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 / 
 
 REV. MR. SHELDON'S 
 
 ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE 
 
 « 
 
 V AT 
 
 DORCHESTER 
 
 vy-v 
 
THE HAND OF GOD RECOGNIZED. 
 
 DISCOURSE, 
 
 DELIVKRKD 
 
 ON SUNDAY, 22d FEBRUARY, 1846, 
 
 IN THE 
 
 INDEPENDENT or CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, 
 
 AT 
 DORCHESTER, ST. GEORGE'S PARISH, S. C, 
 
 IN 
 
 OBSERVANCE OF THE 150th ANNIVERSARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BUILDING OP THE CHURCH. 
 
 ^ 
 
 BY REV. GEORGE SHELDON, 
 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE CONGREGATION. 
 
 CHARLESTON: 
 
 BURGES & JAMES, PRINTERS. 
 
 1846. 
 

ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 In the year 1695, some pious, enterprising persons in Dorches- 
 ter, Mass., and the adjoining- towns, were led, by letters they had 
 received from thence, and the verbal representations of individu- 
 als who knew the spiritual destitution of that region, to con- 
 ceive the project of forming a colony "to go to Carolina and 
 settle the gospel there." The Independent or Congregational 
 Church at Dorchester, S. C, is the fruit of that enterprise. 
 After the emigrants were organized into a church, and pro- 
 vided with a minister, ordained for the purpose, with their 
 families, they left their former homes near the close of the 
 year 1695. Early the year following, (1696) they selected a 
 site upon the Ashley river for a settlement ; giving the place 
 the name of the one they had left. The house they then 
 erected for public worship, still remains. It was built a quar- 
 ter of a century earlier than any other for a similar pur- 
 pose in the neighborhood, and having stood a century and a 
 half, is a venerable memorial of the past, and an object of 
 interest to those whose own or ancestral associations are con- 
 nected with it. For further particulars of the founding and 
 subsequent history of the church, see notes to following 
 Discourse. 
 
DISCOURSE. 
 
 "one generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall 
 
 DECLARE THY MIGHTY ACTS." — Psolvi CXlv., 4. 
 
 It is a pleasing duty to celebrate the Divine 
 faithfulness and mercy to us and to the whole 
 family of mankind ; for when so occupied, our 
 employment is most akin to that of those pure 
 spirits who surround the seat of the Heavenly 
 Glory, and without weariness, interruption or sin, 
 contemplate, adore and praise Him that sitteth 
 upon tJie Throne and the Lamb forever and ever. 
 It was not without just and sufficient reason that 
 the people of God, in early times, were com- 
 manded not only themselves to bear in mind the 
 Lord's doings, but to tell their children his won- 
 derful works, and teach them all the way in which 
 an omnipotent, covenant-keeping, merciful God, 
 had led them from the first until then. It is right 
 that a remembrance of his providential dispensa- 
 tions should be preserved among us, both for 
 warning and encouragement ; but how can this 
 be more becomingly and effectually accomplish- 
 ed, than by communicating a knowledge of what 
 we have heard from our fathers, and have our- 
 
selves seen, to our children who may survive us, 
 in the hope that they will transmit it to their's, 
 and thus pass it on down the line of human being. 
 Thus we may hope that the knowledge of the 
 Lord's dealings will not be lost from among men. 
 The influence of such transmission should be 
 salutary ; for if it be found a fact, as it really is, 
 that nothing has such an effect to move the dor- 
 mant feeling and re-kindle the fires of patriotic 
 emotion in any nation, as the recital of the deeds 
 of their fathers — that if any thing has a tendency 
 to make even degenerate sons less degenerate, 
 and awaken desires for what is noble and good, — 
 it is the revived remembrance of the glory of 
 their ancestors ; how wholesome must the re- 
 vived knowledge of the past ever be ? And par- 
 ticularly is it so in our case, when that knowledge 
 relates to the smiles of Providence on the hero- 
 ism, self-denial and prayers of those great and 
 good men who were both our ancestors and in- 
 struments divinely employed in laying the foun- 
 dation of a great nation. 
 
