The daughter, with her chosen spiritual leader and guide, left the old homestead, and in choosing her new home wisely turned northward, preferring the clear, bracing air of the north to the damp and fog and malaria of the shore lands. The record of these two hundred years, and these festivities to-day, testify to the wisdom of that separation and of that choice.

That setting forth from the old home was under circumstances, and amid scenes, which, if we could reproduce them in our imagination to-day, would aid us in rising to the full significance of this occasion. The Plantation was only thirty years old. These years had been years of toil, of hard work in subduing the wilderness, and in making for themselves comfortable homes. They had been spent in almost constant fear of the depredations and attacks of the Indians. One generation was about passing away, and a new generation had already begun to take up and carry on the ever unfinished work. They were just beginning to enjoy the fruits of their hard pioneer toil, were just beginning to realize the benefits of a social life, well ordered, properly systematized as to government, adequately equipped and adjusted by the experiences of those thirty years. Those years had been years chiefly of preparation. The settlement was now assuming the appearance and the character of a thrifty agricultural town. It must have required a resoluteness of purpose, backed by a firm, conscientious regard for duty, for that little band to go forth at such a time, and strike out an entirely new path for themselves, to begin over again that same laborious work of making new homes in these wild woodlands of the north. The prime motives that led them to take that step were wholly of a religious nature. Their rights as church members they would maintain. Spiritual interests must be held paramount. They felt that they could not remain in the old church home, though it was large enough to contain them, if the course they deemed right and scriptural was not pursued; so they left it. They had pluck, nerve and energy-stood their ground firmly until they were convinced that it was for the good of both parties that they should secede. I apprehend that at the last, the spirit that prevailed was not far different from that exhibited in the Patriarch brother, after variances had arisen in the family: "Let there be no strife, I pray, between me and thee, and between my herdsmen and thy herdsmen; for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before thee; separate thyself I pray thee from me.

1056

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY.

If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right, and if thou depart to the right hand then I will go to the left."

Fortunately there was land enough, and that too not far distant from the old home. Could those bold spirits who planned and achieved that work of settlement, whose names shine out upon these tablets before us to-day, see what we of this generation see, 'could look upon these well tilled, well fenced farms, this attractive thoroughfare, bordered by this cordon of cottage and homestead, indicative all of such comfort, and plenty, and taste, could behold what would be to them of by far greater value, and in their estimate the largest proofs of their success, and the highest earthly reward of their sacrifices and toil, these marks of church life and church progress which have been commensurate with the growth of the outreaching population, they might well believe that the Lord went up with them and before them, and marked out for them the goodly heritage which was to be theirs, and their children's.

All honor and praise from us be to that devoted band. The unflinching fidelity to honest convictions, the uncompromising spirit of attachment to what was to them the truth of God, which they exhibited at the sacrifice of so much they held dear, were the rightful issue of the Puritan blood that flowed in their veins. Let us emulate their spirit, and prove ourselves worthy of such a godly ancestry.

The old mother church, whom you have so cordially welcomed to your feast of remembrances and rejoicings to-day, most heartily enters into your spirit of devotion to the fathers, and would, even as yourselves, seek to be animated anew for the work of the Divine Master, for the glory of the Redeemer's kingdom in the earth. May the blessing of the Great Head of the Church rest upon all these Churches represented here, endowing them with a larger, measure of the Divine Spirit, whereby they may be more thoroughly consecrated to God and His service.

SOUTHBURY!-First pledge of our affections, and offspring of our heart of hearts, dweller in the fertile plains beside the beautiful river, the Jordan of our ancient inheritance, with maternal joy we greet thee!

Response by Rev. A. B. Smith.

MR. CHAIRMAN:-In responding to the affectionate maternal greeting of this church, we, the eldest offspring, rejoice in being thus welcomed to the home of our childhood on this interesting and joyous occasion, and with true filial affection in connection with our younger sisters, we would to-day seek to gladden the heart of her from whom we had our origin. Venerable in her age, on this two hundredth anniversary of her existence, we would render to her all due respect and honor.

It is a joyful occasion where all the scattered children, after years of separation, gather together at the old family home. Such is the occasion we enjoy to-day, and few in these degenerate times can boast a like numerous family. It reminds us of the olden time, when a numerous offspring was counted a blessing, and it was really felt, that "happy is the man who hath his quiver full of them." I doubt not the joy to-day is in proportion to the number of "olive plants" gathered around the parental table.

But when the scattered members of the family, after long absence, gather at the old home, it is natural that they should review the past, and talk of their varied experiences. The mother is sure to rejoice in the prosperity of all her children, and to grieve over and sympathize with them in all their adversities.

