The Congregational Observer

DEDICATION.

The new and convenient church edifice, beautiful in its simplicity, recently erected by the Congregational church of Riverhead, Long Island, was dedicated to the worship of the Triune God, on Wednesday, the 1st inst.

The services were as follows. Invocation and reading of the Scriptures, by Rev. C. J. Knowles, minister of the church; Prayer, by Rev. William Tobey, of Franklinton; Sermon, by Rev. Milton Badger, of New York, Secretary of the A. H. M. S.; Prayer, by Rev. Sylvester Woodbridge, of West Hampton; and Benediction, by Rev. Mr. Osborne, of the Methodist Episcopal church of Riverhead.

The day was remarkably fine, and a crowded auditory listened, with deep emotion, to the solemn services. The music, highly appropriate and excellent, added not a little to the interest of the occasion.

It is but a few years since, that this church, the only evangelical one in the village, with the exception of the Methodist, had its origin in a prayer meeting, established and conducted by a single individual, himself not a professor of religion. Soon after, a Sabbath school was gathered, and then a Bible class, and then a church was organized and a minister sustained, with some assistance from the American Home Missionary Society. And now, a house of worship is erected, and the church numbers about 70 members, happily united in the enjoyment of their religious privileges, and in their efforts to do good to all men as they have opportunity. As the church edifice is an ornament to the village, so the church spiritual, by exhibiting the excellence of the Christian life, the power of Christian hope and the works of Christian beneficence, will long continue, we trust, to promote in every family or in every soul within the reach of its influence, whatever is lovely and of good report.

Soon after the church was organized, a Female Seminary, for thorough instruction in the solid branches of education, was established, and put under the direction of a pious and well qualified Preceptress from Miss Grant's Seminary, at Ipswich, Mass. This Seminary has been well sustained; and the efforts of its teachers and friends have been eminently successful in training those committed to their care for usefulness in this life and happiness in another. The present Preceptress, Miss Shumway, from Mount Holyoke Seminary, Mass., has 35 young ladies under her care; and few situations are more favorable than this for intellectual and moral cultivation.

This church and Seminary, having their origin in the same beneficent designs, have already exerted the happiest influences on many individuals, and, with the continued smiles of Heaven, will exert similar influences on many, very many more: influences begun but not to end—which are to reach other and still other minds, until good is accomplished, which, when we see it in all its connections, will make us feel how blessed a privilege it is to live in this world for a little season, and give the starting impulse to moral causes, whose field of action is unbounded, and whose results abide forever.

The Congregational church of Riverhead is an integral part of "The Consociation of Long Island." This consociation is formed after the model of Connecticut, and aims to sustain the character of Congregationalism, as it is exhibited and approved in New England. There are 8 or 9 churches in connection with it; and there are several Congregational churches on the Island not in connection with it; some of them entertaining views in regard to church powers, ministerial qualifications, licensure and support, not in harmony with those of Congregationalists in general.