USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > The New church and Chicago; a history > Part 16
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November 8th, on assembling, notice was given the board of the death of the president of the Society, Mr.
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Henry H. Babcock, which occurred at his residence the evening before. The board voted to attend the funeral in a body, arranged for an appropriate floral offering, directed Mr. Mercer to arrange for suitable memorial service and requested of the family the privilege of being allowed to defray the expense of the funeral.
December 6th, in the office of Thomas & Putnam, Port- land building, occurred the last meeting of the board of trustees of the Union Swedenborgian Church. There were present, Rev. Lewis P. Mercer, Messrs. Charles C. Bonney, William L. Brown, Charles H. Cutler, Edward H. Pratt, Joseph R. Putnam, Joseph Sears, and Rudolph Williams.
It was decided to close the accounts of the Society with the last day of the year, when its existence would cease.
Nothing but words of praise can be said of this move- ment; its life of nearly five years is distinguished by physi- cal success rarely, if ever, equaled in the New Church.
Originating from the call of one entirely new to the Church in Chicago, which fell at the feet of every member of the Church of whom he had the name, the response was hearty and universal. Representatives of the different factions met on the same plane and organized the Society. Though the expense reached nearly four thousand dollars per year, it supported itself and adjuncts, the library and book room, Sunday-school, charitable work, social and other affairs, and steadily grew.
Changes that were taking place in the Church in Chicago and other places, forced by conditions which were quite universal in the mind of the generation, the Lord finally allowed to take permanent form, so that when the parent Society had completed its new temple on Van Buren street sufficiently far for occupation, they who had been the wayward children returned, and ruled the home.
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And so the New Church people in Chicago, excepting the German Society, all became united in the beautiful temple on Van Buren street, where now stands Steinway hall. The unhappy condition, occasioned to a great extent by the fire of ten years before, had passed away and, under a pastor universally loved, the large congregation wor- shiped, and entered upon a new era of usefulness. The Mercer era commenced, in fact.
At this time the fog of materialism which had been settling down over the world for a number of years was taking form in expressions like, "We want less doctrine in our preaching; we want more life preached in our Church." The search for truth so universal at one time seemed to have passed on. The Lord granted the desire of the advocates of less doctrine to the extent of allowing them very prominent part in the affairs of the Church, but he did not and has not changed the preaching. Mr. Mercer preached the Divine Humanity; the internal sense of the Divinely inspired Word; the Holy Church of the New Jerusalem, giving as his authority the inspired writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, just as strongly as did his predecessors, and so did his coadjutors, and so do, at this time, their successors. The declaration of the kind of preaching proposed is emphatically set forth by Mr. Mercer in an address to the Union Swedenborgian Church, Oct. 14, 1877, which is given on page 240, and to which the reader's careful perusal is invited. So will New Church preachers always preach; failing in this they will not remain long as such. The Great Head of the Church of the New Jerusalem will always require of His priests employed in it that they preach the dispensation prepared for and intended to be advanced by it.
Final details of the consolidation will be found in the history of the Chicago Society, as continued on page 291.
REV. LEWIS PYLE MERCER.
LEWIS PYLE MERCER.
Kennett Square, Chester county, Penn., made famous by being near the historic Brandywine, and near the field of battle of that name, as also by being the birthplace and early home of one of America's prolific writers, Bayard Taylor, is where the Rev. Lewis Pyle Mercer was born, June 29, 1847. His parents and ancestors on both the father's and mother's side were intelligent and respectable Quaker farmers.
Mr. Mercer's preparatory education was obtained at the Chester County Normal school and at Taylor's Scien- tific and Classical academy, Wilmington, Del., becoming a pupil-teacher in the latter in 1864.
