USA > Washington DC > The centennial of the beginning of Presbyterianism in the city of Washington > Part 8
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of the Synod of Baltimore. As constituted, it embraced the following members, viz : Revs. Graf, Gurley, Tustin, J. E. Nourse, Motzer, Bocock, Bit- tinger and Walton, with the churches of F Street, Second, Seventh, Washington City ; Bridge Street, Georgetown ; Annapolis, Neelsville, Darnestown, Bladensburg and West River, Maryland. Of the original members of this Presbytery only one is now living, namely, the author of this paper.
The Metropolitan Church grew out of the earnest longings of a few consecrated Presbyterians, living on Capitol Hill, in 1864, for a church holding the faith of their fathers. At first they met for wor- ship in a small school house on First street S. E. The congregation rapidly increased in numbers, compelling them to seek accommodations in a large building formerly used as a market house, corner of A and Third Streets, the site now occupied by St. Mark's P. E. Church. On the 11th of April, 1864, the church was organized, with 34 members, as the Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church, and at the same time, Rev. John Chester, D. D., was installed pas- tor. Subsequently, the church occupied a large room in the south wing of the Capitol, where, for the first and only time in that building, the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper were adminis- tered. In 1865, February 12, the congregation entered into a chapel which had been erected on the lot upon which its present house of worship stands. This chapel was constructed in Burling- ton, N. J., and brought here and put together,
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serving the church as a place of worship seven years. When the foundation of the present edifice had been laid, in 1868, a proposition was made for the consolidation with this church of the property on E street N. W., originally intended as the site of a church representative of our denomination in the National Metropolis, but which was never used for that purpose. The condition of consolidation, as prescribed by the Synod of Baltimore, was that the name "Capitol Hill" be changed to " Metro- politan," which title it bears at the present time. Dr. Chester continued as pastor until February 26, 1894, and in October of the same year he was suc- ceeded by its present pastor, Rev. George N. Luc- cock, D. D.
In the year following, December 4, 1865, the North Church was organized with 23 members, under the oversight of Rev. Louis R. Fox, who was installed pastor December 31, of the same year. This church was the outgrowth of missionary labors of members of the New York Avenue Church, hold- ing religious services in a school house, Tenth and M streets, and for a time was under the fostering care of the New York Avenue Church.
Mr. Fox remained as pastor until 1871, and in 1872 was succeeded by Rev. James G. Mason.
The present pastor, Charles B. Ramsdell, D. D., was installed December 3, 1875. The church edifice was dedicated December 3, 1865, and was enlarged in 1878.
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In 1870, under promising auspices, the two Pres- byteries, District of Columbia and Potomac, were united by order of the Synod of Baltimore, acting under authority of the reunited General Assembly. This union was effected in the Bridge Street Church, Georgetown, the first moderator elected being Rev. John C. Smith, D. D., and the first stated clerk, Rev. Thaddeus B. McFalls. The name adopted and by which it is know is, " The Presbytery of Wash- ington City." The following ministers were pres- ent, viz : Revs. Tustin, Smith, Simpson, McLain, Van Doren, Henderson, Sunderland, Bittinger, Murphy, Coombs, J. E. Nourse, McFalls, Chester, Moffat, French, Hart, Fox, Mitchell. The follow- ing churches were represented : Bladensburg (now Hyattsville), Bridge Street (now West Street), New York Avenue, First, Fourth, Fifteenth Street, Sixth, Seventh (now Westminister), ster), Metroplitan, and North, Washington City ; First, Prince William, Manassas, Clifton, Virginia; Neelsville and Darnes- town, Maryland, and the churches among the freed- men in Virginia. As thus constituted, the Presby- tery consisted of 18 ministers, and had under its care 17 churches, with 2,889 communicants. Now it embraces 43 ministers, 32 churches, with 7,132 communicants. The churches have a seating capac- ity of 14,900 persons, and a valuation of $960,000.
As significant of change, I state that of the min- isters answering to the roll call in 1870, only four now remain to respond-Revs. Sunderland, Bittin- ger, Chester, and French ; while of the others, Rev. S. S. Mitchell, D. D., is the sole survivor.
