The thirty-fourth annual report of the Female Harmony Society – read at their Annual meeting, November 1st 1849
“We have met today to celebrate the thirty-fourth anniversary of the Female Harmony Society. In that period a whole generation have passed away from this stage of action; and their everlasting destiny is finally fixed! What a solemn truth! And when we ask our own hearts the questions – what have I done to benefit this generation? How far have I been instrumental in their salvation? How deeply should we be humbled before God who will hold us responsible for every opportunity of doing good to our dying fellow men…. The children educated in our Free School have grown up to be men and women. Many of them have become pious and instead of ranking, as they once did, with the ignorant, the poor, and the degraded, we see many of them useful and respectable…. In the Sabbath School cause this Society were emphatically Pioneers, not only in this City but in this State. At one time we had nine schools under our care and not one man to help us. All the Sabbath Schools of this State are now enjoying the benefits arising from the appropriation of our Legislature called forth by the efforts of this Society. The building we erected is still used for its original purposes: there the sound of prayer and praises is still heard, this busy hum of children’s voices and the preaching of the Gospel is still there…. When this Society was first organized in 1814, it enrolled forty members; only six of them now attend. To perpetuate and enlarge our sphere of usefulness (which was sadly declining), a meeting was called on Tuesday evening, October 25th 1848, at the home of Miss Kirkpatrick, at which time about fifty-one members were enrolled. The Society was reorganized and our prospects during the past year have been more encouraging than for several years past, but we want the descending of the Holy Spirit to enliven and vivify and give us a fresh unction for our Master’s work.”
“We have met today to celebrate the thirty-fourth anniversary of the Female Harmony Society. In that period a whole generation have passed away from this stage of action; and their everlasting destiny is finally fixed! What a solemn truth! And when we ask our own hearts the questions – what have I done to benefit this generation? How far have I been instrumental in their salvation? How deeply should we be humbled before God who will hold us responsible for every opportunity of doing good to our dying fellow men…. The children educated in our Free School have grown up to be men and women. Many of them have become pious and instead of ranking, as they once did, with the ignorant, the poor, and the degraded, we see many of them useful and respectable…. In the Sabbath School cause this Society were emphatically Pioneers, not only in this City but in this State. At one time we had nine schools under our care and not one man to help us. All the Sabbath Schools of this State are now enjoying the benefits arising from the appropriation of our Legislature called forth by the efforts of this Society. The building we erected is still used for its original purposes: there the sound of prayer and praises is still heard, this busy hum of children’s voices and the preaching of the Gospel is still there…. When this Society was first organized in 1814, it enrolled forty members; only six of them now attend. To perpetuate and enlarge our sphere of usefulness (which was sadly declining), a meeting was called on Tuesday evening, October 25th 1848, at the home of Miss Kirkpatrick, at which time about fifty-one members were enrolled. The Society was reorganized and our prospects during the past year have been more encouraging than for several years past, but we want the descending of the Holy Spirit to enliven and vivify and give us a fresh unction for our Master’s work.”