The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-02-28
AN ANNIVERSARY SERMON
PREACHED YEsTERDAY AT WOOD-
 BRIDGE BY REY. s. P. MARVIN.

In Commemoration of the Close of the
 Thirty-fourth Year of His Pastorate--
 History of Parish During That Period
 Original Hymn. Written by MT. Marvin,
 Sung at the Service.
 A large congregation at the Wood- bridge Congregational church yester- day morning listened to an anniver- sary sermon preached by it's beloved pastor, Rev. S. P. Marvin, who took charge of the parish in February, 1865. MT. Marvin's text was Psalms xviii, g: We have thought of Thy loving kind ness, o God, in the midst of Thy tenn ple.'' The sermon in full Is as follows:
 As the thirty-fourth anniversary of my settlement as pastor of this church occurred during the past week have thought it would be appropriate and { hope interesting and profitable to look back over the past and take note of the way in which God has led us and of some of the incidents of progress which have taken place. First I notice the situation of the church and it's sur- roundings. The church edifice of course stood where 1t does now, but the sur- roundings were very different. To get a correct idea of the appearances of things as they were then you want to imagine the fence around the green en- tirely removed and not a tree standing upon it, with the exception of the large elm standing back of the church and two standing in front of the horse sheds on the east side, which had been set out few years before by N. ID. Clark, I believe. The building as you see stood upon an open vacant piece of ground, upon which the cows and geese wandered, and grazed as they happened to. I was told by one of the brethren, think it was the old sexton, Davis Newton, that in the summer sea son the geese would sometimes gather around the church and make so much noise that he would have to go out and # drive them away. You will easily per ceive that If you take away the fence and remove all the trees which now stand upon the green it will leave quite a different appearance. The church must have sat solitary and alone. Very different were it's surroundings from now what appears, with the diff ferent forms of evergreen which add so& much of cheerfulness in winter, and the shade trees which are so much ad nired by those who come to visit you in summer The internal arrangement of the house was very much as at pres ent. The house had been remodeled some two years before, and the walls frescoed, and presented a neat and at- tractive appearance. There were no lamps and the musical instrument was an ordinary melodian. Very soon however, the melodian gave place to Mason & Hanlin organ, which was q great improvement on the old melo- dian. It was use, think, for the first tim eat my installation. This instru ment was used until through the liber- ality of Mrs. Amos s. Treat, who was born in this parish, and made a. profess sion of religion in this church. She presented the church with the present pipe organ, which is so much admired by all who hear 1t, and which adds so much to the service of song and be- comes so helpful in our worship.
 There was no lecture room and the only place for prayer meetings and evening meeting was in the basement, but it was a very different place from what it is now. There was no drain to carry off the water in winter, and the water would rise even with the floor and freeze, making 1t a cold, damp and unhealthy place, and some of the ladies of the congregation refused to attend meetings there because of the expos- ure to colds and sickness. At the time of the building of the lecture room 8 drain was dug. leading off to the west, which carries off the surplus of water, the old floor and wainscotting were removed, the earth was removed by digging down and the room was made higher between joists A new frame for the floor and new wainscottirg were put in, and the commodious room which the basement becomes took the place of the old one. This, however, was incidental to the building of the lecture room which took place at the same time and provided for us our present pleasant lecture room and la dies parlor It is quite a contrast from the old rickety basement so damp that some of the good ladies refused to meet in it from fear of taking cold or other- wise catching some disease, to the pres- ent commodious basement, or the lec-A ture room and ladies par1or, which you all so much enjoy. While in addition to this you have kitchen for the ac-s commodation of your socials a china closet for the dishes, and room for the reception of the various forms on eatables which you bring for your en- tertainments. Often as I have shown persons from the city or strangers from distance the different rooms for the accommodation of the church and parish, in Its various forms of activity, and it's social gatherings, they have res marked, 'Why. you have all the ar- engagements and accommodations of' the city churches" And then as to our audience room, it is universally admir- ed by all who visit it. A few weeks since you remember we had with us Dr. Duncan, the field secretary of the Congregational Sabbath School and Publishing society. After the service he said to me, "I of course visit a great many churches as I am passing from place to place in presenting the work of the society, but you have beauti- full church here," and this is the ex- pression of everyone who visits us. The