IGS A HALF CENTUEY, 



bonds of Cliristian affection might be strengthened, until we all 

 were gathered in the eternal fellowship of the family of God in 

 heaven. 



OUR SISTER CHURCHES. 



Rev. Dr. I. F. Stidham^ pastor of the Baptist. Church in 

 New Britain, was introduced by the pastor as representing what 

 might be called the eldest daughter of the First Church, its 

 organization antedating that of the South Church by many 

 years, and its original membership being drawn largely from 

 the old church. 



Dr. Stidham, in behalf of the " Sister Churches/' congratu- 

 lated the South Church on its fiftieth anniversary and on its 

 continued prosperity to the present time. He said that its 

 many facilities enabled it to do large service, not only for itself, 

 but in the wider field of home and missionary effort. The 

 other churches in the city were stimulated to greater and more 

 earnest endeavor in emulation of the work done here. He com- 

 mended the church in a sympathetic manner for the work it 

 has done and is now doing among the foreign portion of the 

 city's population, and expressed himself emphatically, that our 

 churches should not live unto themselves, but exist for the up- 

 lifting and saving of the whole community in the midst of 

 which they were placed. Such sacrificial service is the very 

 essence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He good-naturedly in- 

 sisted that the Baptist denomination was, in its church polity, a 

 little more congregational than the Congregationalists them- 

 selves, and closed his fraternal address with hearty congratula- 

 tions and an earnest "God-speed." 



A solo, " Come unto me," was sung by Mr. Robert H. Stan- 

 ley, a member of this church, now resident in New York city. 



CO-WORKERS OF FORMER DAYS. 



It was a great disappointment to the church that its only 

 former pastor now^ living, the Rev. Henry L. Griffin of Bangor, 

 Maine, was unavoidably detained from attendance upon this 

 semi-centennial celebration. Several letters were, however, 



