USA > New Jersey > Middlesex County > New Brunswick > First Presbyterian Church of New Brunswick, N.J. : a historical discourse > Part 2
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influence also in the church at large, and his counsel was greatly prized by his brethren. He left a church of one hundred and twenty-seven members, -- nearly double what it had been at his accession.
The choice of the people then fell on the Rev. Leve- rett F. Huntington, a young man from Princeton Semi- nary, who was installed December 5, 1815. A high character for ability and piety is given him by those who recall his ministry. His services were particularly attractive to the young, and he interested himself greatly in the colored people of his parish, holding special services for them. These, the remainder of the congregation were requested not to attend; but they would go, notwithstanding.
During this pastorate, in the year 1816, the Sabbath-school was established. It appears to have grown out of conferences over the religious destitu- tion of the city, had at the meetings of the Dorcas Society. "The ladies of the Presbyterian church," says the record, "volunteered their services to collect children on the Sabbath for religious instruc- tion." It was a school, like the original ones in Eng- land, for neglected children, rather than for those of Christian families. It is to this feature no doubt Dr. Davidson refers when he speaks of it as " organized on the modern plan," adding: "It was the first in the city." Miss Hannah Scott, a daughter of Dr. Moses Scott, and a lady of eminent piety, was the leader in the movement, and the first Superintendent. This peculiar indebtedness of the school to Woman, seems to have characterized it throughout its history. Woman's hand and heart have never been wanting to carry on the work, and its success is largely due to
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her instrumentality. The school numbers this year, at its sixtieth anniversary, over forty teachers, and about three hundred scholars. It occupies a pleasant room underneath the church, and is well equipped for work. Mr. Abraham Voorhees has been its Su- perintendent for many years, and Mrs. Eliza Howell Assistant Superintendent, perpetuating the succession from Miss Hannah Scott. The school helps to sustain a missionary in the west, and through him has be- come the parent of many schools in that region, a large number of which still look to it for support, though some have grown into churches.
While the whole Sabbath-school work was of a missionary character at first, in 1828 a mission school was started, since known as the North Mission. Pres- byterians were the principal movers in this, though members of other churches were associated with them. The character of the work at that day may be inferred from the fact that the ladies were constrained to take soap and towels with them, to put the children in decent outward plight, before beginning the work of instruction. This mission has had a checkered history. It is now flourishing, under the super- intendence of Mr. W. H. Gallup.
The Sabbath-school movement had the full appro- bation of Mr. Huntington, and the spirit of enterprise thus manifested by him, together with his singular sweetness of disposition, and his faithfulness in em- bracing every opportunity to say a word for his Master, gave hopes of great prosperity under his ministry ; but these were speedily blighted by his death, which occurred May 11th, 1820, in the thirty- fourth year of his age. He left a church of one
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hundred and fifty-five members. His remains lie by the side of Dr. Clark's.
Rev. Samuel B. How, D.D., was installed pastor in 1821. Dr. How was a native of Burlington, N. J., and a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. He was licensed to preach in 1813 by the Presby- tery of Philadelphia, and ordained over the church at Lambertville. He then removed to Trenton, whence he was called to New-Brunswick. Here he remained but two years, resigning in 1823, under a strong impression of duty, to accept a call to Savannah, Ga. Returning from Savannah, he became President of Dickinson College in 1830, passing from there to New York, from which point he was called to the First Reformed Church in New Brunswick in 1832. His long and successful ministry in this position (till 1861), is evidence that our people did not err when they judged him a suitable person to set over them in the sacred office. And tangible results of his labors among them were not wanting, though the term of service was so brief. He left a church of one-hundred and sixty-seven mem- bers.
A vacancy of nearly two years now occurred, and at about this time I would place the end of the second period of the church's history. The century is not yet fully rounded out. The time for the cen- tennial celebration, which, however, appears to have been forgotten, was the next year-1826, but previous to that, a new settlement had occurred and a new era begun.
