USA > New Jersey > Burlington County > Burlington > History of the church in Burlington, New Jersey : comprising the facts and incidents of nearly two hundred years, from original, contemporaneous sources > Part 45
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The Rt. Rev. Bishop Southgate.
Rev. Dr. Berrian, N. Y. Rev. Dr. Mahan, N. Y.
Rev. Dr. Ogilby, N. Y.
Rev. Dr. Johnson, N. Y.
Rev. Dr. Van Kleeck, N. Y.
Rev. Dr. Morgan, N. Y.
Rev. Dr. Tucker, Troy, N. Y.
Rev. J. H. Hopkins, Jr., N. Y.
Rev. John J. Elmendorf, N. V.
Rev. Isaac H. Tuttle, N. Y.
Rev. W. G. Farrington, N. Y.
Rev. V. Bruce, Hoboken, N. J.
Rev. Chas. Arey, Jersey City.
Rev. J. S. Saunders, Newark, N. J.
Rev. C. F. Hoffman, N. J.
Rev. E. A. Hoffman, N. J.
Rev. Clarkson Dunn, N. J.
Rev. J. N. Stansbury, Newark, N. J.
Rev. Jas. A. Williams, Orange, N. J.
Rev. Dr. C. Williams, Philadelphia.
Rev. E. K. Smith, N. J.
Rev. Dr. Odenheimer, Philadelphia.
Rev. H. Finch, Shrewsbury, N. J.
Rev. H. H. Reid, N. J.
Rev. N. Pettit, N. J ..
Rev. Mr. Sterling, N. J.
Rev. Dr. Ducachet, Philadelphia.
Rev. S. M. Haskins, Williamsburgh, N. Y.
Rev. E. W. Syle, China.
Rev. J. F. Garrison, M. D., Camden, N. J ...
Rev. E. B. Chase, Belvidere, N. J. Rev. William Rudder, Illinois.
Rev. Robert G. Chase, N. J.
Rev. S. W. Hallowell, N. J.
Rev. James Thompson, N. J.
Rev. Dr. Rose, Newark, N. J.
Rev. J. W. Shackelford, N. J.
Rev. Dr. Clay, Philadelphia. Rev. F. D. Canfield, Boonton, N. J. Rev. Marcus F. Hyde, N. J ...
Rev. Dr. Van Pelt, Philadelphia.
Rev. Edward M. Pecke, N. J.
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" There were also present, the Governor of New Jersey, with several Judges, Senators, &c. ; also, President King, of Colum- bia College, N. Y .; Cyrus Curtiss, Esq., and delegates from the vestry of Trinity Church, N. Y .; delegates from St. Paul's Vestry, Hoboken ; delegates from Troy, and various other cities and towns in New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
" At one o'clock, the Rev. Dr. Ogilby, entered the room where the clergy were robing, and announced that carriages were ready for those appointed to officiate. The three Bishops, with the Rev. Dr. Berrian, accordingly proceeded to the Church in advance.
" At half-past one o'clock, the procession left the house in the following order :
Sexton, with mace draped in black crape. Undertaker and Assistants. Rev. C. F. Hoffman, Curate of St. Mary's Church.
Clerical Deputies of General Con- vention : Rev. Dr. Mahan,
Rev. Mr. Dunn,
Rev. Mr. Goodwin,
Rev. David Brown.
Lay Members of Standing Com- mittee :
Judge Carpenter, Judge Ogden, J. C. Garthwaite, Dr. Babbitt.
COFFIN.
Clerical Members of Standing Com- mittee : Rev. Mr. Finch, Rev. Mr. Williams,
Rev. Dr. Stubbs,
Rev. E. A. Hoffman.
Lay Deputies of General Conven- tion :
Hon. Mr. Miller, Dr. Thompson, Mr. Milnor, Mr. W. A. Rogers.
[The body was borne on the shoulders of six men.]
Rev. George Hobart Doane with his aunt.
Rev. William Croswell Doane, and wife. Other members of the family. Clergy of the Diocese, two and two.
Clergy of other Dioceses, two and two. The Governor of New Jersey.
The Trustees of Burlington College.
Charles King, Esq., LL. D., President of Co- lumbia College. Vestry of St. Mary's Church. Vestries of other churches. Acting Rector and Professors of Burlington College, in surplices and Oxford caps. Teachers. Theological Students. 2 L
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Alumni. Students of Burlington College. Treasurer of the Diocese. Curator of the Institutions. Rev. Elvin K. Smith, Principal and Head of the Family of St. Mary's Hall, in surplice.
