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Read Ebook: Setä: Ilveilys yhdessä näytöksessä by Suomalainen Samuli
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Governor Winthrop's Return to Boston
His Statue in Scollay Square The Covenant of First Church His Observations on his Return The "Stocks" of his Time The Changes since, and those which are to come Rev. John Wilson's Vision The Thursday Lecture and Thursday Club President William B. Rogers and his Death The new President of the Club Josiah Quincy's Estimate of Winthrop Winthrop's Life and Services
An Interview with a Great Character
Silence and Darkness in Scollay Square Winthrop appears to the Writer He disclaims being Venerable Age not reckoned in Spirit-land He refers to First Church and its History And predicts its still Greater Success The Winthrop Cup New Things and Old His Reflections on Wealth The Example of John Harvard The Spiritual the Substantial The Proper Site of his Statue Winthrop's Benediction and Departure
THE "STOCKS" OF THE OLDEN TIME
THE FIRST CHURCH, ON MARLBOROUGH STREET
THE WINTHROP CUP
Governor Winthrop's Return to Boston.
On the seventeenth day of September, A.D. 1880, the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the town of Boston, the event was commemorated, among other ways, by the inauguration of the statue of John Winthrop, in Scollay Square. He is represented by the renowned sculptor in the garb of a gentleman of his day, holding in his hand the royal charter of the Massachusetts Colony, which he brought over with him.
His serene countenance falls like a benediction upon this city of ours, which shows a wonderful and prosperous growth. He may be said to be the founder of the First Church of Boston, of the City itself, and of this Christian Commonwealth,--a threefold distinction. To have been the founder of a single one of these would have insured his immortal fame.
He was also the author of the covenant of the First Church, which was gathered in Charlestown, Aug. 27, 1630, and which soon after removed to the Boston side of Charles River. The covenant is in these words:--
"In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in obedience to His holy and divine ordinance,--
"We, whose names are hereunder written, being by His most wise and good providence brought together into this part of America, in the Bay of Massachusetts, and desirous to unite ourselves into one congregation or church, under the Lord Jesus Christ, our Head, in such sort as becometh all those whom He hath redeemed and sanctified to Himself, do hereby solemnly and religiously promise and bind ourselves to walk in all our ways according to the rule of the Gospel and in all sincere conformity to His holy ordinances, and in mutual love and respect, each to other, so near as God shall give us grace."
Probably there are very few, if any, original documents in America of so ancient a date which have been preserved, and which are still in force, as this identical covenant, which has been signed and kept by hundreds in each generation for nearly three centuries. Far superior to the Andover creed, or to any other creed of seminary, council, or church, it has ever been a bond of union, and not a bone of contention. Aptly phrased and including all the essential conditions of a vital church organization, it will stand for centuries to come, and will outlast all creeds of human invention, ever promoting beneficence and charity.
This poem represents the spirit of Governor Winthrop returning to the city and the capital of the Christian Commonwealth he had founded, and taking possession of the bodily form which the artist has reproduced of him, clothed in his own antique costume. He surveys the extended limits of Boston, including Charlestown, with Bunker Hill Monument, and four other townships with hundreds of church steeples pointing to the sky. He misses from the old site on Cornhill the single house of worship where Wilson and Cotton preached, and where he was wont to expound; but soon he descries from afar, in his mind's eye, standing where, in his time, the waves of the sea were surging, the beautiful church edifice and the elegant chapel where five hundred Sunday-scholars are weekly taught. He dwells with supreme satisfaction upon the good deeds done by the church he established, and predicts for it a still more prosperous future and a greater spiritual growth. He recognizes only two things which existed in his day, and have remained unchanged,--the church covenant he wrote, as it were, by inspiration, or at least by a wise forecast of future needs, and the Communion cup he gave, which has singularly escaped the hazards of fire and the chances of time, and which has been, ever since, constantly used in the holy commemorative service.
