USA > Indiana > Johnson County > History of Johnson County, Indiana > Part 33
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I succeeded Mr. Kent as minister of this church. In regard to my pre- vious history, I would state that I was born in what is now Marion county, Kentucky, November 27, 1811. I graduated at Centre College, Kentucky, in 1830, and pursued my studies at the Theological Seminary in Andover, Massa- chusetts, graduating with the class of 1835. I was licensed to preach by the Andover Association in April, 1835. On returning west in the fall of that year, I received an invitation to the Presbyterian church in Jeffersonville, in this state. I entered on my labors there January 1, 1836, and was ordained and installed pastor of that church in November of the same year. The plow- share of division, which ran through the Presbyterian church in 1838, dis- rupted that church. This greatly weakened that part of the church which adhered with me; so much so, that I found it necessary for me to resign my position, and I closed my labors there, at the end of June, 1839, after a ministry of three years and a half.
I visited this congregation, by invitation of the session, in November, 1839, and preached my first sermon within its bounds, on the 17th of that month, at the house of one of the elders, Mr. Sorter, who then lived seven miles from this place. On the evening of the same day I preached my first sermon in the school room of the old church.
As the result of that visit, this church and the New Providence church gave me an invitation to the work of the ministry among them. The invita- tion was accepted, and I arrived with my family on Saturday evening, Decem- ber I 5, 1839, and commenced my labors the next day, preaching my first ser- mon from Eph. 2:20, 21, and, having obtained help of God, I continue with you un to the present day.
Although pledged for only one-half of my labors to this church. for several years I devoted three-quarters of my time here, and the other quarter of it to the New Providence church. About the year 1848, I took charge of the Mt. Pleasant church, giving to it one-fourth of my time, until the close of the last year, when, in consequence of the almost entire extinction of that church, by death and removal, I ceased to preach at that point.
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After a probation of more than ten years, I was installed pastor of this and the associate churches of Southport and Mt. Pleasant, May 2, 1850. Rev. C. E. Babb preached the sermon, on the occasion, from Ist Cor. 2:2. Rev. A. S. Avery gave the charge to the pastor, and Rev. Charles Merwin gave the charge to the people.
In February, 1853, I resigned the charge of the New Providence church in order that that church might secure a minister who could give them more preaching and pastoral supervision than I could bestow. Rev. William A. Campbell, of Tennessee, was immediately employed by that church, and he continued his labors until his removal by death, August 25th following. In the early part of 1854, Rev. B. M. Nyce was employed to fill the vacant pulpit, which he continued to do till the spring of 1855. Mr. Nyce was immediately succeeded by Rev. James Brownlee, who remained until August, 1856. Mr. Nyce was again employed until the close of 1857.
On the Ist of January. 1858, I again took charge of that church and have continued my labors there to the present time. My time is divided equally between that church and this.
.CONCLUDING REMARKS.
In view of this retrospect of the past, the following remarks suggest themselves :
I. We are reminded of the rapid passage of time and the near approach of our final account. A quarter of a century has passed away since I became your minister. How rapidly the years have come and gone! Like a tale that is told, or a dream when one awaketh! I came among you in the freshness and vigor of youth. Gray hairs are upon me now. A new generation has come up around me. Some of you who were little children when I came, and one whom I sprinkled with the water of baptismal consecration, have families . of your own, and on some of your children I have performed the same conse- crating act which I did for you.
How many are there here to-day who were present at my first sermon? Who that saw the congregation then would recognize it now? How great the change! The fathers and mothers, where are they? Where is that Israelite, indeed, Garret Brewer? Where are James Smock, John L. Carson, Wm. Woods, John B. Smock, Rachel Smock, and other godly women as well as men. whose names I have not time to mention? Having washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, as we trust, they are worship-
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ing in the upper sanctuary to-day, and, perhaps, are interested spectators of this memorial scene.
