USA > New Jersey > Union County > History of Union County, New Jersey > Part 9
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ALL THE DAYS. (Tune, " Kinney Street.")
From Thee, begetting sure conviction, Sound out, O risen Lord, always,
Those faithful words of valediction, "Lo! I am with you all the days."
REFRAIN-All the days, all the days, "Lo! I am with you all the days."
What things shall happen on the morrow, Thou kindly hidest from our gaze ; But tellest us in joy or sorrow, "Lo! I am with you all the days."
When round our head the tempest rages, And sink our feet in miry ways,
Thy voice comes floating down the ages, "Lo! I am with you all the days."
O Thou who art our life and meetness, Not death shall daunt us nor amaze,
Hearing those words of power and sweet- ness, "Lo ! I am with you all the days."
EVER WITH THEE. (Tune, "Bethany.")
Ever, my Lord, with Thee, Ever with Thee !
Through all eternity Thy face to see ! I count this heaven, to be
River of Life there flows As crystal clear ;
The Tree of Life there grows For healing near :
But this crowns all, to be
Ever, my Lord, with Thee, Ever with Thee.
Ever, my Lord, with Thee, Ever with Thee !
Fair is Jerusalem, All of pure gold,
No curse is there, no night, No grief, no fear ;
Garnished with many a gem Of worth untold : I only ask to be
Thy smile fills heaven with light, Dries every tear : What rapture, there to be
Ever, my Lord, with Thee, Ever with Thee !
Ever, my Lord, with Thee, Ever with Thee !
In 1884 the Appletons issued Dr. Coles' poem, "The Light of the World," as a single volume also bound together with a second edition of "The Evangel" under the general title " The Life and Teachings of our Lord in Verse, being a complete harmonized exposition of the four Gospels, with original notes, etc."
Among the many foreign letters received by Dr. Coles, in which reference is made to this work, we find one from the Right Hon. William E. Gladstone, M. P., written from ro Downing street, White- hall, London, and one from Stephen Gladstone, written from Hawarden Rectory, Chester, England.
The Rev. Alexander McLaren, D. D., writing from Manchester, England, says,-"I congratulate you upon having accomplished with success a most difficult undertaking, and on having been able to present the ever inexhaustible life in a forin so new and original. I do not know whether I have been most struck by the careful and fine exegetical study, or the graceful versification of your work. I trust it may be useful, not only in attracting the people, which George Herbert thought could be caught with a song, when they would run from a sermon, but may also help lovers of the sermon to see its subject in a new garb."
The Rev. Horatius Bonar, D. D., of Edinburgh, wrote,-"I am
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struck with your command of language, and your skill in clothing the simplicities of history with the elegance of poetry. Your 'Life of Our Lord' is no ordinary volume, and your notes are of a very high order indeed, -admirably written, and full of philosophical thought and scriptural research."
THE NATIVITY.
In that fair region-fertile as of yore,
Watered of Heaven; its valleys covered o'er
With corn ; with flocks its pastures ; scene in truth
Of that sweet Idyl called the Book of Ruth, Where David, son of Jesse, tending sheep, In deep glen seated, or on mountain steep, Sung to his harp in morn or evening calm, Many a holy pastoral and psalm-
As certain shepherds, simple and devout,
Under the starry heavens were lying out,
Watching their flocks, while one lifts up the chant,
"The Lord my shepherd is, I shall not want."
Or, as with upturned face, he ravished sees Belted Orion and the Pleiades,
Singing, "When I the heavens consider, made
And fashioned by Thy fingers, thick inlaid With stars and suns in numbers numberless, Lord, what is man that Thou shouldst come to bless ?"-
An Angel of the Lord beside them stood : The glory of the Lord in mighty flood
Shone round about them luminous and clear,
And all the shepherds feared with a great fear.
"Fear not," the Angel said, "good news I bear,
Cause of great joy to people everywhere. In David's city is a Saviour born,
Who is the Christ the Lord, this happy morn.
And this the sign to you : Ye shall not find
Prepared a stately edifice, designed
For His reception : this great Potentate
And Prince of Heaven and Earth, assumes no state ;
Comes with no retinue; conceals and shrouds
His proper glory under veils and clouds Of lowliness, in stable of an inn
His Showing and Epiphany begin.
There look and you shall find in manger laid
The Infant Christ in swaddling clothes arrayed."
