 
 myself, and to say that, looking back upon my ministry as 
 a whole I feel greatly dissatisfied with it, and this I sup- 
 pose is what most ministers would say when their work is 
 done. Dr. Leonard Bacon of New Haven, who was one 
 of New England's giants, said at the close of a ministry 
 of forty years in that place, " Oh, how far have I come 
 short of setting forth as I ought to have done the reason- 
 ableness, the attractiveness, the beauty and the glory of 
 the gospel. If anybody has been dissatisfied with my 
 preaching and has felt that I did not approach the divine 
 greatness of the theme, let him know that I have been 
 more dissatisfied than he." Dr. Thomas Laurie, recently 
 
44 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 deceased, said on his dying bed, " It seems as though I 
 had been working over the outside truths of the gospel, 
 while the infinite fulness of their inner glory remained 
 unexplored." I believe thai if the lives of ministers were 
 fully known they would show an almost continued refrain 
 of confession of the inadequacy of their treatment of 
 those mysteries of revelation which the angels desire to 
 look into. 
 
 When I decided fifty- three years ago to study for the 
 ministry, it was after long deliberation under a sense of 
 my lack of the needful qualifications for so great a work. 
 I had a love of music and some aptitude for it, and the 
 question with me was music or the ministry. I was in- 
 clined to the former, my friends influenced me toward the 
 latter. When the time came for me to decide, the question 
 arose, Ought a man always to do that which he can do 
 best? I chose not to entertain that question, but rather 
 the question : Which course has promise of the greater 
 usefulness? In answering the question I decided as I did. 
 Perhaps I made a mistake. But how merciful the Lord is 
 to those who try to serve him in some way, even if it 
 be not the best way. Dr. Bushnell, in his famous sermon 
 on "Every man's life a plan of God," says that God 
 designs for each of us the highest and best condition of 
 which wc are capable. If we refuse the place and the 
 duties which he appoints for us, we sink into something 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 45 
 
 lower and less worthy of us, and yet it is the next best thing, 
 for God always wants to keep us on as high a level as 
 possible. On this principle it seems to me that if I did 
 not choose the best, 1 did choose the next best. The 
 same thing was true of Moses. When the Lord wanted 
 to bring forth his people out of Egypt, he selected 
 Moses to be their deliverer, and when Moses refused, the 
 Lord talked with him and reasoned with him, and made 
 promises to him trying to overcome his reluctance, and 
 when he found he could not do it, he allowed him to 
 take Aaron with him as an associate. Here then Moses 
 takes a position inferior to the one which the Lord wanted 
 him to take, and divides the honor of leadership with 
 Aaron, when he might have had the whole of it himself. 
 Observe the kindness of God to Moses, for though he was 
 angry with him for refusing the duty to which he was 
 called, he did not set him aside and appomt some other man, 
 but he still kept him in the position of chief leader, while 
 Aaron assisted him. Applying this incident to my own 
 case and making the supposition that I chose the second 
 best plan of life instead of the best, I can imagine the 
 Lord saying to himself, "This young man decides not to 
 use the special gift which I bestowed upon him, but is 
 going to try to serve me in the ministry. Very well, I 
 will help him all I can. I will give him a good church, 
 where the people will be kind and patient with him, I 
 
46 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 will give him such a wife as not one minister in ten 
 thousand ever has, and I will bestow upon him such 
 spiritual help as he will greatly need in his work." All 
 these things God has done, and of course it was his plan 
 to do them. Call it his first plan or his second plan, 
 just as you choose, these are the things which he has 
 done. 
 
 First, the good church. Both before I came here 
 and after I came, the question of going to other and 
 larger fields of labor was repeatedly presented to me, but 
 I always felt that this church was large enough, and on 
 my ordination day I could have said as Philip Henry, the 
 father of Matthew Henry the commentator, said when he 
 was settled over a small church in Wales, "I did this 
 day receive as much honor and work as ever I shall 
 know what to do with. Lord Jesus, proportion supplies 
 accordingly." The congregation to which I preached in 
 the early years hold a very tender place in my memory, 
 they were so patient with my first attempts. In less than 
 a year my eyes failed, and my work stopped for sixteen 
 months. Then I returned to the pulpit and attempted to 
 preach without notes. The sermons were long and repeti- 
 tious. The people endured them for eight or nine months, 
 when my marriage brought me a helper who could copy 
 my sermons into so strong and bold a hand that I could 
 read them. I once showed one of them to Deacon Jack- 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 47 
 
 rson. He said, " I should think that sermon was written 
 by a man six feet high and two feet across the shoulders." 
 The disability of weak eyes clung to me for several years, 
 and I worked at a great disadvantage and in great dis- 
 •couragement. During all this time the people were patient. 
 It is very beautiful, the kindness that a church will show 
 to a young minister. In what other employment could I 
 have received so much consideration? Suppose I had been 
 a musician, and had had classes of pupils looking to me for 
 instruction, would they have allowed their education to 
 come to a standstill for sixteen months while waiting for me 
 to recover from an illness? But this church waited that length 
 of time when I had been with them less than a year. 
 Whether any other church would have done the same I 
 cannot tell. Dr. Leonard Withington, who was pastor of 
 a church in Newburyport forty-two years, said: "Short 
 pastorates are more owing to defects in the clergy than to 
 faults in the people. Let a preacher have discretion, in- 
 dustry, piety and common sense, * * let him wish to be 
 permanent, and he will be so, // he can only get through 
 his third year. Dr. Todd of Pittsfield called the third 
 year a sort of teething time for a minister. My teething 
 time came as I have told you, before the end of the first 
 year. The reason was that I was not properly prepared 
 for my work. I never had taken the least pains to acquire 
 the art of writing and speaking. All my spare time had 
 
48 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 been given to music. When I entered Andover Seminar}'- 
 I refused to promise to go through. I said, I will stay 
 one year and then decide. At the close of the year I 
 told ray classmate Atkinson, who was our first home mis- 
 sionary to Oregon, that I had been looking forward to the 
 end of life and trying to think how I should feel then^, 
 and had made up ray raind to go on and finish my 
 studies. Atkinson replied, "1 have been looking forward 
 into eternity." He went to Oregon when it was a wilder- 
 ness, having scarcely any communication with the outside 
 world, and labored there forty years. I visited his grave 
 near Portland two or three years ago, looked down into the 
 broad valley through which flows the beautiful Willamette 
 river and off to Mt. Hood in the distance, 17,000 feet, 
 high and covered with perpetual snov.-, and I said, Atkin- 
 son's crown is brighter than the crown of Mt. Hood. 
 
 1 was settled on a salary of nine hundred, dollars, but 
 donations of money came in from time to time, varying 
 from fifty to a thousand dollars. On New Year's morning 
 in 1 85 6, long before the sun was up, a new sleigh with 
 fur robes and a long string of bells came into the drive- 
 way of my house, drawn by a bevy of young people of 
 both sexes, who weie haring a high and merry time over 
 the surprise which they were preparing for their minister^ 
 More than fifty persons had a hand in that romantic 
 performance, some of whom are here to-day. The gift of 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. ^g 
 
 a thousand dollars was made on my departure for Europe 
 and the East in 1869. On my return from that long 
 journey of more than a year, a princely reception was 
 provided for me by the whole parish, and others besides, 
 assembled in this house, with welcoming words uttered by 
 spokesmen selected for the occasion. In i88t I had the 
 honor, through the influence of a member of this church, 
 of preaching the annual sermon before the Governor and 
 the Legislature. In 1889 I had the pleasure, in com- 
 pany with brother Holmes, of looking back over the 225 
 years of the hfe of this mother church, and of showing 
 what before was unsuspected by me, what a large number 
 of eminent men have been descendants of the early minis- 
 ters and members of the church, what interest some of 
 its ministers have taken in the spiritual welfare of the 
 young, what a loving disciple of his Lord the first minister 
 was, who in his last days walked upon the top of the 
 delectable mountains, and what patriotism the church ex- 
 hibited during the war of the Revolution, when more than 
 half of its male members were in the army, some of them 
 between sixty and seventy years old. When, after thirty- 
 five years, I was compelled by insomnia to lay down my 
 work, I received written testimonials of affection from 
 church and parish which were like the strewing of my 
 path with flowers, and since then, on important anniversa- 
 ries of my life, and at other times, you have kept me 
 
50 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 reminded that I live among friends. In the solitude of 
 the last fifteen years this has been a constant refreshment 
 to my spirit. Beside all this, there was a deep religious 
 sentiment and love of sound doctrine when I came to 
 this place, which had come down to it from years long 
 past, and which I believe abide here still. This is the 
 kind of church which the Lord gave me to work in and 
 to work for in the days of my youth and strength, and 
 in which to pass the evening of my life. And as if this 
 were not enough, he has sent ministers as successors to 
 me with whom I could work harmoniously and pleasantly 
 and without a single jar of discord. The marks of respect 
 and affection which I have received from them have been 
 noticed by you all. Cicero quotes Lysander as saying that 
 Lacedemon was the best home for an old man, because 
 he would be sure to be treated there with respect. I do 
 not believe that Lacedemon was any better place for an 
 old man than Newton Centre. 
 
 When brother Holmes left us I preached a sermon 
 about him and his work in this place. It is proper that 
 I should now say a few words about brother Noyes. 
 
 I am sensitive upon the subject of doctrinal sound- 
 ness. The creed which brother Noyes read to us when 
 he came here was exceedingly gratifying, not only to me, 
 but to the whole installing Council. His theology is a 
 present day theology, and the unchanging verities of reve- 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 5 1 
 
 iation as he utters them have their setting in the stream 
 of current thought. He reads the new books, and gives 
 iis the contents of them so far as they are appropriate 
 for the pulpit or the Bible class. If there is a new story 
 that will interest and help the children in his talks to 
 them he finds it. As a pastor he is the shepherd of the 
 whole flock, and none are neglected. Like Apollos, he is 
 mighty in the Scriptures, and if we do not become Apol- 
 loses under his preaching it will be our own fault. His 
 gifts of speech remind me of what the Lord said to Moses : 
 ^' I know that thy brother Aaron can speak well." Brother 
 Noyes is my brother Aaron. We enjoy our services of 
 public worship, and we wend our way hither on the morn- 
 ing of the Lord's day, saying, " How amiable are thy 
 tabernacles, O Lord of hosts." 
 
 I told you that the Lord gave me a wife such as 
 few men have. I must not say much on this topic, for 
 the story of her life has been told by Dr. Wellman and 
 others in the printed Memorial, and by brother Holmes in 
 his excellent address. Her influence was felt through this 
 community as that of an all pervading and most resource- 
 ful personality, composed of the noblest qualities that can 
 adorn human nature, — courage, energy, decision, dignity, 
 practical wisdom, common sense, benevolence, bouyancy of 
 spirit, and a most tender and constant solicitude for those 
 who were in want or distress. The troubled came to her 
 
52 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 for sympathy, the perplexed for counsel, and the disconso- 
 late for the good cheer which she could impart. Every- 
 one's burdens she took upon her own heart and did not 
 dismiss them until relief was found. She had a large 
 Bible class of women, who probably valued her instructions 
 as much as they did those of the pulpit, no matter who 
 was in the pulpit. If the mind is made up of intel- 
 lect, sensibility, and will, she had them all, a doubie 
 portion of them all, and it would be hard to tell 
 which was superior to the others. She did a great 
 amount of pastoral work, writing letters innumerable, and 
 receiving a constant stream of callers who came to her 
 with their troubles. At the same time she was concerned 
 for the needy elsewhere, and under her guidance the women 
 of this church became what I might call an institutional 
 church for benevolent work. She knew who the noble 
 hearts were that would respond to her calls, she touched 
 the springs which started the wheels, and the money came 
 in and the work came in, and colored people at the South, 
 and refugees in Kansas, and home missionaries at the West, 
 received the blessing. I had the benefit of her mighty 
 influence here for thirty-two years, during which time the 
 grandeur and nobility of her character were everywhere 
 recognized. This was what the Lord did for me after he 
 had given me a good church. 
 
