The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-04-11

lilies made up the congregation that morning. The parish now has about one-hundred and sixty-five families, and on the roll of its communicants are three-hundred and two names. Of the original communicants only two remain on that roll MT. Stephen Sears and Mrs. A. F. Wood.
 During the fifty years there have been 660 baptisms, and 493 persons have been presented for confirmation. The number of marriages solemniZed has been 694, while the number of bur- ials has been 921.
 Now those are not large figures, in fact, they are small when compared with the figures of many parish. But St. Thomas parish has never been a parish of large things. It has never had periods of rapid growth followed by seasons of depression. Its whole history has been one of "quiet and steady progress. Tt has sought to do it's work without much fuss or noise, and one likes to think that though it's statistics, comparatively speaking, are small it has done a useful work, and many have been helped to lead a truer and nobler life. What the results of the half century's work have been so far as figures are concerned is easily told. But what the spiritual results have been it is impossible to tell. You cannot estimate these in dollars and cents. We believe however that here many a soul has been strengthened, that this church has been a center and source of deep and lasting spiritual in fluence. We know that for forty-four years the word of God was preached faithfully and consistently to this flock. ''Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel" was the text which encircled the old pulpit and it was the text from which the rector preached his first ser mon in this the "second temple' and you who sat under his preaching for years will bear me out when I say that he nobly lived up to that text through out his ministry.
 Did time permit it would be pleas ure to me in this review of the fifty years of our parochial life to speak of the men and women whose devotion and zeal did so much to make the par ish what it is to-day. As I think of the men who used to sit at the head of these pews, some of whom I know
 
 might have been with us to-day, and still not been old men, it fills me with sadness find myself saying again and l again, What help they would have been to me and to the parish Why in | the last six years our loss has been | heavy as you will see when I mention | Edward M. Reed, John E. Earle, | Edward Heaton, James G. English, | Daniel c. Eaton, John F. Bassett, Til- l ton E. Doolitt1e, and John l.. Treat. But this is what every parish experi- | ences. We are no exception to the rule. Death is ever busy and the strong | and weak alike are cut down.
 | But have taxed your patience too much already, and I will not keep you | longer than to remind you that this parish commenced in faith fifty years ago must be maintained in the future l as it has been in the past What its | story will be at the end of another | fifty years no man can foresee. That | depends upon you and and upon those who come after you. We all hope, of course, that it will prosper, that it will | continue to be a center and source of l these influences which enrich the indi- l vidual and uplift the community. And | there is no reason to doubt that it will l be if each one of you does his or her duty. Remember the devotion and zeal and faith of those who built, and with a like devotion and zeal and faith see to it that this parish goes steadily on | it's way doing it's work For the welfare of man and the glory of God.