The government of the First Independent Church was Presbyterian in cast and form. Indeed it is very doubtful whether a Congregational Church, strictly so called, could have been carried on by the people of such intensely Presbyterian training and inheritance as most of his people were. The congregation held a business meeting once a year and the trustees, elected by the pew holders, took charge of the property, the edifice, and the finances. The elders were elected for life by the vote of the membership. There were no deacons. "All the elders added to the eldership since 1825 have been active praying men" said our pastor, in 1875. Of the first elders I have no remembrance, though I think Matthew Arrison and Thomas Hibbert, ordained to the eldership in 1827, were, though aged men, in active service when I was a little child. I have dim remembrances of these two veterans, and certainly from very early days their names in our home were household words, so that I associate them with the aroma of things happy and lovely. At the name of Robert Buist, a dignified looking gentleman as I remember him, and who married the sister of Mr. Chambers, there rise up visions of seeds, bulbs, flowers, and gardens, for he kept, on Chestnut, or Market Street, a seed warehouse; and I am bound to say (for we tried them in our gardens), that his seeds would grow. In 1852, he removed from the city and resigned his eldership. In 1857, two years after I entered the Sunday School, the Session consisted of Robert Luther, Aaron H. Burtis, John Yard, Jr., Francis Newland, Daniel Steinmetz, and Rudolph S. Walton. After the death of Mr. Burtis, Joseph B. Sheppard was elected to fill his place. I remember the election, on Wednesday evening, December 19th, 1860, and that I voted for the successful candidate, who had been nominated by Mr. Chambers. After the resignation of four elders in 1861, Richard Smallbrook, Thomas P. Dill, Alexander Brown and Edward H. Lawyer filled the places left vacant. Of Messrs. Broome, Brown, and Smallbrook, I have no clear remembrance, being, after 1861, only a visitor, though a very interested one, at the old home church. Robert Luther was for forty-three years elder. He was a mason and builder with both bricks and men. My mind's photograph of him shows a very portly man, weighty in both body and mind. My awe of his person was tempered by a knowledge of his perpetual kindness. As master builder of the edifice on Broad Street, he "wrought with sad sincerity" equal to him who "groined the aisles of Christian Rome" and, like him, "builded better than he knew". His son, Rev. Robert Maurice Luther is the well known Baptist pastor, missionary to Burmah, and professor of theology. He is proud, like myself, to call himself an alumnus of the First Independent Church, and has cheered me in this work of portraying our under-shepherd who led us to the Bishop of our souls.