ngs laid waste.

With the exception of the lamps, a venerable clock in front of the
Gallery opposite, the pulpit, the books and cushions, a part of the
windows, the Stoves, a large proportion of the pipes of a Splendid
Organ which was split open with an axe for that purpose, and some of
the plank broken from the pews--all was destroyed; and but for the
real and practical sympathy of many of our esteemed citizens in
braving dangers of no common magnitude, a like destruction had been
the fate of these also.

The house had been standing for more than 63 years--the steeple and
galleries had been built somewhat later--and except the Episcopal
church on Washington Street, generally known by the name of "Christ's
Church"--was the oldest of all the ten places of religious worship in
town. For many years its bell was the only Church-going signal within
the limits of the corporation; and owing to this circumstance,
connected with its peculiarly clear and inviting tones, the
destruction of it--which was caused by its fall from so lofty an
eminence--seemed the occasion of regrets to the public at large, more
immediately expressed than for the edifice itself. To the
congregation, no loss besides the house, was more deeply deplored
than that of the large and richly toned Organ. Not only because of
its superior worth as an Instrument of Music, the difficulty of
replacing it by another, and the sacred uses to which it was applied,
but equally because it had been presented by a few venerated and much
esteemed individuals, most of whom are now sleeping in the dust.

For several years, there had been an Insurance effected on the
building to the amount of five thousand dollars--two thousand five
hundred on each of the Offices in town. But it so happened in
providence, that one of these Policies, which had expired about four
or five months previous, had never been renewed;--so that with the
exception of twenty-five hundred dollars, the loss to the
congregation was total.

Yet there was one circumstance which ought to be recorded with
emotions of adoring gratitude. The calamity took place at a time when
on ordinary occasions, some individuals would have been in the
house--as it was so near the hour of the afternoon's service,--and
had that been the case now, there is much reason to fear, that it
would have been attended, if not