THE SOUTH CHURCH. 123 



still with us who had a part in its organization. The honored and ])C3- 

 loved Mother Church, from whom we came, continues by our side in 

 intimate and loving fellowship — first in the dignity of years, strong in 

 faith, vigorous in service. Other sister churches are around us, with 

 some of whom we have been long allied in delightful Christian inter- 

 course. All these churches have existed for a common purpose. We 

 have stood in this community for the common faith. AVe have 

 preached the same gospel, and have been led by the same Spirit. But, 

 as members of a family have their separate identity and peculiar char- 

 acteristics, so it has been here. Our church has a character of its 

 own, and it has lived long enough to have a personal history. 



The Spirit of God works out results in this world, on the basis of 

 our humanity. The divine and human are inextricably mingled. 

 The laws of heredity and environment are operated upon by spiritual 

 forces. We are not, therefore, to make this anniversary, in any sense, 

 an occasion for boasting. Self-glorification at such a time as this 

 would be as irreverent as it would be unseemly. But we may, with 

 profound gratitude, acknowledge our indebtedness to those who have 

 lived before us — recount their toils and sacrifices, their sagacity, 

 patience, faith, and courage — while we recognize the good hand of 

 the Lord which has led us as a church through this half a century. 



Few churches have, in so brief a period, undergone a more com- 

 plete change in membership. The personnel of the church is not at 

 all now what it was at its organization. Of the 1,879 names which 

 have been upon our register, 895 remain in our fellowship to day. Of 

 this 895 only nine were charter members, and only sixty-three are the 

 descendants of charter members ; 823 of those now in the Church came 

 into it from without. Our human bodies are continually passing 

 through processes of waste and reparation whereby their constituent 

 parts are changed, but a man of fifty has scarcely undergone a more 

 thorough transformation in his various members than have we. 



And yet we are the same Church that began its life in 1842. We 

 have grown ; there have been added to our number of such as are 

 being saved ; new experiences have come to us ; new surroundings 

 are about us; new work has been given us to do. But the condi- 

 tions which shaped the character of the church at the beginning, the 