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I also state in this connection that, of the minis- ters who were pastors of the churches in this city at the time of the organization of the Presbytery of Potomac, of all denominations, the only survivors are Byron Sunderland, D. D., of the First Church ; Benjamin F. Bittinger, D. D., of the Westminster Church ; John G. Butler, D. D., of the Lutheran Memorial Church, and Christian C. Meador, D. D., of the Fifth Baptist Church.
In 1871, certain members of the Fourth Church, residing in East Washington, united in the pur- pose of opening a Sabbath School, with a view of establishing a church. Mr. Moses Kelly, then an elder of the Fourth Church, donated several lots on Eighth street N. E., on which, in 1872, a frame chapel was erected. Rev. Joseph T. Kelly, then a student in Princeton Theological Seminary, was engaged as a stated supply. Mr. Kelly was suc ceeded by Rev. George B. Patch, D. D., under whose ministrations an organization was effected in May 9, 1875 ; subsequently Rev. S. S. Wallen became pastor in 1881, followed, in 1884, by Rev. Eugene Peck, who was killed on the railroad near the church in 1888, March 15. In 1890, Rev. Max- well N. Cornelius, D. D., was installed, who, at his death in 1893, March 31, was succeeded by its pres- ent pastor, Rev. Thomas C. Easton, D. D., installed January 24, 1894. During the latter years of Dr. Cornelius' ministry the question of building a new and more commodious church edifice was enter- tained, and which was solved by the erection of its
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present handsome structure on the corner of Sixth street and Maryland avenue N. E. This new church, especially in the preliminaries of its con- struction, is largely indebted to the wise counsels of Dr. Cornelius, but he died without its sight.
Unity Church grew out of the zealous labors of Rev. George B. Patch, D. D., seconded by no less zealous Presbyterians residing in the northwest part of our city. At first religious services were held in Clabaugh Hall, Fourteenth street, and an organization effected March 15, 1882. In 1884 a commodious brick chapel was erected on the corner of Fourteenth and R streets, which, in October, 1892, was demolished to make room for the hand- some edifice which now adorns the site, and cost- ing $70,000, the gift of a generous Christian lady, Mrs. Edward Temple ; and in memory of her hus- band and father, its name was changed from"Unity" to "The Gunton Temple Memorial Church." This new building was dedicated November 5, 1893. Dr. Patch continues to be the pastor.
Should any Presbyterian who loves his or her church and city be desirous of emulating the noble example of Mrs. Temple, and is in doubt as to an eligible location, I would suggest Columbia or Washington Heights, accompanying the suggestion will the assurance that the investment will pay large dividends which shall never lapse nor cease.
Such was the rapid growth of our city, especially in the northwest, that at several times between 1871 and 1879 Presbytery discussed the question of
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planting a church of our order in that section, and in 1879 appointed a committee for its consideration. Even in 1872 the stated clerk, Rev. T. B. McFalls, seriously thought of initiating preaching services, and made tentative overtures for the purchase of a lot. Nothing effective was done, however, until 1883, when, in consultation, certain gentlemen, principally connected with the New York Avenue Church, agreed to undertake the work. These gentlemen, with commendable zeal and liberality, purchased a site, corner of N and Eighteenth streets N. W., upon which a chapel was erected, which was opened for worship October 13, 1885, and in which the Church of the Covenant was or- ganized with fifty-three members. Subsequently, the present edifice was erected, which was first opened for divine worship February 24, 1889. In 1886 Rev. Teunis S. Hamlin, D. D., was installed pastor, and continues as such to the present time. Did it not savor a little of irreverence to associate a christian church with heathen fable, I would say something about Minerva springing forth in full armor from the head of Jupiter. But I will con- tent myself with saying that this church was not nourished by the ordinary pabulum furnished by a Sabbath School, nor did it ever wear the swad- dling bands of a mission outpost, but came into being full-fledged, and from the beginning, equipped for service, took an honorable place among its sis- ter churches of the Presbytery. There is con- nected with this church the Peck Memorial Chapel,
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corner of M and Twenty-eighth streets N. W., the minister in charge being Rev. Charles Alvin Smith.
