USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Newburyport > Discourse delivered at Newburyport, Mass., November 28, 1856. On occasion of the one hundredth anniversary of the building of the First Presbyterian Church > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6
9
66
solemn thoughts and themes to occupy and arouse the soul, and withal ex- horting the hearers to " prove all things," to "search the Scriptures daily whether these things are so," and to " ask wisdom of God who giveth to all men liberally." He who is imbued with such sentiments and formed to such habits, cannot surrender his rights to despotic power, nor his conscience to priestly dictation. The truth has made him free. And, therefore, truth and freedom are the very constituents of his life. We talk of education, and certainly it is a great and admirable thing in all its parts as conducive to its true end. But here is the very bloom and culmination of all true edu- cation-the teaching and training of the house of God.
Who can estimate what this city owes to its pulpits and its pastors? Its quiet streets, ils happy homes, its genial hospitality, and all the rich and various culture which makes it what it is-is it not largely fed and kept alive by influences which emanate from this place and others like it. What a rapid deterioration and disorganization would follow if its pulpits were silent, the sweet rest of the Lord's day disused and all the wholesome re- straints and pure charities suspended, which have their centre in tho house of God, and all animated and directed by the Christian ministry.
These, however, are its present visible and to some extent temporal re- sults. " They are," in the fine language of Robert Hall, "the flowers which Christianity strews along her path on her way to immortality." The noblest triumphs of the pastor are in the realm of the Spirit. His most en- dearing works will only come to light when time is no longer. His proper work is upon and within the soul. Other men work on perishable materials, and for objects which lie directly and properly within the limits of time. Their work has indeed, (as all human work must have), relations to our future and endless life, but these are incidental. The pastor's direct business is to "save souls from death."' All other results and influences of his work, important and noble as they are, are incidental and accessory. His proper work is to unfold and press home in all its boundless capabilities of illustration and application, that " word of life," whereby it even now comes to pass that those who are in their graves do hear the voice of the Son of God and come forth. Here lies the true glory and power of the Christian ministry. Here the weakness of man and the power of. God stand forth in the most wonderful combination. In this way it is that "a worm doth thresh the mountains," and God says to his servant as of old, " thou art my battle-axe and weapons of war." Luther once wrote to a desponding friend thus : " Be of good cheer ! I have lately seen two miracles. This is the first : I saw the stars and the sky and that vast and magnificent firmament in which the Lord has placed them. I could nowhere discover the columns on which the Master has supported this immense vault, and yet the heavens did not fall. And here is the second : I beheld thick clouds hanging above us like a vast sea. I could neither perceive ground on which they reposed, nor cords by which they were suspended ; and yet they did not fall upon us, but saluted us rapidly and fled away."
But we see a much greater miracle, (if the physical and the spiritual
67
admit of a comparison), when a soul dead in sin, suddenly shows the power of an omnipotent breath passing over it, is agitated by new fears, stirred up to longings, hopes, joys and aspirations which it felt not before-is not this a new life ? And is not life more wonderful than matter ? O, if we should see a cold corpse begin to breathe and move, if the dust which has slept for near a century beneath this pulpit should come forth in living forms be- fore our eyes, we would not witness a more palpable display of almighty power than when "life from God " enters into a soul dead in trespasses and sins. This far surpasses Luther's miracle of the unpillared firmament draped with clouds and studded with stars. These are miracles, doubtless, of which Christ spoke when he said, " Greater works than these shail he do that believeth on me, because I go unto my Father." Such miracles we have seen here, my friends. They have never ceased from this church. How easy it would be to recall instances which occurred while I was with you ! I have seen tears flowing down the cheeks of those whose levity and utter indifference to religion but a little before, amazed and distressed me. I have seen men whom I regarded as of a singularly impassive tem- perament, men utterly wedded to this world as if there were no other, sometimes men of decidedly skeptical turn, pass into a new phase of char- acter, as it were, and show the simplicity, the warm love and ready trust of a true spiritual childhood. The faintest whisper of divine truth sometimes sufficed to evoke into existence this new world of thoughts and emotions. "This is the finger of God," have I said to myself when I have seen such things.
