thought of being left to perish in their sins. And this continued sometimes for weeks and months. And when relief

came, it was attributed to the sovereign grace of God; Christians often spoke of their vileness in the sight of a holy God. Abundant examples of this are found in the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine. Now, as a general statement, there is very little manifestation of alarm, little evidence of deep conviction of sin. Converts do not appear to feel as "brands plucked from the burning," nor always as "sinners saved by grace," but rather as having been persuaded to consecrate themselves to a chosen Saviour.

The change may in part be accounted for by the difference in the preaching. The truth is presented now as it was in former times, but different truths are put in the foreground. Then, the justice of God, the strict requirements of his law, and the eternal punishment of impenitent transgressors were made very prominent, and awakened sinners felt that they were in the hands of an angry God, who alone could grant them deliverance, and that whether he would deliver them was an awful uncertainty. Christ was not presented until the "law-work" had prepared the way. Now, the divine sovereignty and justice, the obdurate sinfulness of the human heart, the certainty of everlasting punishment to the finally impenitent, are less dwelt upon, and the love of God in Christ is the grand theme. His tender pity for the sufferings of men, and his yearning desire for their happiness, are sometimes so presented as to make the impression that there is little occasion for alarm.

May it not be that the state of the public mind is such as to demand, as it does at different periods, a re-adjustment of the truths made relatively prominent in the dispensation of the word?

The general instruction of children in relation to the Saviour's love, and his willingness to receive them as disciples, undoubtedly has its influence,—and a happy one it is,—on the phase of religious experience to which I have referred.

In the organized charities that have become so numerous,

the Congregational churches of Connecticut have taken a leading part.

The missionary spirit has been alive from the first. Even during that dark period, it was burning in the hearts of some of the ministers, like Hart of Preston, and Baldwin of Danbury. And movements were made before and after the Revolution in some of the local associations, and more effectively by the General Association, as early as 1792, to send missionaries into the new settlements. In 1798, the General Association was organized into the "Missionary Society of Connecticut," whose objects were "to Christianize the heathen in North America, and to support and promote Christian knowledge in the new settlements of the United States." The Rev. David Bacon, sent out in 1800, was its first missionary to the heathen.

The history and statistics of the missionary work are accessible to all, and we need not here dwell upon them.

But

I wish we could see the workings and influence of this society in its early years,-its first missionaries going into Vermont, and Northern New York, along the Mohawk Valley, and beyond, searching out and encouraging such Christian families as they might find, holding the first religious meetings ever known in those regions;-such men as the Rev. Joseph Badger, who had done hard service in the war, served as pastor, and was now, amid many discouragements, laying the foundations of churches on the Western Reserve,-the Rev. David Bacon, before Utica was even a village, or Rochester, or Buffalo, with knapsack and staff pushing his toilsome way alone through the wilderness, to ascertain the condition of the Indian tribes around the great lakes, and his succeeding missionary labors and journeys with his young wife and infant children, amid perils and self-denials from which most of us would shrink;-such men as Samuel J. Mills, Jr., who explored the valley of the Mississippi when there was not a Congregational or Presbyterian minister in the whole State of Illinois, if in all that valley,—who on another tour crossed over and preached in St. Louis the first Protestant sermon ever preached west of the river;-and Salmon Giddings, who

gathered the first church in St. Louis, and became an apostle to all that region;-such men as that apostolic band from New Haven, who, in a moral and religious sense, almost transplanted Connecticut, with her Yale College, upon the soil of Illinois. These, and such as these, were the real heroes of the age, the true successors of the apostles. They were trained under those strong doctrines which the fathers had so earnestly discussed. They felt that Christ was the rightful Lord of this revolted world, that he had called them into his kingdom, and ordained them that they should go and set up his banners in all this expanding country. They went forth, and lo! the wilderness and the solitary place have rejoiced and blossomed as the rose. Not only New York and Ohio, but all the western and northwestern States, with their growing churches, their schools and colleges, and all the evangelizing and civilizing forces of Christianity in operation, are the fruit of just these missionary undertakings. Connecticut has not wrought all this, but her spirit and energies have been infused into it. Without this Home Missionary work, many of those strong churches and Christian institutions at the West might have had no existence; those beautiful States and Territories might have been a moral waste, and even our national government, in its late struggle, might have been overthrown.

