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 5
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 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30
Nor must we omit to eall to mind among that congregation " those mothers in Israel " whose piety consecrated the me- mories of the domestic fireside and hallowed all its associa- tions, by breathing from thence toward heaven a perpetual stream of incense, which warmed the fervor of Christian love and drew down blessings upon the church. Many of them were largely her benefactors, and we should be not only delinquent in duty, but ungrateful, did we not cherish the recollection of their piety and engrave their names upon her records. I see before me, in imagination, the Mrs. Talmage, Veghte, White- naek, Wortman, Stryker, Davis, Porter, Brokaw, Vroom, Van Derveer, Gaston, Van Arsdalen, Veghte, Taylor, Rockafeller, Miller, Tunison, Polhemns, Staats, Van Neste, Beckman, Van Derveer, Black, Jobs, Cooper, Castner, Durling, Dumont, Brokaw, Quick, Tunison, Hedges ! " And these too all died in faith," and their precious dust was in succession gathered to its mother, in whose faithful embrace every partiele of it will be preserved'as seed, from which will spring up in the morning of the resurrection so many glorified spiritual bod- ies to inhabit Paradise. They walked with God, serving him in their day and generation, and they are not, for God took them, and their end was peace. They spent their last. Sabbath of privilege here in the worship of the sanctuary ; sat with us the last time at the Supper of the Lord, attesting their hope in Christ as a Redeemer, and then, as if weary of sin and panting for that heaven which they kept so near in view and longed so much to reach, broke away from all the ties which bound them to earth, and soared up on high to join the company of the white-robed saints in glory. There the eye of faith has often contemplated them singing in the choir of the church above, and longed to be with them, exclaiming,
" Happy songsters ! When shall I your chorus join ?"
Besides these, there were others who were not in the com- munion of the church, who gave their bodies to the dust, and entered the eternal state, as Campbell, Gore, Sergeant, Tunison,
47
MEMORIAL SERMONS.
Torbert, Quick, Van Middlesworth, Beekman, Dolliver, and the Mrs. Tunison, Vroom, and Fisher-and others still, sojourn- ing with ns for a season, as Perrine and son, Mrs. Todd and Mrs. Rockafeller. The whole number of deathis among the members of the church has been sixty-six. Sad memorial of the power of the destroyer! But we have not yet called to mind all the trophies of the king of terrors, nor recorded the names of all who were once here, but are now in eternity. The young have died likewise-William and Martha Bryan, John and Edward Griffith, Elizabeth and Daniel Pollemus, Harriet Toms and Elizabeth Rockafeller, young Voorhees and Gaston. I have laid my hand upon their fair white brows when they were as cold as marble, and seen them dressed out elcan and beautiful, as if for a bridal, to be wedded in their carly youth to the dust. All the fond love, all the passionate grief of parents and friends, all the bright hopes of future good, all the strength of their young life, could not restrain the inexorable archer, or shield them from his arrow! Ifis bow was bent, and the fatal shaft, true to its aim, sped, and they lay prostrate in the dust. All that was left for friendship and sympathy. was to shed tears over their elay, and carry them to their rest among the cold sleepers of the cemetery. Monuments have perpetuated their names, but their voices are silent. Pale flowers have been planted around their graves, and watered with many tears; but the flowers will fade as they did, and drop their withered petals on their graves. We have often mused over these signs of affection, and felt the eloquence with which they spoke, when the leaves of summer, touched by an early frost, lay scattered thickly in the forest. The poet was interpreter to our thoughts :
" Thou lovely earth! Since kindred steps From thy green paths have fied, A dimness and a hush have fallen O'er all thy beanties spread ! The silence of the absent soul Is on me and around !
My heart hath echoes but for thee, Thou still small warning sound ! The sky-lark sings out as he sang When they were by my side ; And mournful tones are in the wind Unheard before they died !"
48
MEMORIAL SERMONS.
