place among the cities of America. She never became, as her founder doubtless intended, the "mistress of the seas" in the Western hemisphere, or the capital of a more powerful government than that of Massachusetts. And her aspiring inhabitants were under the necessity of taking the humble name of York, and reposing in safety for nearly two centuries under the shadow of the old Commonwealth.

"The religious liberty of the Episcopalians was left unharmed, and the privileges of citizenship were extended to all inhabitants." They were not burdened with taxes except for county and town purposes. But the province continued to be the battle-field of opposing political and religious theories. And unprincipled itinerant preachers, taking advantage of the large liberty enjoyed by the people, embittered the strife by appealing to the prejudices of combatants. The general court of Massachusetts finally required all preachers to secure the approbation of four neighboring churches. And as most places were destitute of the stated means of grace, every town was required to make provision for the support of a pious minister.'

And the cause of education, hitherto neglected in Maine, received the attention of Massachusetts. She made it the duty of every town, containing fifty householders, to employ a teacher sufficient time to teach the children to read and write. And she required every town of one hundred families to provide a grammar-school, in which young persons could be fitted for college. And town officers were directed to have children catechised, and see that they "had some trade, or were fitted for some useful calling."*

1 Williamson, i. 356.

2 "In 1675, the selectmen of Kittery, Cape Porpoise, Scarborough, and Falmouth were presented by the grand jury in several indictments, for not taking care that the children and

"Many humane provisions were established by legislative authority." These provisions offered timely relief to the unfortunate stranger, and extended the hand of charity to the poor generally. They stood between the honest debtor, and his oppressive creditors, securing to him his rights and liberty. They forbade cruelty to animals, and protected the poor Indian in the quiet possession of his "plantinggrounds and fishing-berths."

Strict laws also guarded morals. They frowned upon idlers," tobaccotakers," drunkards, gamblers, profane swearers, bearers of false news, slanderers, extortioners, fornicators; and threatened with death, murderers, robbers, burglars, traitors, blasphemers, adulterers, and other criminals. They imposed strict regulations upon public houses, and "expressly prohibited" the various games and sports calculated to corrupt the young.

Thus did Massachusetts shield the morals of the rising generation, manifest a tender regard for the poor and defenseless, and open to all the fountains of intelligence, virtue, and religion. Talent and genius, when associated with moral worth, were crowned with honors, however humble their origin; for the avenues to greatness and distinction were closed to none. Though she had her faults, no other commonwealth at that period did so much to encourage general intelligence, protect innocence and virtue, and establish correct religious and moral principles among the people. York did not suffer at her hand. Still her right to govern in Maine was often called in question. Repeated efforts were made by the

youth of their towns be taught their catechisms, and educated according to law." Williamson, i. 383.

As late as 1674, one Charles Potum, "was presented to the grand jury, at York, for living an idle, lazy life, without any settled employment." Williamson, i. 381 4.

heirs of Gorges to recover their lost possessions. And they were successful for a time; but the people petitioned the court of England to be permitted to live under the government of Massachusetts, and their request was finally granted; though Charles II. was in power, and the Episcopalians enjoyed the royal patronage.' Puritan views, laws, and customs had gained too strong a hold upon the people to be easily shaken off. A simple form of worship, free schools, and what would now be called severe, even cruel laws, were their choice.

About ten years after Massachusetts extended her protection over Maine, Mr. Shubael Dummer commenced his labors in York as a minister of the gospel. He was a young man, having graduated at Harvard, six years previous, at the age of twenty. Some ten years after he came to York, Dec. 13, 1672, he was ordained, and preached his own sermon from the passage, "Return, O Lord, and visit this vine." The first prayer was by the Rev. Mr. Moody, of Portsmouth, and the charge by Rev. Mr. Philips, of Rowley. The whole period of his ministry in York was thirty years, commencing 1662, closing 1692.