We, too, must soon give up our stewardship. Twenty-five years are a large portion of a minister's pastoral life. This is our silver wedding. We shall never celebrate our golden wedding. Before the lapse of twenty-five years this tongue will, in all probability, be still in death, and many of you who hear me will sleep in the grave. We shall have gone to our final account. How momentous will be the issue of that account! What a record we have made in twenty-five years!
How solemn is the account which the minister of the gospel must render at the bar of the final Judge! Overwhelming responsibilities are laid upon him. He is God's ambassador to a race in rebellion against the government of heaven. He is commissioned to teach men the way of life and salvation, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, and to persuade men to be reconciled to God. He is to be a guide to the blind, an instructor of the ignorant, and a teacher of babes. He is a leader of the sacramental host of God's elect, and is required to be an example to all the flock. Who is suffi- cient for these things? And yet all this responsibility is committed to "earthen "es sels." The minister is a man of like passions with other men, subject to Re Same depravity, temptations and adverse influences as other men. He has To royal road to holiness and heaven, but has to attain them by the same methods that others do. In the prosecution of his work he is often assailed by cal Linany and reproach, his motives are impugned, and all the obstacles which hurman and satanic ingenuity can devise are thrown in his way. Often he is discouraged by the apathy, the waywardness, and even opposition of members of the church, who should be his fellow helpers in the gospel. Added to all this is that most depressing influence arising from an inadequate and irregular pec LE z wiary support. Well may the minister of the gospel look forward, with solici tude, to the time when he shall give an account of his stewardship. How the account of my ministry among you will stand, I shall not attempt to divine. The hearers of the word, too, as well as the preacher, must give an ac- cou712 ℃ of the improvement of their privileges. How have you received the messages of God from my lips? Have I been a savior of life unto life to any of you, or have I been a sevior of death unto death to you? Soon your places in the earthly sanctuary will be vacant. Some of you, I doubt not, will then enter the temple of God in heaven, to go no more out ; but is there not reason to fear that some of you who have long heard me preach will perish with them that believe not?
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2 .. The commencement and continuance of my ministry among you have been, as I verily believe, of the Lord. My coming here was not of my own seeking; it seemed to be the plain ordering of Providence that I should come to this field. I was not drawn hither by any external attractions. The country was new and the place very secluded. But the path of duty seemed plain and I entered, upon it cheerfully.
I have.not remained with you for considerations of a pecuniary nature. My salary has always been small, never having been more than sufficient to meet, with the strictest economy, the physical necessities of my family, and at no time enough to meet all the expenses of it. He whose is the silver and the gold, has, in a most remarkable manner, and in most unexpected ways, sup- plied my wants. I have coveted no man's gold or silver. I have rejoiced in all your prosperity. I have endeavored not to be anxious about this world, and to cast my cares on Him who knoweth what we have need of, and who has pledged Himself to provide for those who seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness. And here let me remark that I do not think it a breach of delicacy or propriety for me to say in this public manner, that if I have been able to live among you in comfort, and have contributed to your spiritual welfare, it is, in a great measure, to be attributed, under God, to her whom He has given me for a help-meet and companion. Her frugality, energy, self- denial and prudence have contributed largely to my usefulness and your spirit- ual interests. I can adopt the words of Solomon, "The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good, and not evil, all the days of her life. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness."