And yet there are more claiming a record in this sad memo- rial. Those "blossoms of being born and gone," which the universal mother of all the living hath gathered back to her cold bosom-" the early lost," as nature regards them, but "the early saved," as the visions of our scripture faith teach us to esteem them, when in her holy records she points us to the Saviour's words, "Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God." There are many, very many short graves in yonder cemetery, and I never look upon them but I think how loving and faith- ful the Saviour is to his people, in taking .so many of their "little ones" to himself, and garnering them in heaven before sin could have power to pollute them, or the world ensnare their feet in its slippery paths. We ought to thank him for every one which he claims and takes home. There are so many things to be dreaded, that the very tears which affection sheds when she enshrouds them ought to be accompanied with a consenting heart, and our loudest grief should be taught to say, " He hath done all things well." Our loss is their gain. There are so many shipwrecks on the ocean of human life, that it ought to be regarded more as a matter of congratula- tion than of regret, to see one of these frail vessels launched npon its surging waves, reaching early and safely the haven of eternal rest. "God has made every thing beautiful in its sea- son." How is it that we fail so much to discern the "beauty" of his providence and love in gathering the buds and opening flowers of humanity into his own garner, before they have here had time to wither and the blight to touch them ? I can not be faith; it is only nature that impels these gushing tears. We must teach nature to chasten her strong yearnings by the power of faith's revealings, and become willing to thank God if we have children in heaven. We must learn to gaze upward and "stretch our sight," until we see them in their white robes among "the shining ones" in glory; and then, coming back to our eares and toils, think how much happier they are in having escaped them all. We must make our love to them a living power to elevate ns above the influence of our nature and our sin, and strengthen us until we are victors in the conflict, and have permission to come away and join
49
MEMORIAL SERMONS.
them where we shall part no more. It is a divine hope, in- decd, to think of meeting our loved ones in glory. It seems to make heaven nearer and dearer to us. We realize its exist- ence as we could not do but from the fact that it is the home and resting-place of those we love. They have not ceased to be, because God has taken them ; they are only veiled from our sight; death reached but the mortal part, and brought the material form to the dust-the soul is with God. The blos- som which withered here upon its stalk in the spring of its beauty has been transplanted there in a place of endurance, and will expand in perfection and diffuse its fragrance eternal- ly, to gladden and refresh that spirit which now weeps ont an affection that has been sorely bruised. Oh! that our faith could see this when we mourn the loss of departed ones. It would assist ns to say,
" There, like a dew-drop shrined Within a crystal stone, Thou art safe in heaven, my dove!, Safe with the source of love, The everlasting One. And when the hour arrives From flesh to set me free, Thy spirit will await, The first at heaven's gate, To meet and welcome me."
II. There have also been many changes besides those result- ing from death. Since the small beginnings of 1699, through a period of one hundred and forty-eight years, this church las not only experienced a variety of fortune and favor, but as the effect of all, by the blessing of God, it has waxed strong and become numerous. In thinking of those days in comparison with the present, we may appropriate the words of Jacob, "With my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands." It was natural that the propriety of a division should, at the time it was made, be strongly doubted even by the wisest. The end of it could not be foreseen-its effect upon time-honored associations was feared: and perhaps we lacked faith in the promise of God, which is as true of the church as
, it is of an individual-"I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." The parting hour was therefore an hour of sorrow.
50
MEMORIAL SERMONS.