 There was one other thing which my wife did for 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. e* 
 
 this place. She recommended the minister whom you 
 settled here fifty years ago. She had been visiting Mr. 
 Wood's family and told them there was a young man at 
 Andover Seminary who she thought would be a good min- 
 ister for this church. Mr. Wood wrote to me, I came 
 here and preached, and that was my introduction to New- 
 ton Centre. Now if you ever feel like complaining that 
 the young man whom she recommended has not met your 
 expectation in all respects, you should take into account 
 not the minister only, but the minister and his wife, and 
 then I think you will not greatly blame her for what she 
 did. 
 
 Another help which I received from the Lord after I 
 had been preaching eight or nine years was a fresh dis- 
 covery of salvation as purely gracious and free, to be 
 obtained by faith; which faith is merely the stretching out 
 of the hand of a beggar to take a gift. This of course 
 is nothing new, it is as old as the gospel, as old as the 
 prophecy of Isaiah and older still, but sometimes the Spirit 
 of God fastens an impression of a truth upon the mind 
 so deep and vivid that we cannot get away from it, and 
 then it seems a new truth. Our pastor was preaching 
 about this recently from the text, *'God hath shined in 
 our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory 
 of God in the face of Jesus Christ." He spoke of the 
 things which are spiritually discerned and compared spiritual 
 
54 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 "vision to the assistance which the eye receives from the 
 telescope and the microscope. 
 
 Now the great truth of which I wish to speak, and 
 which we need to see with telescopic vision and to keep 
 always in mind, is that this is a sinful and lost world and 
 that Jesus Christ came to save it by the shedding of his- 
 blood for the remission of sin, and that all who look to> 
 him for remission will receive it as his gracious gift. This 
 looking is believing, and that is the act by which we 
 receive all that God has to bestow, pardon and peace, recon- 
 ciliation and friendship, adoption into his family as sons 
 and daughters, and heirship to an eternal inheritance* 
 And the question is. Are we willing to put our reception 
 of all this on that ground and to take it in that way? 
 That is what we mean by the doctrine of justification by 
 faith. It is humbling to our pride, we do not like the 
 idea of being saved by charity, we cling to the thought 
 of our own deservings and try to think we can be saved 
 by them. The Pharisee who stood praying in the temple 
 thought much of his virtues; the publican said, "God be 
 merciful to me a sinner," and the publican was the one 
 who was justified. 
 
 Salvation by grace through faith is what distinguishes 
 the Christian religion from every other religion in the 
 world. There is no other religion that has a syllable in 
 it about grace. The thought of it never entered the mind 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 55 
 
 of man till it came from above, from him whose ways 
 are not as our ways, whose thoughts are not as our thoughts. 
 It is the grand distinction of the Christian religion that it 
 offers pardon to sinners. Its doctrines of grace are its 
 loftiest themes. They tower above everything else. Every- 
 thing else is tributary to them, as Bowring says in his 
 hymn of the cross, 
 
 '* All the light of sacred story 
 Gathers round its head sublime." 
 
 Christ and his cross have been the theme of the greatest 
 hymns. Watts never wrote a better hymn than "When I 
 Survey the Wondrous Cross " ; Wesley never wrote a better 
 hymn than "Jesus, Lover of My Soul"; Toplady never 
 wrote a better hymn than "Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me." 
 These hymns have a beauty of expression and a loftiness 
 of sentiment which makes them popular with everybody. 
 Composers of music, whether they are Christians or not, 
 seem to delight in writing tunes for them, and we may 
 well believe that the writer of the greatest oratorio was 
 inspired as never before or after by the grandeur of his 
 subject. But does every admirer of these beautiful hymns 
 adopt these sentiments as his own? Can they say from 
 the heart, "Nothing in my hands 1 bring, Simply to thy 
 cross I cling"? Can they say, "Other refuge have I none, 
 Hangs my helpless soul on Thee"? If they can they are 
 
56 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 safe. Christ will never turn away any who come to him 
 with such words as those on their lips. 
 
 Notwithstanding the grandeur of the themes which 
 cluster round the cross and the prominence which is given 
 them in the Bible, men are continually losing sight of 
 them. Such is the propensity of human nature to trust 
 in its own righteousness that it requires a constant effort 
 on the part of ministers and religious teachers to maintain 
 them in their proper pre-eminence. The Lord's supper 
 was established as a perpetual reminder of their transcendent 
 significance. It is the only ordinance that Christ gave us 
 to observe, except baptism, and yet men are always losing 
 sight of them. They were obscured previous to the time 
 of the Reformation. Luther discovered them and pro- 
 claimed them in such a way as to change the face of all 
 northern Europe. They were obscured in America in the 
 eighteenth century until Jonathan Edwards laid hold of 
 them with his mighty grasp and produced effects by them 
 which were nothing less than revolutionary. The doctrine 
 on which the chief emphasis was laid both by Luther and 
 by Edwards was the doctrine of justification by faith, and 
 the neglected truth which had shaken Europe was made 
 to shake America. Many of the ministers of the gospel 
 in America had lost sight of it. Chalmers preached ten 
 or twelve years without having discovered it at all, and 
 when he did begin to see it he went through a struggle 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 57 
 
 before he could embrace it. He was striving with all his 
 might to meet the high demands of the divine law, and 
 he did not like the idea of gratuitous justification. Then 
 he tried to make a compromise, and to mix up faith and 
 works in such a way as to rely partly upon one and partly 
 upon the other. He found no peace until he saw that 
 Christ had already done for him what with so much effort 
 and with so little success he had been trying to do for 
 himself. He cast himself into the bosom of his Savior 
 and found rest. Henry Francis Lyte, a clergyman of the 
 Church of England, author of the hymn " Abide with me, 
 fast falls the eventide," was sent for by a brother minis- 
 ter who was dying, and in great distress because he felt 
 that he was unpardoned and unprepared. Lyte did not 
 know what to say to him. The question was, "What must 
 I do to be saved?" and neither of these two ministers knew 
 how to answer it. But Lyte found light both for his friend 
 and for himself by sitting down at the bedside of the dying 
 man and searching the Scriptures. Shortly before his own 
 death in 1847, he wrote the beautiful hymn which I have 
 mentioned, in which is the line 
 
 ** Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes." 
 
 This shows that he then knew where to look in a dying 
 hour. 
 
 Dr. Samuel Johnson was a member of the Church of 
 
58 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 England, came to the Lord's table, and was considered as- 
 good a Christian as the average. But when he came to 
 his last sickness he said the prospect of death was terri- 
 ble to him, and he feared he should be a castaway. 
 They tried to comfort him by reminding him of all the 
 good things he had done. His reply was, "How can I 
 tell when I have done enough?" In distress he sent for 
 a minister, and the minister said to him, "Behold the 
 Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world."" 
 Though he had known that text all his life, it struck him 
 as something entirely new. It met his case, it satisfied 
 his craving, it was exactly the prescription for a sick soul;, 
 he threw himself into the arms of Christ, his agitation 
 ceased, his fears were gone, and he died in the peace 
 which Christ only can give. But why was he kept so 
 long in ignorance of Christ? He had probably uttered an 
 uncounted number of times this prayer in the Book of 
 Common Prayer for the Church of England; "O Lord 
 God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, thou that takest 
 away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us; thou 
 that takest away the sin of the world, have mercy upon 
 us ; thou that takest away the sin of the world, receive our 
 prayer." Here is a petition repeated three times in suc- 
 cession in one single prayer to him who takes away the 
 sin of the world, and yet when this great man was in. 
 distress under the burden of sin on his dying bed, he did 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 59 
 
 not know what to do. How is this strange ignorance to 
 be accounted for? My friends, it seems as if Satan him- 
 self were blinding the minds of men to the most obvious 
 teachings of the Holy Scriptures. And we know he does 
 blind them and make it his business to do that. This is 
 just what the apostle says: "The god of this world" — 
 that is, Satan — "hath blinded the minds of them which 
 believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, 
 who is the image of God, should shine unto them." He 
 fears that if they should get a clear view of the truth, it 
 would appear so attractive to them that they would em- 
 brace it and be saved by it, and therefore as a roaring 
 lion he walks about seeking whom he may destroy by 
 blinding their eyes. How are you to escape from the 
 mist and darkness that he throws around you? Why, by 
 believing. That is the way, and the only way. If intel- 
 lect could discover the truth, had not Chalmers and John- 
 son intellect enough? A sinner must come on bended 
 knees, in poverty of spirit, dissatisfied with himself, and with 
 a deep and even painful sense of his own utter insufficiency 
 for all that is highest and best, to him who is the light 
 of the world, the fountain of grace and truth, and then 
 he will see and know. Then he will enlist upon his side 
 One who is stronger than Satan, stronger than the strong 
 man armed guarding his palace and beheving that his goods 
 are secure, who will come upon him and overcome him 
 
6o GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 and take from him his whole armor wherein he trusted, 
 and divide his spoils. 
 
 I have spoken plainly upon this matter because I have 
 so often noticed ignorance of it, in the course of my 
 ministry, on the part of persons offering themselves for 
 admission to the church. In conversation with them I 
 have found that they supposed a person to be in the way 
 of salvation when he lives a correct, conscientious and 
 upright life, obeys the golden rule, reads the Bible and 
 prays, attends the religious meetings and joins the church. 
 Persons who have sat for years under faithful preaching 
 and have been in the Sunday-School have talked in this 
 way, and sometimes members of the church do it. I 
 believe there is something in the atmosphere of Boston 
 and vicinity that helps to account for this. I have not 
 found it in persons coming to us from the British Pro- 
 vinces. The Athens in which Paul preached was fond of 
 philosophy and subtle disquisition, and was always in pur- 
 suit of some new thing. The modern Athens resembles 
 it in its love of speculation, of theorizing, and of novelty. 
 Intellect is extolled and almost worshipped. There is many 
 an intelligent audience where a brilliant mind, with learning 
 and eloquence at its command, could sow the seeds of 
 error and see them fall in a fruitful place. In such an 
 atmosphere as this how much we need ministers who will 
 say as Paul did, "I determined to know nothing among 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 6 1 
 
 you save Jesus Christ and him crucified." The cross ol 
 Christ, where the guilt of man and the . pardoning love of 
 God are shown in their superlative degree, this is the 
 great theme for the pulpit, and he who slights it does not 
 preach the gospel. Without it, excellency of speech and 
 of wisdom are of no account. God hath made foolish the 
 wisdom of this world; it cannot save the soul, but the 
 preaching of the cross can save it; it is the power of 
 God unto salvation to every one that believeth. 
 
 Dr. VV. Robertson Nicoll, the man who induced Ian 
 Maclaren to write " Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush," says 
 that he has recently heard twelve sermons by very young 
 preachers, in not one of which was there the faintest ap- 
 proximation to saving truth, the faintest indication of how 
 a sinner may find the Savior. He wrote an article enti- 
 tled, "Is the Gospel of Christ Forgotten?" in which he 
 asks the question, "Is the gospel of Christ preached gen- 
 erally in our sanctuaries, or has it been for the time lost 
 and forgotten?" He then gives a specimen of a kind of 
 preaching in which there is no gospel at all, but which 
 is so religious and spiritual that congregations are deceived 
 by it. It is something like this : — " Let us take Christ 
 as the measure of the stature of the perfect man. Let 
 us seek to drink in constantly the spirit of his life. Let 
 our life be an everlasting ascent ^toward the height on which 
 he stands. Let us be impatient of everything which comes 
 
62 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 short of the highest, and let us spare no effort to attain 
 it. Let us wait for the gales of the Spirit. Let us arise 
 from all defeats and falls and address ourselves anew to 
 the great task until the yawning gulf between the actual 
 and the ideal is bridged at last. So yearning, so striving, 
 we are climbing the hill of God, and we are in the way 
 of salvation." Such preaching as this, he adds, is the 
 negation of Christianity. It is the preaching of a right- 
 eousness to be obtained by the effort and struggle of the 
 human spirit, and not by the atonement of the Lamb of God. 
 And if this is generally preached, then the battle of the 
 Reformation has to be fought over again. 
 
