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eled back to his boyhood, when he sat in the old Franklinton church, and a venerable elder stepped forth with solemn and measured tread to take his place in front of the pulpit, "and with a few sonorous efforts to clear his throat, with uplifted hand and sawing motion, pitched the tune for the congregation."

The extreme of modern progress in this direction is, when an artistic latter-day choir tickle the æsthetic ear of the listless and fashionable congregation with soft operatic airs at an expense of thousands per

annum.

THE WOMEN OF THE CHURCH.

From the very beginning the women have been a strong factor in the prosperity of the church. Forming a large proportion of its membership, the enterprises in which the church has engaged have always proved successful when the brethren have called the charmed presence of the sisters to their side. When the worthies of the past wanted to build a new church, they sought the assistance of the ladies. If an organ was needed the good sisters were left to raise the funds with which to pay for it. The marvelous poverty in money and resource of the male portion of the church is speedily discovered when one looks over the records of the session and trustees. Even so late as the time when the chapel which covers the rear

of the church lot was built, the gentlemen of the Board of Trustees could discover no way under the sun that so costly and arduous an undertaking as building a chapel could be wrestled with, until one magnanimous soul suggested, "We might call on the ladies." The alacrity with which it was done and the ready response that the ladies gave is witnessed by our commodious chapel, which is conceded to be a more cheerful place of worship than the dingy basement in which the fathers studied the Westminster catechism and wrestled with the angel of prayer.

It is fitting the fact be recalled just here, that it was owing to the efficient leadership of Mrs. Mary E. Campbell that our chapel was ever erected. She, as President of the Ladies' Aid Society, in every way manifested her ability to direct in church affairs. When her pastor went to her in his despondency, after being repulsed by the brethren on account of of what appeared to them the colossal eminence of the task, and opened to her his plans and and hopes, her liberal soul exclaimed, "It shall be done at once." It was done. May her devout and unselfish spirit possess the child of her love! When she moved in an enterprise, as if by magic her magnetic soul saw and led the way to victory. May our present president, her sucessor, go on as she has begun in the heroic pathway of this sainted daughter of the church.

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FIRST REGULAR CHURCH IN FRANKLINTON, 1811.

Gift of Mr. Lucas Sullivant.

The way to victory is to lead in the path of selfdenial and danger.

All honor to the women of the old First Church; may they continue in the future, as they have done in the past, to direct its progress and inspire its activities.

To the ladies is due the reputation that the church has so long and justly sustained of being the missionary church of the denomination in central Ohio. Their zeal and activity in the home and foreign work has cheered many a laborer on the desolate frontier, and carried many a page of the Gospel to heathen shores. When the fiftieth anniversary came 'round, it was the ladies whose energy and zeal seconded the enthusiasm of that rare scholar and antiquarian, Mr. Sullivant, and made the occasion an imposing success. Again I say all honor to our ladies. I will not stop here to mention the names of those who have been leaders in every good work; they will receive recognition later in these services.

THE EDIFICES IN WHICH THE CHURCH HAS WORSHIPED.

The church which was organized in a private house in Franklinton was the first church of any denomination in the limits of central Ohio. The congregation continued for some little time to worship here. The call of that First Church to its first pastor

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