But how little there could have been to encourage him in his field of labor! The first settlers of the town were adventurers, and it had been an asylum for excommunicated and itinerant ministers, agitated by civil commotions, and never enjoyed for any great length of time regular preaching. As far as we can learn, everything was at loose ends, except what was restrained by civil law; and Cotton Mather informs us, that Mr. Dummer" spent very of his own patrimony to subsist among

much

1 The controversy about the right of possession in Maine was continued until Massachusetts effected a purchase of the Province of Gorges, 1677, by paying his heirs, £1,250 stg. 2 Records of the first church in York.

the people." But Mr. Dummer was a devoted man, and well furnished for his work, and doubtless, led not a few to Christ. Said Cotton Mather after his death, —

"Our Dummer, the minister of York, was one of whom, for his exemplary holiness, humbleness, modesty, industry, and fidelity, the world was not worthy. He was a gentleman well descended, well tempered, and well educated.... He might have taken for the coat of arms, the same that the holy martyr Hooper did prophetically, - a lamb in a flaming bush, with rays from heaven shining on it." Such a man would not fail to make converts and build up a church. As early as 1672, he organized the first church in York, now the oldest church in the state. Its members were his spiritual children. How numerous they became during his ministry we have no means of ascertaining. We have reason to suppose that much love, joy, and peace, circulated in the veins of society in York, as the result of his labors; for Cotton Mather says, "Though solicited with many temptations to leave his place, when the clouds grew thick and dark in the Indian hostilities, and was like to break upon it, he chose, rather, with a paternal affection to stay amongst those who had been so many of them converted and edified by his ministry."

But his field of labor, already blossoming with piety and virtue, and orderly and peaceful, was suddenly thrown into confusion and laid waste, and many of his little flock, either butchered or carried into captivity. One winter morning, in 1692, at the season of the year when the people felt there was no danger of an attack, the Indians, led by Catholic Frenchmen (the bitter enemies of the Puri

3 The first records were destroyed when the town was burnt by the Indians.

tans), and coming stealthily on snowshoes, surprised them, while around their firesides, breakfast tables, or family altars, before the more public duties of the day commenced, killed from fifty to seventy-five of them, and took about one hundred more, prisoners. The few who fled to the garrisoned houses, or were stationed in them, were summoned to surrender; but they replied, that they would "first shed the last drop of their blood." Their bravery saved them. After destroying the dwelling-houses on the east side of the river, and the provisions of the people, the Indians beat a hasty retreat into the woods, fearing pursuit by the inhabitants of Piscataqua.

Hardship, suffering, and, in many instances, death, awaited their poor captives. Cruel treatment they received at the hands of their savage foes, ere, half-starved, shivering with cold, they wended their weary, forlorn way through the snows of mid-winter to the "kennels" of their captors in the wilderness. The first Sabbath after

they started on their sad journey, an unfeeling red man, dressed in the clothes stripped from the dead body of their pastor, paraded himself before them, with mock dignity, and in derision of a Puritan minister,- 66 ---- a devil as an angel of light."

Mrs. Dummer, who was one of the captives, overcome by fatigue and exposure, heart-broken with sorrow, soon entered the dark valley to find her husband on the other side, where the "wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest." He had taken his golden harp but a few days, when she joined him and took hers.

He was shot as he was about to start on horseback to make pastoral visits. His friends, who escaped by being in the garrisoned houses, or on the west side of the river,' found him near his 1 The Indians had no means of crossing the river, so that the few who lived on its western Dank escaped unharmed.

own door, naked and in his blood, with his face to the ground. Where "his cold remains in solitude sleep the years away," we are not permitted to know, for no stone, so far as I can learn, marks the place of their "last retreat." But "These remains, this little dust,

Our Father's care shall keep,
Till the last angel rise and break
The long and dreary sleep."