In 1865 the Rev. Abiel Silver was pastor of the church in Wilmington, and Mr. Mercer was living with a brother who was a practicing physician in that city. He had never heard of the New Church, but the subject of theol- ogy had been much discussed in his Quaker home, to the disparagement of all the leading orthodox doctrines, and his mind was active in regard to religious subjects. Noticing his brother greatly absorbed in a thin octavo vol- ume, he asked in regard to it and learned that it was Swe- denborg's "Divine Love and Wisdom," His question, "Who was Swedenborg?" his brother was unable to answer, saying the book had been given him by a Mr. Dawson, who remarked that he had better postpone the discussion of religion until he had learned something about it. The discussion of the teachings of the book led them to turn to the article on Swedenborg in the "American Encyclo- pedia," where they found a very comprehensive biograph- ical account of Swedenborg and his teachings. Both were
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deeply interested, and the next day Mr. Mercer learned on inquiry that there was a church in the city, and as if by accident received in his hand from a distributor on the street a circular announcing a course of Sunday evening lectures by the Rev. Mr. Silver, extending over a num- ber of weeks, the first "A Bird's-eye View of the Doctrines of the New Church," illustrated by the pastor's own experience.
This lecture he determined to hear, and the following evening looked up from a camp-chair in front of the pulpit into the amiable and animated face of the earnest evangelist while he expounded the doctrines of the Trinity, the atonement, charity and faith, the resurrection, and the life after death. Mr. Mercer has often declared that he left the church on that first hearing. fully believing that the fountain from which that teaching was drawn was the authoritative Word of God. Losing no time, he sought out Mr. Silver in his home the following evening, was introduced to his charming family, and taken up to the study and introduced to the series of theological writ- ings with a most graphic descriptive recital of the subjects and scope of teaching. From that time, for a year, he spent three evenings in the week in Mr. Silver's study; went with him to his parlor mid-week meetings; took up Sunday-school work, and on several occasions read service and sermons when Mr. Silver was indisposed. It was assumed from the first that with his ardent interest in the doctrines and his address with men, he must tell the world of this Gospel. Subsequently he carried on his studies with the Rev. William H. Hinkley, who succeeded Mr. Silver in Wilmington, and becoming acquainted with the Rev. Nathan C. Burnham, who was then working out his diagrams on "Discrete Degrees," made visits to his work- room in Philadelphia on Saturdays to converse, make
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notes for study, and lay away a store of knowledge, the incomparable value of which he has delighted to acknow1- edge with growing appreciation as experience has brought them into use.
In 1867 he took a summer course in the Theological school of the General Convention of the New Jerusalem, then located at Waltham, Mass., now at Cambridge.
He married Sarah Taylor Pennock, of one of the oldest and most honorable families of Chester county Quakers, and removed in 1868 to Cleveland, Ohio. Here he en- gaged in teaching, and in 1870 was licensed by Rev. J. R. Hibbard at the request of the Ohio Association of the New Jerusalem Church, and took charge of the church in Cleveland and the one in East Rockport. He was ordained in 1872 and accepted a call to the pastorate of the New Church in Detroit, Mich., enjoying immediate popularity, which continued unabated until 1877, when he removed to Chicago to become the pastor of the Union Sweden- borgian Church.
These were the days when the Chicago papers were publishing sermons, and Mr. Mercer's sermons were published in full from manuscript, in the Chicago Times and other papers for three years, bringing him into wide notice and helping to make the New Church widely known, not only in Chicago but through the Northwest. Many of the sermons were republished by the Messenger and New Church Independent, and also in pamphlet form.
The sermon inaugurating the service of the Union Swe- denborgian Church was preached Sunday, April 8, 1877, on "New Truth for a New Age," and published in full in the Chicago Times, April 9th. The service used at that time had been prepared by Mr. Mercer and used in Detroit, afterward being printed and put in pamphlet form by the Chicago Society, and yet in use by the parishes of
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the Chicago Society, and churches in the Illinois Associa- tion.
[From the Chicago Inter-Ocean.]
A PEN PICTURE THAT CREATED MUCH AMUSEMENT.
A young man, tall, slender, trimly dressed, with refined and thoughtful face, suggestively scholastic as that of a recluse, dreamily attractive as that of a poet, with bearing that speaks at once of the priest's confident earnestness and the student's diffidence-such at first glance is the Rev. Lewis P. Mercer, the Swedenborgian minister, as he appears at Hershey music hall. Mr. Mercer wears the traditional long black coat buttoned to the chin. His dark hair is long and his face is cleanly shaven. He has, in general look and movement, that indescribable something so noticeable in many young Catholic priests; that con- sciousness of being dedicated to a holy work, and that keen realization of the responsibilities of his calling that gives a subdued and reverent manner.
