USA > New Jersey > Union County > Rahway > Jubilee souvenir of the First Presbyterian Church of Rahway, New Jersey > Part 3
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2. My hearers, when the city grows the church will grow. It. can't help it. May my prophecy this morning have speedy fulfillment, proving to be not a wild dream of the distant future, but a sober vision of a near and present
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reality, and with the growth of the place we may hope to see this commodious building filled, and the membership and power of the church continually increased.
But, beloved, numbers are not all. Quantity is not the test of efficiency. Quality measures power. Our Church is three hundred strong to-day. Here is material enough to do grand work in the upbuilding of Christian manhood and the inbringing of Christian souls.
3. Let me briefly indicate two of the many characteristics which I crave for this church, and for the attainment of which bravely I face our present duties. This is one, a twofold principle, loyalty to fundamental truth, with liberty of opinion and of utterance. One thought impresses me profoundly to-day. It is this : From this desk is preached the same Gospel now which Dr. Pomeroy and Dr. Sheddan preached for thirty years, and whose glorious truth they have realized as "they see eye to eye and know as they are known"; the same Gospel which Dr. Imbrie and Dr. Janeway preached fifty years ago, and, believing still, are waiting for Christ's call to "Come up higher"; the same Gospel which the first four pastors of this church and the last preached, to men sin-lost with the same curse, and sin-saved by the same Christ-the Gospel of faith, and love, and righteousness, and peace, the ever- lasting Gospel of the Son of God. May this pulpit be ever sacred to the faithful presentation of the truth as it is in Jesus. May these pews be filled with men and women not desiring " teachers who have itching ears," but striving to apprehend and appropriate the solemn, solid doctrines of the word of God. Let not the weather-vane on yonder spire (a most uncanny symbol on a church steeple), let it not typify the unstable character of your faith as you are driven about by the various winds of doctrine ; but let
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your faith be anchored to the cross of Christ which should crest every Christian church and crown every Christian character. " God forbid that we should glory save in the cross of Jesus Christ."
4. But couple liberty with loyalty as God leads us bravely on. Truth is many-sided. Let us look on all sides. It is a thoughtful age. Think deeply, then broadly, for thus God meant we should think.
Truth is changeless ; but our outlook varies, our stand- point alters. I said that the same Gospel is preached here to-day as fifty or a hundred years ago. But suppose I could find in attic or basement of the old manse, the yellow manuscript of one of Dr. Janeway's earliest sermons, or groping among the tombs in yonder graveyard (a custom to which I am not addicted), suppose I could resurrect the skeleton of one of Mr. Richards's discourses, with its firstly and seventeenthly and " finally, brethren," these sermons of the venerable fathers might be far superior to any I could write, but should I preach them to-day, you would wonder what Rip Van Winkle-like event had happened to your present pastor, so queer and quaint the truth would sound in the thought and language of the long ago.
Too bad, if Christian truth has been a stagnant pool all these years, while in the arts and sciences, in philosophy and physics, in schoolroom and society, in library and laboratory, the river of knowledge has flowed on with ever-widening channel into God's great sea of universal truth.
It takes courage to-day to keep hold of the fundamental doctrines which some are letting slip. It takes courage as well to lay hold on new truths that the revolution of time and the evolution of thought are bringing to light. I plead for loyalty and liberty in the same breath. Let us seek for
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truth anywhere, everywhere ; not with the candlelight of the sixteenth century or the rushlight of the Dark Ages, but in the electric light of this nineteenth century, in the full blaze of whose glory men are searching with scientific and self-deny- ing devotion, and are seeing sublime visions of God. Some think the religious atmosphere to-day is full of electricity, ready to explode and involve all things spiritual in destruc- tion. Not so. This is pessimistic, cowardly.
The present atmospherical disturbances are only tran- sient ; clear settled weather is coming soon. The air had grown thick and murky with creeds and catechisms. Men longed to see the light of Him who was no maker of dogma or ritual, and to breathe the air of Jesus, whose mission was to teach the childlike faith and the Christlike life. These longings are being satisfied as never before. The times call for courage and confidence. God give us grace to be both conservative and liberal. There are doctrines which our Church holds dear, which bear the mark of battle and wear the crown of victory. Thank God for them ; they are pre- cious. Hold fast to them ; they are priceless.
