USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Newark > Record of the twenty-fifth anniversary of South Park Presbyterian Church, Newark, N.J. : October 27th to the 30th, 1878 > Part 2
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From this point I look back twenty-five years, and mem- ory calls up the time when I first saw and remained over- night in this beautiful city, a guest (with my companion, who came for the simple pleasure and variety of the visit,) in the hospitable mansion of that distinguished and much- beloved man, Hon. Asa Whitehead. This city then had a population of less than forty thousand. But its name had been often in my mind, and was familiar to me princi- pally as connected with Presbyterian history, and as the place of residence of distinguished ministers in the Church -Dr. McWhorter, and the celebrated Dr. Griffin-one of the most eminent men of his time, "prince of preachers," and Dr. James Richards, of hallowed and perpetual memory. The last two I saw and remember to-day distinctly. I came to this city in response to a letter received at the Union Theological Seminary, New York, while I was Professor there-a letter from a gentleman representing a new church organization of sixty members who were contemplating the celebration of their first communion service, and, as the letter stated, " would like to have with them on that occa- sion some one who had been a settled pastor; they would like, if convenient, that Dr. Wilson should come." Not being otherwise engaged, I consented to come.
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I can recall that day. The little Mulberry street chapel (quite small then, since enlarged,) crowded with people ; the deeply-interested and attentive audience ; the choir in the corner on the left, in front of me; the little organ behind them. Some of those who sang in the choir that day are still living ; others are singing in the upper sanctuary.
The first member who united with this church on profes- sion of his faith was Mr. Peter Jackson, at the September communion, 1853, in the 77th year of his age. He died in March, 1859, eighty-two years of age. The first two children that were baptized in this church are still with us and the beloved and honored mother who presented them ; and this brings up by association the fact of the connection of some with this church on profession of their faith when they were quite advanced in life. One, the venerable Rod- ney Wilbur, whose place in the sanctuary on the Sabbath and on Tuesday and Thursday evening meetings was seldom vacant, united with this church quite late in life and died in full faith of a blessed hereafter. And we have never ceased to miss the venerable form of Hon. Asa Whitehead, one of the original trustees of this church, and one of its most energetic and influential and liberal founders and promoters. He died May, 1860, sixty-five years old. I well remember his interview with the session at his admission into the Church. He rose with calm dignity, and, resting one hand on the back of the pew, with a voice full of emo- tion, said : " Gentlemen, will you receive into your number one so unworthy, who has delayed so long to acknowledge his Saviour, and is ashamed now to make so poor and so late an offering ?" These noble men coming so late in life, like ripe fruit seen occasionally hanging on the tree in Autumn after the in-gathering, are monuments of God's grace and mercy (left no doubt to show some here to-day who through all these twenty-five years have delayed, that there still is room, and that even they may still come if they come now).
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At the time the call to this new church was put into my hands and pressed upon me, and influence used to favor its acceptance, two other calls were also presented from strong, wealthy, well-established churches, and were urged on my attention. But the prospect of building up a new church for Christ and for the kingdom of God and laying new foundations, with such solid, influential, reliable men as coadjutors, controlled the final decision. I recall as I stand here to-day, at this culminating point, the event of the lay- ing the corner-stone of this edifice in October, and the group of men and women assembled on the occasion, most of whom are gone, though many yet remain, and I see their faces here to-day. Rev. Samuel W. Tuttle stood near on my right, with his wife ; and Mrs. Bradley-sainted soul !- wife of the Rev. Wm. Bradley, and Rev. Dr. Eddy, who with the other clergymen assisted in the ceremony. These are gone. I recall, too, with deep feelings of gratitude, the interest taken by the ladies of the congregation in the progress and details of the work of rearing and completing this edifice, even lining the pews of the church with their own hands, and raising four hundred dollars to lay with tiles the floor of the vestibule and of the towers, and in every possible way encouraging and strengthening the hands of the gentlemen in prosecuting their work.
In all the past twenty-five years this pulpit has seldom been without the presence of the pastor, except during the intervals of rest in midsummer. (Thanks to a kind Providence that has granted the requisite health and strength.) Once I was absent in Florida for the recovery of health, and once when sent to Europe by your kindness and liberality. Except on these two occasions I have rarely been away from my post, and have never felt at liberty to make frequent exchanges, as many others do, nor to engage in writing or publishing, nor in any outside work.