Family of St. Mary's Hall, two and two, con- sisting of between eighty and one hun- dred young ladies, in deep mourning, many of whom were in tears. Parishioners. Other Friends. Citizens generally.
" The coffin was covered with a purple pall, having a large white cross in the centre. On the top was laid the pastoral staff, covered with crape, and resting upon a garland of japonicas and violets.
" The procession extended a mile or thereabouts, and crowds of people witnessed it. At the windows of the various houses by which the procession passed, ladies appeared with mourning badges, and it was observed that in almost every instance there was weeping. Indeed, the day appeared to be one of mourning, real and heartfelt, not the 'solemn mockery of woe.'
" When the procession arrived at the Church, the coffin was met at the door by Bishops Hopkins, Southgate, and Potter, and Rev. Dr. Berrian, and proceeded up the nave in the same order, the Rev. Dr. Berrian reading the sublime sentences in the Bur- ial Service, the organ playing a solemn dirge.
" Arrived at the chancel, the coffin was placed with the feet next the Altar, which was covered with purple, and over which was the following inscription in white letters on a purple ground :
' Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord; for they rest from their labors.'
" The Bishop's throne was entirely covered with purple and festooned with crape, as were also the pulpit, the organ, the gallery, the gas burners, and other portions of the Church.
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"The Bishops stood at the head of the coffin, the clergy stationed themselves on either side, and they and the whole congregation knelt and continued for some moments in silent prayer, the organ still performing the dirge. The choir sang the anthems, after which the lesson was read by the Right Rev. Bishop Southgate.
"The procession then moved to the grave, where the family were surrounded by the clergy. The Bishop of Vermont took his position on an elevation at the head of the grave, the Pro- visional Bishop of New York, Bishop Southgate, and Rev. Dr. Berrian standing below him.
""' Man that is born of a woman,' and the Committal, were read by Bishop Hopkins, while the earth was thrown in by the Rev. C. F. Hoffman.
"The choir then sung :
"' I heard a voice from Heaven,' &c.
" The concluding prayers were said by Bishop Potter, after which the members of the family, the clergy, and other friends, passed, and took a last look at the coffin, and after all had departed, the workmen employed covered up the grave, and all that was mortal of the good Bishop of New Jersey, was hidden from view, there to remain until the last trump shall call all those who, like him, depart in the faith of Christ."-New York Express, May 2d, 1859.
MEETING OF THE CLERGY.
" After the obsequies a meeting of the clergy was held in the old Church, when, on motion of the Rev. E. A. Hoffman, the Rev. Clarkson Dunn, of Elizabethtown, senior presbyter of the diocese, was called to the chair, and the Rev. Wm. Herbert Norris, of Woodbury, appointed Secretary.
" The Rev. Alfred Stubbs, D. D., of New Brunswick, said they were called together for the purpose of drafting a series of resolutions, expressive of the esteem in which their beloved Bishop had been held, and of their love for his memory. It could not be necessary for him to say one word of the character of his venerable Father among those who had loved him so long
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and so well. He had not the power to do so; and if he had, he had not the heart. Bishop Doane had stamped his memory in the hearts of those among whom and in the age in which he- lived. 'His works do follow him.' He was gone to his incor- ruptible inheritance, to receive that crown of glory which fadeth not away, and never should his name cease to shine on the ram- parts of their Zion. He (the speaker) knew that they would all respond to the wish that, whatever the infirmities of his- (deceased's) nature, when that great day of account should come,. and a voice should be heard at the mercy-seat, saying, 'Call the laborers and give them their hire,' they might have but a tithe. of the offerings he gave, the sufferings he endured, and the labors he performed in the Church of God, to produce as their work. He would now move that a committee of five, viz. : Revs Dr. Mahan, David Brown, Dr. Garrison, Mr. Merritt, Mr. Pettit, be appointed to draft resolutions expressing the great love and esteem in which they held the memory of the late Bishop Doane.
" The motion was carried unanimously, after which it was- resolved, on motion of Rev. E. A. Hoffman, that the clergy of the diocese wear black crape on the left arm, for thirty days, as- a token of respect to the memory of the late Bishop."-Ibid.
RESOLUTIONS OF THE CLERGY IN ATTENDANCE.