And now look at this aspect of the pastoral work here, as it was presented to you in your pastor's " Retrospect," this morning. Over four thousand souls have passed through this church on their way to eternity. O, what a greeting will every faithful pastor whose labor went to the making up of this aggregate receive from those who were led to Christ by his ministry ! He will there see faces which here below he only knew wet with tears or wasted with sickness or racked by pain, but there glowing with unwonted beauty and heavenly joy and love. Methinks some of those "shining ones " will meet their pastor as he is struggling out of the swellings of Jor- dan, the first to welcome hin. Will they not know him ? Will they not, of all the redeemed, sustain peculiar relations to him as endless ages shall roll away ? And when he shall present them before the throne, saying, " Behold I, and the children whom thou has given me ;"' will not their voices be first in the heavenly chorus which shall re-echo the approving sentence, " Well done ! good and faithful servant."
Whether we look at the present or the future. the pastor is himself the subject of some of the richest influences and blessings of this relation. The studies, the duties, the whole work and life of the Christian minister afford as perfect and complete a discipline and development of the whole man as could possibly be devised. He must be a man of study and of thought. He must refresh, enrich and invigorate his mind by large and various reading, if he would not have his emptiness instead of his "proficiency appear to
68
all." No intellectual soil is so rich as to yield two or three crops a week without liberal and skilful tillage. The drain of the ministry is incessant and exhausting, and must be met by constant acquisition. Then there is no danger that his faculties should " fust in him unused," or his " thoughts want air and spoil like bales unopened to the sun." He must be a student, but he cannot be a recluse. He has occasion to use all he can learn as fast as he can learn it-generally, in fact, a little faster. He must study the human heart, too, and the philosophy of teaching and applying truth. After all, he will soon find that all he can do of himself is nothing ; and that will send him to God for skill, strength and success. Here is a discipline of all the faculties and all the virtues. A Christian heart will, it is true, render any course of life such a discipline. But certainly its widest sphere, its strongest incentives are found in the ministry. And as it goes its blessed round, he finds that like all other charity, it is "twice blessed." When he went to teach, he often learns ; he receives more than he gives. The most touching and powerful discourse on Christian resignation which I ever heard, was from a poor old woman in yonder alms-house. I was speaking to her of Christian submission under trials and Immiliations. " O, sir," said she, " the goodness of God! That is what I think of-the goodness of God ; that he should put it into the hearts of people to build such a comfortable home as this, and provide food and clothes and a warm fire in this dreadful weather, for such a poor creature as I am." I once heard M. Monod preach on "Christian Contentment." But the eloquent preacher did not teach my heart half so powerfully as the broken accents of this child of God, uttering words of thankfulness and shedding tears of joy where I thought of exhorting her to no higher virtue than patience and submission. The eloquence of the pulpit is, no doubt, a fine affair ; but the eloquence of un- complaining poverty, the eloquence of the Christian mother when she says, " O, I have lost my only son, the only hope and support of my old age-but it is the Lord. O, I will try to say, " Good is the will of the Lord ;" __ the eloquence of the contrite heart, smitten with a sense of sin and revealing its intolerable anguish through the workings of the countenance ; the eloquence of holy joy when the soul has found its Savior-this eloquence without words often conveys truth which no words can utter. These are some of the experiences of the pastor. They are brought to my mind, as I look around me this morning and pass once more through these familiar scenes. ' I could go from spot to spat in this town and say, " Here I saw the power of truth to awaken the careless sinner; there, like a beam from heaven, I saw 'it give hope and peace to the troubled spirit; there it conquered poverty and pain, there cheered the weariness of long siekness or lighted up the cham- ber of death with the radiance of opening heaven ; here I learned, how in total seclusion from the world, a praying and believing soul could keep alive the warmest and largest charity, and powerfully influence the affairs of the world through him who made and governs it, just as one who has the ear and confidence of an earthly monarch often exerts a power over the real far greater than that of the bustling visible actors in the scene; here
69
I learned how Christian love could make a man cheerful and active without a ray of sunlight ; when I saw a member of this church utterly blind, yet unweariedly busy in doing good, going forth with his staff on Monday morn- ing to look after the seekers of truth and report anxious souls to the minister, and from that to Saturday night having nothing to do but to comfort the sick and sorrowful, to look after the poor, to converse with inquirers, to collect the incomes of charitable institutions. When I have gone on pastoral visits to the sick and afflicted, I have heard that well known voice in prayer as I approached their dwellings. Such scenes, such living examples teach a inan as no books, or occasions or teachers can, that Christianity is a real and living thing. The man of science inust go to nature and look upon her actual phenomena and living forms, if he would gain exact and satisfactory knowledge. So the things of the Spirit must be studied in those wondrous phases which in the spiritnal progress and development of the church of God display their power. And to this comparative study of the word of God and the heart of man, the life of the Christian pastor affords the most favorable opportunities.
