and fatherless children in a helpless condition. My people will be in danger of ruin. It breaks my heart to think that the interests of religion must sink among my people, and the youth run riot, and the little children be left without an instructor. I humbly desire, therefore, nothing may be done without the utmost deliberation; and that whatever advice you shall see fit to give me, you will let me and my people know what grounds you go upon. Behold my life and all the comforts of my life, and my usefulness in the world, and the temporal and eternal interests of my people lie at stake; and you, reverend gentlemen, must answer it to God, if you should give me any wrong advice for want of a thorough and most solemn and impartial weighing of the affair. May the infinitely wise God direct you. I pray you to consider me as one of your unworthy brethren, almost overwhelmed with concern, and just ready to sink under the weight of this affair, and quite brokenhearted for my kind and dear people. JOSEPH BELLAMY."

There exists in his handwriting a memorandum of an imaginary dialogue on the subject of his "declaring" as it was technically called, i. e. saying that he felt it his duty to go to New York. Coming at length to the supposition that he has "declared," he

writes:

"The news flies through the country, and through all New England, and spreads far and wide; and every one has his saynor are they silent in hell!"

"Carnal People-Aha! Aha! Here comes the man that pretended to so much religion! They are all alike—a pack of rogues!"

"Godly People-Alas! Alas! What has he done? A dreadful affair! We must give him up, without pretending to vindicate his conduct! Alas for him that was once our guide and friend!"

"New York-Aha! Aha! He cares not for his people, nor is moved by their tears, nor touched by their cries and pleadings! He has torn away! Right or wrong, he's resolved to come though his church is ruined! Aha! Aha! Dollars! dollars! dollars!"

"The Devil-Hurrah! I'm right glad! Now the old fellow will never do much more hurt to my kingdom!"

"All Hell-Hurrah! hurrah!

It is needless to state that Dr. Bellamy remained "in the woods " with the church of his first love, and "his sepulchre is with us to this day." Of his scarcely less illustrious successor, Dr. Backus, time forbids me to speak. The ministry of these two men of God reached over a period of 70 years, more than half the history of the church. Under Dr. Bellamy, nearly two hundred and fifty united with the church, and under Dr. Backus, one hundred and forty-eight. Then followed the shorter ministries of Mr. Langdon of nine years, who received one hundred and three into the church; Mr. Stanton of four years, who received twenty-two, and Mr. Couch of five years, who received fifty-two.

These were sound, godly men, whose labors resulted in much good. The church received as its next pastor, from a sister church (Roxbury,) Mr. Harrison, whose ministry was long, peaceful and prosperous. He received into membership one hundred and nine persons. Of the two later pastors-known to you all—still laboring in other fields, I may not speak. Mr. Loomis received seventy-three into the church; Mr. Wright, fourteen. Under the present pastorate, fifty-seven have united with the church.

Favored with such a ministry in the past, this daughter has been sound in the faith, a spiritual-minded church, and often refreshed with heavenly blessings. In such a family gathering as this, it may not be immodest for her briefly to state some facts in her history of which she feels justly proud. She was among the first churches in the land to see the folly and abandon the practice of the "half-way covenant." She is a temperance society by a vote of the church. She has never indulged in what has come to be a modern luxury to most churches-a stated supply. She believes in the holy ordinance of ecclesiastical marriage. In all her history there have been but four years in which she has been without a pastor. Finally, she claims to have the oldest Sabbath School (in the modern form of that institution) in the country, if not in the world. Forty years before Robert Raikes ever thought of such a thing, the first pastor of this church, with his deacons, was wont to gather on Sabbath noon, the youth of the congregation into classes for instruction from the Bible and the Catechism. That Sabbath School has maintained an unbroken organization down to this day. The daughter on the hills has never been and probably never will be a large church. She is located in a sparsely settled agricultural community, whose high hills and deep vales no railroad will dare look in the face. Emigration constantly drains off her

young people. Two churches of other denominations have grown up by her side, and to a great extent out of her material. But she trusts that she has a mission in the future as she has had in the past. That mission will be to endeavor to sanctify the stream of young life that flows out from her as naturally as the waters run from her hills, that it may prove a blessing to the church of Christ and to the world. If she shall send forth in the future any "streams that shall make glad the city of our God," she will not live in vain, even though she continue to be "among the least of Princes of Judea." May the daughter on the hills never be mothertheless, and may the mother in the valley never mourn the loss of her daughter, until we are all taken to our Father's home in the church triumphant.

JUDEA!-Thou "praise of the Lord," seated on thy hill like the ancient hill of Zion; beautiful for situation, fit place for a new temple; "Unanymously and Lovingly Agreed upon," third pledge of our affections, we greet thee!

Response by Rev. W. S. Colton.

MR. PRESIDENT:-I should almost have imagined, but for the address of the last speaker, (Rev. G. W. Banks), that I was in a Woman's Rights Convention, so much has been said about Grandmother, and Mother, and Daughters, in the remarks already made. But as I looked around me, and caught sight of various beards and mustaches, and other evidences of the presence of the masculine persuasion in the audience generally, and remembered that we had just been attending the dedication of the Fathers' Monument, and saw from the programme that the speaking on this occasion was to be by men, I felt reassured of the character of the event which has convened us here.

I ought, in passing, to notice the observations of my good brother from Southbury, (Rev. Mr. Smith), who has informed us in glowing terms how delightfully his Church is situated on "the Jordan," and has dilated on the pleasantness of the region thereabout, in language highly wrought and very jubilant. But according to my studies in Sacred Geography, the Jordan runs through Judea, and I feel quite disposed to claim a part of that same river and the lovely valley adjacent, for that third daughter, which I represent, in my response to-day. I have also read in an old prophet, words like these: "Thou Bethlehem in the land of