marching to His step, and all having a common interest in His work and the doing of His will that the unity comes.

The trouble with many church organizations is that they are not churches. They are only congregations. The members are not bound together so as to form one body. They are only gathered together. The congregation differs from the church as the heap of untrimmed stones differ from the completed wall. A congregation does not grow. It only increases in size by the adding of new members, as the stone heap increases by the addition of new stones. The moment the idea of growth enters by the members being individually trimmed and polished beneath the molding hand of God's word-or the moment the members thus influenced are brought to find and fill the particular places for which the Great Master Builder has designed them, then it ceases to be a congregation, and becomes a church. A large congregation may be gathered in a year, or a month, or perhaps by the mere ringing of the bell, but it may require years before that congregation can be so cemented together that it shall be a church in which "the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love."

The last thing we shall consider concerning the prop

erly organized church is the general direction and effect of its growth. The growth of some churches is inward rather than upward. The object of their growth seems to center upon themselves as material organizations. The best part of their energy is expended in the effort to live and move and have a respectable being. They strive to have attractive brilliance in the pulpit, attractive beauty in their building, an attractive audience in the pews, and a fair showing in the columns of the published records of their denomination. The growth of some other churches is outward rather than upward. They have their visiting committees for doing work among the poor at home. They have their Home Mission workers and their Foreign Mission bands, their sewing circles and their social gatherings, and when these forms of activity are the evidence of real life within they are to be specially commended. But it is possible for a church to expend its energies in all these directions, and still fail to meet the apostolic requirement. In the ideal church the main feature of progress is in the direction of holiness. "It groweth unto ar holy temple in the Lord." Every one of its members is builded into it for an habitation of God through the spirit. If the growth of the organization be not in this direction it is not properly a church. It does not answer the true end. If it does not make those whom it gath

ers into its membership better men and women— more unselfish, more gentle, more loving, more true, more God-like; if it has not the effect of making those who wait upon its services more Christ-like, it does not deserve the name of a church. If it simply furnishes a kind of instruction and entertainment suitable for Sabbath hours, and affords its audiences a convenient channel for the conveyance of their weekly offerings to quarters where they may be needed, it is only a common school with an eleemosynary department attached, a lecture association which bestows its charitable proceeds upon worthy objects, and has the power of conferring nameless degrees of respectability upon all who attend upon its lectureships.

It is to be feared that many of the churches of this age are not in the regular line of Apostolic succession; not as to their forms and usages, and outward appearance, but in the essentials of their life, and in the main direction and effect of all their services. To which order of churches does this church belong? To what class has it belonged in the past, and what will be its record in the future? To many, if not to all of us, these are questions of momentous interest. Most of us who are gathered here to-day have had some share in the moulding of this church's charac ter, and we have all an account to give of the influ

ence we have exerted upon its life. We did not organize it. It is older than we. They that founded it as the Master's workmen have all fallen asleep: We entered upon the work with the foundation laid--the old foundation tried and sure. Have we built upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay or stubble? Have we helped to build a church, or have we only helped to add to a congregation? These questions cannot be answered now, but they will yet be answered, for "Every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it.is."

It is by

Dear friends, never has this church been so favorably situated for true growth as now. Never were there so many sacred memories and hallowed associations connected with its life, to bind its members to it and to one another and to Heaven, whither so many of its members have gone. their hearts being touched and tenderly influenced that the members of congregations become members of churches. Cherish fondly, then, every tie of affection by which God's house may be made dearer to your hearts. Ye do well to revive the memories of the years that are gone. As ye linger over the days that are past, and bygone scenes, whether sad or joyous, are recalled, and the faces of

the departed come back to you along the path whither away they went, and you feel that during these memorial days, as you call the long roll of your venerable church--not the roll you keep on earth, but the complete roll which God keeps in Heaven, may the season be to you one of precious blessing. Thankful for all the souls that have been born into the kingdom here; thankful for all the weary ones that have been refreshed, the mourners that have been comforted, the weak that have been strengthened, the wanderers that have been won back to God; thankful that to you in God's rich mercy there is still extended the infinite privilege of being both blessed and made a blessing in connection with this dear, dear old church, let your solemn vow be that you will be more devoted to all its interests and more faithful to all its offered privileges than ever in the past. May the strength which was given to the first pastor of this church to fit him for all the duties he was honored during his long life to discharge be graciously given also to its present pastor. May his bow long abide in strength, and may the arms of his hands be made strong by the hand of the mighty God of Jacob. And through the divine blessing vouchsafed in Pentecostal effusion and outpoured upon office-bearers and ordinary members and adherents alike, may this church be a true household of the faith, knit together by the bonds of