SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 BY REV, THOMAS LAURIE, D, D, 
 
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS 
 AT AMHERST 
 
 UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 Special Collections & Rare Books 
 
SEMI CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 A DISCOURSE 
 
 DELIVERED AT 
 
 West Roxbury (Boston), Mass., 
 
 ON THE 
 
 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 South Evangelical Church, 
 
 June 7, 1885, 
 By rev. THOMAS LAURIE, D. D. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 Beacon Press: Thomas Todd, Printer, 
 
 Congregational House. 
 
 1885. 
 
PASTORS. 
 
 Installed. 1J)ismi.ssed 
 
 Rev. Christopher Marsh May 17, 1837 Dec. 11, 1S50 
 
 Rev. Thomas Laurie, D. D May 7, 1851 Jan. 30, 1S68 
 
 Rev. William S. Hubbell, D. D. . . Jan. 30, 186S Jan. 25, 1872 
 
 Rev. Edv^^ard Stro.\g, D. D May 2, 1872 July 13, 1882 
 
 Rev. Clarence A. Beckwith .... Nov. 2, 1882 
 
DISCOURSE. 
 
 And he is the head of the body, the church. — Col. i: i8. 
 
 What is a church ? A Congregationalist might reply, "A 
 company of believers in covenant with God, and with each other, 
 to serve God, and observe his ordinances," and in one sense he 
 answers well. 
 
 We have a better answer, however, in the words before us. 
 "The church is the body of Christ" — a short definition, but 
 full of the heaven whence it came, for it tells us that as Christ 
 had a body when he walked a man among men, so has he today. 
 As then, he looked through the eyes of that body, heard through 
 its ears, spoke through its organs of speech, and wrought 
 through its hands, so now he acts through his church, not 
 only transforming its members into his own image, but through 
 them making others also partakers of the same grace. We can- 
 not hold too firmly that it is not the church which blesses man, 
 but Christ working through the church, as once he acted through 
 his body that hungered and was weary, suffered, and was nailed 
 to the cross. What mighty work could that body have wrought 
 without his indwelling spirit ? Precisely so does Christ work in 
 his church today. Take Christ out of our churches, and what 
 would remain .' Nothing but branches cut off from the vine, and 
 so fit only for the fire. Even if only once he should be absent 
 from its assemblies, that meeting, whether on the Sabbath or 
 through the week, would show no sign of spiritual life, nor could 
 it until he came and made it live. 
 
 This Bible view of the church glorifies it. View it as a 
 mere human organization of good men, and we tremble as we 
 think of their possibilities of evil — of their liability even to 
 
apostacy. But when we view it as liis body, we know that he 
 will never leave it nor forsake it, for he dieth no more, but is 
 the same yesterday, today, and forever. Look on it as a mere 
 human body of men, and how soon will they scatter, this one to 
 another church, and that one to the grave. Like the river flow- 
 ing by, never composed of the same drops for two moments, 
 so some churches undergo a perpetual change, but the fact that 
 it is the body of Christ preserves its identity from age to age. 
 
 When your second pastor came here in 185 1 he found two 
 deacons. The senior deacon an Israelite indeed, in whom was 
 no guile. The other totally dififerent, and yet simple hearted as 
 a child. During that pastorate two other deacons were chosen. 
 One whose peculiar fitness had previously caused him to be 
 selected for that office, and another whose rare qualifications 
 made him your unanimous choice. When tlie pastor left in 
 1867 he left them all in active service, but hardly had he gone 
 before the senior deacon was called home. In less than two 
 years. Deacon Alvin Smith followed, and in a little more than 
 four years, not one of the four remained. As often as the 
 absent pastor thought of you, those four vacant places first rose 
 up before him, and were the last thing to leave his thoughts. 
 
 Twice over has this church been sorely tried in the loss of 
 its officers. August 4, 187 1, Deacon Lucius A. Tolman died, 
 and on September 25, Deacon Michael Whittemore followed 
 him to heaven. Deacon John Walker died February 20, 1885, 
 and only three days later. Deacon George Smith entered into 
 rest — a blessed rest to a faithful servant. 
 
 The mention of deacons suggests another who had filled 
 that office in Roxbury, but whose modesty refused it here, yet 
 Deacon Andrew S. March — for the title followed him — was 
 not therefore idle or unfruitful, and we missed him sadly when 
 December 25, 1854, we laid in the grave the body still united to 
 Christ, to rest there until the resurrection. 
 
