so rich in the sweet fruits and flowers they have yielded to careful cultivation. The celebration is the Semi-Centennial of Dr. FOWLER'S Sabbath School, the First Presbyterian, of Utica. The services began in the City Hall, on Saturday evening, October 20th, and were appropriately continued through the following day, the Sabbath, in Dr. FOWLER'S church, closing with a social re-union at the pastor's resi dence on Monday evening.

On Saturday evening the friends of the school, with a large number of invited guests, many of them old members of the school, come from long distances, assembled with grateful hearts in the City Hall to pass an evening in social enjoyment, in recalling the past, and giving thanks to God for his mercies. A bountiful collation was spread by the ladies of the First Church, which was discussed with bountiful appreciation. Letters were read from several distinguished men and women once members of the school, speeches were delivered, "Auld Lang Syne," and other sweet hymns were sung, the Scriptures read, prayer offered, and a feast of reason and religion enjoyed to the full. No occasion could have been more worthy of such a worthy remembrance of it. The Hall was decorated with appropriate inscriptions. Over the door of entrance were the words "1866—The Year of Jubilee." Over the staging in the rear, to the left, was an inscription "Our Ministers," a list of the pastors of the church following. In the centre was the date "1816," with the names of the five founders of the First Church Sunday School (all ladies.) One of these graced the occasion by her presence. "Our Honored Dead” was another caption, followed by a list of worthies who had died with the Sunday School harness on. On the right, above the staging, was a tablet containing the names of "Our Missionaries," twelve in number, who had been sent forth from that school to teach the nations sitting in darkness. Numbers of literary men and otherwise distinguished characters, members of the school, with the clergy of the city, &c., occupied a platform on the east side of the Hall.

Hon. WM. J. BACON, an old Superintendent of the school

who was Vice President of the late State Sunday School Convention held in Utica, occupied the chair. His opening address was peculiarly eloquent and beautiful.

Among a great number of letters received, several were read and heard with deepest interest, recalling as they did early labors and laborers, struggles, victories, rewards and the wonderfully rich experiences that cluster around such a center of gospel influences. S. WELLS WILLIAMS, missionary at Pekin, China, sends his share of precious memories, dated from the Celestial Empire, 31st of May. FREDERIC WILLIAMS, missionary in Assyria, sends his cheering greetings from the East, under date of May 8. Other eminent Sunday School spirits from different parts of the land sent up their contributions of instructive and grateful reminiscences. One speaks of the school as his spiritual birth-place, another as the field of his early growing and strengthening, while nearly all combine to revere the name of TRUMAN PARMELE, one of the first and ever-honored Superintendents of the school, which, by the way, is believed to be first in the State established west of Albany.

The speeches of the evening were of the same grateful tenor with the letters. All hearts seemed to be sweetly subdued under the presiding influences of the occasion.

At a late hour, and after a season of unalloyed pleasure not often permitted in the same measure and kind, the gathering was dismissed upon the invocation of heaven's richest blessing.

On Sabbath morning the services of the Semi-Centennial were continued in the First Church. A large crowd filled its spacious audience chamber Several pastors occupied the pulpit with Dr. FOWLER. The doctor preached a beautifully appropriate discourse from Exodus ii: 9,"Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages.'

On Sabbath afternoon a grand children's meeting was held. The addresses were highly appropriate and appreciated by the little ones. The singing was charming. After the adult audience was dismissed, the children remained some time singing their sweet songs.

The closing public service of the Jubilee was held in the evening with another crowded audience. The feature of the occasion, was the reading of the Semi-Centenary Report of the Sunday School, by the present Superintendent, Mr. ROBERT S. WILLIAMS. It was a peculiarly interesting document. It traced the foundation, rise and progress of the school, mentioning with terms of grateful love, the prominent actors in its early history, and noting the details of its growth, the changes of location, influence on the community, starting of schools around it, &c., &c.

