NORTH SHORE BREEZE. 
35 
HOLMES’ CENTENNIAL, 
Rev. Clarence S. Pond Delivers Anniversary Sermon at Beverly 
Farms Baptist Church. 
The Centennial of Oliver Wendell 
Holmes, so interesting to residents of 
Beverly, Beverly Farms and Manchester, 
from the many associations of. the poet 
with those places in life, was the theme 
for a centennial address by the Rev. 
Clarence Strong Pond at the Beverly 
Farms Baptist church,-Sunday. ‘The ser- 
vice was very largely attended and many 
went away with a better conception of 
the poet than they had had before. 
The Rev. Mr. Pond said in part: Of 
the many centenaries of 1909, local asso- 
ciations make that of Oliver Wendell 
Holmes of personal interest. A visitor 
in speaking with Dr. Holmes of the 
. . ce 
year 1809 reports him as saying, Yes, 
I was particularly fortunate in being born 
the same year with four of the most dis- 
tinguished men of the age and really I 
feel flattered that itso happened. Now 
in England there was Tennyson, Darwin 
and Gladstone, Gladstone being, [| think, 
four months younger than myself. That 
is a most remarkable trio, isn’t it? Just 
contemplate the greatness of those three 
men and remember that in the same year 
Abraham Lincoln was born in this coun- 
try. Most remarkable!?? And when 
the visitor added, ‘‘There was a fifth, 
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes,’’ Dr. 
Holmes quickly retorted in his inimitable 
way, © Oh, that does not count. I[ 
sneaked in.’’ 
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes had a 
strong faith in God. . This is expressed 
in his Hymn of Trust: 
‘<O love Divine, that stooped to share, 
Our sharpest pang, our bitterest tear, 
On Thee we cast each earth-born care, 
We smile at pain while Thou art near. 
Though long the weary way we tread, 
And sorrow crown each lingering year 
No path we shun, no darkness dread, 
Our hearts still whispering: ’’Thou art near.’ 
On Thee we fling our burdening woe 
O love divine, forever dear, 
Content to suffer while we know, 
Living and dying, ‘Thou art near.’ 
He was an optimist in sharp contrast 
to the depressing determinism of the 
theology current in his day and its conse- 
quent pessimistic tendencies. 
He was broad as the river, deep as the 
canon. His was truly a liberal spirit. 
The spirit of his religion never froze 
through mere intellectuality into philoso- 
phy, a religion of reason and no more. 
He knew that there was another and 
spiritual side to which the intellect was 
servant and not master, ““That there was 
a plant within him called Reverence, 
which needed watering about once every 
week.’’ Such is true liberalism. There 
is the false liberalism of the Pharisee who 
can only worship God in the mould.of 
7? 
his own thought, but the truly broad man 
is he who can reach out and find Him 
in worship though the form of the ex- 
pression of devotion may be different 
from his own. 
Holmes had a great faith in humanity 
in contrast with the dread doctrine of 
early years of the ‘‘ worthless worm ’” of 
humanity. He was truly Christian in 
his conception of the dignity and mission 
of man. He sent a fair-shot arrow with 
its point touched with the poison of hu- 
mor into the conception of man as with- 
out good. He suggested that the Medical 
Society ‘‘should refuse to give us an 
opiate, or to set a broken limb, until we 
had signed our belief in a certain number 
of propositions’’—of which we will say 
this is the first: 
‘““All men’s teeth are naturally in a 
state of total decay or caries, and, there- 
fore, no man can bite until every one of 
them is extracted and anew set is insert- 
ed according to the principles of dentis- 
try adopted by this society.”’ 
The Professor says, ““Why, no, that 
isn’t true. “There are a good many bad 
teeth, we all know, but a great many 
more good ones. You mustn’t trust the 
dentists; they are all the time looking at 
the people who have bad teeth and such 
as are suffering from toothache. ‘The 
idea that you must pull out every one of 
every nice young man and young wo- 
man’s natural teeth! Poh, poh! No- 
body believes that. This tooth must be 
straightened, that must be filled with 
gold, and this other perhaps extracted, 
but it must be a very rare case if they are 
all so bad as to require extraction; and 
if they are don’t blame the poor soul for 
it! Don’t tell us, as some old dentists 
used to, that everybody not only always 
has every tooth in his head good for 
nothing, but thathe ought to have his 
head cut off as a punishment for that 
misfortune! No, I can’t sign Number 
One!”’ 
Holmes was again truly Christian in 
his conception of the dignity and mis- 
sion of man. ‘The orthodox and the 
heterodox can meet here, at least, what- 
ever their theological explanation of 
Christ may be. He was all of God that 
man could be and all of man that God 
could be. God in his love expressed tn 
Christ recognizes the worth of humanity. 
In Christ was the earthly power and 
heavenly heritage of humanity recog- 
nized. All can agree that God’s love 
for humanity and man’s noble destiny 
does not end atthe grave. Inthe Cham- 
bered Nautilus the scientist becomes poet 
and the poet seer. 
‘* Build thee more stately mansions O my Soul, 
As the swift seasons roll, 
Leave thy low-vaulted past, 
Let each new temple, nobler than the last 
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, 
Till thou at length art free, 
Leaving thine out grown shell by life’s unrest- 
ing seal’? 
Holmes caught and reflected the spirit 
of the modern scientific spirit and all that 
it meant. It strengthened, not wakened 
his faith. His faith remained ever true 
to the ‘‘spirit in man and the Almighty 
giveth him understanding.’’ The terms 
of the expression of religion only change. 
Religion has nothing to fear from Science. 
Knowledge can only increase our won- 
der and awe of the Personality that or- 
ders and rules his universe with a firm 
and merciful hand of Providence and 
Justice. 
Such was the Holmes you knew, strong 
in faith, in God and humanity, optimis- 
tic and cheerful in his attitude to the 
“‘earth born cares’ of life; truly liberal 
and frankly scientific, yet spiritual in the 
interpretation of religious thought and 
action. 
In preparing the centennial services 
the Rev. Mr. Pond invited Col. Thomaa 
Wentwoith Higginson and Mrs. Juli, 
Ward Howe to be present and speak’ 
Neither were able to accept the invitag 
tion, but both sent letters expressin- 
their sentiments. 
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe’s letter fol- 
lows: 
““ Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes was a 
merry man, ministering a good deal at 
times to that perception of the comic ele- 
ment in life which really lightens the bur- 
thens of life common to our human ex- 
perience. He was at the same time a 
man of very earnest thought, and one 
who threw the whole weight of his ability 
and reputation on the side of righteous 
living. His fun never descended to friv- 
olity and his serious writings, both in 
verse and in prose, are full of suggestion 
and of precious inspiration. I hold them 
to be of high literary value, and am glad 
that the occurrence of the centenary of 
his birth calls to mind so freshly the 
great and genial services which he has 
rendered to the reading and thinking 
world.”’ 
Jutta Warp Howe. 
A party of young people will go camp- 
ing at the ‘‘Wigwam,’’ West Glouces- 
ter, Saturday to remain over Sunday and 
Labor Day. ‘The party includes Oliver 
W. Low, J. Larcom Ober, Miss Almira 
Williams, Miss Jeanette Bolam. The 
invited guests are Miss Marguerite Mitch- 
ell and Clifford B. Denison of Paw- 
tucker, R. I., Mr. Forte and Miss 
Frances Blake of West Newton, Robert 
D. Bishop of Auburndale, Miss Evelyn 
Bailey of Newtonville and Miss Ethel 
Standley of Manchester. Mrs, Win- 
throp F, Low will chaperone, 
