USA > New Jersey > Mercer County > Pennington > A history of the old Presbyterian congregation of "The people of Maidenhead and Hopewell" : more especially of the First Presbyterian Church of Hopewell, at Pennington, New Jersey, delivered at the pastor's request, on Sabbath morning, July 2d, 1876 > Part 6
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The Presbytery, at the annual meeting on the last Tuesday in April, took notice of this same revival in these terms :
An interesting communication of renewing and reviving grace has been experienced by the church in Pennington ; the more remarkable, as it was introduced by no favorable premonition, but on the contrary, de-
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scended upon the people in the very moment when they were full of apprehension from the signs of a brooding storm. God himself appeared to come down into the midst of jarring elements, and compose them to a calm. Though the year had begun without promise, it ended with the accession of fifty-eight new communicants; and this enumeration, it is to be remarked, includes only the last communion season of the year. The earliest decided manifestations of religious interest took place in public assemblies ; these tokens were multiplied during pastoral visita- tion, and as the means of grace were furnished with greater frequency in correspondence with the increased demand for them, the public relig- ious sentiment increased in intensity and extent, with extraordinary rapidity, until the whole texture of society was imbued with its pre- dominating solicitude. The exercises of those who were hopefully con- verted were marked by strength and affection, and after the anguish of great humiliation and compunction, there was usually an answerable serenity and joy in the Lord. The difficulties that had been looked for were prevented; the greatest harmony continues to prevail ; and the duties and observances of the church are rendered with zeal, brotherly love and delight. This work of grace may be characterized as having to a remarkable degree embraced persons in middle life and the heads of families.
The interior of the church edifice of 1765-6 was re- modeled in the summer of 1830, and the whole plan changed. The brick pavement was taken out, the height of the ceiling was reduced by putting in a false ceiling below the original one, the modern slip was adopted instead of the antique pew ; the old pulpit with its sounding-board was removed, and another built at the west end of the building between the two entrance-doors.
In April, 1833, the plan of raising the pastor's salary by rents on the pews was introduced. The method previously resorted to was an annual subscription. In the year 1834, the church was enlarged by the addition of eighteen feet to the west end, bringing it out even with the street side-walk. And on the 5th of March, 1834, the first steps were taken towards erecting a church edifice in the western part of the congregation, at Titusville, for Sabbath afternoon services. This house,
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built of stone, was finished and opened for worship in the summer of 1839. The land and a large part of the cost of material and work was the gift of Mr. Joseph Titus.
The whole number received on the profession of their faith under Mr. Ogden's ministry was one hundred and eighty-six.
On the completion of his ministry he removed to Three Rivers, Michigan, and thence to Valparaiso, In- diana, where he died January 11, 1853. He was married to Emily T. Sansbury, October 15, 1821. There were ten children, four sons and six daughters, all of whom were living at the time of his death. One daughter is the wife of the Rev. James Greer, and another of the Rev. J. G. Reiheldaffer, D.D. One son, Thomas Spen- cer, entered the ministry. Born at Pennington, January 9, 1832, and baptized in the May following, he was licensed as a probationer by the Presbytery of New Brunswick, and was ordained by the same Presbytery in the Millstone Presbyterian Church, Monmouth county, N. J., August 29, 1857.
After having been united in marriage to Miss Phœbe Elizabeth Combs, he set sail for Corisco, Western Africa, October 5, 1857, where, after a faithful service of three years as a missionary, he died and was buried. His widow and infant child returned to this country.
VII. The seventh pastor, the Rev. GEORGE HALE, D.D., was a native of the State of New York, a graduate of Wil- liams College, 1831, and of Princeton Theological Semi- nary, 1838. The call to this pastoral charge was signed by the ruling elders and trustees, all of whom are now dead. The elders were Aaron Hart, Charles Welling, Isaac Welling, Joseph Titus, Joab Titus, Enos Titus,
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Edmund Roberts, Theophilus Furman, Enoch Ketcham, Nathaniel R. Titus and John Hoff. The trustees were Joseph Titus, Aaron Hart, James Stevenson, Charles Welling, Garret J. Schenck, Andrew Titus, and C. L. Wyn- koop. At the meeting of the congregation, Wednesday, January 2, 1839, the Rev. Hugh Hamill presided, when the election took place and the call was signed. A com- mittee, consisting of James Stevenson. Esq., and George Muirheid, Esq., was appointed to wait on the pastor elect and to inform him of the action of the congregation, which duty they discharged promptly and most cordially.