Hershey music hall, given up to the midgets and crowds of curious visitors during the week, is on Sunday almost severe in its churchly arrangements. In front of the stage is a simple platform with two desks similar to those in an Episcopal chancel. Around the platform is a neat railing and behind it on the stage is a large vase of flowers. A skilful hand presides at the organ, and near him sits the precentor, whose voice gives such rare expression and forceful animation to the musical service. The service, resembling that of the Episcopal Church in many ways, is touchingly beautiful. In conducting the service, Mr. Mercer has the devotional manner of a religious devotee. His voice is rich, deep, and musical. At times it falls gently down a sliding scale, until the tone itself is the completest realization in expression of reverential awe. It is as though the man saw in a vision what the solemn words suggested, and drew back abashed and awe-stricken. From first to last the devotional exercises are impressive and beautiful, both pastor and people displaying universal earnestness.
Mr. Mercer's sermons are carefully written and abound in expressions that are exceedingly graceful.
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The style is smooth and without marked peculiarities. There is no tendency towards epigrammatic terseness, and little inclination to indulge in picturesque illustra- tions. There is continuity of thought, an artistic group- ing of points, and a scholastic precision in the line of argument. The discourses must be studied as a whole, as the line is unbroken from beginning to end. Mr. Mercer makes many of his points impressively effective by the kindly spirit in which he uses his insight into human nature. At the very turn towards an expected climax he puts in a sentence surprising as a prophetic utterance, and shrinking from impassioned utterance rounds his period with exquisite gentleness as to senti- ment, and exquisite delicacy as to finish.
As has been shown, Mr. Mercer continued in the pas- torship of the Union Swedenborgian Church, with emi- nent success, until the consolidation with the parent Society, when he was given the ministerial office for the united churches.
In this pastorate he was very successful. While so employed he was made Presiding minister of the Illinois Association of the New Church in 1884, and became General pastor of the Association in 1895. In this posi- tion it was his duty to supervise the work of the Church, in the Association, and he gave much time to this gen- eral work, while he at the same time continued his Chi- cago pastorate and had the satisfaction of seeing the Central Church in Chicago develop into four separate parishes, three of them having local pastors, while he retained personal charge of the other.
In a review of his work in Chicago, made in 1900 and published in The New Church Bulletin, February, 1901, Mr. Mercer says:
There is a motive to faith, courage, and endeavor too often overlooked, namely,-it is our reasonable service. Alive to present and temporary difficulties, we overlook
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permanent progress and blessing. It is our reasonable service to remember what the Lord in His providence has secured to us, and to do cheerfully what belongs to the trend of uses set us by the logic of events. I bring to you the encouragement of the facts.
The Chicago Society, before 1880, had about 175 mem- bers, resident and non-resident. In 1900 it had 484 resi- dent members, a gain over deaths and removals of 309 members.
In 1880 there was one minister and one place of wor- ship in Chicago under the auspices of the Association; in 1900 there were three ministers, four parish churches, and one mission. In the Illinois Association, in 1880, there were three ministers and three churches in active work; in 1900 there have been eight ministers constantly active.
The Illinois Association, in 1880, had 347 members; in 1900 it had 898 members, a gain of 551.
Owing to the publishing of my sermons by the Chicago daily papers almost every week for three years, the New Church became widely known and its general teachings better understood in Chicago and in the West than in any other city and section possibly in the world.
In 1884 the Reading Circle work, now grown to such noble proportions, was inaugurated in Chicago and adopted by the Illinois Association, and spread to sur- rounding Associations.
In 1886 a New Church congress was called by the pastor of the Chicago Society and held in this city, with delegates from all Western churches, and incorporated the Western New Church Union, extended the Reading Circle work, and began publications.
Mr. Mercer refers to the work done for the extension of knowledge of the New Church in the Columbian Exposition, where twenty-five thousand copies of one publication were given away, and of the prominence and worthy place filled in the World's Congress Auxiliary.
