USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Fairfield > Prime ancient society of Fairfield, Connecticut, 1639-1889; an historical paper > Part 6
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Samuel Morehouse, chosen 1880.
John B. Morehouse, chosen 1885. Andrew Wakeman, chosen 1889.
REMINISCENCES OF DR. ALEXANDER McLEAN.
1857-1866.
A period embracing a little over nine years seems to be a very inconsiderable portion of a history which includes two centuries and a half. It can have special importance only as it is linked in indissoluble bonds with that which preceded and succeeded it, and must therefore stand to the end of time as a part of the history of the First Ecclesiastical Society of Fairfield.
The period from 1857 to 1866 is not so remote that it re- quires the examination of time-worn documents to discover the things which then occurred, for they are still fresh in the memory of some, while others now belonging to this an- cient church look back to these years as embracing the happy days of their childhood, and tell of them to the generation which has followed.
If I rightly understand what is expected of me in the urgent request to furnish something for this Historical Paper, my pleasing task is to give a brief sketch of the church during my pastorate, and of those who were then prominent in the management of its affairs.
Nature did not vouchsafe to me a very warm reception. With my friend, the pastor of my boyhood, Rev. R. Richard Kirk, of Oneida County, N. Y., I reached Fairfield Saturday evening, January 23, 1857. Deacon Bennett was at the depot to welcome us to his hospitable home. There were no indica- tions of any unusual atmospheric disturbance, but the Sab- bath proved to be an intensely cold day, so that after preach- ing in the morning Mr. Kirk was glad to take shelter in the
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house of Mr. Henry T. Curtiss, and there spent the night and several succeeding days.
During the evening a most violent snow storm began, and continued the whole of the next day. By noon travel of every kind was suspended. Even the trains on the New Haven Railroad were stopped for several days.
Tuesday, the 26th, was bright and beautiful, but the roads continued impassable. Members of Consociation living out of the town of Fairfield could not reach the meeting, conse- quently only Mr. Sturges, of Greenfield Hill, Mr. Merwin, of Southport, and Mr. Jennings, of Black Rock, were present to take part in the services. I do not know whether the un- precedented snow storm is mentioned in the Minutes of Con- sociation, but it explains the reason why so few of the mem- bers were present. Mr. Kirk preached the sermon and gave the Charge to the pastor ; Mr. Sturges offered the prayer of installation ; Mr. Merwin gave the Charge to the people, and Mr. Jennings the right hand of fellowship.
I have to admit that my first visit among my people im- pressed me in a very singular manner and made me feel that the church had made a mistake in calling a mere stripling to minister to so many who had lived even beyond the four score years which are allotted to us here.
When I called on Mrs. Mills, (the mother of Mrs. Cathe- rine Beers and Miss Mary Mills, ) Mrs. Samuel Rowland, Mrs. Phelps, Mr. Thaddeus Burr, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Turney, Mr. and Mrs. David Trubee, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Trubee, and many others almost as old. I felt that I had been called to bury the remnants of a past generation. I had never be- fore seen so many aged people in proportion to the popula- tion. Yet the grave was opened to receive both the young and the middle-aged many times before the summons came to any of these aged ones.
It was during the pastorates of my immediate predecessors, Dr. Atwater and Dr. Lord, that the church and village passed through what might be designated a transition period. The Court, and with it the Jail, had been removed to Bridge- port, and with them had disappeared the eminent jurists who had before made Fairfield their home. Judge and Mrs. Sher-
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man, to whom the church in Fairfield owed so much, were sleeping in the final home appointed for all the living. The ancient church building, of which I had heard so much, with its superabundant windows and its stove raised upon a plat- form in the middle aisle, had disappeared and the present modern structure graced the Green.
The prayer meeting was held every Friday evening in the private residence of some one of the church members. The first one I attended was at the house of Deacon Nichols, and the second at the home of Rev. Frederick Downer, near the residence of the late Captain Jolin Gould. As the parsonage was unoccupied, it was proposed to hold the meetings in the west parlor, which was large and commodious, and during the Summer of 1857 and the Spring of 1858 the Friday evening prayer meeting was held there.
