USA > New Jersey > Hunterdon County > Flemington > One hundredth anniversary exercises of the Baptist Church, Flemington, N.J. June 17th, 18th and 19th, 1898 > Part 7
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and tens of thousands hourly and horribly pro- fane the Saviour's name, but every one of them is avowedly a member of his church. In Lutheran countries Baptists are now attempting to reform the religion of the great German reformer by showing the people that no one can be made a child of God and a citizen of Christ's kingdom by the ties of flesh and blood, or by priestly cere- monies, but only by a spiritual birth. Great. changes for the better are beginning to appear in the state churches of Germany and Sweden since we engaged in mission labors there, and greater changes it is believed are near. Of course in sections where Baptist views have long been prevalent a different state of things exists, but just as long as men are taught that any out- ward rite administered to either an adult or an unconscious infant, can do anything toward making it a citizen of the Lord's kingdom either here or hereafter, so long we are called to voice those fundamental truths, that nothing but a. personal faith in the Saviour brings one into fellowship with him or his church, and that faith must be witnessed personally and never by proxy.
This is one of the things that we mean to say again as we keep this glad anniversary.
But there is a second conviction which we desire to voice through the memorial services of these days.
It is that the growth of our denominational prin-
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ciples and practices during the last hundred years has been such as to justify expectations of larger gains.
Those of you who remember the seventy-fifth birthday of this church, and its celebration, or who have read the sermon that was preached that day, may recall some of the figures that then were given. For the information and encourage- ment of those who were not here then, and who may be unacquainted with the facts, let me present a few statistics. I promise you that they shall be but few, and I would omit them if I could do it and yet bring out some truths that ought to be mentioned and emphasized. When this. Flemington church came into existence we had in New Jersey twenty-six others of a similar faith, and they reported about two thousand members. We have to-day in round numbers three hundred churches with fifty thousand members.
In 1798, we had in the entire country prob- ably (no exact figures for that year obtainable), nine hundred churches, twelve hundred minis- ters, and from seventy-five to eighty thousand members. Omitting fractions, we have now forty-three thousand, four hundred churches, twenty-seven thousand, three hundred ministers, and four million, fifty-six thousand members. The increase in New Jersey during the past twenty-five years, has been equal to that of the
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previous seventy-five, and taking the country at large, it has been very much greater. Of course we had not in America, a missionary society of any kind or name a century ago, not a theologi- cal seminary, hardly an academy, and but a single college. Our mission stations now dot the entire globe, and the churches on heathen soil number nearly a thousand, with one hun- dred thousand communicants, and over one thousand preachers. We have seventy-seven institutions of learning under Baptist control, and connected with them more than ten thous- and scholars and teachers. The contributions of American Baptists for 1897, aggregated more than twelve millions of dollars.
Without burdening you further with figures, you can get some idea of the phenomenal ad- vances made by the denomination, and judging of the future by the past, it seems well nigh certain that there await us as a division in the Lord's great army, corresponding measures of prosperity. The three houses of worship which this church, during the century, has erected and occupied, will fairly typify the several stages of its own development, and the progress of the denomination to which it has stood attached. The humble, barn-like structure which the Bap- tist brotherhood of this region united in building on this site thirty years before the church was constituted, and which was used by Revolution-
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ary soldiers as a barrack for many months, pretty accurately represented what was then our strength here and everywhere. It would prob- ably at its best estate, have accommodated after a fashion, two hundred hearers, and it may have cost a thousand dollars. We did not outgrow these unpretentious quarters for seventy years. The sanctuary which replaced the original edifice in 1836, looked rather more like a church, for it boasted a spire and bell, and probably was about as large and good as the average country meeting house to-day. It held four hundred or more, and possibly cost ten thousand dollars. It witnessed of increased numbers and larger means in this particular congregation, and in the brotherhood at large. Thereafter, the interest moved onward by swifter and longer strides, for in thirty years the second house was too strait for the flock seeking spiritual shelter here, and this broader roof under which a thousand attendants might be gathered, was planned and built. This commodious and comfortable struct- ure symbolizes changed conditions, locally and universally. Numerically, financially, spiritu- . ally there has been a pushing up to higher levels, and what has been, is the prophecy and pledge of what shall be further on. Given any- thing like the consecration and the loyalty which have characterized this people hitherto, and there must be, will be. a steady forging ahead,
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not only of this particular body, but of the general host with which it is identified.
