e church, and the next day a council of ministers and delegates met at
the house of John T. Howard. The articles of faith, covenant,
credentials of the new members, etc., were presented and approved, and
on June 13, 1847, the new church was publicly organised, the Rev. R. S.
Storrs, Jr., preaching the sermon. The following evening the church by a
unanimous vote elected Henry Ward Beecher to be their pastor. Two
months later he wrote from Indianapolis accepting the call. On October
10 he commenced his labours, and on November 11 he was installed. The
sermon was preached by Dr. Edward Beecher, other parts being taken by
Drs. Nathaniel Hewitt, D. C. Lansing, Horace Bushnell, Rev. R. S.
Storrs, Jr., and Rev. J. P. Thompson.

The first winter proved the wisdom of the new enterprise. An interesting
revival brought in a large number of new members, and it was not long
before it became evident that the buildings were entirely inadequate.
There was talk of rebuilding, when a fire, in January, 1849, settled the
question by destroying the building. Plans for a new edifice were
drawn, and after some months of worship in a temporary Tabernacle in
Pierrepont Street, the present building was entered on the first Sunday
of 1850.

It will readily be seen that it was a live church that I joined, and
after half a century of experience and observation, I can only thank God
that I was brought to connect myself with it. It was not merely the
marvellous preaching of Mr. Beecher, which I feel helped me greatly; it
was the whole atmosphere of aggressive work. The great audiences,
crowding the pews so that aisle chairs had to be put in, was in itself
an inspiration; so was also the fine music with John Zundel at the organ
and the large choir leading the vast congregation. The cordial social
atmosphere that made even a stranger feel at home also had its share,
but more than all these put together, or perhaps better, manifest
through all these, was the sense that church life was a means to an end,
not an end in itself, and that that end was the building up of a true
and noble Christian life in all its different phases. Surely no higher
conception of a church's sphere can be found, and to this I believe to
be due more than to any other one thing the power of Plymouth Church.

_A PLYMOUTH USHER_

It was a little more than a year after I became a member of Plymouth
Church that I began my work as an usher, and for fifty-three years I
have