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There are certain things, I think, that have distinctly been accomplished in the course of these forty years, and the first of them is this: It was on our platform that it first came to be the habit of bringing together representatives of the Christian sects or denominations and getting them in a perfectly frank and free and fearless way to tell the story of their own belief and position. That is general now, but it certainly was not a general custom forty years ago. And further than that, in these days when the study of comparative religion has become as general as it is, I think we are apt to forget that the Free Religious Association was one of the first of institutions that established a free platform for the representatives of nonChristian forms of faith.

Some of

But, my friends, if for nothing else, I think this Association would have justified its existence simply because of the hymns that were inspired by and written for the Festival occasions. We might almost say that in the early days the Free Religious Association was an actual "nest of singing birds." the best, some of the most popular, some of the most beautiful of our modern hymns were written for these Festivals of the Free Religious Association. I am now going to ask you to sing one of these hymns, which was written by our friend Mr. Chadwick. We have a chorister in Rev. Mr. Tuckerman, who now has charge of the work here in Parker Memorial, and he will lead us in singing the first hymn on the programme,

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"Oh, How I Love Thy Law."

Tune, "Auld Lang Syne."

FATHER, We come not as of old,
Distrustful of Thy Law,

Hoping to find Thy seamless robe
Marred by some sudden flaw,

Some rent to let Thy glory through
And make our darkness shine,
If haply thus our souls may know
What power and grace are Thine.

Thy seamless robe conceals Thee not
From earnest hearts and true;
The glory of Thy perfectness

Shines all its texture through;
And on its trailing hem we read,
As Thou dost linger near,
The message of a love more deep
Than any depth of fear.

And so no more our hearts shall plead
For miracle and sign,

Thy order and Thy faithfulness

Are all in all divine:
These are Thy revelation vast

From earliest days of yore,

These are our confidence and peace,
We cannot wish for more.

May 30, 1873.

JOHN W. CHADWICK.

THE CHAIRMAN.

I am happy to say that if I was not present at the first meeting of this Association, there are many people here who were; and there are some here who not only were present but who spoke on that occasion. It is fitting, I think, at this Festival, that we should hear from the first speaker who was called on to speak at that first meeting forty years ago. After the President had closed his opening address, he called upon the Rev. Dr. Blanchard, and I again am going to call upon him on this occasion to make the first address this afternoon. [Applause.]

REMARKS OF REV. HENRY BLANCHARD, D. D., PORTLAND, MAINE.

RECOLLECTIONS OF THE FIRST MEETING.

It is a long look, Mr. Chairman and friends of the Free Religious Association, through the vista of forty years. It is an impressive view for us who stood in Horticultural Hall forty years ago this very month, for there we see noble faces, in memory we hear noble voices uttering persuasive and eloquent words. So that I am seeing not merely this present company to-day so much as I am seeing the faces of those men in those far-off days. Although the Chairman said that this meeting should not be too serious I confess that I have only the feeling of seriousness as I look back into the past.

Octavius B. Frothingham was my very dear friend when I was the pastor of the Universalist Church in Brooklyn, New York. We met very frequently and talked together very often, so that when at last he conceived the idea of forming this Free Religious Association he asked me to come and speak as the representative of Independent Universalism. I had left the denomination; I had stood independent for nearly six years, and he thought, therefore, it would be a good thing for me to come and represent that body—a very small body; it hardly extended beyond my own parish. Dr. Hale had invited me to meet, the night before the convention, with a club at the Parker House which had in charge The New World. I went up and said to Frothingham, "What are you going to talk about to-morrow? because I really do not know what I have to say; it will depend largely on what you say at the beginning." He said, "Blanchard, I don't know what I am going to say." I am sure that before he slept that night he had very serious thoughts, and that early in the morning he must have prepared what he was going to say, because he gave us a cogent address which we all received with delight. To-day,

therefore, I see his face and I hear his noble words.

First

of all, therefore, I want to dwell just for a moment or two upon retrospection, and then for a moment or two upon inspiration.

Octavius B. Frothingham has always stood before me as one of the noblest examples of a consecrated soul. His courage was so great, his earnestness was so deep, his power of language was so admirable that wherever he stood to speak to men they felt that here was not only a gentleman and a polished scholar, but an earnest, sincere, devout man. .[Applause.] I remember that Emerson said:

"The silent organ loudest chants
The master's requiem."

So, in Portland, and coming up here, as I was thinking what I would say, I said, I think after all the best thing is silence. But I cannot quite pass by in absolute silence, because these men so fascinated me in their day, and so command my affection and my homage in these days, that I am very glad indeed to speak of this first meeting and my being the first speaker after Mr. Frothingham had begun the meeting.

There was that noble face of William J. Potter. I was very glad to hear what the Chairman had to say concerning him. It seems to me he was one of the sweetest, one of the most noble, most attractive souls with whom it has ever been my great good fortune to come in contact [applause]; so simple, so earnest, and yet so full of courage. I did not know, until Mr. Frothingham spoke to-day, that there was anything of the lion in him, but I can understand easily that with all his sweetness and with all his gentleness there was basic firmness underneath all which enabled him to be the lion when there was occasion for him to speak in the tone of the lion.

Then, again, there was Francis E. Abbot. I do not know how many of you remember him - that man who with his constructive thought believed that he reached God by the power of his own thinking; that man who had such passionate devotion to freedom; that man who wanted to include in his fellowship all mankind. [Applause.] I remember I had to

say, that day, that as a practical thing I did not see how it was possible to include more than those who were willing to take Jesus as the highest representative of humanity; that while I would yield to no man on earth in my desire to have a union of all those who believed in God, yet for practical purposes it seemed to me it would not be wise for the Association to go outside of that. But I was wrong, and those who stood for a larger fellowship were right; and I thank God that to-day the Free Religious Association had on its platform that noble young man, Rabbi Wise, who delivered to us such a remarkable address. [Applause.]

There was also that fiery orator, John Weiss. Those of you who ever heard him speak will remember with what passion he spoke, so that he made every man who listened to him, and every woman, too, feel that he had the profoundest consciousness that his life was in God; a man who stirred the noblest feelings of the noblest men and women. In Worcester, where I had the privilege of being a successor to Dr. Hale for seven years, from 1873 to 1880, -Weiss spoke at different times in the Church of the Unity with such a power that every man who heard him felt that here indeed was a preacher of the living God speaking with all the power of a prophet of the ancient days.

And so I might speak of others. And to-day it is a pleasure so great that it is not possible for me to express it to you, that in those far-off days I was then thirty-four years old — I was permitted by the grace of Octavius B. Frothingham to represent to some degree the liberal element in the Universalist denomination, and to have the great privilege of speaking to the people who were assembled in Horticultural Hall, in company with these noble men.

I do not dare to say anything concerning Ralph Waldo Emerson. I was immensely impressed this morning at hearing our Jewish guest speak as he did about him. When Dean Stanley went back to England after his visit to America, he said, “Why, the ministers in the New England pulpits are not preaching Puritan theology; they are all of them saturated with Emerson, and they are all preaching Emerson in all the

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