HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MEDFORD, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, FROM ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT, IN 1630, TO THE PRESENT TIME, 1855.
Charles Brooks, Ed.

[364] good work by the result of that effort. The resolution was formed on a bright autumnal morning, as the only means of preserving the virtue of several apprentices, and at first called forth ridicule and reproach. No rum! No rum!! was written by these young devotees of Bacchus on every clapboard of the workshop, on each timber and chip in the yard. Some refused to work; others cursed and swore. But firmness gave opportunity for reflection, which, in a few, approved the decision, whose number increased, till, in two years, they became the majority, and, in five, drove the monster from every yard,--a result in which we heartily rejoice.

The sermon gives a religious aspect to ship-building. It may symbolize human life. The wood and metals of which a hull is composed come from the earth; and in that ship's body are represented the mind of the moulder, the skill of the architect, the hand of the carpenter, the smith, and the calker: and these most important parts are so blended as to attract least notice; while the labors of the sailmaker and the rigger, the taste of the carver, and the coloring of the painter, catch the eye and charm the mind. The hour of launching is the hour of its birth. The anxiety of the builder then has its parallel elsewhere. It goes an infant to its new life to begin its world-journey. How important that it should be well found! How important that its compass, like a good conscience, should be ever in order; that its pilots and mariners should be ever quick for duty; and, above all, that its lading should be such, that, like virtue, it will secure wealth to its owner in the distant market! So, in this voyage of human life, if we put good works on board and wait the wind, if we take for our chart the word of God and are faithful to its heavenly bearings, we shall safely pass the dangers of the sea, as we sail towards that port of death to which all gales drive us; and, having cast that anchor which can never be weighed, we shall find a safe moorage in the haven of eternal peace.

The ships of our day and of our town have borne the missionaries of the cross, with their printing-presses and Bibles, to the heathen of benighted lands; and the ancient prediction seems here in one sense fulfilled. Historic truth, without any violation of language, may now say of Medford what the prophet Ezekiel says of Tyrus: “The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market; and thou wast replenished and made very glorious in the midst of the seas.”

When we consider how much ship-building has done for