Rev. Dr. Blagden, of Boston, was moderator. The sermon was preached by the Rev. Dr. Kirk.

The church and society continued to worship in the Court House until a suitable building for their permanent use could be procured.

The determination of the society to avoid both a debt and the necessity of making the house of worship the property of pew-holders, together with the financial embarrassments incident to the rebellion, delayed the building until the spring of 1863. A lot near the centre of the city, on the corner of College and Union streets, was procured at a moderate expense, being partly a gift from the owner, Hon. L. Underwood. The edifice was then commenced. lays occurred, caused by an abhorrence of debt, and the rise in the cost of materials and of labor.

De

The chapel was occupied for the first time, Jan. 15, 1865; and the building was finished in February of 1866. It was dedicated on Feb. 27th. The sermon was preached by Rev. Dr. Kirk.

A view of the building is given above.

The basement, for which the natural grade of the lot was well suited, is entirely above ground, while the main floor is but three feet above the level of Union street. The walls are built of a calcareous sandstone from a ledge within a mile of the building.

The basement wall is made of dark red stone in rubble work, and is separated by a belt of blue limestone from the upper wall, which is of a pinkishwhite color and like the basement wall laid in rubble.

The quoins and other dressings are of hammered blue limestone from Isle La Motte. The effect of the three combined colors is very pleasing. The roof and the spire are slated with reddish slate from the south part of the State. Several courses of slate upon the spire are in scale and diamond shape.

On each side of the roof are three trefoil dormer windows.

In the front is a large triple window and in the gable above it a circular window, immediately over which is a white tablet bearing the foundation date. In the rear gable also there is a circular window, from which light is thrown down on the pulpit by windows in the ceiling of the chancel.

The body of the house is 94 by 50 feet, exclusive of towers and buttresses; the larger tower is 17 feet square, and with the spire is 114 feet high, measured from the front sidewalk. The smaller tower is 13 feet square and 54 feet high. Besides the pointed windows, there is a row of small trefoil windows in both the main tower and the spire.

The basement contains a chapel, which is 45 feet square and 12 feet high in the clear, with a front vestibule connecting with the main staircase in the large tower, and a side vestibule entered from a door in the center of the west side of the basement. A library room joins the chapel, and through the chapel and the rooms adjoining run the two rows of iron columns that support the main floor. In the rear of the chapel are two parlors connected by sliding-doors, and together reaching, across the building; a room for the pastor's use, which has an outer door in the south-west corner of the building, and a staircase leading to the pulpit above; a kitchen, clothesroom, and water-closets.

The wood-work of the basement rooms is of pine, oiled and varnished. The chapel is furnished with settees painted and cushioned, and will accommodate 250 persons. The windows in the basement are of ground glass.

The audience-room is 74 by 45 feet, exclusive of the chancel, and is lighted by six windows on each side, and the large one in the front, before mentioned. The top of the wall is 21 feet from the

floor, and the ceiling rises 13 feet. Lock rafters, which support the roof and dispense with tie-beams, rise from the top of the walls, and are cased with chestnut; the brackets beneath them and the cornices being also of chestnut. By these rafters the ceiling is divided into twelve panels, which are finished in plaster and colored blue. The plaster of the side-walls has a slight tint of umber.

The windows are of pale chocolatecolored glass, stained in diamond and trefoil pattern. There are three aisles, the two side aisles running close to the walls. The pews are of chestnut, with black walnut rails, arms, and mouldings, and are upholstered with green damask. There is but one gallery, over the vestibule between the towers, which is also finished in chestnut and carpeted and cushioned like the main floor.

The organ stands on the east side of the pulpit, behind a paneled screen of ornamental blind-work in black ash and black walnut; on the west side of the pulpit is a similar screen, behind which is the staircase leading to the pastor's room.

The pulpit with its furniture is of black walnut. The main doors are of chestnut.

The audience-room without the gallery will seat 550 to 600 persons. It is

heated by small portable furnaces in the chapel and parlors, which are found amply sufficient to warm the house, both above and below. In the audience room, against each of the four smoke-flues in the side-walls, stands a radiator, through which the smoke from the fire below passes; a large radiating surface is thus secured, which greatly increases the power of the furnaces.

