History of the First Presbyterian Church, Morristown, N.J., 1742-1882 pt 1, Part 49

Author: First Presbyterian Church in Morristown (N.J.)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Morristown, N.J. : "Banner" Steam Print
Number of Pages: 942

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THE RECORD

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, MORRISTOWN, N. J. " THIS SHALL BE WRITTEN FOR THE GENERATION TO COME."-Psalms 102 : 18.

VOLUME IV.

MARCH, 1884. NUMBER 15.

[Printed with the Approval of the Session. ]

THE RECORD

Will be published monthly at Morristown N. J. Terms $1.00 per annum, in advance.

Subscriptions may be made at the book- stores of Messrs. Runyon and Emmell, or to Messrs. James R. Voorhees and William D. Johnson, or by letter addressed to the

EDITOR OF THE RECORD,

Morristown, N. J.

Entered at the Post Office at Morristown, N. J., as second class matter.

(Mr. Barnes's Sermon Continued.)

feel and proclaim to my expiring breath, that God " is first, is midst, is last, is supre- mest, best," in all the work of saving men ; and that poor human nature, in all cases ex- cept in the person of Jesus, is to be regarded as undeserving. polluted, and meriting only death eternal.

What God does, he intends to do. There is no chance-no hap-hazard. What it is right for him to do, it is right for him to purpose to do. What he does in my salva- tion or yours, he always meant to do. In him is no change, no shadow of turning. He has no new plan. We should have no security of the salvation of an individual if he changed-no security that an act of justice would ever be done to any of the living or the dead. The welfare of the universe de- mands that he should have one unchanging plan, running from the beginning to the end of years ; and if there is a God immu- tably just and holy, there must be. In that purpose, and not in our .poor abortive plans, lies your welfare and mine.

world, to my knowledge, has ever professed to maintain that opinion. It is certainly not the sentiment of the Bible. and no man has any right to charge it on any system of re- ligion ; and I do not deem it too serious to say, is guilty of gross slander if he does it. God made men to glorify himself in their holiness and felicity ; and has made provi- sion for their salvation, and if they do not choose to be saved ; if they choose to hate him, and rebel, and go to perdition, and HE does not choose to save them against their will, they cannot blame him for their self- chosen condemnation. It is an act of jus- tice which we claim, that it should be re- membered, that neither here, nor in any christian church on the face of the earth is it held, that God made men on purpose to. damn them. If, then, God renews the heart by his Holy Spirit, if he begins and carries forward the work in all that shall be saved, and holds the power of doing this over all men, and does not thus incline all to come to him, and it be asked, as well it may be, why he does not renew and save all-we have only to say, that all do not choose to be saved, and will not come to him. If it be asked why the great sovereign of worlds does not constrain them to come, and bring all to heaven, I answer, my powers of rea- son here fail,-my understanding faints and is weary ; and I ask also, why he did not keep by his power men and devils from- falling, and save the universe from sin and sorrow altogether ?- Secret things belong to God, and I can only say as God's only Son said long since, " Even so, Father, so it seemeth good in thy sight." The christian scheme, then, claims that God, by his spirit, renews all that will be saved. I remark,

It is no part of this scheme, as you will V. That this is done by a change in the affections and life of man. This change has see, that God made men on purpose to damn them. No man, from the beginning of the been usually called regeneration, or the new

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birth, or conversion. It is that revolution of character, when a man ceases to be a sin- ner total and unqualified, and begins to be a man of holiness. It implies a change in his views and feelings towards God, and the Saviour,-towards the truths and duties of religion,-towards christians, and a revolu- tion in his objects and pursuits. It is not merely a love of happiness in a new form, it is a love of God and divine things, because they are good and amiable in themselves. It is instantaneous-not always indeed known at the time or precise moment, but to be tested by the new views and feelings, and especially by a holy life. New objects are loved ; new views are acted on ; a new world opens to the view ; and the man be- fore selfish, becomes now benevolent; he that was vicious becomes virtuous ; he that hated religion is now its friend; he that looked with cool contempt on all that could be said or done to win him. now enters heart and soul into the same work, and wonders that all does not see as he sees ; he that sought only to live and enjoy himself here, now rises to higher objects, begins to feel that he is in the infancy of his being, and casts an eye of desire to the green fields in the skies, where he may for ever sweep the lyre in the praise of the Son of God, and unite with angels and archangels in lauding him that sitteth on the throne forever and ever. Never was a more appropriate name given by inspired or uninspired lips than to call such a man a new creature. He begins now to live. He has just awaked to the great purposes of his being, and treads with a light heart, and soft step, the earth where he shall soon sleep, and fixes the eye on the heavens that are soon to become his home. All this is done through the merits of the Son of God, in virtue alone of his death, and in connection with two acts made in- dispensable by the authority of God. These high feelings, these exalted hopes, are con- ferred on no one who repents not of his sins, and believes not on the Son of God. The former act implies deep sorrow that God has been offended ; a deep sense of the intrinsic evil of sın, as well as of its conse- quences ; and a solemn purpose to renounce all that opposes God. The latter implies a sense of the lost condition by nature ; a conviction of helplessness, and unworthi-