There are other truths which are being baptized in battle now, and which, please God, shall ere long come forth victorious.
5. Note one more principle which has also a twofold bearing. It is fidelity to our own Church, yet friendship and fellowship with all. Just base this thought for a moment on the lowest ground-the material.
Our debt is paid, yet in more ways than I could mention do we see the need of improvement in our church property on every hand. Judiciously will the necessary funds be ex- pended as demand and supply direct. But, friends, God save us from selfishness ! We are square now with the world, but it needs a helping hand. We owe no man any-
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thing and yet owe every man something. We are out of debt, yet great is our obligation.
The grand cause of missions pleads pathetically. Shall it plead in vain ? Manifold charities call loudly. Shall we not heed their call? Noble has been your record in the past ; let us make a nobler record in the future. May this church be distinguished for its broad benevolence and its grand beneficence.
Let all its members be quick and generous to respond to every call for " sweet charity's" sake.
Remember the words of our Lord Jesus, how he said, ." It is more blessed to give than to receive ; " forget not the test which Christ applied : " Freely ye have received, freely give," and again, " Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these ye did it unto me."
Place the thought on a higher-a spiritual basis. As members of this Church of Christ we are pledged to mutual fidelity. Let us endeavor to "keep the unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace."
Harmony is as essential to church life as to music. Let ours be so in unison that when one or another strikes the wrong key, as is sure to happen now and then, the trifling discord will be lost in the sweet harmony that swells forth from souls akin, and wings us all “ nearer to God."
Fidelity to our own Church must be enjoined. Let us love it ; let us live and labor for it.
We are Presbyterians. Why ? For myself I answer, because it is the broadest Church, and therefore the best. It unchurches none ; it fellowships with all. Into our com- munion we welcome every true believer. To the Holy Sacrament we invite " all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." Now then, beloved, the better Presbyterians
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we are, the broader Christians we ought to be. We hold to the universal priesthood of believers. We belong to the great brotherhood of Christ. From sectarian pride and ecclesiastical prejudice and narrow-minded exclusiveness and Christless bigotry, " Good Lord, deliver us."
Christian unity may be as yet a dream. Let us hasten the day when the Church shall wake to its reality.
Let us consecrate this historic church to the broad grand principles of Christian fellowship, and strive with one accord to secure the speedy fulfillment of Christ's prophetic prayer, " that they may be one as we are one."
But this is not all. There must be friendship not only with the Christian Churches, but with the Christless world.
Bravely, beloved, I face with you the present crisis as I bestir you to better service for those for whom Christ died.
Oh, friends, the church of Christ to-day has a mission grand.
It must save the churchless and Christless all around.
How to reach the masses is the great problem that baffles us now. It should command our earnest thought and prayer and zeal. How shall we solve the problem vast ? How save the people who are without the Church and with- out the Christ ? These are the questions we must ask and answer. To this work in this city we call this church to- day. It is not mine now to outline any phase of evangelistic
work. Only in this closing word let me say, with all the earnestness of my soul, that the power of this church for Christ in this community, to illuminate the darkness, to leaven the infidelity, to destroy the iniquity, and to save men by the power of an endless life, will be measured by the fidelity with which you and I fulfill our Lord's command to " preach the Gospel to every creature."
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But friendship for the sinner involves hostility to sin. We must discriminate as Christ did.
Sin must be destroyed that sinners may be saved. The power of Satan must be dethroned, if we would enthrone the Christ in men's hearts. The problem of reaching the masses demands immediate solution. For, believe me, if the Church does not save the churchless soon, they will destroy the Churches.