Though urged repeatedly by Deacon Morehouse to visit the Sunday School, I declined because it was held in the gal- leries of the new church. The superintendent occupied the organ loft, while the boys and girls were seated in the side galleries. When they were at last brought down into the body of the church, I gladly accepted the invitation to ad- dress the school, and intimated to the children as an open secret, that they would soon have a nice Sunday School room. This suggestion speedily took definite shape, and before the Summer closed the full amount necessary to build the chapel had been subscribed, and plans for the new building accepted. But about the end of August the great panic of 1857 came. Ruin seemed to stare many in the face, as their investments appeared to be almost worthless. Under the circumstances, it was deemed expedient not to collect the subscriptions, and to delay the erection of the building till more favorable times.
The next year every dollar that had been subscribed was paid, and the present chapel crected. I had undertaken to relieve the building committee of all care respecting the desk and the ventilation. The desk was constructed according to my wishes, so that there should be no formidable barricade between the speaker and his audience. But I could not re- member the other duty which I had assumed, nor could the committee. When the time came for the dedication, Dr.
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Hewit preached the sermon, and before he concluded, we had reason to remember just what had been neglected. Instead of a well ventilated room, we found that it was as nearly air- tight as human ingenuity could make it. I am afraid that many have suffered from my officiousness and forgetfulness. Still, I always look upon the neat and attractive building, which since my time has been greatly improved, with pecu- liar satisfaction, and feel that if I did nothing else for the dear old church, I was at least instrumental in securing for the Society what it had never possessed during two hundred years, a convenient place for the social meetings of the church and for the Sunday School.
During my first winter in Fairfield there was only one house on the main street unoccupied, and this state of things con- tinued till nearly the close of my pastorate. Fairfield was not then a mere place of Summer resort, but a place of per- manent abodes, so that the church work went on without the interruption of a Winter hegira. Summer visitors were numer- ous, and the members of the congregation always welcomed them to seats in their pews, although they were never called upon to contribute in any manner towards the support of the church. But about the time my pastorate ended many of the families found that it was more convenient to pass the Winter in the city, and during the Winter months a walk down the main street became rather depressing, especially in the even- ing when darkness reigned almost unbroken by a ray of light. The contrast between the Summer and the Winter had become very marked in the village as well as in the church.
The officers of the church during this period were Deacon Charles Bennett, Deacon Samuel Nichols and Deacon Madison Morehouse. The standing committee consisted of the three deacons and Mr. Burr Lyon and Mr. Joseph Lockwood. After the death of Deacon Nichols, Mr. Henry T. Curtiss was elected a deacon, and for years served the church with unassuming fidelity.
"Old" Deacon Morehouse (the father of the present Deacon John B. Morehouse) had been relieved from duty on account of failing health. For years he had been afflicted with a very peculiar nervous affection of the heart, and was subject at
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any time to severe spasms. When he called to welcome the young pastor at the parsonage, he was seized with one of these painful attacks, but in a little while was able to get into his wagon and return to his home. This was the beginning of an acquaintance which continued during the rest of his life.
I can never forget a visit made to him on a beautiful Sum- mer morning after lie was confined to his bed. He appeared so bright and happy that I said to him: "Deacon, you must have had an unusually comfortable night." His reply was: "I had, although till after midnight my sufferings were greater than I could endure. One spasm followed another in such quick succession, and the agony was so intense that great drops of perspiration stood upon my brow. But while I was suffering thus my thoughts turned to my Saviour and what He endured for me. His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground. I forgot my own sufferings thinking of what He endured, and shouted aloud for joy." Truly, he had been with the Saviour in the garden of Getli- semane, and his wrinkled, pain-worn face shone with a light which this world can never impart. His sufferings soon ended and he entered into the joy of his Lord.
