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A Sermon Preached in St. Thomas's Church, Whitsunday, 1901, in Commemoration of the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the Founding of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.

By William A. Beardsley, D.D.

New Haven: St. Thomas's Church, 1901.


SERMON.

“Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations.”—Deuteronomy xxxii. 7.

Those are appropriate words, are they not, to stand at the head of a sermon commemorative of an event which happened two hundred years ago, and to some extent dealing with the effects of that event in the intervening years? As you are aware, our diocese is in the midst of a celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, sometimes called “The Venerable Society.”

It is very fitting that this historic diocese should make some recognition of this anniversary, for long before the diocese had any existence the representatives of this ancient Society were doing valiant work for the Church here, and in the long list of honored names which must find a place in, any proper story of the inception and growth of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, none are more honored by every loyal Connecticut Churchman than those of the men, who, as the representatives of the Venerable Society, laid the foundations strong and deep.

We cannot help feeling a certain amount of pride in the fact that we were the first to procure that which was, essential to the complete organization of the Church here in America, but it was not until 1784 that Seabury was consecrated the first Bishop for the Church in America. During all the preceding years of that century, back, almost to its very beginning, clergymen of the Church of England, supported by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, were planting the Church here in Connecticut, and because of the character of those men: and of the work they did, Connecticut was the first to get that which the missionaries had long been clamoring for, and which the mother Church knew she ought to send, I mean a Bishop. In view of these facts it is very fitting, I say; that our diocese should make some recognition of this anniversary.

But now, in order that we may all know, just exactly what we are commemorating, I suppose that it will be well to see what this Society is. It is, of course, an organisation of the Church of England which came into being two hundred years ago. Why did, it come into being? To answer that question we must take a passing glance at the condition of the Church in the colonies at the close of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries. It must be remembered that with the exception of Virginia the more important provinces were settled by colonists hostile to the Church of England, Massachusetts, by Independents, Pennsylvania by Quakers, and Maryland by Romanists. We must not expect, therefore, to find the Church very strongly represented in the earliest days of the colonies, in fact Bishop Compton found upon inquiry in 1679, that there were not more than four Episcopal clergymen in the whole continent of America. Through his instrumentality that number was considerably increased in the years immediately following.

Bishop Compton’s promotion to the See of London was the best thing that had thus far happened to the Church in the colonies. He seemed to realize that the mother Church had some responsibility in reference to her scattered children. He had succeeded in having ecclesiastical jurisdiction abroad given to him as the Bishop of London, and his successors, and one of the first things he did was to take steps to acquaint himself with the condition or the Church in the American colonies. To accomplish this end he sent out commissaries. The first of these was James Blair, who, about 1685, went to Virginia. It was through his efforts that William and Mary College was founded.

Ten years later Bishop Compton sent as his commissary Thomas Bray. This is, the man who has a special interest for us just now, for he was the prime mover in the organization of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Bray went to Maryland. While he was there one thing impressed itself upon his mind, and that was that the poorer clergy, both at home and in the colonies, ought in some way to be helped to keep up their theological studies, and to this end books were essential. But books were luxuries, even the Bible was an expensive book, and it was quite out of the question for the average clergyman with, his scanty stipend to supply himself with any adequate assortment of books.

When Bray went back to England he enlisted the interest of his Bishop and others in his project to remedy this evil, and the result of his efforts was the formation of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, the S. P. C. K., as it is commonly called, the first object of which was to establish parochial libraries for the benefit both of the clergy and the people. Bray had the satisfaction of seeing before he died something like forty of these libraries established in the American colonies.

After getting his new Society fairly started, Bray returned to Maryland in 1699. There he labored zealously to promote the interests of the Church, and not without gratifying success considering the opposition he had to encounter. In 1700 he went back to England, and early in 1701 he published his “Memorial on the State of Religion in America.” It was addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and described the condition of the Church in the various colonies, and their needs. In closing he urged that not less than forty active, experienced and educated missionaries be sent out to America. The immediate result of this report was the formation of a new Society. Bray had the hearty support of Archbishop Tenison and Bishop Compton, and these three obtained the charter which incorporated “The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts,” better known as the S. P. G. The charter was dated June 16th, 1701. Such in brief is the history of the founding of this Society the two hundredth anniversary of which event we are now celebrating.