Then suddenly were present, height o'er height,
A countless multitude of the sons of light, In mighty chorus singing loud and clear, Charming celestial silences to hear :
"Glory to God there in the highest heaven ! Peace here on earth, good will to men for- given ! "
[The Evangel, pages 59-61.]
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT.
* x
* *
* * He stood
On a raised plain mid a vast multitude,
Composed of His disciples-and all them Who from Judea, and Jerusalem,
And from the shores of Tyre and Sidon came
To hear Him and be healed-His blessed name,
Now on all lips, hecause there was no case Too desperate for His relieving grace ;
The virtue that went out of Him was such That men were healed with one believing touch.
,
All hushed, He sat, and lifting up His eyes On His disciples, taught them in this wise.
Happy the poor in spirit, who their deep demerit own,
In them My Kingdom I set up ; with them I share my throne. Happy are they, who mourn for sin with smitings on the breast, The Comforter shall comfort them in ways He knoweth best.
Happy the meek, who patient hear unconscious of their worth, They shall inherit seats of power, and dominate the earth. Happy who hunger and who thirst for righteousness complete, Their longings shall fulfillments have and satisfactions sweet.
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Happy the merciful, who know to pity and forgive,
Happy are they who suffer for adherence to the right,
They mercy shall obtain at last, and evermore shall live.
They shall be kings and priests to God in realms of heavenly light.
Happy the pure in heart, whose feet with holiness are shod,
Happy are ye when men revile
They shall run up the shining way and see the face of God.
and falsely you accuse, Be very glad, for so of old
did they the prophets use.
Happy are ye, when for My sake,
Happy the friends of peace, who heal the wounds hy discord given, men persecute and hate,
The God of Heaven shall hold them dear and call them sons of heaven.
Exult ! for your reward in heaven
is made thereby more great. [The Light of the World, pages 76-77.]
"Dr. Coles," says a prominent critic, "was a man who possessed and enjoyed a religion founded upon the teachings of the Old and New Testaments. It was a religion which pervaded all the recesses of his heart, which gave a temper to all his thoughts, which entered into all the transactions of his life, -a religion of the soul, a religion of the closet, a religion which he cared not whether the world was cognizant of or not, never seeking to thrust it upon others, or to display it as a beautiful, well fitting garment. He recognized God as a being to be worshiped, to be loved and to be obeyed; and he accorded to his neighbor the same love that he had for himself. He was, however, a man of strong convictions, and in religious matters those convictions were the result of a thorough investigation by a mind well equipped, and influenced in its labors only by a desire to find out the truth. So earnest and thorough a student of the Scriptures as he was, reading them in the languages in which they earliest appeared, he was fully able to give a reason for the faith that was in him, which was strictly evangelical."
In "The Evangel," speaking of the wine Christ mnade, he says :
Mahomet forbade wine, and Christ made it. The difference between Christ and Mahomet was that of divine knowledge and human ignorance. Mahomet mistook a part for the whole, and with his axe of prohibition struck at a branch, supposing it to he the trunk. The Omniscient Christ was guilty of no such error. He knew that the bane was manifold, and that to single out wine for special prohibition was folly.
The truth is, Christ forbade nothing. Not but ten thousand things are forbidden, -- everything hurtful is so. Nature forbids, and nature is final. Why re-enact nature? reaffirm creation? deal in dittoes and deuteronomies? repeat laws established? settle what was never unsettled? Christ left nature as He found it, inviolate, unrepealed. His walking on the water did not abolish gravitation. Fact was fact the same as before ; arsenic was arsenic ; alcohol was alcohol. So far as nature forbade these they were forbidden ; so far as nature permitted them they were permitted. Christ could go no farther than nature and be the Lord of nature. Consequently Christ could not have forbidden wine absolutely and been God.
Wine is many and different. There is a kind of wine which is not, and another which is, intoxicating ; that is, has a toxic or poisoning power, for that is the meaning of the term. Was the wine Christ made the latter? Christ's character is the answer. If that says no, it is no ; for the wine is to be judged by Christ, not Christ by the wine. Christ we know ; the wine we do not know. That which best befitted Him to make, He undoubtedly made. * * * Taking our stand, therefore, on the immovable rock of
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Christ's character, we risk nothing in saying that the wine of miracle answered to the wine of nature, and was not intoxicating. No counter proof can equal the force of that drawn from His attributes. It is an indecency and a calumny to impute to Christ conduct which requires apology.
