In May, 1852, Rev. Joseph Harrington was invited to take charge of the church.  He came in August and began services under great promise in the United States District Court building.  A few weeks later he was taken alarmingly ill, and died on November 2d.  It was a sad blow, but the society withstood it calmly and voted to complete the building it had begun in Stockton Street, near Sacramento.  Rev. Frederic T. Gray, of Bulfinch Street Chapel, Boston, under a leave of absence for a year, came to California and dedicated the church on July 1, 1853.  This was the beginning of continuous church services.  On the following Sunday, Pilgrim Sunday-school was organized.

Mr. Gray, a kind and gentle soul, rendered good service in organizing the activities of the church.  He was succeeded by Rev. Rufus P. Cutler, of Portland, Maine, a refined, scholarly man, who served for nearly five years.  He resigned and sailed for New York in June, 1859.  During his term the Sunday-school prospered under the charge of Samuel L. Lloyd.

Rev. J.A.  Buckingham filled the pulpit for ten months preceding April 28, 1860, when Thomas Starr King arrived.  The next day Mr. King faced a congregation that crowded the church to overflowing and won the warm and enthusiastic regard of all, including many new adherents.  With a winning personality, eloquent and brilliant, he was extraordinarily attractive as a preacher and as a man.  He had great gifts and he was profoundly in earnest—­a kindly, friendly, loving soul.

In 1861 I planned to pass through the city on Sunday with the possibility of hearing him.  The church was crowded.  I missed no word of his wonderful voice.  He looked almost boyish, but his eyes and his bearing proclaimed him a man, and his word was thrilling.  I heard him twice and went to my distant home with a blessed memory and an enlarged ideal of the power of a preacher.  Few who heard him still survive, but a woman of ninety-three years who loves him well vividly recalls his second service that led to a friendship that lasted all his life.

In his first year he accomplished wonders for the church.  He had felt on coming that in a year he should return to his devoted people in the Hollis Street Church of Boston.  But when Fort Sumter was fired upon he saw clearly his appointed place.  He threw himself into the struggle to hold California in the Union.  He lectured and preached everywhere, stimulating patriotism and loyalty.  He became a great national leader and the most influential person on the Pacific Coast.  He turned California from a doubtful state to one of solid loyalty.  Secession defeated, he accomplished wonders for the Sanitary Commission.

A large part of 1863 he gave to the building of the beautiful church in Geary street near Stockton.  It was dedicated in January, 1864.  He preached in it but seven Sundays, when he was attacked with a malady which in these days is not considered serious but from which he died on March 4th, confirming a premonition that he would not live to the age of forty.  He was very deeply mourned.  It was regarded a calamity to the entire community.  To the church and the denomination the loss seemed irreparable.