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 8
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The whole number received during the last five years is one hundred and twelve, more than twenty in each year. Of this
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number seventy-nine have made confession of faith, more than sixteen in each year; and thirty-three have come from other churches. This inerease, notwithstanding the deaths which have occurred, and the constant pressure upon us from the organization and growth of new churches around us, has kept our numbers equal to what they have ever been even in our inost prosperous times ; and the whole number in communion to-day is only three less than it has been at any time when the number of families was far greater, and the district of country embraced by the congregation much larger; while there are nearly one hundred more than there were when this church stood alone and included all the professors of religion in this whole region, where there are now five other churches, besides two others which were formed partly from families onee in connection with us. If we had ever been disposed to give way to despondency, this would forbid it. If we had ever feared that the Lord might withdraw his favor from us, this would dispel it. But we have not been disheartened. We have seen no reason to be ! In all our losses we have recognized the hand of providence, and been prepared to bid those God-speed who "went out from us," to prepare for themselves a more con- venient place in which to worship and enjoy the instruction of the Gospel.
The largest number added to the church in any one of the last five years was thirty-two, and the smallest eighteen. And this again is remarkable-remarkable as an evidence of the special favor and blessing of God. In how many places are there barren years ? In how many are they repeated until hope is well-nigh wearied ont! Many churches think they are favored in welcoming two or three to their communion, and they are right. It is a great blessing-it is a sufficient blessing-to encourage effort, when only one sinner is con- verted to God. But our covenant-keeping God, in his kind- ness to us, has enabled us to reckon our increase by the score! It is to be recognized as a memorial of his faithfulness, and not gloried in on account of any thing we have done! The truth is, this is evidently holy ground. These altars where we worship have been hallowed by the prayers of so many good men, who have stood here before us, to proclaim "the un-
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searchable riches of Christ," that the Holy Spirit seems to de- light to linger around them, shedding down his choicest in- fluences upon the dispensation of his holy word, and working in humble and penitent hearts his richest gifts and graces. If it is true that " wherever he records his name, that is Zion, there le dwells," how much more must it be true that he de- lights to be where he pours down in perpetual streams the influences of his grace and love, to convert sinners and edify the people of God. It is a privilege indeed for the church to have such an inheritance of perpetual blessing in the faith and prayers of those who have labored for her good, and prepared for heaven in her communion. It will redound to her future increase and her perpetual prosperity. The prayer that is laid up before God and waits an answer is just as valuable and just as weighty as that which is now daily ascending up before him from the assemblies of his saints. They are both memorials which his people have presented, and which he stands pledged to recognize and answer, by Ilis covenant en- gagements. His faithfulness in either it is not right to doubt ; and he will make this manifest in his own time! Think, then, how much future good there must be in store for us ; how much we owe to the piety of those holy men and women, who in past years have borne this church in all its interests so faithfully and so frequently before the throne of grace ; and how confident we should be that, in days to come, the Lord will remember his covenant, and send the early and latter rain in its season, multiplying the plants in his vineyard, and making those flourishing and green which are already planted there ! Certainly there are days of blessing in store for this church, and whether I shall minister here, or another, they will come and be enjoyed ; and those who see them will be glad and rejoice in beholding the right hand of the Lord.
Every year that I live and labor as a minister increases my conviction of our absolute dependence upon the influence of the Holy Ghost, to give the word efficacy and to convert sinners. Every year that I live convinces ine more and more, not of the vanity only, but also of the mischievousness, of all contri- . vances, measures, and plans which look more to a human agency than to one that is divine, in carrying forward the
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work of the church. It is of God, of God absolutely, to in- eline us "to will and to do, of his own good pleasure." "Every good and every perfect gift cometh down from the Father of lights ;" and our hope and confidence in their con- tinnance is, that "with him there is no variableness, nor any shadow of turning." Prayer has prevailed in the world ; it has prevailed in securing blessings of a most extraordinary charae- ter, and of a most gracious efficiency upon this very church ; and prayer has lost none of its power. It can be employed with the same success and effect now, and in all our future exigencies, that it has been in the past. This is certain. "The effectual and fervent prayer of a righteous man ever availeth mueh." It ever has been so ; it ever will be so; and we must . remember this, and engage our hearts constantly and fervently in pleading with God. This church has lived in prayer, been built up and rendered prosperons by prayer ; and in the future can only be preserved by its continuance. The richest inheri- tanee that God has given to it-and he has given it mueh-is to be found in the prayers of those godly men and women who have loved this Zion, and so earnestly sought her good ! We thank his grace that there are so many ; and we value their power before the throne more than all the wealth and worldly infinenee that others have brought to her, or may hereafter bring! These have their appropriate spheres, and are not to be despised ; the other is an absolute necessity which no church can do withont and eminently prosper.