We felt that we had reason to be sad. But at the present time doubt is at an end, and even fear is removed. There is 110 one who does not consider it a blessing, and is not prepared heartily to pray, "Send now, O Lord, prosperity, I beseechi thee." The interests of religion generally, and of our own denomination especially, have been materially strengthened in this community as the effect of it. Our neighbors have been blessed abundantly, and from a mere handful grown up to be a respectable church; while at the same time our own numbers have gone on increasing in a progressive ratio, eqnal at least to what it was before, perhaps greater. So confident do botlı these " bands" now feel in their strength, that they have re- cently united in the erection of a commodious and beautiful house of worship, which they intend to make the nucleus of a "Third Church;" and our prospects will need to be very sud- denly beclouded, if such an organization is not actually effect- ed before another year elapses. Fifteen years since, when my ministry commenced here, the communion of the church con- sisted of three hundred and forty-seven members; at the pres- ent time there are the names of four hundred and seven record- ed on our books .. During this time there have been received in all three hundred and fifty-one. If there had been no deaths or removals, our communion would at the present time have been six hundred and ninety-eight; but on account of them, the actual increase has only been sixty. What a change this fact makes necessary ! It is almost equal to an entire re- newal of the whole congregation, in the space of fifteen years. The difference, however, is not in fact so much ; for on looking around me I recognize here to-day many familiar faces-fami- liar during the whole time that I have ministered where I now do. They have been here constantly when the tribes went up, even the tribes of the Lord, to worship in his sanctuary. Many of those who came to us have remained but a little while; but the great body of the church has been permanent, and the larger number of changes has been confined to the fluctuating and the transient. Except where death has come in to perform his work, few have left us.
Fifteen years of Sabbaths! Seven hundred and eighty days in which we have sat together in God's holy house and heard
51
MEMORIAL SERMONS.
liis Gospel! It is a long time. It embraces a vast amount of privilege. You have probably heard in that time fifteen hun- dred and sixty sermons. It has brought you acquainted with a vast amount of instruction, and it involves deep responsi- bilities. So much opportunity of learning Christ ought to have enriched your minds with a wide range of gospel truth and a rich experience of its power and sanctification. Paul speaks of Andronicus and Junia as being of note among the Christians at Rome, because "they were in Christ before him ;" as if their age and experience gave them a special claim to attention and consideration. And ought it not to do so ? Is it not a special privilege to have been in Christ early ? to have been long in his school? Yes, indeed, age is a blessing. A long life is a privilege, especially when its years have been spent in the acquisition of knowledge and in the service of God. It has a richness in experience, a maturity of under- standing, a sobriety of judgment, a settled conviction of truth, and a wisdom in discerning what is real from what is mere semblance, the effect of transient feelings and not of spiritual influence and grace, which renders it always safe to walk by its counsels when difficulties oppose or dangers are imminent. It may not display the fervor of youth nor manifest the ardor of its untried affections, it may sometimes be even too cau- tious and sluggish; but then it will have the advantage of having fewer mistakes to correct and less frequent occasion to repent and turn back. That, however, which constitutes its highest good is the opportunity which it affords of doing so much for religion, bearing so much fruit for Christ and pro- moting the interests of righteousness so long -- " laying up," in the words of the Saviour, "a treasure in heaven with the mammon of unrighteousness." With such an end in view, a Christian may well rejoice in a long life.
But when avarice, the vice of old age, is allowed to grow and canker in the heart, and the veteran of years lives only to hoard his treasures-when no heavenly light shines upon its declining course and no religious topics sanctify the end of its days, the sight of it saddens and distresses us. We can not hide from ourselves the conviction that the rust of that unemployed gold, accumulating year by year, will be a terrible witness
52
MEMORIAL SERMONS.
against those white loeks as an unprofitable steward, and we confess it would have been a blessing not to have lived so long. Among us there are but a few of the old disciples remaining, and this makes that small number who have been our friends from the beginning more endeared. We can not therefore re- frain from uttering one specific petition for them : may they live long to adorn the religion they profess, and then, when all their work is done, sleep peacefully in the bosom of that Saviour whom they have loved and served. Our sentiment for them to-day is-a long life of piety and a sweet rest in glory. May they enjoy both !
In notieing the changes of fifteen years, what is most admo- nitory and impressive is, that death has been more busy among the aged than the young. This is not ordinary. The spoiler generally delights in " a shining mark." His most numerous victims are the beautiful and the young. His mansions are filled with lovely forms, and his favorite work is to destroy bright hopes. But such has not been his course among us ; the hoary head, and the form bending under a weight of years, have more frequently been taken to rest than " the strong staff has been broken and the beautiful rod." So great has the mortality among the aged been, that only a few of the old pa- triarchs, once the strength of the church, remain. This has subjected ns to a sore trial. We feel their loss deeply ; their influence touched the cause of truth and righteousness in this community in many important points ; and what is still more to be lamented is, that in some instances they have left no re- presentatives on whom their mantle could fall. The promise leads us to hope that " in the place of the fathers there shall be their children," but in these cases the promise yet seems to fail. May God work it out in his own time and way, for he is able to do it, even though it should be necessary out of " the stones to raise np children unto Abraham" !
