Page:Bruton parish church restored and its historic environments (1907 V2).djvu/167

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with the rebellious humors of a papist spirit, nor blemished with ye least suspition of a factious scismatick." Rev. Robert Hunt made himself loved by all "for his exceeding goodness." "By his godly exhortations (but chiefly by the true devoted examples) he quenched the flames of envie and dissention" which threatened to exterminate the Colony, and administered to them the Holy Communion, which Smith says, "we all received as an outward and visible token of reconsiliation." It is recorded elsewhere that "when the Indians saw us at prayer they observed us with great silence and respect, especially those to whom was imparted the meaning of our reverence."

Nowhere in history is there a more tragic story than that which tells of the struggle of this Virginia Colony to survive. Ravaged by pestilence, decimated by starvation, almost exterminated by attacks of savages, it is estimated that during the first nineteen years 6,040 persons died out of a population of 7,289 (Young, Page 20). In England the Colony was kept before the people by pamphlets distributed, and by sermons preached. In these the appeal most strongly made was to the missionary spirit. Large sums were contributed to send the Gospel of Christ to Virginia. Before leaving, the Colonists were assembled to receive the blessing and the instruction of the Mother Church.

The sermon preached on the 25th of April, 1609, and one preached in February, 1610, to the emigrants to Virginia have been preserved, and live to rebuke the untruth so widely disseminated that the Virginia Colony in its incipency was solely a commercial enterprise. To the title page of the sermon preached in 1610 to the Colony which settled in Henrico, there was affixed the following antiphon, which should certainly be chanted at some service held this year at Jamestown:

England to God.—"Lord, here am I, send me."

God to Virginia.—"He that walketh in darkness and hath no light, let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God."

Virginia to God.—"God be merciful to us and bless us and cause the light of thy countenance to shine upon us; let