In reviewing this pastorate, which continued a little more than thirty years, to March 7, 1869, the winter of 1841-2 presents itself as a season worthy of a grate- ful memorial of the rich spiritual blessings bestowed on this people. The Spirit of God had begun to move on some hearts as early as the former part of November, but this fact was not revealed until afterwards. Through the third week in December there was preaching daily, with much prayer; but Satan was struggling for the mastery, and it seemed for a time doubtful which side would be victorious. At this solemn crisis, Tuesday, the 28th of December, was set apart as a day of humili- ation, fasting and prayer. The members of the church appeared early at the sanctuary. Two sermons were preached in the morning from the same text-Romans xiii. 11-"And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep : for now is our salva- tion nearer than when we believed." The first sermon was addressed to professors of religion by the Rev. Henry Heermance, and the second by the Rev. P. O. Studdiford, D.D., to the impenitent. The whole after- noon was devoted to fervent prayer. There was earnest
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pleading and great melting of heart. Like the Syro- phoenician woman, the church cried, "Lord, help us ;" and, while with humble and contrite hearts they pros- trated themselves before God, they received some tokens of the divine presence. The congregation met for wor- ship in the evening. The house was still as a death- chamber. An unusual awe settled upon the assembly. God was there. The text for the evening was, "I pray thee have me excused." The preacher's lips were touched with sacred fire; every sentence he uttered was armed with power and pierced to the inmost soul. The secrets of the heart were disclosed, excuses were scattered to the winds, and sinners sat before God con- demned and speechless. Twenty-seven newly converted persons sought spiritual counsel that evening, and many more returned home in silence to weep and pray in secret. From this evening the work went forward powerfully, until it pervaded the whole community. Preaching services were also held at Titusville, which were greatly blessed to the families in that vicinity. Evening meetings were held at private houses in the several sections of the congregation, and thorough pas- toral visitation was kept up from week to week. By Sabbath, the 20th of March, 1842, when a sacramental service was held, the results were manifested. On that day one hundred and twelve stood up at once to enter into covenant with God and his church, and sat down for the first time at the communion table ; of whom eighty persons were baptized. The whole number gathered into the visible Church through this work of grace was one hundred and thirty-two, forty-nine of whom were heads of families. The hopeful converts were of every age, from twelve up to eighty-two.
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This revival of 1841-2 prepared the way for the organization of the Titusville Church in 1844. That church has had four pastors : Rev. Garret Van Arts- dalen, Rev. Jesse B. Davis, Rev. William A. Jenks and Rev. John S. Gilmer ; but is now vacant.
In the winter of the year 1846 this church was per- mitted again to "see God's power and glory in the sanctuary." Some indications for good were visible about the middle of December, 1845. The most note- worthy and impressive scene was on Sabbath evening, January 4, 1846, when a strong appeal was made to the congregation from the words of Elijah,-" If Baal, then follow him." The preacher was lifted altogether above himself with clearness of thought, cogency of argument and freedom of utterance, which seemed to be nothing less than supernatural. Ears were opened, consciences were aroused, tears flowed freely, heads dropped, and in the faith of Jesus Christ the final de- cision was made by some, at least, to enter at once into the service of God. One of the subjects of the Spirit's work that evening has been for more than a quarter of a century a minister of the gospel, ordained as an evangelist in the presence of some of the people now living here. As the result, fifty-six new names were added to the communion roll, of whom one is now an acting elder in this church and another a deacon. While we would ascribe to God alone the power and the glory in this blessed work, honorable mention should be made of the Rev. Robert Hamill, who for two weeks labored shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart with the pastor, both in the pulpit and from house to house.
The blessed effects of the revival of 1846 were con- tinued through the years 1847 and 1848, and a season
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of refreshing was enjoyed during the winter of 1850-51, in each case cheering the hearts of the people of God and gathering in sinners from the world.
