GOD MAKES A PATH

ROGER, THE BOY

The exact date of Roger Williams’s birth is unknown. Nor are his historians agreed on the place where he was born. It is generally thought that he was born in London, where his father was a tailor. He is also said to have been distantly related to Oliver Cromwell.

When Roger Williams was a boy, a new system of writing had been devised, called shorthand. He learned it, and, going to the Star Chamber, took down some of the sermons and speeches. The Judge, Sir Edward Coke, was so pleased with his work, that he became Roger Williams’s friend and patron, and even gained him admission to one of the famous English schools. Later, young Roger Williams attended Cambridge University.

After leaving Cambridge, he is said to have studied law under his friend Sir Edward Coke. Then, not being satisfied with law, he studied to become a minister.

Like William Penn, Roger Williams was a thoughtful boy, and like William Penn, he had a sweet experience in childhood. For Roger Williams himself when old, said, “From my childhood, now about three score years, the Father of lights and mercies touched my soul with a love for Himself, to his Only Begotten, the true Lord Jesus, and to his holy Scriptures.”

SOUL LIBERTY

In those days in England, many members of the Established Church believed that the Church needed reforming, or purifying. These members were called Puritans.

They were severely persecuted. A number of them emigrated from England to Massachusetts Bay. One body of these colonists settled in Salem, and another founded Charlestown and Boston.

About a year after the settlement of Boston, a young man came thither from England. He, too, had left home because of religious persecution. He was known to be a godly man, and thought to be a Puritan. He was warmly welcomed by the Boston folk. He was Roger Williams.

But soon the good folk of Boston were scandalized.

The Puritans of Boston had not actually separated from the Established Church, as had their neighbours, the Separatists of Plymouth; they had merely purified their mode of worship. They had, moreover, decreed that the Government of their Colony should be directed by their church. They did not permit any man not in good church-standing to have a vote in public affairs. They even persecuted folk who did not believe as they did, and who would not attend their church.

Roger Williams soon electrified them by urging not only separation from the Established Church, but asserting that no Government had a right to interfere with the religious faith of any one. The place of the Government, he said, was to prevent crime, not to enforce any form of religion. Every man had the right to “soul liberty” he asserted.

He also insisted that the King of England had no right whatsoever to give away the lands belonging to the Indians, without their consent.

The Puritans bitterly opposed him. After a few years, since he continued to preach and teach his beliefs, they tried him in their court and banished him from the Colony.

In the middle of a New England Winter, he was forced to leave his wife, child, and many sorrowing friends, and flee through the snow to safety. He had with him to direct his way, only a sun-dial and compass.

His sufferings were terrible. He never got over the effects of the cold and hunger which he endured on that flight through the Wilderness.

He had made friends among the Indians, with Massasoit and Canonicus. He had most lovingly carried the Gospel to them and their peoples. He had passed many a night with them in their lodges.

And now that he was in want and distress, it was his Indian friends who succoured him.

In the Spring, he had begun to build and plant at Seekonk, when Governor Winslow of Plymouth, in the kindest of spirits, sent him word that Seekonk was within the bounds of Plymouth Colony; and in order that there might be no trouble with the Massachusetts Bay Colony, he advised him to move across the water, where he would be as free as the Plymouth folk themselves, adding that then Roger Williams and the Plymouth Folk might be loving neighbours together.

WHAT CHEER!
Providence
Founded 1636

Without bitterness or complaint, Roger Williams prepared immediately to abandon the cabin he had built at Seekonk, and the fields which he had so industriously sown and cultivated.

With five companions who had joined him there, he entered his canoe and dropped down the river, watching the bank for an inviting landing.

On approaching a little cove, friendly voices saluted him. On Slate Rock, Indians were waiting to welcome him.

“What cheer, Netop!” they exclaimed.

It was a salutation, meaning, “How do you do, friend!”

Roger Williams and his companions landed, but were more pleased with the welcome than the place.

Getting into their canoe again, they rounded Indian Point and Fox Point, and sailed up a beautiful sheet of water, skirting a dense forest, to a spot near the mouth of the Mooshausick River.

A spring of fresh water was no doubt one of its attractions. Here Roger Williams commenced to build again, and to prepare for future planting.

He gave the place the name of Providence, “in grateful remembrance of God’s merciful providence to me in my distress.”

Z. A. Mudge (Arranged)

RISKING HIS LIFE

I

No one can say that Roger Williams was not a good Christian, a better one than those who drove him from his home, for he soon risked his own life to save them from danger.

The fierce and warlike Indians of the Pequot tribe had made an attack on the settlers, and were trying to get the large and powerful tribe of the Narragansetts to join them. They wished to kill all the white people of the Plymouth Colony, and drive the pale faces from the country.

The people of Plymouth and of Boston, too, were in a great fright when they heard of this. They knew that Roger Williams was the only white man in that region who had any influence with the Indians, and they sent to him, begging him to go to the Narragansett camp and ask the Narragansetts not to join the Pequots.

Many men would have refused to go into a horde of raging savages, to procure the safety of their enemies. But Roger Williams was too noble to refuse; though he knew that his life would be in the utmost danger, for some of the bloodthirsty Pequots were then with the Narragansetts.

He promptly went to the Indian camp, and spent three days in the wigwams of the Sachems, though he expected every night to have the treacherous Pequots “put their bloody knives to his throat.”

But the Narragansetts were strong friends of the honest pastor. They listened to his counsel. And in the end, they and another tribe, the Mohicans, joined the English against the Pequots.

Thus it was chiefly due to Roger Williams, that the Colonists were saved from the scalping knives of the Indians.

II

Years of peace and prosperity existed in Providence plantations. The Colony grew. No man interfered with another man’s religion. Those in the other New England Colonies, who did not want to be forced to accept the creed of the Puritans, came to the Colony of Roger Williams.

He was their principal pastor. He was so kind, gentle, and good, that everybody respected and loved him. His people were his children. He had brought them together, and spent his time working for their good; and they looked on him as their best friend.

Charles Morris (Arranged)