It is sometimes affirmed that this relation between pastor and people is less strong and sacred, and therefore less enduring than formerly. But certainly the history of this congregation discloses no such faet nor tenden- cy. In the last century you have had seven pastors. Dr. Dana was twenty- six years pastor, and only left to assume the presidency of Dartmouth Col- lege. Mr. Williams remained with you till death. For myself, when after four years the state of my health induced me to resign, the elders with one voice besought me not to mention the thing again, and offered me an assist- ant, to be nominated by me and paid by themselves. This arrangement continued for some months. And when I felt obliged to persist in my former resolution, you publicly declined to accept my resignation, and left me at liberty to go where I would for the recovery of my health, offering to take care of yourselves, and desiring that the relation between us might stand unaltered. These resolutions, signed in behalf of the church by the venera- ble Deacon Moody, were enclosed to me, accompanied by expressions of generosity and affectionate sympathy, in a letter from General Cushing, and signed in behalf of the society by Caleb Cushing, Thomas M. Clark and M. P. Parish. And when after several months absence I was obliged to renew my request, your love to me did not cease, but, as I have said before, continued to reach me in the shape of kind and valuable mementos, some of which it was long before I could trace to the individual donor-so gener- ous, so self-forgetting was the love which prompted them. It is impossible to speak or think of such things without deep emotions of admiration and gratitude. And for the other congregations of this town, here is Dr. With- ington, who after a pastorate of forty years could not persuade Ins people to let him retire last summer, but was constrained to remain. Here is Dr. Dimmick, too, who has been pastor of the Titeomb street church for thirty- seven years ; Dr. Morse was rector of St. Paul's church for thirty-nine years, and the venerable Miltimore and Milton only laid down their pastor's crook
70.
in death, having tended the same flocks, the former for nearly twenty-five, the latter for forty-three years. Whatever blight, therefore, may have fallen on other parts of " the minister's paradise,"' this corner of it, at least, seems to be as green, fruitful and snugly sheltered as ever. Among all the details of the last century to which we listened this morning, not one instance oc- curred of a violent disruption of the pastoral tie. And your history proves that this policy is as wise as it is magnanimous and noble. This church has not only been a strong and prosperous, and generally, a united church, but it has been a mother of churches. Whereas, no congregation that has pur- sued a mean, exacting, capricious, unfeeling policy towards their ministers, has failed to be smitten with barrenness or the spirit of disunion, as the pun- ishment for their sin. Christ loves his ministers, with all their imperfec- tions. He make common cause with them, (Luke 10 : 16.) Paul tells the Christians of Philippi that their noble and exuberant generosity to him was " a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God ;" and that they should not suffer for it. " My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."
One impression made upon me by the appearance of the congregation. I cannot leave unexpressed. " Instead of the fathers God has taken the chil- dren." The body of this church still consists of those who have been nur- tured in her own bosom. Here is a delightful proof, at once, of God's fidelity to his covenant, and of the efficacy of pastoral labor and of pious family culture. The family of one of my elders, (my dear and honored friend, Thomas M. Clark, Esq.,) has yielded four ministers to the church. May the dew of God's blessing ever rest on the baptized youth of this church ! Are any of them without the sacred enclosure of her communion? May they begin this century by falling into that line of mareh which is ever passing on through the earthly into the heavenly temple. God forbid that any of them should linger behind and be left forever with " them who are without."
And now, let me express the pleasure it gives nie this morning to see my young friend, Mr. Vermilye, whose honored father was one of my earliest friends in Christ, ministering to you in holy things. May God greatly blese you both in this sacred and delightful relation, and make it fruitful alike to you and to him of all the influences and blessings of which I have spoken.