Thaddeus Burr occupied a conspicuous place in the house of God. He could not sit in the pews and so occupied a chair in front of the pulpit. He always remained during the inter- mission, and passed the time in reading his Bible. He de- lighted to tell how many times he had read it through from Genesis to Revelation in the "Meeting House." Dr. Hewit made the address at his funeral, and commenced his remarks as follows; "Forty years ago, when I first came to Fairfield, Thaddeus Burr was then a young man in his prime. If there was a meeting in any part of this County, for the advancement of the Redeemer's Kingdom, there you would find Thaddeus Burr in his little old wagon, and his horse almost as old as himself."
The deaconship and the standing committee have already been noticed. Deacon Nichols was the first of the number called to his eternal home. His prayers always impressed those who heard them with their sincerity and child-like sim- plicity. But he was not always a happy Christian. He was
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well aware that he had a serious affection of the heart and that his call might be sudden. Frequently, when suffering from one of these attacks, he was filled with apprehension amounting almost to terror. Hence he concluded that his hope was only a delusion, for otherwise, according to the promise, he would have been delivered from the bondage of fear. Several times he called upon me to ask if there was no way in which he could demit his church-membership and re- tire from office. I tried to show him that he was writing bitter things against himself,-that the Lord had only prom- ised us grace for the time of need. Learning that he had been confined to his bed for several days, I called to see him. Although his family did not regard him as alarmingly ill, yet I could not but feel that the end was near. Calmly he talked of his departure, and hoped that it was near at hand. I said: "Deacon, you are not afraid of death?" "Afraid of death? Oh, no. I long to go home and be with Christ and the loved ones who have gone before, and who are now with Him." We knew it not, but he was even then almost through the valley of the shadow of death, but to him it was so bright he did not feel the gloom. In less than an hour from the time I left him, he had passed through the gate into the city. The Saviour had met His timid disciple and in His presence fear vanished, and peace and joy took its place.
Mr. Burr Lyon, on the other hand, was a cheerful, happy Christian. I never remember to have seen him in a despond- ing mood. "The joy of the Lord was his strength." He was never over-anxious about anything. Every cloud had for him a silver lining. He rested upon the promises, and reminded me always of Enoch. He walked with God, and so impressed all who came under his influence.
Deacon Bennett was the ruling spirit in the church, and he was a safe ruler. He was a man of sterling integrity,-strong in all his convictions. His natural endowments were great. Had they been developed by a liberal education, he would have gained an enviable position in any of the learned pro- fessions. An incident in his early life, familiar to some, is a good illustration of his character.
When Charles Bennett moved from Westport to Fairfield
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as a young married man and commenced business, Judge Sherman called upon him, and, to encourage him in his trade, ordered a pair of boots. As he was leaving, he asked when they would be done? Young Bennett replied, "On Saturday." On the appointed day the Judge called and asked for his boots, and was told that they were not yet finished. This was a good opportunity for the Judge to give a lecture on veracity, and he improved it. No reply was returned by the young mechanic, and the Judge went home. In less than an hour afterwards there was a knock at his office door. But although the one without was invited to enter, the invita- tion was disregarded and the knock repeated. At last the Judge went to the door and found young Bennett with the newly finished boots in one hand and his old silver watch in the other. "Walk in, Mr. Bennett, walk in," was the cor- dial invitation. "No, sir, I came to leave your boots. I told you they would be done on Saturday. It wants six hours of sun down, and I leave it to you, sir, whether I have been guilty of falsehood, and whether I deserved in any degree your severe reproof. Good day, sir." After that Judge Sher- man never wore a pair of boots that was not made in Charles Bennett's shop. They became warm personal friends, and the Judge manifested his high appreciation of his character by making him one of his executors.