 William Law, an eminent religious writer in the early 
 part of the last century, wrote in this way, and yet so lofty 
 was his aspiration after the highest possible standard of 
 holiness that many of the best Christains failed to see any 
 defect in his writings. The title of his principal work is 
 "Law's Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life," a book 
 which first awakened the religious sensibilities of Dr. Samuel 
 Johnson. My own mother used to read the book in the 
 days of my boyhood. John and Charles Wesley in their 
 young days used to walk from Oxford to London two or 
 three times a year to see Law and receive the impulse 
 to their religious life which he could impart. But the 
 time came when Wesley saw that there was no atonement 
 in Law's theology, and from that moment he broke with 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 63 
 
 him and refused to be his disciple any longer. He said 
 to Law, "You ground nothing on faith in the blood of 
 Christ." Wesley grounded everything on faith in the blood 
 of Christ, and the strength of his hold upon that vital 
 principle of Christianity was the spring of that evangelical 
 revival which swept over England and aroused the nation 
 from the torpor of spiritual death. No one can be a 
 great preacher unless he has a message for the people 
 that burns to be delivered. The Wesleys had such a 
 message, and so had Whitfield and Luther and Jonathan 
 Edwards and Spurgeon. Spurgeon preached to more men 
 in one place than any other preacher ever did, and his 
 sermons are read more to-day in English and other lan- 
 guages than those of any other man. The late Dr. Dale 
 of Birmingham said that the secret of Spurgeon's power 
 was that he was always fully conscious of his own free 
 justification before God. Friends, is it not true that the 
 preaching of the cross is the power of God and the 
 wisdom of God? Let us not be deceived by specious 
 presentations of religious and spiritual truth which are not 
 Christian because the atoning work of Christ is left out. 
 We are justified freely by the grace of God through the 
 redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Him hath God set 
 forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood; and 
 the first thing which the preacher should proclaim, and 
 the first and last thing which the people should hear, is 
 
^4 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 that which Paul preached when he said, " I delivered unto 
 you first of all that which also I received, how that Christ 
 died for our sins according to the Scriptures." 
 
 If there are any here to-day to whom it has been 
 my privilege to preach in years long past, but who are 
 not yet partakers of the heavenly calling, it is very likely 
 that the fault is largely my own. I ought to have de- 
 livered my message in a more winning way. I ought to 
 have gone down deeper into the wealth of meaning which 
 there is in it, so as to show how intent the heart of 
 God has been upon the salvation of men, how alluring 
 he has tried to make it by calling it a feast, a marriage 
 festival, a great supper to which all are invited, and by 
 comparing Christ's coming to that fiftieth year in which 
 trumpets were blown because debts were remitted through- 
 out the land, and every poor man returned to the home 
 and farm which his poverty had taken from him. Would 
 that this anniversary which is a jubilee of years to me 
 might be a jubilee of joy to you, and that as I now 
 once more blow the silver trumpet of invitation in your 
 hearing you would return to your alienated inheritance in 
 the infinite love of God. Oh, how affecting is the thought 
 that on a decision of the human will which can be made 
 in a moment eternity depends. 
 
 I have spoken of justification by faith. Another of 
 the benefits which saving faith procures for us is adoption 
 
GOLDIN JUBILEE. 65 
 
 into God's family. Do professing Christians realize what it 
 is to be children of God? There are many who speak of 
 the fatherhood of God as if the whole human family had a 
 share in it. But how can that be when Christ told the 
 unbelieving Jews that their father was the devil? No, no, 
 we become children of God by faith in Christ. As many 
 as received him to them gave he the right to become 
 children of God, even to them that believe on his name. 
 And then what a blessed relationship we hold in the great 
 family and household of faith. We are welcomed, adopted, 
 and made heirs of all that God has to bestow. His joy 
 over us when we come to him through Christ, who is the 
 way to the Father, looks as if he had felt hi?nself to be 
 the loser while we were staying away from him, and hence- 
 forth he treats us as if it were impossible for him to do 
 too much for us. Our sins are as freely and fully for- 
 given as if they were forgotten. Conscience no longer re- 
 bukes, judgment no longer frowns, we have peace with God 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ. Even his chastening is a 
 mark of his love, and he pities while he chastens, though 
 he knows that the affliction works for us such a weight of 
 glory that the apostle labors for words to express it. His 
 angels minister to us, his providences surround us, his 
 thoughts of love toward us are greater in number than the 
 sand. He hears our prayers. We ask and we receive, 
 we seek and we find, we knock at the door of the regal 
 
66 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 palace where he resides, he opens the door and welcomes 
 us, and we find that the palace is his own great heart of 
 infinite love which has been the dwelling place of his 
 saints in all generations. Then he permits us to seek ac- 
 quaintance with him, acquaintance with a being whose 
 greatness is unsearchable, whose understanding is infinite, 
 and who, with all the resources at his command, is labor- 
 ing for the welfare of the creatures whom he has made. 
 He is without beginning and without end, he created and 
 swung into their places the starry worlds, and sends them 
 through the majestic sweep of their mighty orbits, he stoops 
 to regard your wants and mine, to listen to our sighs and 
 count our tears, and he redeems us with the precious 
 blood of his Son. Can anything be more uplifting than 
 the thought that such a being stoops to assist our ac- 
 quaintance with him and our filial converse with him? 
 We search for him in his works and in his word, by the 
 aid of the Spirit that searcheth all things, yea, the deep 
 things of God, and by trying all we can to know his 
 Son, who is the brightness of his glory and the express 
 image of his person. We search for him by believing and 
 loving, for God is love, and only by loving can we know 
 him. Selfishness cannot understand him. ■ Even when I 
 love I shall know only in part, for the love of Christ 
 passeth knowledge, just as the peace of God passeth all 
 understanding, and everything belonging to this transcendent 
 
GOLDEN JUEflLEE. 67 
 
 being is so far above and beyond us that eternity itself 
 will be too short for us to fully explore his illimitable 
 perfection ; and yet he is always ready to reveal himself 
 to the loving and longing hearts of his children and to 
 fill them to their utmost capacity with the fulness which 
 there is in him. How diligently and prayerfully, there- 
 fore, should we search for him. "Ye* shall seek me and 
 find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart." 
 Often our patient, divine teacher has occasion to say to 
 us, "0 foolish men and slow of heart to believe," but 
 he keeps us under his tuition and leads us gently along 
 toward those vast disclosures which are to come when we 
 see him as he is and are changed into his likeness. Then 
 will come the full revelation of the things which here we 
 know only in part. We are now in a state of infancy. Then 
 we shall have the full-grown faculties of men and shall 
 know even as we are known. The glory of God and of 
 the Lamb are described to us in the Holy Scriptures in 
 glowing language, but when the great reality bursts upon 
 us we shall feel that these descriptions were only enigmas. 
 Not only transforming will the vision be, but transporting. 
 We shall not turn aside to admire the golden streets and 
 the pearly gates, but we shall fasten our enraptured eyes 
 upon him who is the author of all the splendors that we 
 behold. 
 
68 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 "The bride eyes not her garment, 
 
 But her dear bridegroom's face; 
 I will not gaze at glory, 
 
 But on my king of grace; 
 Not at the crown he giveth, 
 
 But on his pierced hand; 
 The Lamb is all the glory 
 
 Of Immanuel's land." 
 
 Augustine exclaims : " We shall behold a vision, 
 brethren, which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor 
 hath entered into the heart of man; a vision excelling 
 all beautiful things of the earth, gold, silver, fields and 
 groves, beauty of the sea and air, beauty of the sun and 
 moon, beauty of angels, beauty surpassing all things, be- 
 cause from itself all beautiful things are derived." The 
 adopted children of God, that is, those who open the 
 door of their hearts to Christ here on earth, will behold 
 this illustrious scene, and share in the glory of him who 
 created and ordained it. Shall we not, then, exclaim with 
 the apostle John : " Behold what manner of love the 
 Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called 
 children of God : and such we are." Brethren, will you 
 not rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory? You 
 are heirs of all the promises, and fellow-heirs with Christ. 
 Your sense of utter unworthiness does not dim in the 
 least your prospect of a share in this great inheritance. 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 69 
 
 In view of it ill you still sing with the sublime confidence 
 of faith, 
 
 "Then will he own my worthless name 
 Before his Father's face, 
 And in the New Jerusalem 
 Appoint my soul a place." 
 
 The time is not far distant when there will be a 
 manifestation of the sons of God, when you will enter 
 through the gates into the city and its glory will burst 
 upon you. As Bunyan says, "All the bells of the city 
 will ring when you enter." There you will see the king 
 in his beauty and on his throne. On that mount of per- 
 petual transfiguration you will build your tabernacles, and 
 that will be your eternal home. 
 
:''.«**fjs*.(r^r •=i(iM''l4)j^ -ui/ • iw? 
 
 iM.?- I..' 
 
 J* ih ■•>' 
 
 ni\ <;. ii- 
 
THE DAY OF JUBILEE 
 
THE FIRST CHURCH IN NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS 
 
 ( NEWTON CENTRE. ) 
 
 This building was dedicated the year of Dr. Furber's ordination, and has 
 
 since been twice enlarged. 
 
The Day of Jubiiee. 
 
 The meeting-house, which was dedicated in the same year in which 
 Dr. Furber's pastorate began, looked as if it too were celebrating its jubilee, 
 so attractive and fragrant were its decorations. A prominent place was 
 given to a portrait of Dr. Furber, painted when he was thirty years 
 of age. A large audience gathered at two o'clock, including many 
 old friends and former parishioners. The hymns were "I love thy 
 kingdom, Lord," "Watchman, tell us of the night," and "Lord, dis- 
 miss us with thy blessing." The singing was led by a large chorus- 
 choir in the rear gallery, under the direction of Colonel Isaac F. 
 Kingsbury, who was chorister for many years during Dr. Furber's min- 
 istry. In accordance with the old custom, the audience turned to 
 face the singers during the hymn. A very beautiful feature of the 
 service was the responsive singing of '* Watchman, tell us of the 
 night," by Dr. Furber and the choir, which demonstrated that the 
 Toice whose cadences so charmed Rufus Choate that ke forgot to listen 
 to the sermon had not lost all its sweetness and power. Addresses 
 were delivered by Rev. Henry J. Patrick, D.D., pastor emeritus of the 
 Second Church, West Newton, and a life-long friend, who spoke of 
 ministerial fellowship as illustrated in Dr. Furber's life; by Rev. E. E. 
 Strong, D.D., Editorial Secretary of the A. B. C. F. M., who spoke 
 of the man and the minister as he had learned to know him, when 
 pastor in Waltham; by Rev. S. E. Herrick, D.D., of Boston, who 
 had recently celebrated his twenty-fifth anniversary in Mt. Vernon 
 Church; by Rev. Joshua W. Wellman, D.D., formerly pastor of Eliot 
 
74 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 Church, Newton; and by Rev. Alvah Hovey, D.D., President of 
 Newton Theological Institution, a college classmate and neighbor for 
 fifty years, who spoke in behalf of the other churches of the village. 
 Rev. Theodore J. Holmes, active pastor of the church for ten years 
 after Dr. Furber's retirement, was detained by illness, and Rev. W. 
 E. Park, D.D., of Gloversville, N. Y., took his place with a witty 
 and forcible speech in praise of long pastorates. 
 
 The active pastor, Rev. Edward M. Noyes, presided. In his open- 
 ing address he called attention to the fact that a half-century pastor- 
 ate is not a new thing in this historic church. It has had but ten. 
 pastors in two hundred and thirty-three years, and one of these, Dr^ 
 Jonathan Homer, held the office for fifty-seven years. Paying his own 
 tribute to the delightful association with the senior pastor, whose pres- 
 ence in the church is a perpetual benediction, he called attention to the- 
 appropriateness of the lines from Dryden's Characteristics of the Good 
 , Pastor, printed on the program for the Jubilee Sunday. Many felt that 
 the p;aet must have had the gift of prophecy so accurately to draw the 
 gOQ^ doctor's portrait: 
 
 •♦Yet had his aspect nothing of severe, 
 But such a face as promised him sincere: 
 Nothing reserved or sullen was to see, 
 But sweet regards, and pleasing sanctity; 
 Mild was his accent, and his action free. 
 With eloquence innate his tongue was armed; 
 Though harsh the precept, yet the people charmed. 
 For, letting down the golden chain from high, 
 He drew his audience upward to the sky; 
 And oft with holy hymn he charmed their ears, 
 (A music more melodious than the spheres); 
 For David left him, when be went to rest. 
 His lyre; and after him he sang the best." 
 