 The hand of God, visible in the providential 
 ordering of the affairs of nations and of indivi- 
 duals, is clearly seen in the establishment and 
 continuance of his church among men. The 
 former was the spontaneous impulse of eternal 
 love, displayed in the fulness of time, to retrieve 
 the ruins of the fall, and the latter secured, 
 through such a constancy of watchfulness and 
 
an exercise of power, that we can only say, "It 
 is the Lord's doing and is marvellous in our 
 eyes." Indeed, the preservation of the universal 
 church is "a standing miracle" of love and of 
 power. Like the bush the Hebrew lawgiver saw 
 in Horeb, ever burning, yet unconsumed, the 
 church has been in flames of persecution and in 
 fiery trials, but survives amidst them all. I might 
 safely challenge any one to look at the facts in 
 the case, and say if they would not argue a result 
 different from what we witness. Behold the pau- 
 city of numbers of the worshipers of the true God, 
 a mere handful in the midst of hosts of bitter foes, 
 sufficient, it would seem, to overpower and swal- 
 low them up at any moment ; the dark, turbid 
 waves of ignorance that have rolled around the 
 house of God, the unextinguished light of the 
 world ; the storms of bitter, continued persecution 
 that have beaten upon it; the number of ya/se 
 professors there have, even in her brightest days, 
 been within the pale of the church ; consider 
 that in the bosom of each true disciple even, 
 there is enough of remaining depravity^ were it 
 uncontrolled by Divine Grace, to work the pre- 
 sent and everlasting overthrow of that individual 
 soul, and spread moral contagion around ; and 
 that the very jjrinciples of renunciation, self-de- 
 nial and holiness, on which the church is found- 
 ed, are antagonist to every feeling of the natural 
 heart. Observe and ponder these things con- 
 
nected with its history and constituents, and tell 
 me what it is, except the mighty power of a co- 
 venant-keeping God, that has perpetuated the 
 church from its establishment till now — of that 
 God, who has purchased it with his own blood 
 and built it upon a rock that the gates of hell 
 cannot prevail against it. 
 
 But on this occasion we are specially called to 
 record the mercy and faithfulness of the Lord in 
 the establishment and preservation of the parti- 
 cular branch of Zion, with which we are connec- 
 ted in this land. "Surely the Lord hath done 
 great things, whereof we are glad." Nothing is 
 more manifest, not the sun at mid-day, than is 
 the hand of God in the planting of the American 
 churches. Again and again has.it been demon- 
 strated, that the wrath of man does praise Him, 
 while the remainder of the wrath he restrains. 
 The wickedness of man is overruled for good ; 
 even his hostility to his Maker and hatred of the 
 truths and methods of His grace, have both, by 
 an unseen controlling influence, been so diverted 
 as to build up and enlarge that very kingdom it 
 was their aim to overthrow. As the persecution 
 consequent on the death of the first martyr, 
 Stephen, scattered the terrified disciples, and sent 
 them abroad every where, preaching the word, 
 and thereby a })reached gospel was far more ge- 
 nerally known than in the same time it could 
 have been, were it not for the deadly efibrt of its 
 
9 
 
 enemies to stop its diffusion ; so it is found in 
 the history of an overruhng Providence, the very 
 efforts that were made to destroy the truth, have 
 contributed to its growth and enlargement ; thus 
 in the case before us, in the exact ratio as it was 
 compressed and trodden down in the Old World, 
 it sought expansion and relief by flight to, and a 
 settlement in the New. So it was ordained, God 
 should be known, and his kingdom set up in these 
 ends of the earth. Among savage men and wild 
 beasts, he had decreed a generation — yea, many 
 generations to serve him. "It is the Lord's do- 
 ing and is marvellous in our eyes." 
 
