The Rev. Lindsay Parker, who had been first assistant minister, resigned in April, 1886, to accept the rectorship of St. Peter's Church, Brooklyn. During his association with St. George's he had rendered most efficient and devoted service, strengthening the rector's hands by loyal and intelligent co-operation, contributing materially to the results achieved. The vestry therefore

put on record their "cordial appreciation of his faithful service and heartfelt regret at parting with a co-worker, whose genial temperament and noble qualities of heart and mind have endeared him to all who have enjoyed the privilege of association with him."

Early in 1886, the title to the lots adjoining the old chapel, which the Church held under a leasehold interest, having been now secured, the vestry was in a position to comply with the condition named in Mr. Morgan's letter of October 5, 1885, and ordered the conveyance to him of these lots and of the land on which the chapel stood as a site upon which to erect the new Memorial House. The rector and the property committee were empowered to make provision for needed quarters for the Sunday-school and other parish work during the demolition of the two houses and the chapel and the erection of the parish house. The place secured was Irving Hall, in which the congregation worshiped after the fire of 1865. The Sunday-school moved over on May 23d. The main school and the bible classes occupied the Hall, its galleries, and boxes. The primary department, having met in the Church as previously directed, marched in an attractive procession of 470 girls and boys to the rooms prepared for them adjoining the Hall at Fifteenth Street and Irving Place. The new accommodations, on the whole, were quite convenient and acceptable. The school might naturally have been expected to decrease in number and in discipline, thus meeting in an unaccustomed place with many of the teachers leaving for their summer outing, and with the loss of Mr. Parker, their efficient superintendent, whose connection with the parish had but shortly before been severed. But all these disadvantages were overcome. There were self-sacrificing teachers who remained throughout the summer heat and volunteers supplied the vacant seats, and there was an increased attendance, while interest and good order were maintained under the superintendency of Mr. V. E. Wetmore, who was a teacher of a class of boys in the main school.

In the fall of 1886 the vestry decided that the Easter offerings of the congregation should be devoted to the liquidation of the Church indebtedness, and a movement to secure $25,000 was set on

foot for that purpose, and $23,400 was received and so applied in the following spring.

In March, 1887, both Bishop Potter and the people of the Church of the Nativity, in Avenue C between Fifth and Sixth Streets, expressed a desire that St. George's should take over their property and identify with it their work in Avenue A. A committee of the vestry, however, reported adversely to the proposition, and it was decided to be inexpedient to assume any responsibility in the matter. The Confirmation service of 1887 took place on Sunday, May 1st. The services were most impressive. The Bishop sat in his chair at the gate of the chancel and the candidates came up two by two, and kneeling before him received the imposition of hands. There were 161 candidates, of whom 70 were adults. This was followed by the solemn service of setting apart a deaconess. The Bishop's address explained the office and work of a Deaconess in the Church, and he then conferred the privilege and responsibility of that office upon Julia Elizabeth Forneret, a trained nurse of large experience, who had been laboring in the parish for more than a year, and who had proved the value of the service of a trained and consecrated woman. The rector hoped soon to have others working by her side and in due time" to have some little corner in the city which we can call our Deaconess' House."

The rector found it necessary, as rectors generally of free churches do, to perpetually keep the envelope system before the people's minds. He wrote in 1887:

Of all the 1,400 or 1,500 people present in St. George's Church on Sunday morning, somewhat less than 400 have joined our envelope system. It necessarily follows that a very disproportionate share of the church's necessary expenses fall on these comparatively few persons. Speaking roughly, these 1,000 non-subscribers give less than $5,000 a year-the four hundred envelopes yield a little less than $15,000. What should be done? Those who are truly interested in our work should all of them lend a helping hand here; should explain the envelope system, the absolute necessity there is for adopting it, to those who they know are coming to the church and yet do not join.

Just now, quite a number of those who have taken envelopes in the church are returning them with the statement that they are leaving town for the summer. Those who do this, while they expect to return in the fall, surely cannot understand the object of our envelope system. If they rented a pew in a pew church, they would expect to pay rent for it during absence in the summer. By taking an envelope for only part of the year, they immensely increase the work of those volunteers who conduct the management of our system. Much better take an envelope for a small amount, and subscribe for a year at a time. I do not care to constantly allude to this subject from the pulpit. It would help our church, if those

who understand the absolute need of making this system work gently and smoothly, would use what opportunities they have to explain its needs to our people.

In the spring of 1888, he felt encouraged, as 250 new subscribers had been added to the list, and many of them he was glad to know were of the poorer people. The annual receipts from the envelope pledges and the plate collections for the support of the church had at this time reached the splendid total of $20,845.64.

In the year book he sketches the kind of work which St. George's ought to do, and is trying to accomplish, and the spirit in which it ought to be done.

Honestly I believe we are working on correct lines. I am sure as I can be of anything, that the city Church of the future must prosecute its work in some such directions as we are trying to prosecute ours. That Church must declare by its methods, as well as by its preaching, that it is the visible embodiment of a message of good things from God to the whole city in which it stands. Its life must touch at many points the city life to which it is set to minister. Semi-weekly meeting-houses for religious coteries churches must cease to be. They must also proclaim the fact that they have so ceased to be, in the ears of a population that is growing less and less inclined to go to church, and so to listen to them at all.