Forty years had now elapsed since the church gathered itself up from the disasters wrought by the
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war, to undertake new work for God. These had been years not of extraordinary development, but of steady work and gradual increase. God gave to the people excellent pastors, -men whose ministry was characterized by sound and earnest preaching of the word, faithful labor in the parish, careful oversight of the flock. We may believe that God gave to the people hearts to accept their guidance, to follow their instruction and to profit by their services. God gave to the pastors also admirable co-laborers in the men who filled the ministerial office in the other churches of the city, among whom especial mention may be made of Drs. Condict and Hardenbergh of the First Reformed Church. As we see Frelinghuysen and Tennent co- operating in the beginning of the century, so we see Condict and Clark combining their strength at its close, and the congregations living side by side in harmony, "provoking one another unto love and to good works." Such a state of things was calculated to elevate the spiritual tone of the entire community, and with this the general religious history of the times corresponds.
This was a period of strict observance of the Sabbath, of the devout worship of God in the sanctuary, of the faithful hearing and doing of His word, of serious attention to family religion and the catechetical instruction of the young, and of earnest prayer, embracing especially, on the basis of the covenant, the coming genera- tions. It was no golden age, as compared with the present. Sin abounded then, as now. There was indifference to the truth, hardness of heart, worldli-
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ness, outbreaking iniquity-perhaps no little theoreti- cal unbelief. But religion was a power ; and through the churches especially it manifested this power and exerted it upon the community. In our own con- gregation the men to whom was committed the rebuilding of the house of God, and who so faithfully discharged their trust, passed away one by one; but they left their work, they left their memories, they left their children, and they left the blessing with which God had answered their prayers and crowned their labors.
Years ago I became acquainted with a venerable lady,* spared to her friends until she had passed her ninetieth year, whose sincere and gentle piety will ever be one of my most pleasant recollections. A calm trust in God, a high enjoy- ment of His word and of a choice devotional litera- ture, an exceptional reverence for the sanctuary and its ordinances, almost perfect patience under trials and increasing infirmities, were among her beautiful traits of character; and when I read, as I have since done in more than one publication, the record of her father, Col. John Bayard, long an honored citizen of this community, and an elder of this church -- of the usefulness and purityof his life, and the confidence and triumph of its closing hours, -- what I saw in the daughter receives the natural and scriptural explanation. It is the divine law that from a godly ancestry shall descend godly children. The pious households repeat themselves from gen- eration to generation. In the period of which I write, religious activities in many directions were far
"The late Mrs. Samuel Boyd, of New York.
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less thoroughly developed than at the present day ; but the household, as a centre of Christian influences and a place of Christian nurture, was doing a work now perhaps too much neglected. Many of these pious households, I love to think, were then to be found within the bounds of this congregation.
III. In 1825, July the 28th, a new pastor was installed, the Rev. J. H. Jones-a man truly the gift of God to the people. Under him the church im- mediately leaped forward on a new career. There was an immediate and decided advance in temporal things. A parsonage, the same now in the posses- sion of the church, though since greatly enlarged, was built in 1827, at a cost of $3,355 ; a new Session- house in 1832, costing $2,696; and to crown all, the present church, dedicated to the worship of God December 15th, 1836, at a cost of $23,328.26. At . the time that this last enterprise was undertaken, the old edifice was still in a good state of preservation, but the congregation had considerably outgrown its dimensions, and on mature consideration it was de- termined that instead of being enlarged it should be
entirely taken down, and a new one erected. Im- provement in style as well as capacity was thus secured, and, by a slight change of location, a front on George, instead of Paterson street, a change every way desirable. There was some opposition ; but the general harmony with which the work was entered upon, and the ease with which it was carried through, are sure indications of the life and good feeling in the congregation. Another stimulus to the project was undoubtedly the proposal to re-
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lieve the old building from pressure by the formation of a Second Presbyterian church. This plan was subsequently carried out, giving us the sister organi- zation which now shares with us the maintaining of Presbyterianism in the city, but without sensibly weakening the old church.
