15 September 1856 A.D. Historical Sketch of Rising Sun, Indiana, and the Presbyterian Church. A Fortieth Anniversary Discourse, delivered Sept. 15, 1856, by Rev. Benjamin Franklin Morris
15
September 1856 A.D. Historical
Sketch of Rising Sun, Indiana, and the Presbyterian Church. A Fortieth
Anniversary Discourse, delivered Sept. 15, 1856, by Rev. Benjamin Franklin Morris
Archivist.
“September 15: On the Value of Historic Annals.” This Day in Presbyterian History. 15 Sept 2015. http://www.thisday.pcahistory.org/2015/09/september-15-2/.
Accessed 15 Sept 2015.
September 15: On
The Value of Historic Annals
The
published histories of individual churches tend to be a very overlooked
literary genre. Usually they are published in limited edition and purchased by
church members, only to be shelved and perhaps never read. This is unfortunate,
for some of these works have provided occasion for pastors and theologians to
wax eloquent on various themes long pondered in their ministry.
What
follows is excerpted from Historical
Sketch of Rising Sun, Indiana, and the Presbyterian Church. A Fortieth
Anniversary Discourse, delivered Sept. 15, 1856,
by Rev. B.F. Morris, and is edited for length. In
opening his discourse, Rev. Morris sets out to establish the value of
historical annals. This is something of a digression from our normal fare here,
I realize. Moreover, we may not agree with all of his statements. But consider
this a “think piece,” designed to make us consider more fully the many aspects
of the otherwise acknowledged value of historical accounts.
THE VALUE AND USE OF HISTORICAL ANNALS.
1. Historic annals are the way-marks of human progress.
The
unfolding events which men and communities evolve need an imperishable record.
This record is the embalming process that preserves the precious treasures of
the past from oblivion, and transmits them, in their original freshness and
form, to future ages.
2. They are “sunny memories” of scenes, fragrant with delightful and
profitable remembrances to our personal experience.
Our
elevated personal enjoyments flow, mainly, from two sources; one from the
duties, activities and scenes of the present; the other from the fresh and
vivid remembrance of the past. The past is a field through which all, in
retrospection, love to roam, gathering in their own hearts, and reproducing in
their own recollections, the scenes and stirring events in which they
participated, and which, in remembrance, yield a rich harvest of personal
enjoyment.
3. Past records and remembrances also have their genial and beneficent
influences for the rising generation.
The
solid texture in the life and character of each generation is woven mainly from
the materials created and fashioned by the one preceding. The type of life, the
ruling sentiments of the soul and whatever goes into the composite form of
character, come mainly from influences that flow from the generations that have
gone before.
4. They have a significant and important relation and use to the future.
Preparation
for right action and a true course in life is one of the most commanding
obligations of human existence. We must live right now, so that we may
act right in the future. This consummation is greatly aided by the moral teachings
of the past. The dividing line between right and wrong; the true principles and
pathway of success; dangers to be avoided; wisdom and prudential sagacity, all
that forewarns and forearms and qualifies for right action, may be derived from
the facts and lessons of the past, communicated by oral experience, or through
historic annals. “It is the capacity of looking back on past experiences, which
gives us the power of foreseeing the future, and thus of looking both before
and behind, for sources of enjoyment,” and for a true direction in the moral
course of life. This fact, in God’s system of moral education, gives meaning
and authority to the Divine injunction, “Remember the days of old; consider the
years of many generations; ask thy father and he will shew thee; the elders and
they shall tell thee.”—Deut.
32:7
. “Tell ye your children of it, and let your
children tell their children, and their children another generation.”—Joel 1:3
. In this light historic annals assume an importance
equal to the value of the moral interests of men and society, as effected by
the moral education of the rising generation.
5. They embalm the acts and memories of the dead.
The
great forest of humanity, like a forest of oaks, falling before the march of
civilization, is, one by one, leveled by the axe of time. The oak of human
life, stately and strong though it be, has no perpetual charter. A century, at
most, it must fall, and pass away. Shall it have no record in human
remembrance, or on the historic page?
6. Historic annals are the means to measure social progress, as
contrasted with after eras in the history of social civilization.
Society,
as it circles outward from a common center, has a tendency to degenerate from
its original and higher type, into one of a lower standard and tone.
7. Another special and important use of historic annals and personal
remembrances is the exhibition of the nature, progress, and triumphs of
Christian truth.
The
structure of all human society must, if its foundation be solid and its
superstructure symmetrical and safe, rest on Christian truth.
8. This suggests another great and valuable use of historic annals and
personal remembrances, which is to demonstrate the active presence of God in
human history and society.
“Historic
truth,” says Bancroft, “may be established as a science; and the principles
that govern human affairs, extending like a path of light from century to
century, become the highest demonstration of the superintending providence of
God. Universal history does but seek to restate “the sum of all God’s works of
Providence.”
A
devout and thoughtful mind will recognize and adore God, as He gives
revelations of Himself in human history, and in every onward movement of the
race.
Words to Live By:
Have
you noticed, as you read through the Bible, how often God commands us to
remember His works? To be actively engaged in that work of remembrance is key
to keeping our hearts fresh before the Lord. Consider the words of John Flavel:
“Search
backward into all the performances of Providence throughout your lives. So did
Asaph: ‘I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy
wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings’ (Psalm 77:11, 12). He laboured to
recover and revive the ancient providences of God’s mercies many years past,
and suck a fresh sweetness out of them by new reviews of them. Ah, sirs, let me
tell you, there is not such a pleasant history for you to read in all the world
as the history of your own lives, if you would but sit down and record from the
beginning hitherto what God has been to you, and done for you; what signal
manifestations and outbreakings of His mercy, faithfulness and love there have
been in all the conditions you have passed through. If your hearts do not melt
before you have gone half through that history, they are hard hearts indeed.
‘My Father, thou art the guide of my youth’ (Jeremiah 3:4)”.—From The Mystery of Providence, chapter nine.
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