And as my eye rests on that monument let me recall the way in which it came there, as it may hereafter be a tradition of some interest. I was call- ing one evening on Mr. Bartlett, when about to leave for an absence of some weeks. He told me that he had heard Whitefield when a boy, and had never forgotten the impression made upon him by his preaching. He expressed a desire to have a suitable monument erected to his memory in this church. He asked if I would look after the matter and employ an emi- nent artist to do the work. I inquired how much he was willing it should cost. "On that point," he replied, "I leave you entirely at liberty. Letit be something worthy of a great and good man." That monument, designed by Strickland and executed by Strothers, is the result. I used the liberty
:
71
he gave me moderately. Had it cost ten times as much he would, I have no doubt, have paid it cheerfully. When the artist presented his demand, Mr. Bartlett gave his check for a hundred dollars above the amount. When I was in England the congregations of Tottenham Court and the Tabernacle intimated a desire to have his remains removed to England. But when I told them what Mr. Bartlett had done, they said that if an American gen- tleman was willing to give three hundred pounds to do honor to his memory, America was well entitled to his remains.
May God be ever rearing in this church nobler and more endearing mon- uments than of marble or executed by human art. May peace be within these walls and prosperity within this palace of our God. And if a centen- nial festival is held here in 1956, may you and I look upon it from those heavenly seats whose blessed occupants are ever beholding in the church on earth " the manifold wisdom of God."
(Circumstances have prevented our receiving a corrected copy of DR. STEARNS' very touching and impressive address.) He spoke, in substance, as follows :-
Dr. Stearns said there was something very impressive and solemn in the consideration of the onward movement of time. An act once performed could never be undone, a sin once committed could never be swept away- there was no retreat from the past, no calling back of time. If we make a mistake and commit a wrong we may repent of it, and by the blessing of God, may be forgiven, but the record of the past must remain. You that are old men and women can never be young again. You that are in mid- dle life can never again enjoy youth. You that are in youth can never re- turn to childhood, can never claim the promise, if you have not already- "They that seek me early shall find me." We gather age as years roll on, unmindful of the fleeting days. I am reminded of this fact by the scene which lies before me, which carries me back in memory over twenty-two years, when I stood in this desk. As near as I can fix the time, it is twenty- two years and two weeks since I preached my first sermon from this pulpit. It was the first sermon I ever preached to a vacant congregation. I came here with two sermons in my pocket and one unfinished in my desk, upen an engagement of two Sabbaths. After that service, to my great surprise, I received a call from this society to become their pastor. I shrunk from the pastorate of this large congregation, and then you will recollect there were some difficulties about Presbyterianism. I was away about a year when I again came among you. Twenty-one years ago the 16th September, I stood in this desk and received the solemn charge. Since that time what changes have taken place. If it were not for the presence of my two predecessors in this desk, to keep me company, I should feel old. A week after my removal to this place, as I was visiting one of my parishioners, I was met at the gate by a little girl who said she had come to welcome her new pastor. To-day I am the guest of that girl who has grown to womanhood, and is blessed with a happy family. He held in his hand the catalogue of the Sabbath
72
school, published two years after his settlement. He knew the names and the ages, and if he should read them, he thought his bearers would sinile more than they were wont to do in that sacred place .. Ile then pointed out the seats of many of his parishioners, recalling their virtues and qualities, and the impressions made upon him by their presence.
There was one feature of this society which strack him with peculiar in- terest. Allusion had been made to prayer meetings. He never knew a society that contained so large a number of praying women. It was dis- tinguished for that. There was another trait in this people ; they always loved their pastor. When Mr. Williams came as a candidate among them, he was almost discouraged by the women who were weeping for Dr. Dana. It is a people distinguished in all their history for their esteem for their pas- tors. Not for the man, but for his works' sake. It is the shepherd that has had the affection of the people. He had never changed that impression. He never knew a people that combined more of the virtues of a good society than this, to whom for a period of fourteen years his earthly ministrations were devoted.