In the midst of all this temporal prosperity, there was spiritual vigor to at least an equal degree. Dr. Jones was a man of rare gifts, both in pulpit and parish, and his piety was of that devoted character which, among an appreciative people, is in itself almost an assurance of success. He had the hearts of his entire congregation, and their co-opera- tion in all his efforts. Deep religious impressions were the result, and large ingatherings. In 1828, sixteen were added to the church on confession of faith; in 1830, nineteen; in 1832, thirty-four; in 1833, thirty-seven. The great work, however, was re- served to 1837, the year memorable in the annals of . the church as that of the great revival.
Nothing more interesting could be introduced here than an adequate account of this work, the re- markable character of which may be learned from the letter of Dr. Samuel Miller, of Princeton, urging the reluctant pastor to publish some account of it in a permanent form, as " a debt due to this church, and to the cause of vital religion everywhere ;" but still more from the excellent Narrative itself, put forth in view of this Christian importunity. It was a revival memorable for the sovereignty of Divine grace displayed in its commencement and progress ; for the intensity of spiritual experience and activity developed in it, though without excitement or ex-
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travagance ; for the blessing put upon judicious and faithful effort, under the lead of the pastor ; for the remarkable instances of conversion which it furnished ; for its extent, embracing nearly all the congregations of the city ; for the powerful restraints which it laid upon the irreligious while it was in progress, so that opposition was almost totally dis- armed ; and for its blessed and lasting results.
It began in meetings held by certain Evangelists in the old Baptist house of worship ; and one of our older members tells me that she distinctly remem- bers the conferences in regard to it, between the Baptist pastor of the day (the Rev. Dr. Webb, still living among us in an honored old age), and Dr. Jones. " Is it genuine ?" they would ask ; -- " Is it an unmistakable work of the Spirit?"-and then in their perplexity, they carried the matter to God through prayer. Nor can we wonder at their . doubts, when we find it recorded that, in view of the previous absence of any wide-spread religious movement in the community, (even the preaching of the Tennents and of Whitefield failing to produce the results here which were experienced elsewhere), it had grown into a proverb that "a revival of relig- ion can never pass beyond the Raritan." Unenvi- able distinction ! in the goodness of God, soon to exist no longer.
From the Baptist church the work spread to the Presbyterian, and so to most of the city congrega- tions. Among our people there was a grow- ing seriousness in the religious assemblies, services were multiplied as the demand increased, the Lecture- room, crowded to repletion, was abandoned for the
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Church, the assistance of neighboring pastors was sought and secured, meetings for inquiry were ap- pointed, because it was impossible to reach the cases of interest by household visitation, services were held almost every evening from the early summer until September, and at the final ingathering, one hundred and forty-nine were received to membership. In the entire city the number received was about six hundred. Dr. Jones' own narrative must be con- sulted for full particulars ; and I may add, from my examination of this little work, that I do not know of a publication which might more profitably be reprinted and circulated by hundreds of copies among us, than this. The revival sermons preached at the Hippodrome in New York last winter, might, I believe, have been laid aside with advantage, in order that this people might read the answer of their former revered pastor to the question-" What hath God wrought ?" I extract a few additional items.
It is interesting to observe that though the sover- eignty of God was so conspicuously magnified in the revival, it was not a capricious or arbitrary sover- eignty. " God," it is said, "went before; man followed." "The multiplication of meetings was always in response to an increased desire to hear." And yet of one meeting this cannot be said, -- the "special meeting of the Presbytery of New Bruns- wick, appointed to be held in this city early in June for humiliation and prayer,"-the occasion of this appointment being "the particularly unfavorable reports from the churches at the Spring meeting of Presbytery in Bound Brook." True, we are told that the outpouring of the Spirit is not to be traced direct-
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ly to this meeting, inasmuch as " before the time for it had arrived, the desire to hear the word had so much increased, that it was deemed desirable to have another public service ;" nevertheless we are allowed, by the account itself, to trace it back, under God, to the humility and faith in which this meeting was ap- pointed .- " Before they call, I will answer, and while they are yet speaking I will hear." A celebrated laborer in revivals has said that he never knew a church to set itself earnestly about the business of seeking God and fail of success. The Divine sover- eignty is not a discouragement but an encourage- ment to labor.
