South Congregational Church history and catalogue, 1852–1865 · scan page 63

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MINISTRY  OF    REV.  MR.  NOYES.  55
spiritual  edifice  in  faith  and  prayer, — such  prayer,  and  such
holy  \vrestlin*2:3  as  I  never  before  lieard  from  the  lips  of
man;  who  dedicated  our  sanctuary  to  Almighty  God,  Fa-
ther, Son  and  Holy  Ghost,  and  in  so  doing,  on  the  very
first  day  of  his  ministrations,  sent  an  arrow  of  conviction
to  the  heart  of  an  infidel  and  atheist,  which  was  never  ex-
tracted until  he  found  joy  and  peace  in  believing ;  whose
eloquent,  faithful,  pungent  words  of  love  and  warning
aroused  the  slumbering  community  around  to  the  interests
of  the  soal  and  eternity, — filled  the  house  with  profoundly
attentive  audiences,  larger  on  an  average,  in  the  afternoon,
(when  he  was  expected  to  preach,)  than  tiiose  of  any  other
sanctuary  of  our  denomination  in  the  city;  who  gathered
our  Church,  drew  up  our  Covenant  and  Confesssion  of  Faith,
instituted  or  gave  tone  to  our  Ladies'  Meeting,  making  it  a
centre  of  attraction  to  the  whole  neighborhood,  and  to  many
ladies  in  other  parts  of  the  city ;  who  was  the  instrument,
in  the  judgment  of  charity,  of  bringing  scores  of  persons  to
Christ,  including  many  individuals  residing  out  of  the  city  ;
who  was  the  means,  my  dear  Sir,  of  //our  coming  to  New
Haven  and  holding  the  position  you  now  occupy,  and  who,
as  the  whole  congregation  can  bear  witness,  treated  you
with  uniform  courtesy  in  all  our  public  assemblies;  and  who
to  this  day,  although  olEcially  separated  from  us  by  calls  to
other  fields  of  labor,  does  still  often  and  earnestly  remember
us  in  his  prayers,  and  is  ready  to  serve  us,  in  any  way  con-
sistent with  his  other  duties  and  our  wishes ;  I  say  the  class
of  persons  of  whom  you  speak,  if  I  rightly  understand  their
views,  require  tiiat  this  holy  man,  who  has  done  so  mucli
for  us,  shall  be  deliberately  and  permanently  excluded  from
tiie  pnlpit  which  he  so  long  and  faithfully  occupied.  The
question  is  not,  as  I  understand  it,  whether  he  shall  be
invited  to  occupy  the  pulpit  at  this  time,  but  at  any  time.
The  object  seems  to  be,  to  fix  a  stigma  upon  him — to  pro-
scribe him ;  for  what  reason  I  do  not  know,  I  am  not
aware  that  he  has  done  anything  to  forfeit  the  confidence  of
the  Church  and  Society — nmch  less  their  Christian  courtesy.
True,  he  was  born  South  of  Mason's  and  Dixon's  line,  has
written  a  book,  and  has  been  an  officer  of  tlie  Southern  Aid
Society,  whose  object  is  simply  and  only  to  dispense  the

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Silent Grounds Collective, Church Burial & Death Records, CH-P004-0063. South Congregational Church history and catalogue, 1852–1865, printed page not verified, PDF page 63. Hallock, Gerard, 1800-1866; digitized copy contributed by University of California Libraries https://archive.org/details/historyofsouthco00hall/page/n65/mode/1up Accessed September 8, 2026.

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