But in the winter of 1857-58 the Lord was pleased to visit the church again in a more striking manner, of which the pastor at the time made the following record :
REVIVAL AT PENNINGTON.
It has pleased God recently to visit the Church of Pennington, New Jersey, with a gracious outpouring of the Holy Spirit, as the result of which sixty persons have united with the church by a public profession of their faith. Of this number there were ten husbands, with their wives ; ten female heads of families, three of whom were the wives of church-members ; and five male heads of families, who were husbands of communicants, making in all thirty-five heads of families. The re- mainder were single persons of both sexes, ranging from the age of six- teen upward. Of the sixty, twenty-two are males and thirty-eight are females. Among them are found the children of the covenant and the lineal descendants in the fourth and fifth generation of the godly men who nearly a century and a half ago laid the foundations of this church, as well as some of the posterity of a former pastor who labored faith- fully among this people for almost half a century. "He hath remem- bered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations."
These converts, with scarcely an exception, have been regular attend- ants on the house of God, and were experimentally well acquainted with the truths of Christianity. It is worthy of observation that this revival is no sudden affair, produced by a little unusual effort and mere human machinery ; but it is the ingathering of the ripened fruits of seed which has been sown from time to time through a period of years. Two persons date back their religious impressions two years ; one, three years ; two, four years ; one, five years ; one, six years ; five, eight years ; one, nine years ; four, ten years ; five, twelve years ; two, fifteen years ; three, sixteen years ; two, eighteen years ; and three, twenty years; while others have been under the faithful training of Christian parents, fre- quently warned by pious friends or well instructed in the Sabbath-school. The immediate occasions of the religious awakening of individuals have been various. Here one traces the first determination to seek the soul's salvation to the solemn charge of a dying Christian mother ; there an- other recalls .the affecting scene at the death-bed of a father, or a sister, or a child ; another is brought to reflection by overhearing, from day to
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day, the voice of secret prayer ; another by the sudden death of a beloved friend ; and still another was led to give earnest attention to the concerns of eternity by being brought through wasting sickness " nigh unto death ;" while several refer their earliest convictions to the seasons of gracious influence enjoyed by this congregation in former years, and some to im- pressions received from the public services of the house of God at a more recent date. The spiritual exercises of these hopeful subjects of renewing grace have been of the most satisfactory character, agreeing in all essential points, but in other respects differing according to the natural temperament, age, circumstances and degree of scriptural knowl- edge.
In the latter part of October, 1857, there were indications of a deeper interest in spiritual things among the people of God, and one or two cases of awakening among the impenitent. About that time a course of systematic pastoral visitations was commenced and was prosecuted to its completion ; social prayer-meetings were multiplied ; renewed and special attention was given to household baptisms ; and preaching was appointed from time to time at private houses in the several neighbor- hoods of the congregation. A season of fasting, humiliation and prayer was observed on the third of December, the day on which the Pennington Church was to be visited by a Committee of the Presbytery of New Brunswick. At this time began the week-day public services in the sanctuary, and these have been continued with greater or less frequency, as the state of the congregation seemed to demand. In gathering in this spiritual harvest there has been no resort to extraordinary measures ; but the great truths of the gospel have been addressed with plainness and pungency to the understanding, the conscience and the heart, and with special adaptation to the known condition of the various classes of hearers. While there has been no noise, no confusion in the public assembly, there has been deep feeling, with that breathless silence and that fixed attention which mark the powerful operation of the Holy Spirit accompanying the ministrations of the word. Christians have been stirred up to unwonted fervency and importunity in prayer, with contrition of spirit, and have been permitted to rejoice that "praying breath is not spent in vain ;" while at the sacramental supper parents have welcomed their sons and daughters; husbands have come for the first time to sit down with their wives, and wives with their husbands ; and brothers, sisters and near kindred have met around the Lord's table as children of a common Father and heirs of the same eternal inheritance. As to some of these cases of conversion, it is a pleasing consideration that in them are now answered the oft-repeated prayers of the pious dead, whose bodies have long since mouldered to the dust.