As to the subordinate agencies employed, Dr. Jones says :
" I feel called upon to notice especially the meeting for inquirers, a means of advancing a revival of religion which I am aware has been obnoxious to suspicion and reproach. With us, the meeting grew out of our exigencies. When scores have become awakened to their spiritual maladies, and all need the same instruction, I know of nothing, I confess, in the common expedient of inviting all such to convene and hear the gospel in a private social assembly, which ought to excite the apprehensions of the friends of good order or of sound doctrine. And yet here is the whole theory of a meeting for inquirers. With ourselves, I add, they were signally blessed, and I am perfectly willing to let the tree be judged by its fruits ; to stake the reputation of these meetings on their results, wherever they have been judiciously tried. The invitation was often heard with great interest. It immediately caused the inquiry in many a disquieted bosom, "Is this addressed to me ?" " Would it not be presumption in me to decline ?"
This is valuable testimony, at a time when the inquiry meeting has been lifted into new promi- nence, and when both the arguments in its favor and the objections against it have been marshaled anew. It would seem that it never ought to meet with dis-
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favor in New Brunswick, and especially in the Pres- byterian church.
Another point of interest is the large employment of lay agency in the work. "Individual members were diligently engaged in visiting from house to house, and the elders of the church, for a season, felt constrained to forego their regular occupations, and give themselves wholly to the duties prescribed by the times." Lay agency in the Presbyterian Church is thus seen to be no recent invention. When the Spirit of God is present, it always starts to life. And we have an illustration here also of that admirable provision, in our system, for oversight and labor, -- the eldership ; if only it is put to use.
The following note, appended to the narrative of Dr. Jones, tells its own story, and is reproduced here to perpetuate the memory of the members of Ses- sion who manifested such devotion to the work. Their names are a roll of honor.
" At the solicitation of the writer, the foregoing narrative has been read in our hearing, with the request that, as we were joint laborers in that glorious harvest to which it refers, it might be given to the public with our common endorsement.
We therefore cheerfully unite with our pastor in bearing this public testimony, that, so far as we can recollect, the facts in relation to the revival of religion, during the Summer of 1837, in the congre- gation of which we are members, are correctly represented in the above " outline."
In attestation of which we subjoin our names.
SAMUEL HOLCOMB, SAMUEL BAKER, D. W. VAIL, PETER DAYTON, F. RICHMOND,
--
Ruling Elders.
The year following, Dr. Jones resigned his charge, though with great reluctance, to accept a call to the
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Sixth Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia. He left amid the deep regrets of the people. His pas- torate may be called, without disparagement to others, the palmy period in the history of the church. In 13 years five hundred and three per- sons were received to membership, three hundred and thirty-eight by profession of faith, one hundred and sixty-five by letter. The membership, when he left, was four hundred and eleven.
In the Index of the Princeton Review, Vol. II. will be found an interesting biographical sketch of Dr. Jones, prepared by the Rev. George Hale, D.D., from which the following has been condensed.
Joseph Huntington Jones was born in Coventry, Conn., August 24th, 1797. He graduated at Har- vard University in 1817, with George Bancroft, Caleb Cushing, Stephen H. Tyng and other men of mark. While at the University he was at one time in great danger of being led astray by the erroneous teachings of the Unitarians, but he was saved through influences in which the warnings and instructions of a praying mother-a woman of great force of character, as well as of piety-bore no small part. After taking his degree, Mr. Jones was for a
time tutor in Bowdoin College, Maine. Then, feel- ing that " necessity was laid upon him" to preach the gospel, he entered upon a course of study for this purpose, completing it at Princeton Seminary, where he spent one year ; 1823-4. He was licensed to preach, September 19th, 1822, at Braintree, Bradford County, Pa., by the Presbytery of Susque- hanna, and was ordained by the same Presbytery as an Evangelist at Wilkesbarre, Pa., April 29th, 1824.
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In June of the same year he was installed pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Woodbury, N. J. Here he found a church almost extinct, steps having already been taken to dissolve it, but by his earnest labors, blessed of God, new life was infused into it ; thirty-three were added to the roll of communicants in a single year, and the whole moral aspect of the town was changed. From Woodbury he was called to New Brunswick, and from New Brunswick to Philadelphia, where he continued twenty-three years. Here again a feeble, almost dying church was re-invigorated, and large accessions were made to its membership.