 Many letters were received and extracts from several were re*d». 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 75 
 
 Upon the program were printed the names of eight present members 
 of the church who were admitted before Dr. Furber came, and a poem 
 written for the occasion by Mr. R. W. Ransom, of the Chicago 
 Tribune, whose father's house stands next to Dr. Fcrber's. 
 
 Extracts from the addresses and letters, and the poem follow. 
 
EXCERPTS FROM THE ADDRESSES. 
 
 Rev. Henry J. Patrick, D. D. 
 
 In the note inviting me to speak to-day it was de- 
 sired that I should specify a subject. At once the occa- 
 sion suggested to me "Ministerial Fellowship." So I ob- 
 serve that, outside of the family, the strongest, the most 
 intimate, the most satisf)ring and the most enduring fel- 
 lowship is to be found in the ministry of the Gospel. I 
 could prove this if you would extend my ten minutes. 
 The most that I can do is to point out the object lesson 
 of the hour. 
 
 We are here to testify that in our brother Furbcr we 
 have an eminent illustration of "Ministerial Fellowship." 
 
 Fellowship has to do with the mindf the h^art and 
 the life. 
 
 He invites this fellowship because, first of all, he is a 
 man of clear, positive convictions of truth, and has the 
 courage of his convictions. He knows something. He 
 believes something. Suppose you put him on the stand 
 for another ordination and ask him the same questions 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 77 
 
 you did fifty years ago, would he answer as he did then? 
 Has he not learned something in the meantime? Of course 
 he has. His vision is broader. He takes in a wider 
 range of truth. But suppose you look at his standing 
 place. Has he moved in the least from the foundations 
 upon which he then placed his feet? It was upon the 
 Rock then, it is upon the Rock now he stands. Theo- 
 logical fields have become a little boggy in these days, 
 and one is not sure of his footing. Even ministers of 
 the Gospel are found groping in the fog or floundering in 
 the mire, but here is a brother who stands in the sun- 
 light of faith, that faith which the Revised Version tells 
 us was "once for all delivered unto the saints." He is 
 still on the Rock, the Rock of Ages, "Jesus Christ, the 
 same yesterday, to-day and forever." 
 
 Ask him some of his own questions. For instance, 
 "What is the necessity of the Atonement?" Think you 
 he would fade away into the modern agnosticism which 
 answers, "I do not know"? Touch him on that severer 
 truth which we handle so gingerly in these days. Retribu- 
 tion, and a text of Scripture is forthcoming. 
 
 I had a parishioner in West Newton who, upon meet- 
 ing me in the week after my exchange with Brother Fur- 
 ber, would exclaim, "Well, we had the silver trumpet last 
 Sunday." This meant that our brother had a trumpet, 
 that it was of no uncertain sound, that it had a clear, ring- 
 
y8 GOLDEN JUBILKl. 
 
 ing, silvery note. A new refrain has reached our ears 
 from various points of the compass : " Calvinism is dead. 
 Calvinism is dead." If by that is meant the old carica- 
 ture called Hyper-Calvinism, it is doubtless true. It is 
 dead, as it ought to be, and buried beyond resurrection. 
 But the moderate, rational system to which the church owes 
 so great a debt is very much alive in its great vital truths. 
 If it is dead in Boston, it is alive in Newton, for we 
 honor a man to-day who had the presumption and the 
 courage, near the close of his pulpit service, to preach a 
 sermon on the doctrine of election. So dominating his 
 faith was the great doctrine of God's sovereignty that I 
 should not wonder, if you were to take a drop of his blood 
 and analyze it, you would find it is the very same that 
 coursed through the Great Reformer's veins. No stanza 
 could he sing with greater zest than that of Ray Palmer: 
 
 " Be this my joy, that evermore 
 
 Thou rulest all things at Thy will; 
 Thy sovereign wisdom I adore, 
 
 And calmly, sweetly, trust Thee still." 
 
 But he has a heart, which is the centre of all fel- 
 lowship. This explains the testimony of this hour, the 
 enduring attachment which brings these friends, old and 
 new alike, around him. He held the truth in love; he 
 spoke the truth in love. What a well-wisher to ever>'- 
 body, always revealing this love in some office of minis- 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 79 
 
 tration ! I remember what a significant word Dr. Nehe- 
 miah Adams spoke of our brother at a previous occasion 
 like this, when he said, "Brother Furber does not keep a 
 dog." No man was ever barked away from his house 
 from fear. The latch-string is always out, and the open- 
 ing door reveals a welcoming face. 
 
 But though he does not keep a dog, I can testify 
 that he keeps a horse. How kind and generous of him 
 to be at the expense of feeding and caring for the horse 
 through all these years! For what? So he could ride 
 to the door of his brother who cannot afford such luxury 
 and call him out to take a seat by his side, and then 
 they ride and talk and talk and ride ; and this is " min- 
 isterial fellowship." 
 
 So of his life. Think for a moment of the walk for 
 fifty years over these hills and through these valleys, enter- 
 ing these homes in all their varied experiences. He is a 
 sweet singer. Around how many chambers of sickness has 
 his voice echoed in the cheery, comforting song ! What 
 a record! Half a century! Who can record it? 
 
 I must stop, for my time is more than past; and 
 now I can put all I have said in one brief sentence : I 
 love Brother Furber. It is not Mister, nor Doctor, nor 
 Reverend, nor Reverend Doctor, but Brother, with an em- 
 phasis on the brother. 
 
 My dear brother, our faces are westward. We are 
 
8o GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 looking toward the setting sun. It is near evening. Let 
 us be thankful that the day has been so long and sunny. 
 If there is one anticipation brighter than any other, save 
 that of the vision and companionship of Him whom we 
 love and serve, it is the continuance of the delightful fel- 
 lowship we have enjoyed in our ministerial life on earth.. 
 
 Rev. E. E. Strong, D. D. 
 
 When your committee requested me to say a few 
 words here this afternoon, they asked me if I preferred 
 to select a topic. "Why," said I, "there is only one 
 topic, that is the Rev. Dr. Furber." But I shall speak 
 chiefly of the childhood and youth of Dr. Furber, about 
 which I happen to know a good deal. He was born, as 
 we all know, in Sandwich, N. H. His father was a farmer, 
 intelligent, sober, and devout; his mother was a rare woman, 
 of much culture for the times, one of those strong characters 
 we sometimes meet. She was noted for her spirit of 
 prayer, maintaining for over fifty years a female prayer- 
 meeting in her own house, and was a moving spirit in 
 those cent societies which marked the religious life of the 
 churches of New Hampshire some seventy-five years ago. 
 He grew up in an atmosphere both intellectual and spirit- 
 ual. He would not have had any excuse for not being 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 8 1 
 
 a good minister with such a training as he received. 
 The moral of this is that every man who would be an 
 acceptable and accredited minister for fifty years should 
 take the greatest care in the selection of his parents, es- 
 pecially of his mother. And another moral, most serious 
 and most blessed, is that any mother may hope, by fidel- 
 ity and prayer, by the exercise of a lofty faith and a 
 lowly spirit, by the uttermost consecration of herself and of 
 her children to a covenant-keeping God, — she may hope 
 that a son of hers will become an ambassador of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, a minister of reconciliation. 
 
 As a boy Daniel Furber was noted for his unusual 
 talent in singing. He taught singing schools. It has been 
 said, though it seems almost incredible, that he regularly 
 played the organ in the church before he was ten years 
 old. 
 
 In 1839 he went to Dartmouth College, graduating in 
 1843, five years before I entered. I never saw him then. 
 But I happened to have a brother and cousins and kin- 
 dred in the professors' families at Dartmouth, so that I 
 heard the fame of a remarkable young man. I had the 
 most exalted idea of that young man. I thought that he 
 belonged to a superior order of beings. I have since learned 
 that he did not. But the thing which convinced me that 
 all my imaginations concerning him were correct was the 
 fact that later came to my knowledge, that this young min- 
 
82 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 ister had persuaded the queenly lady who presided over the 
 Seminary, which we were wont to call "The Nunnery," to 
 share his home and parish. 
 
 About the time of Mr. Furber's installation here I came 
 to live in Brighton, and sometimes came over here and 
 heard Mr. Furber preach and sat in these pews, and I often 
 heard him in exchange in the church where I worshipped. 
 I am bound to say, however, that the matter I most dis- 
 tinctly remember was the calm and dignified way in which 
 the preacher prepared his reading desk, in the absence of 
 modern conveniences for this purpose. Impaired vision 
 made it necessary to construct a desk for the occasion, and 
 Bibles and hymn books were collected with the utmost de- 
 liberation and placed in order, and if they did not suffice 
 the tall silk hat was placed on top, and on it reposed the 
 manuscript sermon. This was the first, and I may add also 
 the last, time in which I ever saw any practical use for 
 this fashionable piece of headgear. But I seriously believe 
 that the dignity and calm repose with which this needful 
 addition to the pulpit was constructed impressed me with 
 the absolute sincerity of the man, and with his own view 
 of the importance of his message. Since those days I have 
 come to know him well. It is an old saying that famil- 
 iarity breeds contempt. But it is not true ; it is a mon- 
 strous lie. My old idea of that young man whom I used 
 to think about has gone very largely, and another idea has 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. gt 
 
 come in, stronger, firmer, more precious. I love this 
 brother. He has been to me a helper and guide, a 
 strength and a comfort. I bless God for him, and that 
 I have been permitted to have a ministry near him. I 
 think that all of us who were present at that most inter- 
 esting service last Sunday morning felt the appropriateness 
 of the Scripture which was read — the farewell of Paul to 
 the elders of the church at Ephesus, who met him at 
 Miletus. And I thought that very likely Brother Furber 
 was thinking, as the words were read, "And now, behold, I 
 go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem," of that other 
 Jerusalem toward which his face is turned and whither he 
 is going, not bound, but free, and knowing what awaits 
 him there. 
 
 Rev. Joshua W. WcIIman, D. D. 
 
 This church has known Dr. Furber fifty years. I have 
 known him longer, ever since 1842. I entered Dartmouth 
 that year. Brother Furber was a senior. There is some 
 distance between a freshman and a senior, though someone 
 has said it is not so far as between a freshman and a 
 sophomore, and I did not see much of him there. He 
 was president and conductor of the Handel Society, and 
 teacher of music in Mrs. Peabody's school. The rest of us 
 
84 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 kept at a respectful distance from that institution. He 
 went in and out boldly, and was envied by us all. 
 
 This is a long pastorate; how shall we account for it? I 
 think that great credit should be given to this church. It 
 has always had long pastorates. But we are not here to 
 talk about the church. A great deal is due to Mrs. Furber, 
 who, as one of the speakers has said, was a queenly woman. 
 The length of the ministry here depended very largely upon 
 that most remarkable, most able and accomplished woman. 
 
 It is owing very largely to our dear brother himself. I 
 did not know him really until I came in 1856 to the Eliot 
 Church. Receiving a call to that church I went and had 
 a long talk with Brother Furber. He took hold of that 
 case and talked it all over with me, put himself in my 
 place, and after all advised me to accept the call and led 
 me to do so. During the seventeen and a half years that 
 I was pastor of Eliot Church Brother Furber and I were 
 together very often. For more than forty years we have 
 been bound together in this friendship. He has never failed 
 me. As I look back now I do not see how I could have 
 got through those years without this friendship. 
 
 Brother Furber has always reminded me of the Apostle 
 John. His pastorate has been Johannine, not Pauline or 
 Petrine. I do not like those words, but we have to use 
 them sometimes. He has been like the Apostle John in 
 love. He has loved and been loved. Let no one think^ 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 8$ 
 
 however, that because there is so much of this in his char- 
 acter that he is effeminate or yielding. Brother Furber is 
 not a bit of that. He never "wabbles." He does not 
 wait for the opinion of others. He asks what is in God's 
 Word, what does Christ teach, and what do the Apostles say, 
 and he stands squarely upon that authority. Now John was 
 like that. Then there is another thing. John spoke his 
 mind. Sometimes his words flame with wrath. Repeatedly 
 he speaks in his epistles of this man or that man as a liar. 
 Christ called John and James sons of thunder. That does 
 not look as if they were effeminate men. John spoke out 
 his mind. Now there is something in Brother Furber which 
 has reminded us of John in this respect. He sometimes 
 uses great plainness of speech yet seldom gives offence. 
 