" WHEREAS, It hath pleased Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, to take unto Himself, after an illness brief and painful, but full of spiritual comfort, our beloved and honored Bishop, in the ripeness of his strength, and in the midst of his noble, wise, and self-sacrificing labors :
"Resolved, That deeply sensible of the loss sustained by our- selves, by the Diocese of New Jersey, and by the Church at large, we bow submissively to the Wisdom that has directed, and the Goodness that has tempered this chastening stroke :
"That we heartily thank God, the Giver of all good, for the distinguished virtues and rare graces, manifested in the long, laborious, and divinely prospered Ministry of His servant ; for his singular magnanimity, charity, faith, patience, hope; for his unwearied tenderness as a Pastor, deeply sympathizing with all classes, ages, and conditions of the Flock, his extraordinary power as a Preacher of Christ Crucified, his varied skill as &
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Church Teacher, rightly dividing the Word of Truth, his soundness, judgment, and ripe learning as a Scholar and Theo- logian, his diligence and commanding ability as a Counsellor and Ruler, his loving and punctilious fidelity as a Priest in the services of the Sanctuary, his wise and able advocacy of the cause of Christian Education, his high character and wide influ- ence in all the relations of domestic, civil, and social, as well as ecclesiastical life ;
" That we adore God's goodness for all the blessed circum- stances of peace, joy, serenity, and of reasonable, religious, and holy hope, and for all the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit, that brightened the last moments, and cheered the departure of our beloved deceased Bishop ;
" That we tender our heartfelt sympathy to the family of the deceased, in this, their sore affliction and bereavement ;
"That we implore, the Divine Grace, that this visitation may be sanctified to the chastening of all hearts, to the promotion of peace, charity, and good will among us, to the increase of faith, to renewed diligence, humility, steadfastness, and devo- tion, in the service of our sole, supreme, living, and ever-present Head, Jesus Christ, our Lord."
RESOLUTIONS OF THE ALUMNI OF BURLINGTON COLLEGE.
A meeting of the Alumni of Burlington College was held in the College Library, on Saturday, the 30th ult., immediately after the funeral of the Bishop of New Jersey.
George M. Miller, Esq., was called to the chair, and Rev. Hobart Chetwood was chosen Secretary.
On motion of C. Willing Littell, the following resolutions vere unanimously adopted :
Resolved, That as no words of ours can express the emotion ·occasioned by this visitation of our Heavenly Father, who, in His wisdom, has seen fit to visit us with trouble, and to bring distress upon us, we, the Alumni of Burlington College, endea- vor by our action to give expression to our grief, for the loss of him, who, by the brilliancy and cultivation of his intellect, the extent of his learning, the refinement of his taste, the variety of his accomplishments, the purity, strength, and dignity of his character, and the warmth and geniality of his heart, beautifully adorned every relation of life, and united in himself those ties which bound us so strongly to him, as founder of our College, our honored President, our revered Bishop, and our long and much loved friend.
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Resolved, That a Committee, consisting of the Chairman and Secretary of this meeting, with one member of each class, be constituted, with authority, to receive contributions, and to adopt measures necessary to the erection of a monument appropriate to the memory of Bishop Doane.
Resolved, That the present and former students of the College, the graduates, with the present and former pupils of St. Mary's Hall, are hereby invited to unite with us in the erection of this memorial.
Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted by the Secretary to the family of the Bishop, and to the Board of Trustees, with the request that they be entered upon the records of the College; and that the proceedings of this meeting be pub- lished in the principal ecclesiastical and secular newspapers of New York, Newark, and Philadelphia.
In accordance with the second resolution, the following gentlemen were appointed members of the committee, and empowered to receive contributions for the erection of the monument : George M. Miller, New York; Rev. Hobart Chetwood, Elizabeth, N. J .; Rev. William T. Johnston, Balti- more ; C. Willing Littell, Philadelphia ; Henry O. Claggett, Leesburg, Va .; George S. Lewis, Burlington, N. J .; James O. Watson, Portsmouth, N. H. ; Henry W. Nelson, Boston ; Jere- miah C. Garthwaite, Jr., Newark, N. J .; William B. Griffin, New Orleans.
THE DAY AFTER THE BURIAL.
" The day following the funeral," says the Rev. Dr. Mahan,. " being the first of May, and the octave of the Easter-Feast- was a beautiful and fit sequel to so solemn an occasion. There was the same glorious sunshine, the same fragrance and bloom pervading the leafy atmosphere of the good old city of Burling- ton, the same ringing song of birds, the same sparkling of the crisp waves of the Delaware, the same vernal jubilee, in short,- which had thrown such a halo of gladness round the otherwise sad proceedings of the day before.
" All day long the Bishop's grave was visited by a succession. of silent and tearful groups. All that glorious May-day it lay under the soft sunshine, a mound of fresh and fragrant flowers, which loving hands continued to heap upon it from morning to night. In St. Mary's and St. Barnabas', the sermons of course.