There is a third suggestion that forces itself upon the remembrances and thanksgiving's of this centennial celebration, and it is this:
That there remain immense resources stored away in gospel provisions and promises on which God's toilers may hereafter draw.
In the Contemporary Review, for May, there is an article by a bright writer of our day, entitled : "The Decline of Evangelicalism," which is likely to occasion not a little comment. It boldly asserts that the type of religion repre- sented by the Wesley's, Whitefield, Spurgeon, Moody, and General Booth, is rapidly crumbling to pieces, and will in the near future, be abso- lutely lost to sight, excepting as a misty record of history. The writer accuses our evangelical faith with having failed to interpret God's mes- sage; with neglecting its opportunity; with neglecting the masses, and hence confidently pronounces it doomed. Probably this nine- teenth century prophet believes exactly what he predicts. Possibly, the wish is father to the thought, and he paints this picture because he wants to have it so. I can but remember, however, how many similar forecasts of Christi- anity's future have been made and proven false. The trouble with all these latter day seers, has been that they have utterly failed to take
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account of the hidden resources of the kingdom which the Lord, from time to time, reveals and puts at work. Undoubtedly, the very symptoms of decline and decay which the article alluded to points out exist, but all the while the Most High is pushing to the front new agencies of power previously unknown, or of force un- guaged and unrealized. All church history is but an illustration of possibilities that lie quiet . until God's time comes for them to be put in operation, and then they burst forth suddenly as- mighty winds from the calm air of the summer noon. The Holy Spirit has not exhausted him- self in the revelations that He has made to the hosts of faith. Just as immense supplies of heat lie imbedded in the dark hidden mines of coal, to blaze and burn when wanted, just so the hovering Spirit has His reserves of grace and might, ready to flame out in new Pentecosts. This is a fact of which even the disciples of the Master make too little account. They reckon up surface influences. They note with dismay, or at least with. apprehension, unpromising signs that from time to time appear, forgetting how God has been wont to upset all human calcula- tions by some unexpected manifestation of Him- self that has smashed men's slates in atoms. The divine Spirit, unlimited, unexhausted, re- viving, replenishing, recruiting, with His vast residuum of unused and even unknown grace,
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must not be left out of the account when we estimate the influences that God has to bring into action.
And then in addition to these resources of the Spirit of God there are tremendous possibilities that are wrapped up in the unfolding providen- tial purposes of the Most High. Unless the his- tory of our race be only an aimless, disconnected mob of events, then the very occurrences of these days now passing over us may stand related to the coming of the Savior's kingdom in ways that none of us dream. In this very war which almost none of us wanted, I somehow hear God's foot- steps, and I turn my ear heavenward to catch the words I am persuaded He will speak. Events are all the while coming from their remote prov- idential retreats like comets from their far jour- neys, and God has again and again made them make-weights at some critical pass in some de- cisive hour. Brief as has been the struggle precipitated by this Cuban complication there have been in it occurrences as strange, I had almost said as startling, as those recorded in the long march through the wilderness toward Ca- naan. Who can tell what may yet come out of this conflict affecting the destinies of the world or church? Well, so I say that there may be, and I firmly believe will be, immense deposits of strength for the church to draw upon in days ahead. That God who in the past has been wont
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to take some glory for himself and some good for men out of the most untoward and apparently unfortunate events of the time, will have banked away for his toiling sons and daughters funds of help for them to call in requisition fast as emer- gencies arise. Men will drop out from church activities whose loss will be severely felt. Ca- lamities will lower, damping courage and dark- ening hope. Seasons of backsliding will fall on Zion testing faith. But in the midst of all some reinforcements will come trooping in, surprising and strengthening tired and troubled toilers, and inspiring them for fresh exertion. If earlier supporters of this church could come back this morning they might witness of hard places met in maintaining its interests, but they could also testify how again and again the captivity of Zion was turned, how harps were taken down from the willows, and how every string in gladness awoke and spoke. Not otherwise will it be here and elsewhere in coming days. Valleys of Baca may have to be crossed, but amid their rocks and sands God will open springs. New enterprises will require new outlays of energy but God will reveal new sources of supply adequate to all de- mands. In this regard we may confidently count on the future to repeat the past. Aye, more than repeat it; to transcend, or surpass it. Past generations have not exhausted lodes of grace any more than the lodes of gold seamed away
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amid the everlasting hills. This is the trust that we voice with these centennial exercises.