In the formation of this Society the Church of England had taken a great step forward. It was the commencement of an organized effort to care for the spiritual welfare of the Church’s children in the distant colonies. Undoubtedly this was the first and chief object of the Society. The conversion of the natives was a secondary object. The charter makes no explicit mention of the latter, but probably it is covered by the phrase “and that such other provision be made as may be necessary for the propagation of the Gospel in those parts.” But whether or not it was indirectly referred to in the charter, it was in the minds of the men interested in “the Society’s inception and growth, for the preacher of its first anniversary sermon says, in explaining the objects of the Society, “The design is, in the first place, to settle the state of religion, as well as may be, among our own people there, which, by all accounts we have, very much wants their pious care; and then to proceed, in the best methods they can, toward the conversion of the natives.” I speak of this because I want it to be understood that this was a missionary Society in the fullest sense of the word.

Well, it was no sooner organized than it went to work. One of its first acts was to send a missionary to the colonies to ascertain by personal observation the state of the Church there. The man selected for this mission was the Rev. George Keith. As the Society’s first missionary he ought to have a more extended notice than time permits me to give. He was born in Aberdeen and educated in that University. Soon after his graduation he joined the Quakers, and for twenty-height years here in East Jersey and Philadelphia was an ardent champion of their peculiar tenets. Becoming involved in a dispute with them, he was publicly disowned by them, and when later he took orders in the Church of England, their bitterness towards him knew no bounds.

In the words of another, “He was possessed of learning, having been very well educated, and his talents were of a high order. His mind was acute and logical, and his temper fearless. In truth, the greatest defects in his character resulted from the indulgence of his temper. He was irritable and overbearing at times, and his language was not always regulated by Christian gentleness.” Ah, well, he was not peculiar in that respect. In those strenuous days plainness of speech was a habit of ecclesiastics. It would not be wise to attempt to measure their language in their unremitting war of words by the standard of Christian gentleness. It was neither gentle nor Christian.

In the spring of 1702 Keith in company with the Rev. Patrick Gordon—who died soon after landing—set sail for the colonies on his tour of observation. The ship’s chaplain, John Talbot, became so much interested in Keith and his mission that he offered to go with him, and was taken. Landing at Boston, where there was then a flourishing Church of England congregation, Keith, in company with Talbot, began his pilgrimage through the colonies. So far as we can see, New London was the only place which he visited in the Connecticut colony.

That Keith did not shun controversy is evident from the account in his journal of his visit to Newport. He tells us that he went to “the Quakers’ Meeting” there, and that “after one of their Preachers had spoke a long time, and came to an end, having perverted many texts of Scripture ... I began to speak, standing up in a Gallery opposite to the Gallery where their Teachers were placed, who were many, having intended in a friendly manner to inform them, how their Speaker had misunderstood and misinterpreted those and other Texts of Scripture, and I much requested them to hear me awhile without interruption, as I had heard their Preacher.” We are not greatly surprised to read, “But I was instantly interrupted by them very rudely, and they were very abusive to me with their ill-language.” Perhaps I ought to add that after much disturbance the Quaker Preachers, with many of the Quaker Hearers, went off leaving Keith in possession of the field, whose parting shot at them was that “it was a shame to them to go away and leave so many of their Sheep exposed to the Wolf.”

But we must hasten on. At the time of Keith’s visitation the Church of England in the Connecticut colony had no strength whatsoever. I suppose the condition had changed very little from what it was the year before as reported by the Governor of New England, Col. Dudley, who; in an account of the state of religion m the English Plantations in North America, spoke of Connecticut as containing “thirty thousand souls, about thirty-three towns, all Dissenters, supply’d with Ministers and Schools of their own persuasion.” But probably many were ostensibly Dissenters because they could not be anything else. That was to be changed now through the instrumentality of this venerable Society. Keith was the first of a long line of missionaries supported by it, and Connecticut had her share. From Muirson on, the list is a worthy one, composed of men for the most part born and educated here, and in many cases coming from the ranks of the Congregational ministry, and for no other reason than strong and deep conviction in the validity of Church 0f England Orders.