 Brother Furber is also a great deal like the Apostle 
 John in his love for music. I have been looking this 
 matter up a little and I have been surprised to find that 
 the word "sing," though used repeatedly in the Old Tes- 
 tament, very often in the Psalms, is used in the New 
 Testament, unless I have made some mistake, only twice. 
 One of these instances is in John's writings. I assume that 
 John wrote the Revelation, and it is John that seemed to 
 be entranced with the anthems of heaven. No other writer 
 seems to know anything about them. Four times John de- 
 scribes the heavenly songs. He seems to have had a rev- 
 elation of what is going on in that world of song. Brother 
 
^6 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 Furber is like him in this. I have thought of him as 
 going to that other land, and have wondered what position 
 he could occupy there better than the leadership of one of 
 those heavenly choirs. I never heard any grander music 
 of its kind than that of his choir in Dartmouth, and I 
 cannot think of him in heaven as not having something to 
 do with the praises of that heavenly world. 
 
 Rev. Alvah Hovey, D. D. 
 
 1 met Dr. Furber in 1839. We entered college together. 
 Dr. Furber in his ministry has shown himself to be a very 
 intelligent man, and I shall account for it in part by the 
 fact that he was in my class in college. I should add that 
 he was afterward in Andover, and had the benefit of some 
 of the best teaching that New England afforded. 
 
 I feel that in speaking for the other churches of the 
 place I ought to say that, so far as I know, they all sym> 
 pathize with my own high estimate of Dr. Furber. I have 
 no doubt that if I should speak in a few words just what 
 I feel and believe regarding his work, that the other 
 churches would say that my statement was correct. 
 
 He has been in his ministry an intelligent preacher 
 of the Gospel. He has been sound in Christian faith. 
 
GOLDEN JUFILEE. 87 
 
 This I think cnnnot be doubted by anyone who has known 
 him. He has never shunned to decjare the whole counsel 
 of God as understood by hini, and 1 suppose that he 
 was reasonably orthodox. 1 have the impression that 
 his own people had the right to regard him as repre- 
 senting orthodox thinking in regard to the principles of 
 belief Orthodox thinking is right thinking. Sometimes 
 men speak in a sneering tone of orthodoxy and orthodox 
 thinking. They treat it as if it were my thinking merely. 
 In one sense that is true. But the meaning of the term 
 is a very honorable one. It is simply right thinking. It 
 is something when we can honestly say of a man that his 
 teaching is right teaching. I like Dr. Furber because I 
 am always sure that what he says will be founded on the 
 rock. 
 
 He has been an unusually faithful pastor, not only in 
 his pulpit preparation, but among the people. He has 
 gone among them as one who loved their spiritual interests 
 and who was seeking to do them good. His life, there- 
 fore, has been a life of service among all this people. 
 
 I think his life has been a remarkably consistent Chris- 
 tian life. Now I do not know that he will agree with 
 me on that point. I have a little doubt whether he would 
 put it in that way. But I am hke all the other brethren 
 here this afternoon — I am to be allowed to express ray 
 own convictions. I know Dr. Furber does that sometimes 
 
88 
 
 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 Strongly. And I claim the privilege once in my life, being 
 an old friend. I was here when he was ordained and 
 have known him ever since, and I bear witness that his 
 life has been to me a model of Christian living. 
 
 It is proper that I should say also that his ministry 
 has been distinguished by brotherly kindness to other pas- 
 tors and Christians. His attitude toward the Seminary and 
 the other churches and ministers ( there was one here 
 when he came — Rev. Dr. Smith — the others have come 
 since ) has been that of uniform courtesy and Christian 
 consideration. 
 
 This is what I wished to testify to you, and to con- 
 gratulate Dr. Furber and to congratulate this church upon 
 the long period in which he has been permitted to live 
 with you and in which you have cherished him ; and he 
 certainly has cherished you as the apple of his eye, doing 
 all for you that he knew how to do for you, that you 
 might be true servants of Christ and be prepared to meet 
 him in the world to which we — at least the older ones 
 of us — must soon go. I do not look upon that as a 
 calamity, I confess. I think of the other side as having 
 large and manifold attractions, and as if the company 
 gathering there would be one that we should like all of 
 us to know, and I hope that we may all be found in the 
 same company and blessed fellowship, knowing much more 
 than we now know and enjoying more intimately the pres- 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 89 
 
 -ence of Him whom we think of here as our greatest 
 support and comfort. 
 
 Rev. W. E. Park, D. D. 
 
 Just as I came into this meeting, expecting to be 
 teasted, I was asked to take the place of Rev. Mr. Holmes. 
 I asked what the subject was, and was told, "There ii 
 none " ! Now, when I take the place of another man, 
 and a good one, and have no subject to speak upon, I 
 may rightly ask the commiseration of my audience. When 
 I was beating about for a subject while listening to those 
 who preceded me, I felt, "Why, what is there that they 
 have left out? What remains for me to say?" I am 
 called on to rake after the cart. But it seems to me 
 that they are not, those who have had charge of the cart, 
 like the reapers in the field of Boaz who left handfuls for 
 the poor maiden who was to come after them. But one 
 or two things connected with our beloved brother I may 
 remember. I think it was in the year '47 or '48 that a 
 young minister who had been recently ordained exchanged 
 with Dr. Nchemiah Adams in the Essex Street Church in 
 Boston, and had, I don't know whether I should call it 
 the privilege, but at any rate the extraordinary opportunity 
 of having among his hearers and looking down and seeing 
 
9© GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 in the pews the great rolling dark eyes, the shaggy hair 
 and the lion-like face of Rufus Choate. A day or two 
 afterwards Mr. Choate was asked what he thought of the 
 sermon. He said : " I believe that it was a very good 
 sermon indeed. 1 got that impression and was told so 
 by others. But I was so delighted with the modulations 
 of the preacher's voice and so entirely taken up with them 
 that I hardly know what was or was not said." 
 
 May I refer to ray own experience? The early home 
 of Dr. Furber has been described. It was my privilege 
 to know something about it. I remember it as a little- 
 boy, I think about twelve years of age. It was thought 
 that study might have somewhat exhausted me, and I was 
 taken to work on a farm in the town of Sandwich, N. H. 
 It was the first journey of any consequence that I had 
 ever taken, and I went with my father. I remember that 
 at some village it was with indescribable horror that I saw 
 three men approach the bar of the hotel where we staid. 
 They called for New England rum, which was frequently 
 drunk at that time. I had been nursed on temperance 
 literature, and expected the immediate dissolution of those 
 people who imbibed rum. And while watching those men 
 put New England rum down and seem to grow happy, 
 the first skepticism as to the validity of my early training 
 entered my mind. 
 
 I remember that, boy as I was, I was struck with the 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 9 1 
 
 magnificence of the scenery. Directly before us was the 
 mountain, famihar to those who have traveled in that vi- 
 cinity, called Red Hill. In the distance we saw the glit- 
 tering summit of Chocorua, and old stone White Face 
 looming up by its side. I remember Mrs. Furber, the 
 mother who has been referred to. 1 shall never forget 
 the first impression of her face, for she was to have con- 
 siderable control for the next few months over my destiny. 
 I remember seeing in my chamber the portrait of a 
 young man sketched by Albert Hoit, and it looked almost 
 exactly as your honored pastor did look at that time. 
 After a few days we were visited by a young minister 
 from Newton, Mass. And at family prayers — we always 
 had music at family prayers, for that was a musical fam- 
 ily — I heard the tones of that silvery voice referred to 
 by Rufus Choate, and some impression of the music of the 
 spheres entered my ear, somewhat obtuse to harmony. I 
 shall never forget the influence of that home. The father 
 was a keen, strong, able and intelligent man, who, if he 
 had only had the son's education, would have been a man 
 of controlling influence in any community. The mother, 
 somewhat the elder of the two, was deeply imbued with 
 the spirit of old-fashioned Puritanism. I remember the 
 services which were held in that little church, which strug- 
 gled hard for life. And when they were not able to have 
 preaching service, there was a sermon read by Deacon 
 
92 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 Furber. Deacon Furber was conaected with the music, I 
 remember, and, poor as the church was, it certainly had 
 one of the best choirs that could be found in all the re- 
 gion round about. I think the leading of choirs was 
 hereditary in that family. I recollect also that Mrs. Fur- 
 ber maintained in her house a woman's prayer-meeting. I 
 remember seeing the farmers' wives coming in, and at tea- 
 time I heard Mrs. Furber giving an account of the re- 
 marks made and the devotional spirit manifested at that 
 meeting. I recollect very well that at the close of the 
 services on Sunday Mrs. Furber would take us into her 
 private room and give us exercises in the Westminster 
 Catechism and pray with us, offering some of the most 
 fervent prayers I have ever heard. 
 
 Dr. Furber has stayed here a great while. What is 
 the reason of it? We are all interested. Perhaps an 
 anecdote will help explain it. There was once a man 
 (does Dr. Furber remember him — I think that this man 
 and Professor Stuart furnished almost all the fun on An- 
 dover Hill), Mr. Easton was his name, and he had a 
 peculiarly unsympathetic mind. I recollect that an old 
 minister was dying in the house, and Mr. Easton was se- 
 lected to take care of him. The young ladies of the 
 family came down to breakfast in the morning. They 
 thought that the aged man had died during the night, and 
 they felt so badly about it that they could not control 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 93 
 
 their emotion. At last one of them did manage to speak, 
 and asked: "Mr. Easton, is the dear old doctor gone?" 
 "No, he isn't. We've got to be patient. Strong consti- 
 tution; that's the trouble with him!" Well, Dr. Furber 
 has stayed here fifty years through storm and sunshine, 
 and I think he has mentally and morally a pretty strong 
 constitution, and that has been the trouble with him. 
 
 A thousand of the follies and dangers of the church 
 have their origin in the senseless passion for novelty and 
 change. Instead of wanting to hear something that is good 
 and reliable, many people want to hear something that is 
 new, and some ministers are twisting the word of truth 
 into all sorts of fantastic forms that they think may be 
 new, trying to beat the whole ocean of Gospel truth into 
 a sort of evanescent pulpit soap-bubble. I am thankful 
 that the pastor of this church and the congregation have 
 mutually taken a different view. I am thankful that they 
 have been partners in manifesting the glory of God and 
 making the cross of Christ conspicuous before the people. 
 Where there is a long pastorate there is a complete work. 
 The pastor sows the seeds, keeps the weeds down, waits 
 for the harvest and gathers it in. He may gather in a 
 great many harvests. It is permitted to him to be in 
 the service of the Lord a reaper as well as a sower. If 
 a new movement is started he can be the Joshua as well 
 as the Moses. He is like a banyan tree. He is run- 
 
94 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 ning over into issues political and social. He does that 
 from the length of his pastorate. All parties consider him 
 an established authority. He gets a hold of temperance 
 sentiment. He controls benevolent organizations. He is 
 one who meets the public needs, because, Hke the prophet 
 Samuel, he is not only a religious but unconsciously a civil 
 ruler and leader. He moulds a community, and, in the 
 words of the poet, 
 
 ** But in his duty prompt at every call, 
 
 He watched and wept, he prayed and felt for all; 
 And as a bird each fond endearment tries 
 To tempt her new-fledged offspring to the skies, 
 He tried each art, reproved each dull delay, 
 Allured to brighter worlds and led the way." 
 
POEIW. 
 
 (Written lor this AanlTeraary bj Mr. R. W. Ransom ol Chicafo.) 
 
 Not whiter lie the snows on moor and lea 
 
 Than those time-silvered locks that crown thy head, 
 Not kindlier fall the showers in April shed 
 
 Than rests thy calm benignant glance on me. 
 
