The Davis Family BY REV. E. DAVIS. Mr. Chairman and near friends, I find my name on your program and assigned to give a short sketch of the changes that have occurred in the Davis family during the past decade. I think it would have been better to have assigned this duty to some one living in your midst as my fields of labor have been so far distant from your community during the last ten years that I have been deprived of the means to note the many changes that have occurred. Therefore I will only refer to the changes that have taken place among the grandchildren of my grandfather Samuel Davis, who was one of the founders of the old church, Bethel, which stood a few feet from this building and remained for the period of 114 years. When we met here ten years ago in our first re-union, he had living at that time seven grandchildren. Since that time two have died, viz., Trustin P. Davis and Alfred Davis. They have passed away. Dear friends, it affords me great pleasure on this bright and beautiful day to be present to look into the faces of so many dear friends and relatives. On my way from Federalsburg to this place this morning, in company with one of my grandnephews, he informed me that this re-union was being held on his birthday; this remark brought to my mind that this was also the birthday of one of the great men of our pation, viz., John Adams, who was born October 29th, 1735, and became the second president of the United States of America. His birth occurred 160 years ago today. The circumstances that have brought us together today seem to carry me back to the days of my childhood, when I attended school in the old school-house which stood on these historic grounds, I remember that I used to go to the front door of the old church, and peep through the cracks and regard it as being the house of God, the place where His people assembled to worship the true and living God. This made a deep impression on my mind and from that time I have always had a the house of God. reverence for Great have been the changes in almost everything since that time; great changes in the mode of cultivating the soil. I remember when the farmers in this neighborhood used the old wooden plow. I was very anxious to learn to guide the plow when a very small boy I would go into the fields where the men were plowing, and would ask them to let me try. I would have to take hold of the under part of the plow handles, but could not guide it very well. But the farmers do not break the soil with that kind of a plow today. I re Great changes in the mode of travel since those days. member when Andrew Harris and Joseph Dawson with their families left my father's house in this neighborhood in covered wagons to go West. But people do not travel that way now. God raised up a Fulton and endowed him with a mind to conceive the idea to convert steam power with machinery to drive the boat upon the waters and hence it has also been arranged to drive the car upon the rail at the rate of 60 to 100 miles an hour, so now the people travel by steam power. Also there have been great changes in the mode of conveying news. God raised up a Morse and endowed him with a mind to conceive the idea of sending messages with lighning speed, so that man can now stand on the shore of the Atlantic and talk to his friends on the shore of the Pacific. So great is the speed with which a message goes that were it possible to stretch a wire around our globe and attach this power it would flash around our globe 380 times in a single minute. And now they use electricity to run the cars in our cities, and so great is its power that a short time ago in the city of Baltimore they attached it to a heavy loaded train of cars and drew it through the great tunnel in that city. And now in looking around over these historic grounds I see a great change has taken place in your midst since we met here and held our first re-union ten years ago. I observe that the old Bethel has disappeared and I find ourselves assembled in this beautiful temple that you have built since that time. Allow me to congratulate you on your fine taste and success in building such a beautiful church. In looking behind me on the window in the rear of the pulpit I see my grandfather's name. garded it as an honor to have his name inscribed there and I also regard it as an honor being his grandson. I was permitted on the 6th of January, 1895, to preach the first sermon that was preached in the new Bethel. I re A few weeks ago I was forcibly struck as I read in the Sunday School Journal, "The Power of Song," it was on this wise: "At the session of the Newark Conference which met at St. Paul's Church, Toltonville, Staten Island, N. V., in the spring of 1867. Bishop Simpson presided. On the morning of the Conference Sunday he preached with extraordinary eloquence from Matt. 28, 18-20. Dr. J. W. Wiley, at that time editor of the Ladies' Repository, and afterwards more widely known as Bishop Wiley, was greatly moved by the eloquence of the preacher. Though the Doctor was noted for great self-control, he was completely carried away on that occasion as the speaker rose from one climax to another, the audience wondering meanwhile where those lofty flights of the preacher would lead them. At the close of one of these remarkable outbursts, when speaker and hearers were compelled to pause for a moment to take breath, Dr. Wiley brought his hand upon the knee of a friend who sat by his side and calling him familiarly by name; said, 'I can never preach again! I can never preach again!' This was especially noticeable in view of the fact that he had been assigned to preach in the afternoon; but the marvelous eloquence of the Bishop had so wrought upon the feelings of this usually impassive man that he was completely broken up, and doubtless felt, as he expressed it, that he was utterly unfitted to follow such a sublime discourse. "At the close of the Bishop's sermon, Phillip Phillips took his seat at the organ, and after a softly played prelude, he sang as only he could sing, one of his favorite songs, 'Brother you can sing for Jesus. ' As verse after verse proceeded, each one telling what might be done for the Master, and as he sang, 'Brother, you can work for Jesus,' and still again, 'Brother you can die for Jesus,' Dr. Wiley's frame, trembled with emotion, his face was illumined with joy, and again he brought his hand upon the knee of his friend and exclaimed, 'I can preach now; I can preach now!' and he did preach. The sermon will ever dwell in the memory of those who heard it that afternoon in the old Bethel Church. Very few could hope to follow Bishop Simpson as Dr. Wiley did on that memorable occasion.'' I close my remarks with a little song. The lesson to be drawn from this song is Christ's great love for a wandering sheep of his: "HE LEFT THE NINETY AND NINE." "The sheep were sleeping within the fold, The night was dark, and the wind was cold, But one was lost on the mountain track, The Shepherd started to bring him back And left the ninety and nine. CHORUS: "He left the ninety and nine, How great was the cost, for the one He left the ninety and nine. "Securely sheltered within the fold, Who, suffering thus one sheep to gain, "But at last went up a joyful cry, I've found this lost one of mine, He'll live with me in a home on high, Safe with the ninety and nine. Then heaven and earth took up the cry, To save one sheep that was doomed to die Christ left the ninety and nine." Chorus. Address of Hon. J. S. Willis, M. C. Her The wild duck flies not alone before the march of winter to ample and congenial feeding-grounds in southern lagoons. children and friends are with her. The nesting and rearing were the work of individual life: the migration is in companies and tribes. And while there is a living, quivering wing to cleve the sky, or an instinct to guide the flight of birds through the pathless heavens, this law will remain a controlling force among the families of animated nature. In man there are laws paradoxical and contradictory, touching the mutual relationships of life-one law of the animal leads the strong to dominate and devour the weak-the other law of the spiritual, and intellectual, attracts, unites and nurtures-under the reign of the one the race would become extinct; under the reign of the other it would multiply and fill the earth. The one would enthrone jealousy, hate, and cruelty. The other would inaugurate the prevalence of love and peace. Moreover the principle of union would be closer and intense in the ratio of the intimacy of blood relationship. Out of this grows the family, then the community, then the nation. A perfectly unhindered spiritual law would subordinate and concede individual interests to the common good. This is the law of Christ, and this I take it, is the law which has drawn you people together, and superinduced these festivals of re-union. It is a blessed ovation to some of the higher qualities of human nature. Your family pride is a contribution to civilized society. I speak not of pride in the sense of vanity or vain glory, but in the sense of moral conservation, self-respect, rectitude and righteousness. A living commendation and endorsement of various forces, which have prevailed through generations, and have preserved these honorable households. Yours is a record not so famous as the genealogies of princes and lords, but far more beautiful, as it has been marked by justice to man and reverence to God. Your escutcheon is not |