My continuance with you, for so many years, has seemed to me to be as much the orderings of Providence as my coming. At several different times it has appeared to be right and proper for me to remove to other fields of labor, but in every attempt to go my way has been hedged up, and the voice of Providence seemed to say, "go not up hence." I have been with you in "weakness and in fear, and in much trembling." . I think I can say with the Apostle, "When I came to you, I came not with excellency of speech or of wis- dom, declaring unto you the testimony of God." I have not attempted the arts of a polished rhetoric or the display of worldly wisdom, to win your ap- plause or gain your assent to the truth of the gospel. I have endeavored to declare unto you plainly, the whole counsel of God. I have tried to explain and enforce the great doctrines of the Christian scheme. I have not, inten- tionally, kept back any truth of God's word from you. I have insisted upon
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all the duties enjoined in the scriptures. I have sought to convince gain- sayers, alarm the careless, to guide the enquiring, to reprove the erring and backslidden, and to comfort and edify the people of God. I have endeavored, faithfully, to apply the principles of the gospel to the sins and vices of the age. I have spoken plainly against intemperance, slavery, Sabbath-breaking, and other forms of iniquity. I have had no hobbies. I have obtruded no one subject, with undue frequency and prominence, upon you, nor have I evaded any truth for fear of exciting your displeasure and losing your support. I have thought to instruct you in all the great truths of revelation, and to lead you to practice the virtues enjoined in the word of God.
While I say this much, I am deeply conscious and ashamed of the im- perfections of my ministry. None of you have a more disparaging opinion of my sermons, and other public performances, than I have. You have doubtless seen many errors and inconsistencies in my ministerial and christian course. I thank you for your forbearance and ask you to cover them with the mantle of charity, and I pray God not to enter into judgment with his servant for these things. I have been with you in sickness and in health. I have been with you in your seasons of festivity and affliction. I have gath- ered many of you into the fold of Christ. I have attended your weddings, baptized your children and buried your dead. Thus I have been bound to you by a thousand tender and sacred ties which naught but death can sunder. I have received many tokens of kindness and affection from you, for which you have my grateful thanks. My course has not always been on a smooth unrt z ffled sea. - At times the heavens have been overcast with clouds, the winIs have risen to a gale, and the waves have run high. My course has som times created excitement and aroused opposition. But the winds have laid, and the waves have died away without serious damage: the sun, moon and stars have come out again, and the usual calm has prevailed. I have not sought peace by a cowardly betrayal of truth. I have courted no han 's favor, nor have I used flattering words. At the same time I have tried follow the apostolic precepts, "speaking the truth in love; sound speech that annot be condemned, that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you." Whatever anathemas may have been leno Linced against me. in my absence, it gives me great pleasure to say that mich st all the excitements and oppositions which my ministrations have oc- asio med, I have uniformly been treated with respect. No one has offered me any indignity or insult. It is a matter of great gratification. and an instance of the triumph of truth, that vast changes have taken place in public sentiment
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about me, as well as throughout the country, generally, especially in favor of universal freedom.
3. The occasion would justify an extended reply to the inquiry, has there been an adequate return for the expense in time, labor and money in sus- taining this church? It costs something to sustain the institutions of religion. Some regard it as a waste of money to spend it for such purposes. Others consider it an act of charity to support the Gospel. By many it is felt to be a burden and a tax to sustain the means of grace, for which there is no adequate compensation. It has cost, probably, $20,000 to meet all the expenses of this church since its organization. Has this been a wise expenditure of money? Does the gospel pay? Does a community receive an equivalent for what is expended in sustaining the ordinances of religion? Would it be better for society to expend this money in some other way? To this it may be replied, in general, that "godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." But churches and ministers are necessary to the promotion of religion.
Leaving out of view all the bearings of the Gospel on the spiritual and eternal welfare of men, we maintain that its influence on the temporal inter- ests of the world exceeds its cost far beyond what any arithmetical formulas can compute. This may be made to appear from several considerations :
Ist. Consider the effect of the gospel on the pecuniary interests of man- kind. It gives almost its entire value to property. What gives property its value? One of the main things is, the security of the tenure by which it is held. If this is uncertain, if property is insecure, it is so far worthless. Was not property worth more under the reigns of David and Solomon, than under the reign of the unprincipled and rapacious Ahab? Was property in Sodom. in the time of Lot as valuable as in the community where Abraham bore rule? But what made the difference? Had not religion much to do with it?
