Excerpt from God's Delight in the Gates of Zion: A Second Discourse on the Early History of the Congregational Church and Society in West Brattleboro, Coverint Two Pastorates 25 Years, or From 1794-1819

To some of us, who have come to the maturity of age, and have it in our power to go back in memory to the sabbath scenes and services of our early years, the very associations of the Lord's house are a most happy help to the culture of the religious senti ment and character. As one has said: We are creatures of association. We are often moved more profoundly than we think, by our surroundings. The recollection of our experiences in the house of God are among the most precious treasures that memory boards. The prayers we have heard there the old hymns of the fathers, some of them redolent with the incense of a thousand years the services which have moved us the Scrip tures read and expounded; certain texts which were new to us, and most timely; the light of the sun streaming in at the win dows and seeming almost the glory of God's countenance; the seat where the mother sat, holding our childish hand, or the cor ner from which the father turned his loving eye upon us in mild reproof the pews from which sainted men and women have gone to their rest, - oh, there are holy forces in such reminiscences! They are 'golden vials full of odors.' They come back upon us in after years, 'trailing clouds of glory.' They make the very walls of the house of God eloquent. The stone cries out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber answers it. The very silence of the place 'ou a week day is more potent than angels' voices. Oh thou hallowed meeting house of my childhood and youthful days, still standing, as thou art, and in sacred use, God bless thee, and continue to make thee, as thou hast been, the gate of heaven to many souls that when the Lord shall come to count and write up the people, he may say of thee, This and that man was born there.

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