ness, and a simple reliance on the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, a willingness to be in the hands of a holy God, and an humble trust in the promises of aid. It is a solemn, deliberate rejection of self, and a giving up the soul to God, and a cordial hatred of sin in every formn, and an embracing of the only Lord God, as the portion and Saviour of the soul. In connection with this act of believing, the sinner is pardoned and just- ified. A sweet sense of pardon, a peace that passeth all understanding flows into the wounded spirit. The storms subside, -- the sky becomes clear and serene. A new beauty-the beauty of a new spring, where every flower and fountain, every rock and hill, every sun and star, have "found a tongue " to tell the praises of the all-present God of redemption, spreads over the works of creation and providence. And the soul redeemed and disenthralled goes forth for the first time to enjoy truly the works of creation, or the business of life, or the so- ciety of new-found friends. There is a charm around the duties of religion, unfelt in all other employments; and all tell of the height and depth, and length, and breadth, of the love of Christ that passeth knowl- edge.

The evidence of this great change is to be sought in the life. By their fruits they shall be known. They shall grow in grace. They shall be progressively sanctified. They, and they only, have evidence of this change who die unto sin, and live unto righteousness, who put on the Lord Jesus Christ,-are clothed with humility, crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts-who do justice, love mercy, walk humbly, and persevere unto the end.

VI. The only other remark which I shall make in explaining our views of this scheme, is, that this salvation is complete ; and that God will watch over each renewed spirit till the day of judgment, and bring it infallibly to his kingdom. We should deem it strange, if God should be at all the expense of this plan,-if he should awaken and renew a soul,-if he should sprinkle on that soul the blood of Jesus. and freely par- don all its sins, and adopt it into his family. and make it a joint heir with Christ to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled,-if angels should rejoice over it, and after all

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in vain, and it should fall away and die for- ever. Such a once-pardoned sinner would. we should think, claim a rank in hell by himself. Such a work would belie all God's other works. When has he begun a thing, and abandoned it? Why should this he begun, and then forsaken ?-- It is then in ac- cordance, we suppose, with a scheme com- plete in all its parts, that the all-seeing and all-powerful Saviour said, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me : and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my band : and in accord- ance with the same system he will say in the day of judgment to all hypocrites and apostates, with their pretences to experi- ence and joy, I NEVER knew you, depart from me.

It is with peculiar interest that we are permitted to proclaim that all that will be- lieve, ALL, not a part, shall infallibly be saved ; that God is able to keep that which you have committed to him against that day ; that HE will never leave you, nor for- sake you ; that it you will come to him he will in no wise cast you out; that he will keep you by his mighty power through faith unto salvation ; and that though you fall. you shall not be utterly cast down. To all. I say, if you believe the gospel, heaven is yours. When you believe, you lay hold with no feeble grasp, on· eternal life ; and in every season of temptation and conflict, you shall find the Saviour, like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, a covert from the tempest, a hiding-place from the storm, a strong tower into which the righteous may run and be safe. A heaven of boundless felicity shall be yours ; and neither the mar- shalled hosts of hell, nor the devices of men, nor the ten thousand foes in your own bosom, and around you, shall be able to pluck you from him who holds you in the hollow of the hand, and guards you as the apple of the eye. The angels await your ap- proach. They shall come forth with the glorious Son of God in the day of judgment, to welcome you to your, and their, eternal home. With them, you shall ascend, amidst songs and loud hallelujahs, rolling sweet music o'er the skies, to your, and their Fath- er and God, to dwell where shall be no more sin, nor pain, nor death.