He was a model pastor. Wherever he went the children, the sick, the poor were especially cared for. His own deep religious experience, and his familiar acquaintance with the word of God, qualified him admirably to be a guide to others. Though always in delicate health, and sometimes suffering deep spiritual depression, he was never idle. In 1861 he resigned his charge in Philadelphia, to accept the Secretaryship of the Fund for Disabled Ministers. In this work he had already been engaged for seven years without compensation. He now devoted his whole strength to it, with the same success which had attended his other labors, continuing without intermission at his post, until his sudden death, December 22d, 1868.
The congregation next enjoyed the ministry of Rev. Robert Birch, who was installed March the 4th, 1839. His pastorate was short, being termina- ted by death on September 12th, 1842 ; but it was long enough to win for him the high admiration of
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the people for his many excellent qualities both of mind and heart; and the sorrow at his death was sincere and general. He gave promise, had he lived, of an able and successful ministry, even though following immediately a pastorate so signally blessed as that of Dr. Jones. His remains lie in the new Presbyterian Cemetery, and the spot is marked by a handsome monument erected by the congregation. Dr. Davidson gives an account of his early life, as follows :
"Mr. Birch was the son of an eminent physician in the city of New York, and was born in January, 1808. While an infant he was attacked by a severe inflammation of the brain, and life was despaired of, insomuch that his mother made his shroud while watching at his couch. He was only saved by a vein being opened in his head, when he was apparently near dying ; but he always suffered somewhat from the effects of this illness to the end of his days. At a very early age he lost his father, and with him his expectation of a liberal educa- tion. He was taken from school and placed in a counting-house. Becoming pious, he was received to the communion of the Cedar Street Church, under Dr. Romeyn, at the age of twelve. The father- less and sprightly boy attracted the notice of Dr. John Breckinridge, and was induced by him to resume his studies. Having graduated at Dickinson College, he taught a classical school first at Lancaster, and afterwards at Savannah, where he made friends of gentlemen of the first distinction. His theological studies were commenced at Andover, and completed at Princeton. After his licensure, by the Presbytery of New York, he preached for a short time to a new church in a hall in Broadway, from which he was called to New Brunswick."
One of the longest pastorates in the history of the church followed -- that of Rev. Robert Davidson, D.D., who was installed May 4th, 1843, with a salary of $1,200, and the parsonage. Rev. R. K. Rodgers presided, Dr. Hodge preached the sermon, Dr. Jane- way gave the charge to the pastor, and the Rev. William Blythe gave the charge to the people. The
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Session at that time consisted of Messrs. Samuel Baker, Peter Dayton, George P. Molleson and John Terhune, only the last of whom now survives. The number of communicants was three hundred and seventy-nine.
Dr. Davidson was born in Carlisle, Pa., on Febru- ary 23d, 1808. His father, Dr. Robert Davidson, Sr., was for many years Professor, afterward Presi- dent, in Dickinson College, and for more than thirty years he combined with the duties of these successive offices, those of pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Carlisle.
Robert graduated from Dickinson College in 1828, having previously made a profession of religion and devoted himself to the ministry. He pursued his theological course at Princeton, com- pleting it in 1831. In 1832 he became pastor of the McChord Presbyterian Church of Lexington, Ken- tucky, which he served successfully for eight years. He left it in 1840 to become President of Tran- sylvania University, and from that position he passed in 1842 to the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction in the State of Kentucky. In 1843, declining more than one invitation to a professor- ship, he accepted the call of this church. After leaving New Brunswick, from 1860 to 1864 he was pastor of the Spring Street Church in New York, and from 1864 to 1868 was pastor of the First Pres- byterian Church of Huntington, L. I. Subsequently he resided in Philadelphia, busy to the last, so far as his strength would permit, with his voice, and especially with his pen, in the cause of truth. He died suddenly on Thursday, the 6th of April of the
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