Deacon Bennett did not belong to the progressive school. "Strengthen the things that remain, that are ready to die," was always his reply to anything like innovation. The an- tiquity of any custom was to him its highest endorsement, and more especially if it had regard to the affairs of the First Ecclesiastical Society of Fairfield. The last Monday of De- cember was the best day in the whole year for the annual meeting of the Society, because that was the day selected generations ago by the fathers. The tax which could, when necessary, be levied upon the members of the Society was the safeguard of the church. I think the tax has now been aban- doned, but I am quite sure the change was never made while Deacon Bennett lived.
Dr. Atwater was his ideal pastor. For a time he tried to mould me into that dignified and imposing stature, but at last
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he concluded, as he could not make the stripling fill the clothes of Dr. Atwater, it might possibly be the Lord's will that he should develop his own individuality, and became reconciled to having him as the Lord had made him.
Joseplı Lockwood had great power in prayer and was for many years a pillar in the church. He was only a member of the standing committee during my pastorate, but afterwards was very properly made a deacon.
Deacon Madison Morehouse is still with you. May the Lord long spare him to the church. He was superintendent of the Sabbath School during my entire pastorate. Living five miles from Fairfield, there was never a Sabbath so stormy that he could not get to church, and never a Friday night so dark that he could not find his way across lots to the Friday evening prayer meeting, even when the mud was so deep in the Spring that he could not come on horseback.
But the church of Fairfield was not only blessed with true and tried men who adorned the doctrine they professed, but also with honorable women not a few. To meet them one by one was a trial to a bashful boy. But to encounter these stately dames with their dignified and refined bearing in one assembly was overpowering. The pastor alone had the high privilege of being present at the annual meeting of the "Chari- table Society." Never can I forget my feelings as I entered the parlor of Mrs. Mills, where I had first to face them seated around the room in prim New England fashion. There was Mrs. Dr. Dennison, who well deserved the title sometimes given to her, "Queen Esther"; Mrs. Obadialı Jones, Miss Sally White, Miss Lucretia Sturges, Mrs. Mills, Mrs. Beers, Miss Mary Mills, Mrs. Beardsley, Mrs. Curtiss, and others too numerous to mention. It was with a shaking hand I took up the good Book, and of course read about Dorcas, and then with a trembling voice led these mothers in Israel in prayer. It was a yearly ordeal always dreaded. In giving out the notice for the last time, special emphasis was placed on the hour. Promptly to the time I was on hand, at the house of Mr. John Buckingham, for the meeting was to be held there with Mrs. Deborah Bennett. I was much pleased to find that only she and Mrs. Abbie Sturges were present. At the hour
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appointed I opened the meeting, and took my departure. On leaving the house, the ladies, headed by Mrs. Catherine Beers, Mrs. Beardsley, Mrs. Curtiss and others, were coming up the walk, and I had the pleasure of telling them that the meeting had been duly opened at the hour announced from the pulpit.
But I must not forget the great trial through which the nation passed during this period. The cloud of civil war had been hanging over us for several years, and at last burst with desolating fury. It was a time to try men's souls. The great majority in the church and town were loyal. A few sympa- thized with the South. There were national Fast Days and Thanksgivings not a few. Now we were called together to humble ourselves before God because our army had been de- feated, and now to thank Him for victories achieved, till at last the South surrendered and our armies returned to engage again in peaceful pursuits. Our church and town was not un- represented in this struggle. One of Fairfield's sons left a lucrative business in California that he might join a regiment belonging to his native State. Good service he rendered his country. He was often assigned to the most hazardous duty, and was several times taken prisoner, but always escaped ; and at last returned, when the war was ended, without a scar. I refer to Major John B. Morehouse.
I was only once accused of preaching a political sermon, and that was one Sunday evening when I took for my text, "There is no discharge in that war," illustrating my subject by the "Draft," which was soon to take place. But about that time my prayers were said to be always full of politics, because I never forgot to ask God to throw around those who had gone from among us His protecting arms, and to grant a speedy victory to our armies.
