AN ADDRESS, DELIVERED AT ROWLEY, MAS S., SEPTEMBER 5TH, 1839, AT THE CELEBRATION OF THE SECOND CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE SETTLEMENT OF THE TOWN, EMBRACING ITS ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY FROM THE BEGINNING. BY JAMES BRADFORD, A NATIVE OF ROWLEY, AND FASTOR OF THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN SHEFFIELD. To the Rev. JAMES BRADFORD. DEAR SIR, The undersigned, in behalf of the Committee of Arrangements for celebrating the Second Centennial Anniversary of the settlement of Rowley, hereby express their thanks for your very acceptable Address, delivered yesterday, and respectfully request of you a copy for publication. Signed, Rowley, September 6th, 1839. WILLARD HOLBROOK, To the Rev. Willard HolbrOOK, THOMAS GAGE, Esquire, and Deacon JOSHUA JEWETT, acting in behalf of the Committee of Arrangements for celebrating the Second Centennial Anniversary of the settlement of Rowley. GENTLEMEN, Your communication, expressing your thanks for, and approbation of, the Address, which I had the honor of delivering here on the 5th instant, and requesting a copy for the press, I have received with satisfaction. In compliance with your request, I submit the manuscript to your disposal, earnestly desiring, that whatever of excellence there is in it, may be for the perpetuity of the hallowed institutions of our holy religion, among the inhabitants of this ancient town, during all coming time. Accept, Gentlemen, for yourselves, and the respected committee, in whose behalf you act, my most cordial thanks for the kind reception and very generous treatment I have received among you. Very respectfully your townsman and friend, Rowley, 6th September, 1839. ADDRESS. In the history of every people are events of peculiar notoriety, which latest posterity is disposed fondly to cherish, and which may be commemorated with great propriety, pleasure, and profit. The parts of history, which usually, if not invariably, please and instruct us most, are those which exhibit to us illustrious persons, in perilous situations, retaining their integrity, conducting themselves with wisdom in the prosecution of important objects, and overcoming great difficulties, by untiring patience, unyielding fortitude, and unshaken trust in God; and crowned, at length, with victory over all opposition, and the smiles of approving Heaven. To the inhabitants of New England, and especially of this Commonwealth, it would seem, that no subject could be presented, that would claim deeper attention, and take stronger hold on the heart, than the history of God's wonderful dispensations towards their forefathers, and particularly their Puritan and Pilgrim forefathers. To their self-denial, their wisdom, their constancy, their labors, their valor, their perseverance, privations, piety, and prayers, we owe, under God, and our posterity to the latest generation will owe, the possession of privileges, civil and religious, surpassing those of any other people upon earth. |