The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-01-02

of the numerous and powerful as wei
 as subtle adversaries of our church tt
 disquiet my life and render my en
 deavors abortiye.'
 It is difficult to understand what ht
 meant by claiming that his ministry
 was attended with uncommon success
 l presume he must have referred to hi
 work elsewhere in the neighborinG l towns, for he says
 T ana eased of North Haven, 6
 church almost entirely of my raising | up, and which preached in the Sunday after Christmas, and dedicated to St
 John, as it was his day. Had upwards
 of twenty communicants, although ex- | cessive cold. 21 degrees in extreme
 (sie)."
 At the end of the year he received all invitation from the church at Rye
 which he gladly accepted, though his re- moVal was attended with complications,
 because the society at home, without having been informed of the action of
 the vestry at Rye, had appointed MT. Palmer to the mission. The conse-
 quence was that there were two claim ants for the same place. But the diff ficulty was speedily and amicably ad-
 justed. MT. Punderson remained at
 Rye until the close of his life, where
 his ministry was very successful, and
 MT. Palmer was transferred to New Ha-
 ven, and entered upon his duties im-
 mediately, with great vigor and enthu-
 siasm Mir. Punderson's memory should
 be cherished with great respect, for
 he did his life work with great fidelity
 and generosity, and bore up manfully
 under the disappointments of his min
 istry here. especially during the latter part of the time.
 The Eplscopalians had been attempt ing religious census of the colony, and pr. Stiles had become cognizant
 of it, and with his usual endeavor to find out everything about everybody, says, May 8. 1760
 "1he total Episcopalians in New England in 1767 does not ex- ceed thirty common Presby yterian meetings the work of forty yeaps, since the society $. P. CD directly att tempted the proselyting of our churches. Since that time (namely, 174S) they (the society," have been exhausted, and probably their annual contributions are at their acme and will never much exceed the demand of the present missions, and there are but three of these who will in many years to be able to support
 themselves, so that perhaps 4t4 number they will ever be able to sup port at a time, The creating of new missions has evidently been clogged ever since the year 1742 And perhaps in the last twenty years there have not been ten new missions created It Is therefore most probable that in the twenty years next to come they can not create ten new ones or increase the number of clergy to forty, except by And as the great motive of relaxation from ministerial taxes aI- ready begins to cease, or rather has there remains the only way for numerous additions, viz, by continuing to open the arms of the church to mal- of cur communion, and de- bouchlng of some few that are carried away by the struggles of party. But our churches are in the progress of a | most rapid increase, and do now make | annually four new parishes to one new reading house of Episcopallans, and | will increase beyond this. It | s probable, therefore that the era of | swift increase of the Church of Eng | and is now elapsed; that for the fu- .ure the increase will decline; while our churches continue in steady but most | 'apid increase of doubling once in thirty | years, which must constantly diminish | he proportion of the church to the Con- ;regationalists. For it is probable thir- y years hence the church will not have Lbove forty missions, and at most five 'ther congregations that support them elves; at which time, by the blessing of our churches will have in- reased tc 1,000"
 And to Dr. Chauncy in July, 1761, he sed this language:
 "The Episcopalians compute 2,000 antilles in Connecticut. There are but hirty places of public worship now. Ai4l LlpIIl liiG Idl SSoL dllOWdHGGS cdH- ot make but about 1,240 families in nor indeed do I think there re so many by 200, However, I do not now but 1t might have been as we'll 3 allow 2,500 instead of 2100 for all lew England However. I be- eve the Episcopalians do not in truth xceed 2,000 families, yet I would will lgly give them larger allowance, as here will be enough left for us for ] asis of as large an increased body antury hence as we can wish, I mean l ) keep ourselves in countenance as far s numbers ought to do 1t, which re- ard of no great moment indeed, be- des barely the security of liberty" ; But prophecy evidently was not one i the gifts of Dr. Stiles. To be sure, ' 5 we have seen, the church in New Ha- z an, was in a most depressed condi- I on, but our congregations elsewhere the colony were flourishing. l r. Stiles might have found some con C ,lati0n and some ground for his hope I lat the church had seen its best days ! ready in New England from the state |
 things in New Haven, but the church
 New Haven had then touched it's