Prof. UPSON, of Hamilton College, Rev. Dr. BRIGHT, editor of the New York Examiner and Chronicle, who was formerly a member of the school, and Rev. Mr. BRACE, made fitting addresses.

The whole occasion was one never to be forgotten. It excited great interest throughout the city. The papers of Monday were filled with accounts of it. One in particular, the UTICA MORNING HERALD, devoted more than half its reading space to it, nearly eleven closely printed columns being taken up with the report of the services. Among the hymns sung, which were printed on a neat programme, were the following: "Auld Lang Syne,' "Shall we gather at the river?" "When shall we meet again ?" "We've listed in a holy war," "Why forbid them? Jesus said," "Who are these in bright array?" "Glory to God in the highest," "Our hearts are full-divinely blest;" Jubilee hymn, "The trumpet's piercing cry," "Say, brothers, will you meet us?" "We won't give up the Bible," "The Bible, the Bible, more precious than gold," "Your mission," &c.

May the schools of the First Church of Utica, live and prosper in the future, even more than in the past, and come to their Centenary anniversary, with, if possible, even greater cause of gratitude to the great Teacher for his abounding goodness toward them.

The Improvement of our Sunday School Jubilee.

A SERMON PREACHED OCT. 28, 1866, THE SUNDAY SUCCEEDING THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, UTICA.

BY THE PASTOR, REV. P. H. FOWLER, D. D.

EXODUS XII: 14.

"AND THIS DAY SHALL BE UNTO YOU FOR A MEMORIAL."

In a matter of fact age, we are prone to depreciate sentiment. We think of it as merely poetic. It is not of stern enough stuff for practical use.

And this is the kind of mistake that men of affairs constantly make. They look at results, without reverting to their prime causes. Concentrating their aim on what is to be accomplished, they notice only what immediately conduces to it. The last of a train is all that commands their regard.

Now sentiment does not expend itself on itself. It is not a mere luxury of the heart. It is a great power in the world. The race is largely controlled by it.

Men see a monument:-it covers the lamented dead, and they exclaim, "Why all this waste! The money had better been spent for the living; commerce or manufactures, or agriculture, literature, or science, or charity, the home, or the church, would have been a wiser appropriation of it, than granite or marble." But is natural affection of no account, and is anything costly that expresses and thus encourages it?

A celebration is held, flags fly, cannons roar, processions march, orators harangue, festive boards groan. With sensibilities made callous by business and work, many a one looks on with wonder at what seems to them the puerilities

enacted. "Why this loss of time, why this abandonment of labor, why this expenditure of money, why this wear of excitement?"

But is patriotism of no account. Should love of country be extinguished by being repressed!

The human instinct is juster in its judgments than the biassed and perverted notions of individuals or communities, or periods. There is a natural prompting of monuments and memorials. We are so constituted as to incline to them, and what God has disposed us towards, we do well to follow out.

And the truth is not only inscribed on us, and acted out in our normal movements, but it is expressly taught. Commemorative services have been of frequent divine appointment. The Sabbath celebrated the creation of the world; the Passover celebrated the departure of the Israelites from Egypt; the Pentecost celebrated the giving of the law at Sinai; and the feasts of Trumpets, or New Moon, Purim, Dedication, the Sabbath year, and the year of Jubilee, were also commemorative occasions. And what is the Lord's Supper now, but a remembrance of Christ, and what is the Christian Sabbath now, but a celebration of his rising from the dead.

But for our recent national experience, there might be some excuse for our disparagement of sentiment and its manifestations. When no peril threatened our country, and we could not prize it under apprehensions for it, we might have been pardoned for the apparent lack of intense interest in it, and for withholding marked demonstrations of fondness for it. But how dear we felt it to be, when so formidably assailed and so imminently risked, and how irrepressible were our feelings towards it, and how delightful was the general exhibition of attachment to it. What American can despise patriotism, sentiment though it be, and who can contemn national Jubilees?

A flag was once to most of us, perhaps, a mere piece of bunting. It had little meaning and less inspiration. But