Excerpt from St. Mark's Sixtieth Anniversary 1850-1910: A Discourse Delivered in St. Mark's Church, Brooklyn, Sunday, December 18, 1910 "I thank my God upon all my remembrance of you, always in every supplication of mine in behalf of you all making my supplication with joy, for your fellowship in furtherance of the Gospel from the first day until now; being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ. - Philippians, 1:3-6. The Epistle to the Philippians is not doctrinal statement, but personal tenderness. It is an outburst of the heart, springing from the deepest inward need of loving fellowship. It unites exquisite sympathy with courageous faith. The words from a Roman dungeon, may instruct us in review and outlook after sixty years of our Brooklyn church's life. With reverent gratitude St. Paul cherishes devout and joyous reminiscence. Memory had a wide scope in these words, "from the first day until now." There are concrete facts, local references. Philippi was on the great Roman road from Europe to Asia Minor, about nine miles from the sea, and backed by a mountain range. Here St. Paul had preached Christ without encountering the usual opposition. There were cities larger and more renowned, where his discourses roused the most virulent abuse, and where the most tactful missionary efforts were baffled. But it was different in Philippi. There one did not find the philosophic scorn of Athens, nor the mob violence of Thessalonica. The Philippians were of the middle class, earning, in most cases honestly, their own living. Recall the peculiar circumstances of the first three converts. Lydia was by birth an Asiatic, engaged in a necessary and lucrative trade, a seller of purple, which may mean a dyer or a dressmaker. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.