CENTENNIAL HISTORY
of stairs-the high-backed pews far below and the high galleries far above in which not only all the youth and unmarried young men and women were accustomed to sit but also generally all the young married couples, leaving the seats on the main floor for the middle aged and the old people. In the rear gallery on rising seats were the singers. The tune was pitched by tuning fork and the voices were accompanied by a violin and bass-viol. Prominent in the choir then were Leverett J. Clark, Chorister, and his wife, Deacon Mervin and his wife, J. Sheldon Alling, Hetty Woodruff and Elvira Rogers. Although there was no rich, powerful organ to swell the sound, there was sweet music lifting the soul to God. One marked feature in the old church was the two wood stoves with pipes running under both galleries their whole length, and from which some times when the wind was contrary, smoke issued which brought tears to eyes which sermons failed to moisten. This was the old Sabbath home as it had been from the beginning. To these sacred courts the fathers and mothers went up with loving hearts and reverent spirits to worship God. To this house of praise and prayer they brought with tender affection and faith in the Divine promises their children and consenated them to the blessed Saviour. Their fidelity and love were not in vain. Under the influence of the Sanctuary the hearts of the children were touched and their lives renewed in Christ. And so as the fathers and mothers one by one fell asleep, the children rose up to take their places and the strength and glory of the Church was perpetuated from generation to generation. The last service held in the old church before its reconstruction was on Sunday, January 17, 1864. I began my work as your minister April 1, 1863. It was in the midst of the excitement of the great Civil War. Only a few weeks before a company of brave, patriotic young men had gone forth from Orange in the defence of the Union. My first pastoral call was to bear the sad word to the bereaved family that one of those young men had fallen, and on the second Sabbath of my ministry, April 12th, after appropriate funeral rites, we bore with aching hearts from the Sanctuary to the grave,