I have to record as my experience in Fairfield during a pastorate of nine years and a few months, that harmony always reigned. There was not a single case of discipline in all those years. There were no dissensions,-no family feuds. We lived in peace among ourselves and with those who were without. The children of the church grew up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and when they reached a suit-
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able age, "avouched the Lord Jehovah, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, to be their God." The bi-monthly sermon to the chil- dren was enjoyed, at least by the pastor himself, and by the colored people, who never failed to be largely represented in the galleries on these occasions, and the children were also interested and profited.
It is always with peculiar feelings that I look back to the church of my first love, where I was ordained to the ministry, where I first administered the sacraments of the Lord's Sup- per and baptism, where I received the first seals to my minis- try. As the devout Hebrew could say of Jerusalem of old, so can I say with my whole heart of the First Church of Fair- field, "If I forget thee, let my right hand forget her cunning."
May peace and prosperity continue to attend it as the cen- turies roll away.
THE FIVE MEETING HOUSES OF THE PRIME ANCIENT SOCIETY.
(AN EXTRACT FROM THE ADDRESS DELIVERED BY THE PASTOR IN TOWN HALL ON LORD'S DAY MORNING, JUNE 1, 1890, TWO DAYS AFTER THE BURNING OF THE FIFTH MEETING IIOUSE.)
The first Meeting-House was erected probably in the year 1640. It was a small, rude building, made of logs and rough hewn timbers. The chinks and crevices were filled with clay. There were occasional openings to admit the light. The roof was a primitive piece of workmanship-thatched possibly with our long meadow grass. And the door was a sort of barri- cade. This building was located upon the ground that has been consecrated to holy purposes these two hundred and fifty years. It was used as sanctuary, school-house and town meeting place. It served the parish during thirty-five years. It was built when the colonists were hard pressed by circum- stances, and pioneer life was a serious, stormful experience.
The second Meeting-House was built in the year 1675. The town was taxed and an edifice was erected that was deemed comfortable and convenient.
In 1679 Norwalk people came to Fairfield and modeled the roof of their new Meeting-House after the Fairfield structure. The dimensions and general features of our second structure are conveyed to us by this indirect testimony. The building was forty feet square. It was a frame structure. It was clap- boarded. A tower surmounted the centre of the roof. There was a high box pulpit, deacons' seats in front, and benches systematically arranged for the accommodation of worshippers. This house was builded amid the peril and disturbance of In- dian warfare. The people labored like our Jewish exemplars on their new, sacred walls-with weapon of defence in one hand and instrument of toil in the other.
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For seventy years the Fairfield parish used this second Meeting-House. But the town prospered and the population increased to such extent that some change was necessary. In 1709 the Ecclesiastical Society became incorporated, and the management of the church's financial affairs was entrusted to the Society. At length the time came to arise and build. The Ecclesiastical Society took the initiative.
The third Meeting-House was reared in the year 1745. At this time there waged a war of words between the State Church people and the Separatists. The third Meeting-House was sixty feet in length, forty-four feet in breadth, twenty- six feet in height-with a spire that pushed its way one hun- dred and twenty feet into the air. The interior was finished according to the prevailing fashion-a high pulpit, side gal- leries, numerous windows (two tiers of them) and rigid square pews. The tower and spire was on the northeast side of the house. There was a south entrance, a north entrance and an east entrance to the building. There were two steep ascents to the galleries-one in the tower, the other on the south in- terior of the house. This structure, says the Rev. Andrew Eliot, was a "large and elegant Meeting-House." To build it the people were taxed, according to the usual custom, two shillings and six pence on the pound the first year, the same assessment the second year, and four shillings and six pence the third year. A part of the old building was used in the new, and other portions of the former edifice were sold. The building committee numbered eight men: James Dennie, Na- thaniel Burr, Thomas Hill, John Silliman, David Rowland, James Smedley, Samuel Osborn, Lothrop Lewis. The people worshiped in the third Meeting-House for thirty-four years.
