Excerpt from The First Congregational Society in New Bedford, Massachusetts: Its History, as Illustrative of Ecclesiastical Evolution

The germ of this thick pamphlet was a purpose to write a single dis course, of not unusual length, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the building of the present church of the First Congregational (uni tarian) Society in New Bedford. But dates, facts, and figures pertain ing to the building of a meeting-house had for me little interest in themselves. Their only interest lay in what the meeting-house stood for when built; and that could not be seen except by tracing the history that preceded and followed. I had long perceived that this history had certain specially interesting aspects as an instance of ecclesiastical evo lution; and having started into the story at a point fifty years back, I found it impossible to stop until I had traversed the whole pathway of two centuries. Thus the proposed sermon of forty-five minutes grew into two discourses, each of extraordinary length, and' from these two came a third, for the application. The latter, at the suggestion of many who heard it, is also here printed, excepting two or three paragraphs of specially personal concern. Nor is this all. Appendices have been added for preserving together important documents and facts. The materials there collected will, it is believed, prove interesting to those who like to see history in the making.

Before committing anything to paper, I was satisfied that I had dis covered the right historical clue to the conditions of religious develop ment in the old township of Dartmouth; but at the time the Discourses were delivered, many details of the evidence had to be left for further investigation, and some of the statements could then only be made con jecturally. That more complete research having since been made, I have been gratified to learn that all the conclusions previously arrived at, partly by inference, have been abundantly sustained by the collective facts. The new facts have necessitated some revision and additions in the first Discourse. Much new matter has been gathered concerning the first minister, Samuel Hunt; and it has also been ascertained that there was Congregational preaching in the town, by James Gardner, before Mr. Hunt's settlement.

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