Morning journal and courier., 1891-02-02
ANOTHER FINE TABLET:

ANOTHER FINE TABLET To be Placed in Center Church This l Week Commemorative of the Church,s Sixth Pastor, Rev. '. ID. Dana, ID. ID.
 Another beautiful memorial tablet for Center church is to be placed in position at that church this week. It is commence rative of the Rev. MT. Dana, the sixth pas tor of Center church, of whom Rev. Dr. Symth, in his admirable historical tribute, delivexed in 1888. at tho 250th anniversary of the first church of Christ in New Haven, says: His successor, Dr. Dana, who was called after he was fifty years old, to this pulpit, had also been patriot, and a patriot too in those days just preceding the revolu- tion, when all men had not been prompt to kind1e in patriotic flame. Yet none but patriots in those days could have worthily stood in pulpit which from John Daven- the protection of the regicides, to Leonard Bacon's ringing war cries against slavery unto this day, has never failed, and pray may never fail, to answer with instanta- neous trumpet note to every call of country and of liberty. MT. Dana, however, anticipated by many years Dr. Bacon's final view upon the abolition of slavery. In g sermon preached in this pulpit before the tember 9, 179O, he reviewed those argu- ments for slavery with which some half a century afterwards we became too familiar; he remarked that the Mosaic account "doth not inform us what was the complexion of Adam and Eve"; and he e1postulated with eloquent vehemenee against "the traffic in the souls of men," The same clear note he struck again in 8 discourse reviewing the events of the eighteenth century, and he reports that Slavery is abolished in some of the progressing" How slowly that kingdom was to come, and with what violence it's heaven was to be taken by storm, he did not foresee, but the many graves of our heroes tell.
 ''Mr. Dana was a recognized champion of the old divinity, and behold! 8 new divinity was already on the threshold of the century upon which he had entered. The familiar story runs again through our records of the passing of the old order and the coming of the new. As Dr. Daua had seemed unorthodox in the eyes of the younger Edwards, so Moses Stuart seemed unsound to Dr. Dana. He protested that 'the settlement of MT. Stuart could not take place in this church and society with out manifest departure from the princi- pies and practice transmitted to them by their ancestors' The subsequent core spondence between the pastor whom the church had retired and the young preacher whom it had called betrays, each letter in it's characteristic way, that deeper love of truth and sincere desire for fellowship in which long ere this their temporary estrange- ment, we trust, has been forgotten in | world where misunderstanding do not arise. And the clouds which gathered toward the close of Dr. Dana's ministry | were providentially not permitted to ob- scure entirely it's setting. In the last glimpse which our records afford of tho venerable pastor we may behold him, in calmness of his dignifed age, sitting in the pulpit where for years he had preached | in the moderation of the old divinity, and which Dr. Taylor was already filling with | the eloquence of new thought, "a not dis | pleased listener, reconciled and benign ant presence, tried servant of God, willing now to depart in peace.
 | The new tablet above spoken of has been admirably executed by our New Haven firm of Thomas Phillips & Son at the order or three gentlemen who are the donors of the beautiful gift and descendants of MT. Dana, viz., Professor J. D. Dana of Yale, the eminent geologist; MT. Dana, his bro- ther, and MT. Joseph I. .Whittelsey of New Haven, now temporarily 8 resident of Cambridge, Mass. The background of the l tablet is of Tennessee marble of rich and delicate color and is about four feet square. The edges are beveled. Upon it is firmly bolted polished brass placque, handsome ly lined, and which bears in black enam- eled letters the following inscription: | In Memory of
 | Rev. James D. Dana, D. D.,
 Born in Cambridge, Mass, May 10, 1735. Harvard College, 1753
 Pastor of the Congregational Church,
 Sixth Pastor of the ,a ripst ,o Church. New Haven, | Fellow of Yale College, 1789-1s12.
 Faithful to his Convictions of Duty, l Earnest in Their Defense in an Ago of l But with Charity to All.
 l Died in New Haven Aug. 18th, 1812,
 Aged 77 Years.
 Above the inscription on the upper face of the marble background is the Alpha and Omega cut in brass. The people worship
 ping at Center church next Sunday will
 find this beautiful tablet greeting them. II is fine addition to the various commem- orative tablets which are already arranged upon the walls of this historic New Eng land church.
 Fitting it is to append the following commemorative paragraphs regarding the deceased former pastors of Center church,
 all of whom were men of note and wide influence for good in their day and gener- ation, and the successors of whom, Walk CT, Noble and Smyth are as is so well known no exception to the rule. These characteristic sentences are found in the handsome pamphlet which gives an ac- count of the events at the celebration ot Center church's 250th anniversary: | THE PASTORS AND TEACHERS
 "being dead they yet speak,
 Gospel rules and patterns."-John Davenport l ''Do not love your reward beyond your work ' I-William Hooke Q644-1656).
 '"The answer should be of faith and not of fear: :"-Nicholas Street Q659- -1674.
 1.-The library I am collecting for the college comes on wen."-James Pierpont Q685-1714).
 .The freedom of the press consistent in the 1761).
 Religion is the source of the most exalted patriotism, "-Chauncey Whittelsey Q75s- s-17sD.
 growth James Dana G7s9- -iso5}.
 "When explaining the Bible, call no man ! master."- Moses Stuart CsO6- -181O,
 nnsh tRSuTs % if ss ySss over Mag
 "Remember then, our national responsibility | That is the thought which ends my service here | to-day. ."-Leonard Bacon Qsa5-1SsD.
 ] [From his last sermon, Nov. 24th, 1eS1.] 'sShese all died in faith.''