The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-11-19
A BEAUTIFUL MEMORIAL.
THE WINDOW Ar CENTER CHURCH
 DEDICATED YEsTERDAY.

An Impressive Dlnooufso by hov. Dr.
 smyth-Large Congregations at Both
 Morning and yespsr serviees-Beautifai
 Floral Decorations-A Historic Day for
 the Church.
 Most impressive services were held at the Center church yesterday morning. the occasion being the dedication of the new memorial window in memory of {, the late Ezekiel H. Trowbridge. which is the gift of his son, E. Hayes Trow- bridge. to the church. The church was elegantly decorated with beauti- ful white chrysanthemums. which were given by Mrs. E. Hayes Trow- bridge. Large congregations were present at both the morning and ves- per services. At the morning service the south gallery was filled with a large number of the officials and em- ployes of the Consolidated railroad. The window gave universal satisfac- ton and delight. The day was his- toric one for the church. The hymn written by Dr. Leonard Bacon in com memoration of the two hundredth anni- versary of the settlement of New Ha- ven In 1888, was sung during the ser vice. Dr. Smyth's sermon, which was most interesting, was mainly as fol- lows:
 Kings, s:5T-The Lord our God be with us, as He was with our fathers: let Hin not leave us or forsake us.
 The memorial window. which has been presented to this church as an act Of filial piety in memory of father who Is numbered among our dead, and which is gratefully accepted by us, the living, on, this Sabbath day, for generations to come shall prove richly suggestive Of the best clements of the historic life of this church and this community. To us, and to our children and children's children, 1t will offer visible signs and representation of those higher powers of faith and character, which in past times have lifted up into nobleness, and rendered prosperous in righteousness the simple and sincere life of a NewEng- land town. This Sabbath, therefore, as we look for the first time at this his- torical window, this pulpit can have but one task to fulfil; its words must be as the living voice of those who being dead, yet speak: and the message to which you listen, should catch the spirit of the whole history, upon the first memorable scene of which your eyes now rest.
 Happily this historic task is rendered less difficult, because the window itself, in its general design, and in the group ing of its characters, presents at once to our thoughts the grand elements of our highest and best life as church and community.
 In its general conception the window represents the founding alike of church and state in a high comradeship of men, and in the fear of God. The first public acts of our, forefathers, after they had landed on this shore, were meeting for worship on the Sabbath morn, and sub- sequently a meeting on week day to establish civil, government according to God" This town, by these acts, was founded upon the sovereignty of AL mighty; Gods The, ten Commandments wer laid at the foundation of its pros- perity. t1 have had a good day." re- marked John Davenport of that first Sabbath's preaching in the wilderness; and since that holy hour, all the wor- thiest days of our history have fallen into the same grand order of religious responsibility and faith in which the life of the town at the beginning was taken up and consecrated. After the wilderness had been redeemed and the fathers had fallen asleep, when another century had brought the civil liberty of the colony to the great crisis of the rev. olution, a successor of the first preacher of the higher law upon this shore, a pastor of this church, preaching to the General court in the dark days of the Revolutionary war. in the same invin- cible faith, proclaimed religion to be the source of the most exalted ptriotism" Again, after the glorious victory of our independence had been won, the first president of these United States, in a speech which he made upon this green, in the spirit of the founders of our lib- critics. urged the necessity of religion and morals as the only security of our institutionsin the years to come. Again, when another century brought once more our national integrity to the awful test of war, the same unity of re- 1igious faith and exalted patriotism in which our forefathers had begun our , country's history, was proclaimed anew from the day of awakening when Fort Sumter was fired upon to the peace of Appomattox, as the national flag was flung aloft from the steeple of this church. *t
 Passing from the general design of the window to it's special claracteris- tics, we notice that the base of 1t rep- resents the true light-givers in the church, and the firm pillars of the state. Our fathers did not commit the mistake of supposing that true be- liefs or free institutions are enough of themselves to secure the stability of government and the prosperity of people. They chose the seven best men of their number to be the living pledge before God of pure worship. and to maintain good s5government among the peope. They did not con- fuse the separate functions of church and state: but they laid a righteous manhood at the foundations of both, For eighteen successive years the foun- ders chose their worthiest citizen to be their magistrate and judge. No laws, however excellent no institutions, how ever free, can endure, if <, the very foundations of government are allowed