In this way the wealth which once was ours now seeks other channels, and the influence which aided us is neutralized or turned against us. We however do not mean this as a complaint. With all our losses we are strong-increasing in strength in many ways. What we need most is a higher tone, a wider range of piety, and a greater abounding of our liberality. Deadness
53
MEMORIAL SERMONS.
to the world and an earnest anxiety to do something for the glory of God would be a perfect remedy for all that we regret. With a mind to work, we should find it easy to meet every re- quisition which the church imposes. The want of it has made us groan, when we ought to have been singing songs of thanks- giving and joy.
III. But all has not been change. Amid all that we have mourned as we have seen it passing away, there is one thing over the permaneney of which we could drop a tear, a bitter tear. It is the fixed, the unchanging, the unyielding impeni- tence of some of our people. We can not conceal it from our- selves that there are some yet out of Christ who were here fif- teen years ago, and were then impenitent. They were halting between two opinions then, and they are yet in the same posi- tion ; they were almost Christians then, and they are only al- most Christians now. Then they were waiting for better evidence, and now they are waiting for better evidence ; and how much longer will they wait ? Fifteen years of Sab- baths, and strivings of the Spirit, and admonitions of Provi- dence ! Is it not enough ? How wonderful that heaven should be so patient ! Where is there another friend that would consent to stand so long and solicit a place in our hearts ? What love, other than the everlasting and the un- speakable love of Jesus Christ, is so enduring-so inexhausti- ble, long-suffering, and unabating ! The best friend would have forsaken us, and, in despair for so much hardness, given us over to ruin ; but the faithful, loving Spirit comes again and again ; the tender, compassionate Redeemer renews his solici- tations year after year, unwilling that any sinner, even though he be an hundred years old, should perish while he stands on " mercy's ground," and death and a fixed eternity have not inade his state irreversible ! It is wonderful to think of it. It gives us a most solemn view of the obstinate infatuation of im- penitence-a living picture of the apostle's words, "The natu- ral man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God ; for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." It is a mournful proof of the prophet's words, " The heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked ; who can know it ?" What must the
4
54
MEMORIAL SERMONS.
moral state of such individuals be ? To what can we compare their hearts? Are they not akin to those eternal icebergs which surround the "pole"-congealed at the beginning of creation, when God first spake the earth into being, and never giving forth a drop since, but remaining always sharp and hard and fixed in their forbidding impenetrability, and des- tined to remain so, until the coming eternity shall have passed ? Or like those seas of ice on the Alpine heights, glittering in the beams of the sun and in perfect defiance of their power, sending back his rays from their adamantine surface, ever since the day when the power of Omnipotence upheaved them from thesolid erust of the earth and fixed them on their ever- lasting foundations-emblems of hardened impenitence ? It is a sad state to be in ; the thought of it is enough to move any mind to tears! Fifteen years of impenetrable obduraey to all the invitations of the Gospel, all the solicitations of God's most gracious Spirit, all the warnings of Providence, and all the admonitions of the dying! Oh ! it is too much to think of. Has heaven done so much for us in vain ? Have we lived so long, and only lived to heap up wrath and indig- nation against the revelation of God's righteons judgment ? lived so long only to make our death-bed more cheerless, and our eternity a more intolerable depth of woe ?
