SECTION 4. Be it further enacted that all young persons within the limits of the Town aforesaid when they become twenty-one years of age shall have full liberty at any time within twelve months after they become twenty-one years of age to join with their polls and estates either of the said societies by signifying their determination in writing to the clerk of the society they may desire to join. SECTION 5. Be it further enacted that Joseph Fox, Esquire, or any other justice of the peace in the county of Worcester be and he is hereby authorized to issue his Warrant directed to some member of the said Calvinistic Congregational Society requesting him to warn the members of the said society qualified to vote in parish affairs to assemble at some convenient and suitable time and place as shall be expressed in said warrant, to choose such officers as parishes are by law required to choose in the month of March or April annually, and to transact all other matters and things necessary to the well being of the said Society. In the House of Representatives, June 13th, 1805. This Bill having had three several readings passed to be enacted. TIMOTHY BIGELOW, Speaker. In Senate, June 14th, 1805. This Bill having had two several readings passed to be enacted. June 14th, 1805. By the Governor approved. A true copy: Attest H. G. OTIS, President. CALEB STRong. JOHN AVORY, Secretary. This practically dissolved the relations between church and state, so far as Fitchburg was concerned, for those who refused to identify themselves with the Calvinistic Society met August 26, 1805, organized under the name of the First Parish, chose parish officers and began a parish book of records. From that time parish affairs were not considered in town meeting. For nine years these two societies were in existence, when they again. united, mainly through the influence of Rev. William Bascom, the pastor of the First Parish, or Unitarian Society. The act incorporating the Calvinistic Congregational Society of Fitchburg was repealed by an act of the Legislature February 3, 1814, and the said Society was joined with the First Parish. This state of affairs continued till 1823, when a final separation took place, and another Calvinistic Congregational Society was organized October 31, 1823, which purchased the meeting house of the former society, corner of Main and Rollstone streets, which it occupied and on which location it has since remained. This seceding church, as before, comprised nearly all the church members and they took with them that portion of the church records and other personal property which had been in their possession previous to the reunion in 1814. This property and the records were, however, given up, on demand of the First Parish, notwithstanding legal advice that the same could be retained, on the ground of a vote passed at a church meeting just previous to separation, as follows: "Voted, unanimously, that those vessels and records which formerly belonged to the church under the care of the Rev. Wm. Bascom shall be left for the use of those who may wish to remain with the First Parish, and the remainder to be taken for the use of those who unite with the C. C. Society." As we have before stated, this separation of the two societies was final, and the practical separation of parish and town affairs was accomplished, as, indeed, it really had been in Fitchburg since 1805. As in Fitchburg, so throughout the state, for the division of the inhabitants of a town into two nearly equal societies made it necessary that parish affairs should be kept out of town meeting. When the eleventh amendment to the state constitution was adopted in 1833, legally dissolving the relation of church and state, that relation was already dissolved. We have thus, in an inadequate manner, sketched the history of the union and dissolution of church and state in Massachusetts. At first the church was the state, and its authority was supreme, but in process of time the state assumed authority over the church and the church rebelled. The church of the Puritans and the theology of the Puritans persisted, but the descendants of the Puritans again became Separatists, even as their forefathers two centuries before. In these later separations of the nineteenth century the legitimate successors of the early churches generally left a minority in possession and, though they set up their abodes in other places they were, ecclesiastically speaking, still the First Churches and in the line of ecclesiastical succession from the churches of the fathers. Notwithstanding this, by virtue of a decision of the Su preme Court, they were not legally the original churches, but became new churches joined to new parishes. Religious societies were formed under state laws, to take the place of the old town parishes, and practically the same relation exists to-day between church and parish, as did formerly between church and state. THE FIRST HALF-CENTURY OF THE CAL VINISTIC CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. Read at a meeting of the Society, December 16, 1901. In the paper entitled "Separation of Church and State" already presented by Mr. Bailey, may be found a very able and the legitimate introduction to this historical account of one of the dominant forces which have made our city a beneficent power in the Commonwealth; and we trust the purpose suggested by our president to have those of our different churches presented, may be fulfilled. The doctrine of regeneration, or the second birth, is one of the vital tenets of the Calvinistic faith. In harmony with this tenet the Calvinistic Congregational church is singularly furnished with two birthdays. The official organ of the denomination, the Congregational Year Book, gives the date 1768, while our local authorities give it as 1823. Of the first date it may be said that the claim as presented by Rev. Alfred Emerson in his centenary address in 1868, is generally held as the correct one, by those who have taken the pains to investigate; while the record of the first permanent organization furnishes the date of October 31, 1823. The record of the First Church of Fitchburg, organized January 7, 1768, and of its struggles during the following quarter of a century is part of the oft-written history of the town, and its recital is not necessary here. The writer is inclined to take neither of these dates, but one midway between them, as the natural and legitimate one. Just one hundred years ago next summer, August 29, 1802, Rev. Samuel Worcester preached his farewell sermon to a very large congregation of the old church. This date marks most significantly the final dissolution of church and state, in our town at least. His subsequent career furnishes us with a clear understanding of the character of the man who did much in moulding the Calvinistic church, and he may very appropriately be considered its godfather. A few words at this point concerning him may not be out of place. About the time of his dismission a messenger from Salem came to Fitchburg. As he rode into town he met a man of good appearance whom he stopped for inquiries. "Do you know Mr. Worcester, sir? We want a minister for the Tabernacle in Salem. How would he do for us?" "Why," said the respondent, "I don't like the doctrine of Mr. Worcester, but he is a man of talents, a good scholar and a gentleman. If you like his doctrine you will like him-but I DON'T." The answer was all that was desired and he made the fame of the Tabernacle church of Salem secure, as the Antioch of Foreign Missions. While Samuel J. Mills was the originator of the movement which led to the formation of the American Board, Dr. Samuel Worcester was the founder of the Board itself. It was on the old road from Andover to Bradford that he first suggested the plan to Dr. Spring of Newburyport, and these two adopted the idea and rested not until it 'was carried out. The memory of this great service of Dr. Worcester to the church and to missions should be kept green. No finer tribute has been paid to him than this from a leader of that denomination whose tenets he so strenuously withstood, Dr. A. P. Peabody. He says: "Dr. Samuel A. Worcester, a pioneer in the cause, whose prescient mind saw in its very inception its destined triumph, and whose plastic and organizing ability was second to no agency in its early success and rapid growth. Though a keen controversialist he was pre-eminently a man of beatitudes, uniting with the hardiest features of character a strenuous purpose and indomitable will-all the amenities of a Christian gentleman." Following his departure in 1802 a considerable body withdrew from the new meeting house and continued Sabbath-day services in the "Farwell house" on West Main street, with Rev. Titus T. Barton as pastor. During this time, in 1805, an act was passed "to incorporate |