 Amid such losses what has kept this church alive .'' Only 
 He who having raised up these, and wrought through them, still 
 fills the vacant places and carries on his work. Even while our 
 bodies continue to be the home of our spirits, their material so 
 changes, that in a few years, not a particle remains the same. 
 So is it also with this body of the Lord Jesus, Only while in 
 our bodies efi:ete matter disappears, we scarce know how or 
 
5 
 
 when, the living stones in this building — to use another Bible 
 figure — go to be with Christ and to behold his glory. 
 
 And so both here and there, branches in the true vine bear 
 fruit to God. Only those which have "climbed over the wall " 
 that separates earth from heaven, bear better fruit ; how much 
 better we shall know when we come to be among them. 
 
 If the church is the body of him who liveth through all the 
 ages, let us look back at the beginning of this life in Roxbury. 
 From the first Christ had made the trees and plants, that everv 
 year leaved out afresh on these hills and valleys. He adorned 
 them with their rich variety of beauty. So the animals that fed 
 on the plants, or lay down under the trees, the birds that made 
 the groves vocal with their songs, all lived from him, and were fed 
 daily from his hand, but they were not created in his image, and 
 man had lost it, till it was restored again in Christ, when he 
 became united to the body of his Redeemer. 
 
 The first church in Roxbury was formed in 1632, with seven- 
 teen members, only twelve years after the landing at Plymouth, 
 with John Eliot for its first teacher, and Thomas Weld for pas- 
 tor. The official life of Eliot and Nehemiah Walter, his succes- 
 sor, extended continuously over one hundred and twenty years. 
 Surely the churches in Roxbury ought to be interested in mis- 
 sions today, when the first minister two hundred and fifty years 
 ago, labored so earnestly for the salvation of the red man who 
 roamed over these hills, and passed up and down yon river in 
 his canoe. The Indian Bible, that precious memorial of Eliot, 
 suggests memories of multitudes who, before their race disap- 
 peared from earth, had learned from it the way to heaven.' 
 
 The second church was formed eighty years later, Novem- 
 ber, 17 12, in what is now Roslindale. Their house of worship 
 
 ' The first Bible printed in America was this Massachusetts or Mohican 
 Bible, Cambridge, Mass., 1663, the New Testament having appeared 
 two 'years previously. The title is, " Mamussee Wuneetupanatamwe up 
 Biblum God. Naneeswe Nukkone Testament kah wonk Wusku Testament. 
 Ne quoshkinnumuk nashpe Wuttineumoh Christ noh oscowesit John Eliot." 
 /. e. The whole holy his Bible God, both Old Testament and also New 
 Testament. This turned by the servant of Christ, who is called John Eliot. 
 The volume is now extremely rare, and commands a great price, as high as 
 $t,30o.oo have been paid for a copy. J. Eliot was born at Nasing in 
 Essex, Eng., 1604, and died in Roxbury, Mass., May 20, 1690. 
 
was on Walter Street, so named in honor of the second minister 
 of tiie first church. Only a deserted graveyard now marks the 
 site, though thirty-three years ago the preacher attended the 
 funeral of Elizabeth Richards, aet. ninety-six, who attended 
 church there in early life. 
 
 The third church was formed in Jamaica Plain, December, 
 1770, and three years later the second church erected the meet- 
 ing house near Central Station, though the spire was not added 
 till 1822. 
 
 All these churches were more orthodox than many churches 
 bearing that name today, but great spiritual declension preceded 
 the Revolution, and so increased after it, that in the early part 
 of this century it is to be feared that salvation through the 
 atoning death of the Son of God was nowhere preached in Rox- 
 bury. The Baptist church in Dudley Street first lifted up the 
 fallen standard in 182 i. The Eliot (Congregational) Church, in 
 Kenilworth Street, followed September 18, 1834, and this church 
 joined their ranks June 11, 1835, witnessing that Christ cruci- 
 fied is to them that are called the power of God and the wis- 
 dom of God for salvation. 
 