In opposition to those who deny (for what is not denied by somebody?) that unfermented grape-juice is wine at all, we maintain that not only is it wine, but wine pre-eminently, the original, the true, as heing nearest to the parent vine, and overflowing with the abundance of its life. Every step of that process called fermentation, whereby innocent sugar is converted into alcohol, is of the nature of a removal and eloignment. Wine and vine are etymologically the same. The Greeks called the vine " the mother of wine " (oinometor). Properly "oinos" is only then the child of the vine when vinous and vital it represents "the wine of the cluster," "the pure blood of the grape." Death follows life, and corruption death, and there results a deadly something which men call wine, hut wrongly, for it is no longer vinous. The vine disowns it. It is a corpse, not a living thing. Alcohol is not wine, but an atrocious usurper of its name and rights.
Christ made wine. He was maker, not manufacturer. The key-note to the miracle is creation. This alone renders it worthy and intelligible. Christ was no Demiurge, but God. Not inferior nor different. "The Word was with God, and the Word was God." "All things were made by Him." It was fitting that He should in the outset make this appear; and so He did. In a miraculous moment he did what, in His ordinary working in nature, He takes four months to do. Such was His debut-an epiphany of Godhead ; a demonstration to the whole universe that He was "over all, God blessed forever." "This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory "-giving, in His own Divine Person, by a new genesis, as "in the beginning " of the world, needed practical proof and illustration that God is ; and that He is one, not two nor many ; that He created matter ; that nature is from Him ; that though He exists and operates in nature, He is not nature, but a power apart from it and above it, acting upon it from without in omnipotent freedom of will, and directing it to beneficent ends ; that the God who feeds us is identical with the God who saves us, -thus sweeping away all the hoary diabolists of disbelief, bearing the names of Atheism, Dualism, Polytheism, Materialism, Pantheism and Fatalism1.
It is assumed, for this view necessitates it, that the wine of miracle was the same as the wine of nature, the wine of the cluster, holy and life-giving, the type of all nourishment, and the type of salvation. The wine of art is not this. It represents evil rather than good. It is better fitted to typify destruction than creation. It is less a making than an unmaking. Alcohol is unmade sugar. Men brand it poison.
Thus far we have limited ourselves to asserting that Christ did not make intoxicating wine; whether He ever drank it is another question. Here, too, His character is everything,-far more than doubtful philology. Anything He drank must, we know, have been a safe and unhurtful beverage, wherein there was no "excess." We are not permitted to suppose that the Saviour from sin was an example of sin; that He who taught self-denial practiced self-indulgence. Rather must we believe that every meal he ate was a lesson of temperance. He, knowing what is in man, the liability of the best to fall, ceased not to warn against a vain self-confidence and a false security. "Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat ; but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not." * * * * " Pray that ye enter not into temptation." That the wine of communion was azymons wine, new wine, sweet and sacred, made the festal token of a heavenly renewal of divine fellowship, is proved by His own words : "I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new (kainon) with you in my Father's Kingdom." * * *
It is stated that att points in dispute have their final answer in the settlement of the one question,-" Does ' wine,' standing alone, mean, as is claimed, onty and always the juice of the grape fermented, and never the juice of the grape unfermented ; and was the same made and drunk by Christ and used by Him as one of the elements of the Last Supper?" The pivot, evidently on which everything turns, are the words "onty and
1
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atways," so that if it can be shown, in a single instance, that the word "wine," uncoupled with "new," is clearly used anywhere in the Bible in the sense of "new wine" or "must," the learning which denies it goes for nothing, and the whole argument based on that erroneous assumption falls to the ground.
In Matt. ix .: 17, we read : "Neither do men put new wine (oinon neon) into old bottles, else the bottles (' old ' omitted) break, and the wine (oinos, alone, with neos omitted) runneth out." In the parallel passage in Mark ii .: 22, there are the same omissions in the second clause of the verse. In Luke, it is "new wine" in both places, thus confirming the identity of the two. * * * Here we have the Holy Ghost for a witness and a divine example of usus loquendi, clearly showing that oinos is properly used to denote the unfermented grape juice without the qualifying epithet neos as well as with it. * * * *
Undoubtedly, opium and alcohol produce effects which differ, but they agree in this, that used habitually, they alike tend, by a law as constant as gravitation itself, to establish a tyranny, compared with which chains, racks, dungeons, and whatever else go to make up the material apparatus of the most cruel despotism, are as nothing. For these are outside of the man, and leave the soul untouched.