There is a fourth remembrance which this occasion starts and to which it naturally gives utterance, and it is this :
That such a hill-top of observation as that on which we stand furnishes a fitting point from which to make a new departure in Christian living and doing.
Near the entrance of the Yosemite Valley there. is a peak called "Inspiration Point." The tour- ist reaches it by a long, hard ride over a dusty road. Once on that summit, however, he loses all sense of being tired. On every side of him lies some of the grandest of the Almighty Mak- er's handiwork, and awed and thrilled by the outlook he addresses himself eagerly to the re- maining stages in the journey. We stand at
such an inspiration point to-day. Reminiscen- ces of a century lift themselves around us like objects grand and beautiful from some mount of vision. But this birthday provides something more than a view-point whence to take observa- tions; it establishes a base of operations whence to move on territory beyond; it is not simply a lookout station over what has been done; it is a set-out junction for opportunities that wait. For nothing could be more incorrect than the impres- sion that this century of attempt and achievement finished up any of the high purposes for which the Master gave a commission to this church.
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With this anniversary it merely attains a new vantage ground from which to address itself to larger tasks and heavier responsibilities. Churches as well as other bodies find themselves confronted by changing conditions, and while the general means employed must remain ever- more the same, altered surroundings and situa- tions may necessitate altered adaptations. What is called the "institutional church" may never be demanded in communities like this, and serv- ices patterned after combination troupes and variety theatres may not insist on being tried as baits to lure and trap rural neglecters of God's house, but even in this conservative region and this cautious congregation, changed methods of management, modified measures for the doing of religious work will be apt to find their way. In its faith and teachings this church has not materially varied its voice since it avowed its first confession, but it has repeatedly deviated from customs and habits prevailing at the begin- ning, and it is safe to predict that what would now be called innovations will yet be introduced. The only place that change never enters is a graveyard. Even if existing appointments and appliances for the prosecution of church work were to be retained unaltered there would still be occasion to press them and push them with fresh force and fervor at intervals. Nothing grows of itself in this world excepting weeds and wicked-
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ness. ยท We have invented and put in motion piles of machinery to take the place of holy living and giving and praying, but if this church is going to be kept on its long-held course these old-time forces will have to be employed, and employed by each generation for itself. We have grown familiar with the strain, "The mill will never run with the water that is past." The statement is just as true of God's mills. Their moving power is indeed lodged on high, but it is through a redeemed humanity that the quickening spirit sends the energy pulsing. Up in the canyons of her mountains the Pacific coast finds the sup- plies that make arid deserts bud and fruit, but the rills that network her valleys fetch the puls. ing tides and the thirsty soil in touch. The life in Christ Jesus that is to bring beauty and yield to this corner of the gospel vineyard must find its way from heaven to earth in some degree through the sanctified souls that shall constitute this church in days ahead. Few churches of our faith in New Jersey have a richer heritage than this. God gave it a sturdy spiritual ances- try. With scarcely an exception men good, if not great, have been its preachers. To a very unusual degree it has been kept in peace. It has had as its officers, persons who have commanded general respect. It has stood at the very front in all of our denominational activities. It has been blessed with powerful revivals of religion
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from time to time. There is not a church in this old commonwealth that has more staunchly kept the faith, or that the Master has honored more. Whether this record is to continue you that are now in its fellowship will tell. You owe an unforgotten debt of gratitude to faithful ones now numbered with the dead. You younger dis- ciples owe more than you realize to noble burden- bearers living still. If ultimately the cause here shall decline; if the church shall lose the grip it yet has on the region around it; if these pews that so long have kept full, shall later be left half empty, it will not be because the fathers trans- mitted to the children a poor and paltry legacy. I charge these older brethren and supporters that they do their uttermost to turn over to suc- cessors this interest unimpaired. Let nothing ever swing you or swerve you from your fealty to Christian comrades or their Lord and yours. By all precious memories linked with this sanc- tuary : by blessings that have here fallen on your souls refreshingly as summer showers; by recol- lections of fellow worshipers once by your sides but now with God, and above all in the name and for the sake of that Christ who loved you . and gave himself for you, I plead with you to keep shoulder to shoulder and step to step till you hear the call to drop out coming from the skies.