 It is difficult for us today to appreciate the condition of 
 things here at that time. Some might be more impressed with 
 their secular aspect. No railroad went out of Boston till after 
 the close of the first third of the present century (1833).' 
 Society here was somewhat primitive compared with what one 
 would expect so near to the capital. The wave of progress 
 did not gather momentum till it had passed West Roxbury, and 
 reached to regions beyond. 
 
 The religious aspect, however, is what most concerns us. 
 Liberality was preferred to godliness. The church of Dedham 
 had been driven out of its house of worship, and its communion 
 furniture taken from it by due process of law. Here church 
 
 'A charter to build a railroad to Lowell was granted in 1830. In 
 1S31 the Boston & Providence, also the Boston & Worcester Railroad 
 corporations were organized, and the construction of the three roads was 
 begun in 1832. The Boston & Worcester Railroad was opened for travel 
 part way, Aprrl, 1834, and to Worcester July 4, 1835. The Boston & Prov- 
 idence Railroad was opened to Readville, June 4, 1834, and to Providence 
 August, 1835. The West Roxbury Branch Railroad was opened for travel 
 early in 1849. 
 
and sanctuary together went out from the old paths. From 
 1837 to 1843 Theodore Parker was its pastor, though his ration- 
 alism then was not so radical as after his removal to Boston. 
 The Encyclopadia Britajinica (XVlll, p. 301, col. i ), says — and 
 its statements will not be suspected of any bias toward ortho- 
 do.xy — "He denied all special authority to the Bible, to Christ, 
 and to Christianity. The Boston Unitarian clergy denounced 
 the preacher " (for a sermon preached in 1841 on "the transient 
 and permanent in Christianity") "and declared that the young- 
 man must be silenced. No Unitarian publisher could be found 
 for his sermon, and nearly all the pulpits of the city were closed 
 against him. To exchange with him was fatal to a minister's 
 reputation for (even) Unitarian Orthodoxy." While such was 
 the character of the pulpit utterances of the church in this com- 
 munity, you may judge what was the religious sentiment of the 
 people, crowds came in carriages from all the region round to 
 hear the champion of rationalism, and any suspicion of a leaning 
 to spiritual religion subjected a man to all sorts of annoyance, 
 even the children of such, in the streets on their way to and 
 from school, received such treatment that often they reached 
 home in tears. To intensify this state of things, the famous 
 " Brook Farm " was then in the heyday of its popularity, in 
 another part of the parish, and joined with Mr. Parker in pour- 
 ing contempt on the gospel.' 
 
 It was well for this church that at that time it had a pastor. 
 
 'This was a nondescript experiment intended to eliminate the good 
 of communism, and leave behind its evil. The leading spirit was the 
 Rev. George Ripley, at one lime a Unitarian minister in Purchase Street, 
 Boston, and afterwards one of the editors of the American Encyclopedia, G. 
 W. Curtis, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and other notabilities, both men and 
 women, were among its members. Miss Elizabeth P. Peabody wrote a very 
 appreciative account of it in The Dial, but she described her own hopes 
 and aspirations rather than the thing as it was. Some articles in T/w Old 
 atid New and one in The Atlantic Monthly do not give a very high idea of 
 the moral earnestness of the body, which soon fell to pieces by its own weight. 
 Its radical mistake was the idea that society needed organic reconstruction, 
 instead of a new life from God, that outward readjustments of form could 
 remove all its evils. Whereas the one thing essential to its healing is that 
 it should be permeated with the life of Christ. "Except a man be born 
 anew he cannot see the kingdom of God," is as true of our social relations, 
 as of our individual life. 
 
8 
 
 who did not challenge debate, proudly confident that the force 
 of his logic, and the power of his eloquence, would ensure him 
 the victory, but one who was content quietly to preach the truth 
 through which God sanctifies his people. And as he is the only 
 one of the five pastors of this church who has passed from 
 among us, it will be proper to speak of him more at length. 
 
