Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CENTENNIAL SERMONS. The Committee on Sunday Services, addressed a circular to each of the clergymen of the city, who held a parochial charge, as follows, viz.: CITY OF PORTLAND. CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. Dear Sir : It is proposed to preserve in a permanent form an account of the Centennial Celebration, together with an Historical Sketch of Portland, including, amongst other things, an account of the rise and growth of the religious societies of the city. Through the Ministerial Association we have extended an invitation to the pastors of the city to prepare, in the form of an historical discourse, to be delivered in their churches on Sunday morning, July 4th, a sketch of their several societies, and we beg your co-operation in this matter, and that you will furnish the committee with a copy of your discourse or a report of same for use in making the Memorial Volume. Very truly yours, Wm. M. Marks, Ansel G. Dewey, Geo C. Burgess, May 20, 1886. Committee on Sunday Services. And replies in the following form were received, viz.: Portland, May —, 1886. Gentlemen: Your invitation is received and accepted. I will furnish you with a copy of my discourse or a report of the same for use in the proposed memorial volume. Very truly yours, John T. Hull, Clerk of Centennial Committee. On Sunday, July 4th, the weather was very fine, and the attendance at all the churches in the forenoon was large. A great many of the former residents of Portland had arrived in the city during the few days previous, and joined in the crowds who were present at the various places of worship. In all the churches, at their centennial services, at the suggestion of the late Mrs. Clara Barnes Martin,1 the following hymn was sung: Tune—St. Martin's. I. "Let children he...