 The men forced to leave their homes and the 
 scenes made sacred by the associations of their 
 early years, through the overbearing influence of 
 religious intolerance, and the fiendish spirit of an 
 insufferable persecution, are, indeed, worthy of 
 our admiration. Though not all of them thus, 
 or equally thus ; for when, since the time a 
 spotless Master chose twelve apostles for atten- 
 dance on himself, and one of them proved a 
 devil, has i( been found that the purest bodies 
 have not been rendered, in some degree, impure 
 by unworthy components? These exiles, with 
 all their faults — and faults we admit they had, 
 a part peculiar to the age, and a part the faults 
 incident to our lapsed nature — were, as a body, 
 men of whom the world was not worthy ; men 
 who were imbued with apostolic zeal, fortitude 
 2 
 
10 
 
 and self-denial ; whom God had raised up for 
 the exigency of the times, to be instrumental 
 in reforming and perpetuating the church of his 
 dear Son ; men who counted not their own lives 
 dear, if, so be, they might attain the glorious 
 object they had in view. Such were the Hugue- 
 nots, who flocked to Carolina after the revo- 
 cation of the edict of Nantz, who were the pro- 
 genitors of some that hear me ; and such the 
 Puritans, who, for the most part, though not 
 altogether, settled a higher latitude, and to some 
 of whom, under God, we are indebted for the 
 planting of this church. Having no rest for 
 the soul at home, with the priceless treasure 
 of God's pure word as their inheritance and the 
 heritage of their children, with their lives in 
 their hands, they buffeted the waves for three 
 thousand miles, on a tempestuous ocean, and 
 with their little ones, came to this wilderness 
 that they might find here what was elsewhere 
 denied them, the richest of Heaven's gifts, — 
 "FREEDOM TO WORSHIP GoD." As they had been 
 a blessing to the Old World by the wholesome 
 influence of their principles,* so, in our land, 
 
 * "England owes it to the Puritans that she ever became Protestant." 
 Ba7icrnft, 
 
 The liistorian, Hume, certainly not biassed in favor of these persons, 
 could not have bestowed a higher eulogium on them than when he says: 
 "So absolute was the authority of the Crown, (in Elizabeth's reign,) 
 that the precious spark of liberty had been kindled, and was preserved 
 by Ute Puritans alone ; and it was to that sect that the English owe the 
 
 WHOLE FREEDOM OF THEIR CONSTITUTION." — HiS. Ellg. Vol. V., 2^. 189. 
 
11 
 
 they planted and watered the tree that shel- 
 ters and blesses us. Great and good men ! our 
 spirits bow in voluntary homage to your worth, 
 and our hearts swell in gratitude to you and your 
 God, for the civil and religious institutions you, 
 by his blessing, here established and transmitted 
 to us. 
 
 But to proceed from a general view of the sub- 
 ject to that particular branch of it that specially 
 invites our attention on this interesting occasion, 
 1 am led to observe, — the enterprise which re- 
 sulted in the colonization of the church first 
 established in this place, was but the child of the 
 parent enterprise by which pure religion was in- 
 troduced and perpetuated in our land. The hand 
 of God is clearly seen, in directing the minds of 
 the founders of this church, to a project involv- 
 ing so much hazard, and designed for so much 
 good, as the emigration of a handful of christians 
 at such an early date,* to a distant part of a 
 savage and unexplored country, and the establish- 
 ment there of the ordinances of religion. Noble 
 was the undertaking, signal the Providence that 
 directed, and great the blessings that crowned it. 
 Impelled by a burning desire to glorify God, by 
 
 * This emigration to Carolina, in 1G96, being sixteen years after 
 the first settlement of Charleston, at White Point, its present site, was 
 made during the administration of John Archdale, the Q,uaker Governor, 
 who was the immediate successor of Landgrave Smith in that office. 
 The settlement at Dorchester was the first that was madeout of Charles- 
 ton, when the country was altogether in its wild, aboriginal state. 
 
12 
 
 carrying the ordinances of his house to the re- 
 mote places in which they contemplated settling, 
 as well as by sympathy for their brethren there, 
 in their spiritual destitutions,* they commenced 
 the undertaking. Their first step was to unite 
 
 • "A knowledge of the exigencies of that colony in this momentous 
 concern, with applications for relief, excited the attention and commis- 
 seration of christians at a distance." — Holmes' An. ii. 34. 
 