This blessed work of grace furnishes great encouragement to pastors of churches, believing parents and Sabbath-school teachers to be "not
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weary in well-doing," for they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. " He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him."
It gives us pleasure to make special mention of the valuable assistance rendered in the greatly in- creased labors of this revival by our esteemed brother Roberts, now (1876) Dr. Roberts, of Elizabeth, New Jersey.
On the 18th of November, 1863, being the twenty- fifth anniversary of the day on which the pastor began his regular labors in this church, he preached a " Quar- ter-Century Sermon," from Psalm Ixviii. 28: "Thy God hath commanded thy strength : strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us." The latter part of that sermon is here given for the purpose of present- ing the main facts relative to that period. The speaker said :
On the third Sabbath of November, 1838, I preached my first sermon, in the course of my regular ministrations here, from James v. 16: "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." The pre- cious truth conveyed in this text has, under God, proved to be the key- note to the spiritual history of this people for the quarter of a century which now closes. I had already, during the ministry of the Rev. Ben- jamin Ogden, preached three sermons, on Wednesday, the 21st, and Thursday, the 22d, of the preceding February, at the close of a series of religious services, which had been attended with a special work of divine grace. This brief acquaintance led to an invitation from you in the month of August following, through a committee, to come hither again and preach, with a view to a settlement as your pastor. [Mr. Ogden had already announced his purpose to resign.] The invitation was accepted, the time designated being the third Sabbath in November, when I came agreeably to appointment; and on the 7th of February, 1839, the ordination and installation were solemnized by the Presbytery of New Brunswick. During these twenty-five years, there has been a perceptible advancement, gradual but steady, in all the material inter- ests in this region. Farms have been enriched and more thoroughly cultivated, so that the annual productions of the soil are more than
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doubled. The proprietors have in numerous instances "pulled down their barns and built greater," and have either improved their dwel- lings or have erected new ones more commodious.
In this village, where there are now standing about one hundred dwellings, at least sixty (more than one-half) have been put up within this time, and many of the others have been improved and enlarged. There have been erected the Methodist Episcopal Male Seminary, with the recent addition for the other sex, and the Literary Hall, the Pen- nington Institute on the opposite side of Delaware street, a new house of worship for the Methodist Episcopal Church, a church building for the people of color, and a neat, well-furnished and spacious edifice for our public school. Then, the only brick pavement was that in front of the old church, constructed mainly of the square brick tiles which were used to pave the aisles of the church of 1765-6, until the first alteration in 1830. Now, only a little more enterprise is wanting to complete such a side-walk as is needed on both sides of Main street and elsewhere. Most of the ornamental trees which improve the aspect of the place have been planted during this period. Then, only two religious peri- odicals, a few copies of the weekly papers of the county, and not one daily, were left here by a tri-weekly mail; and now, to say nothing of what is brought to the four other post villages in this township, our daily mail comes well freighted, and a newspaper is deemed in almost every family to be one of the necessaries of life. More interest is felt in the cause of common schools, better qualified teachers are employed, the standard of scholarship has been raised ; in a word, the subject of edu- cation generally has been exciting more earnest attention throughout the community.
Happily, this is not the only region where such favorable changes as these have been in progress. This laudable spirit of enterprise, which aims at the public good, found in multitudes of places, has contributed to develop the resources of our land, and to make this one of the most prosperous nations of the earth.