To return again to our text : is there nothing in the former age, in the experience of the fathers, that may teach you ? Is their experience of no advantage to guide yon? Is your own withont instruction ? What profit have you had from all the worldly things which you have pursued ? Have they compen- sated you for that neglect of your souls which they have in- duced? Is a life of irreligion, in fact, an advantage ? We are willing to leave the question with your own judgment and con- science. Does it bring you an increase of happiness ? Does it enable you to drink from the cup of life a sweeter draught ? Does it make your social joys more exhilarating and your sor- rows less oppressive ? What is your answer ? If you are si- lent and ashamed to speak, or if you have not marked any definite results of experience, we can answer for you. It has done none of these things ; and you ought to have known, be- fore you adopted such a course, that it could not do any of these
·
55
MEMORIAL SERMONS.
things. But should you unfortunately doubt and be disposed to try it further, or should yon be in search of information, we commend to yon the recommendation in our text," Inquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers : shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, and utter words out of their heart ?" "Can the rush grow up without mire ? Can the flag grow without water ? While it is yet in its greenness and not cut down, it witheretl? before any other herb ; so are the paths of all that forget God ! And the hypocrite's hope shall perish ! His hope shall be cut off, and his trust shall be a spider's web ; and the dwell- ing-place of the wicked shall come to naught ! Have ye not asked them which go by the way ? and do ye not know their tokens, that the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction ? They shall be brought forth to the day of wrath : and the sinner, even though he be an hundred years old, shall be ac- enrsed."
Is this the testimony of experience ? Does the voice of the past age and of the fathers speak in this wise ? Then you are condemned as one that is living unwisely and running in the face of evil. It is, in fact, one of the most singular phenomena of human reason that impenitent men should read these demin- ciations in the Bible, acknowledge them to be from God and to be expressions of his determinations in regard to sin, and vet live on in their rebellion. It amounts to this : that rea- sonable beings are capable of acting very unreasonably, even where the most important interests are at stake ; and, if any thing can do so, proves most conclusively that the difficulty with the impenitent man is not in his reason but in his heart : and if you mean to change him, it is to be done, not by argu- ment, but moral influence. It is not because there is any want of evidence in religion, but because they are opposed to it, and therefore unwilling to be convinced by evidence or to listen to the voice of reason, that most men continue in sin. This is the testimony of Scripture: "the heart is deceitful above all things. and desperately wicked," and will not of itself come to God. This is the best explanation ever given of impenitence-the only one that reaches all the facts of the case. But do you not. perceive that this only makes your condition more hopeless ≥
56
MEMORIAL SERMONS.
Such a heart ean not be happy withont God, and it is unfitted for enjoyment with him. It is therefore morally disqualified for heaven. Holy enjoyments in its sensual state are a contra- dietion ; the supposition that it can feel them is an absurdity ; it must be changed ; conversion or destruction is the only alternative. And so we conclude fifteen years of expostulation with you, and begin another. When will your hearts be able to realize its privileges or turn cordially to its duties ?
Application .-- It would seem as if one end, at least, of the various changes of human life was to instruct men. Attention to them will teach us wisdom. They are a mirror in which we may see the image of the future ; and if we arrive at a proper understanding of their character, it will tend to prepare us to meet what is to come, if it does not enable us to avoid all the evils it brings with it. Surprisals find us unguarded. An inexperienced evil is greater on that account. Even death becomes familiar by seeing it often. How much instruction, as to the transitory nature of all earthly things, the changes of the past bring ! We have loved, but where are the loved ones now ? We have toiled for treasures and built garners for our hopes, but they have all faded like a frost-bitten flower. Some of you stand alone who once had companions to assist you in bearing your burdens and share with you the sufferings of your mortal state ; others have carried their children to the nar- row house appointed for all the living. All feel that the pas- sage of years has wasted many things which they regarded as jewels of the heart ! Learn, then, not to set your affections ou things upon the earth, but to lay your treasure up with God. " They build too low, who build on aught beneath the skies." Heaven alone is pure, unehanging, and never fades away !
It would seem as if the past was intended to encourage us. In the midst of all the changes, losses, and disappointments which it brings, there are things that remain unchanged and can not be lost. God is our Father still. In Christ we have an undiminished portion of peace, enjoyment, and hope. Heaven yet invites us, and waits with wide-expanded doors to receive us into its mansions of rest. With God, and Christ, and heaven, have we not enough ? Let us thank God, then, and take courage.
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.