 Rev. Christopher Marsh, son of Edward and Eunice Marsh, 
 was born in Campton, N. H., August 4, 1794. The house stood 
 on a retired and very hilly road to the east of the Congrega- 
 tional church. Converted at the age of twenty- one, he at 
 once began preparation for the work of the ministry, as did 
 some others not long after from the same town. He graduated at 
 Dartmouth College, 1820, studied theology for three years under 
 private instruction, and was ordained June 4, 1823, pastor in 
 Sanford, Me. After laboring six or seven years there, he was 
 installed at Biddeford in the same State, where his daughter 
 thinks he had the care of two pulpits, one in the upper and the 
 other in the lower part of the town. Leaving there he became 
 Secretary of the American Sunday-School Union for Massachu- 
 setts, and took up his residence in Cambridge, and here in 1833 
 he buried his wife, Nancy W. Pearson, daughter of Joseph and 
 Hannah Pearson, who was born in Haverhill, N. H., October 
 14, 1796.' 
 
 ' They were married July 9, 1823, and she was the mother of all his 
 children, as follows: Elizabeth P., married Edward L. Goddard of Clare- 
 mont, N. H., June 13, 1S55, who died March 30, 1880, aged seventy. She 
 now resides in Plainfield, N. J., with her son. Phoebe F., married Prof. 
 Edwin Pierce, December 23, 1873, ^"^ resides in West Newton. Maria M. 
 A., married John Haven of Boston, who died in West Newton, February 18, 
 1882. Christopher, married Caroline Disney of Cincinnati, O., where he 
 now resides. In 1834, Mr. Marsh married Miss Lucy Gilpatrick, born in 
 Biddeford, Me., July 3, 1792, whose labors for this church can never be for- 
 gotten by those who witnessed them, nor can its history be complete without 
 some account of one who did so much for its prosperity. Converted at 
 twenty years of age, she at once commenced a life of such active service to 
 Christ, that the opposition called forth from her family constrained her to 
 leave her home, though she went back and cared tenderly for her parents 
 during their last illness. Removing to Boston, besides regular attendance 
 on her church meetings, she was teacher in a school for colored children, 
 and for several years was matron of the woman's refuge. Mr. Marsh called 
 her from that position to be his helpmeet in West Roxbury, and it is not 
 hazarding much to say, that he could hardly have found one better adapted 
 
He began preaching here in a hall, in the second storj' of 
 the building across the street, in January, 1834, though he was 
 not installed till May 17, 1837. 
 
 He was now in the prime of life, of robust health, and of 
 faith not less firm and vigorous, and here he labored till his 
 dismission, December 11, 1850. Three years later, attracted 
 by the prospect of helping another church in its early struggles, 
 he removed to Jamaica Plain. 
 
 In the spring of 1858, his former people at Sanford sent for 
 him, and he removed there, and entered into the work with his 
 wonted earnestness, forgetting that he was now such an one as 
 Paul the aged. He found babes whom he had baptized now 
 office bearers in the church, a revival followed that more than 
 doubled the membership, but the work was more than he could 
 bear, and June 30, 1859, he fell on sleep. 
 
 He was a man of great practical wisdom, with a warm 
 heart, and eminently a man of prayer. Never did a Sabbath 
 find him in bed after five o'clock. This was his habit even 
 when not in the ministry. He rose quietly, disturbing no one, and 
 while others slept he wrestled at the mercy seat. His family 
 never heard him complain of anybody or anything, and hun- 
 dreds traced their conversion to his instrumentality. 
 
 It is interesting to note the way in which the Master led to 
 the formation of this church. A little girl, who lived near what 
 is now the Spring Street Station, Mary Whiting by name, used 
 
 to the work, or more zealous in it. She did a)l her own work at home, and 
 many a time after labors in the house, which most women would have em- 
 ployed others to do for them, she has gone out for parish work, as though 
 she had nothing else to do, nor was either distance, or wintry storm, allowed 
 to hinder it. The parish in her day was not small, territorially at least, and 
 she has often walked on foot through snow on errands of mercy, or minister- 
 ing help and comfort when it was needed. 
 
 It was just like her, after her husband died, to devote herself to city 
 mission work in Roxbury. Her friends entreated her to spare herself, but 
 her earnest expectation and hope was that Christ would be glorified in her, 
 whether by life or by death, and so it was. June 10, she sent in her resigna- 
 tion to the City Missionary Society, and before it was acted on, the Master 
 took her to himself, June 20, 1868. Of her, also, that word of the Master 
 was true, " She hath done what she could," for from the first to the last of 
 her Christian course, she did with her might whatsoever her hands found to 
 do. 
 
