The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-10-29

had been subscribed by mem ers of the
parish and society and "a, zoo from friends
outside.
1 am sure it will interest you TO learn
how this large amount was so speedily
secured.
First, six gentlemen, all members OF
the church, and all save one, mem bers
of the building committee, gave each
a subscription Of $500. The first of these
six su Inscriptions was given, believe,
by our aged brother, so long our church
treasurer, Mr.. John j. Gerrish }
Closely following these six subscrip-
tiOns came three $1,000 subscriptions from
the sons OF the late John &. Randall, who
was lifelong friend and supporter of
this parish. When the parish su bscrip-
tions had reached $4,000, your pastor
began to solicit aid outside the parish
The first subscription he obtained was
an unconditional one of 500 from Mr..
ID. W. CLARK. The second one for the
same amount was the GIFT OF Mr.. VIM.
W. Brown, who wisely conditioned IL
on thesraising of $50, 500, to make the
building fund S24, O0O. Soon after Mr..
William w. Thomas gave his subsorip-
tiOn of $1,000, adding to Mr.. Browns
condition, THAT the structure be of
brick.
recall with deepest gratitude the
fatherly 1ndness of this honorable and
venerable citizen OF Portland, whose bene-
factions have been large and many in be-
half OF worthy Christian and charitable
enterprises, frequently he visited in his
carriage the new church dur ing the
process OF it's erection. and he lived to see
1t externally completed, and to express his
admiration and satisfaction over the
work to which he so generously contrib
uted.
come now to speak OF Mr.. Payson
fuckers subscription TO the building
fund OF 81, 500-the largest gift received
frOr INV nor
There is an interesting story connected
with Mr.. fuckers munitioent gift.
which has never been told in public. l
may relate 1t now that our noble benefac-
tor is no more with us, except by the
grace and benedictiOn of his we'll remem-
bered charities. The original design
was to build this church of brick trimmed
with granite. The late w. w.
Thomas gave his subscription, as I said,
on this condition that the edittce be of
brick When one member of the build
ing committee was interviewing Mr..
Tucker concerning the matter Of granite
trimmings, he said' 'Why not build
of stonef If you Will build of our granite
L vii make 1t as cheap as brick Mr..
fuckers proposal was gracefully accepted
by the parish and TO him is due the fact
that this church editice is built Of beauti-
full and durable granite.
Not long after Mr.. j. s. Kicker gave a
500 subscriptin, which he subsequently
increased to $500. The late Woodbury.
S. Dana also gave me 5000 subscription
with out solicitation. 1t will be noted
that three OF these five hundred dollar
subscriptions came from members OF
State street Congregational church.
From the parishioners OF this church we
received, in the aggregate, over 5000.
Messrs. &. ID. PaysOn, HenryP Cox,
the late Weston +. Milliken, and Captain
Benjamin Webster subscribing $500 each.
1-ko ~ ~ - - Il
subscribed $3.50 in the name OF his wife.
offered to give another hundred if
would go on with the work until enough
should be raised to pay the entire cost OF
the editics. Captain Benjamin Webster
afterwards made the same generous pro-
posit ion to me. From Mrs. j. b. Brown
came a check for $500 Thirty-One of
Portland'a citizens outside of our parish,
and mostly business men, gave each 500
Their names are too numerous to men,
ton. The whole number of subscribers
TO the building fund was 445, not includ-
ing those who gave by weekly Offering
Through this system came $l0l6 into the
building fund. Thsre were In all twelve
subscriptions of $500 each. There were
"A 500 subscriptions; 40 500 subsorip-
tiOns; 80 $50 subscriptions; % S25 sub
scriptions; "a $40 subscriptions; l 500
subscriptions; ] $3.50 subscription. Total
amount OF subscriptions, $29, $40; from
st Lawrence parish, SlS.2lO from
friends outside, $11 800. This 81, 800
includes church collections for our work
From Wilnston church, $l71; from State
ST. church, $1O5; from Second Parish
church, so; from High St church $40
The smallest subscription made TO
the building fund was the second sub
scr1ptiOn from Master Arthur w Blake.
This little lad after hearing a ssrmOn
from his pastor on " Gathering In the
Mites, - went home and gathered in all
his pennies and brought them to me for
the new church building. This was in
1889. 1t was 20 cents.
l have referred to the largest and the
smallest subscriptions, / would speak a
few words OF the first of all subscriptions
to the building fund. 1t was this-gOId
dollar which 1 hold In my hand, the face
value or which was paid into our church
building fund. 1t was the gift of the
surviving daughter of the late DR.. John
j. Carruthers. 1t was given in the year
1888 l was at the time cOnversing with
DIR Carruthers in his chamber The sub
ject was the need Of new church build
ing for the St, Lawrence Street Society.
The venerable man OF God said to me
''Pray for it, and get your people to pray
for it. and, he added, l Will pray for
it tOO.' In 1890 Dr. CaIruthers died and
/ have reason to believe that to the end
of his life he offered up prayers continual
~ for this object. His words inspired
me to pray, and from that time l began
to secretly anu openly to plead for new
house of worship for the st. Lawrence
people. at the same time began to
think of the old skating lot assthe
most desirable site for the new church
Soon my public prayers become over
burdened with petitions for new church
building. One day calling upon a most
worthy Christian woman, she startled
me by saying ''Mr. Wright 1 wish
you would stop praying for a new
church. 1t is useless to plead for what we
cannot have5' 1t occurred to me then
that this good woman but reflected the
thought and feeling OF the congregation,
and it led me for a time to carefully
abstain from offering petitions for the
new church in my pulpit prayers. But
the prayer for the new church never died
out of my heart, nor hopefulness concern
ing it's future realization,
s shave never spoken In public of this
before. 1 speak of it now to Illustrate my
conviction that God heard the prayers of
q