As the oldest of this goodly family, having now attained to the respectable age of 138 years, we have, as has been here hinted, received the fairest natural inheritance of the whole ancestral domain, Our lot has been cast on "the fertile plains, beside the beautiful river, the Jordan of our" venerable mother's "ancient inheritance"-a land in which Lot himself might have looked with eager, wishful eyes, and chosen in preference to the hill country. But the fertile river bottoms always possess their temptations and their dangers. Though they give promise of an immediate prosperity, and for this reason are often chosen in preference to the hill country, yet they are liable to foster luxury, ease, and consequent idleness, with all their attendant evils, and so tend ultimately to degeneracy. Such locations, therefore, are not usually the most favorable to the progress of true religion, and the spiritual prosperity of the church. As the vine flourishes the most luxuriantly in the rocky glens and on the sunny slopes of the hill country, so the church, the vine of God's own planting, has usually found its greatest prosperity in the rural districts, and among the hills, where there were few temptations to luxury, ease and indolence. Consequently, our younger sisters among the hills

have far outstripped us in numbers, and we have become the smallest and weakest of them all, already showing signs of decrepitude and decay. But as God has hitherto had "a seed to serve Him" in this church of the valley, and many have been trained up under its nurture for a heavenly inheritance, we trust that it will continue to be so in all time to come. The ministry commenced by Graham, the learned Scotch divine of noble birth, and continued by Wildman, the compeer of Bellamy, and by Daniel A. Clark, the great sermonizer, though better preacher than pastor, has been sustained with occasional interruptions to the present time, though latterly on a less settled and permanent foundation. We hope that on a field where so much good seed has been sown, and watered by the tears and prayers of rich, eminent men, a brighter day will ere long dawn, when a new impulse shall be given to everything good in this beautiful valley-where these tendencies to decay shall be arrested, and enterprise, and virtue, and true piety shall be on the increase, and the church shall arise with renewed strength and vigor, and "put on her beautiful garments," and "look forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible" to her enemies "as an army with banners."

BETHLEHEM!-Thou "house of bread," situate like the Bethlehem in the Holy Land, about six miles from thy Jerusalem-nurtured, enriched and adorned by Bellamy and Backus-we greet thee, second child of our love!

Response by Rev. Geo. W. Banks.

MR. CHAIRMAN:-It is exceedingly unfortunate for me that I am not a believer in the doctrine of apostolic succession, for it would be comfortable, to say the least, to have a consciousness of some mysterious power or grace descending to me from my predecessors, which would enable me to do justice to the sentiment and the greeting which have just been offered. But lacking all such power or grace, I must express, as best I am able to you, sir, and through you, to our venerable and venerated mother, the congratulations of the second daughter, the church in Bethlehem. Though more than a century and a quarter have passed since she left the parental roof, yet I trust that the home instinct is not dead, but that she cherishes and would have expressed to-day, a warm affection for the mother church.

The church in Bethlehem is one hundred and thirty years

old

to-day. Its beginnings were weak in material things, but strong in faith. Fourteen families living on the hill-tops in "the East part of the North Purchase of Woodbury," finding their six miles' walk to their ancient Jerusalem through winter's storm and summer's heat, inconvenient, determined to have a Mt. Zion of their own, and with a faith and self-sacrifice that we cannot too much admire, this handful of poor but heroic settlers, organized themselves into a church of Christ, and made provision for the permanent support of the gospel ministry among them. When a daughter makes an advantageous settlement in life, the mother's heart is made glad. So, when this daughter on the hills gave her heart to a young man by the name of Joseph Bellamy, the mother church in the valley no doubt rejoiced. Under Dr. Bellamy's ministry of half a century, "the handful of corn on the top of the mountains began to shake like Lebanon." Its name proved to be no misnomer, for if ever a church received abundance of spiritual food, the church in Bethlehem did, from its first pastor.

Of one, concerning whom so much has been written and so well, it would be impossible for me to speak with justice in the few moments allotted me at this time. I may however briefly allude to the affection he bore to the church over which he was placed. It may serve to set in strong contrast the lack of interest with which the pastoral relation is now viewed by many, and the ease with which it is broken. When Dr. Bellamy was at the zenith of his power as a preacher, being regarded as second only to Jonathan Edwards, and by some of his cotemporaries as superior to him in many respects; when his fame had spread all over the country, and even to England, he received a flattering invitation to become the pastor of the 1st Presbyterian Church in New York City. To the Consociation called to advise upon the subject, he addressed the following characteristic letter:

"BETHLEHEM, Jan. 25th, 1754. "REVEREND GENTLEMEN:-My people give me salary enough; are very kind, too; I love them, and if it be the will of God I should love to live and die with them. There are many difficulties in the way of my going to New York, They are a difficult people; don't like my terms of communion, and some of their great men are against my coming; I am not polite enough for them! I may possibly do to be minister out in the woods, but am not fit for a city. I may die with the small-pox, and leave a widow