Morning journal and courier., 1880-06-28

of place and rank, of office and honor, are of no account And yet when 8 family are bowed together in household worship and Christ is in the midst of them, the stranger within their gates is recognized, and that stranger, whether he be 8 guest before un- known or kinsman, is recognized by them and his prayer may mingle with theirs, while he and they alike are conscious that they are in the presence of Rim who said: '.Lo I am with you always, even to the end of the world"
 We acknowledge the goodness of God to- wards us and towards our fathers, and we are thankful to our God and the God of our fathers that in our assembly to-day the President of the United States is present, not to receive honors from us nor to confer hon. ors upon us, but as fellow citizen with us in this great nation, and as fellow worship per who is related to this community to this conoregation and to this place of worship by some special ties. He is here among his kin dred. We in this congregation are aware that every one of us who traces his lineage back to the year 1888 finds himself related to al- most every family of the old inhabitants and it is in that relation that the stranger here to day is with us. Some of his ances- tors were buried in the graves beneath this floor. Their names are some of them in- scribed on the tablets in the vestibule of this house. Therefore he is not wholly stran- ger We may greet him as kinsman, and in that sense one of us
 We look back along the line of former gen. erations and we call them our fathers. All who have preceded us here in this organized congregation, or in what is now our city, are in one sense our fathers; and in the same sense the fathers of New England are the fathers of this great republic. Their ineal descendants are in every region of our con- mon country, and those of other nations who come across the ocean to become fellow citi- gems with us are soon absorbed in the current of the generations that were before us and that are to be after us As surely as they who come to us from abroad become a DOT ton of our people, their children or their children's children will call themselves, and will be, the descendants of our fathers. God, as the ages pass over us, is weaving these generations into unity. We and our fathers, we and those who are to follow us, are one people, with common history and common destiny. Some of us here can name as lineal ancestor one individual or another who land ed from the Mayhower. All of us look back to that landing and say: 'There be- gan our national life; our exiled fathers landed there" So will it be with the descend. ants of those who are still coming over the ocean to us. They in a few generations will look back as we look back, to that wintry landing at Plymouth. We, if we do our duty in our various relations, if we stand in our lot to do the work which the Almighty and loving providence of God has laid to our hands, are building up rich inheritance for the generations which are yet to come.
 What is now Vermont was once called New Connecticut. The names of our old Connec- ticut towns are duplicated there, carried thither by our near kindred long ago. In those days certain man from New Haven went with others to that New Come cticut In the next generation son of his went from Vermont to the State of Ohio, where there and still is another New Connecti- cut along the southern shore of Lake Erie more like the old Connecticut perhaps than ours is to-day. His son is our honored guest, the President of the United States.
 In like manner the children of our old commonwealth have gone forth, and are still going forth into all the regions of the conti- nent. They are on the shores of the Pacific They are on the plains, on the mountain ranges, tracing the streams and canyons, be- tween the oceans. By our relation to them we are related not only to the fifty millions of our countrymen to-day, but also to the count less millions who are hereafter to inhabit the continent which we call our country.
 We are so related to them in the providence of God, that upon each of us in his own measure, rests a grand responsibility for them. Let us thank God for the relations in which He has placed us Let us thank Him for the responsibility He has laid upon us. Let us thank Him for the grace which is suf- feient for us in all our infirmity and in all our temptations Let us pray.
 Dr. Bacon in his prayer asked the continued blessing of God for the President and his administration, that his hands might be up- held, that as in the past he might well serve the country which he had worthily served. He prayed for Gods blessing and favor upon the nation, that the nation might grow and increase in the knowledge of God and be still more eminentiy nation honoring God. Following came the hymn composed by Rev. Dr. Bacon, beginning "Ohi God beneath thy guiding hand" It was composed by him for the grand celebration of the second centen- nial of New Haven, and was modified later for the great celebration at Plymouth Rock which took place in 1865, for which oc- casion the national Congregational council adjourned from Boston to Plymouth Rock The hymn is as follows:
 God, beneath thy guiding hand
 Our exiled fathers crossed the sea
 And when they trod the wntry strand
 With prayer and psalm they worshiped thee.
 Thou heard'st well pleased, the song, the prayer
 Thy blessing came and still it's power
 Shall onward through all ages bear
 The memory of that holy hour.
 Laws, freedom, truth and faith in God
 Came with those exiles OCT the waves,
 And where these pilgrim feet have trod,
 The God they trusted guards their graves.
 And hear thy narne 0 God of love,
 Their children's children shall adore,
 Till these eternal hills remove
 And spring adorns the earth no more.
 The benedlct1On was pronounced by Rev. Dr. Bacon. Many in the rear of the church improved the opportunity to get good look at the President as he passed out.
 At the Crypt.
 The visitors and their entertainers repaired to the residence and shortly after returned, when the President, accompanied by Mrs. Hayes and quite party of members of the Trowbridge family, together with other friends, paid visit to the tombs of his an- cestors in Center church crypt. The dust of his great-grandmother, great-great-g grand father and great-great- great grandfather is buried there. The President spent some time in the crypt and seemed much impressed and interested. The visitors recorded their names in the register book of the crypt as also did the members of the family. The the day quietly with their friends, in the evening receiving few prominent visitors
 To-day's Programme.
 To-day the President and Mrs Hayes with Mr. and Mrs Trowbridge and others visit Branford, where the President will be shown the ancient Totoket House, which in it's origi- nal state was the home of the Presidents great grandfather, Ezekiel Hayes. This even ing large reception will be rendered them at the residence of Mir. and Mrs. Trowbridge Six hundred invitations have been issued The reception will last from till To- A large pavilion tent will be erected in the the guests, and the grounds will be finely illuminated
 Tomorrow, Tuesday, from 10 to 11:30 a. m, there will be grand Dublie receDtion