ter." We are not simply looking backward but forward.

The development of thought in our own church which I have discussed, has been a part of a larger development of thought in the Christian world. Beginning with the ascendency of the church of Rome there was a period in which supreme authority was lodged in the church. Beginning with the time of the Reformation and covering most of our own local history, was a period when the seat of authority was found in the Bible. In the later period, in which we are living, the basis of authority is shifting from the church and from the Bible to the realm of the individual conscience. There are certain historic facts recorded in the Bible which will never be outworn, but in the realm of truth the authority of the Bible is found only when it is recognized and approved by the individual conscience. We are depending more in these days upon the present Spirit of God working upon the heart and mind of man than upon any crystallized expression which that Spirit has made in the past and which is subject to different interpretations.

We have lost the vindictiveness of the earlier teaching. With complacency and even with joy we can see other churches prospering and see the kingdom spreading even upon a doctrinal basis slightly different from our own. We have learned not only tolerance, but brotherliness. While we are only one church now instead of the only one. yet we are the mother of many and the sister of all others. The cause of this better relation is largely in our different attitude toward truth. We do not claim to have

reached the summit.

We are still on the hillside, but

we believe that we are farther up than were our ancestors. We recognize that others may be still further up than we. We realize, also, that some may be lower down, but we are on the hillside struggling upward and our horizon is still enlarging. We do not mentally circumscribe all truth by the limits of our present horizon.

We celebrate not simply a culmination but a promise, and while we devoutly say, "These all died in faith," we can also say, "God having provided some better thing concerning us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect." While we look backward and “see what God hath wrought," we also look forward and believe that He "is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." 'Unto Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations forever and ever. Amen."

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ANNIVERSARY HYMN.

To the tune of Duke Street.- (Hatton.)

(Written for this occasion by the Pastor.)

Hail! Ancient Church! by God's own hand
Led on through generations long;
Herald of truth in Freedom's Land;

Thy hallowed age but makes thee strong.

For fathers, founders, faithful, all,

So loyal to thy destiny.

Who here have raised the Gospel call,
Our grateful song to God shall be.

Majestic as the rolling sun,

We see thy providential way; Thy hallowed history 's but begun; Still grows the lustre of thy day.

Thou, Guardian of this Church, O God,
Keep us united, pure and true;
The way of faith our fathers trod
May we in loyalty pursue.

God of our fathers, God of grace,
O make us loyal to their fame!
When we shall see Thee face to face
May future ages bless our name!

In the summer of 1856, the gallery was extended, pew doors removed, gas introduced, walls and ceilings frescoed, and new vestry made under south-easterly portions of the building.

In 1865 mahogany pulpit lowered and its doors removed. In September, 1869, addition built at rear for new organ, mahogany pulpit removed and small black walnut pulpit now used in vestry placed on a platform. Blinds and sashes removed and stained glass substituted.

Destroyed by fire commencing at 5 P.M., December 25, 1870.