In all the past twenty-five years the absolute unity that has subsisted between myself and the members of my church
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and session has continued unbroken, and if there is any root of bitterness, if there are any strifes or animosities between the people and their officers to-day, I know nothing of them, and do not believe that any such difficulties exist anywhere among us. We have had cases of discipline. These are, perhaps, unavoidable in the present lapsed condition of human nature. . Any church that is genuine must maintain its sanctity, and this is evinced in but two ways. One is by the pure life and holy walk of its individual members, and the other is by the maintenance of discipline. And so we have had cases of discipline, but they have been rare.
And of all who have died in communion with this church there has not been one who has not borne good testimony for Christ up to the last hour of mortal existence, and left to surviving friends the consoling assurance that they have only passed from a lower to an upper apartment in their Father's great house. Of the number originally constituting this church, eighteen are left with us, thirty-two have died, and the remainder have been dismissed to churches out of the city. Since the organization of the church I have bap- tized 318 children, attended 463 funerals, united in marriage 260 persons. One thousand and six have united with the Church, 372 on profession of their faith and 634 from other churches.
These statistics, though interesting and effective for cer- tain ends, are yet of very little importance after all. They are no measure in any moral estimate, and convey no idea whatever of the real benefits to the surrounding community and of any permanent results to society at large. They tell us nothing with respect to that which is of value in the sight of the Great Final Judge, and which He will honor and crown at the last day. Blessings beyond all price that have accrued to yourselves and to others must pass unnoticed, and fall not within the limits of any material calculation. Here you and your children have come as each Sabbath's blessed light dawned, and sat together and worshipped God, and
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together made your preparation for that eternal home that awaits you, reserved and ready on high. Here aspiring souls have been strengthened for good, and stricken spirits have come to find consolation, and have not been disap- pointed ; here the weary, worn spirit, sick of the world, has heard of the everlasting and blessed rest ; here sinning ones have wept over the world's fierce temptations ; here returning prodigals have come to their right mind and left the husks for the rich provision awaiting them in their Father's house ; the dead have been made alive again and the lost found.
John tells us he " saw no temple " when in vision he was borne away and beheld that great city, the new and heavenly Jerusalem. "And I saw no temple therein." But that was in heaven, not on earth, and the Lamb was the light of it. No temple was needed-no medium of communication. There was no necessity to be taught by intermediate agency. The ever-flowing Fountain was there, full and free, and there was no longer occasion to draw water from turbid pools, as during life's weary pilgrimage. And, moreover, it was evidently a surprise to the aged, inspired seer of Pat- mos to find "no temple therein." The language implies this ; and the very reason assigned for the absence of tem- ples in the streets and squares of the celestial city affirms the absolute and indispensable necessity of them in the present imperfect state. Here we have no direct vision, but there vision was perfect ; there John stood within the vail, but here we wait without the vail ; there grace and light were perfect and direct in their revelation to the soul, but here they are dispensed through proper means and appointed channels. Here on earth the soul is invested with a gross material body. Impressions must be received only through the senses, the sole medium of access (known to us) to the outside world. Our bodily organs are agencies for this end. But there, in heaven, all (so far as we know) are purely spiritual, and nothing is necessary as a previous indispensable
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arrangement to affect and impress the soul by the eye, the ear, the voice. All there, probably, is pure sanctified mind. Here the public worship and service of the sanctuary are divinely appointed for propagating truth, for maintaining ordinances, as alike indispensable to the Christian and to an unsanctified mind. Here the arrangement is to convert men, to win souls to Christ, to re-establish interrupted har- mony between man's soul and God's spirit, to rekindle on the extinguished altar of the human heart a holy flame. Here, to effect this, appeals are to be made to every prin- ciple of man's nature that can be reached and touched. We aim, in accomplishing this, to cover as much ground as pos- sible ; to press into the service and cause of religion every- thing that is accessible and serviceable. But there no such thing is needed. All is pure and simple service-the com- munion of saints with each other and with the Father of spirits and His Son. Here we are confined to place, laden with the grievances of a cumbersome body, obliged to sit around an instructor, dependent on oral communication, under necessity to call the soul off from a seductive world at stated times and appointed places, to break the continuity of impression, so wearing on the spirit, so destructive of all better tendencies. But there unimpeded motion-time and space, the natural antagonists of the soul-are removed and disappear forever ; unrestricted inter-communion, like the commingled radiance of star with star in a clear night, or like lamps in a large illuminated room-one vast congrega- tion, one mighty temple, one constant, universal, overshad- owing of the Divine presence ; and then one eternal Sabbath.