 "And," says their Pastor, in taking leave of them, "you well know 
 what importunity, both by letter and otherwise, was used with our min- 
 ister, that both a minister should be sent to those remote parts and that 
 he should be here ordained also; sundry Godly christians there being 
 prepared for and longing after, the enjoyment of all the edifying ordi- 
 nances of God ; there being withal in that country neither ordained min- 
 ister nor any church in full Gospel order ; so neither imposition of the 
 hands of the Presbytery, nor donation of the right hand of fellowship 
 can be expected there." — Farewell Sermon of Rev. Mr. Danforth to the 
 Colony, when leaving. 
 
 There is not so much error in the above as has been supposed. He 
 doubtless fefers to his own denomination. There may have been an 
 Episcopal Church in Carolina at that date (St. Philip's Church, Charles- 
 ton,) and perhaps a Baptist Church, but no allusion is made here to 
 either, being of other denominations, and not available for the purpose 
 referred to. The Independent (now the Circular) Church, the only one 
 with which the colonists could fellowship in ecclesiastical order, having 
 been collected according to Dr. Ramsay, "about 1690," either had not at 
 this date been fully organized, though they may have had religious ser- 
 vices before; or else was at the time, 1690, without a Pastor. The latter 
 may have been the case, though the former is perhaps more probable, 
 even on the supposition that Dr. Ramsay is correct, for, it is said, (Coll. 
 Mass. His. Soc, vol. iv.,p. 128,) "The Rev. John Cotton came to Charles- 
 ton and gathered a church in 1G98," which the account affirms, was then 
 first incorporated two years after the settlement at Dorchester. Be- 
 sides, Mr. Danforth, it appears, must have been advised as to the state 
 of religion here ; for, it is intimated he received written communica- 
 tions requesting aid, and moreover one of the emigrants (see Harris' 
 account of Dorchester,) William Norman, ims originally from Caro- 
 lina, and probably carried information of the existing destitution. The 
 above would seem to show, that the Congregational church at Dorches- 
 ter was, at least the earliest organized church of that order in the State. 
 
13 
 
 themselves in one band of christian brethren, to 
 carry the pure word of Christ and the ordinances 
 of his house with them, and having provided 
 themselves with a minister, ordained for this spe- 
 cial work,* they took an affectionate leave of 
 their friends, with many tears and much prayer, 
 and set sail, in two vessels, for Carolina.! 
 
 Thus did those worthy men, in the very begin- 
 ning of their undertaking, evince their high esti- 
 mate of religion, and their dependance upon it for 
 a crowning blessing on all they did. Who does 
 not, has neither learned what alone is truly 
 valuable, nor how vain are all his efforts for suc- 
 cess without that "blessing which maketh rich 
 and addeth no sorrow therewith." A correct 
 beginning, a commencement in the love and fear 
 of God, is essential to a prosperous issue in any 
 undertaking. How much counsel has come to 
 naught, and how many plans have proved abor- 
 tive, by the absence of this true secret of suc- 
 cess in all the affairs of life ! 
 
 Having begun their enterprise by covenant- 
 ing with God to act for his glory, they continued 
 
 * "Oct. 22d, 1695, being our lecture day, was set apart for the ordain- 
 ing of Mr. Joseph Lord to be Pastor of a church, gathered that day, to 
 go to South-Carolina to settle the gospel there." — Records of the Second 
 Church, Dorchester, Mass. 
 
 t The Church sailed at night, Dec. 14th, 1695, in two vessels. A se- 
 vere gale was experienced soon after their embarkation, and one of the 
 vessels, "•The Skiff," canae verynear being lost. A day of fasting and 
 prayer was observed aboard. One vessel arrived in about 14 days, the 
 other had a passage of ncai a month. — Orig. Rcc. in Dor., Mass. 
 
