USA > New Jersey > Somerset County > Raritan > Forty years at Raritan : eight memorial sermons with notes for a history of the Reformed Dutch churches in Somerset County, N.J. > Part 10
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But I am not so self-sufficient as to suppose that I have committed no faults, and fallen into no mistakes. What I repudiate is intentional wrong; what I deny is the weakness of insineerity, and the wickedness of pretending to be what I am not, in any relation or responsibility.
But it is time to pass on from these personal allusions to myself, to things that are of far higher importance. I see here to-day individuals who were here when I came, in youth and inexperience, to assume the pastoral charge of this impor- tant church. I have preached Christ to these individuals faithfully, and with all the arguments and energy which God has given me and enabled me to employ ; but in vain. I see them to-day unreconciled to God, and as little prepared for death and eternity as when my ministry commenced. Thirty
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years of profitless attendance on the ordinances of the sanctu- ary is an appalling reflection ! It brings up a long array of misspent Sabbaths and misimproved privileges ; and these are to meet you at the judgment-bar. How will you answer to God and your conscience for such a vast evil ? How will you reconeile this to your conscience when you come to die ? The reflection which is foreed home upon my mind, from this fact, is one of the saddest of this day. For your good I have at least labored in vain, and spent my strength for naught ; but I take you yourselves to witness this day, that I am free from the blood of your souls. I have not withheld from you any part of the counsel of God. I have warned you, expostulated ยท with you, and entreated you; and I warn you again, and now beseech you to give attention to the things of your peace.
Let me inquire here what it is that has kept you back from Christ ? You know there is no other salvation, and you con- fess this by coming here from Sabbath to Sabbath to hear the Gospel. But the hearer of the Word is not saved ; only he that obeys enters into rest. Your hearing will not secure to you the benefits of Christ. Obedience is your life. Many hearers of the Gospel will, in the day of accounts, be adjudged as worthy of the sorest condemnation, because they knew the will of God, but did not obey him.
How shall I convince you and bring you to a decision ? I know of no arguments which have not already been employed, of no motives that have not already been presented, of no entreaties which have not already proved in vain. What can I do? If tears would avail, I would willingly shed them in rivers from mine eyes. If you would listen to us, we would gladly come down from this sacred desk, and take hold of yon and drag you to the foot of the eross. But this would not avail. It is the motion of your own heart, arising out of a spontaneons desire, that is needed. When you feel this and put it forth, you will be near the kingdom of heaven, and until you do feel and put it forth, even an angel could not save you. Hasten, then, to embrace the Saviour offered to yon freely. Only believe, and you will know the joy of sin forgiven, and the peace that passeth all understanding.
I have now only to thank my kind friends-true friends, always friends, for their affectionate attachment to my person
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and ministry. Their encouragement has been my reward during this long and difficult service, and upon them I rely in the future. How long Providence will allow me to continue to minister to you in holy things, I can not to-day foresee nor determine. All that I can say is, that I will cheerfully labor on, as I have done, until my work is done; and when it is done, no one will be more rejoiced to cease than I shall ! I have devoted to your spiritual instruction the cream and flower of my life. The increase of years may give more experience and wisdom, but it can not bring back the vigor which has been spent, nor the energies of youth which are wasted and gone. I do not expect to learn any new thing, nor to adopt any. new methods of doing good. I ain, in fact, becoming more and more thoroughly convinced that the old wine is the best. I have received but one Gospel, and I can only preach what I have learned from the Scriptures and may yet learn from them. To exhaust the great theme would require a thousand lives, and we have only one to give in teaching and in hearing, and that is short-oh, how much too short for the great work laid upon it ! I can not even promise to try to do any thing different from what I have done, for I do not be- lieve I shall see reason to change opinions fixed so long, and . can not on any account, or to please any man or party of men, consent to do what I do not in my heart believe to be right. And as to being dictated to, I am entirely too old for that !
