Cables, Submarine -- History; Field, Cyrus W. (Cyrus West), 1819-1892; Inventors -- United States -- Biography
David Dudley Field was first settled in Haddam, Conn., and remained as
pastor of the Congregational Church for fourteen years. Seven of his
children were born while he lived there: David Dudley was the eldest;
then followed Emilia Ann, Timothy Beals, Matthew Dickinson, Jonathan
Edwards, Stephen Johnson 1st (who died when he was six months old), and
Stephen Johnson 2d. Cyrus West, Henry Martyn, and Mary Elizabeth were
the three children born in Stockbridge, Mass. Among the reminiscences of
his sojourn in Haddam is that it fell to him to preach the execution
sermon of Peter Long. The grim Puritanical custom still survived,
according to which a prisoner convicted of a capital crime, on the day
on which he was to be hanged was taken by a body-guard of soldiers to
church to be publicly prepared for his ending. He was placed in a
conspicuous pew, where he was obliged not only to listen to a long and
harrowing sermon, but when addressed by name to stand up facing the
preacher and receive the exhortation as he had received the sentence.
Dr. Field addressed the victim directly for some minutes, and closed
with these words: "Before yonder sun shall set in the west your
probationary state will be closed forever. This day you will either lift
up your eyes in hell, being in torment, or, through the rich,
overflowing, and sovereign grace of God, be carried by the angels to
Abraham's bosom. If in any doubt about your preparation, you may yet
find mercy. He who pardoned the penitent thief on the cross may pardon
you in the place of execution. Pray God, then, if perhaps your sins may
be forgiven you. Cry to Him, 'God be merciful to me, a sinner!' and
continue those cries till death shall remove you hence. May the Lord
Almighty support you in the trying scene before you, and through
infinite grace have mercy on your soul."
From the church the prisoner was led, clothed in a long, white robe, to
the scaffold. It is said that on this occasion the rope was cut by the
militiamen in attendance as a guard.
In May, 1819, Dr. Field accepted the call to the church in Stockbridge,
and on August 25th he was settled there as a pastor. In those days the
moving of a household from Haddam to Stockbridge was a formidable
undertaking. Teams were sent to Connecticut, a journey of several days,
to bring on the household furniture, and, most important of all, heavy
boxes piled with the volumes that comprised the pastor's library. The
clearest statement of the impression made upon the youth of his flock by
the ministry of Dr. Field is furnished in these words, written nearly
fifty years after his settlement in Stockbridge, and a fortnight after
his death, by the venerated president of Williams College:
"WILLIAMS COLLEGE, _April 30, 1867_.
"CYRUS W. FIELD, Esq.:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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