It would not be proper that I should pass in silence over the kind leave of absence which was extended to me by the con- sistory and members of this church in the summer of 1854, which enabled me to see "foreign lands," and to refreshi mind and body with travel, or the pecuniary assistance which was offered on that occasion. I have never regretted the time or the money expended for that purpose; on the contrary, I think the only mistake was in not doing it sooner. You would then have experienced the benefit of it earlier as well as myself. There is an enlargement of mind, a correction of misappre- hensions, a realization of things both of interest and impor- tance ; an understanding of history, and a conception of men and governments, resulting from such a tour, which can be
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acquired in no other way. I feel that now I know things which I never could have known-know them as I could not have conceived of them, but from actual sight and acquain- tance. History is to me a new world; pomp and power and royalty more vain than ever. After having sat down upon the thrones of half the kings of Europe, and done it probably with quite as much comfort as they ever did themselves, it seems to me a small thing to be a king, but a high and noble one to be a free man, the citizen of a free land, where every one is a sovereign-and so more than a king-in his own sphere of action ; for many of them live in sad trepidation, and are more enslaved than the very people whom they so much oppress. It is a miserable system in every way, this absolute power. I have brought home with me convictions in regard to our Protestantism, our free Bible church, in its connection with our civil rights and the preservation of our political in- stitutions, which I could not have had but for what I have seen abroad. I feel that in having here " a church withont a bishop, and a state without a king," we have a boon granted, by the favor of God, to no one else; and I am afraid when any one proposes to bring the first one in, for I know so well how soon and how certainly he will in his turn help to bring in the second ! I have no patience with those who propagate among us the customs and opinions of the Old World, I care not whether they be political or religions. It offends me to hear our in- stitutions lightly spoken of and undervalued; and I ean not help thinking that any man who allows himself, on any account, or in connection with any subject which he may be discussing, even by implication, to say that the blessed union of these free States can ever be annulled, ought to be publicly reprimanded, if not punished ; and I do not care who he is, or in what connection, or for what end, he may commit the offense. There are some things too sacred to be touched ; some too important to be questioned; some which we guard with such tenderness that we will not allow any one even to approach them ; and this to me is such a one! Now, this I can not help, after what I have seen; for I think at once of the op- pressed peoples of the Old World. There I realized, for the first time, how low this glorions image of God impressed upon man
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can be degraded ! IIow vile this being, made in that image, can be rendered! I have seen men who seemed to have but little more self-respect than brutes, and but little more ambition than a worm ; and I have seen who made them so-the king, the noble, the priest ! And how do they keep them so ? By keeping them divided. What could not Italy-poor priest- ridden Italy !- do to-day if she was only united ? And Ger- many, that noble, beautiful, and mighty land, full of strong men and great thinkers, how is Germany kept under that galling yoke, and almost the last drop of her blood sucked out of her veins by a horde of petty little princes, so despicable for their want of manhood, that if we had them here we would spit upon them and spurn them from our streets! Germany is divided ; Germany is just what we will be if our Union is ever broken, and this comes to be a divided country, made up of separate states with separate and conflicting interests. I know I am approaching things which are considered to belong to other men, and to other connections ; but upon this subject I will not be silent. It is vital to every thing! It is the keystone to the whole arch. Take it away, and the whole building be- comes a mass of ruins. Our state not only, but our churches, would soon fail ; and as long as I have breath I will protest against this worse than suicide, and brand every man as a traitor who favors it. These pleasant Sabbaths which we now so much enjoy ; these blessed spiritual influences, under the culture of which our souls are ripening for heaven ; this restraining sense of religions obligation, which guards our children from the seductions of vice; these peaceful family circles, in which religion diffuses its hallowed control-I can not see them destroyed; they wonld all be if such a thing should happen. Our free commerce, and our personal liberty to go and come as we please, would likewise have an end, and even our life itself would hardly retain any thing worth naming enjoyment; and for me to stand by and see the way prepared for it all, in silence, is more than I can do !