In conclusion, then, I cast myself upon the care of Provi- dence and the affection of my friends, thankful that I have so much faith in both, because neither has ever yet failed me. What I can, I will endeavor to do in the fear of God and with an earnest spirit. What I cannot, I know no one will be dis- posed ever to expect. " Let us east ourselves upon Providence. God has blessed us, and God will bless us again. And now may the blessing of the God of Jacob, whose covenant faith- fulness hath never failed those who put their trust in him, come upon you with a fulness of power and a richness of com- munication which shall cause you to abound in all things, and make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the work of the Lord, and then bring you safe into his kingdom, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory, forever and ever.
AMEN.
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TIIE SEVENTH MEMORIAL SERMON.
PREACHED OCTOBER 27TH, 1867.
FORMER THINGS TO BE REMEMBERED AND IMPROVED.
" Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old." -ISAIAH 43 : 18.
THE prophet, by divine direction, is reproving the people for their numerous sins of forgetfulness : and he has, in what he says, special reference to their propensity to idolatry. He considers it as having its origin in a failure to remember what God had done for them in Egypt, in the wilderness, and in Canaan. Surely he had given sufficient evidence that he was the supreme God-greater than any of the idols of the hea- then; and if they had only remembered their own history, they would have known better than to fall away to idols. No idol-god could possibly present so many claims to obedience and service as the Almighty presented, in his own behalf, to the people he had chosen, defended, and settled in the inheri- tance promised to their fathers. They had only to recall the facts of their own history to become perfectly satisfied of this.
This is, in fact, a duty which every one owes to himself. " The years of the right hand of the Most High" are precious mementoes. There are enough of them in the experience of every church and every individual to form a rich treasure, from which to draw abundant lessons of instruction, encon- ragement, and admonition. Life repeats itself with certain variations and improvements ; but the great facts and the principal experiences have a certain uniformity, always suffi- cient to enable us to anticipate what will be from what we know has been. This is necessarily so. God is the same, and humanity is essentially the same likewise. The variations which are found in the action of the one upon the other are only what belong to times, circumstances, and relations ; and they form a small part, exceptional to the unity and the uni- formity. Political foresight, sagacity, and prudence are only
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the results of a wise judgment, formed after this uniformity and variation have been well considered, compared, and weiglied.
Hence it becomes an important duty to "remember the foriner things." They have instruction in them which is valuable, and which we need. The most complete idea of imprudence and rashness is forgetfulness of the past, and a disregard of the lessons of experience. An imprudent man is self-opinioned ; a rash man is heedless ! Both throw away the lessons of the past, and trust to their own sagacity. Both reject the instruction of a teacher wiser than they are them- selves, and hence both err proverbially, and lead those astray who trust in them. Indeed, it seems to be a misimprovement of the faculty of memory to refuse the lessons of experience; and it is difficult to say why it has been given, if not for this purpose.
This is, to me at least, a day of memorial. It is thirty-five years now since I came here and preached my first sermon as the pastor of this church. They have been eventful years, . and their memory to me is deeply impressive. If I had known all that was before me, it is questionable whether I would have had courage to undertake the work I have done, or to meet the trials I have met. I do not mean to be understood as saying or believing that either have been greater than ought to have been expected. Only I had but little experience then, and was therefore as sanguine as inexperience habitually is ; hoped more than I have since learned to hope, and attempted more than I would now be willing to attempt.
There are but few here to-day who heard that first sermon, and have gone with me through all these years. If they were all here, I might appeal to them whether I have not been faithful to the promise made " to know nothing among them, save Jesus Christ and him crucified;" # whether I have not preached the Gospel " in season and ont of season ;" whether I have not gone " from house to house" preaching it ; whether I have not " exhorted, reproved, rebuked, with all long-suffer- ing and gentleness." I have not " withheld the truth," nor " dealt treacherously with it," nor " daubed with untempered
* This is the text from which the first sermon was preached.