lO 
 
 to visit a friend in the family of Rev. Dr. Burgess in Dedham. 
 She went with her to church, and that led her to seek to take 
 her father's family there also. Instead of going with her, her 
 father threatened to punish her if she went herself, and she was 
 greatly troubled. After he died, God sent one to take care of 
 the farm who took all the family to the church of Dr. Burgess, 
 and four of them were received into it at the same communion. 
 Years passed, and Mary's mother opened her house for preach- 
 ing, August 26, 1832. Students from the seminary at Newton 
 conducted the services, till a death in the family interrupted 
 them, and they were not resumed, probably because the house 
 was not large enough for the increasing numbers. In March, 
 1833, the hall already referred to was rented for $12 per annum, 
 and fitted up at a cost of $25 more, of course in a very primi- 
 tive way. A plain standing desk was the pulpit, that long stood 
 in the basement of this building, and the pews were benches 
 without backs. Twenty-eight persons subscribed $126.50 for 
 the year, and Dr. Burgess preached for the first time, April 14, 
 to about fifty hearers. Ten of the subscribers were members 
 of his church, and he wisely charged $68.04 for his services 
 during the year, that they might feel the work was their own and 
 not his. So a hall that had been noted for dancing, became a 
 place of prayer. Dr. Lyman Beecher, and John Codman were 
 among the preachers that year. Next year fifty persons sub- 
 scribed $212.75, ^^ increase of twenty-two names and $98. 
 
 An ecclesiastical society was formed April 11, 1834, and 
 the church was organized with twenty-five members, June 11, 
 1835. Eighteen of these brought letters from other churches, 
 and seven entered for the first time into covenant with God. No 
 minister that attended the council is living today. Dr. G. W. 
 Blagden, then of Salem Street, Boston, preached the sermon, and 
 Dr. Burgess gave the right hand of fellowship. 
 
 And here it is fitting to mention the kindness of Dr. Bur- 
 gess to this church. In 1834 he gave $300, intending to dimin- 
 ish the gift annually by $50, till the church could go alone, but 
 in 1840 he began again at $150, diminishing as before, and at 
 various times added more, till the whole amounted to over 
 $1,500. It is not given to every new church to have so good a 
 neighbor. He desired that nothing should be asked from the 
 Home Missionary Society, or from any one, except for the erec- 
 
II 
 
 tion of this house of worship, but after 1841, in the protracted 
 struggles of the church, $650 were received from the Massachu- 
 setts Home Missionary Society. 
 
 This building does not equal, either in cost or in beauty, 
 many belonging to neighboring churches, but it was no small 
 undertaking to erect it at that time. Mr. Edward Richards, who 
 gave $40 per annum for church expenses, besides the pastor's 
 house rent, gave the land. Friends in Boston gave $4,000, 
 neighboring churches $800 more, and $845 was raised here at 
 home. The ladies gave the pulpit. The first communion ser- 
 vice was the gift of Judge Hubbard, of Boston, a man who had 
 a share in every good work. But no one did more toward the 
 erection of this house of worship than Mr. Marsh. Though his 
 salary was only some $550, $200 of the $845 subscribed here 
 came from his purse, and afterwards when $977 of a debt was 
 raised here, $300 of that also was from him, and most of the 
 labor of getting subscriptions devolved on him. He often trav- 
 eled on foot on this errand till he came back at night quite ex- 
 hausted.' 
 
 The only thing memorable in the erection of the chapel in 
 1859, was the heartiness with which the church took hold of the 
 work, though it is to be regretted that the size of the lot did not 
 allow it to be larger. 
 
 It was the love of this church for one of its pastors, who 
 had been compelled to go to Dedham to find a home, that led 
 to the building of the parsonage in 1S67, though he for whom it 
 was intended has only been once, perhaps twice, within the 
 door. 
 
 * The following letter is in the archives of the parish. It is without 
 date, but was written probably in 1838. It was read by Mr. Beckwith at 
 the meeting in the evening, June 7, 1885 : 
 To the Spring Striiet Parish, now in Session : 
 
 Gentlemen, — As you may find some difficulty in meeting all your 
 parish expenses for the last year, you will please accept of the one hundred 
 dollars due me from the parish up to April i, 1838. I cast myself upon the 
 Lord for the future. Wishing you grace, mercy, and peace, I subscribe my- 
 self, Your servant and pastor, 
 
 Christopher Marsh. 
 
