"Above the generations The lonely prophets rise— The truth flings dawn and day star Within their glowing eyes; From heart to heart it brightens, It draweth ever nigh, Till it crowneth all men thinking, by and by! "The soul hath lifted moments Above the drift of days, When life's great meaning breaketh In sunrise on our ways; From hour to hour it haunts us, The vision draweth nigh, Till it crowneth living, dying, by and by! "And in the sunrise standing, Our kindling hearts confess From age to age it groweth, That radiant faith so high, And its crowning day is coming, by and by! "Oh! the crowning day is coming, Is coming by and by, We can see the rose of morning A glory in the sky And that splendor on the hilltops O'er all the land shall lie In the crowning day that's coming, by and by!" And so at this anniversary hour, remembering that progress is eternal, let us consecrate this movement anew to the freer, the juster, the purer humanity, which shall surely be, by and by! At its close SAMUEL S. ASH said in part: I see before me faces of veterans in this movement that recall incidents of earlier days. This is a year of anniversaries. It witnesses the one hundredth since the birth of Ralph Waldo Emerson and the two hundredth since the birth of John Wesley, both of them pioneers and Christian devotees. The pictures which adorn the walls recall to memory Theodore Parker, Lucretia Mott, William Lloyd Garrison, John G. Whittier and Charles C. Bur leigh, whose words have echoed through this room in speech or in song. ANNA GARLIN SPENCER, of Newport, Rhode Island, said her first knowledge of the Progressive Friends dated back to a time when she, a girl in her teens, visited at the home of William Lloyd Garrison, in Boston. His report of meetings. he had attended here awoke in her the sleeping Quaker instinct inherited from her grandmother, who, in her marriage, had gone out of the Society of Friends. I am happy in being able to attend this anniversary, and should I have heard nothing else than the "Exposition of Sentiments," just read, I should feel paid for coming. It is much to have heard the review of these fifty years of effort to realize an ideal religion; fifty years of struggle to rise above the morass of ignorance and superstition; fifty years of ideal toward establishing a more perfect society; fifty years of challenge to the world in behalf of great principles. I have not often been here, but the delightful June days always recall this beautiful, peaceful place. In the emphasis we place on the word Progressive may we not lose sight of the significance of the sweet and tender word "Friend"-Friend of mankind. May our tendency to diffuse not cause us to lose power at the centre. Let us keep close to the "Inner Light," the mystic interpretation of which may have led to fanaticism at times, yet whose quiet power has been the call to a higher life in many consecrated souls. I love silence and the sense of worship, but I love, too, the spirit of reform; faith made sublime through works. Let us, according to the measure of our power, send forth a sweet and farreaching influence for the accomplishment of every good work. The morning session closed with singing of Whittier's hymn: "O, sometimes gleams upon our sight.. Through present wrong, the eternal right." FIFTH-DAY; AFTERNOON SESSION. The meeting opened with singing, by the congregation, of a hymn written for the occasion by MRS. ELIZABETH YORK CASE, of Baltimore: "The Battle Hymn of Peace," tune, "John Brown." THE BATTLE HYMN OF PEACE. BY MRS. LIZZIE YORK CASE. Tune, "JOHN BROWN." We have lived to see the splendor Of a century's early dawn, We have lived to see the crowning Of the Faithful who are gone, To see their cause of Peace and Love Forever marching on; Ever marching on. CHORUS. Onward! Onward ever Onward! Onward! Onward ever Onward! The heroes and the poets The grand, immortal throng— Who set our faith to music, Our deeds to deathless song! Who still are marching on. Who have made the world a happier place For sorrowing souls to dwell,— We feel to-day their presence And our choruses will swell With the Celestial voices Of that "Choir Invisible" Who still go singing on. From these walls, all memory-haunted- And from these moral battlue-heights Our flag is still unfurled, As we go marching on. CHORUS. The sun across our dial Is now pointing to high noon, In a more effulgent June, As we go marching on. CHORUS. This was followed by Miss TURNER singing, with expression : "We shall know each other better When the mists have rolled away." History and reminiscence were then announced as in order, and EDITH PENNOCK read from the following paper: Opening a calendar with thought of preparation for our Golden Anniversary I found this sentiment from George Eliot, assigned to the FOURTH OF JUNE: "Blessed is the woman who having nothing to say abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact." Although not unusually superstitious the query would intrude: "Art thou that woman?" Yet a wordy torrent is ever likely to flow when dear friends meet after absence, even if it express no wisdom but that of heartfelt joy in the meeting. This gathering here to-day we feel to be a very happy occasion, our prominent thought being of our fifty years now closing. We live again for awhile with the actors and ideas of the early time. We are in the presence of those who lined the galleries and filled the benches in the "Old Kennett" Friends' meeting-house when the Association took form in 1853; and again, of those who sat on this platform and filled these seats at the dedication of this house to Righteousness and Liberty, by Theodore Parker in 1855. How full of enthusiasm we all were at those meetings! Time and circumstances have made external differences in these yearly meetings, but their central motive is still the same as that which brought them into existence, the betterment of the human family by ennobling its ideals and adapting its environment to conditions of wholesome growth. Nearly all the chief actors in those earliest meetings had been from birth till then, members of the Society of Friends; for many years feeling its responsibilities, and eminently of its stricter type. They wore its accepted dress, in the plainest form of that time and still adhered to most of its customs and traditions as well as to its vital principles and testimonies. A few of them had passed their sixtieth year, were white-haired, with the seriousness of life legibly expressed in face and figure. Among these we see JONATHAN LAMBORN, of kindliest spirit and transparent truthfulness of heart and life. LEVI COATES, an earnest and independent worker in all righteous movements, and wise in things spiritual and temporal as well. THOMAS WHITSON, tall and venerable; of a fine and comprehensive intellectuality, and spiritually of the noblest type. AMOS PRESTON, the sage; loving and charitable and judicious, DR. BARTHOLOMEW FUSSELL, benevolent, reformatory and ever helpful, on intellectual lines, to the young folks around him. PETER WILSON, who with his family accepted the taunts of the prejudiced rather than abjure reformatory principles. JOHN Cox, whose name was a synonym for unostentatious, heartfelt hospitality. MOSES PENNOCK, broad in spirit, generous and just; who by his inventive brain had relieved women from duty in the harvest field and greatly simplified man's work on the farm. BENJAMIN PYLE, whose word and influence for the slave was always on the right side. THOMAS BORTON, wise, helpful and beloved. THOMAS GARRETT, who "never knew what it was to be afraid of mortal man," so he said. Warm-hearted, of unflinching courage, unfailing good-humor, ready wit, with a wealth of resources, and withal, a first class business man. All these qualities he held at the service of whoso might need them most. The fugitive from Southern Slavery was his special client. |