One by one they have passed away from among us, up through the gates of Heaven. I know not how to describe to you these pure spirits, so influential in their gentle, quiet and womanly ways of doing good. They do not seem to me to have died, but I think of them as wafted onward by the breath of the evening of their days, so well pictured in the following beautiful words:

"A cloud lay cradled near the setting sun,

A gleam of crimson tinged its braided snow;
Long had I watched it moving slow-

O'er the calm radiance of the lake below;

While ev'ry breath of eve that chanced to blow,
Wafted the beauteous stranger to the glorious West.
Emblem, methinks of the departing soul,

Moved by the breath of God, and made to roll,
Right onward to the gates of Heaven."

The following hymn was sung at the close of the after

noon service.

Glory to God in the highest,

And while we with the angels sing,

Unto the Babe of Bethlehem,

Gifts, with the wise men, let us bring

Glory to God in the highest, &c.,

And offer our young hearts to him.

Tas

the

Shall be our song to-day;
O may we, an unbroken band,
Around the throne of Jesus stand,
And there with angels and the throng
Of his redeemed ones, join the song.

SUNDAY EVENING.

Early in the evening, the church was filled with former members of the school and their friends, eager listeners to the reminiscences of childhood and Sunday School days. After prayer and reading of the Scriptures, the present Superintendent of the School, Mr. R. S. WILLIAMS, read the following

HISTORICAL REPORT.

It seems to have been the custom for ministers who settled early in this country, to employ more or less of the time between the public services of the Sabbath in oral instruction to the young; and our esteemed fellow-townsman, Mr. HARRY CAMP, says he distinctly remembers attending this kind of service when a child, under the pastorate of Rev. BETHUEL DODD, about 1798 or 1799; and a similar service was also conducted, but probably rather more like our modern Sunday Schools, by DOMINIE MARSHALL, in Deerfield, in 1804 to 1806. In the spring of 1815, EUNICE CAMP gathered a few children (mostly colored) in a small upper room of a building that stood where Warner & Ray's drug store now stands, corner of Genesee and Whitesboro streets either of these cases would undoubtedly give to this locality the honor of the first Sunday School west of Albany.

The Sunday School, however, whose Semi-Centennial Anniversary we meet to-night to celebrate, met for the first time on Sunday the 16th day of October, 1816, and originated at the suggestion of a young lady, who at that time was visiting in the village of Utica from Troy, who enlisted the feelings of five young ladies of the village, in the then seemingly foolish project of Sunday teaching. These five young ladies, aged from 14 to 17 years, who pledged themselves to the enterprise, were a portion of a large number

(nearly one hundred) who had then recently made a public profession of religion, fruits of a revival, under the ministry of the late HENRY DWIGHT. The names of these five, who fifty years ago laid the foundation of what, under God's blessing, has proved a temple of good to a sinful world; the little one has become a thousand, its light shedding its healing rays to nearly every dark corner of this sin-stricken world, and to whose names we delight to do honor to-night,

were:

ELIZABETH BLOODGOOD,

ALIDA M. VAN RENSSELAER,

MARY E. WALKER,
SARAH A. MALCOLM,

CATHARINE W. BREESE.

Of these, SARAH A. MALCOLM, now Mrs. BALL, honors us with her presence this evening. Two, MARY E. WALKER, and ALIDA M. VAN RENSSELAER, have gone to their reward, each clothed in the bright halo of hope in a blissful immortality; and we who assemble here to-night can truly say, "they have rested from their labors, but their works do follow them."

The School was first held in the wing of the frame building situated on the west side, No. 26 Hotel street, in the room of Miss OLIVE WHITE, an excellent member of the church, and is still standing, hardly altered in its exterior, on the same spot, just below Mechanics' Hall. At the outset, the propriety of desecrating the hours of the holy Sabbath day, for the purpose of teaching ignorant children to read, even in the Bible, elicited much, and some very warm discussion, and even devout Christians ominously shook their heads, and feared it was one of the ways in which Satan was transforming himself into an angel of light, to lead these young disciples astray. The pastor himself, the good Dr. DwIGHT, and some of the officers of the church, while not openly opposing the movement, gave no encouragement to an enterprise which they considered more the fruit of youthful inexperience and zeal, and which would soon exhaust itself without producing any very bad results; but God saw in it the grain of

mustard seed, and that small, feeble beginning has grown into a great tree of light, which has sheltered beneath its spreading branches multitudes now in glory, and multitudes more will rejoice through a long eternity, that they have ever been gathered within the folds of this Sabbath School. We can not do better than to quote the words of the late lamented Mrs. OSTROM, giving her own account of the first Sunday morning exercises.

It was a motley group of from twenty-five to thirty boys and girls, who assembled on that memorable Sabbath morning in that humble school room. The fortnight previous had been spent by the teachers, in visiting the streets where the lowest dregs of society found their wretched homes. With some clothing provided, the children were induced to promise attendance. They were made comparatively decent in their appearance; although, even then, the School would find its counterpart in the ragged mission schools of the present day. It is well remembered that, in a class of large, ungoverned lads, one of their number appended a profane oath to a rude remark addressed to his female teacher. The only materials which had been secured for teaching, were a few Testaments and catechisms, and a set of Lancasterian lesson cards which had been pasted upon large boards, so that one would answer to teach an entire class at the same time. In a short time, another school for colored children, and adults, (a large proportion of the latter class,) was held on Sabbath evening, in the same place, and taught by the same teachers. In this school, an aged and simplehearted disciple of Christ, over sixty years of age, succeeded, beginning with the alphabet, to learn to read in the Testament. The process would be regarded by many as a tedious one. But poor JUDY, after spelling and repeating each separate word, would then put all the words together, the truth contained in the verse was comprehended, when the joy and satisfaction which would beam in her face might be envied by some accomplished students of the Bible. When the teacher, feeling that a longer time had been given to JUDY than was her due, would propose to leave her, with

a pleading tone, she would exclaim in her own simple, but expressive language, "oh! let me read a little longer, it goes so good." The hours for commencing the school, both winter and summer, were eight o'clock in the morning, the afternoon session immediately after divine service, and the colored school in the evening. In winter, the days being short, the teachers seldom went home, but spent the twilight intermission in the school-room awaiting their colored pupils. After a few months, the school was divided, the boys being removed to another room, and taught by gentlemen. The colored class was also placed under other teachers. For some time none but children of the poor were admitted as scholars.

After some months, the school, now considerably increased in numbers, was removed to Minerva Hall, situate on the east side of Genesee street just below the corner of Broad, which was destroyed at the time of the great fire in 1837; and at this time there was much discussion as to the propriety of allowing all the children to attend the school, or to confine it as was at first intended, exclusively to the children of poor parents; it was finally decided that it was proper work for the Sabbath to instruct the young in the Bible, and that all children should be invited and urged to attend the school; from that point Christians generally gave it a helping hand, and what was far better for its growth, a cordial Christian sympathy; and began to feel a certain responsibility resting upon them to labor in it directly or indirectly; at this time it might be said the Sunday School was adopted as a child of the Church; and a regular organization was made to watch over and care for its interestsas we find in the Village Directory for 1817, published by WILLIAM WILLIAMS, No. 60 Genesee street, in which is the following record:

Officers of the Sunday School, for 1816.

ASAHEL DAVIS, President,
JOHN H. OSTROM, Vice President,

G. JOHN MILLS, Secretary,