And you younger members of the church, listen to a few words of exhortation and appeal.
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You are going to help make the history of this body during that century over into which it is about to step. Would God I could make you understand how much the future of this Zion will depend on you. It can not be kept up on the high level occupied in the past unless you solemnly purpose to keep it there. I am not so anxious that you shall be filled with the natural enthusiasm of this occasion as that you shall be filled with the quickening energies of the Holy Spirit: Seek to-day to get in closer touch with Him. Live for Christ. Lean on His arm. Struggle to save your fellow men. Next to your home and . your Lord love this church. Count it all joy to serve it either in the least or largest way. Then its future will be assured. Then the saintly succession of witnesses shall be preserved. Then life shall look bright from a dying pillow. Then heaven shall be to you more glad.
And if in this congregation I speak to one by his birth or early training in some measure identified with God's people here but never identified vitally with the Saviour, let me plead with him here and now to enter into that loving lasting fellowship. Joshua said of these Jordan stones that they would witness against any who having seen them reared should fail to follow God. . I say the same of every stone and every stick in this building where some of you from childhood have listened to Christ's calls as here
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voiced but have never answered. O child of praying parents but prayerless yourself ; O man or woman decent in the world's esteem but un- saved and so unsafe, do not make of these very walls witnesses to your condemnation !
I little suspected when I preached here twenty- five years ago to-day that I should be with you when the one hundredth birthday of the church should be kept. I said among my closing words on that occasion that when this nineteenth day of June, 1898, should be reached that I and the majority of those who heard me would in all probability be where what inen might say of us would be of slight account. In part only has that utterance been verified. I am here to par- ticipate in these services, but the larger half of the audience have gone over to the eternal shore. Of the ministers who were present that day but one beside myself is still on earth, and he has been out of the pastorate for many years. Thomas Swaim, G. S. Webb, H. F. Smith, Chas. E. Young, B. C. Morse were the others who spoke or prayed that sultry summer day, and they have all been gone for years, and every one of them I stood over when the grave received its trust.
To name the good laymen who were with us then but now are not because God has taken them would make a long list. We miss many who would have been glad to be with us this hour. And who shall say that they are not with us ? As the
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Northern warrier imagined that the shades of his ancestors came around him on the eve of battle to watch and cheer, so it may be that all invisible to us the departed who once sat here are all around us again ! Anyhow their Lord is here. We hear his voice. He holds us by the hand as forth we go to meet the coming years and what they hold. His life is ours while here below we linger. His home above is waiting for us when . it comes our time to go.
"The Banyan of the Indian isle Spreads deeply down its massive root, And spreads its branching life abroad, And bends to earth, with scarlet fruit ; But when the branches reach the ground, They firmly plant themselves again ; They rise and spread and droop and root, An ever green and endless chain.
And so the church of Jesus Christ, The blessed Banyan of our God, Fast-rooted upon Zion's mount, Has sent its sheltering arms abroad ; And every branch that from it springs, In sacred beauty spreading wide, As low it bends to bless the earth, Still plants another by its side.