Irreconcilable forces are arrayed against each other right here in our city. The saloon and the Church are declared enemies. Intemperance and sobriety are sworn foes. In- fidelity and faith must fight, and one must fall. The Sab- bath-keepers and Sabbath-breakers stand with drawn swords. The issues of life and death hang in the balance. The hour demands action prompt, decisive. We must not only stand on the defense, but prepare for aggressive war- fare. It is no time now to sit and sing " hold the fort." The hosts are enlisted! The enemy is in line! The battle is on! The trumpet calls! Our Captain leads! Fall in line! Close up! Follow Christ! Face the foe! On, on, into the thick of the fight. Rout the enemy of our faith-raise the stand- ard of the cross! Redeem the lost-"ring in the Christ!" Nor can we furl our flags nor ground our arms nor pitch our tents
" TILL EVERY FOE IS VANQUISHED, AND CHRIST IS LORD INDEED."
ADDRESS
BY THE REV. GEORGE S. MOTT, D. D., OF FLEMINGTON, N. J., IN RESPONSE TO THE NAME OF SAMUEL SHARON SHEDDAN, D. D., PASTOR FROM 1852 TO 1874. DIED AT RAHWAY, N. J., OCTOBER 18, 1874.
I AM profoundly impressed by these services in which we are engaged, and the like of which I have never attended. This roll-call of the captains of the Lord's host, going back one hundred and fifty years,-men who served their day and generation so faithfully, and some of whom have entered into their reward,-cannot fail to bring us within the shades of solemn feeling, although there is brightness above and around. I have been invited to respond to the name of Samuel S. Sheddan, who was pastor of this church from 1852 to 1874. I can only answer to the name. I am not com- petent to portray the life and character, and even were I qualified for this, the time to which I am necessarily re- stricted permits only a profile sketch, not the full face.
He was the first pastor with whom I, as a pastor, was associated. And I have always esteemed it a privilege that so pleasant, kind, considerate, and fraternal a minister occupied this charge. He was at the beginning of his maturity, while I was a youth fresh from the Theological Seminary, inexperienced and distrustful of myself. Now it would have been easy, and, indeed, pardonable, if he had regarded me as "the young brother," full of zeal and good purposes-but who would have to learn some things. But there was nothing of that sort. He treated me as a brother,
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S
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when he might have been a little patronizing. It is not always easy to speak of one with whom you have had relations so peculiar as those which may exist between the pastors of two churches in a small town, and of the same ecclesiastical connection. But it is an easy task for me, because, as I call up the five years during which I was pastor of the Second Church, I cannot find anything on the part of Dr. Sheddan that I could desire to extenuate, or to look at through the medium of Christian charity.
The peculiar location of these two Presbyterian churches is conducive to harmony. The stream which flows across this town constitutes a natural division between the parishes. It was made such at the organization of the Second Church. I am not sure whether this agreement was brought to my attention by Dr. Sheddan, or by the Session of the Second Church. But I at once saw how reasonable and desirable it was. Besides the pastor of this church, under whom the Second was formed, had infused his own gentle, peaceable spirit into both churches. That was in the air when I came, and I breathed it with great delight. And let me say in passing it is the only regretful memory that will attach to the service of this afternoon that Rev. Dr. Imbrie is not with us. We sympathize with him in the death of that brother, as the cause which keeps him away. And permit me to avail myself of his absence to say what I might feel constrained to omit in his presence. When I came to Rah- way I found that Dr. Imbrie was held in the highest esteem by all. And by none more than by those who had been under his ministry, and who so reluctantly left him to form the Second Church. They went away only because he made it appear to be their duty. And when, on some future anni- versary occasion (it may be the second centennial of this church), when your descendants shall listen to the recital of
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the past, none of the pastors will receive a more noble recognition than will Charles K. Imbrie.
I do not enter into the details of Dr. Sheddan's life. That is given in another connection. He came here from Warrior Run. His history had been somewhat diversified, and not without trials. In that charge he was compelled to teach a school, in order to supplement a living. He had little opportunity for study. I have heard him say that he prepared many of his sermons during recess, or when wait- ing for a class to recite. And yet there was an indescrib- able charm about those sermons. His style was poetic, without the florid, which often attaches to a glowing imag- ination. All you who have heard him will never forget the great beauty of rhetoric, the fitness and freshness of his illus- tration, which characterized his sermons and addresses, and those who have never heard him may test the correctness of this statement by reading that charming booklet of his, published by our board of publication, entitled "Valley of Achor."
