He was succeeded by Rev. James Freeman Clarke, who became pastor August 4, 1833, and retained his position seven years. These were eventful years to our church; and not to it alone, but to the whole city.

His intellectual power, his compact, logical reasoning, his fine large scholarship, and his rare catholicity of spirit, were equally recognized by men of all communions, such men for instance as Judge S. S. Nicholas. The writer of this paper well remembers a conversation with Judge Nicholas, himself one of Louisville's ablest writers, in which the judge asked, with great earnestness, "Do you know whom I regard as the finest writer of English that our city has ever had?" On my responding that I did not know, he said, "Mr. Clarke, who had the rarest power of expressing fine, large thought, in simplest, purest, most intelligible language."

It was not only as a preacher that Mr. Clarke's influence was felt. He was a public-spirited citizen, deeply interested in whatever affected the welfare of the community. He devoted much time to the public schools of the city; and, in 1839, was chosen by the City Council "agent,"—that is, secretary and superintendent. He was one of the ablest contributors to the Western Messenger, a monthly periodical, published at first in Cincinnati, and afterward transferred to Louisville. The Messenger was devoted to the cause of "Liberal Christianity," and was thoroughly alive to everything that tended to promote broad, just, and generous thought, and to advance the moral and spiritual welfare of humanity. In April, 1836, Mr. Clarke became editor of the Messenger, and continued in charge of it until 1839, when it was taken back to Cincinnati.

Mr. Clarke resigned his charge of the Louisville Unitarian Church in June, 1840. During his ministry the congregation had slowly but surely grown. In addition to the names already mentioned, it numbered many of our most respected merchants, quite a number of able men connected with our city's banking and other business institutions, and several eminent physicians, and not a few gifted teachers, and the scholarly historian of Kentucky, Mann Butler.

On the 21st of August, 1840, the pastorate of Mr. John H. Heywood, the third minis

ter, began. During his long ministry the steady growth of the congregation continued.

The first church edifice, as has already been said, was erected in 1831-32. It stood on the southeast corner of Fifth and Walnut Streets, where is now the drug-store of George A. Newman. It had originally sixty-four pews; but in 1853, in order to meet the needs of the congregation, it was enlarged by the addition of thirty-two pews. The society still continuing to grow, a new edifice became necessary; and, in 1870, the beautiful building so well known as "The Church of the Messiah," on the corner of Fourth and York Streets, was erected. The church was dedicated Jan. 15, 1871, Rev. Dr. William G. Eliot, of St. Louis, and Rev. R. Laird Collier, of Chicago, uniting with the pastor and congregation in the dedicatory services. On the 31st of December, of the same year, the church was destroyed by fire. This was a hard blow, indeed; but the society instantly went to work rebuilding, and on Dec. 15, 1872, the reconstructed building was consecrated to divine worship and the service of humanity, Rev. Dr. H. W. Bellows, of New York, preaching morning and evening, giving two sermons of rare beauty and power.

Never has a religious society shown greater energy, faith and hope than did the Unitarian Society of our city under these disheartening circumstances. Not quite a year had passed since the dedication of the noble structure which had involved great sacrifice on the part of its members, and in an hour, as it were, on the night of Saturday, the last of the year, it was destroyed. Not a service, however, was omitted. Fortunately, the rear portion of the edifice, which was devoted to the Sunday-school and social purposes, was saved from the flames, and services were held Sunday morning at the usual hour, and, before the close of that year, the church was restored, and in more than its former grace and beauty.

The society was generously aided in the construction and in the reconstruction of the edifice by kind friends near and far, east and west. Important aid was also rendered by our Universalist friends. Soon after the formation of the Unitarian Society, these friends had organized themselves into

a church, which had, for a time, great prosperity. It was fortunate in its ministers, especially in Rev. Messrs. E. M. Pingree, I. D. Williamson, and W. W. Curry, all men of marked ability and great spiritual earnestness. But through a series of adverse circumstances and the removal by death of many of its most efficient members, the society declined, and finally ceased to hold services. The most deeply interested of the remaining members united with the Unitarian Society, and through their efforts the money received from the sale of the Universalist building was generously given toward the erection of "The Church of the Messiah."

"The Church of the Messiah" was incorporated by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky in February, 1870. The trustees named in the act were: Edward A. Gardner, James Speed, George Davis, James Kennedy, Jacob Merker, Columbus Chamberlin, and George A. Houghton, the first four representing the Unitarian, the last three, the Universalist membership.

