REMINISCENCES OF CONGREGATIONALISM FIFTY YEARS AGO. PREPARED FOR THE JUBILEE MEETING OF 1881. It seems fitting on this occasion for some one who recollects the commencement of the Congregational Union, and who enjoyed the friendship of its founders, to gather up personal recollections of that event, and also of the men who were connected with it. As I happen to be amongst the few remaining who shared in that privilege, it falls to my lot, with the approval and sympathy of my honoured brethren, to attempt the fulfilment of a task, as difficult as it is welA review of characters and incidents fifty years ago, illustrating the state of our denomination at that time, naturally suggests a comparison between the past and the present, and calls for some attempt, however imperfect, to reckon up such gains and losses as are involved in the ecclesiastical and religious changes through which, as a body, we have passed during that period. · come. I have recently returned from a charming tour in the Bavarian highlands; and, as in company with a beloved brother of our cominunion, I descended into the magnificent valley of the Inn, we found the interest and pleasure of retrospection to be exceedingly great. To look back on scenes we had passed-on green valleys and purple hills receding into mysterious remoteness-awakened an enthusiasm it would be difficult to express. Perhaps we were under the spell described by a British bard, "'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view, But we certainly brought away with us images accurately photographed on our minds; and, as we descended the zigzag pass, which disclosed new objects to our eager gaze, we compared what we had left behind with what at the instant was opening on our eyes. Comparison blended with retrospection, judgment was exercised as well as memory, and we balanced what the windings of our journey opened with that which the same windings closed. What was left behind was measured against that which was reached. Where all was exciting and everything ministered to our instruction, we involuntarily took account of many a loss and many a gain through successive changes in the abounding landscape; and ever and anon, as we missed sight of a noble mountain or a lovely glen, we found compensation in the windings. of a river or the depths of a wood. As we advanced it was not all gain, nor was it all loss. And that journey down a hill in the bosom of the Tyrol is just a parable of the journey I now venture to undertake down the hill of fifty years. The intermediate objects between its summit and its foot I do not mean to describe. They belong not to my theme; but I shall strive, as well as I can, to revive my impressions of what I was familiar with half a century since, to paint what I saw in that now remote stage of my long life journey, comparing it, as impartially as possible, with what I find around me at the present day. It is possible that the poet's lines may apply to some parts of my description, and that my constitutional failing in relation to estimates. of bygone days may lay me open to criticism; but I shall endeavour to be as fair as I can, and in my love for the old not overlook the claims of the new. A detailed account of the origin of the Union I do not pretend to give, nor any full-length portraits of its fathers and founders can I hang upon your walls. Neither must any one expect a profound and elaborate inquiry into the causes, relations, and tendencies of what has gone on in our denomination since the Union was formed. I offer only a few rough sketches; I present only a few salient points. |