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mortar," nor "handled the word of God deceitfully." I have not forgotten that the human heart is deceitful, that it fears the truth, and is full of all unrighteousness. I have never ex- pected ungodly men to love the truth as I preached it, and I have not sought to gain their influence and friendship by a sacrifice and betrayal of the truth. I know but too well that converts who are only nominally such, made from interest, are of little worth, and that the time will come, and come soon, when they will need to be more converted. Changes there will therefore be; fickleness in man is proverbial, and those who are hot will grow cold. Yet I can not say that I made my account for all that has been, for I did not know men as I now know them, and thought of them far more favorably than I have since learned to think. Favor is deceitful, pro- fessions are liable to be forgotten, and ingratitude is one of the most common sins of our weak and corrupt humanity, and ministers know as much of it as any other class of men. But there is one thing I know and can testify to: hitherto the Lord hath helped me. I desire to thank him to-day for his help, and pray that the memory of it may strengthen my faith and . increase my steadfastness. It has been seasonable, kind, and ever present ; and because it has been such, I erect this Ebene- zer to-day, and inscribe upon it, "The Lord is my helper." Blessed be his name, he has enabled me continually to " trust and not be afraid."
The ministerial work is a great work. It is not appreciated by the world as it ought to be. The Christian minister finds but little sympathy from men who are not in heart the disci- ples of Christ. Hence he is obstructed in many ways from going forward in his efforts to do good. It does not cost a great deal to maintain the church, but no money seems to be so grudgingly paid as that which is given for that purpose ; and many a zealous minister spends all his life in labors to promote the spiritual and temporal welfare of his fellow-men, while every year he is obliged to take from his private income to meet his wants and those of his family. This is expected from no other class of men, and exists in no other official rela- tion. The laborer is worthy of his hire; and if he labors at the altar, it is right, and Christ gives him authority, that he
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should live from it. But there are even Christian men who would be willing to leave both the altar and the priest to maintain themselves, and still expect to be served as faithfully as if they did their whole duty.
If this arose from a misunderstanding of their responsibili- ties, it would be more exeusable than it is; but it is too often to be traced, not to ignorance, but a base love of pelf. But that man who loves the world so much, and is so greedy of its gain as to let the cause of religion suffer, surely can have but little to expect when God comes to judge him ! It is wisdom as well as piety to " make to ourselves friends with the mam- mon of unrighteousness, that when we fail they may receive us into everlasting habitations." A treasure laid up with God will bring us the largest and the most satisfactory revenue of any investment. There it neither cankers nor rusts, nor is there danger that it will witness against ns at the judgment- bar for having been unrighteously withheld from the eanse of piety and human well-being when they both demanded it.
The relation of the Christian minister to the welfare and advancement of human society is most intimate and most im- portant. His instructions and influence, even in an economi- eal point of view, can not be parted with without loss; just as any community becomes irreligions and vieions, its material interests suffer, and its necessary expenses are increased. It is far cheaper to maintain the church than the poor-house and the prison ; and to prevent vice is far better than to punish it. From doing the one or the other you can not eseape. The inconsistency is, that so many men enjoy all the benefits of a public ministry which others maintain. Even in the church there are some men who attempt to have all the comfort and spiritual power of religion, without any expense and withont denying themselves. It is a vain attempt, and, in common with other schemes involving dishonor and dishonesty, never succeeds. With God we must, at least, be candid.
In the period through which my ministry has extended in this congregation, I have seen many things which have . an intimate relation to these reflections. I have seen the course in which prosperity flows, and the course in which it does not flow. I have seen families passing away, and others rising up
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and becoming strong. I have seen wealth, and influence, and an honorable name sacrificed, and others coming forward to stand up in the vacant places. I have learned that good prin- ciples, industry, and piety are a safer and better inheritance than any worldly position or paternal excellency. I have seen a thousand instances to prove the truth of the wise man's re- commendation, " Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it ;" as well as the converse, that improper training, or the want of it, is a prepa- ration to follow the broad way that leads to destruction. The generation which has passed away has left many important lessons which the living would do well to heed. There were . good men among them, who " fought a good fight " and " wit- nessed a good confession." They loved this church, and did what they could to promote its growth and prosperity ; and their reward will be great in the kingdom of God. The savor of their godly life is "like ointment poured forth." We re- member them with pleasure.