The Unitarian society has always been an earnest worker. It has had from the beginning an attractive Sunday-school. As we have already seen, it built a church edifice before it had a pastor; and of its continued activity, evidence is given in the following sketch of its religious and humane work, prepared for the Southern Unitarian, published in Atlanta, Ga., July, 1893: "In 1841, under the leading of Mr. A. G. Munn, then in his early manhood, and as fresh and young in spirit now as then, an unsectarian Sunday-school was formed on Tenth Street, which attracted to itself a fine body of teachers and did a great amount of good. In 1858-59, an admirable night school-the pioneer school, I think -was established in the hall of one of the city's engine-houses. This school was formed and conducted by some young men of the congregation, Messrs. Charles J. Kent, Augustus Holyoke, B. B. Huntoon, George Hood, H. P. Truman, and others, and to it not a few men, now in prosperous circumstances and some of wide influence, refer with gratitude as having offered them the best and, in some instances, the only school opportunities enjoyed. At the same period, two Mission Sunday-schools were

carried on by Mr. H. T. Wood, a devoted member of the church, and by Rev. D. A. Russell, whom the congregation had engaged as a minister-at-large. In 1865, an Old Ladies' Home was established and successfully conducted by its devoted and untiring friends and generous supporters, until 1882, when it was transferred to the well-endowed Cook Benevolent Institution, and its kindly work and helpful influence were thus guaranteed continuance and perpetuity."

During the trying times of the war, the ladies of the congregation were unwearied and unceasing in hospital work and in their efforts in behalf of the United States and Kentucky Sanitary Commissions, and also of the Refugee Commission.

In the summer of 1879, the illness of Mr. Heywood's daughter led him to take her and his wife to Europe, and in August of that year Rev. C. J. K. Jones was invited to take charge of the pulpit during his absence. Early in 1880, Mr. Heywood sent in his resignation, and his pastoral connection formally closed on the 21st of August, just forty years from its commencement.

Rev. Mr. Jones's services began on the first Sunday in September, 1879, and they awakened great interest. He continued pastor until the summer of 1883, when he resigned and removed to Florida. There he practised law, for which he had fitted himself during his residence in Louisville, up to February, 1885, when, in response to a hearty invitation, he returned to our city and resumed his earnest, efficient work.

In this interim of a year and half, Rev. J. B. Green, now of Reading, Massachusetts, a devout and earnest man of strong, fine character, was the minister of the church. It is a suggestive fact that, while the first three ministers were Unitarians from birth, the two latter, Rev. Messrs. Jones and Green, belonged originally to other communions,Mr. Jones to the Dutch Reformed denomination (having received his classical and theological education at Rutger's College, New Jersey, and the Union Theological Seminary of New York), while Mr. Green's early education was in the Roman Catholic church.

Mr. Jones gives no dull, prosy sermons. His hearers may agree with him, or may dissent from him, but they never sleep. He

is an enthusiastic student of the principle or principles of evolution, which he heartily accepts; and, at the same time, he as heartily assents to the principles of Unitarian Christianity as presented in the Constitution of "Unitarian and other Christian Churches," as amended and adopted by the National Conference at its session in October, 1894. His intense vitality, his full command of the stores and resources of his richly furnished mind, his rare power of energizing and often truly eloquent utterances, are quickly recognized and deeply felt. He is alive to all the great movements of the day; and his extensive literary and historical reading, and his deep, living interest in natural history and science, enable him to enrich his discourses with many striking illustrations of the all-pervading divine spirit, presence, and power.

A few words will suffice to indicate the present life and work of the Unitarian Society. It is in good financial condition being practically free from debt. It has an excellent Board of Trustees, consisting of Messrs. A. G. Munn, president; Charles Hermany, John Bacon, Charles F. Smith, F. N. Hartwell, Edward W. Chamberlain, and George Zubrod. The clerk of the Board is Frederick Reinecke, and the treasurer is Mr. W. G. Munn.

The members of the choir, whom the congregation hold in high esteem not only for their musical ability but also for their deep interest in the welfare of the church, are Mr. and Mrs. F. P. Seiler, Mrs. C. H. Shackleton, and Mr. Joseph Simons. The gifted organist is Mr. Thomas Becker. The congregation is very fortunate in having a capable and faithful sexton in Albert Miller.

"The Ladies Aid Society," of which Mrs. W. W. Drummond is the wise and efficient president, has rendered and is rendering all the while inestimable aid, thus demonstrating that it is entitled to its name, "Aid Society." There are times, as all conversant with the administration of church affairs well know, when the hearts of men, even of wise and practical trustees, fail them for fear lest, at the annual meeting, a large deficit may confront them.

Time and again, at such seasons of anxiety, Mrs. Drummond and her band of undaunted workers have come to the rescue: now gladdening the

hearts of the choir and organist by supplying a new and reliable motor to the noble organ; now cheering and warming the congregation by first-class furnaces, or surprising and delighting the trustees by placing a five hundred dollar check in the hands of the treasurer,-truly an "Aid Society."