I shall never forget the beauty and the tenderness, and the dignity of the charge he gave me at my ordination and installation as pastor of the Second Church. One might query how was this charm of style secured. I think the answer comes, when we consider his birthplace. That was near the Susquehanna, in Pennsylvania. This stream glides through those fertile and broad valleys with a gentle flow. Here Samuel S. Sheddan passed his boyhood and early youth. As he fished in its waters, he imbibed the gentleness of the river spirit, and his style became like unto its calm and soft current. And afterward this was quickened into the sparkle of illustration, which his observing mind acquired among the hills and the mountains where several years of his ministry were spent. I could give instances of the alert-
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ness of his mind in this direction, but time will not permit. Dr. Sheddan had great influence in Presbytery and Synod. He was not a noisy debater nor a frequent speaker, but when he did speak it was directly to the point and in very few words. At those meetings I have seen him, on several occasions, bring to a speedy termination a confused debate, by a few pertinent remarks full of common sense. He is endeared to some of you as the pastor who joined you in wedlock and baptized your children. That sympathetic voice soothed you as you wept over the death of loved ones, whose bodies he committed to the grave with the words of hope. He knew how to comfort, for he knew sorrow. There are those whom he guided as they inquired, "what shall I do to be saved." And so the twenty-two best years of his life were passed among you. On the 18th of October, 1874, he went to his Father's house. And so closed the ministry of the seventh pastor of this church. Samuel Sharon Sheddan was his name. And indeed he was a "Rose of Sharon," the fragrance of whose memory floats in the air and fills our souls to-day.
ADDRESS.
BY THE REV. JOSEPH G. MCNULTY, D. D., OF WOOD- BRIDGE, N. J., IN RESPONSE TO THE NAME OF THE REV. JOHN JAY POMEROY, D. D., PASTOR FROM 1875 TO 1884. DIED AT CHAMBERSBURG, PA., DECEM- BER 1, 1890.
YOUNG people have a proverbial repugnance to telling their age, and so also have some aged ones. The sight of a gray hair, and especially the first one, has often sent an awful pang through a human heart. After a certain age, every returning birthday is greeted with a bit of shrinking sorrow, perhaps all to ourselves ; though others, from a different standpoint, may think of it as a matter of joy.
The Bible, however, puts a special crown upon the brow of age ; and you are disposed here to-day to follow the ex- cellent Bible example.
In the spirit of reflective veneration Longfellow gives us this poetic prose in the matter of his age :
The eye of age looks meek into my heart ! The voice of age echoes mournfully through it ! The hoary head and palsied hand of age plead irresistibly for its sympathies ! I venerate old age ; and I love not the man who can look without emotion upon the sunset of life, when the dusk of evening begins to gather over the watery eyes, and the shadows of twi- light grow broader and deeper upon the understanding.
This spirit of veneration for age is your spirit to-day.
In looking round I fail to see very many gray heads for a people one hundred and fifty years old.
Old Barzillai, in David's time, excused himself from em- bracing the graceful and grateful invitation of the king, to
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go up with him to the capital, on the plea that he had lost his relish for pleasant viands, and " singing men and singing women" were nothing any more to him. But your taste for the choicest Gospel food evidently remains as sensitive as ever, judging from the character of the ministry you have, and "singing men and singing women " are evidently just as much your delight as ever, in the practical evidence afforded at this Anniversary ; and I am glad you are showing this joy- ous willingness at his invitation to go up with the king greater than David toward the glorious capital on high.
To the question put once by a Persian emperor to a ven- erable man, "How old art thou ?" he simply answered : " Four years." He had recently become a Christian, and that was simply the length of his regenerated life-all his years that he thought worth enumerating. A church needs not, or ought not to need, to make such a discrimination. All its years are professedly regenerated years ; and what a blessed fact when it can look back over a century and a half of them, as you do to-day ! and while I look round with ad- miration and congratulate you on the taste and beauty, and appropriateness of your adornments to meet this occasion- flowers, and ferns, and flags exqusitely intertwined-I congrat- ulate you most of all on such a history ; and I have adverted as I have to the matter of age, in part, because it is my priv- ilege to come to you to-day with congratulations from an older Presbyterian Sister yet-as the Pastor of a church nearly seventy-five years older than yourselves.