 P. S. The expenses of my family, and what I have given to the 
 parish and to other objects the last year, not including the above, are $710.81. 
 
 C. M. 
 
12 
 
 Besides the 25 original members, Mr. Marsh received 81 
 into the church, 106 in all, and it gives us some idea of the dis- 
 couragements of his day, and the smallness of the population 
 then, that out of the 106 his successor found only 57. 
 
 Of that successor it need only be said that he was installed 
 May 7, 1 85 1. Severe sickness laid him aside at the close of 
 1866, and as his physicians decided that he could not preach 
 for a year to come, he resigned January 16, 1867, and was dis- 
 missed January 30, 1868, by the same council that installed his 
 successor.' During these years 75 were received by letter, and 
 50 by profession, 125 in all ; still only 86 members remained at 
 the close of 1866, and at the end of 1867, his successor found 
 only 78. There are only 11 persons in the church today who 
 were in it when the second pastor came, and of them only one 
 (Miss Mary Ann Gould) belongs to the original members. 
 
 It may show the connection of church prosperity with secu- 
 lar things, to add that the membership rose from 57 in 1851, to 
 97 in 1856, and at one time in i860 it was loi, though reduced 
 to 90 at the end of the year, and yet January i, 1867, it was only 
 86, increasing 40 in five years, and then diminishing 11 in 11 
 years. This check to church growth was caused by the check 
 given to the population of West Roxbury, by the rebuilding of 
 the railroad bridge below Roslindale, which compelled us for 
 months to go to Boston via Dedham and Readville, followed by 
 a rise in the price of season tickets to Boston — facts which show 
 that spiritual prosperity is not measured by the number on the 
 
 ' Thomas Laurie was born at Craigleith, a suburb of Edinburgh, 
 Scotland, May 19, 1821. Sailed from Greenock, June 5, arriving at New 
 York, August 2, 1830; graduated at Illinois College, 1838, and Andover 
 Theological Seminary, 1841. Ordained as missionary in Jacksonville, 111., 
 March 6, 1842. Married to Martha F. Osgood, July 21, 1842. Sailed for 
 Smyrna, July 29, arriving September 7, and at Mosul, November 11, 1842. 
 Mrs. Laurie died December 16, 1843. Left Mosul for Beirut, October 21, 
 and reached Beirut, December 11, 1844. Left Beirut for Smyrna, May 9, 
 1846. July II, sailed for Boston, arriving September 20. Installed at South 
 Hadley, June 7, 184S; resigned January 12, 1851. Installed over Pilgrim 
 Church, Providence, R. I., November 24, 1869; resigned February 15, 1885, 
 to take effect July 12. Married to Ellen A. Ellis, May 25, 1848. Children : 
 Martha Ellen, born at South Hadley, August 12, 1850; married James O. 
 Yatman, August 23, 1871 ; Annie, at West Roxbury, August 23, 1857; mar- 
 ried Lawton S. Brooks, M. D., May 22, 1878, 
 
church roll, but by faithfuhiess to Christ in the circumstances 
 in which he appoints our service. 
 
 Though this church is small, it never held back from the 
 formation of new churches in the vicinity. February 15, 1853, 
 it dismissed three members to the council that formed what is 
 now the Central Church, Jamaica Plain, and five more to its 
 first communion, and May 18, 1864, though not satisfied that 
 the time had come for the formation of a church at Roslindale, 
 it dismissed six to the council that met there, leaving the 
 question of organization to its Christian discretion. It was 
 organized, but in two years disappeared from the minutes of the 
 General Association of Massachusetts. 
 
 It further shows the difficulties to be contended with in this 
 place, that though the third pastor, Rev. William S. Hubbell — 
 ordained January 30, 1868, dismissed January 25, 1872 — dur- 
 ing those four years received 26 into the church, yet when he left 
 its membership was only 77, or less by one than when he came.' 
 