The chandeliers, of three lights each, hang from the points of the brackets under the rafters; and there are also lights for the pulpit in side-niches in the chancel and for the organ.

The building was erected from designs furnished by J. D. Towle, architect, of Boston.

The organ is from the manufactory of Messrs. Simmons & Co., of Boston. It has twenty-five stops and registers with 1,069 pipes.

The church is pronounced by good judges one of the handsomest buildings of the kind in the State. It is certainly a very substantial and thoroughly built structure, and one that will remain a permanent ornament to the city. The cost, in round numbers, of the grounds, building, and furnishing, is $40,000, which amount has been raised by the liberality of members of the society, assisted to the amount of a few hundred dollars by generous citizens of other religious societies.

THE subject of which we purpose to treat briefly in these remarks is one which we think will commend itself to the conscience of every friend of Christ. As we have examined the statistics of our churches from year to

year, we have had the painful consciousness that there was at least one radical defect which has long called for a remedy. A general in the field, on the day of battle, wants to know, not only how many forces he has, but

more, he must know where they are and what they are doing, in order to calculate upon the movement on the enemy.

Just so is it with the forces of the spiritual army: it must be known by those whose duty it is to know where they are, in order, fully and successfully to complete the commission that has been given by Christ our King.

Many evils exist in our church polity which need to be eradicated, and a better way introduced, in order to bring all our churches up on to high and honorable ground, that they may be regarded by the world in their true relation to the surrounding darkness, "cities set upon a hill that can not be hid." But the evil of which we speak here has a significance which can not be overlooked without evading a plain and positive duty, a duty evidently incumbent on the churches and their pastors.

The special presence of God's Spirit in revivals will not accomplish anything in this direction. Greater spirituality in the hearts of God's people will not necessarily work a change for the better. Such influences have not hitherto operated upon this evil in any respect. By an examination of the records of our churches as they stood previous to the great revival of 1858, with those same records to-day, it will be found that the sheep that were then wandering without any "local habitation or name," are still wandering as sheep having no shepherd. Such things ought not so to be. There is a deep responsibility touching this matter, which needs to be felt in all its consequences, for it is far-reaching. The long neglect which has prevailed respecting this subject has and is still weakening the churches, and is rendering the work of the ministry inefficient in an alarming degree.

Of this fact every candid mind must be convinced that will give the subject a careful consideration.

We propose, then, through the Quarterly, to present a few thoughts in connection with the absent members of our churches, simply with the hope of stimulating in the minds of the friends of Zion a healthy activity touching a subject which must be seen to be closely allied with substantial Christian progress.

1. It is to be observed then, first, that the church in this, owes a duty to its absent, no less than to its present members.

It will readily be acknowledged that the church has various duties to discharge towards its members, each growing out of the covenant entered into on the day of public profession.

The language of the solemn engagement into which the church enters is substantially as follows: We, the members of this church, affectionately receive you to our communion, and in the name of Christ declare you entitled to all its privileges. We joyfully and charitably receive you to this fellowship with us in the blessings of the gospel, and promise on our part to watch over you, and seek your edification, as long as God shall continue you among us.

The duty of the church here is plain and obvious. The covenant is solemn and binding; and the church can no more withhold its spiritual supervision over its individual members than the latter can withdraw without a breach of covenant. It will be noticed that this oversight, and promise to seek the edification of the members is to remain so long as God shall continue them with the branch of the church to which they have visibly united themselves.

But beyond this limit there is another condition. The church solemnly declares, should you have occasion to remove, it will be your duty to seek and ours to grant a recommendation to another church; for hereafter you can never withdraw from the watch

OF CALIF

This now would seem to place on the individual member the burden of taking the preliminaries, in case of removal, for placing himself in active, personal sympathy with the branch of Christ's church in his new home.

But if the member removing shall fail to take the steps indicated in the covenant, as the facts show to be the case in numberless instances, can the church lull its conscience to rest while it suffers the wanderer to go out it knows not whither? It cannot be done without a breach of covenant on the part of the church; for the spiritual jurisdiction of the church extends over the individual member though he may have taken up his residence on the opposite side of the globe.

The obligation remains in all its force as long as there has been no request made and no grant given of recommendation; and even after those steps have been taken, until the church has been informed that the absent member has identified himself with the church to which he was recommended, the arms of the church having the original jurisdiction cannot be withdrawn.