In this congregation much has been done to advance its welfare in externals. A house for religious services at Titusville was completed, furnished and dedicated, in the summer of 1839. Since the organiza- tion of that church in the western section of the congregation by colony from this, in January, 1844, they have provided a comfortable parsonage house, and have built a church edifice far more tasteful and convenient than the former, with the various other appendages necessary to an es- tablished congregation. In 1847, the work of building the church in which we are now (in 1863) worshipping was undertaken. As the income of the congregation in the old building was never sufficient to meet the annnal expenditure, and there was reason to fear an accumulating debt (that terrible incubus on all churches), unless it were prevented by the oft-
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repeated generosity of a few individuals ; as the accommodations were too limited to supply the wants of all the families ; and as some parts of the old house were suffering from decay, rendering it uncertain how long it could be safely occupied without essential changes, it was resolved, after much deliberation and prayer, to put up a building entirely new on the present site. The corner-stone was laid on the 5th of May, 1847, and the house was dedicated on the 10th of August, 1848. The procuring of furni- ture for the main audience room and the lecture room, the bell, the iron railing, the grave-yard wall, and the pavement along the whole church lot-these demanded much activity, toil and generosity from the ladies, as well as from the other sex. A like spirit of improvement is seen in the purchase and laying out of the cemetery, the erection of sheds for car- riages and horses, and the planting of ornamental trees in the church- yard. We are indebted principally to the ladies for the organ in this room, and the melodeon in the lecture room-instruments which have rendered valuable service both to the choir and to the congregation, in sustaining this highly-important part of public worship, the praise of God.
There have been stated contributions to associations for charitable purposes, and to missionary societies, more especially to the boards under the control of- the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. The sum of $1545 25 has been raised for foreign missions ; $1201 for domestic missions ; $1579 83 for the education of young men for the ministry ; $775 06 for the Board of Publication ; $732 12 for Church Extension ; $343 for Princeton Theological Seminary ; $89 for the Fund for Disabled Ministers; for the American Tract Society, $196 16; for the American Bible Society, $593 42; for miscellaneous charitable ob- jects, $2451 72; making a total of $9479 57. To this should be added legacies to the amount of about $4500 to the Boards of Education and Domestic Missions. This does not include the moneys raised and ex- pended for the parsonage, for the new church edifice, its furniture and appendages, for the Sabbath-school libraries, for the stated support of the gospel, and the ordinary expenses of the congregation under the di- rection of the trustees.
As in other communities, so here, many changes have taken place during these twenty-five years. I have attended four hundred and fifty- one funerals. Of these persons one hundred and four died in infancy, and one hundred and twenty at the time of their death were over sixty years of age ; and of these one hundred and twenty, forty-five were over seventy, thirty-two over eighty, and eight over ninety years of age. There were one hundred and nine male heads of families, and one hun- dred and thirty-four female heads of families ; making two hundred and forty-three married persons of the congregation at whose funerals I have officiated. There are but about forty of those who were pew-holders at
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the date of my settlement that are pew-holders now [only sixteen in 1876] ; and embracing both the congregations of Pennington and Titus- ville, the number of families that are living in the same homes which they then occupied does not much exceed forty. I have united in wed- lock two hundred and forty-three couples, of whom fourteen males and twenty-seven females have died since their marriage. There have been baptized in infancy three hundred and seven, thirty-two of whom have since died-only about one-tenth, an unusually small pro- portion.
Since I came among you I have preached not less than four thousand and five hundred times, fully one-tenth of these services having been on funeral occasions. The Wednesday evening prayer-meeting has been held steadily from house to house in the village, greatly to the edifica- tion of those who have availed themselves of its privileges. During the winter season, prayer-meetings have been held in the neighborhood. The Sabbath afternoon service, at school-houses and private houses not in the village, has been maintained, and services have been held during the week whenever circumstances admitted, and the state of the congre- gation called for them. The children of the congregation have been taught to commit to memory the Westminster Assembly's Shorter Cate- chism. The Sabbath-school in the village has been regularly sustained both winter and summer, and from three to six others have been kept in operation during the summer in other districts, with a growing interest, on the whole, in this good cause. The sacrament of the Lord's Supper has been statedly administered, and on no one of these occasions have I been absent since my ordination. Days of public thanksgiving, days of fasting and humiliation, and days of special prayer, whether recom- mended by our National or State Executive, or by our ecclesiastical courts, have been uniformly observed. In the exercise of discipline (one of the most painful of duties) according to our form of government, the Session has always endeavored to be both just and kind, guarding the honor of Christ's house, and in the spirit of the gospel, aiming to make sure, if possible, the salvation of the offender's soul. It is a pleasure to record the fact that no disturbance has ever been made by an attempt to resist any act of the Session, nor has one of its decisions for these twenty-five years been made the ground of either appeal or complaint before the higher ecclesiastical courts.
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