It may seem strange that the Congregationalists, who ranked first among the denominations in the country a hundred years ago, should now, if they have been so efficient in Home Missions, rank only seventh. It should be remembered that they have not prosecuted the work of missions in a denominational spirit. They have not sought to extend their own denomination, but the kingdom of Christ. With the utmost catholicity of feeling they have united with others in the missionary work, content if only Christian churches could be established and maintained, and the destitute have the means of grace supplied. Under the plan of union between the General Association of Connecticut and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, the Congregational churches furnished the larger proportion of funds for the

work, while the larger proportion of churches gathered and supported were Presbyterian. It was not the Congregationalists, however, that withdrew from the union.

The light of experience clearly shows us that if there are peculiar excellences in the Ecclesiastical system which we have received from our fathers, we should appreciate those excellences, and maintain the system that contains them, and that while we should be ready to cooperate with others in such works as call for such coöperation, still we should give our main strength to the energetic prosecution of those enterprises which Providence has thrown upon our own hands, or clearly calls us to undertake.

To the multiplication of churches of other denominations. in Connecticut, various causes have contributed. Among these was a prejudice against the Congregational churches as the established order, and a dissatisfaction with the support given them by the State. A certain coldness and formality in worship probably repelled many who preferred more animation and a warmer expression of sympathy and fellowship. The repressive hand of the ministers on the liberty of the people in religious meetings had its influence. Some have been drawn away by their peculiar doctrinal views, but more, probably, by social affinities and influences. The differences between the evangelical denominations in Connecticut are less marked than formerly, and a more fraternal spirit prevails among them.

In the work of Foreign Missions our churches have not been behind. The very germinating idea of the American Board has been traced to the mother of Samuel J. Mills, in Torringford, telling him that she had devoted him to the service of God as a missionary. Connecticut has sent forth a goodly number of noble men and women to carry the gospel to far distant lands, and the blessing has returned many fold upon ourselves.

A hundred years ago, slavery existed in Connecticut as in the other States. But there was very early manifested, in the Congregational churches, a strong opposition to it. As early as 1773 and 1774, the Rev. Ebenezer Baldwin and the Rev.

Jonathan Edwards were publishing essays against it; other ministers, in their sermons, showed its injustice, and there was soon formed a society for its abolition. Although the anti-slavery movement, as well as that against intemperance, was, in many cases, unhappily complicated with other irrelevant objects, yet so far as conducted in a Christian manner, it enlisted the sympathies and energies of a large proportion of our people.

The cause of temperance has found steady and strong support in most of our churches. The echoes of Dr. Lyman Beecher, and those of Dr. Hewitt, have not yet died away; and notwithstanding the fearful amount of inebriety still witnessed, there has been wrought an entire change in the drinking habits of at least the church-going part of the community. Intoxicating drinks are no longer provided for ministerial gatherings, or ordinations, or funerals, and in a majority of the families belonging to our congregations are not in common use, nor considered necessary in the way of hospitality.

Connecticut is a small State, and many of the churches on her hills, and away from her streams and railroads, have become weak; but her sons and daughters, trained in these churches, imbued with the sentiments and settled in the principles that have made Connecticut what she is, have gone forth to lay the foundations of other states, to be pillars in other churches, and so have caused the moral and religious power of our churches to be felt far and wide. Count up, in almost any of our secluded parishes, the men and women who have been raised up in it, and have gone from it; learn their history, and you will gain some idea of what our churches. have done in this way to bless the world. These parishes, seed-beds from which to stock the cities and the great West, must not fail of receiving the best culture.

The collegiate school founded by those few Congregational pastors, has grown to be a national institution,-and what in Connecticut, of this nature, does not become national ?-and with its departments of philosophy and the arts, of law, and medicine, and theology, is sending out annually a little army