A few words now of another Presbyterian church, the Central, under the pastoral care of Rev. A. W. Pitzer, D. D., whom we all have learned to honor and love ever since we discovered that, unlike the ancient Greeks who brought equivocal gifts to Troy, he brought with him only messages of peace and good will to this city. This church was or- ganized with twenty-nine members May 31, 1868. In speaking of the pastors of the other churches I did not think it necessary to say anything of their orthodoxy, for the simple reason that, being to the ยท manner born, it might be assumed of all of them, from the first to the last born into the Presbytery. The fact, however, of this church and its pastor receiving honorable mention in this historical sketch may be accepted as a full and sufficient guarantee that both pastor and people are sound in the faith ; while of the pastor's church work some have said, as a certain workman affirmed of his work, it is not only plumb, but more than plumb.
I need not inform you that Dr. Pitzer, when he came here shortly after that memorable interview in Appomattox, Virginia, between Gen. Grant and Gen. Lee, was, as he is now, in connection with the Southern Assembly, which, as you know, be- came so distended with righteous indignation against the Northern Assembly for its violation of the 4th section of the 31st chapter of the Confes- sion of Faith, forbidding Synods and Councils to
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intermeddle with civil affairs, that it could not any longer contain itself, and for relief formed an Assembly of its own. But, mirabile dictu, through a strange lapse of memory, it was not long before it did precisely the same thing, and the separation, as if by a left-handed consistency, continues to the present day, the one being known as the " Presby- terian Church in the United States of America," and the other the "Presbyterian Church in the United States."
True, indeed, of recent years there has been on the part of some, at least, a yearning for the res- toration of ante bellum happy relations with the Northern Assembly, which, true to its time-hon- ored hospitality, keeps ready a fatted calf, to be killed immediately both Assemblies recover their common, or, better still, their christian sense ; and when, as brethren holding the same faith and gov- erned by the same polity, they shall be one in heart, as they are now one in name.
So far, however, the Southern Assembly, as such, does not seem to hanker very much after the afore- mentioned fatted calf-neither to give much encour- agement to the annual proposals of its Northern suitor for closer relations. Willing, indeed, to accept its olive branches, but not ready to order any orange blossoms for itself, and saying, in effect, after the manner of a coy maiden under similar cir- cumstances, "I feel honored by your proposals and shall never cease to cherish for you the most friendly feelings, but-I can never be more to you than a sister-Church."
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Prior to 1872 the New York Avenue Church con- ducted a mission on Florida Avenue, near Seventh Street N. W., but in this year a church was organ- ized with seven members, under the name and title of "The Gurley Church," and under the care of Rev. William H. Logan. In 1876, however, at the request of its elders, the church was dissolved and a large Sabbath School continued under supervision of the Session of New York Avenue Church. In 1889 a church was organized under the name and title of the "Gurley Memorial Church," under the pastoral care of Rev. William S. Miller, who was succeeded by its present pastor, Rev. J. R. Verbrycke.
Through the efforts principally of the family of Mr. Alexander Garden, an elder of the Westminster Church, aided by others, a church was organized in 1892, in Anacostia, D. C., consisting of 18 members. Rev. Joseph B. North, the present pastor, was installed March 20, 1894.
In 1891 the organization of a church at Takoma Park, D. C., was brought to the notice of the Pres- bytery, and the Committee on Surburban Churches was directed to make overtures to the Directors of "Union Chapel " for its control as a place of Pres- byterian worship. In 1893 the transfer was made and an organization effected, consisting of 35 mem- bers. The present and only pastor of the church is Rev. John Van Ness, having been installed July 3, 1895.
But I must hasten to a conclusion, not, however, without calling upon you to unite with me in doing
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honor to our noble lineage of Presbyterian minis- ters and laymen who, at great cost of labor and sacrifice, laid the foundations of our Church in this city and District, and bequeathed to us the rich inheritance of which we are the favored pos- sessors. Let this inheritance be our pride and joy ; let us guard it with ceaseless vigilance ; let us mag- nify it as the choicest gift of heaven ; and, glory- ing in its historic prestige, its traditional achieve- ments, and its vast resources of honor and useful- ness, transmit it to our children with the solemn charge to suffer no one to rob them of its posses- sion, nor even to challenge their title deeds to its peaceable enjoyment.
This is our duty, but no less our privilege, so that to use the words of another, varied and adapted to the present occasion : "If, as Pres- byterians, we would rise to the level of our respon- sibility, we must, while showing the widest charity towards all other denominations, devote the great resources of our own Church, both of men and means, in the dissemination of the truths which it maintains, for the largest possible development of. its own institutions. Loyalty to the Presbyterian system involves loyalty to its wide-spread agencies ; demands a persistent, resolute, aggressive move- ment for the meeting in full, along denominational lines, of denominational responsibilities."