Services that are beautiful, yet simple; dignified, yet earnest, will help. Preaching that does not ignore the rich experiences or treasuries of the past, while it remembers that in the present lies its power of unspeakably great opportunity, will help.

The aspect which St. George's Church presented to observers is indicated in the following extracts, the first from Wilson's Centennial History of the Diocese of New York, page 250, and the other from the Rev. Dr. Dyer's Records of an Active Life, page 438:

On the accession of the present rector the vestry resolved, at his urgent request, to make the church free, and the results, not only spiritually and socially, but financially, have greatly exceeded their expectation. Not only is the church thronged to its utmost capacity, and services greatly multiplied and enriched with a chancel choir and organ, but the voluntary contributions and offertories reach a far larger amount than was ever realized from pew rentals. The parish activities are greatly multiplied and in most thrifty operation.

We have in New York at least two Churches entirely free-there may be more, but I only know of the two, St. George's and the Holy Communion. These Churches, I am told, are thronged on every Lord's Day, and at other times, and these throngs are made up of all classes. The rich and the poor sit, or stand, literally, side by side; no distinction is made. At other Churches such crowds are not seen, and why? I know of but one

reason. They do not feel so at home anywhere else. The very crowd which they help to make inspires a feeling of deep interest, and they enter with a whole-hearted zeal into all the services which take place. Of course they become strongly attached to the Church, and are glad to do anything they can for it.

The following characterization of the rector is from The Evening Sun of May, 1888:

No atmosphere of theological formalism or ceremonial lingers about this deep-chested, broad-shouldered Christian athlete. He came to St. George's like a fresh life-giving breeze from the ocean and he started all the drones in that religious hive buzzing with industry. This man is not an intellectual giant. He does not preach sermons faultless in rhetoric and hyper-refined in diction. But there is always wholesome meat on the joints of his discourse. His chief strength lies in his wonderful capacity as an organizer in church work, in his intense earnestness, and in his warm sympathy.

The blizzard in the spring of 1888 afforded the Avenue A Mission an opportunity of doing some characteristic work. The mission room was turned into a sort of impromptu hotel. Many poor fellows who otherwise would have been homeless gladly availed themselves of the shelter and warmth therein provided. In the morning, after a substantial breakfast, they were supplied with shovels and marched off to the nearest street-car depot. Most of them returned to the mission service in the evening, having earned a good days' wages, and some became regular attendants.

The Church of the Reformation in Stanton Street, sometime known as Old Epiphany House, because the site had formerly been occupied by the Church of the Epiphany before their exchange of property with the Church of the Reformation, was placed in charge of the Rev. Dr. E. F. Miles in 1886. The difficulty of raising sufficient revenue, however, for its adequate support as an independent church having become acute, the trustees of the property in 1888 transferred it to St. George's Corporation, which thus became the owner of this valuable property with a commodious new building on a lot 80X100 and containing within its walls a church, a Sunday-school room, gymnasium, Girls' Friendly rooms and young men's club-rooms, besides apartments for the minister in charge and for the janitor. The Rev. Charles Scadding, one of the assistant ministers, was assigned by the rector to the care of this mission work with its philanthropic and educational adjuncts so useful and necessary in a neighborhood like Stanton Street.

An interesting function was observed at morning service on June

3, 1888, when fourteen men of the parish were set apart by the Bishop as Lay Readers. The exceeding value of lay co-operation had always been insisted on and its potency recognized and developed by the rector as an essential factor in a well-ordered and efficient church. From the ranks of those who had been foremost in good works these fourteen were selected to receive the honorable official recognition, by the chief pastor of the diocese, of the layman's right and willingness to work. Those who on this occasion were to be set apart assembled at the chancel-rail and were admitted to the canonical office of Lay Readers in the use of a form of service which had been set forth by the Bishop of Long Island. Bishop Potter highly praised, in his address, the efficiency of the lay helpers of St. George's and testified that as to some of those now receiving official recognition, he personally well knew their qualifications for the work to which they were now formally called.

Close following this Sunday, on the ensuing Thursday, occurred St. George's great red-letter day-the day of dedication of its Memorial House. The house was now completed, ready for occupation. But not content with the bestowment of this princely gift, the generous donor crowned his own munificence by the additional donation of the three adjoining lots and houses on Third Avenue (Nos. 173, 175, 177) to constitute a part of the Endowment Fund.

Upon the dedication day, the members of the corporation met in the vestry-room together with the Bishop of the Diocese, the Rt. Rev. H. C. Potter; the Presiding Bishop of the Church, the Rt. Rev. John Williams of Connecticut; the Rev. Dr. Walter W. Williams, former rector of St. George's, and the assistant clergy of the parish, and proceeded in a body to the main hall in the new building, where the specially arranged dedicatory service was to be conducted. At the point in the order of service designated for that purpose, Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan read the deed of gift of the Memorial House and also the deed of gift of the three houses on Third Avenue adjoining, and in delivering the deeds addressed the rector thus:

REVEREND SIR:-On behalf of Mrs. Morgan, my children, and myself, as donors, I beg to present to you, as the beloved rector of this church, the deed of this building and the lots upon which it has been built, with the prayer that under the guidance of an overruling Providence, it may prove an instrument of promoting love, charity, and brotherly kindness among those among whom you and your successors in office may minister in Holy Things.