14 
 
 it in the exercise of humility and faith. Encoun- 
 tering dangerous storms at sea, they fasted and 
 humbled themselves before the Eternal One. Oh 
 what an interesting, sacred company, did those 
 two frail barks contain ? Infancy, not knowing 
 whither it went ; youth, with all its joyousness ; 
 middle age, with its conscious weight of respon- 
 sibility ; the old and the young, the strong and 
 the weak, the protector and the protected ; a 
 sacred company — aye, sacred, because they were 
 a whole church of Christy with their chosen, con- 
 secrated pastor in their midst ! In their trouble, 
 when far away from kindred and friends, on the 
 wide waste, when the tempest howled and the 
 yawning deep threatened to swallow them up, 
 they called upon that Almighty Saviour whom 
 the winds and the sea obey. Nor was He slow 
 to hear. The sea was rebuked. Blessed with 
 fair winds and pleasant weather for the rest of 
 the voyage, they arrived in Carolina. Threading 
 their way up the Ashley River, in quest of a 
 convenient site for a settlement, they camt) to 
 this vicinity and located. 
 
 Here again, are we called upon to recognize 
 the unseen, almighty hand of the same One who 
 had put it into their hearts to come out here, who 
 had helped them on the way, and who was now 
 present to preserve and prosper them in their new 
 habitation. Methinks I see them, a few solitary 
 families of strangers, twenty miles from the dwell- 
 
15 
 
 ings of any white persons, in the heart of this, 
 that was then, one wide unbroken forest. In 
 these dense woods prowled wild beasts of prey 
 and savage men* — more to be dreaded than they. 
 Often during the day, in the absence of the father, 
 has the timid mother, as she heard the scream of 
 the wild beast, or a sudden noise in the thicket, 
 folded her babe more closely to her breast, and 
 offered prayer to that God who is able to save 
 such as put their trust in Him. And when dark- 
 ness curtained their dwellings, and the thick 
 gloom of night pervaded these forests, they laid 
 them down in painful uncertainty whether the 
 morning sun would see them and their homes in 
 safety or not. But the great God was pledged 
 for their defence. Under each roof was offered 
 the morning and evening sacrifice, and there 
 were hearts that trusted in Him. Around such 
 dwelhngs the Lord encampeth ; from such hearts 
 He withholdeth no good thing. 
 
 Neither did they fail to continue their acknow- 
 ledgement of Him in a public capacity. Shortly 
 after their arrival, on 2d February, 1696, under 
 
 • The two most powerful tribes of Indians in the vicinity, were the 
 Westos and Stonos. The former were in the immediate neighborhood, 
 having a settlement and a burying ground on the plantation, Westoe, 
 now owned by G. H. Smith, Esq., where quantities of their bones are 
 often discovered. They were very hostile, and we are told, the whites, 
 while erecting their dwellings, were obliged to station sentinels to watch 
 against their savage foe. 
 
16 
 
 the spreading branches of an oak,* now near 
 us, venerable by having sheltered many gene- 
 rations, they first took the sacrament of the 
 Lord's Supper, and renewed their vows and 
 thanksgivings to Christ their Saviour. Soon af- 
 ter, they completed and consecrated with prayer 
 the house in which we worship to-day. Here 
 for two generations, under three successive Pas- 
 tors,t they worshipped God, were prospered, 
 enlarged and built up. Here the inspired word 
 had free course and was glorified. Here con- 
 verts to Christ were multiplied. Here many 
 were brought into the fold of the good Shepherd, 
 and after having served God in their generation, 
 sustained by a good hope through grace, were 
 gathered to their fathers in peace. And when in 
 the course of events, by the providence of God, 
 a large part of the congregation removed to 
 
 * The tree, designated by tradition, still stands, stretching out its 
 weather-beaten limbs, affording a shelter to the living and to ihe resting 
 places of the dead. 
 
 t The Pastors have been, (previous to the removal of a portion of the 
 congregation to Georgia, in 1753,) Rev. Joseph Lord, who came with 
 the colony from Massachusetts, and returned in 1719 ; Rev. Hugh 
 Fisher, who died here in 1734 ; Rev. John Osgood, a native of this place 
 who was educated at Harvard University, and ordained here in 1734-5, 
 and in 1753 went to Georgia at the removal. (Since the re-opening of 
 the Church,) Rev. James Adams, now deceased ; Rev. L. C. Parks, 
 also deceased ; Rev. Wm. States Lee, now of Presbyterian Church, 
 Edisto Island ; Rev. Edward Palmer, now of Bethel Church, Walter- 
 boro' ; Rev. L S. K. Axon, now of Midway, Geo. ; Rev. Geo. Sheldon, 
 now officiating. 
 