There, in the blessed bosom of the living God, the everlasting Father of his redeemed people, there, shall terminate the efforts to redeem man. There, shall be gathered a countless host from every nation and tongue to join in one song of universal praise, to " extol him first, him midst and him without end." There shall be humbled all human pride ; and God only shall attract all eyes, and fill all hearts with the glories displayed in devising and executing the scheme, resulting in the ceaseless felicity of lost, ruined man.

I still ask your indulgence, while I deduce from this fruitful subject some important practical remarks.

Ist. Permit me to ask of you, my hearers, are you prepared to commit the interests of your immortal souls to this plan of salva- tion ? If I mistake not, the scheme which I have presented, is that of the Bible. If it is, it is the only way in which men can be saved. No scheme of morality, no religious device, if it has not the elements of this scheme in it, can be true or safe. The plan that humbles man, and exalts God ; that presents the great Sovereign of worlds as originating and carrying forward the scheme. is that which is presented in the Sacred Scriptures. Unless I have read the Bible, and facts to no purpose, this which I have presented contains the outlines of the scheme of truth. This is the system of the Bible. This is the doctrine which, in all ages, has excited the opposition of the human heart. Herein is the offence of the cross. Here is the scheme that abases all human pride, and gives honor, where honor is due, to God only .- I may add, that this is Calvinism,- the scheme so often misrepresented,-so little understood,-so much hated by im- penitent sinners-a scheme that has ex- cited, probably, more opposition than any other system of doctrines since the founda- tion of the world. This scheme, if I under- stand it, contains nothing more than an enlargement of the principles which I have stated in this discourse. It neither asserts, that God made men to damn them,-nor that infants will be damned,-nor that sin- ners will be lost, do what they can,-nor that God is unwilling' to save them,-nor that a poor penitent may not be saved ;

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but it claims that God is full of mercy, mak- ing ample provision for all that will come and inviting all freely ;- that all men are full of evil, and of themselves will not come ; -that those that are saved, are saved by the grace of God, in which he bestows his favors according to infinite wisdom, and his sovereign pleasure ;- that he has no new views about it, but has always intended to do what he actually does ;- and that he renews no heart in vain, but will keep all that are renewed, unto salvation. I appeal to your consciences, dying sinners, if this is not the scheme of the Bible? I ask not whether this is such a plan as a proud, im- penitent sinner would love, or such as your unsanctified feelings would approve, but I ask, is it not the evident scheme of the Word of God ? Is it not the plan on which, in fact, God governs the world ?- Who in this house can gainsay, or resist it ; or prove, or believe, that it is not ?- Not one. I ask then, again, fellow-sinners, are you pre- pared to commit your eternal interests to this plan ? Are you willing to be saved in this way? Are you willing to abase your- selves at the feet of the Sovereign of worlds, and to give all the honor to God ? Do you feel safe in this plan ; do you feel that you are lost sinners-that you deserve eternal death-that you lie at the Sovereign mercy of God-that you have no claim ; and feeling this, are you willing to drop into the hands of Jesus, and to be saved by his merit alone ? Do you feel, that if you are saved, it will not be by might or power of yours, but by the spirit of the Lord ? And do you love this scheme? Do you seek that God should be honored in it ; and do you pray and earnestly desire that it should spread wide as the world ? Do you pant that all may taste the grace of God- that every inhabitant of the lost world should join with you in the song of redeem- ing mercy ? If these are your feelings, then you are christians. I hesitate not to hold out to you, all the consolation that a min- ister of Jesus can afford, and to assure you, that you are treading the narrow path that leads to life. In that strait way, moving as God directs you, you shall find indeed, here and there a thorn, or a deep ravine, or a fen, or morass; but all along the path flowers shall shed their fragrance, the ear

shall listen to sweet harmony, green fields shall spread out before you, and the hope of heaven shall cheer you. To such I say, go on. Press forward. The prize, even the eternal crown, is near. Look not back ; but depending on the grace of God, fix the eye on heaven, and fight manfully the fight of faith, and lay hold on eternal life.