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breathed of the occasion, and the Holy Communion shed its healing unction upon the grief of the great family of mourners. He who has ever participated in this most comfortable sacra- ment by the death bed of some dear friend, the idol of a stricken family, has witnessed on a small scale, what was on this mem- orable Lord's day, exhibited at large among the Church people of Burlington."
THE FIRST SERMON IN ST. MARY'S AFTER THE FUNERAL.
" The selection of" the Rev. Frederick Ogilby, D. D., Assis- tant Minister of Trinity Church, N. Y., as "the Preacher at the service which first followed Bishop DOANE's funeral, in St. Mary's Church, was a loving recognition of his previous rela- tions to the departed Bishop, and this sorrowing Parish. This sermon was wholly prepared after the trying scenes of Saturday.
" The author would never have attempted such a hurried preparation, had it been designed at this time to offer a proper tribute to the Bishop's memory. The Preacher only attempted, as a former minister in St. Mary's Church, to speak words of comfort to an afflicted people. This discourse was, therefore, a simple outpouring of the heart's true feeling, from one who well might weep with them that wept.
"It was published in compliance with the request of the Vestry."
The text was from the First Lesson : "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee : when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned ; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee."-ISAIAH, xliii : 2.
After a solemn introduction the preacher said : "My brethren and dear friends, it is hardly needful for me, impressed with the solemnities of that recent death scene, to assure you there is no affectation of unfelt humility in the declaration, that nothing but a trust in Him whose strength is made perfect in weakness, could nerve my soul to venture upon the office I attempt this day. My sorrow is not less than yours, my grief not less heavy to bear ; we all have but one Comforter. My heart at once re-
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sponded to the suggestion of the kind and loving friends, who thought that this place had peculiar claims upon my presence this day. I refer not merely to years of dear and holy love, such as binds together the hearts of father and of son ; a love which only grew with passing years, and whose intensity beamed upon me with eternal light from dying eyes, on Wednesday last. Beside all this, it was my privilege once to share with your shepherd, now in the eternal fold of Christ, the pastoral care of this flock. Life, with all its sad experience; death, with its blight and its ruin, have not effaced the memory of that associa- tion. How mysterious are the orderings of Providence! I come this day to take my old place among you, while he, who seemed as the giant of the forest, illustrates the sad truth, 'as for man, his days are as grass, as a flower of the field so he flourisheth ; for the wind passeth over it and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more!' But my office of com- forter permits me not to dwell upon thoughts of death. Last Sunday the light of Easter beamed brightly upon all the graves of earth. To-day that Easter light is falling cheerily upon a new made grave. And though in that sepulchre are entombed the remains of one, who filled so large a place in all our hearts, yet even with death so present, with its awful shadow so dark around us, Easter light breaks through the gloom and speaks to us of life and immortality. My office, then, is to speak to you, from whose eyes death has just wrung such bitter tears of dis- tress, of life-of a life not ended, but continued-of a life which God gave for your blessing, and which still endures upon earth in its results and in its effect, though the soul hath passed from the sorrows of this world to the joys of Paradise.
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" With the most earnest desire, in this temple of truth, to give expression to no thought in which there shall be the slightest approach to exaggeration, and with the calmest and most care- ful consideration, I say deliberately, that no single human life, of the present day, within my knowledge or observation, has had in it more, both of action and of suffering, compressed in the narrow compass of three score years, than the life of the noble Bishop and Pastor who has now rested from his labors.
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He lived among you, under your close and continual observa- tion ; you have seen, you have known, what his life has been.
" My own personal knowledge of him reaches beyond a quar- ter of a century ; nearly half of his mortal life. Then a youth in college at New Brunswick, I saw him on his first visitation of his Diocese. I saw him, in the freshness of his manly beauty, ' ruddy, and of a fair countenance,' as David when he first went forth the champion of Israel. You saw him yesterday, as he was laid in the calm repose of a holy death, with the frosts and furrows of premature age upon him. Could six and twenty years of life have wrought all that change, if in those years was not compressed a whole life of action and of suffering ?