On this subject the reasoning of many persons is specious and misleading. For however sincerely we may deprecate the division of Christians into
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many sects, or deplore the evils of sectarianism as fostering an unreasonable and unscriptural exclu- siveness, there is little probability that denomina- tionalism-meaning thereby an intelligent choice of and love for a particular form of faith, worship and government-shall disappear before the Mil- lennium, when, as we hope and believe, there will be only one flock, as now there is only one Shep- herd. Meanwhile, the recent abortive efforts made by the Presbyterian and other churches for the establishment of Christian unity strengthens the conviction that it will continue to be a fixed factor in the status of Christendom. From conviction or choice, or both, we all must find a place in one or another of the Christian denominations, so that it may be accepted as almost a truism that he is the best Christian, the truest to Christ, who, with charity towards others, is most loyal to the church of which he is a member, and for the preservation and maintenance of all the interests of which he has voluntarily, before God and man, brought himself under the most solemn obliga- tions. *
*Let it not be supposed that, in the expression of my views on Christian unity, I am indifferent to either its importance or its desirability. I rather magnify both. A unity, however, which looks for its realization not in the dead level of a monotonous uni- formity, but in that freedom of variety which is the characteristic of all life, especially of the " life that is hid with Christ in God. " Such variations of individual opinion, feeling and action, more- over, instead of breaking the bond which binds Christians, first to Christ, then to one another, is the best preservative of it, and find their counterparts in the several members of the human body, which, although fulfilling various offices, are actuated by one soul- perfect in one. Diversity in unity-such is the order of spiritual
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And is it not, moreover, a fact, that a man who, under special pleading of superior liberality, is indifferent to the welfare, and negligent of the claims, of his own church, is of little, if any, prac- tical benefit to any other church-and who will do well to remember the words of the inspired Apos- tle-" If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel ?"
Then, with the kindest feelings for all who love the Lord Jesus in sincerity, and striving with them to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, let us, with fresh courage, labor for the prosperity and enlargement of our beloved church ; stand in our lot, hold fast to our trust, and acquit ourselves of every responsibility which the prov- idence of God has imposed upon us. Let us say of it as David said of the church represented in Jeru- salem : " Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and compan- ions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee. Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good." Then, indeed, loyal to itself, and to its great King, and fully equipped for every good word and work, it shall shine forth as the morn- ing, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and to all wrong-doing, terrible as an army with banners.
life, leading us to the conclusion that Christians may be " distinct as the billows, yet one as the sea."
Our aim, therefore, should be not for a universal visible Church under one organization, but, as in the New Testament, for many churches of distinct organizations, and bound together by affinity `and co-operation, all holding a common faith and professing sub- jection to a common Head, our Lord Jesus Christ. A union of spirit rather than of form.
Address by the-
HON. JOHN W. FOSTER.
In the interesting series of meetings being held to celebrate the establishment of Presbyterianism in the District of Columbia and the centennial of the First Church of this capital, I, as president of the organization, have been designated to represent the Presbyterian Alliance of this city. I am sure I speak the unanimous sentiment of the Alliance, which embraces all the churches of our denomina- tion of this city, when I tender to the mother church the hearty congratulations of all her off- spring, express our pride in her history, and wish for her second centennial existence great pros- perity and usefulness.
I regard this occasion as having marked signifi- cance and importance. Why was it that when the fathers of the Republic were making ready this locality to be the future seat of Government of the nation, in the very first days of preparation a body of earnest Christian men felt it desirable and neces- sary to establish here a Presbyterian Church ? And why is it that at the end of a century of experi- ence and labor, the offspring of that Church greatly multiplied, are banded together in an Alliance to continue with renewed zeal the work of Presbyter-
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ian extension in the capital city of the nation ? I can best answer these questions by recalling some well-known history.
Presbyterianism is rooted and grounded in Cal- vinism. From the time the young French refugee began to promulgate his theology in Geneva, to this day Calvinism has wrought for freedom, for the rights of man and stoutly battled against thrones and tyranny. De Tocqueville calls it " a democra- tic and republican religion." Buckle says the Calvinistic doctrines "have always been connected with a democratic spirit." Greene, in his history of the English People, points to the chief element in the greatness of that people and of modern Europe in these words : "It is in Calvinism that the modern world takes its roots ; for it was Cal- vinism that first revealed the worth and dignity of man."