Of impenitent sinners, whether anxious or not, I say,

2dly, Are you prepared to reject this scheme ? To your consciences, not to your feelings, for you will not love it,-to your consciences, I put it, whether this is not the scheme of the Bible ? If it is, and what rebellious man here can deny it, if it is the plan of God, then you reject it at your peril. Then all your present plans, your morals, your formal prayers, your self-righteous- ness, your vain reliance on the unpromised mercy of God, are schemes that are abomin- able in the sight of your Maker ; and they and you, unless you forsake them, shall be driven away like chaff before the tempest. There is but one path that leads to life. It is a path where God is honored, and the sin- ner humbled In that path the sinner does not, will not tread .- Again I ask, are you prepared, fellow-mortal, to reject this scheme? I do not ask, whether you will deny it in words, for not a man dare, or can do this. But will you reject it in fact ? Man of the world, you. that love riches and honors more than God, will you still love your riches ; and in seeking your own honors, refuse to honor God ? Guilty sin- ner, you whose profaneness, and sensuality, and envy, and pride, have rendered your heart black as hell, and miserable almost as the damned, are you prepared to reject this plan, and still love your sins ?- Trembling sinner, bent under the weight of your guilt, and almost on the verge of life-you that seek salvation and have not found it, are you prepared to reject this scheme, and trust to your own merits ? If you do, you do it, I repeat it, at your peril. It is your duty now to embrace it. Here is all your hope. If this scheme is rejected,-if you will not submit to God's plan of saving men. -if you do it not now from the heart, you tread a broad and crowded path down to. the chambers of death. In that path you

(To be continued.)

THE RECORD

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, MORRISTOWN, N. J. " THIS SHALL BE WRITTEN FOR THE GENERATION TO COME."-Psalms 102 : 18.

VOLUME IV.

APRIL, 1884. NUMBER 16.

[Printed with the Approval of the Session. ]

THE RECORD

Will be published monthly at Morristown, N. J. Terms $1.00 per annum, in advance.

Subscriptions may be made at the book- stores of Messrs. Runyon and Emmell, or to Messrs. James R. Voorhees and William D. Johnson, or by letter addressed to the

EDITOR OF THE RECORD,

Morristown, N. J.

Entered at the Post Office at Morristown, N. J., as second class matter.

(Mr. Barnes's Sermon Concluded.)

now go. You may be charmed with sweet sounds, and revel with the wicked, and be unwilling to turn and live, you may walk amidst flowers, and wealth, and honor, but beyond you is a dreadful hell; and as a minister of the Son of God, I proclaim, that you will soon hear the groans of the damned, and see the right arm of the God of vengeance lifted on high to cut you down in eternal death .- To this scheme set before you now, trembling mortal fly. Fly before it is too late. Fly before the day of ven- geance comes, and you perish-perish for ever.

3d. From this subject, we see what ex- cludes men from Heaven. It is not a want of fulness, and freeness, in the plan of mercy. It is not that God is unwilling to save the sinner. It is simply because you will not be saved. You choose your own pride, your own vanity, your own lust, your own course in life-the path that leads to hell. Need I repeat the assurance so often made here, and in the Sacred Scriptures, that if you are lost, it will not be because God, or the Saviour, or the Angels, or Ministers, or |

Christians are to blame ? It will be simply because you choose death rather than life. No other being will bear the guilt but your- selves. Forever and forever, you will welter in eternal woe, bearing your guilt unpitied and alone. No other being will bear the blame. No solitary mortal or immortal can be charged with the guilt of your destruc- tion. Nor will it be a trifling crime to be damned. It is not a thing which you are at liberty to choose. You have no right to go down to hell and become the eternal enemy of God. You are under solemn obligations to be saved. Think what is implied in being lost. It implies the rejection of God's plan of saving the soul-the grieving of the spirit of God-trampling on the blood of Jesus- unbelief of what the God of truth has de- clared-contempt of his threatenings-the love of self, of sin, of destruction. Sinner, have you a right to travel in this wretched path ? Have you a right thus to trifle with a holy God ? Have you a right to reject all the means of mercy, and deliberately sin forever, against the God that made you ? I appeal to your conscience. Let me also re- mind you, if you go from this place to woe, you will inherit no common damnation. Here this amazing plan of God's mercy, has been presented again and again. Here you have been entreated in every possible way to be saved. Here God's Spirit has striven. Many of you have been before awakened, and lived through revivals of religion. With great power he has, within the past three months, awed you. Others have pressed into the kingdom ; and you have felt and known, that you must repent or die. You are now passing through the most solemn and interesting scenes that the earth wit- nesses, and listening to the most affecting appeals that he makes, unmoved. Who will be to blame, if you are lost-if others are taken, and you are left? Will God? Will

THE RECORD.