This church has long been favored in having so many men of noble endowments and eminent gifts among its members. They have given it a power at home and a name abroad which is at once honorable and advantageous. But alas! many of them are no more. We have mourned their departure, and felt how much we had lost when they were taken. In some instances their places have been well supplied, and in some not. But, upon the whole, the church has really advanced in her material and spiritual interests from year to year. Con- gregations have grown up around us, mostly from those who were once attached to us; but our numbers have not been diminished. Not a single year has ever occurred, except when the second church was organized, in which the increase of members in communion has not been more than the loss from all sources. In this way, in the formation of new churches, by creating other centres of influence, more good has been done, without entailing on ns any serious loss or inconveni- ence. In fact, if we consider how many new congregations have been almost entirely formed out of our church, its con- stant and almost uniform increase is one of the completest
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evidences that God has been with us and blessed us from year to year, that could be given.
During the thirty five years which have passed, there have been received into the communion of this church 698 members. This amounts to 100 in every five years, and more than 20 each year-a number which, though not large for any one year by itself, is yet remarkable when it runs through 35 years, and shows clearly that the Holy Spirit has been among us continually, hovering like a holy dove over our habitations, and sending down his converting influences, now on one and then on another, to bring them to God. The largest number in one year was 63; the smallest 4, the year succeeding the division of the church by the organization of a second elmurel.
The increase of which we have been speaking is all the more important and encouraging, from the fact that it has been euri- nently a home-increase. We have been glad to welcome those who came to us from other communions, and some of them have been important accessories, both in their character and influ- ence; but the number is small in comparison to that which shows how the Word has wrought, and the ordinances have been blessed, among those who have grown up in the church as her own children.
The occasions for suspension from the communion and for the exercise of the Christian discipline, have also been remarka- bly few. There has been " a falling away," but it has been an exception always, and recurring at such long intervals as to show clearly that the conversions have almost always been genuine and of a saving character. Consistency has been maintained in almost all cases, though a high state of spiritu- ality has not been as frequent as we have desired to see, or as the responsibilities of the Christian life demand. More zeal and prayer would have prodneed more usefulness, and resulted in bringing more to the knowledge of the truth ; and we should see to it that a higher scale of spiritual-mindedness is set up, and more strenuous efforts are made to elevate all to it, as the only state which is acknowledged to be a fair sample of what every Christian should be.
During the past thirty-five years, I have baptized 680 children, and 31 adults on confession of their faith. This is an evidence
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that to a good degree, at least, the ordinance of baptism has been regarded as a sacred duty which parents owe to their children, and that the ancient faith of our church, that there is a blessing in the covenant of which baptism is the seal, which it is important to secure, was still preserved among us. And tre notice this faet, in this connection, with the more pleasure, because through the prevalence of false notions in regard to it, there are places where the baptism of children has come to be extensively neglected ; and we are not overstating the sub- jeet when we add, greatly to the injury of the children them- selves, and to the cause of religion where such negligence has obtained. The promise was from the beginning, " to you and to your children ;" the apostle includes children in the cove- nant, as the heirs of life together with their parents; and now if they are born in the covenant, and born subjects of the pro- mise of the convenant, who can say that the seal of the cove- nant ought not to be applied to them ? It is a wrong done to them not to apply it; and there are numerous facts to prove that God does not favor the wrong or bless it. Prudence says to every parent, Throw every guard around your child that it is possible for you to employ ; store his mind with truth, and fill his heart and conscience with holy memories. The time will come when he will feel the need of them all, to enable him to resist temptation and breast the tide of passion which is bearing him onward to ruin. You do not love him well and wisely if you do not do it. Your scrupules may prove his de- struction. You had better lay them aside for his sake, if not for your own.