Equally efficient have been the labors of "The Helping Hands," organized by Miss Danforth, in ministering every winter, sympathetically, wisely, and perseveringly, to the needs of the suffering poor, and in earnestly co-operating with the "King's Daughters" in their efforts in behalf of "The Jennie Casseday Infirmary" and other beneficent charities.

"The Embroidery Class," suggested and formed by Miss Lewis, has proved very attractive and eminently successful, not only in giving its pupils a useful accomplishment, but also in cultivating fine taste and in producing thoroughly artistic work.

The Sunday-school of the church, always dear to the congregation, continues its effective work under the direction of its devoted superintendent, Mrs. Anna C. Bowser, and her able co-workers, F. W. Hartwell, M. M. Green, with other faithful teachers.

The church has also a wide-awake mission school-"The Highland Unitarian Sunday school" in the eastern portion of the city. Mrs. Kohlhepp was its originator and Mr. Ambrose Bruner is its superintendent, and it has an excellent band of teachers.

The name, "Church of the Messiah," was adopted by the congregation at the time of the construction and dedication of its beautiful edifice, in expression of its loving reverence for its spiritual leader, Jesus the Christ, and of its desire and purpose to be loyal to the principles of his benign and beneficent religion.

It is good for us to think that no grace or blessing is truly ours till we are aware that God has blessed some one else with it through us.-Rev. Phillips Brooks.

I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving. To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it; but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.-Oliver Wendell Holmes.

PERPETUAL YOUTH AND CONTINUAL

PROGRESS.

SERMON BY REV. GEORGE BATCHELOR, SECRETARY OF THE AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION.

"Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? For thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this."-ECCL. vii. 10.

"Who satisfieth thy old age with good, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle."-Ps. ciii. 5 (NOYES'S TRANSLATION).

Confucius was born in China about five hundred years before Christ. He records the fact that in his time men were in the habit of looking back to the good old times when the world was young and men were good.

The same thing was noted in Greece, in Rome, and in every land which has a history. There is always a golden age in literature, in manners, and in virtue. The golden age is always in the past. Yet, little by little, age by age, the world creeps on to better things.

What is the meaning of this backward look? What is the good of it and what the harm?

The good of it is to be found in that beautiful provision for forgetting the cares and troubles of life which always gives at tractiveness to the past years of each man's experience. That was a touch of universal nature where Virgil makes Eneas say to his companions in shipwreck, "Be of good cheer, my brothers, by and by it will be a pleasure to remember these things." Look back over your adventures and you will find that those you most willingly remember and which you most often talk about are those in which there were "hairbreadth 'scapes and most disastrous chances." We have a long and varied experience in which cares and enjoyments are mingled. When it is all past, the forgetting begins with the disagreeable parts. At the time, we perhaps counted ourselves unhappy. Now we look back and say, "That was the happiest part of my life." That is the good of the instinct to glorify the past while we forget its evil and sorrow.

Now what is the evil of this habit? Carried too far it destroys hope, it takes from us

the drawing of expectation, it robs us of that youthful habit of mind and heart which keeps one alert and in the current of happy and vigorous activity. He who thinks the world is growing worse day by day and year by year, may denounce evil and plead for reform, but he has destroyed, so far as he can, the only hope of progress and the only incentive to action.

Secret of the Happy Life.

The secret of the good and happy life is to keep growing, to have some hope still unfulfilled but promising, to renew the youth of the spirit and keep the mind fresh. Growing old in form and fact is a necessity from which no one may escape. But youth of the spirit is a possibility of which no one can rob us.

"Always young for liberty" was Channing's happy shout. As he grew older his mind grew younger. At forty he was in all mental qualities younger, stronger, and more elastic than he was at twenty. He who has lived aright will at seventy be more gentle, kindly, genial, and wise than at any time before. A crabbed and hopeless old age is a total miscarriage, it is the end of a life that has never come to ripeness. The old age of the peach comes when, perfect in color, flavor, and mellowness, it is just ready at the lightest touch to fall into the hand.

When we look backward, then, we may say with gratitude it looks as if the old days were better than these, but we know they were not. The better days are coming; if only we knew it, they are already here.

One of the most profitable tasks one can set for himself is that of renewing his youth. If he never had any proper youth, all the more need of looking for the fountain of which the waters confer freshness and hope.

What are the signs of youth of the happy kind, and what are the means of restoring it and keeping it to the end?

Hope.

In that typical and beautiful youth which is desirable and can be kept, hope always exceeds attainment. After each step of progress there is something beyond. After each task accomplished there is a better thing to