It is a good reason for abstinence if our use is others misuse, if it merely lends sanction to a dangerous custom.
Christianity is a principle, not a law. * Christianity is infinitely more than Judaism or Mohammedanism, but then it is Christianity in the sense of Christian love. This fulfills all claims, abstinence among the rest.
In 1888 he put forth another volume, of more than three hundred and fifty pages, entitled " A New Rendering of the Hebrew Psalms into English Verse, with notes, critical, historical aud biographical, including an historical sketch of the French, English and Scotch metrical versions."
The New York Tribune, in a lengthy critical review of the work, said : "Dr. Coles' name on the title page is a sufficient indication of the excellence and thoroughness of the work done. Indeed, Dr. Coles has done much more than produce a fresh, vigorous and harmonious version of the Psalms, though this was alone well worth doing. His full and scholarly notes on the early versions of Clement Marot, Sternhold and Hopkins, and others, his sketches of eminent persons connected in various ways witli particular psalms, his literary and bibliographical information, together impart a value and interest to this work which should insure an extensive circulation for it. Very much of the historical and other matter thus brought within the reach of the public is inaccessible to such as have not means of access to public libraries. In his version of the Psalms he has wisely preserved the rhythmical swing and the terse language which distinguish the early renderings."
The Rev. Frederic W. Farrar, D. D., F. R. S., chaplain in ordinary to the queen, in a letter to Dr. Coles, said : "The task of versifying the Psalms was too much, even for Milton, but you have attempted it with seriousness and with as much success as seems to be possible. I was much interested in your introduction."
S. W. Kershaw, F. T. A., the librarian of the Lambeth Palace Library, London, England, also writes to Dr. Coles : "I am greatly
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interested in the introduction, in reading about the psalms of Clement Marot, and in the allusion to the Huguenots."
On the scroll in the hand of the beautiful symbolical figure of Poetry, by J. Q. A. Ward, in the Library of Congress, at Washington, the artist has memorialized Dr. Coles' version of Psalm xix., which is as follows :
The rolling skies with lips of flame Their Maker's power and skill proclaim : Day speaks to day, and night to night Shows knowledge writ in beams of light, And though no voice, no spoken word Can by the outward ear be heard, The witness of a traveling sound Reverberates the world around.
In the bright east with gold enriched He for the sun a tent has pitched, That, like bridegroom after rest, Comes from his chamber richly drest, An athlete strong and full of grace, And glad to run the heavenly race,- Completes his round with tireless feet, And naught is hidden from his heat.
But, Nature's book sums not the whole : God's perfect law converts the soul ; His sure unerring word supplies The means to make the simple wise ;
His precepts are divinely right, An inspiration and delight ;
His pure commandment makes all clear, Clean and enduring in His fear.
The judgments of the Lord are true, And righteous wholly, through and through; More to be coveted than gold,
Of higher worth a thousand fold ; More sweet than sweetest honey far,
Th' unfoldings of their sweetness are : They warn Thy servant, and they guard ; In keeping them there 's great reward.
Who can his errors understand ? My secret faults are as the sand : From these me cleanse, make pure within, And keep me from presumptuous sin ;
Lest sin me rule and fetter fast,
And I unpardoned die at last.
My words and meditation be O Lord, my Rock, approved of Thee.
During his travels abroad, Dr. Coles had been greatly impressed with the private and public parks of Europe, and as early as 1862 inaugurated a unique project of landscape gardening upon seventeen acres of his ancestral farm, at Scotch Plains, New Jersey, converting it into a park of rare and enchanting beauty. It was adorned with native groves, every attainable choice variety of tree and shrub, with imported statuary, garden and lawn effects. It was named " Deerhurst," from its herd of deer. Here he had his library and study, built of brick, stone, and foreign and native woods, memorable alike for its architectural beauty, its "easy-chair," its works of art, and as the rendezvous of distinguished guests. Many charming pictures of "Deerhurst" have been sketched by poet, philosopher and sage, who once enjoyed the delights of its hospitality. Here the Doctor spent the last thirty years of his life, with his son and daughter as constant asso- ciates, the latter gracefully presiding over their father's establishment, among literary and professional friends, who recognized in him not only the eminent physician, the scholar of wide literary culture, and the linguist proficient in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Sanscrit, and the modern languages, but above all, the poet of international reputation.