He rejoiced in the scenes of the day. The venerable house, renovated in a manner to send it down to another generation, he should always look to with pleasure. He rejoiced in the spirit which he was permitted to discover, in that interesting unity which was manifest in support of their young and beloved pastor. He rejoiced that God had opened the windows of heaven, and poured out his mereies among them. He rejoiced that the church was growing in numbers in strength, in the graces of undivided devotedness. Ile would have the members hold fast to the great principles, which their fathers loved so much, and which lightened for them the dark passage to the tomb. He would have them search for vital godliness. The church had always been distinguished for this. To use a term which was common in years past, and which would be a good one now, this church had always been eminently a revival church. It was born in one of those seasons of universal outpourings of gospel riches, and he hoped it would always continue to be so. There was no true religion unless it was begotten by the Holy Spirit- no real piety unless coming from God, no conversion except by power from on high. We could not trust so much upon the success of preachers as upon Him who alone ean bring light out of darkness. He would have them look to Christ for support.
This was the first time that the tour pastors ever stood together, and would probably be the last. Many who then looked upon eael other faee to face would never again have an opportunity. We were all moving on life's journey ; the end would soon be reached and all of us pass to eternity. We should soon stand before the bar of God to give our last acconut. Oh, what a seene will that be, when pastor and people come together before him who searchethi the heart of man. llow many will be sent away who gave no evidence of peace with God. How many will cover up their face and bow down, erying, " God be merciful to me a sinner." Let us all try and bring our sins to the foot of the eross and strive for purity. But what a glorious
1
73
day will that be when we meet the smiles of our Maker. Whitefield and Parsons, and Murray and Williams and those whom these faithful pastors have drawn from their sins through the grace of God, by their labors. God grant that we may all be partakers of his love in that day.
DR. VERMILYE of New York, remarked-
That this seemed so much like a family gathering that he was afraid it was hardly becoming in a stranger to intrude upon their family joy. Yet he could hardly allow himself to bo thought an entire stranger ; he could not feel so. For there were ties in his connexion with a former pastor, to which so pleasant an allusion had been made, and especially in his connex- ion with the present, which certainly awakened his most lively sympathy in all that was going on among this people. He would, therefore, most cor- dially unite his voice with others in congratulation. The occasion, it scemed to him, was altogether congratulatory. It was a matter of thanks to God that the old meeting-house, the scene of so many interesting events, the spiritual home of so many now present and so many who have passed to their rest : a building combining so much that is interesting in the history of this town, and so much connected with the history of the church in this country, should yet stand. While change has been going on through the country and the world, this building remained a monument written over with the records of the past-a guide-stone pointing the path of the future. Its frail materials have outlived not only every other edifice in the place, probably, three gen- orations of men, but the very government which was recognized in this land when it was erected. During a period of agitation and change greater than was ever known in the same space of time, while the kingdoms of the earth have been moved, and thrones and altars have gone to the ground, while this continent has beheld more wonderful changes than any other portion of the globe and reveals literally a new world to our eye, this house remanis, fulfilling the same ends for which it was erected. Should one of the original worshippers return, he might indeed observe some slight alter- ations in its arrangements ; but he would see that here it still stands, and hither the tribes still come up to the testimony of the Lord.
It is a subject of gratulation, also, that the spiritual edifice likewise re- mains unchanged. The same form of church order is upheld, and the same doctrines are here preached that first were heard within these walls. A pure gospel : man's ruin by the fall and recovery by the graee that is in Christ Jesus alone ; justification by faith, renewal and sanctification by the Holy Spirit-these have been the blissful themes to which all the ministers of this church have successively devoted their powers. While changes have been going on in these respects all around and in your immediate re- gion, and another gospel has been widely inculcated, this has been and con- tinues the faith of this church; and this simple gospel God has abundantly blessed to the establishing of this church and the upholding of the Saints.
It is cause of congratulation, also, that the ministers among this people
-
74
have been always, I believe, well esteemed for their works' sake. Four successive pastors are here to-day. And I feel strongly impelled to offer thanks to this people in the name of Christians generally, for the good ex- ample they have set in this respect. While their ministers have been among them they have had grace and good sense and right feeling enough to treat them with kind consideration ; and when after removal they visit you, to give them the affectionate grasp of the hand and a cordial welcome. God is wout to bless a people who display a right estimate of the gospel by due benevolence to his servants. And for the reverse the blight has fallen upon many a people.
These were proper causes of congratulation. May this edifice and the spiritual house here collected remain during the changes and storms of another century. Within its gates may devout worshippers never cease to gather. May its light shine on, illuminating this whole region, until it shall be merged, not lost, amidst the splendors of the millenial day.
I 2844 6 23 . 7
MAY 75
N. MANCHESTER, INDIANA
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.