Statewide County WI Archives History - Books .....Church Records And Old Family Bible, 1849. 1900
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Tina Vickery tsvickery@gmail.com October 25, 2007, 8:54 am

Book Title: PAST MADE PRESENT - Presbyterians In Wisconsin.  1830 - 1900.

Church Records and Old Family Bible, 1849.

After the usual opening exercises the pastor, Rev. T. T.
Creswell, stated that he would read the Scripture lesson
from the old Bible used by the church at its original
service.  It was the family Bible of the late Benjamin
Brown, at whose house services were first held.  Mr.
Creswell also spoke of the presence on the platform of three
charter members -- David Merrill, Dr. E. N. Clark, and Beman
Clark.

THE HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, given Sunday morning, March 19,
1899.

ECCLES. III : 15. "God requireth that which is past."

Ps. XLVIII :12, :13.  "Walk about Zion; make ye well her
bulwarks, that ye may tell it to the generation following."

These two passages indicate the general character and the
specific purpose of this discourse.  God requires our past
and has himself a complete record of it.  The final judgment
will be based on what men have done.  In now recalling and
recording and recording the past experience of this church,
therefore, we act in harmony with God's general plan that
the past shall be remembered.  We ourselves also require
that which is past, for some remembrance of the past is
necessary to real life and right life, both in the present
an in the future.  This moment is but a point; the next is
yet to come.  We have extended conscious life only because
we remember the past and from it anticipate the future.

We need also the help which natural memory and that later
form of it, the art which preserves all arts, give.  The
teachings of past experience are trustworthy.  Time tells
the truth, and it is a shame and loss to humanity that much
of what is called history does not.  We should prize every
true record of the past both for warning and also for
guidance.  It is like a mariner's chart on which are noted
rocks and shoals were vessels have been wrecked, and also
the safe channels, which brave hearts have found.  Or it is
like the maps of our western country, made from the records
and surveys of explorers.  Where those early adventurers
sought their way slowly amid uncertainties and dangers, we
may now go forward swiftly, intelligently and in safety.

We require the past also not only for enjoyment of the
present, but quite as much for encouragement to face the
future.  What has been done or endured can be again.  How
the remembrance of what our forefathers did to give us
freedom has inspired all to bravely defend that gift and
transmit it unimpaired not only to our children, but even
now to the oppressed in Cuba and to the Hawaiians and
Phillippines.

So in the church of Christ and within the limits of the life
of this church, it is equally true that our best present
usefulness and in order to full hope for the future both God
and man require us to have in mind that which is past.  As a
proper duty and still more as a privilege, therefore, let us
this morning go around about our Beloit Zion in a procession
of thoughts.  As the Psalmist literally enjoins we will "set
our hearts to her bulwarks that we may tell it to the
generation following."

Additional Comments:
The First Fifty Years of the First Presbyterian Church and
Congregation of Beloit, Wisconsin.  Comprising also a
variety of experiences in our connected with the lives of
its member during the times of peace and of war; together
with

A History of Presbyterianism in our State up to the Year
1900.

In Two Parts --- Amply Illustrated.

Part I. Presbyterians of Beloit, Wis.
Part II.  Presbyterianism in the State and Synod of
Wisconsin.

For sale by

The Presbyterian Board of Publication, 37 Randolph Street,
Chicago and by Foster and the College Book Store and the
Author, in Beloit, Wis.

Copyright, 1900. by William Fiske Brown.

Printed and bound by the Marsh and Grant Company, Chicago,
Ill.

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