I find the following lines dedicated to his memory, by his friend Cotton Mather:

"Dummer, the shepherd, sacrificed
By wolves, because the sheep he prized;
The orphan's father, church's light,
The love of heaven, of hell the spight;
The countrie's gapman, and the face
That shone, but knew it not, with grace.
Hunted by devils, but relieved
By angels, and on high received.
The martyred pelican, who bled,
Rather than leave his charge unfed.
A proper bird of paradise,

Shot, and flown thither in a trice. Lord, hear the cry of righteous Dummer's wounds,

Ascending still against the savage hounds That worry thy dear flock, and let the cry Add force to theirs that at thine altar lye.”

By the kindness of Mr. Sibley, librarian of Harvard, I am able to add the following facts about Mr. Dummer:

"Shubael Dummer, son of Richard Dummer, was born at Newbury, Mass., Feb. 17, 1636. His father came from England, in 1632, and settled at Roxbury.... Of his mother, Mrs. Mary Dummer, we find the following in the Roxbury church records, in the handwriting of the apostle Eliot: 'She was a godly woman; but, by the seductions of some of her acquaintances, she was led away into the new opinions in Mrs. Hutchinson's time, and her husband removing to Newbury, she there openly declared herself, and did also seduce

2 These verses, and the other quotations I have made from Cotton Mather, may be found in his Hist. of N. E., book vii. art. 15.

do not know their rights, but submit to their enslavement willingly, believing that such a course is the best that they can pursue.

It is an old ecclesiastical maxim, that we are to receive as true, as a part of Christianity, what has been received always, everywhere, and by all Christians: "quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus." And, if rightly applied, the maxim is as true as it is old. Congregationalism stands this test. It has been practised always, everywhere, and by all Christians. Always, everywhere, and among all, Christians have met statedly, for religious purposes, and by mutual understanding among themselves, constituting congregations of believers; and, as a general rule, have had the two kinds of officers necessary for the "well-being " of a church,

one kind to teach and administer ordinances, and another to care for temporalities.

That there have been such congregations wherever Christianity has prevailed, no one, probably, will deny. Indeed, it is difficult, if not impossible, to conceive how Christianity, as a living, practical system, can exist without them.

And this is all that, in absolute strictness of logic, we are bound to prove. We need not show that these churches, or any of them, have always enjoyed their freedom. It is enough for us to show that they have always existed. They may have been enslaved, and made to accept their slavery without questioning. Still, they have existed. There have been congregations of believers, who did not "forsake the assembling of themselves together" for worship and instruction, wherever and whenever there has been a living Christianity. And congregations of believers, so assembling, are, according to Scripture and our doctrine, Congregational churches.

And here, in strictness of logic, the

burden of proof ceases to rest on us. It is for those who claim authority over the churches, to prove the rightfulness of their claim, either by the express words of Scripture, or necessary inference from them, or by the universal practice of Christians. If they fail to do this, as they must, then Congregational churches may rightfully disregard their claims and assume the free management of their own affairs.

And this shows the true logical form of our fellowship with Christians of other names. We do not, for example, acknowledge the body that calls itself "The Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States" as a church of Christ, or as a church at all. We regard it as a body containing many churches of Christ, and apparently, some congregations which, for want of Christian piety, can not be recognized as churches of Christ. We recognize each congregation of believers in that body as a sister church, with whom we have fellowship spiritually, and with whom we are ready to exchange acts of visible fellowship.

It is indeed well to show that Congregational churches, understanding and exercising, more or less perfectly, their just liberties, have always existed. But, logically, it is enough to show that whatever is essential to the being of a Congregational church is enjoined in Scripture, and has had, and still has, universal prevalence; so that if forms that have been only local, partial, temporary, should be laid aside, Congregational churches, and such only, would remain.

The same can not be said of any other form of church organization. Other forms, by the mere fact of their existence, disprove each other's claim to universality.

It would be easy to enlarge on this subject; but I attempt, for the present, only a hint for thinkers.

J. T.