return and to recall the sacred associations there formed, one of the freshest and most cherished is Woodbury.

The parsonage, the office-study, the church, the lecture-room, the domestic circles, the, familiar faces, the cemeteries, the hills. and valleys-these all come before me with dear remembrances. Though my stay with you was short, yet I expect to enjoy the fruits of it throughout eternity.

That old church-it ought to be greatly profitable for you to rehearse its history for two hundred years.

The good which it has accomplished-there are many in heaven who know more fully what that is than the Orators who will address you.

That invisible company-those gone before; I see no reason why God may not commission them to be present; how much more deeply interesting will they appear to those permitted to behold them, than the crowds which in bodily presence will honor the occasion.

Most gladly would I be with you then and there, but to go and return would require a journey of three thousand miles, which is more than I can perform at present.

Please present my love and best wishes to all my friends, and accept the assurance of my earnest desire for the future prosperity of the church.

I remain yours, in the bonds of the Gospel,

CHARLES LITTLE.

Letter of Rev. PHILO JUDSON, of Rocky Hill.

[Mr. Judson was born in this church, and baptized the "eighth day." He graduated in 1809; became a successful minister, and it is said more than 1600 persons have been gathered into the churches in which he has labored, through his instrumentality. He is now 90 years old.]

BR. TROWBRIDGE:

ROCKY HILL, May 2d.

Dear Sir:-0, I thank you for your very interesting and talented letter. I am feeble, not able to go out; been confined all winter;

do not go out now. I should be glad to be there; it would do my soul good. I hope I may have health to call on you at Woodbury. Your letter did my soul good. Head is much affected; severe cough.

Your letter took deep hold of my feelings. The Lord bless you. Pray for me. Yours truly,

PHILO JUDSON.

[Extract from a recent letter written by Miss CHARLOTTE R. ANDREW, daughter of the late REV. SAMUEL R. ANDREW of New Haven.]

You ask for the date of my blessed father's death, and his age. He was seventy-one, and died May 26, 1858. If it ever be permitted the spirits of the departed to revisit their dear old homes on earth, will it not be permitted him to unite on that anniversary day with his beloved church in their service of praise and thanksgiving to God? I am almost sure he will be invisibly present.

At the close of reading the letters, a pleasing incident occurred. During the collation at the Town Hall, a large and beautiful loaf of cake, made by Mrs. Judson, wife of Deacon Truman Judson, bearing a miniature flag, labeled "Stratford," surrounded by seven smaller loaves, bearing the names of the other churches represented on the occasion, occupied the place af honor at the principal table. This loaf was, at this point, presented by Rev. Mr. Churchill, with appropriate remarks, to Rev. Mr. Hall, the representative of the mother church, as a token of filial regard from her daughter. Mr. Hall received the gift with some playful and fitting remarks, and promised to be "faithful to his charge."

The closing prayer of the day was then made by the pastor: And now, Gracious God, our Heavenly Father, from whom

cometh every good and perfect gift, we bless Thee for casting our lot in this land of civil and religious freedom, and for crowning our lives with such signal tokens of Thy goodness. We praise Thee for wise, virtuous, heroic Christian ancestors, and beseech Thee that we may copy their example, and carry forward their work. May we remember the word of our Puritan leader across the sea, that more light is yet to break forth from Thy book. May we realize that for us, greater achievements over self and the world are possible-that higher goals of duty may be reached, and richer trophies won for Christ. Therefore, forgetting the things behind, and reaching forth unto those before, may we press toward the mark of our high calling of God in Christ Jesus. May we seek to be enrobed in all the virtues and graces of the Spirit, so as to shed the purest light and exert the most benign influence upon the world. May we all love and serve Thee, remembering that we must soon stand before Thee, since we are strangers and sojourners here, as were all our fathers. We thank Thee, O Lord, for this bright and genial day, and for the interest and harmony attending these exercises. May they conduce to the highest good of all, and the glory of Thy name. And when one after another we are called away from earth, may we come at last to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in Heaven. And to Thy great name, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, shall be all the praise and glory forever. Amen.

At the close of the prayer, the benediction was pronounced, and the delighted audience separated for their homes among the hills and valleys, never again to meet in this old church on a like memorable occasion.

We remark, in conclusion, that the results of a celebration. such as we have recorded, cannot but be vastly beneficial to the Church whose history it celebrates, and the community in which it is located. It recalls to the attention of all how faithful in His promises to His chosen people is the Great Head of the

Church. Few churches in the land can claim so remarable a fulfillment of these "promises" as this revered old church. A review of all these wonderful works for the long period of two hundred years, brings forcibly to the mind, that we are a "covenant people," and in the kind care of a "covenant-keeping God."

CHAPTER VI.

WOODBURY IN THE GREAT REBELLION OF 1861.

CAUSES OF THE WAR; EVENTS OF 1860; EVENTS OF 1861; EVENTS OF 1862; EVENTS OF 1863; EVENTS OF 1864; EVENTS OF 1865; THE RETURN OF PEACE; RECEPTION OF THE RETURNING BRAVES; THEIR EAGER RETURN TO THE PURSUIT OF THE PEACEFUL OCCUPATIONS OF PRIVATE LIFE; DECORATION DAY: BEAUTIFUL CEREMONIES; REFLECTIONS.

"Ah never shall the land forget

How gushed the life-blood of her brave-
Gushed warm with hope and courage yet
Upon the soil they fought to save;

On fame's eternal camping ground

Their silent tents are spread,

And glory guards with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead."

MILINGLY arose the sun of 1860 over the ever increasing borders of this fair land. For two hundred and forty years from its first sad beginning amid the December blasts of a drear and deadly winter, at Plymouth Rock, on the sterile New England coasts, emerging soon to light and prosperity, it had seemed to be the favored of heaventhe hope of the world! From a feeble band of adventurers, nurtured amid great vicissitudes, it had become a strong nation of about thirty millions of souls. From a few hardy colonists, straggling and scattered along a boundless ocean, it had become the equal of the proudest nations in the world, occupying a continent of limitless resources. Trade flourished, the busy hum of machinery was every where heard, agriculture gave rich rewards to the toil of the husbandman, the arts and sciences had reached a high perfection, and yielded rich fruits to the explorations of the learned, while the proud sail of commerce whitened every sea,