It is not a part of my purpose to bring under review all those eventful years of the eighteenth century, when, because of the “long continuance of nursing care and protection” of The Venerable Society the foundations were being laid on this American continent of what was destined to become the most important offspring of the mother Church. Nor is it a part of my purpose’ to trace the history of the S. P. G. in relation to Connecticut. My one object has been to set before you the story of the founding of this Society. But I cannot refrain from reminding you of how much this old diocese is indebted, under God, to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. What genuine Connecticut Churchman can read the record of those early days, of those missionaries working in and for Connecticut, for good and for God, without feeling devoutly thankful to Him for having filled their hearts with zeal to proclaim His blessed truths as preserved and taught by the old historic Church? What genuine Connecticut Churchman can recall their honored names without experiencing a thrill of pride that he can number them in his ecclesiastical ancestry? Johnson of Stratford, the noblest Roman of them all; Caner of Fairfield, an untiring worker and winning preacher; Seabury of New London, first Bishop in the American Church, after three quarters of a century of fruitless pleading and weary waiting; Beach of Newtown and Redding, patient, faithful, fearless, who could write after forty years of service that he had lost only two Sundays through sickness; though in all that time he had never known one day’s ease or freedom from pain; Arnold of West Haven, mobbed over there near Gregson street because he tried to take possession of his own; Mansfield of Derby, “guileless and godly,” seventy-two years shepherding his one flock, a phenomenal record; Leaming of Norwalk, first choice of the clergy to be their first Bishop; who is resting “on his way to Jerusalem” up yonder in the old cemetery, and lastly, Marshall of Woodbury, a “noble soldier of the cross,” who more than once felt the hard hand of persecution.

Brethren, these are some of the names in your ecclesiastical ancestry. Treasure them, for they are noble names, names of noble men, of men whose service meant sacrifice, hardship, danger, of men who laid the foundations upon which the Church in this diocese rests.

Bear with me a moment longer. Why are we keeping this anniversary? What is the meaning of it all? Why are we going back into these musty records of the past to learn the origin of this Society? We are keeping this anniversary as a witness to our belief in Christian missions. We are reviewing the deeds of these men of long ago to gather inspiration for the deeds that we are yet to do. For, remember, this was a missionary Society, and its members did for us what we are trying to do for others, and ought to be doing more than we are.

I would not have you fail to learn the great lesson of this anniversary, particularly on this day which marks that rich outpouring of the Holy Spirit, in Whose almighty power every missionary goes forth, to the battle. The beginning of the eighteenth century was a day of small things so far as our American Church, was concerned, but in view of what our Church is to-day on this continent, who can despise the day of small things? It is such a day in China and Japan now, and in the nearer fields of, our own vast continent, but when the four hundredth anniversary of this venerable Society is kept it may be the day of small things in other fields. That will depend, however, upon whether or not the men and women each generation as it comes along accept their God-given privileges, and rise to their heaven-born opportunities.

It is a good thing for us to be reminded of what has been done for us, for it may make us more willing to do for others, more careful to see that we are doing our part in the transmission of divine truth and divine power. Brethren, great are your opportunities, they were never greater, for sharing in the grand work of enlarging the borders of Christ’s visible kingdom.

Expansion seems to be the prevailing sentiment. Very well then, it must be expansion all along the line. Woe to the future of the Church if it fails to expand with the expanding nation! Woe to the future of the Church if it ceases to be earnestly and vigorously missionary! I pity the man who cannot see beyond his own parish confines, who never hears the calling of that man of Macedonia. I pity the man who tries to conceal his closeness behind the plea that he does not believe in foreign missions. I suppose there are those who will have their somewhat weak faith in these missions completely wiped out by recent events. But remember that it is in order to make some distinctions, and above all, that reports can be colored, and that even the brilliant wit and satirist thousands of miles away from the scene of action is not infallible. Recent events have not changed the obligation, nor removed the privilege. From China still the cry is heard, “Come over and help us,” and still from every loyal Christian the song ascends:

“Christ for the world we sing!
The world to Christ we bring.”

God grant that this commemoration may quicken your zeal for Christian missions, and that in your eagerness to spread abroad the Gospel your own love for the dear Lord may increase more and more, and wax stronger and stronger.


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