ADDRESS 



Delivered Before the Housatoxic Agricultural Society at their Annual 

 Exhibition, Held in Great Barrington, September 30, 1892, 



By REV. DR. HARTLEY. 



Mr. President, Members of the Housatonic Agricultural Society: Ladies and 

 Gentlemen: — The service which you have requested of me on this occasion is 

 somewliat new. but though new it is none the less willingly accepted. From 

 the marked activity of the past week, as well the bright and healthful appear- 

 ance of the society's representatives before me, I do not think that I have been 

 summoned in any official ca[)aeity — to lay away the Housatonic Agricultural 

 .Society for its last sleep; on the contrary, there is no evidence that it has ever 

 known such a thing as sleep, and surely if the same energy and force that now 

 permeate it continue to attend and thrill it, it can never die. Rather am I here, 

 it may be, to re-marry you to the holy and noble labors in which for years so 

 many of you have been engaged: for it is only, as one is wedded to a vocation, 

 that honorable and gladdening results may be looked for. If any one can show 

 just reason why you and that which you love may not be joined together, let 

 him now speak. 1 hear no voice. Regard yourselves, therefore, members and 

 friends of this society, as betrothed to the soil of beautiful Berkshire: may you 

 have many followers to rise up and call you blessed. Receive my sincere con- 

 gratulations. Kiss the bride; kiss the groom — nor ever, forget the day, in 

 which you gave true allegiance to the fields of old historic Massachusetts. 



And. now, before we partake of the prepared feast, a little friendly counsel; 

 and let it be in the line that will tend to make us better citizens of the prosper- 

 ous commonwealth in which providence has been pleased to lead us, and beneath 

 whose sod some day we may — 



•• With the rude forefathers' of the hamlet sleep." 



Giving my theme a didactic form of expression, it reads: The relations which 

 every Christian sustains to the State of which he is a member. 



Perhaps some one may object to ray use in this presence of that qualifying 

 word Christian; I cannot do otherwise. Not that I would at any time take ad- 

 vantage of my position as a humble minister of the gospel, or designedly wound 

 the feelings of an auditor; by no means; rather am I mindful that ere the dis- 

 tinguished navigator, Christopher Columbus, whom the American nation at this 

 very moment is preparing to worthily honor, weighed anchor at Palos, Spain, 

 he sought and received the blessing of the church in which he was a devout 

 communicant: and I remember, also, that just so soon as his feet pressed this 

 Western world, he kissed the earth, and knelt in prayer to God for the many 

 favors which he had so recently received at His hands; and I recall that when 

 our Puritan fathers left for a home in the New World, daily, during the voyage, 

 and so soon, also, as they landed, full recognition was made of God's guidance 

 and care. Indeed, our fathers in the 3Iayflower began their famous political 

 compact in the words, "In the name of God, amen." Nor would I forget that 

 when the representatives of the several States were assembled for the establish- 

 ment of these United States, the larger number of them were Christian men, 

 and as honest and consistent in that belief as they were loyal to their political 