17 
 
 Georgia,* his blessing went with those who went, 
 nor was his covenant care entirely withdrawn 
 from those who remained, nor from the house 
 called by his name. For after the desolations of 
 many years, and after this consecrated edifice 
 had been used for unhallowed purposes by a fo- 
 reign soldiery ,t it pleased God on the return of 
 peace between this and the mother country, to 
 put it into the hearts of devout persons, to re- 
 build those parts of the sanctuary that were 
 broken down, and once more set up the gates of 
 the Lord's House. Actuated by a generous 
 spirit, they repaired and finished the edifice, and 
 left it to us in the form in which we have it now. 
 It is grateful to peruse the list of contributions, 
 and see what a general and sincere interest the 
 repairs of the church, subsequent to the war of 
 our Independence, awakened — much as the Jews 
 were moved to rebuild their Temple after the 
 desolation of the captivity. While a larger num- 
 ber contributed toward the more general restora- 
 tion of the house of worship, we have been, from 
 time to time, indebted to the munificence of seve- 
 
 • The quantity of land being too limited for the increasing wants of 
 the people, the unhealthfulness of Dorchester in the hot season, summer 
 retreats not being then known, were among the reasons for the removal. 
 That congregation in Georgia, have been greatly blessed, wonderfully 
 preserved and built up. 
 
 t The church was used as a barrack by the British, during the war of 
 the Revolution, and the pews and pulpit mostly destroyed. 
 3 
 
18 
 
 ral individuals, for affording it furniture and a 
 small measure of endowment.* 
 
 The later history of the church is familiar. 
 Though it has seen many a dark day, and the 
 light has been dim in the sanctury, the candle- 
 stick has not been removed from its place, and 
 by the continued use of the ordinances of his 
 house, we are assured the Lord hath not forgot- 
 ten to be gracious. 
 
 And now, my hearers, let us suffer ourselves 
 to be admonished and instructed by the associa- 
 tions of this occasion : let us make a due esti- 
 mate of the wisdom of our ancestors. How 
 priceless must be that freedom of conscience 
 which they freely consented to secure at such a 
 cost ! How rich and valuable must be the privi- 
 lege of worshiping God, unawed by an over- 
 bearing hierarchy, untrammelled by rites of hu- 
 man appointment ! when those brave, great and 
 good men were willing to sacrifice so much of 
 ease, comfort, of home, and come to these ends 
 of the earth, that they might enjoy it. Nor did 
 they prize it too highly. Recreant and unworthy 
 
 • The benefactors, from whom the churca has received some of its 
 funds are : Mrs. Ann Boone, £100 sterling; Madam Sarah Fenwicke, 
 £358 sterling; Mrs. John Waring, S"3,043 ; Thos. Smith, Sen., (for many 
 years a Deacon in the church, and its zealous supporter,) S1,000; Dr. 
 
 Richard Waring, ; besides Mr. John Rose, also a Deacon, to 
 
 whom the church is indebted for a valuable pulpit bible, which has been 
 in use for nearly half of a century, and others who have contributed 
 various articles of communion and other furniture. 
 
19 
 
 will their sons be, if they esteem it less. Mis- 
 taken will they be, if they think there is any other 
 real secret of prosperity, but in commencing all 
 their undertakings, as their fathers did, in the 
 fear of God, and with a desire to advance his 
 glory ; or any other means of true happiness, 
 but by communion with Him, and fellowship with 
 his Son, Jesus Christ. Delinquent indeed will 
 they be, if it shall be found they undervalue or 
 slight the advantages they have, so valuable in 
 themselves, and bought at such a price ! 
 
