On Tuesday evening, February 23d, the Gould mansion was handsomely lighted up. Over one hundred invitations had been issued by Mr. Gould and his daughter, Miss Helen Gould, to prominent Presbyterians and members of the Presbyterian Board of Church Extension. It was understood by those receiving the invitations that the reception was solely for the purpose of raising funds. Mr. and Miss Gould received the guests. They were assisted by Mrs. Russell Sage and Mrs. J. P. Munn. The Rev. Dr. Paxton said, in the course of his opening address to the guests:
"When I asked Mr. Gould about opening his home for a meeting of the friends of Presbyterian church extension, without hesitation or deliberation he and Miss Gould said at once, and said it cordially: 'Certainly, with great pleasure,' and Mr. Gould added: 'I believe in church extension on Manhattan Island.' But Mr. Gould has taken another step in the right direction, for since he asked us here—Mr. Sage told me this—Mr. Gould, who is superficial in nothing, wanted to know what church extension is, and what church ought to be extended, and so he read our confession of faith.
"I am not certain of that, for he and the revision and new creed people would not agree; he is old school; he believes in obeying marching orders, like Wellington; in walking in the old paths, like the New York Observer. But one thing, Mr. Sage told me, our host has made up his mind on, and that was that our form of church government was the most