 Thy voice, how like the music of the sea, 
 
 Now clarion-toned and now to dulcet wed, 
 As when it trumpets forth the truth outspread. 
 
 Or melts with love for all humanity. 
 
 Revered and honored preacher of the Word; 
 
 Two score and ten thy years of service here 
 A grateful people celebrate today. 
 
 One sainted face — thy soul's companion dear — 
 Is missing in the throng, yet lights the way 
 Thou goest, Loved Disciple of the Lord. 
 
REV. EDWARD M NOYES 
 
THE DINNER 
 
 THE RECEPTION 
 
THE DINNER AND THE RECEPTION. 
 
 Two hundred guests and older members of the church sat down 
 to the tables so daintily spread in the chapel at 6 o'clock. At the 
 head of the tables, beside Dr. Furber, were Dr. and Mrs. Patrick, 
 Mrs. Agnes Noyes, mother of the pastor, and Dr. Park and Miss 
 Agnes Park, children of Dr. Furber's closest friend, Professor Edwards 
 A. Park, of Andover. Grace was said by Rev. T. D. Fiske, D. D., 
 of Newburyport, who had recently observed his own semi-centennial 
 anniversary. 
 
 From 7.30 to 10 the chapel was thronged with friends from near 
 and far who came to offer their congratulations at the reception 
 to Dr. Furber. Music was furnished by an orchestra, and several 
 tenor solos were sung by Mr. C. J. Buffum. The Hon. J. F. C. 
 Hyde was asked to present the greetings of former members, but 
 feeble health forbade his presence. Mr. A. C. Walworth spoke in 
 behalf of the church, and Hon. Alden Speare, a neighbor, in behalf 
 of the community. Dr. Furber made a brief and fitting response, and 
 after refreshments had been served by the ladies of the church, he 
 was escorted to the piano, and led in the singing of "Auld Lang 
 Syne," a fitting close to a delightful day. The community appreciated 
 the opportunity thus afforded to express their love and affection for a 
 man whom the people **delighteth to honor." 
 
Address of Mr. A. C. Walworth. 
 
 My Dear Pastor and Friend: 
 
 It is my privilege to extend to you the heartfelt greet- 
 ing of this church on this happy anniversary. 
 
 When I asked the committee why I of all others had 
 been selected to perform this pleasant duty, I was told 
 that it was because I stood midway down the line of your 
 parishioners of the last fifty years, and hence was most 
 conveniently located to address you. Perhaps, also, the 
 selection was appropriate because my lifetime coincides very 
 nearly with your pastorate, so that I can speak for the 
 fifty years as well as the people. 
 
 You have no doubt noticed that a phonograph is 
 equipped with a large mouthpiece, but while this is very 
 prominent it is the cylinder behind it that contains the 
 record and does the speaking. To-night I am simply the 
 mouth-piece ; behind me is a cylinder with a record of fifty 
 years. I cannot to-night turn for you that cylinder back- 
 wards for that long period, but I can say with truth that 
 there is not one line upon it, so far as you are concerned, 
 that we would wish to change or erase, while on our part 
 
I02 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 there must be very many that we would be glad to 
 obliterate. 
 
 At the close of a similar celebration last September 
 your old friend, the Rev. Dr. Fiske, said in reply to the 
 kind words that had been spoken that he did not recognize 
 himself in the person so eulogized by his friends ; in fact, 
 he was in doubt as to his own identity. Possibly you 
 have doubts of this nature yourself, and since you cannot 
 identify yourself as did the old lady of the song, who 
 said, under similar conditions, " I have a little dog at 
 home and he knows me " ( as we have heard this after- 
 noon that you do not keep a dog ! ), permit me to assure 
 you that there is no mistake ; we all look you in the 
 face and recognize in you our own dear pastor. 
 
 For fifty years you have been our counsellor and 
 friend, you have rejoiced with us in our joys, you have 
 sympathized with us in our sorrows and consoled us in 
 our griefs with those tender words of religious comfort that 
 come so readily from your heart to your lips. 
 
 And how wide has been your influence in this time 1 
 As you have preached the Word from the pulpit you have 
 seen in the congregation before you an honored Governor 
 of the Commonwealth, a President of the Senate, more than 
 one Mayor of this city, members of the Legislature, Judges 
 on the bench, and men pre-eminent in professional and 
 business life. How can we measure the effect of yooir 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. ^^3 
 
 words of wisdom and pious counsel as they have fallen 
 upon the ears of these men and affected their lives 
 and actions, extending your influence in an ever-widening 
 circle? I am sure 1 do not exaggerate when I assert 
 that your influence thus exerted upon your people and your 
 State is beyond my power to portray. 
 
 We cannot stand in this chapel to-night, looking back 
 fifty years, without a surge of recollections of the times 
 
 that arc gone. 
 
 "Old faces throng around me, old forms go troopmg 
 past," faces and forms of dear ones gone before, our 
 parents, our brothers and sisters, our children. For you es- 
 pecially there must be many pathetic reminiscences to-night. 
 We may say of you in the words of Dr. Holmes: 
 
 ♦*The DDOSsy marbles rest 
 
 On the lips that he has pressed 
 
 In their bloom, 
 And the names he loved to hear 
 Hare been carved for many a year 
 On the tomb." 
 
 But this is not a time for sadness but of joyous con- 
 gratulation; let the musicians play festive music and let 
 all rejoice with one accord that you have been spared to 
 us so many years, and especially for the well grounded 
 hope of so many years of usefulness yet to come. 
 
 With hearts and hands we greet you. We salute you 
 
I04 GOLDBN JUBILEE. 
 
 not as the "mailed immortals," with flashing swords un- 
 sheathed before their conquering king, not with the trumpets 
 and the presented arms of the military review, not with 
 the bacchanalian wine cup raised on high; but better, with 
 the kindly light of the eye, the warm pressure of the hand, 
 the affe«tionately spoken word, we honor you. 
 
 O sweet singer, O faithful pastor, O beloved friend, 
 O noble man. "Te Omnes Salutainus." We all salute 
 you. 
 
 Response by Dr» Furber* 
 
 David said the Lord had prepared a table before 
 him in the presence of his enemies. He has prepared a 
 table before me in the presence of my friends. 
 
 I wish I could express my inexpressible gratitude to 
 you all and to our beloved pastor for the eagerness with 
 which you have embraced this memorable occasion as sm 
 opportunity for showing a measure of affection and good 
 will which have astonished me. Blessings have been 
 showered upon rae until I seem to have been bathed in 
 at atmosphere of benediction. 
 
 I am familiar with that principle iu God's dealings 
 with his people by which he bestows rewards which are 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. IO5 
 
 out of all proportion to their deserts. You seem to have 
 caught the divine spirit of this generosity, and, closing your 
 eyes to defects and blemishes, to have seen only the general 
 aim and intent of a professedly consecrated life. I can 
 only say, " It is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous 
 in my eyes." 
 
 None the less ray thanks are due to the human 
 agents by whom he performs his will, and for whom sim- 
 ilar surprises are in store, to come to you sooner or 
 later, if you are true and loyal to him who gives like a 
 king. 
 
 May goodness and mercy follow you all the days of 
 your lives, and may the younger pastor and the older 
 pastor and the flock to whom they minister dwell in the 
 house of the Lord forever. 
 
LETTERS. 
 
LETTERS. 
 
 Rev. Theodore I. Holmes. 
 
 Pastor from 1883 to 1893. 
 
 Dear Dr. Furber: 
 
 It is a real grief to my wife and myself that we are denied the 
 privilege of greeting you to-day in this happy anniversary. I am 
 nearly recovered from my slight illness, a little touch of rheumatism, 
 but am sure it would be unwise, if it were possible for me to come, 
 as we had so confidently anticipated. 1 decided only this morning, 
 and have just telegraphed Mr. Noyes. 
 
 I should have been glad of the opportunity to express my pro- 
 found gratitude for the many kindnesses you did me during my ten 
 years' ministry in Newton Centre, and for the delightful relation that 
 prevailed uniformly between us from first to last. 
 
 I am very thankful that you are able to have as cordial a sym- 
 pathy, every way, with the present pastor, Mr. Noyes; that he is a 
 man worthy of your best confidence, and so abundantly qualified to 
 be the minister of that flock. 
 
 We shall follow, in our thoughts, the services and festivities all 
 through the day, wishing heartily that we could be there. 
 
 Please accept most affectionate congratulations from my wife and 
 
 from your loving yoke-fellow, 
 
 Theodore J. Holmes. 
 
 Hopkinton, Mass., Dec. 8, 1897. 
 
Rev. Cyrus Hamlin, D. D., LL. D. 
 My Dear Brother Furbbr: 
 
 Being providentially prevented from attending the very happy 
 celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of your settlement over the First 
 Church in Newton, I cannot forbear expressing my congratulations and 
 my hearty sympathy in all the joys and the expressions of love and 
 confidence which I know will characterize the day. You have fought 
 a good fight, you have kept the faith, you have preached the truth 
 [n love, and you have, with singular unanimity, the affection and 
 esteem of the people and of all the neighboring churches and ministers. 
 I pronounce you, therefore, one of the happiest of men, peculiar- 
 ly blest of God in that your life is so lengthened out that you can 
 enjoy these blessings and feel that the Lord is with you. 
 I consider it a special honor that I may sign myself 
 Your faithful and affectionate friend, 
 
 Cyrus Hamlin. 
 Lexington, Mass. 
 
 Rev. A. H. Plumb, D. D. 
 Dear Dr. Furber: 
 
 I regret that a sudden strain last week has induced a lameness 
 which makes it necessary for me to avoid walking as much as possi- 
 ble. This will forbid my joining personally in the congratulations on 
 the 8th inst., but I send you herewith my most cordial felicitations 
 on the very high degree of amiability your benignant countenance has 
 continually, and I may say increasingly, shown throughout the won- 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. Ill 
 
 <lerful changes of the last half century your anniversary sernton so 
 happily described. Why should not such a servant of God as you 
 have been and are, throwing himself into the will of God, continually 
 smile with satisfaction as he looks on the growing triumphs of that 
 work and rehearses them, exclaiming, "Part of which I was"? 
 
 It has been given you to have fellowship and loving co-operation 
 with many of the best and most powerful men of the time, and you 
 have wrought together in a momentous era. When I first saw you 
 piling up the hymn-books to hold your sermon in the pulpit 
 of the old chapel at Andover, I lost my heart to you as you 
 preached, and I have never recalled it a little bit since. It is all 
 yours. That is to say, I believe in you, and hold with you, and 
 with unbounded affection and esteem, in your grasp of the eternal 
 verities, in your view of the work and mission of the church for the 
 world, in your ideas of the dignity and honor of the ministerial pro- 
 fession, ideas which you have admirably illustrated in your own life, 
 in the good taste and elegance of your forms of expression, in your 
 conception of church music, in your broad Christian charity, and in 
 your generous appreciation of your co-workers in the kingdom. 
 *' If the page had been longer, 
 My words had been stronger." 
 Yours ever, 
 
 A. H. Plumb. 
 
 Roxbury, Boston, Dec. 7, 1897. 
 
 Ex-Govcrnor William Claflia. 
 For many years after I came to Newtonville my family attended 
 the First Church, with great pleasure and profit. From the begin- 
 ning of his ministry Dr. Furber's influence upon church and people 
 
112 GOLDEN JUBILll. 
 
 was marked by all the qualities which endear a pastor to th« com- 
 munity. Old and young alike welcomed his presence and enjoyed 
 his fellowship. It must be a great satisfaction to him, as it certainly 
 is to his friends, to look back upon his ministry so full of the ap- 
 preciative expressions of confidence and good will, in the years of his 
 retirement, and to feel that if his work is done, it is well done, and 
 that he is receiving his reward in part, in the love of his neighbors 
 and the highest respect of the entire city. 
 
