New Haven · Membership and death references

South Congregational Church history and catalogue, 1852–1865 · scan page 39

Uncorrected OCR. Name spellings, dates, symbols and column order may be wrong. Verify against the original scan. Includes an alphabetical past-member list, death dates and explanations of death and dismissal symbols. Also contains sermons and church history. A dismissal to another church is not a death.

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MINISTRY    OF    DR.    STILES.  31
Chapel  was  not  completed,  and  the  evening  services,
when  there  was  not  preaching  in  the  church,  were
held  at  private  houses,  in  some  of  which  the  voice  of
praye»-  and  praise  had  never  been  heard  before.  There
were  also  more  or  less  meetings  during  the  week  ;  all
of  which  were  well  attended,  and  many  of  them
crowded.  The  Spirit  of  God  was  manifestly  present.
Those  were  happy  seasons,  as  many  who  read  these
pages  can  testify,  from  their  own  recollection  and  ex-
perience.
We  remarked  above,  that  Dr.  Stiles  did  not  engage
to  preach  more  than  once  on  a  Sabbath.  But,  in
point  of  fact,  he  generally  did  preach  twice  at  this
period  of  his  ministry,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  record
of  texts  just  quoted.  His  sermons,  too,  were  gene-
rally long,  occupying  about  an  hour  in  their  delivery,
and  sometimes  more.  Although  not  written  out,  they
were  well  studied  ;  and  a  j)^ge  or  two  of  manuscript,
in  addition  to  his  mental  resources,  was  all  that  he
was  accustomed  to  rely  on,  for  the  re-production  of
the  most  complicated  processes  of  reasoning,  often
divided  into  heads  and  sub-heads,  to  an  extent  that
would  bewilder  any  but  the  most  attentive  hearers.
To  this  argumentative  character  of  his  preaching  and
to  his  close  analysis  of  subjects,  is  attributable  the
fact,  which  we  believe  is  undeniable,  that  his  discour-
ses were  more  highly  appreciated,  and  more  efiective
for  good,  in  the  case  of  persons  of  vigorous  minds  and
mature  judgment,  than  among  the  yoiing,  or  unedu-
cated adults.     We  here  speak  of  his  discourses  gene-

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Silent Grounds Collective, Church Burial & Death Records, CH-P004-0039. South Congregational Church history and catalogue, 1852–1865, printed page not verified, PDF page 39. Hallock, Gerard, 1800-1866; digitized copy contributed by University of California Libraries https://archive.org/details/historyofsouthco00hall/page/n41/mode/1up Accessed September 8, 2026.

Historic U.S. publication before 1931; public-domain assessment based on publication date. Internet Archive does not necessarily provide an explicit license. Preserve publication and digitizing credits.