There is a beauty which to be known must be seen, for it can not be described ; and there is pleasure which, to be felt, must be realized, or a sense of it can not be brought home to the mind. So there are delicate acts of kindness, a thoughtful
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consideration for the feelings of others, a wakeful attention to their wants, a deference to their opinions and sentiments, to their trials and griefs, which is to be experienced in order to be known, for it can not be written or spoken! How much of this, how timely, how affectionate it has been, and how often repeated on the part of many of my people, I can not exhibit in any sensible way. But it is treasured up in my heart, and memory will love to recall it and dwell upon it, until death comes and silences its pulsations and chills up the fountain of its emotions! Every thing, it is true, has not been of this character, and the conduct of every one has not been so considerate and tender toward me; but as we live to err we should also live to forgive ; and when I come to review the whole of my personal intercourse with my people, I can not but feel thankful that there has been so little that I could even wish had been otherwise ! When I look over the audience which assembles before me on the Sabbath morning, they are all my friends. I feel I could trust them all with my welfare and my most treasured sentiments, without any distrust. This is no small comfort. It has a tendency to warm my heart when I am engaged in speaking to them the words of life. It draws out yearning and earnest desires, when I bear their interests up before the mercy-seat. It gives importunity to my plead- ings that they would be wise and consider their latter end. The comfort of it is mine, but the benefit is theirs. It is just as it should be, for it helps me to preach to them, to pray for them, and to labor to do them good. It makes my whole effort in study and in preaching an offering of affection! I could not have done what I have, had it been otherwise ; and wlien it ceases, I shall be content to cease to preach to them or to pray for them !
Twenty-five years-a quarter of a century! It is a long time for any man to stand before any people and preach to them. Think what it implies: 2600 sermons, 1300 lectures, half as many catechizings ; besides the funerals which have been attended, the sick-beds visited, the afflicted comforted, the anxious instructed, the erring reclaimed ! And you have always come here on the morning of the Sabbath expecting to hear things new rather than old, things to edify, instruct,
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and comfort you. If you have been sometimes disappointed, there is certainly nothing strange in that, it might casily have been far more frequent ! "Who is sufficient for these things?" Are the treasures of the mind never to be ex- hausted ? Can any human soul be always so fresh and active and self-renewing as to be proof against weariness and a perpetual taxing of its powers? Let me warn you not to expect too much. There is a limit to every thing-to know- ledge, to thought, to faney, to feeling !
In these twenty-five years you have had presented to yon my best thoughts, my most strenuous efforts-the cream of my life ! What I have done has been done cheerfully, and from a sense of duty. It has been done earnestly and for your good ; and, on a review of it, I may say withont disguise, " I have done what I could !" I have been honest and earnest in the efforts which I have made to instruct and edify all who have waited on my ministry, and I ean not do any thing more or better than this in the future.
And now, as to this future, I can not tell what Providence may direct. But one thing I do know, I shall be willing to stay, or willing to go, whenever and wherever the path of duty may be made clear. If there is one feeling which grows stronger and stronger every day in my consciousness, it is that I am not my own-that I can not devise my own ways. nor tell what a day may bring forth. I see a special guiding Providence in my being here to-day, and, seeing it, I ani eon- tent ! What he points out to me, I mean to do ; where he directs, I mean to stay ; and when he calls me, I mean to go! More than ever can I say, "O God ! do thon thy will: I will be still, I will not stir !"
I have many pleasant thoughts to-day. I look around and sce liere a multitude whom I claim as my children, and the seals of my ministry ! and indeed there is not a small number. They are not all here, for some have already " been taken n]> higher," and are "entered into their rest," and some have re- moved to other places ; but if they were all here, there would be some three hundred and twenty all told-almost a congregation in themselves. But there are enough to give tone and senti- ment to the elmureh; and should I not feel safe with them.
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-a freedom to speak to them, and an assurance of kind con- sideration and affection ? I do feel it. I have a right to feel it ! I know their hearts and I confide in them ! I would be ashamed if I did not do it, sorely grieved if one of them should fail me !
I have a word to them to-day. I speak to them as children, and I say, " See that ye walk worthy of the vocation where- with ye are called." I rejoice in your piety and devotion to the cause of Christ, in your attachment to this elinreh, its doctrines and its ordinances ; in the prayers which I know you are constantly putting up before the throne of grace, for its prosperity and for me its pastor! The assurance that I have those prayers strengthens me. I feel honored in the high tone of piety which many of you manifest, and in your zeal in the canse of the blessed Master. " Ye are our epistle, known and read of all men ;" and while you prosper and increase in sanctification we shall rejoice.
Those who do not stand in this tender relation to me, I know will exense this special reference. It is not intended to imply that no others have the same confidence, or inspire the same feelings; for to many of them I sustain the most intimate connection. No one ever thinks of reproaching a parent be- canse le best loves his children, nor does he feel neglected in the expression of that love. It is so here. To my own children in the faith I can not but feel special attachment, and express in them the fullest confidence; and I know it will never, in any number of instances, be betrayed !