 It is a source of pleasure to see, in the rapid changes going on 
 around us, that one church stands much in the same condition that it 
 did fifty years ago. The people of the First Church have always 
 been conservative as to their surroundings, although among the fore- 
 most to express themselves on the questions of the day. In the great 
 anti-slavery conflict there were few who were not numbered among 
 the most progressive, end in the temperance reform the church always 
 earnestly sustained the pastor in his advanced views upon the position 
 to be assumed and the work to be done. Dr. Furber was left to 
 pursue the work of the Christian ministry with no embarrassing ques- 
 tions upon these subjects. As far as I am aware there were only one or 
 two crises in his many years of service. Soon after I began to attend 
 the church the subject of a new hymn-book came up. The pastor 
 was much interested in the question, but the older members of the 
 church did not agree with his views, as did the younger members of 
 the congregation. The struggle in the meeting was long and earnest, 
 the pastor saw defeat staring him in the face, with a most despairing 
 look he arose and said: ** I have used and borne with the old 
 hymn-book for twenty years, and I can bear it for twenty years 
 longer, but it will be a heavy load." This was too much for the 
 meeting, and the tide was turned and the new book voted for. The 
 pastor's cheerful looks returned, and his noble voice led in the service 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 1^3 
 
 of song as well as in the other services with ardent satisfaction for 
 many years. 
 
 That his life may be spared yet a great while, to show to the 
 rising generation the beauty of a Christian life, is the prayer of your 
 sincere friend and fellow-citizen, 
 
 William Claflin. 
 
 Boston, Dec. 8tb, 1897. 
 
 Hon* Larkln D. Mason. 
 
 To E. M. Noyes, etc. 
 
 Reverend and Dear Sirs: Your letter of November, '97, in- 
 viting me to be present at the fiftieth anniversary of the settlement 
 9f your senior pastor, Rev. Daniel Furber, with you, was duly re- 
 ceived. I would make great effort to respond to this invitation if it 
 was practical, bat I am twelve years his senior, and confined at home 
 during the rough season. I knew Mr. Furber as a dutiful child, a 
 brilliant youth, a profound scholar, a successful minister. While he 
 adopted the theory of Mr. Whitfield I have accepted that of Mr. 
 Wesley, yet, like these godly pioneers, we have confided in each other 
 as Christian soldiws. Our work is nearly done; soon we will meet 
 on the other shore. 
 
 With sincere respect, truly, 
 
 Larkin D. Mason. 
 
 South Tamworth, Maine, Dec. 2, 1897. 
 
 Prof. John DcWitt. D. D. 
 
 The First Church in Newton^ Massachusetts. 
 
 Dear Brethren: I greatly regret that my duties here will pre- 
 
114 GOLDIN JUBILll. 
 
 vent my presence at the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the 
 ordination of Dr. Furber. Among the most precious of my memories 
 or possessions are the friendships among the clergymen of Boston and 
 its vicinity, which, with its other benedictions, my position as pastor 
 of the Central Church of Boston from 1869 to 1876 brought to me. 
 Conspicuous am»ng these highly valued friendships is that of Dr. 
 Furber. When we were ministerial neighbors, it was to me a great 
 delight to see him and talk with him. In those days I saw him 
 often, and he always did my head and heart great good. His ability, 
 his scholarly tastes and attainments, the variety of his intellectual in- 
 terests, his urbanity, rooted in a profound Chriitian charity, his dignity 
 as a man and minister, his social gifts, and his fidelity in his pro- 
 fession and pastoral office, made him for me, at that time a young 
 clergyman, one of the most helpful and charming of friends. 
 
 I think we must all say of him — and at his age we may say it 
 to his face— that he is an example of the highest type of Christian 
 pastor produced by the American Church. Professor Park once deliv- 
 ered a great sermon before the Governor and Legislature of Massa- 
 chusetts on ''The Indebtedness of the State to the Clergy." If one 
 wished to elaborate and to make more specific the prayer, ♦♦God 
 save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts," with whick in your State 
 all executive proclamations close, he could not do better than to say, 
 "God send to all the churches of the historic faith and church-order 
 of the Commonwealth pastors like the Rev. Daniel Little Furber." 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 John DeWitt. 
 
 Theological Seminary, 
 
 Princeton, N. J., 
 
 28th Nov., 1897. 
 
Hon. J. F. C. Hyde, 
 
 N«wton Highland*, Mm». 
 To Rev. E. M. Amoves, Chairman of Committee: 
 
 Words fail me to express my regrets that a painful illness pre- 
 vents my being able to be present at the annirersary of Rer. D. L. 
 Furber's settlement as pastor of the First Church, and to respond for 
 the old members. 
 
 My membership of the church began during the first year of his 
 pastorate. He was not only my pastor for twenty-five years, but my 
 spiritual father and loving and intimate friend. 
 
 And it was a painful duty to sever my connection with church 
 and pastor to help form the church at Newton Highlands; but the 
 friendship has happily continued to the present time. I cannot too 
 strongly testify to his ability and faithfulness as a pastor through so 
 
 many years. 
 
 He has proved himself to be worthy of great honor as a faithful 
 servant of the Master. He fully deserves the high commendation he 
 is receiving on every hand. 
 
 Eternity will alone reveal the influence of his noble life and 
 
 character. 
 
 May his last days be cheered by the love of his many friends, 
 not only those who have been intimately connected with him in the 
 church and congregation, but of all who have known him. 
 
 We trust his life may be continued yet many years, and be a 
 constant benediction to the end. 
 
 Yours in Christian brotherhood, 
 
 James F. C. Hyde. 
 
Mfs. Professor Austin Phelps, 
 Mr Dear Dr. Furber: 
 
 You will have a very happy time today with all your old friends 
 about you. It is a great thing to be settled fifty years over one 
 church. It will be a great pleasure to you to look back upon all 
 you have done. I shall never forget the labor you bestowed on my 
 husband's memorial. My best wishes are yours for the future. 
 Very truly your friend, 
 
 Mary A. Phelps. 
 7 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston. 
 
 Rev. Frank D. Sargent 
 
 Rev. Edward M. Noyes and others. 
 
 Gentlemen: I am sorry that my parish duties will not permit 
 me to attend the fiftieth anniversary of the ordination and installation 
 of Rev. Dr. Furber. It certainly would give me great pleasure to do 
 so. I look back to my boyhood and early manhood days in connec- 
 tion with the old church at Newton, and see in them the foundation 
 of Christian character; and the man who had the most to do with 
 me at that time was your beloved pastor, Dr. Furber. It is not 
 stran£e that my whole ministerial life, in its methods and spirit, has 
 been shaped and modified by the teachings and impressions of those 
 early days. I have thanked God many times that the beginnings of 
 my church life and religious training were committed to such men as 
 Dr. Nehcmiah Adams and Dr. Daniel Furber. 
 
 I am very glad that the people are to recogniEC this anniversary, 
 and give expression to the regard and affection they have for one 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. Iiy 
 
 whom God has so signally honored, and through whom such rich 
 "blessings of grace and spiritual power hare been bestowed. 
 
 Please remember me most kindly to Dr. Furber, and express my 
 regrets that I cannot add my presence to an occasion that I doubt 
 mot will be mo«t enjoyable. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 F. D. Sargent. 
 Putnam, Conn., Dec. 2, 1897. 
 
 Rev. Alexander McKenziet D. D. 
 
 My Dear Dr. Furber: 
 
 I hoped to be with you yesterday and to give my congratulations 
 in person. But I was prevented and must take this poorer way to 
 express my pleasure in regarding your long and useful ministry. You 
 quite overshadow my poor thirty years. It is a fine thing to be living 
 so long with one people and to have your life involved with theirs. 
 I do not know what better investment you could have made. Your 
 life will live itself on and on for many days to come. I am glad 
 with you, and glad of you, and glad that I have known you for 
 nearly the whole time of your ministry. May other years be added 
 *nd all years filled with blessing, with health and vigor, with grati- 
 tude and affection, with great opportunities nobly filled. 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 Alsxandbr McKsnzii. 
 Cambridge, Dec. 9, 1897. 
 
 Rev. A. E. Duaoing;, D. D. 
 
 Editor of trt» C«nfr»gati(»(i*li«t. 
 
 DsAR Dr. Furbkr: 
 
 I have found myself, with real regret, compelled to forego the 
 
IlS GOLDEN JUIILEE. 
 
 pleasure of participating in the celebration of the fiftietk anniversary of 
 your installation with the church to which I also hare had the pleasure 
 of ministering for a little while. I had promised to make a historical 
 address to-morrow evening at the annual meeting of the church of 
 which I am a member. 
 
 The only reason I can think of which may explain the audacity 
 of the Central Church of Jamaica Plain in selecting that night of all 
 nights of the year, and engaging me before I had heard from Newton 
 Centre, is that our church is comparatively young and historically 
 ignorant. I hope to impress on our members the necessity of keeping 
 a calendar of the great Saints' Days of sister churches; so that, when 
 the seventy-fifth anniversary of your pastorate comes, the wheels of 
 Jamaica Plain social fellowship will cease to buzz for that night, or 
 will extend their orbit to take in their illustrious neighbor. 
 
 God bless you with continued health for many years, and con- 
 tinue in your people the wisdom of their ancestors when they called 
 the man who could so well hear and teach them to hear "the still, 
 small voice." 
 
 You showed the prophet's gift last Sunday, when you compared 
 the former days with these. Full beards have indeed grown on min- 
 isters' faces since yours was first allowed to wave in the Newton Centre 
 pulpit; perhaps films over their eyes, also. But may your vision ever 
 be clear, and ours be clarified, till we see eye to eye in the full light 
 of the better day and the better land. 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 A. E. Dunning. 
 I Semcrset Street, Boston, Dec. 7, 1897, 
 
Rev. John L. Mailc. 
 
 Superintendent of Home Miseions, North Dekota. 
 Rev. Edward M. Noyes^ and Committee: 
 
 Dear Brethren: My family unite with me in expressing our 
 pleasure in receiving your kind invitation to be present on the oc- 
 casion of the fiftieth anniversary of the ordination and installation of 
 Rev. Dr. Furber. The intervention of geographical distance must pre- 
 vent our attendance. To be present in spirit is the next best thing, 
 although this method is too ethereal to be a wholly satisfactory sub- 
 stitute for such a delightful and exceptional event. 
 
 Is it not a triumph of Providential goodness and of the happiest 
 relationships of pastor and people that this half-century anniversary is 
 at length brought to pass by the slow procession of years? 
 
 To those who during five decades have been associated with Dr. 
 Furber in the closest relationships of Christian fellowship and service, 
 this occasion must come freighted with many sacred associations, ten- 
 derest reminiscences and inspiring recollections that may be thought of 
 as projecting their radiant influence forward into that realm where life 
 is without vicissitudes and where all that is best of earth is being 
 treasured up as resources for our unending existence. 
 
 May it not be that these culminating years are the richest part of 
 this most successful and happy pastorate, in that it is given to our 
 brother to illustrate a ripeness of service and of influence that is allowed 
 in any generation to but few of the Lord's servants. 
 
 Of the Divine Saviour it was said, *• He was cut off from his gen- 
 eration"; the prime of his life marked its close, he was not permitted 
 to glorify old age by living to its fulness his human life a« Son of 
 aoan. 
 
I20 GOLDIN JUBILEE. 
 
 It is left to the ripened years of individual Christiaa living to 
 illustrate that period of human experience which Jesus could not 
 fulfil. 
 
 How sacred is this reflection, and with what devout thanksgiving 
 we recognize the goodness and mercy which places this honor upon 
 our dear friend. 
 
 Those whose membership in the First Church is limited to quite 
 recent years will, to the extent of their ability, join with the older 
 members in celebrating this anniversary with joyful hearts and renewed 
 welcome, and with the hope of long continued health and strength to 
 our senior pastor. 
 
 In the strength of these sentiments may the present pastorate be 
 prolonged into an extended future that shall abound with fruitfulness 
 and far-reaching effects. 
 
 The cordial remembrance of my family and myself is extended to 
 
 the pastors and to our many friends in the honored First Church of 
 
 Newton. 
 
 Fraternally yours, 
 
 John L. Mails. 
 Fargo, North Dakota, Dec. 4, 1897. 
 
 Rev. Richard S. Stoffs, D. D. 
 