Is not a farm in Indiana worth far more than one of equal size and fertil- ity in Mexico, where misrule and revolution, like waves of desolation, roll over the country in quick succession? And what would these fertile acres be worth if they were still the hunting grounds of the Indian, and if the wig- wam had never given place to the sanctuary, and the yell of the savage had not been changed for the voice of the living preacher? Moreover, what builds our railroads, constructs our steamboats, and whitens every sea with our can- . vas, and thus opens the markets of the world for our products? It is Chris- tianity that generates that confidence among men, which produces that com- bination of wealth and enterprise necessary to such grand results. And by
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whom is Christianity brought into contact with the hearts and consciences of men so effectually as by the ministers of the gospel? Why is property more valuable in a community of churches and schools, than in one of an opposite character? Why is the wealth and the enterprise of the world in the hands of Christian nations? But what would become of that wealth if the pulpits of Christendom were closed ?
2. Consider the influence of Christianity on the civilization and intelli- gence of the world. It is the patron of art, science and literature. The arts are introduced and flourish under her auspices. The school, the academy, and the college, spring up and flourish only under the fostering care of the church. Education advances with the expansion of religion. The superiority of Chris- tian over heathen lands, in intelligence, intellectual vigor, philosophy. science, and in the extent and grasp of knowledge is to be attributed to the influence of the Bible. Christianity quickens and invigorates the mind, and gives vitality and energy to the intellectual movements and agencies of the world. The ministers of the gospel are the earnest advocates and zealous promoters of education; and the country is indebted to them more than to any other class of men for the advanced state of intelligence and the excellence of our institu- tions of learning. The church is the grand preserver of the nation from barbarism, ignorance and mental imbecility.
3- The value of the church may be seen in its influence on the regenera- tion and welfare of society.
The depravity of the race is universal, and the consequent train of evils that affects mankind is frightful in extent, and malignant in effect. The world is everywhere cursed with vices of giant magnitude, and crushed be- neath systems of tyranny and grinding oppression. Now, what is the cause of the great and wide-spread evils under which the human race is groaning, and what is the remedy? The problem to be solved is how to get rid of evil, how to get good fruit from a tree whose apples have hitherto been so bitter: "how to cast out this devil, whose name is Legion, from human society. and bring man at once into a paradisiacal state?" The attempt has been made to form out of human materials, and by human institutions, a perfect state of society. But the wisdom of this world has proved itself, on this question, to be folly. The attempt is as chimerical as the effort to discover the philosopher's stone. The world has had its dreamers, and though they may have dreamed on a magnificent scale, their visions have been magnificent failures. And so must every plan prove to be that fails to recognize the source of human ills.
What, then. is that tree from which bitter fruits have been gathered?
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It is sin ; the natural depravity of every individual man. This is the true Pan- dora's box, the bitter fountain whence issue the streams of human woe. That fountain must be purified before its poisonous streams will cease to flow.
The gospel is the divine and only remedy for the ills of the world. Make the tree good, and its fruit will be good. Christianity has wrought all the great moral changes in the world. Wherever it has gone, it has produced individual peace and social happiness. The best regulated communities are those where Christianity most prevails. Human government, laws, organiza- tions, and appliances of whatever kind, are ineffectual to produce social order, except so far as the gospel is brought to bear on the hearts and consciences of men. We claim for Christianity all the virtue and happiness that exist in society. Thus religion contributes, in a thousand ways, to the prosperity, wealth, peace, intelligence and happiness of the world. We are indebted to the gospel for everything we possess that is valuable. Though regarded too much as an object of charity, the riches of the world are the princely gifts of its hands ; it is the world's greatest benefactor. The pulpit, so far from being in debt to the pew, is the largest contributor to the wealth, intelligence, and peace of society. The church has amply liquidated all the claims which the world has to bring against her. Ministers should be regarded as something more than pensioners on the liberality of the church or the charity of the world. The laborer is worthy of his hire.
