Excerpt from A Sermon Preached by Rev. William P. Paine, D. D., Pastor of the Congregational Church in Holden, Mass: On the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of His Settlement, October 24, 1858 Another circumstance which forbade the anticipation of a pro tracted ministry here, was the prevailing custom to have frequent changes in the pastoral office. It did not seem probable that I should be an exception to so common a rule, especially, as there had not been, for some months, so much harmony of feeling and action in the church and society as has generally marked your course. But whatever breach there was which seemed to bear a threatening aspect, soon appeared to be healed, and the sequel has fully proved that this people are not fickle nor ungenerous, nor hard to be pleased in regard to their ministers. Thus I stand before you to-day, so contrary to the slightest anticipation, to rehearse some of the incidents of interest and value which signalize a ministry of one quarter of a century. 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.