 My Dbar Dr. Furber: 
 
 Mrs. Storrs and I most heartily and warmly congratulate you on 
 the approaching fiftieth anniversary of your pastorate in Newton. We 
 should greatly enjoy being present at the services, to which the com- 
 mittee of the church have so kindly invited us. As that is impossi- 
 ble, we trust that they and you will accept our affectionate thanks for 
 the remembrance of us, with the assurance of our joyful sympathy with 
 the church and yourself on the beautiful occasion. 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. IM 
 
 It i* g»od to remember that in all the changes of fifty years 
 some things have not changed. The Gospel is the same as when you 
 began with eagerness to preach it. The church life, where genuine, 
 is what it was when you first sought to minister to it. The kingdom 
 of God in the world is still "righteousness, and peace, and joy in 
 the Holy Ghost," and the reward of faithful service to Christ is as 
 full and sweet now as it was a half-century ago. You rejoice in 
 your experience of it, and in all the diligent and noble service through 
 which you hare attained it; and with happy remembrances of the 
 past, and glad expectation for the future, we are ever 
 Faithfully and affectionately yours, 
 
 R. S. AMD M. E. Storrs. 
 Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 Rev. Edwards A. Park, D. D. 
 Jiiv. Edward Af. Noyes : 
 
 Dear Sir: If I could have been present at the recent commem- 
 -oration of the fiftieth anniversary of Dr. Furber's pastorate at Newton 
 Centre, I should have indulged in some reminiscences like the fol- 
 'lowing : 
 
 I first heard of Mr. Furber as a singer, a chorister, and an organist. 
 He was early distinguished for the qualities of his voice. Soon after he 
 'began to preach Mr. Edward Howe, who for many yeais led the choir 
 in Dr. Payson's church, in Portland, Maine, made the remark: "Not 
 one man in a hundred modulates his voice as well as young Mr. 
 Furber." 
 
 In 1869 I was present with Dr. Furber at a dinner-party given 
 :by a professor in Oxford University, England. On the next day I 
 
122 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 wrote to my friends in America the following statement: "Three ol 
 the fellows of the college were at the dinner. Two British barons 
 were there. Mr. Furber sang and played to the admiration of the 
 company." A few weeks afterward I was at a social party given by 
 Sir James Y. Simpson, the most celebrated physician then in Scotland. 
 Twenty or thirty of his friends had been invited, — including several pro- 
 fessors of the University, several clergyman of the city, and many ladies,. 
 among whom were one or two of the daughters of Thomas Chalmersj 
 a grand-niece of David Hume, and Mrs. Cousin of Melrose, an inter- 
 esting poetess. At the request of Sir James, Mr. Furber, after ren- 
 dering several classical selections, sang some of the American Revival 
 Melodies, playing his own accompaniments. All were delighted with 
 the richness and expressiveness of his voice. They spoke of him as 
 a "musical genius," and gave many emphatic expressions of their 
 pleasure in the entertainment. 
 
 I was never more affected by the intonation of his voice than 1 
 was on a beautiful day which we spent on the summit of Mt. 
 Uetliberg, in Switzerland. "We were 2,844 feet above the sea, and 
 1,428 feet above the Lake of Zurich. We had a magnificent view of 
 the mountains, valleys, villages and streams of Switzerland; and Mr. 
 Furber there read the whole of the Revelation of St. John. He was 
 inspired by the scene, and I never heard him read so well, either 
 before or since. I never heard the book so well read by any of our 
 professional elocutionists. I could almost see the angel flying "in the 
 midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them 
 that dwell in the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and 
 tongue, and people," and hear him "Saying with a loud voice. 
 Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of judgment is comet 
 and worship him that made heavens, and earth, and the sea, and the 
 fountains of waters." It seemed to me that the Apocalypse could never • 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. • 1 23 
 
 be understood so well as when recited aloud upon some mountain- 
 top, amid the sublimities of a widely extended Alpine landscape. 
 
 Some of Dr. Furber's friends have thought that he should have 
 devoted more of his time to public lectures on vocal culture and on 
 the service of song in the churches. He has, however, been fearful 
 lest the attractions of these themes should divert his attention from 
 his parochial duties. He has devoted himself signally to the writing 
 of bis sermons, and has allowed nothing to interfere with this great 
 duty. Professor Horatio B. Hackett often spoke of them as judicious 
 and well studied. One of them, written to be delivered at the funeral 
 of Professor Austin Phelps of Andover, has attracted marked attention. 
 It was composed after a thoughtful study of the writings which Pro- 
 fessor Phelps had published. It was elaborated with exemplary care. 
 The works of Professor Phelps will be treasured by posterity, and Dr. 
 Furber's characterization of them will long be valued as a historical 
 document. It will serve for a model for biographical discourses. 
 
 The First Congregational Church of Newton Centre have reason to 
 be gratetul to the parents of Dr. Furber. His mother was brought 
 up under the ministry of Dr. Edward Payson of Portland, Maine, and 
 breathed his spirit. Both his father and his mother were intimate 
 friends of Rev. Samuel Hidden of Farnworth, New Hampshire, who 
 bore a striking resemblance to Edward Payson, and was as much 
 absorbed in the work of the Lord. He was ordained in the open 
 air upon a rock ten or fifteen feet above the ground and thirty feet 
 square. The whole council sat upon that rock, while the people sat 
 on benches or chairs in front of it. There was a decided inconvenience 
 attending this mode of ordaining a pastor, but it seems preferable to 
 some ordinations in modern times, when those who take part in the 
 services appear to be sitting on bicycles and ready in a few weeks 
 to flee away to parts unknown. Mr. Hidden remained in his pas- 
 
124 GOLDEN JUBILEE. 
 
 torate forty-fire years, and his ordination upon a rock was typical of 
 the permanence which characterized the ministry in ancient times. The 
 parents of Dr. Furber would have been delighted could they hare 
 foreseen that their son would have remained half a century in his 
 pastorate at Newton, and have stood firm as a rock in his statement 
 of evangelical truth. When the breeres of ** new theology" were 
 blowing he was not like a reed shaken with the wind; and, notwith- 
 standing his conservatism, he enjoys in a remarkable degree the confi- 
 dence and affection of a large circle of distinguished friends, while by 
 the people among whom he has lived so long he is both honored 
 and beloved. 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 Edwards A. Park. 
 Andover, Mass., April 23, 1898. 
 
 From Mf. and Mfs. Joseph Cook. 
 
 Soundness, courage, sweetness and light have pervaded and pro- 
 longed Dr. Furber's precious and memorable pastorate of half a 
 century. 
 
 Soundness with him has meant Biblical fullness and thoroughness 
 of religious instruction and a comprehensive and scholarly grasp of 
 New England theology. 
 
 Bver open to the access of truth really new and strategic, he 
 has not been carried about by every wind of doctrine, although, with 
 no loss of popular approval, he has passed through several periods of 
 clouded or stormy weather. 
 
 His temperament has been a combination of the ircaic and the 
 aggressive. Faithful to both the severe and the tender truths of the 
 Gospel, he has been an echo of the entire Scriptures. It is an un' 
 
GOLDEN JUBILEE. 125 
 
 common privilege in these days to have preached the whole Gospel 
 so long in one community. 
 
 Very rare musical gifts and training have made Dr. Furber's over- 
 sight of the service of song in the house of the Lord a peculiarly 
 rich inspiration. 
 
 Other shining elements in his providential equipment for the min- 
 istry, as we have studied them in our reside»ce in his parish, have 
 been: A balanced sympathy with just refornts; a profound interest in 
 missions at home and abroad; a generous enthusiasm for the noble 
 associations of a historic church; a constellation of friendships with 
 many foremost leaders of religious thought and life in America and 
 elsewhere; the culture of travel; the holy felicities of a domestic 
 companionship too sacred to be revealed except as they are well 
 known to have been the transfiguration of his life. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Cook. 
 
 Newton Centre, Mass. 
 
 Rev, Charleg F. Thwfng, D, D. 
 
 Pretident Waittrn R«Mrvt Univ«rttty. 
 
 December 19, 1897. 
 
 My Dear Dr. Furber: 
 
 May I add my little note of esteem and of congratulation to the 
 great chorus of praise that is coming upon you in these days? Hundreds 
 of others are saying that you have done a noble work and that your 
 name is beautiful and fragrant in all the chMrches, but I, as a young 
 man, would like to say that from the very first you won a place in 
 my young heart, and that that place is still there. 
 
 Believe mc, with warm esteem, ever yours, 
 
 Charles F. Thwing. 
 
 Cleveland, Ohio. 
 
Other Letters. 
 
 Letters of congratulation were also received froia Rev. Joseph 
 B. Clark, D. D., of the Home Missionary Society; Rev. A. H. 
 Bradford, D. D., Montclair, N. J.; Rev. H. A. Stimson, D. D., 
 New York; Rev. E. L. Clarke, D. D., Boston; Rev. John Barstow, 
 Medford; Prof. William N. Clarke, Hamilton, N. Y.; Rev. H. P. 
 Dewey, Concord, N. H.; Rev, A. A. Berle, D. D., Brighton; Rev. 
 Geo. S. F. Savage, D. D., and Rev. Franklin W. Fiske, D. D., 
 professors in Chicago Theological Seminary; Rev. Gilbert R. Brackett, 
 Charleston, S. C; Rev. S. N. Virgin, D. D., New York city; Rev. 
 Smith Baker, D. D., East Boston; Rev. James A. Towle, New Haven, 
 Conn.; Mr. N. T. Allen, of the West Newton Classical School; Mr. 
 Francis Homer Kingsbury, East Orange, N. J.; Mrs. H. E. Hyde, 
 Des Moines, la.; Mr. Geo. T. Hall, Boston; Mr. Geo. H. Gould, 
 Worcester; Rev. C. Fremont Roper, West Lebanon, N. H.; Mr. W. 
 M. Goodridge, Evanston, 111.; Mr. Lyman D. Brown, Brooklyn, N. Y.; 
 Mr. C. B. Richardson, Oak Park, 111.; Mr. B. B. Beardsley, Bridge- 
 port, Conn.; Mr. C. W. Donovan, Sandwich, N. H.; Mr. L. D. 
 Stevens, Concord, N. H.; Mr. J. Howard Nichols, Newton; Mrs. 
 Mary L. Wentworth Porter, Boston; Mrs. Langdon S. Ward, Am- 
 herst; W. H. Swanton, Foxboro, and many others. 
 
 The First Presbyterian Church of Newburyport sent its congratu- 
 lations in a series of resolutions, presented by its representative, Mr. 
 J. T. Brown, a courtesy which was appreciated and fittingly ac- 
 knowledged by the church here. Congratulatory resolutions were pre- 
 sented by the Newton Congregational Club, the Ministers' Union of 
 he City of Newton, and various other ministerial bodies. 
 
At the close of our celebration on Wednesday evening 
 the tune of "Auld Lang Syne" was called for, and we 
 felt the need of some Christian words in which to sing 
 it. Dr. J. E. Rankin of Washington was written to, and 
 he soon furnished us with the following 
 
 Christian AuU Lang Syn«. 
 
 Should bond celestial be forgot? 
 
 Disowned love's sacred tie? 
 The kindly wish, the kindly thought, 
 
 The kindly beaming eye? 
 Come, call the past in mem'ry up, 
 
 And bless God's care divine; 
 Come, let us drink a loving cup 
 
 To days of auld lang syne. 
 
 Oft to God's House in company 
 
 We've sought our Sabbath way. 
 Transfigured there, that we might see 
 
 Our blessed Lord that day; 
 Together there Might sing his praise. 
 
 Receive his seal and sign. 
 How sweet return those hallowed ways 
 
 In days of auld lang syne. 
 
128 GOLDEK JUBILIE. 
 
 In thought, how sweet those days return, 
 
 Fragrant with song and prayer; 
 How often did our spirits burn 
 
 "With God, while walking there ! 
 We'll raise our voice in song once more. 
 
 In harmony combine; 
 Them join by faith who 're gone before, 
 
 In days of auld lang syne. 
 
 Through all our transient, earthly years, 
 
 What various paths we've trod, 
 What doubts, what hindrances and fears, 
 
 But, still one faithful God? 
 Shed down upon us Heaven's dew, 
 
 And give us grace divine; 
 Still keep us steadfast. Lord, and true 
 
 To days of auld lang syne. 
 
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