The Newtown bee., 1888-07-13
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raised and OutSlQe or tnlS SUO0u the LOru $ Table, which the minister approached only on Communion Sundays. The pro- eession of a single clergyman from the vestry room at ore end of the church to the chancel at the other and, when sur plice was worn, his recession to change for the black gown to deliver his sermon, are things in the past not to be revived and not pleasant for many of us to re- member.
 |. To say nothing about the new edifices, I believe am safe in the statement that since the consecration of our present bishop every old parish church in the diocese has been enlarged, remodeled, beautified or reconstructed. You have done a good thing for yourselves my brethren and 'sshown to the generations to come the praises of the Lord' by rich ly adorning your church and making tasteful improvements in it, conformable to the spirit and requirements of the day in which we live. This chancel, erected John Beach, is fit memorial of one, the intimate convictions of whose mind could not be smothered by persecution and ad- versity or overlaid by the sharp contro- yersies into which he was unwillingly drawn. How it would have giaddened his heart to behold the spectacle before us and to have shared with bishop and company of clergymen in q service which it was not permitted him to wit ness on this continent. He labored zeal- ously to build up the church under the superintendence of an earthly head 5000 miles away and never ceased to wonder why one of the Episcopal order could not be sent over to perform the Apostol- ic offices and save young men, who might have it in their minds to apply for Holy Orders, the expense and dangers of voyage to England. It is impossible to interpret the policy of British rulers iii denying the repeated entreaties of the colonial clergy for the Episeopacy on any ground but the fear of offending the i Puritan element and exciting the colo nies to rebel against the home govern ment. The narrow statesmanship of the day would not allow anything to be done for the Church which might be thought to put in peril the possessions of the Crown, or interfere with the trade and commerce of the country. But Provi- dence worked out the problem in His own | way and in time gave us Bishops untram- elled by the State and free to exercise the spiritual functions committed to them in the Church of God.
 With greater privileges and advantages come greater responsibilities. If the age, with it's special characteristics, makes new demands upon the clergy and re- quires them to meet and ponder the ques- tions which science and philosophy are perpetually raising, they are not to for get the old truths, the old plan of saliva tion. No era of religious thought can take away or lower the claims of Christ and the standard of Christian duty. The worship which your fathers offered on | this summit was to the same God who claims your homage and worship now.
 Your present condition is but link in chain of events which stretches over long period and teaches you, as the child ren of blessed inheritance, not to be un- mindful of what is before you, at the same time that you are not forgetful of what is behind. The way to keep alive an old parish that is constantly drained
 by stream of it's people running out ward is for those who remain to be pa- tient and more self sacrificing, to stand fast by the teachings of Christ and his
 apostles, which are the standard of the Church and the rule of it's existence. I have often thought that the early church, men of Connecticut were more careful 10 remember the Lord in their wills thIn men of the present day. You will not exquisite in sculpture, erected to tHeir memory ill cemeteries, but their naInes are written in many a parish record hook
 and, if the legacies they devised were in
 some instances absorbed by the Reyolu-
 ton and in others misused or misabpro- priated by yestries, they show at least desire on the part of those who made
 them to serve the Church after deaf afh and Ihelp maintain regular ministrdtions.
 Sometimes man, who has gone forth to the great city and been successful in ac- I cumulatiug fortune and makingsa name
 for himself, looks back to the home of his boyhood and the church where he
 was dedicated to God in baptism and, by