Its influence upon France is one of the most inter- esting but saddest pages in history. The pupils of Calvin went everywhere over that land preaching his doctrine and calling the people to a more rigid and exemplary life. In a very few years his adherents numbered near half the population, but the spirit of liberty thereby engendered inaugu- rated a civil war which was stifled in the St. Bar- tholomew massacre and an unequal contest was carried on for more than a century till by the revo- lution of the Edict of Nantez the Hugenots were scattered in the Netherland, in England and the American Colonies where there free principles found more congenial climes.
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Early Calvinism invaded Holland and at once under the lead of its great hero, William the Silent, began that war against Spanish tyranny which gave to the Dutch Republic a century of unequalled renown.
John Kox, Calvin's most distinguished pupil, carried his doctrines and spirit across the channel into Scotland, where, after a heroic struggle with royalty and immorality, they became so ingrained in the character of its inhabitants that ever since they have been the crowning glory of its people.
From Scotland Calvinism spread into England and soon stirred up a struggle with tyranny which overturned the throne. The untimely death of the great Puritan champion, Cromwell, gave a respite to royal prerogative and autocratic rule in the con- test with representative government, and again it was the power of Calvinism, as represented in Wil- liam of Orange, that expelled forever the House of the Stuarts and established English liberty on a sure foundation. The battle of the Boyne signifies much more than the local triumph of the Presby- terian over the Catholic Church in Ireland. It established forever for the Anglo-Saxon race the world over free government and representative institutions.
I need not recall to this audience the great influ- ence of the Puritans, the Dutch, the Scotch-Irish, the Huguenots-all Calvinists-upon the American colonies and the revolutionary struggle.
Listen to the judgment of the impartial histo- rian as to these political events so briefly noticed.
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Says Motley: "To the Calvinists, more than to any other class of men, the political liberties of Holland, England and America are due." Hume, the atheist, says : "It was to the Puri- tans that the English owe the whole freedom of their constitution." Of the Scotch clergy, Buckle testifies : "To these men England and Scotland owe a debt they can never pay." Taine, the French writer, says: "The Calvinists are the true heroes of England ; they founded Scotland ; they founded the United States." Froud writes : "It was Cal- vinism which overthrew spiritual wickedness and hurled kings from their thrones, and purged Eng- land and Scotland ** * ** from lies and charla-
tanry." Says Ranke, the German : "John Calvin was virtually the founder of America." Choate traced to the influence of Calvinism " the great civil war in England, and * X the independence of
America." Our great historian, Bancroft, says : " He that will not honor the memory and respect the influence of Calvin, knows but little of the ori- gin of American Independence."
When the agitation was initiated which resulted in the American Revolution, the Presbyterian Church was beginning to strike its roots deep in the social soil of the colonies and its influence was everywhere on the side of rebellion. The Whig Club of New York formed in 1752, to whose action Bancroft ascribes the inception of the Continental Congress, was so largely composed of Presbyterians that it was dubbed by the loyalists "the Presby-
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terian Junta." The Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia was the first religious body to declare openly for a separation from England and counsel and encourage the people to take up arms. The Rector of Trinity Church, New York, reported that all the clergy of the Church of Eng- land in New England, New York and New Jersey were on the side of the Crown, but, he adds : " I do not know of one of the Presbyterian clergy, nor have I been able, after strict inquiry, to hear of any, who did not, by preaching and every effort in their power, promote all the measures of Congress, however extravagant." Bancroft says : "The first voice raised in America to dissolve all connection with Great Britain came, not from the Puritans of New England, nor the Dutch of New York, nor the planters of Virginia, but from the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians." Probably the most noted docu- ment of the Revolution next to the Declaration of Independence was the Mecklenberg Declaration, issued more than a year before the former, and which breathes the same spirit and in some of its parts, almost its exact language. It was the work of the Scotch-Irish of North Carolina in an assem- bly composed of twenty-seven staunch Calvinists, of whom one-third were Presbyterian elders. The only clerical member of the Continental Congress and signer of the Declaration of Independence was a Presbyterian-Dr. John Witherspoon-a lineal descendant of John Knox and president of Prince- ton College. In the act of signing that immortal
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