I have also performed the marriage ceremony on 328 occa- sions, and, with a few exceptions, with the most happy results. It is not possible now to enumerate the funerals which have been attended. For many years it was not usual to keep any account of the deaths which occurred, and so, until. recently, no record was made. One thing is certain, however, that the ravages of the destroyer have been destructive and constant in the midst of us. Perhaps the results have not been more fatal than the laws of human mortality necessitate, but they have broken up many happy homes, left many hearts deso- late, and affected seriously, for a time, the prosperity and
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strength of the church of our God. Some of our best inen, strongest men, most zealous and attached men, have been taken from us by death. Their counsels were always wise, their in- finence was directed to do most good, and their hands were uniformly open when the interests of religion required them to give. Few churches have had so many devoted and pray- ing men to uphold the honor of the Redeemer's name, and bring down blessings from above. They lived to do good, and their memory is cherished. It remains in the midst of us as a divine odor, and makes it pleasant to recall it in our solemn services. It will be preserved long to their praise, and will never cease to be honored in the congregation of the children of God on high.
When we begin a survey of what was this congregation thirty- five years since, and go from house to house, the changes are al- most universal. On the south side of the river there are only four houses occupied as they were on the day when I commenced to minister here. On the north side of the river there are but three. In the village there are three, and one which belongs to the other church. And of the families who occupied all of them, there are only two which remain as they then were ; and all the rest are broken-many broken up entirely, and scattered. Happy homes they were-at least, many of them ! They had their altars, and the morning and evening incense ascended daily, far more generally than, I' fear, it now does. They had not lost the power of that great ontpouring of the Spirit which had just been experienced. There was an unc- tion and a tenderness in their piety which our colder and more formal spirit fatally lacks. They were "a generation fearing God and keeping his commandments." Their love was warm, because it had been kindled when the fires burned brightly. I should like to recite their names, but I can not trust myself to begin the catalogue. My veneration for them is too deep, too delicate, and too tender to permit it.
They welcomed me here when I was young, and sanguine, and inexperienced; they cherished and supported me while they lived; they were my friends, counselors, and protectors. My reputation was precious to them, and they guarded it ; my labors were appreciated more than they merited, and they ac-
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cepted them ; my wants were anticipated and supplied, as only kindness knows how to supply. They did not regard it as a charity, but performed it as a duty, and expected to be blessed as they were blessing. I shall venerate them as long as I live, and hope to go to join them in the assembly of the blessed, where they are now praising God for the redemption of his Son. These are some of "the former things," and, if not "old," are at least pust.
We now proceed to notice specifically some of the events of the last five years. In estimating the character of this portion of our history, it is important to consider the state of the pub- lic mind. It opened in the midst of that great convulsion. which will ever be remembered in our annals, because of the intensely interesting events which were crowded into it, and the important changes which have resulted from it. These do not belong to such a review as we now contemplate, except in the personal exigencies which they created. A great national excitement can not pass without affecting the church ; and this to which we refer embodied in it so many questions connected with morals and Christian sentiment that it shook almost every church to its centre. Ministers had to mark out a path for themselves ; and the difficulty in following it, when marked out, was found in the division of sentiment among the people, and the uncharitableness with which each party, and almost every individual, regarded those who differed from them. We decided early, and adhered to our convictions, and have never vet seen any reason to regret the course we pursued. We could not pursue any other. We lind promised in the begin- ning to "know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified." We claimed the right to have our private opi- nions, but publicly we adhered " to the law and to the testi- mony," and preached the Gospel and nothing but the Gospel. We allowed the right of private judgment in others, and en- deavored to maintain charity with all men, but insisted that the Sabbath was sacred to religion, and the pulpit only rightly employed when teaching it, and it alone. We were always sure that calmer hours would justify such a course, and results prove it to have been wise and safe. We have not been dis- appointed. To-day, as a church, we occupy a proud eminence.
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