 Besides, by observing the providential preser- 
 vation of the church, from generation to genera- 
 tion, amid numerous enemies and imminent dan- 
 gers, always "built upon the same foundation of 
 prophets and apostles, Jesus Christ himself being 
 the chief corner stone," let us suffer ourselves to 
 be admonished of the perpetuity and immortality 
 of truth. Like the God of truth, whose years 
 fail not and whose nature knows no change, it is 
 everlasting and ever the same. Holiness, justice, 
 mercy, are eternal. The same gracious God, 
 without change of character, determination or 
 disposition, who covenanted with Abraham, and 
 with our fathers, deigns to covenant, on the same 
 terms, with us. The same Sun of Righteous- 
 ness, the glorious centre of the great and gra- 
 cious system of man's redemption, that has 
 "risen on the world with healing in his wings," 
 and in a benighted period of the world, enlight- 
 
20 
 
 cned the darkened understandings and warmed 
 the cold hearts of those who have preceded us 
 in the hue of being, and from whom we have 
 received the transmitted ordinances of God's 
 House, still shines, affording light and life to us. 
 May we ever regard Him, as to his exalted nature 
 and proper offices, in his own meridian, zenith, 
 altitude ; bright, effiilgent, glorious, infinite. 
 
 As "truth is in order to holiness," our sancti- 
 fication can never be in advance of our know- 
 ledge, and will be, if we be sincere, in proportion 
 to our right apprehensions of it, A cordial 
 belief in the lost and helpless condition of man 
 by nature ; the imputed righteousness of Christ 
 his only hope ; the efficient office of the Spirit 
 in justification and sanctification ; and the abso- 
 lute sovereignty of the Holy One, is of para- 
 mount importance. This our fathers believed. 
 These truths they loved and rested their souls 
 upon, as an integral part of "the faith once de- 
 livered to the saints." God grant they may ever 
 be precious to all who shall worship in this holy 
 place. 
 
 Let us also be admonished by the reflections 
 of this day, of the value of the blessings asso- 
 ciated with God's worship. Inasmuch as the 
 spiritual part of man is of more worth than the 
 natural, and his eternal interest of more moment 
 than his temporal ; these services, to which we 
 give attendance here, arc of more consequence 
 
21 
 
 than all our business besides. It is not a vain 
 thing, my friends, to which your attention is called, 
 from this sacred desk, from one holy day to an- 
 other : it is your life. It very intimately concerns 
 your present and eternal well-being. Would 
 that there were in all who hear me a heart dili- 
 gently to hearken to the voice of the Lord, and 
 labor for the things that belong to their peace, 
 before they be forever hidden from their eyes. 
 
 In conclusion, let us sutler ourselves to be ad- 
 monished of the rapid flight of time ; a conside- 
 ration of which should quicken us in every good 
 work. How truly is the Scripture fulfilled to our 
 observation. "One generation passeth away and 
 another generation cometh." Not only has every 
 hand, occupied in the erection of this sacred edi- 
 fice, mouldered back to its kindred dust, and all 
 those amid whose prayers and tears this vine of 
 the Lord was planted, long since gone to their 
 reward, but their successors also, — their children 
 and their children's children, are gathered to their 
 fathers, and sleep around the consecrated place 
 where they worshipped. And even when we look 
 around for those whose lot was cast in a more 
 recent date, who like Nehemiah, mourned over 
 the desolations of Zion, who set up the gates of 
 the Lord's House, and kindled anew the fire on 
 his altar, we look in vain. Their venerable 
 forms are not in the places they were wont to 
 occupy here. Not one of thein remains. Those 
 
22 
 
 of another generation occupy their seats. Oh 
 that the children might inherit the spirit as well 
 as the privileges of their fathers ! This day, my 
 friends, is full of instruction. We are among 
 the memorials of the past. Every hrick in these 
 venerable walls, that have looked down on jive 
 generations, has a tongue, that utters thanksgiv- 
 ing to God, and solemn, wholesome admonition 
 to us, "Be ye followers of them, who through 
 faith and patience inherit the promises." The 
 shortness of life, and the certainty of death, are 
 both equally ordained. Our sands will be soon 
 run. We cannot but be reminded, by the associa- 
 tions of this occasion, that long ere another such 
 anniversary as we now observe shall occur, our 
 heads will be laid. On that day, neither we nor 
 our children will be here. God, in his mercy, 
 grant we all, and they all, may be rendering Him 
 pure and happy worship, in his upper sanctuary. 
 Amen. 
 
 I