SOCIAL MEETING FOR PRAYER AND CONFERENCE.

By prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known
unto God.-Phil. 4: 6.

AT 10 O'CLOCK.

HISTORICAL REVIEW, with Sketch of the Original Members,

Every one who was ever connected with Cumberland Association is hereby
cordially invited to attend this Re-union, and to bring his wife.

Entertainment will be cheerfully provided for all who desire, from Monday
afternoon until Wednesday morning.

Come prepared to contribute something to the interest of the occasion.

N. B.-Please send an early postal to Mr. Hallock, 660 Congress street, Portland, announcing
your intention to be present.

PRELIMINARY NOTE.

The Committee to whom was referred the printing of the Centennial Reports and Papers, believing that the publication of the same will be of value to the association, and of interest to the christian public, as well as a deserved tribute to faithful men whose imprint has been firmly set upon the institutions of the county for God and truth, issue the following full account of the proceedings. If carefully read, and as carefully preserved, we believe they will aid in perpetuating the memory of worthy men and worthy deeds by which foundations have been well laid for future triumphs of truth and righteousness.

REV. LEAVITT H. HALLOCK,
REV. CHARLES H. DANIELS,
REV. ABIEL H. WRIGHT.

PORTLAND, ME., June 30, 1888.

Committee on Printing.

CUMBERLAND ASSOCIATION.

MONDAY EVENING.

A large audience gathered in the Second Parish church in Portland, to enjoy the opening exercises of the Association's Centennial. The Rev. Leavitt H. Hallock, pastor of the Williston church, presided. The choir, composed of Miss Nellie M. Webster, Mrs. Jennie King Morrison, Messrs. Albert B. Hall and Harry Merrill, with Miss Mary Durgin as organist, sang an appropriate anthem.

The Scriptures were read by the Rev. Edwin P. Wilson, of Woodfords, from Romans viii. 14-39, after which the Rev. Charles H. Daniels, pastor of the church, gave the following

ADDRESS OF WELCOME.

When the pious Hebrew longed for a nearer walk with God, he first thought over what the Lord had done for him in times past. Then he spoke to others of these mercies of God. In this manner his soul was filled with gratitude for mercies past, and his faith was strengthened for the future. This spirit should animate. us to-day as we come to the centennial celebration of our Cumberland Association. The association is not a church organization, but is a ministerial fellowship. Its purpose is the mutual help and growth of ministers by frequent exchange of thought in regard to questions of church life, doctrine and practice, as well as questions of public and political action. Its work has but seldom reached the public notice, hence its influence for good has not been realized. It is largely a New England institution, wherein is vested the good standing of our ministers.

Important questions have been raised and in a measure settled during the past one hundred years. We shall recall the marvelous growth of christian missions, political changes, theological controversies, commercial advancement, and widespread religious revivals. And while rejoicing in these, we recognize that new questions

are arising which touch all our old beliefs, our religious, social and political life; questions which concern every form of faith and religious action. The era now to open is to be one of intenser emotion, more earnest action, grander enterprise in organized effort, such as we have not known before.

As we stop to-day to review the life of the century in our association, we open our doors to bid the public welcome to our feast of good things, and to bid welcome to our former members, who share with us this history.

The Second Parish church gladly opens its doors to be honored by the presence of those who come up to this anniversary. We welcome all to this grand review ere we take up the great questions before us which we must help decide, or enter upon the new methods which we must aid in using, or witness the triumphs which we trust in a measure to share.

The Rev. Daniel Greene, of Machias, a former member of the association, offered prayer. The Rev. William M. Barbour, D.D., president of the Congregational College at Montreal, an honored friend and guest of the association, then delivered the following appropriate and helpful

SERMON.

WHO SHALL SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF CHRIST? I AM PERSUADED
THAT NEITHER DEATH NOR LIFE
SHALL BE ABLE TO SEPARATE

US.- ROMANS VIII. 35, 38, 39.

I have sometimes thought it unfair to select a text from the Epistle to the Romans. For, to be treated aright, the epistle should be read without a break from the first chapter to the end of the eighth, because there is not a break in the thought in all that half of this splendid composition.

Still, a piece of gold from Mariposa gives a poor man, at a distance, some idea of the gold country, and a single thought from this golden chapter may help us to understand that we cannot estimate its unsearchable riches. And to have some information on our inability to explore a matter, is a means of increasing our conceptions of the vastness of that matter.

Before examining our specimen, let us look at the mine from which we have dug it. The argument of the epistle is generally understood. It is an elaborate proof that salvation is not through Abraham and the law, but through Christ and grace. That salvation is by grace is argued, first, from the nature of man see the dark catalogues of depravity in the opening chapters; second, from the promises of God-see his graciousness to both circumcised and uncircumcised, provided they believe; third, from the atonement of Christ-see what he did when the law could do nothing but condemn. Then follows a contrast between those who remain in the old legal way of struggling for life, but only sinning and dying, and trying again, but only to struggle and sin and die again, and those who take the deliverance by grace. They have God for a father, Christ for a brother, the Spirit to help their infirmities while they wait for the complete adoption, to wit: the redemption of the body. And if eloquence is logic set on fire, we have some of it in the climax of the chapter read. With the instinct of a holy soul, the apostle darts into eternity for his closing thought. And coming out from the case as it lies in the divine mind, he well asks "What shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? If he gave his son to die for us while we were yet sinners, what can he withhold, now that we are reconciled to him, and he to us?" Thus fortified he then exclaims, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth, it is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again." And then comes in the final challenge, to death-to death first, as if it were the weaker enemy and life and angel and principality and power; to height, to depth, to any created thing, to separate from that love which moves from eternity into time to bless, and back from time to eternity again, to continue its blessing,-the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

You observe that, though impassioned in style, this climax is well considered. The writer knows whereof he affirms. “For I am persuaded" these things are so― persuaded—his mind had gone through a reasoning process. It was not all an outward