When the building was planned the Charitable Baptist Society was incorporated, that it might hold title to "a meeting-house for the public worship of Almighty God, and to hold Commencement in." Nearly a third of the L7,000 required for the new building was raised by a lottery, authorized by the State. The architects modelled the church after the popular St. Martins-in-the-Fields in London, whose designer was James Gibbs, a pupil of Sir Christopher Wren. In the two-hundred-foot spire was hung the bell made in London, on which were inscribed the strange words: "For freedom of conscience this town was first planted; Persuasion, not force was used by the people: This Church is the eldest, and has not recanted, Enjoying and granting bell, temple, and steeple." The pastor at the time the new church was first occupied, on May 28, 1775, was president of Rhode Island College, an institution which had been located in Providence in 1773, in consequence of the generosity and activity of the members of the church. The institution later became Brown University. Every one of the presidents of the college has been a member of the First Church. A church whose building was dedicated "midway between the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill" should have a patriotic history. The story of Providence during the Revolution shows that the members were keenly alive to their opportunities. The first suggestion for the Continental Congress came from Providence. Rhode Island was the first State to declare for independence. Pastor and people were ardent supporters of these movements. Many soldiers were furnished to the army by the congregation. Naturally, then, people would be interested in a man like Stephen Gano, who became pastor in 1792. He had been a surgeon in the Revolutionary Army, and had been taken prisoner, put on board a prison-ship, and bound in chains, which made scars that lasted for life. His pastorate of thirty-six years was the longest in the history of the church. The stately building erected in 1774 is still in use. The gallery long set apart for the use of slaves has given way to a square loft, the old pews have been displaced by modern seats, and the lofty pulpit and sounding-board have disappeared. Otherwise the church is much as it was when the first congregation entered its doors in 1775. TWO: WHERE PATROONS AND KNICKERBOCKERS FLOURISHED _Where nowadays the Battery lies, New York had just begun, A new-born babe, to rub its eyes, In Sixteen Sixty-One. They christened it Nieuw Amsterdam, Those burghers grave and stately, And so, with schnapps and smoke and psalm, Lived out their lives sedately._