Long as the world itself shall last The sacred Banyan still shall spread ; From clime to clime, from age to age Its sheltering shadow shall be spread ; Nations shall seek its pillared shade, Its leaves shall for their healing be ; 'The circling flood that feeds its life, The blood that flowed on Calvary."
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The service closed with the singing of this hymn which had been written for the occasion.
Tune, "Zion."
"God hath helped us, Ebenezer!" Israel's prophet raised the cry ; "God hath helped us, Ebenezer!" Send we back in glad reply ; Helped us ever ; Helped with mercies from on high.
Like that stone at Mizpah olden Set to tell of victory won ; Bring we tributes gracious, golden, Gift from every loyal son ; Glad memorials. Witnessing what God hath done.
By the stirring records taken Out from history's ancient urn, Bid, O Lord ! our souls awaken And with animation turn To the future, And the lessons yet to learn.
Benediction.
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SUNDAY AFTERNOON,
T HE afternoon was devoted to a considera- tion of the Sunday-school, and its work. At three o'clock, when Superintendent J. W. Britton, called the gathering to order, every available seat was occupied and many had to stand all through the exercises. After singing and prayer, the superintendent read the follow- ing historical sketch :
For the first thirty-two years of our history as a church, we had no Sunday-school. The insti- tution did not come into existence in this country till about the second decade of the present century, and even after the stronger churches in our towns and cities had begun to organize schools, we did not at once fall into line, for at that date we were comparatively weak. The little company of worshippers that then assembled on this spot, felt that they were already carrying burdens quite as heavy as they were competent to bear. Among them, how- ever, were some who greatly enjoyed the study of God's holy word, and after talking the matter over with their pastor, brother Bartolette, a special meeting of the church was called to dis- cuss the advisability of starting a school, in which the young should be taught scripture
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truth. On the day appointed, just four persons came together to consider the project. It is fitting that we should mention, lovingly, their names this hour. They were the faithful Black- well sisters, Jemima and Lizzie, so long fore- most in all good works; William Barrass, who quite recently came to his grave among us as a sheaf of grain is gathered in its season, and Mrs. Fowler. Undiscouraged by the apparent lack of interest manifested, they prayed over the subject and determined to call another meet- ing and ask the pastor to be present. How many responded to the second invitation we are not told, but the decision was reached to go . ahead and attempt to effect an organization. Notice to this effect was given out, and every- body who was willing to help was invited to report the next Sabbath morning. We do not know the exact date, but it was a Sunday in the spring of 1830, that our work began. Twenty- five persons got together for the first session. Two of them were elected officers, four were made teachers, and nineteen were enrolled as scholars. The first superintendent was Mr. Charles George, long connected editorially with the Hunterdon County Gasette, now the Democrat. The Secretary was Mr. James Blackwell, who filled a place among us for more than forty years after that launching of the enterprise. The first teachers were the four persons who at-
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tended the preliminary meeting, and have been named. 'Reverently they bowed their heads and all breathed that prayer of the inspired psalmist : "Let Thy work appear unto Thy servants, and Thy glory unto their children, and let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish Thou the work of our hands upon us, yea, the work of our hands establish Thou it." Of the twenty-five persons who, on that Lord's day of 1830, laid here the foundations of our Sunday- school work, we know of but one who is still living, and it is with peculiar gratitude and gladness that we greet him this afternoon. Our friend and brother, Professor Charles B. Stout, now of New Brunswick, was one of the first scholars, and he will presently tell us something of those far-off days. For the first eighteen years in the sixty-eight of our existence, we held no school in winter. For the past half century, our school has been what they sometimes call "an evergreen." There have been held from first to last, more than three thousand sessions, and twelve superintendents have overlooked the school. Let me call their names: Charles George, John Bartolette, Robert R. Hill, Theo- dore K. Higgins, Chester Van Syckel, Joseph B. Losey, William Barrass, Joseph Case, Dr. Mer- shon, John S. Higgins, George W. Abel, J. W. Britton. Perhaps I ought to make the number thirteen, for during the pastorate of
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