On July 8, 1779, it was burned by the British. Mr. Sayre, the Episcopal clergyman resident in the town, entreated Gen. Tryon to spare the town or a few houses, or at least the two churches. This last request was granted. "But the rear guard," says Mr. Eliot, "consisting of banditti, the vilest that was ever let loose among men, set fire to everything which Gen. Tryon had left." "While the town was in flames," writes the first President Dwight, "a thunder storm overspread the heavens just as the night came on. The conflagration of near
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two hundred dwelling houses illumined the earth, the skirts of the clouds, and the waves of the Sound, with an union of gloom and grandeur at once inexpressibly awful and magnifi- cent. The sky speedily was hung with the deepest darkness wherever the clouds were not tinged by the melancholy lustre of the flames. At intervals the lightning blazed with a livid and terrible splendor. The thunder rolled above. Beneath, the roaring of the fires filled up the intervals with a deep, hollow sound, which seemed to be the protracted murmur of the thunder reverberated from one end of the heavens to the other." On July 30, twenty-two days after this ruthless, woe- ful destruction of property, Mr. Eliot, who meantime had been ill, delivered an address to this First Church and Society in Fairfield. This address has been preserved for us in the corner stone of the fifth Meeting-House. The venerable and interesting document transports us to the calamitous expe- rience of 1779. The address was delivered upon the Green before the ruins of the beloved sanctuary. Mr. Eliot pictures the lamentable condition of himself, his family, his parish. "Not a house for my shelter-two-thirds of my small personal estate plundered and consumed-a wife and three small chil- dren dependent on me for their maintenance. * I feel myself in a state of uncertainty as to many of the necessities of life." And yet bravely continues Mr. Eliot: "I am ready to undergo any difficulties in the work of the ministry for your sakes." For the year that followed the burning of the church, public worship was conducted in private houses. Then for five years worship was conducted in the new Town Hall. Tradition transmits to posterity the story of the griev- ous trials and suffering that stretched through anxious and laborious years. It is a pathetic and unforgetable testimony to the quenchless zeal and noble self-sacrifice of the people. On Jan. 7, 1785, a vote to re-build was taken by the Society.
The fourth Meeting-House was modeled after the one that had been burned. Its dimensions and general arrangements were the same. The congregation met in the new edifice for the first time on March 26, 1786. The building had floor, walls, roof-that was all. It was a barren, furnitureless, un- finished Meeting-House. And it was seventeen years ere the
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people were able to command the funds to complete the wood- work, plastering and glazing of the interior. During these first years people sat on stones or blocks of wood or whatever they might bring to the sanctuary for a seat. The rough, in- clement weather made merry without regard to sacredness of place or sensitiveness of worshippers. But as the people recovered slowly from their losses they continued their labor upon the Meeting-House. Pulpit and pews and gallery stairs were placed in 1790. Col. David Burr was granted permission to paint the pulpit in 1799, if he paint it "of a light stone color, so-called." The interior was first painted in 1814-the exterior in 1828. It is a curious and suggestive fact that it was forty-two years ere this fourth Meeting-House was fin- ished. The first funds came from the confiscated property of traitors. Then the town was taxed as a second source of pay- ment. But this did not do the work. Subscription papers were circulated. And altogether it was a task that dragged through long years. That fact tells the story of the people's poverty, affliction, struggle.
The fifth Meeting-House was reared in 1849. "In proceed- ing to remove this venerable edifice,"-I quote from the ad- dress which was delivered by Dr. Atwater August 3, 1849, when the corner-stone of the Fifth Sanctuary was laid, an address that has been preserved in the corner-stone of that sanctuary-"In proceeding to remove this venerable edifice and replacing it by another, we are actuated by no spirit of pride or ostentation. We are actuated by a sense of duty." This Meeting-House was located a little south of the former one, close upon the site of the second structure. It was a frame building, Romanesque as to style of architecture. The length of it (including the projecting tower and pulpit recess) was ninety-five feet. Its breadth forty-seven feet. The height of tower and spire one hundred and thirty feet. The seating capacity of the audience room was five hundred and fifty. Wide galleries were built upon three sides of the house. A large vestibule extended across the front part of the structure. The three entrances into this vestibule faced the east. Three doors opened from the vestibule into the audience room, and three aisles extended through the room. The side aisles ad-
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joined the walls of the building. The pulpit, galleries and pews were constructed of light wood, grained and varnished.
