Religion and Education in a Republic

BYRON WESTON, THE HONORABLE COUNCIL, AND THE LEGISLATURE OF MASSACHUSETTS, AT THE ANNUAL ELECTION, Sttng'0 SfiapeL Boston, WEDNESDAY, JAN. /, i88t. By DANIEL L. FURBER, D.D„ PASTOR AT NBWTON CENTRE. SECOND EDITION. BOSl^ON : 3BUinti, ^betg, ft Co*, Prmters to tl)e Commontoealtli^ 117 Franklin Strjkt. 1881. :f.- / ./1 5" \ZT\ Commontoealtfi of iSassadiuisettd. Sbstatb, Jan. 10, 1881. Ordered J That a special committee to consist of three be appointed to present the thanks of the Senate to the Rev. Daniel L. Furber, D.D., of Newton, for his able discourse preached before the Government of the Commonwealth, and to request a copy of the same for publication. S. N. GIFFORD, aerk. Commoni»eaItI| of ifiaisdadjudettis. Senate Ghambbji, BoaroN, Jan. 12, 1881. Rkvebend and dear Sir, — Having been appointed a committee for that purpose, we take pleasure in thanking you, in behalf of the Senate, for the able and instructive discourse preached by you at the opening of the present session before the executive and legislative branches of the State Government; and we request of you a copy of the same for publi- cation. Yours very respectfully, CHAS. B. RICE. ELIZUR SMITH. ELISHA S. CONVERSE. Kkwton Cektre, Jan. 26, 1881. Gentlemen, — I desire to thank the Honorable Senate for their kind expressions in regard to the recent election sermon, and younelves for your courtesy in communicating them. The manuscript is hereby placed at your disposal. With sentiments of high regard. Your oLedient servant, D. L. FURBER. To the Hon. Charles B. Rice, Hon. Elizcu Smith, Hon. Elisha S. Comvkbsb, Committee of the Senate of Massachusetts, SERMON. " Where there is no vision, the people perish." — Prov. zxix. 18. The excellent custom which we observe to-day is peculiar, so far as I know, to our own beloved Com- monwealth. Connecticut^ had election sermons for a long period. New Hampshire and Vermont have had a few, and Rhode Island and New York a very few ; but in Massachusetts the custom has been preserved from the year 1634 to this day. For its origin we need look no further than to the pious instincts of our ancestors. They were wise men, as was the author of my text ; but like him also they felt the need of a higher wis- dom than their own, — the wisdom which came to the Hebrew nation through the visions of their prophets, but which comes to us through what was written by the holy men of old. With important duties to per- form as legislatQrs for their little Commonwealth, they 8 Election Sermon. first of all repaired to their rude sanctuary to seek counsel of the Lord. That the custom of doing so has continued to this day, almost without interruption, through a period of two hundred and forty-six years, may be in part accounted for by its early commence- ment. And this illustrates the value of good begin- nings. A religious custom established at the very origin of the existence of a State is likely to be perpetuated on that account. The State of Connecti- cut did not begin to have election sermons until more than forty years from the time of its first settlement ; and the consequence is, that the practice was discon- tinued fifty years ago. Another of the good beginnings which our fathers made is seen in the provision which they made for education. ** After God had carried us safe to New England," said they, " and we had builded our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared convenient places for God's worship, and settled the civil govern- ment, one of the next things we longed for and looked after was to advance learning^ and perpetuate it to posterity : dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches when our present ministers shall lie in the dust." Sixty Election Sermon. 9 years later, Cotton Mather said, " Our fathers saw, that, without a college to train an able and learned ministry, the Church in New England must soon have come to nothing." The ministers of that day had been trained in the English universities, and some of them were very learned men. John Cotton had been head lecturer and dean of Immanuel College. John Norton of Ipswich, afterwards of Boston, was offered a fellowship in that college. Thomas Hooker of Cambridge, after- wards of Hartford, was a fellow of Cambridge, Eng., and was here called " the light of the Western chui-ches." Thomas Thatcher of Weymouth composed a Hebrew lexicon. Charles Chauncey, the second president of Harvard, had been professor of Greek in Cambridge, Eng. Cotton Mather, the grandson of John Cotton, was the author of three hundred and eighty-two publi- cations, including the " Magnalia." Was it to be ex- pected that a colony of immigrants bringing with them a ministry like this would be content under the preaching of men but partially educated ? I fear it would have gone harder with such a ministry then than it often does in our own day.

An educated magistracy was another want of the •»* • • 10 Election Sermon. colony: not that the early magistrates were all uni- versity men, but they were men well educated. Gov. Winthrop was two yrars at Cambridge University, and his son, who was governor of Connecticut, was thor- oughly educated at Dublin. Sir Harry Vane, governor of Massachusetts in 1636, was a graduate of Oxford. Gov. Bradstreet was at the University a short time. Lieut.-Gov. Stoughton, for whom Stoughton Hall was named at Cambridj^e, was a graduate of Harvard ; so were Gov. Joseph Dudley and Gurdon Saltonstall, gov- ernor of Connecticut. If we were to look through the Harvard catalogue and see how many governors, lieuten- ant-governors, judges, and other officera of state, that college has produced for Massachusetts, I believe we should find that the ideas of the fathers in regard to an educated magistracy were perpetuated in their descend- ants. …