His allusion to the vision of Rev. John Wilson, the first minister of the church, recalls the following passage in his diary as quoted by Hon. Robert C. Winthrop in his "Life and Letters of John Winthrop," vol. 2, page 108.
"The pastor of Boston, Mr. Wilson, a very sincere, holy man, ... told the governour that, before he was resolved to come into this country, he dreamed he was here, and that he saw a church arise out of the earth, which grew up and became a marvellous goodly church."
The present church edifice well answers this description; built with exquisite taste after a most appropriate design, and bearing the palm of all the costly churches in the new part of Boston for fitness, beauty, and permanency.
Josiah Quincy the elder, the second on the roll of Boston's distinguished Mayors, declared that the City might well adopt Winthrop as its patron saint. His was an ideal, saintly life, and his character, in a sense, supernatural. He bore success and defeat in a political election with like equanimity, a trait that, as it were, by a law of heredity marks with special honor his living representative. Whether in office or out, and possessing large estates or, one after another, deprived of them, he kept his mind active and his brain industriously working for the development of a higher social life under Christian culture in a virgin land, by his leadership, under the Providence he devoutly acknowledged, to be fitted and fashioned for a new and powerful country, of which Boston was to be a memorable city.
Nor could he fail to remark upon the location of the statue set up in his honor in Scollay Square, rather than on Boston Common, which he had laid out and secured to posterity. The City Square in Charlestown, where he first unrolled the old charter of the Colony before the new government at its first meeting here, would have been a better site for it than the one selected.
Difficult it is, indeed, to set down in worthy lines the remembrance of the interview herein depicted. Of course, it has been faintly and inadequately done. Let us hope, however, that, should Winthrop's spirit, two or three centuries hence, visit again the last and most eventful scenes of his earthly life, he will find Boston, though changed anew, yet vastly improved, keeping pace with all developments for the good of an ever advancing race, and second to none in the Commonwealth or Nation in true excellence and progress.
AN INTERVIEW
WITH
A GREAT CHARACTER.
A Poem
POEM.
There was a quiet hour in Scollay Square; The cars and teams were blocked from getting there; No longer shone the famed electric light,-- It flickered out and left the darkest night. I seemed to feel a shock upon my arm, And hear the statue speak: "I 'll do no harm,-- An elder of First Church I think you are; I have a message for you; come, prepare."
"Winthrop!" cried I, "my venerable sire! Do you reanimate your rich attire? Most glad am I to have this interview; Pray, tell me all you wish, things old and new." "My friend," said he, "no ven'rable am I, For mortals grow no older when they die; E'er since my earthly race I long have run, My age has numbered only sixty-one. Years are not counted on the heavenly shore, For in eternal life time is no more. The children sweet, the lovely bride forsooth, Transferred, preserve the freshness of their youth. Those who departed later are not found Far to transcend them in their endless round. More of the spirits' life I may not tell; Enough to say that with them all is well; God's universe has boundless worlds to show; His works will take eternity to know.
"But I would speak of your millennial time Whose fame has gone through yon celestial clime. Almost one seventh of the years our Lord Has named for Him, First Church has preached His word. Its simple cov'nant ever served its need; It learned to live without a cumbrous creed. Its 'goodly church,' fast built where flowed the tide, Fulfils the vision Wilson saw with pride. Its charming chapel opens wide the door To the bright children of the suffering poor. Ah! blest are they who use for them their might! Angels will bear them on their upward flight; And, in return, the grateful youth will come, With prosperous hands, to deck their Christian home.
The seed, wide-spread, will take its deepest root, And, watered oft, will yield its tenfold fruit. Erelong those hallowed walls will scarce contain Those who shall flock to lea?? p?iv??, herra Pellonp??!
Aironen. Arvelin.
Aironen .
Aironen. Pellonp?? .
Aironen .
Aironen. Arvelin.
Aironen .
Aironen. Arvelin.
Entiset. Pellonp?? .
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