The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1895-12-09

house Of the Lord, For forty years he
was a CHIEF among us. OF Mr., Cooke,
Deacon Townsend says; HE was a
publisher who threw himself his repu-
tation and his business habits and ia
cilities into the scale as we'll as what
pecuniary means he possessed, and was
of great help in his time" The piety
and service of the others whose names
are given above are well remembered.
These all are but types Of others who
We're associated with them, Religion
seems to have been the chief thing in
the life of many of these people, In
those days there was no Young Mems
Christian association to make religion
delightful recreatiou; there was no
brigade to lure the boys to church with
the glitter Of brass buttons and the
CLEAN Of bayonets, Preaching and
prayer We're the chief exercises of the
church and children We're trained in the
knowledge Of the truth by the cate
chsm, and not by clubs,
Sermons, especially, seem to have been
the support and the solace Of those
saints. Their capacity to take in ser
mons seems to have been elastic and
unlimited, and they had unbounded
faith in the power of a preacher to
produce sermons. 1t is not known how
amhny prayer meetings were held
through the week, but three sermons
upon Sunday they demanded. They
record in their minutes, perhaps think
ing it a, strange dispensation of provi-
dence that their first young minister
after a half years labor lost his health;
and later they wrote, in the record
that Mr.. Putnam, after attempting to
carry on his studies through the week
and to preach three times on Sunday
at the end of five months broke down.
Though they might have seen that three
sermons on Sunday would kill the
preacher, yet they evidently thought
that 10 fewer sermons would sustain
the life of the church. They turned
away from young men to older ones,
and when they engaged that stalwart
doctor of divinity, Professor Nathaniel
Taylor, to supply the pulpit, they con-
traSted with him to preach two SER
mons every Sunday and to furnish a
third sermon by a substitute
In contrast with this demand for SER
mons 1t would seem tina The modern
pastor might say: "The lines are fall
en- unto me in pleasant places, yea I
have a goodly heritage" And so he
might We're it not for the fact that
/ there are so many who insist that the
minister should know a great deal Of
a. great many things, and for the
"a 49, No e+o
is expected to be the general COM
mitteeman and director of almost num-
berless societies, and to attend an I'M
| limited number of outside meetings.
The modern pastor, like the modern
business man of public spirit finds his
dream of rest elusive, and, if he finds
| blessedness at all, he must find it, as his
Master did, not in being ministered
unto, but in mfnistering and in giving
his life, even, a. ransom for many.
The officers of the church watched
over it with care and administered dis
cipline with fidelity. 1t may he mere
coincidence may be owing the the fact
that larger number of women than of
men were in the church, but the early
records convey the impression that dis
cipline was more frequently administer
ed to the women than to the men The
record reads as follows: cat meeting
of the brethren such and such charges
We're brought against Sister Blank and
she was admonished or suspended, as
the case demanded. One woman was
disciplined, one charge being that of
mimicking another woman in a female
prayer meeting. Discipline was admin
istered for violation of the covenant, for
neglect of church ordinances, for Sab
bath breaking, for dishonesty in bust
ness and for immoral practices. A pc
rusal of the records impresses one with
the fact that human nature was just
the same then as now; that the cohsti-
| tuition of the church could not make
the members who came into it perfect;
that while many in this church were
eninently good, many had all the weak
ness of human nature; and that disci-
pine was needful and helpful, both for
the good of the individual and for the
good of the church. There is a record
which shows an agreement on the part
of the members to take each catalogue
and to pray for every other member,
taking one member for each day. Such
a church must grow in knowledge, love
and the power of the spiritual life. The
| leaders of this church must have learn
ed in the first decade Of it's history that
Christian ideals are always higher than
actual Christian attainments. The leg
| iSlation of Moses was modified and it's
commands lowered because of the hard
ness of mems hearts. Jesus had many
| things to say to His disciples but they
could not hear them; the author of the
epistle to the Hebrews wrote to those
who, by reason of the time they had
fibeen taught, ought to have been teach
ers, but who had need to be taught
again the very first principles of the
oracles of God So the founders of this
church found that their ideals were
above the conditions, customs and
| Christian life OF their times. The name
of Missionary church had to be given
up. The practice of furnishing free
seats had to be abandoned. A debt of
! twelve thousand dollars had been in
Cured in erecting the FIRST building and
although some members of the church,
| though not rich, gave from $500 to $700
a year. there was an annual deficit The
| financial crisis of 1887 and the hard
/ time which followed sorely straitened
the church. In 1889 the free pew sys-