ive. In March, forty-seven of the young people of the parish between the ages of ten and eighteen, met the pastor as members of an "Easter Company," for christian teaching and conversation. Topics, "What is it to become a christian?" "How to become a christian," and "How to make progress.' After the summer vacation, the pastor, through the medium of the calendar, sent his cordial greetings to each member of the Church, and summoned them, one and all, to come into touch with church life at the opening of the new year. All were asked to assist in making a kind of roll-call, by sending to the pastor a postal card with their full name and address. 1898. In the autumn of 1898, by direction of the church officers, the cloister door of the church, facing the Chapel, was opened daily between the hours of 9 and 11 A.M. and 1 and 4 P.M. that any who wished might stop to rest body or soul; to feel the singular beauty and charm of our church home; or to find a place for prayer and quiet communion with God. November 6, the "Messenger" announced that some of the members of the Church were interested, and ready to assist in holding cottage prayer-meetings through the winter. Any who would welcome such a gathering in their homes were invited to leave their names with Deacon Lathrop. During New Year's week, meetings were held in several sections of the parish, and later two were regularly held each week through the winter, one usually at the parsonage, and another in the south or southeast part of the city. In October, the "weekly calendar" came to us with a new name, "Our Church Messenger," and an increased length of some two inches, which greatly improved its appearance, while it furnished more space for notes and information. "Its mission is to free the pulpit from announcements; to reach the whole parish with messages and items about our church life; and to preserve matters of interest for reference." At the suggestion of the officers of the American Board, $800 of the sum contributed in 1898 by Central Church for foreign missions, was appropriated towards the payment of the salaries of Mr. and Mrs. George W. Hinman, missionaries recently assigned to Shaowu station of the Foochow Mission, China. The Church heartily approved the action of the Board, and the year following, when transmitting their annual offering, the treasurer was directed to notify the Board to continue to devote so much thereof, as might be necessary, to pay in full the salaries of Mr. and Mrs. Hinman, and to request that they be known as the "Foreign missionaries of the Central Church of Fall River," though acting under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. One section of the large bookcase in the south parlor was set apart for a "Hinman Cabinet." Pictures, pamphlets, and articles, sent from our missionaries in China, letters, and everything which would help to acquaint our people with the life and work of our missionaries in far-off Shaowu was to be gathered there for preservation and inspection. A peculiar circumstance and pleasant surprise was to learn from a private letter that a description of the Central Church in Fall River, U. S. A., appeared not long since in a paper, The Avedapa, printed in Constantinople, Turkey. Nothing is known of the occasion of this notice. 1899. Early in the succeeding year (1899), the health of Mr. Knight became considerably impaired, though he did not give up his pulpit ministrations. At this juncture, an opportunity offering for him to take a sea-voyage to the West Indies, his parishioners seized the occasion to present him with a generous purse of money, to give him a midwinter vacation and the chance to seek renewed health in this milder clime. Its successful issue is voiced in the following pastoral message, copied from the February "Church Messenger." For the generous goodness of his parishioners, too abounding to be itemized; for the stay in the June-like sunshine of Bermuda; for deepened love; for restored health, the pastor begs to offer his affectionate gratitude. The thoughtful kindness to his family, the faithfulness of officers and workers in caring for the Church's interests, the genial heartiness of all words and gifts and deeds, charming away the disappointment occasioned by absence from work at this season, have been as beneficent and beautiful in their influence as the sunny air and flowering hills of Bermuda. 1899. April. The annual church meeting held in April, is memorable for the vigorous, diversified church life indicated, and for the unanimity and good feeling which prevailed throughout. It will long be remembered for that impressive scene when the beloved missionary-Rev. Edwin A. Buck-presented his resignation and the Church made him "Missionary Emeritus." The Church accepted his resignation with this declaration, that "in thus formally relieving him from the responsibilities of office, we do but make a change in form: that we desire and intend that his ministry shall go on among us, as his strength and health shall permit, only counting himself free from obligation to service." By a unanimous vote, Mr. Buck's salary of twelve hundred dollars per annum was continued. For more than thirty years, the Troy Cotton and Woolen Manufactory Corporation had given the use of the lot of land on the northeast corner of Pleasant and Sixth streets for the Central Church Mission Building. At this time, the corporation intimated to the officers of the Society, the probable sale of the land in the near future. The prospects and condition of the mission in its vicinage and in other important respects had so changed that it was thought impracticable to move the building, and establish the school elsewhere. The building was accordingly sold. The Mission School then ceased to exist as an independent organization at another center, but was joined with the home school in the "Central Congregational Bible school" organization, with morning sessions on Sunday at nine o'clock as usual. All other mission ary meetings, together with Mr. Buck's office, were transferred to the Chapel on Rock Street. A fine roller-top desk was placed in the room by the Rock Street entrance to the Chapel, and here Mr. Buck continued to be found at his well-established office hours, from ten to twelve each day of the week. A large portrait of Deacon Thomas F. Eddy, the long-time superintendent of the Mission School, was hung above the desk. 1900. In the early part of the year, the Church sent to Elbowoods of Fort Berthold Mission, North Dakota, the communion set in use before adopting the individual communion cups (1895). It reached its destination by a long wagon route from the railroad. It will do service in five stations. The missionary who received it sought by question and was successful in identifying our Church with an early association of his own, saying that when he was a student at Andover, he was called down to Fall River to consider assistant parish work in connection with Rev. Michael Burnham, pastor. Beside the regular established meetings, three companies of parishioners are doing good work in their respective departments. First, "The Pastor's Band," of boys and girls, who meet the pastor for twenty-minute lessons in christian teaching regularly each week. Second, "The Boys' Brigade," and third, the "Men's League." Of this last, it has been said, "There is not a heartier or more quietly active organization among us." (See Supplement.) What a busy place this great church is, each Sabbath day! Eight distinct regular meetings are held in its rooms each Sunday; yet so many are the workers, that no one seems overtaxed, though all the meetings are well cared for. It was impressive, as the noon school was passing out, to hear the singing of two companies of men,— here, the earnest voices of an "Armenian prayer-meeting," in the Chapel, and there the "Chinese Endeavorers" in the parlor of the Church. "Our Church is moving with a steady swing." This means that many persons, each in his or her place, having duties intrusted to them, are carrying responsibilities for the joy of doing good. Think of this day-long flow of devotion through these rooms, of the young, the old, the rich, the poor, the men of many lands, and your own worship will become better, because your thoughts of God and man will grow broader. On a certain Monday evening there were over thirty boys in line at the "Boys' Brigade" drill. As they left one room of the Chapel, the bimonthly business meeting of the Church opened in another room, while across the yard, through the windows, were seen the church parlors filled with boys and girls, nearly a hundred in number, holding a reunion of Junior Christian Endeavor. Many of those who attend Central Church have learned to find a quiet but unfailing joy in the flowers beside the pulpit each Sabbath. This is one of the refining, silent ministrations in our church home. Never were the decorations of the Church more chaste and beautiful than at Christmas time, 1900. Great ropes or festoons of laurel were hung from the high vaulted roof and arches of the Church, and from pillar to pillar, having a peculiarly graceful effect, harmonizing with the style of architecture, and filling the immense spaces with the pendent loops of green. It was one of the most artistic as well as pleasing of the holiday designs worked out by Mr. Remington (C. V. S.) in recent years. This poetical description was penned at the time by the pastor: A FUTURE MEMORY Above, the silent laurel hung Throughout the vaulted House of God; Who through those holy aisles had trod,- |