Who can estimate the good which this church has accomplished in this community in the promotion of morals. education and wealth? If, now, we take a higher view, and if we could estimate the good which has been done by this church to the spiritual interests of many who have been brought under her influence, how immeasurable the gain above the expense. Twenty thou- sand dollars are as nothing in comparison. A thousand fold would be as a drop in the bucket.
4. The rewards of the faithful minister of the gospel are very great. Notwithstanding the crushing responsibilities, trials, labors and pecuniary embarrassments of the ministry, there is much in the ministerial life to support and comfort us. There is no class of men more happy than ministers. They are more cheerful than men of other professions. They are less burdened .with care and corroding anxiety than men of business. They are admitted to the best circles of society, and hold delightful communion with the wise and good of the present and former times. And great is their joy when they see the work of the Lord prospering in their hands. And still greater bliss and glory await them at the final day. . "For what is our hope, or joy, or crown
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of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?" A crown of righteousness shall be given to all them that love the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. It will be a crown of glory; but with some it will be a crown without a jewel. But the faithful and successful minister of the gospel shall wear a diadem sparkling with gems of the rich- est lustre. They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for- ever and ever. When the riches of the world are all consumed, and the thrones and coronets of kings and queens have melted in the fires of the last great day, the true and faithful minister of Christ will have his greatest reward.
"Now was come his rest .. His triumph day. Illustrious like the sun, In that assembly, he, shining from afar, Most excellent in glory stood assured, Waiting the promised throne, The welcome, and approval of his Love. And round him gathered, clad In white, the vouchers of his ministry. The flock his care had nourished, fed and saved."
What scene can be more glorious and blissful in the day of judgment than the servant of Christ with the seals of his ministry about him and receiving the approbation of the Master, and a crown garnished with redeemed spirits, shining like precious stones, with the light of heaven! What are all the trials, self-denial, self-reproach and poverty of the ministry compared with such a consummation! I know not that such a reward awaits me: but "when the Chief Shepherd shall appear," may I receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away, and may each of my dear people be set in it as a jewel to reflect the lustre of the King of Glory. Amen and Amen.
Succeeding P. S. Cleland in 1866, Rev. Horace Bushnell was the pastor of the Greenwood Presbyterian church for three years. The next pastor was Rev. A. Dunn, who served until 1878, to be followed by Rev. J. B. Logan for two years. Rev. J. B. Jones became pastor in 1880, who after one year was succeeded by Mr. Dunn for a second pastorate of eighteen months. Rev. James Williamson then served the church until October. 1887. when Rev. D. 'R. Love was called. He was followed by S. V. McKee and the latter by E. Smith Miller. W. B. Durham was called in 1901 and remained two years.
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Rev. Thomas J. Simons followed Durham, and in 1907 E. L. Williams be- came pastor. On December 1, 1911, William L. Clarke, the present able pastor, was called, and the church is now in excellent condition, with two hundred and eighteen active members.
The congregation occupies a handsome church edifice, erected in 1898, and dedicated with appropriate religious exercises on November 6th of that year.
HOPEWELL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
Hopewell Presbyterian church had its beginning in the mind and heart of Thomas Henderson, although he, like his nearest neighbor, Simon Covert, first sought membership at Franklin. Judge Banta is authority for the state- ment that the first sermon preached in the neighborhood was at the house of Simon Covert in 1825 by the Rev. Samuel Gregg, of Tennessee. Others who very early came to minister to the spiritual needs of the community were Rev. Isaac Reed, father of many churches in central Indiana, William Lowery, William Henderson, William Duncan, Jeremiah Hill. J. R. More- land and E. Kent.
The church was first organized on May 23. 1831, by the Revs. Moreland and Monfort, the latter being its first pastor and at the same time serving the Franklin church. The first church services were held in the old log school house, of which mention is made in another chapter. The first regular church building was erected in 1835, a plain but substantial building, forty-five by sixty feet. After Dr. Monfort resigned to give all of his time to the Frank- lin church, he was succeeded by William Sickles for about a year. Rev. Sayers Gazley succeeded him for about two and a half years.
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