A military gentlemen visiting the Rev. John Martin, who had long toiled as a minister, but in ill health, said to him : "If I had power over the pension list, I would put you on half-pay for your long and faithful services." Mr. Martin, with genial appreciation of the compliment, replied very promptly : "Your governmental master may put you off with
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half-pay in your old age, but my Master will not serve me thus. He will give me full pay. Through grace I expect a full re- ward in due time."
So, too, a church that has been long faithful, through sun- shine and storm, summer and winter, to the same Master, has the same right to anticipate a similar glorious and full reward, both here and hereafter.
But turning to the immediate theme you have assigned me-some appropriate words concerning Brother Pomeroy, one of your beloved pastors from 1875 to 1884-I shall not refer to him in the spirit of an obituary, but of one who, in his day and generation, faithfully filled his living place.
Touching but the more salient points of his character and career, I may only say at the outset, Dr. John J. Pomeroy died in the prime of his life and ministry, amid the scenes and friends of his beautiful native valley, in Chambersburg, Pa., in December, 1889.
His first pastorate was over the Presbyterian Church of Dover, in Delaware, and it lasted but a few years when the Civil War broke out. It was pleasant and profitable while it lasted, until that time. His patriotic soul made him so like " the chariots of Aminidab " he could not repress prayer for the Union Army and, being in the South, he found it wisest to resign and place his feet on Union soil, if he would have parishioners who would heartily say : "How beautiful are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace ! "
For five years he wore the dress and responded day and night to the duties of a chaplain in the Union army. Through sunshine and shadow he followed the starry flag and the fortunes of "the Boys in Blue." On the tented field and the field of battle his great, warm heart sought to in-
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struct and to comfort the living, the suffering, and the dying with the precious Gospel story. Many a blessed reunion, doubtless, he has had with those whom he led to Jesus, or encouraged "in the dark and cloudy day" in yonder land, where war and wounds and weeping. are things of the past.
Turning to his regular ministry again : he was settled for ` ten years in Octorora, Pa., a Presbyterian church. God greatly blessed his pastorate there. Many souls were gathered to the feet of Jesus through his untiring and judicious labors. That parish for the time was a casket, where this jewel of gracious beauty flashed gladly back the sweet rays of "the Sun of Righteousness. " Among those rural homes even to-day, we are told, "his name is as oint- ment poured forth."
There is no more beautiful story, as such, in all the Bible than that of David and Jonathan. How they loved each other like very brothers ! So that wherever the one went the other was attracted. I have thought of that story in tracing this life. It was David and Jonathan over again, in some measure, in the two Johns, John Jay and John A. (Liggett). There is poetry in the sound of the names, and poetry in the facts of the case. When a pastor was wanted for Dover, John was suggested by his brother John. When a similar want occurred in Octorora, a similar suggestion was made and responded to ; and when this church, which to-day celebrates its century and a half of existence, needed a great vacancy filled, that friend was as leal and warm- hearted in his suggestive friendship as before; and so he helped to bring him to his very side. And here that dear brother lived and labored for about nine years, with large manifestations of divine grace upon his ministry, so that some two hundred and fifty souls rose up from time to time to call him blessed.
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I see now before me that man of splendid physique, of genial, beaming face, most kindly in manner and mien, and I think, if there is a man among us who could truthfully re- peat Paul's declaration to the Ephesian elders with refer- ence to his own ministry, that man might have been Dr. Pomeroy in his service of this noble church : "Ye know from the first day that I came, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all hu- mility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you ; but have showed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." (Acts xx, 18-21). Blessed is the minister whose fidelity can be truthfully embodied in such a declara- tion !
The same record he made in his last charge of five years, that of Chambersburg, Pa. "Though he had lived among us but a few years," said one well qualified to speak, on the day of his funeral, " his worth and his spiritual power were fully admitted. The impression which he made was that of a man who was very much in earnest in pushing his holy work. He lost no time. He was drawn off by no side is- sues that one could see. He was sincere, devout, self-de- nying, full of sacred zeal, ready for any essay which his high calling might require of him."
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