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"The following in reference to the Friend's New Meeting House, near this place, recently dedicated. We copy from the Friend's Intelligencer and Journal."
The Friends living in Manasquan, New Jersey, having completed their new meeting house, invited their friends to join them in holding the first meeting init on the 21st inst. The day began with heavy clouds
, from which came a drenching rain that lasted till mid afternoon. In spite of the forbidding weather, quite a body of Friends assembled, and the house was crowded to overflowing, more than two hundred gathered. Yhe meeting s were addressed by Robert S. Haviland, Henery T. Childs, Thomas Foulke, Elias H. Underhill, Jacob Capron, Benjamine Foulke, John H. Shotwell, Frances J. Newlin, and Martha Townsend.Temperance meetings were held in the afternoon of each day, that on Fourthday being addessed by Henry T.Child, and that on Fifthday by Jonathan K. Taylor. Two poems prepared for th occation of the opening of the meeting House were read, one written by Sarah Hunt and on by Lavinia Yeatman.
the mmeting at Manasquan, which is a brance of Shrewsbury monthly Meeting, is one of the older meeting. The ancient building, which has been moved into an adjoining field, was used as a meeting-house more than a hundered and fifty years. The worn and decrepit shingles that covered its sides and roof present a marked contrast to the new and attractive biulding that takes its place. This contrast between the old an new is emphasized wheh we compare the stiff benches and tiny windows of the one with the cherry and comfortable interior of the other.
We were cheered by the announcement that the First-day School, closed sometime since, will be at once re-established, and the assurance given by several friends the there is a revival of interest in an improved attendance of the meeting. thosee who attended either of the meetings will have occasion to remember the life that characterized the, and to feel grateful for the hospitality and kindness extended by the Freinds of Manasquan.
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