"Consider first the action of his life-which was literally, 'always abounding in the work of the Lord.' You cannot fol- low the course of that action. Few mortal steps could keep pace with it. You may look at it, in its results. In this too hasty discourse, prepared after all the excitement of yesterday, one of the most trying days of my life, I will not attempt to trace even the results of this unwearied activity, as they are im- pressed upon the general interests of the Church in this land. How large a space would be occupied in setting forth the effect of this untiring energy, as witnessed in the House of Bishops, the Board of Missions, the Trustees of the General Theological Seminary, and the S. S. Union and Church Book Society-in- deed, in all the general Institutions of the Church. Bishop Doane had a truly Catholic heart, and while he never forgot his own Diocese, he remembered that he was not only Bishop of New Jersey, but also of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. For years there was hardly one important committee, in any general Institution of the Church, of which he was not a leading member. In the Missionary operations of the Church beyond his own Diocese, he always evinced the most lively interest, and his large heart embraced with an active sympathy the Foreign as well as the Domestic field. Notwithstanding all this, his most active and untiring energy expended itself upon his own Diocese. Every parish, from the smallest to the great- est, had his sleepless vigilance ; and the least sign of trouble or
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of difficulty attracted his notice and his presence. His duties in his parish and the two institutions here, made his visitations hurried, but what life and effect he gave them, and how his presence stirred up the life of others ! The results of his Dio- cesan labors are witnessed in the great increase of parishes in strength and numbers, in the lists of clergy, communicants, and candidates for Holy Orders and for confirmation, since his Epis- copate. I well remember what this Diocese, and not a few of its Parishes, were in the year 1832. The memories of those before me, which reach back as far as that time, can estimate, with arithmetical precision, the results of Bishop Doane's ener- getic action.
"But in speaking to you, my old and dear friends of St. Mary's Church, I would rather dwell upon the results which your own eyes have witnessed, within the immediate circle of your own observation. The memorial tablet, in St. Paul's Cathedral, to commemorate its great Architect, bears the appro- priate inscription-' Si monumentum quaris, circumspice'-if you seek a monument, look around ! How many things in Burlington might bear this inscription to the memory of Bishop Doane! How truly might it here be said of his life of action in this place-Si monumentum quaris, circumspice. It needs no monumental marble to tell you, Parishioners of St. Mary's and citizens of Burlington, what he has done. Some of you, as well as I, remember the Church, in this place, to which he was called as Rector. Look around upon this noble edifice, and its offspring, St. Barnabas-the monuments of Pastoral energy ! If these are not enough, look at St. Mary's Hall and Burling- ton College, the monuments at once of his action and his suffer- ing. His own hands, almost unaided, reared these noble monu- ments, and their very stones were wet and stained with his sweat and his life blood. That these might prove a blessing to the Church, he ventured all that life holds dear ; and, but for the brave heart, strong in its consciousness of right, with which he battled in a just cause, he and they would have fallen before misguided foes. But, blessed be God, his life was spared to place these monuments of his action and his suffering upon an
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enduring basis, and to leave them to perpetuate his life in theirs. Though in him they have lost their best friend, his death can- not destroy the work of his life. What comfort do we find in those exulting words, with which he began his last published address to the Graduating Class at St. Mary's Hall.
"' This is the one and twentieth birthday of St. Mary's Hall. It seems to me, impossible. But the other day, as I sat, at work, in my study, in that old Academy, which stood, where St. Mary's Church, now stands, it was proposed to me, to buy the property built, as a school, for Friends, to be a girls' school of the Church. But the other day, I set my hand to a pamphlet, entitled 'Female Education, on Christian Principles ; ' the first announcement of my plan. But the other day, on a beautiful May morning, these doors were opened, to a little band of timid girls, who are now abroad upon the land : its mothers, and its grandmothers ; God bless them ! And, now, scarce a city, or a town, or a village, or a hamlet, in which St. Mary's Hall is not 'a household word.' While, each successive year, the living stream of women has flowed out; to beautify, and fertilize, the land. For these exceeding blessings of His Providence and Grace, God's holy name be praised ! That He may still continue them ; and, that St. Mary's Hall, through generation after gen- eration, while the world shall stand, may be a name, still, and a praise, let us devoutly ask Him, through the merits of His Son, our only Saviour Jesus Christ.'
" To that prayer whose heart will not respond, Amen ?
" We ask no prouder monument of thy life of action and suffering, beloved Bishop and friend! In this alone, thy life endures. Esto perpetua !
-X -X- X-
" I have not spoken to you of your Bishop and Rector, as a Preacher. It were needless. The very stones of this Temple are steeped in his eloquence. Its echoes will linger forever in these hallowed courts, and will, I trust, never pass from your hearts. -X
" Nor need I speak to you of him as a Pastor. The footprints of his merciful offices are worn too deep, in all the paths of human sorrow and suffering among you, to be ever effaced.
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" I have not attempted to set before you his full length por- trait, as a Bishop or as a man. What he was, in his high office and in his noble manhood, you know full well. Mighty, as a Bishop, through God's eternal power, to strengthen what was weak, to awaken what was asleep, to quicken what was dead ! Great as a man-great in mind and intellect, but greater far in heart and soul, conquering not merely by the might of reason, but winning souls by the mightier influence of love !"
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