The fire which destroyed chapel, parlors, church, occurred on the night of May 29th and the morning of May 30th. It was a few minutes past eleven o'clock that flames issued from the south closet in the vestibule of the chapel. When first discovered the fire was eating its way through the ceiling of the closet and spreading through the attic and breaking out of the cupola. But the flames had made such progress that it was impossible to save the building. The furniture was hastily removed. Meantime the flames pushed their riot- ous way into the parlors, tarried while they wrought their fiery desolation and then leaped upon the roof of the sanc- tuary. It was one o'clock when the flames had swathed the church, making it a flame-compacted temple that shone amid encompassing gloom and darkness. The walls were fire studded -the roof was fire thatched-the tower was fire buttressed- fire columns held aloft a palpitant pillar of fire. The very heavens seemed pierced by this radiant, majestic shaft. Then came the play and interplay of flame upon flame and light upon light-a fretted network of vaulted fire. Then the deli- cate luminous spire bowed itself into the flaming structure- fire roof, fire floor, fire wall were absorbed by the central vortex of flame-fire arch that spanned the preacher's place reluctantly yielded its strength and fell prostrate into flames -and the vanishing pile gave its last light to those who watched and waited.
But memory was not consumed with the blazing sanctuary. And you travel back the years when as children, led by a father's hand and a mother's hand, you worshiped God in His temple. You name the pastor who faithfully taught you and guided you into the Kingdom. You think upon those solemn scenes when you first made vows of christian disciple- ship. You recall the day when service for your dead was pro- nounced within those walls. You company in spirit with a noble host of sainted men and women who once were revered and beloved worshippers in the vanished church home. Thank God, memory was not consumed with the blazing sanctuary.
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And christian character was not consumed by the flames.
All the precious holy influences which were sourced in sanc- tuary song and prayer and speech have perpetuated them- selves in manhood and womanhood. All the tender, happy associations of spiritual activity and fellowship have been en- duringly incorporated in the very fibre of your souls. Gospel power, and mind culture, as they were channeled by the min- istry of truth, they have also wrought through the years and are indestructible builded into character.
And hope-christian hope-was not consumed. The les- sons taught through hastening years have begotten a holy expectation that nothing shall dim or destroy. And such hope quickens our spirits into a fullness and glory of life that defies all stress of weather, all trial of calamity, all loss of material forms. Our hope is in God. And He who said to burdened Israel, "Let your hands be strong," inspires us to. a lively hope that compasses not alone the appointed tasks of time but also the christian felicities of eternity.
Thus has the vanished sanctuary builded by the fathers shared the shaping of our destiny. "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Let your hands be strong." It is your precious, holy privilege to rear another sanctuary upon the hallowed and historic site-a sanctuary durable in substance, complete in its appointments, stately and beautiful in form, true minis- trant to your children and the generations yet to come-a sanctuary-ministrant whose influences and benedictions shall also be wrought into sacred memory, Christ-like character and eternal hope.
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INDEX.
SKETCH OF THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHI, .
PAGE.
5
A RECORD OF GIFTS TO THE CHURCH AND SOCIETY, 45
THE LADIES' CHARITABLE SOCIETY,
.
55
THE LADIES' PRAYER MEETING,
57
RECOLLECTIONS BY A LADY OF FOURSCORE YEARS, . 61
EXTRACTS FROM TOWN RECORDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES, 63
REMINISCENCES OF REV. ALEXANDER MCLEAN, D. D., 71
THE FIVE MEETING HOUSES OF THE PRIME ANCIENT SOCIETY,
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