He says:
The Sower, the Sunday-school paper used in all the
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Sunday-schools of the Convention, was inaugurated in Chicago and has been published here for the past eight years.
The Illinois Association has contributed seven ministers to the Church in twenty-five years.
Continuing, Mr. Mercer says:
These facts are not rehearsed in a spirit of boasting, but in acknowledgment of real uses and substantial gains. Our own diligence and faithfulness have contrib- uted less to history than has the mercy of Divine Provi- dence. But the facts show that the Lord has constantly blessed the Church in Chicago and the Illinois Associa- tion; and it is our reasonable service to go forward in faith and courage to the better things that are before us. Much that has been done cannot be recorded in any form of statistics-the many classes of young men and young women who have been in earnest training and educational work; the many courses of lectures, missionary and educational.
There is not any period in the history of the Church in Chicago weighted with as many events of great and lasting importance as are the last two decades of the last century, the Mercer era proper. This sweeping declar- ation is made with careful consideration for the Scammon era, in which was faithfully and most substantially estab- lished the Illinois Association, and in which was loved, incubated, and brought forth, completely organized and consecrated, the Chicago Society, with its twenty-four devoted members, the nucleus of what has followed.
Commencing with the unification of the divided Society, Sunday, Nov. 6, 1881, as noted above, we note the dedi- cation of the Van Buren street temple at a meeting of the Convention the following year; the successful Church Congress, 1886; the organization of the Western New Church Union, same date; and we remember the great importance of the World's Congresses of Religion, auxil-
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iary to the Columbian Exposition, 1893, in the organiza- tion and carrying on of which Mr. Mercer and other workers in the Church in Chicago were so prominent. (The Church Congress, 1886, Western New Church Union, and Congresses Auxiliary, will be considered separately under their respective dates.)
Following, we see the harmonious, successful, and per- manent division into parishes, 1894, which had been under consideration for twenty or more years, and tried in differ- ent forms several times without success; and what is better than all, we see the Church scattered among the great community, holding its several services; made up of membership which is marked with much representative- ness in personnel, much more universally useful to the general Church as individuals, it seems, than ever before.
Among all whom the Lord used in the many important events, advances, and improvements, that have occurred during the period under consideration, there is none whose service is so centrally conspicuous as is Mr.
Mercer's. Receiving through spiritual influx the inti- mation, he originated and carried along ceaseless effort, effecting much physical growth, which clothed and pressed the New Church on and on in its seemingly slow but sure growth.
Slender and under the medium height in stature, nerv- ous to the extent of endurance, keen, penetrating eyes, with lines of physical and mental activity clearly mark- ing the face, with a mind, during waking hours ever work- ing at lightning speed, Mr. Mercer has always most superbly personated nervous, physical, and mental energy. Embodied in him they go with and emanate from him, and as he lives in and for the Church, thinks only of and works only for the Church, it, physically or spiritually, or both, is ever about him, and passing into and through him its
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medium, it reaches our great materialistic world, finding lodgment in the mind of man.
No storm, however terrific, ever stopped him; no blizzard fierce enough, snow deep enough, cold severe enough, or distance great enough to prevent him, by the poor transportation-horse cars-from visiting an outly- ing mission, where, frequently to as few as ten persons, entirely undisconcerted, he would, in the most happy and satisfied condition of mind, deliver a lecture or sermon which for thought and delivery would satisfy an audience of profound thinkers and critics.
With his passing from this life Mr. Mercer's useful- ness in the world will not cease, nor will memory of him quickly die. Those now unborn will read the lovely and useful books of which he is author, some of which have gone through succeeding editions and yet are passing over the sales-counters.
These publications include the following: "The True Character of the Bible," "The New Birth," "Manual of New Church Doctrine," "Swedenborg's Doctrine of Correspondence; a Key to the Intercourse Between the Soul and the Body," "Religion in Childhood, in Home and Kindergarten," "The Multitude of the Heavenly Host," "Notes on the Gospel of Mark; Suggestions of Spiritual Doctrine,". "Lux Mundi, and Other Tracts for the Times," "Swedenborg and the New Christian Church," "The New Jerusalem in the World's Religious Congresses," "Review of the World's Religious Congress- es of the World's Congress Auxiliary." Of "'Swedenborg and the New Church," twenty thousand copies were dis- tributed at the World's Fair, 1893, and copies of "Review of the World's Religious Congresses" have been sent to all parts of the world.