 The fourth pastor, Rev. Edward Strong, D. D., when he 
 was installed on May 2, 1872, found only 74 members — three 
 less than in January i — and after receiving in ten years 100 
 more, left 137, July 13, 1S82, lacking only ele\en of being 
 double what he found it.^ 
 
 ' Rev. William S. Hubbell, son of Rev. Stephen and Martha (Stone) 
 Hubbell was born at Wolcottville, Conn., April 19, 1837. Graduated 
 at Yale College, 1858, and at Andover Theological Seminary, 1866, 
 after an interval of three years spent in the army. Assistant to Rev. R. S. 
 Storrs, D. D., of Braintree, Mass., from September, 1866, to January, 1868. 
 Installed over the Franklin Street Church, Somerville, Mass., January 31, 
 1872, and dismissed November 22, 1881. Installed over the North Presby- 
 terian Church, Buffalo, N. Y., December 22, 188 1. Married October 9, 1866, 
 to Caroline Southmayd, of Middletown, Conn., daughter of Alfred and Susan 
 C. (Baker) Southmayd. Children: Mary Charlotte, July 24, 1867; Susan, 
 February 19, 1869; William Stone, Novembers, 1S74 ; and De Witt, June 
 2, 1876. 
 
 ^ Rev. Edward Strong, D. D., born Somers, Conn., October 25, 
 18 13. Graduated at Yale College 1838. Studied one year at Union, 
 and two years at New Haven Theological Seminaries. Ordained pastor of 
 what is now College Street Church, New Haven, December 14, 1842 ; dis- 
 missed July I, 1S62. Installed pastor of South Church, Pittsfield, Mass., 
 December i, 1864; dismissed December i, 1871. Married to Miss Margaret 
 S. Sherman, of New Haven, who died March 20, 1873, ^^^ ^° M''='' Harriet 
 
14 
 
 And 3'et so constant are the removals that of the 137 left 
 by Dr. Strong, your present pastor, installed November 21, 
 1882, found only 134, and these were reduced to 131 before the 
 end of the year.' 
 
 Surely, then, we should do with our might whatsoever our 
 hands find to do for the salvation of men, and let us look care- 
 fully on all sides ere we conclude that our labors are in vain in 
 the Lord. 
 
 The review of these fifty years ought to inspire us with new 
 courage in our service for Christ, since we see a constant ad- 
 vance from the first day of small things and great opposition, to 
 the bright prospects now before us. 
 
 The Lord blessed this church at the outset, that in the long^ 
 struggle before it, it might never be discouraged. Twenty 
 years later, in 1855, he gave an increase of 21, that we might 
 know he had not forsaken us. Twenty years after that he 
 added 18 more, 14 of them new converts, and the year follow- 
 ing he added 18 also, that we might know he did not weary of 
 doing us good, but the largest blessing we ever received was 
 only two years ago, when 20 were received by profession and 10 
 by letter, though losses reduced the net increase to 22. 
 
 It seems as though in such dealings with us, the Lord 
 Jesus allured us to prove the extent of his power to bless, and 
 to expect yet greater things in years to come. If all through 
 the past he has dealt out larger and still larger blessing, what 
 may we not look for in the future from one able to do exceeding 
 abundantly above all that we ask or think ? His power was not 
 once mighty but now exhausted, but the power that now worketh 
 in us is able to do even greater things than these. His prom- 
 ise is "One shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong 
 nation," and, lest we hesitate he adds, " I, the Lord will hasten 
 
 S. Wright of Springfield, Mass., September 10, 1874. Children by the first 
 wife, Harriet Deming, Edward Sherman, William Thaddeus. 
 
 ■ Rev. Clarence Augustine Beckwith was born in Charlemont, Mass., 
 July 21, 1849. Graduated at Olivet College, Mich., 1874. Studied at 
 New Haven Theological Seminary, 1875 and 1876, and at Bangor Theo- 
 logical Seminary, 1877. Ordained pastor of First Church, Brewer, Me., 
 January 9, 1878; dismissed September i, 1882. Married to Miss V. Eugenie 
 Loba, September 25, 1878. Paul Loba born August 27, 1884. 
 
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 it in its time." If the church is his body, in which he li\"es, and 
 through whicli he works and reveals his power, remember that 
 it is power to save to the uttermost, and pray that you may 
 know what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward 
 who beHeve according to the working of the strength of his 
 might, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the 
 dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly 
 places, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and domin- 
 ion, and every name that is named not only in this world, but 
 also in that which is to come. 
 
 Is not such power sufficient for all our wants ? Enough to 
 meet every emergency whether in our own lives, or in that of the 
 church which he has purchased with his own blood .'' 
 
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