Excerpt from A History of the Rock Presbyterian Church in Cecil County, Maryland

History embalms the past, it collects the prominent events, cus toms, characters and valuable experience of its times, carefully wraps them in suitable drapery and lays them away in the archives of the nation for preservation. 'ancient Egypt excelled in the art of embalming, and shrunk from no toil or expense deemed necessary to preserve the memory of its national glory. It carved deep in durable rocks, it built the most substantial monuments, it embalmed the bodies of its dead in )the most imperishable fnethod, and it collected the grandest library of ancient times. The Alexandrian library num bered seven hundred thousandvolumes, embracing among other treasures the riches of Grecian and Roman literature. War and fanaticism destroyed it. The loss was irreparable, and has ever since been deplored by the civilized world. There is nothing in ancient Egypt that we admire more than her skill and success in embalming the past. Would that her spirit had ever been more prevalent. It is the duty of every people to preserve for the benefit and satisfaction of unborn generations the history of their times. A little care in recording facts and providing for the safety of records would invest the story of the past With much more interest, and greatly facilitate the labors and enhance the pleasure of historians. The early history of many of our Presbyterian churches is sadly defective, because of the scarcity of records. There seems to have been a prejudice against church records, and hence for the greater part of a century we have but few facts furnished on which to base reliable histories. We are gratified to find the spirit of historical research awakening, and hope that ere long every possible effort will be made to wrest from oblivion what little information remains respecting the origin and work of our early churches. It is with this object in View that we have for some years, and trom every available source, been collecting the material for an historical sketch of the rockchurch. This church is entitled to a history, for it is a century and a half old, -has accomplished a noble work for a noble cause, and has lived' a greatly diversified life. My hearers, such a history should possess a peculiar interest for manyof you. This is the church of your ancestors, - the religious home of your forefathers, where they, as faithful children, assembled weekly to pay their homage to their Heavenly Father. This is the spiritual fountain of living waters, where their souls, thirsting for righteous ness, drank to thirst no morehthis institution was in faith and prayer founded by them in the hope that it would bless, as the Gospel alone can bless, their deoendants until time shall be no longer. The original settlers of this region were Scotch Presbyterians who had been driven by persecution and oppression from Scotland to Ireland.

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