Christians ? Will ministers ? Will parents ? Will friends ? or will you yourselves? Let conscience answer. Go home this day, im- penitent sinner, if God spares a rebel like you to get home-go home and reflect, that if you pass through this revival unmoved, if you resist all the appeals that are made to you, from day to day, and week to week, the probability is, that you will be damned, and the certainty is, that you only will be to blame if you are. I do not say that you will certainly be lost, I say that a most fearful probability " thunders perdition on your guilty path." What should move you here- after, if you are not now moved ? What more can be done for you than has been done? You have been warned, entreated, impressed. You know your duty, and your doom, if you do it not. You are in the hands of a Sovereign¡God. There I leave you. I have no other power than to spread out the scheme of mercy-to entreat you by the love of Jesus, and the mercy of God, and the value of the soul, to embrace the offer of life ; and if you will perish, I must sit down and weep as I see you glide to the lake of death. Yet I cannot see you take that dread plunge-see you die, die forever, without once more assuring you that the offer of the gospel is freely made to you. While you linger this side the fatal verge, that shall close life and hope and happiness, I would once more lift up my voice and say, See, Sinner, see a God of love. He comes to you. He fills the heaven, the skies, the earth. Hear his voice as it breaks on the stillness of this house. Listen to the accents of the ever-living God-" As I live I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that he turn and live : turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die?" In the hands of that present God, that benignant Father, whose mercy breathes from every page of this book, I leave you. To him I commend you, with the deep feeling in my own bosom, that you are in his hands ; that you are solemnly bound to repent to-day, and be- lieve the gospel, and that if you perish, you only will be to blame. I feel, and know, that for not repenting, you have no excuse, and that God will forever hold you guilty.

it will be by his sovereign mercy-in such a way, that he only will have the praise ; and that the great secret, whether you will live or die, is lodged in his bosom, and that no mortal can compel or control him. That he holds over you the sceptre of life, or the sword of death; and that if you die, all creation will bow and say Amen, and Amen.

We also feel, and know. that God can save you-that he hears prayer. We will bear you, then, before the throne of grace, and say-Sovereign of worlds, Arbiter of life and death, spare this people, and save these dying sinners. "Oh, most holy, blessed, and merciful Saviour, deliver them not into the bitter pains of eternal death !" AMEN.

COMBINED REGISTERS, FOR PASTORATE OF THE REV. SAMUEL FISHER; JULY 1809 TO DEC. 1814.

It will be esteemed a great favor if the readers of THE RECORD will send CORREC- TIONS, or additional INFORMATION, to Lock Box 90, Morristown, N. J.

[To facilitate reference, the Registers of Baptisms, Com- municants, Marriages and Deaths, will hereafter be combined alphabetically for each pastorate. The significance of the abbreviations used is as follows :

aet .- aged. b .- born.

B .- baptized.

B. f. h .- " on husband's account.

B. f. w .- " " wife's

C .- became Communicant.

Ch .- Church.

d .- died or buried.

dg .- daughter.

dis .- dismissed by letter.

Exc .- excommunicated.

fr .- from. L .- received by letter.

m .- married. ord .- ordained.

s .- son. serv .- servant.

susp .- suspended. w .- wife. wid .- widow.

Names of Communicants are printed in small capitals ; those of children are indented under the names of their parents. The brace { connects names of husband and wife.

Remarks or additions made by the Editor are inclosed in brackets, thus [ ]; and doubtful conjectures are followed by the sign of interrogation.]

Polly Abers, wid. ; m.4 Dec., 1813, to Samuel Nestor.

Phebe Adamson. w. of Wm .; d. 27 Aug. 1813, aet. 19.

Jemima Allen, w. of Timothy ; d. 28 Nov., 1810, aet 28.

DEACON ALLEN.

Jabez Lindsly Allen, adopted ; b. 24

Dec., 1805 ; B. f. Dea'n. 2 July, 1812.

Keziah Layton, adopted; b. 7 Jan., 1809; B. f. Dea'n. 2 July, 1813.

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.

History of the First Presbyterian Church, Morristown, N.J., 1742-1882 pt 1, Part 49

Author: First Presbyterian Church in Morristown (N.J.) Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Morristown, N.J. : "Banner" Steam Print Number of Pages: 942

Author: First Presbyterian Church in Morristown (N.J.)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Morristown, N.J. : "Banner" Steam Print
Number of Pages: 942