Mr. and Mrs. Mercer have been signally blessed in
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their family; their four daughters are all happy wives and mothers; of their two sons, one is husband and father; the younger, and youngest of the family, being unmarried; while the ten grandchildren, all healthy and rollicking, make the number of the three generations to be eighteen, in which there have been no deaths. For the four daughters and two sons there is the highest regard and most sincere friendship by all of the many who knew them.
In his calling or profession, and in success as the world measures success, Mr. Mercer has reached the summit. As minister in the New Church, for twenty years he filled with marked ability the pastorship of one of the strongest Societies in the whole Church. When the restlessness of the restless age suggested a change, repeating the history of twenty years before, when change made place for him, he stepped into a pastorship equally as desirable, and, now, filling the place of bishop, he has ascended the ladder, in doing which he has left many indelible foot- prints.
As to his churchmanship, Mr. Mercer has been sub- jected to but little criticism. He has been credited with genuineness, and criticism of his positions has been modified by belief in the sincerity of his motives. His inclination towards ritualism, which has been criticized, has been consistently marked by an emphasis of the law of use as the test of judgment as to what should be done. The service established on his coming to Chicago was acceptable to the people and was continued in use because acceptable; and its consistent use spread to the Western churches very generally. The desire for clerical vestments, often expressed, Mr. Mercer discouraged during the lifetime of the older members of the Society, insisting that it was too subordinate a matter to
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warrant agitation and disturbance of the states of those to whose wisdom and devotion the Church owed so much. and whose peaceful worship and council meant increased spiritual strength to the Church's present efforts. After their departure to the other world, and when the question was again raised in the Kenwood parish, he naturally lent his influences to its adoption, believing in its propriety and use when intelligently accepted by the worshipers. In all other matters of ritual, Mr. Mercer's record is consistent as to this principle of use, believing in the adoption of a rich, representative worship when intelli- gently acceptable, and discouraging the introduction of any merely external question leading to debate and division.
In the divisions and controversies in the general bodies of the Church, Mr. Mercer has always held the position of a third party. After the rise of the Academy, he held with those in Convention who stood for the authority of the writings, and contended for a fair recognition of the sincerity and loyalty of its members to what they under- stood to be the true interpretation of doctrine, while claiming for himself the right to vote on every question according to his convictions. He labored with Mr. Scammon for the recognition of the Presiding ministers of Associations as ex officio General pastors, against both the Academy and Eastern delegates, and helped to secure the rule of Convention under which the New York and Illinois Associations have been acting. He opposed the withdrawal of the Academy ministers from the Conven- tion, contending that brethren ought to be able to live and work in harmony, however great their differences as to interpretation of doctrine; and after the division he was instrumental in influencing the Convention to send ambassadors to the Assembly of the General Church, in
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the interest of fraternal respect and good will among New Churchmen, though working in independent bodies. This independence of partizan alliances in ecclesiastical conflicts has led to criticism, and perhaps some misjudg- ment of Mr. Mercer; but it is thoroughly consistent with his contention for the right of private judgment along with charity and respect for those with whom we intel- lectually differ as to doctrine, or organization and uses.
With all his useful work for the Church, and admitting his charming and lovable personality, Mr. Mercer has not been faultless. With his enthusiastic and sanguine tem- perament he has always been betrayed into spending more money than he possessed. Unwisely generous, he was always helping somebody; and, confident in his own initiative, he was always undertaking work for the Church and shouldering pecuniary responsibilities which his advisers would have discouraged. His obligations accumulated at times so greatly in excess of any reason- able prospect of income as to cause much criticism, and many of his friends think his usefulness was in this way greatly handicapped, and the numerical increase and progress of the Church hindered. The fact is noted in fairness to history. It is pleasant to add, that when the way was opened for the man to meet his obligations, none of them, so far as we know, was forgotten; and his continuing uses seem more full of promise as the years go on.
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