It is the failure of the churches to recognize their responsibility in these respects, that has brought them into the loose condition that we find them in to-day. So far as our knowledge and observation extend, and of late our inquiries have been made over a large field, we are assured that, for years, the churches of our denomination have utterly ignored all interference with those who, without the least intimation of these designs, have gone out from them and their communion.

Instances there are, however, worthy of honorable mention as exceptions, one' especially, now in mind, in a

1 The Union Church, Worcester, Rev. E. Cutler, pastor.

during the past year in a most rigid examination of its statistics. The labor, though severe and of a trying nature in some of its developements, is still progressing and promises in the end the most satisfactory results. The pastor, in conjunction with a committee chosen for the purpose, as I understand, has written over a hundred letters to absentees during the year past.

A glance at the statistics of the church for 1863, if compared with those for 1864, will show how severe the process of sifting has been; and we cannot but hope that the work of inquisition will go on, and that the church will give the results to the public through the pages of the Quarterly, that others may be led to imitate and institute a similar work, and so bring the statistics of our churches into a condition that shall be satisfactory and complete.

2. Again, the church, in this connection, owes a duty to itself, whose long neglect has recoiled upon it with the most disastrous results.

Each member of the church is a component part of the church, which is the body, of which Christ is the Head. If one member suffer, all sympathize with it; if one member rejoice, they rejoice together.

When once united in the bonds of the everlasting covenant with church A, until a separation takes place through the proscribed means, and a union with church B is recognized by certificate, the membership of church A, remains a unit.

The covenant originally entered into by the church with its members continues in all its binding force upon the church, whatever may be the status of its members.

of the church continues "to watch over, and seek the edification" of all who compose its membership.

The fact that certain members take up their residence in other places does not, and cannot weaken the responsibility of the church in this matter. The profane maxim, "Out of sight out of mind," is one that will not hold in the spiritual relations which God has instituted between the souls of his creatures. Yea, the church cannot in any more forcible way discharge its obligations to itself than by reversing the maxim, never more in mind than when out of sight. In no more effectual mode that we can suggest can the church fulfill its covenant engagements and meet the solemn vows that are recorded on high, than in following those who have gone out from it, with its prayers, its faithful admonitions, its tender reproofs, its earnest and affectionate enforcement of their mutual obligations to manifest their personal identity with Christ's church and people wherever they may be.

And thus, while the church recognizes the great fact that it is its brother's keeper, it likewise acknowledges its imperative duty to care, with all the solicitude of a loving mother, for her children as she would for her own flesh. But the churches have not hitherto appreciated the importance of this care for the absent ones as a duty directly pertaining to themselves; hence the deplorable condition in which we now find the statistics of our denomination.

3. Again the church, in its care for the absent members, which we claim, owes a duty to Jesus Christ.

The solemn covenant into which the church enters with its members is not only a mutual agreement giving rise to reciprocal duties between the two parties; but each of the parties conjointly enter at the same time into the most solemn covenant with the Lord

Jesus Christ, to walk worthy of the high vocation wherewith they are called, and to be faithful in every good word and work even unto death.

Now the duty of the church to Christ may be found, we think, by implication in such passages as the following : — "Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." St Matt. xviii : 6. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." St. Matt. xxv.: 40.

The engagement which the church makes before God, angels, and men, to watch over its members, and seek their edification, becomes virtually a covenant with Christ, which is accepted by him to this effect.

Accordingly, as the church treats its members so is its spirit manifested towards Christ himself; — so is Christ either wounded or honored in the house of his friends.

The breach of covenant on the part of the church, in this respect, has, as we have reason to believe, become fearfully alarming; and we feel that it needs only to be mentioned to be appreciated.

It cannot but be seen, on a moment's reflection, that the responsibility of our churches has, in this view of our subject, already reached to a tremendous magnitude.

It is often the case that individuals lose their personal identity in the mass; but it is found here that even the mass, though under the most solemn obligations, ignore the plainest intimations of their covenant. And by this means the cause of Christ is made to suffer through the most criminal neglect of those who have solemnly promised to keep and guard it against all reproach. 4. But, finally, the church, in its care