128 A HALF CENTURY. 



Doubtless these things did not greatly move the fathers of this 

 church. They were too well grounded in the faith for that. But 

 there were old and new schools in theology, then as now. Dr. Taylor 

 of New Haven was teaching a modified form of Calvinism, and Dr. 

 Tyler of East Windsor was defending the traditional faith, and Taylor- 

 ism and Tylerism were the theme of anxious and eager discussions in 

 all our Connecticut churches. 



It was out of this animated and prolific soil that this church sprang 

 into life. It had its birth in the midst of these varied, conflicting, and 

 exciting interests. It was the child of religious devotion and zealous 

 faith, the product of profound intellectual and moral convictions. 



The newly-awakened spirit of enterprise entered into it. Its 

 founders were gifted with a kind of prophetic foresight. They be- 

 lieved in the future. They had hope and aspiration, and the courage of 

 men with a good conscience. They were ready to undertake a new and 

 difiicult work. They were generous men. They had faith in God. 

 Religion was to them a supreme matter; their own personal hopes were 

 centered in it, and they believed that apart from it nothing could insure 

 the advancement of society and the solid prosperity of the commu- 

 nity where they lived. 



Their attitude toward the great questions of the day was that of 

 progressive conservatism. They were not radicals ; they were mod- 

 erate men. But their faces were toward the sun-rising; their hearts 

 were open to divine influences, and their hands were trained to a ready 

 and willing obedience. 



So it came to pass that when the time seemed ripe for the institution 

 of a new church of Jesus Christ in this then southern portion of the 

 town, they first purchased the land, built and paid for a house of 

 worship, and then they were organized into a church; — and "the 

 number of names together were about an hundred and twenty." 



I should be glad, if I were able, to give you a realistic picture of 

 that little company — both for the sake of the pardonable interest 

 we may be expected to have in it, and also as an illustration of a 

 substantial and worthy family church of two generations ago. All 

 ages were there, from the youth of seventeen and the little girl j ust 

 entering her teens to the grave and venerable man of more than four- 