While on a visit with his son and daughter to California, Dr. Coles died suddenly, May 3, 1891, from heart complication, resulting from an attack of la grippe. At the time of his decease his life and works
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were extensively commented upon by the press, secular and religious. Innumerable dispatches and letters of condolence were received from distinguished authors throughout the literary world, from the execu- tive mansion, Washington, D. C., from distinguished members of the bench and bar, from those chief among the clergy, and from distin- guished personages abroad. The funeral services were held in Newark, New Jersey,-the private services at the home of his married life, on Market street, and the public services in the Peddie Memorial church. The Rev. Dr. Philip Schaff, by reason of the serious illness of his son, was prevented from preaching the funeral sermon. An address, by Rev. Charles F. Deems, D. D., of New York, was preceded by prayer by the Rev. Dr. Robert Lowry, and the singing of Dr. Coles' hymns, " Ever with Thee," and " All the Days." An address, by George Dana Board-
THE LIBRARY AT DEERHURST
man, D. D., was followed by the singing of Dr. Coles' translation of St. Bernard of Clairvaux's hymn, "Jesu Dulcis Memoria."
The memory of Jesus' name Is past expression sweet ;
At each dear mention, hearts aflame With quicker pulses beat.
But sweet, above all sweetest things Creation can afford,
That sweetness which His presence brings, The vision of the Lord.
Sweeter than His dear Name is nought ; None, worthier of laud,
Was ever sung, or heard, or thought, Than Jesus, Son of God.
Thou hope to those of contrite heart ! To those who ask, how kind ! To those who seek low good Thou art ! But what to those who find ?
No heart is able to conceive, Nor tongue nor pen express ; Who tries it ouly cau believe How choice that blessedness !
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The New Jersey Historical Society attended in a body. James Russell Lowell, in a sympathetic note, one of the last he wrote, said : "I regret very much I cannot share in the sad function of pallbearer, but my health will not permit it." The pallbearers were: Vice- Chancellor Abram V. Van Fleet, Judge David A, Depue, ex-Chancellor Theodore Runyon, Hon. Amzi Dodd, Hon. Thomas N. McCarter, Hon, Cortlandt Parker, Hon. A. Q. Keasbey, Hon. Frederick W. Ricord, Noah Brooks, Alexander H. Ritchie, Spencer Goble, James W. Schoch, William Rankin, Charles Kyte, Edmund C. Stedman, Dr. Ezra M. Hunt, Dr. A. W. Rogers, Dr. S. H. Pennington, Dr. B. L. Dodd, Dr. J. C. Young and Dr. T. H. Tomlinson. His body was laid to rest by the side of that of his wife, in Willow Grove Cemetery, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
"Dr. Coles' style," says a prominent critic, "has individuality as inuch as that of Samuel Johnson or Thomas Carlyle. One certainly sees how thoughts sublime find expression in terse and stately sentences, and how words are chosen, such as come out of the depth of inspiration and genius. There is not conformity to the style of any favorite author, or to the modes of thought of any favorite logician, but a forging of weighty words wrought out from the depth of quiet inner feelings and conceptions." "Dr. Coles' researches," says Edmund C. Stedman, " made so lovingly and conscientiously in the special field of his poetic scholarship, have given him a distinct and most enviable position among American authors. We of the younger sort learn a lesson of reverent humility from the pure enthusiasm with which he approaches and handles his noble themes. The 'tone' of all his works is perfect. He is so thoroughly in sympathy with his subjects that the lay reader instantly shares his feeling; and there is a kind of white light pervading the whole prose and verse which at any time tranquilizes and purifies the mind."
Noah Brooks, LL. D., author and editor, said: "Dr. Coles, although playful and mirthful in some phases of his disposition, was never trivial, and the most of his work which he has left us is an indication of the seriousness, even solemnity, with which he regarded human existence, its necessities, its responsibilities, and its future. He had no time to devote any part of his commanding talents to daintiness or superficialities. 'Christ and His Cross are all my theme' was evidently his maxim in life. His poetry was suffused with love and admiration of Christ's character and attributes, and he never saw man without beholding in him the image of the Master."
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, speaking of Dr. Coles, says : "I have always considered it a great privilege to enjoy the friendship of so pure and lofty a spirit ;- a man who seemed to breathe holiness as his native atmosphere, and to carry its influences into his daily life." As regards his writings, he says: "There was no line which, dying, he could have wished to blot, and there was no line which the purest of
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