Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/288

 228 THE HISTORY OF BARRINGTON. Although the records of the Church have been lost for that memorable half century of Mr. Townsend's pastorate, and the town records have no hints as to the Church affairs, probably no period of our history was more interesting since our foundation, and none so full of peace and progress. The records of that ministry were written upon the hearts of the young and old of this community, and though we cannot read the written page, we can behold the more in- effaceable monuments of truth, piety and order which such a life and such teachings established. Si qiLaeratis momnneiita ciraimspicite. " If you seek for memorials, look around you." At the ordination of his successor. Rev. Samuel Watson, February 28, 1798, the Rev. Dr. Hitchcock, of Providence, gave the charge to this people, and paid the following tribute to the memory and character of this venerable man : " May much of the spirit of your good old Elijah de- scend and rest on the young Elijah who succeeds him in office. The name of Townsend will long be dear to you in this place. His memory will long be venerated in the Churches, and never will be obliterated from the minds of his acquaintances. Happy in his ministry for fifty-five years, you still feel the good effects of the same. Your best testi- mony of respect to his memory, will be to preserve that order and harmony in your proceedings which do you so much honor, and to transfer your affection to his successor in office. With a mind most pure, placid and patient, and a character exceptionably good and estimable, he was interred with every mark of respect by an affectionate people." Rev. Thomas Noyes, pastor of the second Church in Need- ham, at the installation of the Rev. Luther Wright, speaks of the "faithful, pious, and evangelical Townsend, who, through a long and successful ministry, was an ornament to his profession and a glory to human nature." His people passed the following eulogium upon him, when they erected the slab to his memory in Pines Hill Cemetery :