And there are others still: how shall I speak of them ? and what shall I say ? I have said all that it is possible for me to say, and all that I know to say ; and I have repeated it many times, and they have heard it : and yet. alas! they have not been properly affected ! The harvest is past, the sum- mer is ended, and they are not saved ! For a quarter of a century they have sat almost every Sabbath under the instruc- tion of the divine word, and the dews of divine grace, and yet it has not been enough! They are yet in their sins ; and the most gloomy thought of all is, they have not seen or felt the necessity of flying for refuge from them to Christ's aton- ing blood ! Twenty-five years of waiting and patience, on the
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part of a gracious Saviour ! Twenty-five years of importnnate pleading on the part of their pastor, has not sufficed to over- come their unbelief and carnal pride! What, then, will suffice ? How much longer will the patience and forbearance of God extend themselves? It seems to me there is every thing to alarm them, to arouse them, to impel them, now " to attend to the things which belong to their peace." I can do no more. I take you all here to witness this day that I am free from the blood of their souls, "for I have not forborne to de- clare to them the whole counsel of God." It is not, surely, ignorance that they can plead, for the way of life has been fully set before them, in all the amplitude of its provisions, and all the graciousness of its invitations! What is it, then ?
And there is yet another portion whom I see around me here, of whom it may be said, that if the former are almost hopeless in their long delay, they are hopeful in their early life, for upon them is now the dew of youth. Many of them have grown up here as plants in the vineyard. Their parents dedicated them to God before these altars, and the emblema- tie water of regeneration was sprinkled upon their foreheads. They have been trained in on Sabbath-schools and cateche- tical classes, and are well instructed in all the great doctrines of the Christian religion. They stand, not only in a position of privilege, but also in a relation to this church, which is very solemn and affecting. We hope great things from their future-hope to welcome them to the communion of Christ's little ones, and then to see them maturing for heaven, and spreading all around them the savor of their holy life and pious conversation ! In the ardor of our love, and the earnest- ness of our desire for their growth in grace, we now "com- mend them to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to sanctify them and present them before the throne of his power with execeding glory !"
And now, another volume of our life-history is closed, and a new one opens to-day. It is, to all of us, a matter of momen- tous coneern that it should only be filled with such records as we shall be willing to meet when we stand before God, to " be judged for the deeds done in the body." To the consistory of this church we say, " Study such things as make for peace,
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and tend to edify the body of Christ. Be examples to the flock over which you have been placed, in prayer, in faith, in charity ; devise liberal things, and work faithfully in your calling!" To the members of the church we say, Live to- gether in peace; love one another sincerely ; pray for the church, its pastor, and communicants. Hold not baek your hand from any thing that is good. "Be sober, be diligent, and in due time you will reap, if you faint not !"
To the congregation, young and old, I say, Wait here faith- fully on the means of grace, and be diligent in the hearing of God's word. Study to approve yourselves to him, and pre- pare to meet him in judgment. "The faithful and obedient shall eat the fruit of the land !" And now, " May the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in Ilis sight. through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever." Amen.
SOMERVILLE, N. J., October 1st, 1857.
THIE SIXTHI MEMORIAL SERMON.
PREACHED OCT. 25TH, 1832.
THE REHEARSAL OF THE PAST FOR INSTRUCTION.
" Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation."-JOEL 1 : 2-3.
" We have heard with our cars, O God, our fathers have told us, what things thou didst of old."-PSALM 44: 1.
" And when they were come, and had gatherel the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them."-ACTS 14 : 27.
This language is a sufficient warrant for the service which we propose to observe to-day. The circumstanee that these were judgments which the prophet commanded to be kept in memorial, offers no real argument against, but rather increases and intensifies the significance of the direction in our text. In point of fact, there is much in God's providence every day, which it would be instructive to remember, and we should be all wiser if we treasured up more carefully the teachings of the divine hand. The years repeat themselves ; and thoughi not in such an unvaried succession as to make one in all re- speets the pattern of the other, yet with so much sameness as to give occasion to the observation of the wise man, " The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done, is that which shall be done ; and there is no new thing under the sun."
The most careful observer of providence, if this be true, is likely to be the one who is best prepared for its events, and the least surprised either by judgments or mercies ; for if he understands its nature, he will anticipate both and know that neither the one nor the other is likely to continue without change.
Memorials are useful as reminders of what has been. When
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the Israelites had safely crossed over Jordan, " Joshua took twelve stones out of the waters, and pitched them in Gilgal " as a monument in commemoration of that event, and said, " When your children ask their fathers, in time to come, What mean these stones? then ye shall let your children know, say- ing, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land, for the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the Lord your God did the Red Sea, which he dried up before us, until we were gone over."
In the same way Moses had before directed, in reference to the passover, "When your children shall ask, What mean ye by this service ? ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when he slew the Egyptians." In both instances remembranee is enjoined, and a memorial provided for. This is what we are now intending to do. It may be an humble imitation, Unt it can not be said to be withont warrant. We inay compare small things with great, but it can not be affirmed that the great things are not found in the Scriptures with which we seek comparison and plead as om warrant.
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