On earth God in His wisdom and infinite knowledge of what is best, has chosen and appointed a certain method of setting forth His truth and making it significant and opera- tive ; and we may be sure He will not suffer us ever to set it aside. And although He can, in His sovereignty, com- municate grace through any channel, yet it is our folly to look for it except through such channels as He has been
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pleased to ordain. If ever the righteous suffer by a cessa- tion of these appointed instrumentalities, and if the want of the public assembly in temples of worship would be an irre- parable loss, then what will become of the impenitent ? Close the churches and silence the voice of the living minis- try in this land and on the earth, and what a death-shade would deepen and extend far and wide ! The printing-press, as has been said, might work with all the steam power of the universe and multiply a thousand-fold copies of the Bible, and the distributing agents place them in every room in every house in the land, so that there should not be an individual unprovided with the bread of life, but what then ? What, after all, have you done to save men from utter forgetfulness of eternity, utter neglect and contempt of their God and Saviour? Comparatively nothing! The words of Holy Writ are that it is by "preaching that God is pleased to save them that believe." Private reading of the Scriptures can never take the place of the public preach- ing of the Word-nor secret meditation ever take the place of the Supper of the Lord. It is the preaching of the Word that makes the reading of the Word. " Bibles without preachers would be Bibles without readers." It is usually from something heard in the sanctuary that the man goes home and opens his neglected Bible and reads and thinks and prays. It is from some text penetrating the conscience while sitting under the preaching of the Word that the hearer departs to open and peruse a volume, one sentence of which has such power to pierce the heart. So that not only God's clear and certain Word shows that preaching is the great appointed means of spreading truth, but fact and observa- tion corroborate the statement. Nothing can take the place of oral instruction by a standing order of men officiating by Divine authority and in houses set apart for the service of God ; and though John saw no temple in heaven, the very fact shows that there must be temples and sanctuaries for worship on earth.
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We meet then in the temples of God's grace to seek and supplicate His favor. But what is that presence and power which we trust we have seen and felt in this sacred place and for the continuance of which we are met to-day to seek and pray ?
God in His essential presence is everywhere throughout His illimitable creation, filling, sustaining and moving on all things in His wide domain. He cannot cease thus to be present unless He cease also to be. This is not then what we especially seek. There is another peculiar presence limited, perhaps, to the times of the old dispensation, like the appearance to Moses in Midian in the burning bush, and the Shekinah also. This may be called the miraculous or extraordinary appearance of God. It seemed to impart holiness to the places where it was manifested. But there is another and third sense in which Jehovah is said to be present-that is, with every believing mind-signified in the promise, " Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them " to cheer and encour- age and bless ; and wherever a pious soul is lifted up in faith and love to heaven, in the sanctuary, the closet, by the wayside, on the mountain-top, or on the pathless deep, there God's presence and power may be enjoyed. This is that which to-day we earnestly desire and seek. We have no idea of any imparted sanctity in the edifice itself that shall give mysterious efficacy to the religious services conducted here. This is never our purpose nor expectation in assem- bling here ; but it is becoming to pray that He may meet His people here from time to time with tokens of His grace and love ; that His Word and ordinances, as here adminis- tered, may be attended with power from on high; that no false doctrine may ever be taught here, no doubtful prac- tices ever be recommended ; that here true worshippers may assemble and continued victories be won over Satan and the world and sin.
There is an admitted and most powerful principle of association in all minds that prevents connecting with a
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sacred place ideas and thoughts alien to its solemnity and to the reverence that should ever prevail here. The man that has no such feeling when he enters the sanctuary of God, but comes in thoughtlessly, as he would to a place of amusement or of traffic, or as he would to hear a public lecture from the rostrum, is not only devoid of the senti- ments that should dwell in the bosom of a Christian, but also of those proper feelings that he should possess as a man. No noise, nor confusion, nor disorder should ever intrude here, nor should the voice of unhallowed mirth ever break the solemn stillness. Every association, every recollection should tend to tranquillize the mind and spiritualize it and raise it from earth to heaven; the impression should be that when your feet tread these courts you are withdrawn from the world and its scenes, and have come to wait in the au_ dience-chamber of the "King of kings." God's glory is set forth in nature's wonderful works and His praises ut- tered by her myriad voices. The dewy freshness of morn- ing, the declining glories of evening, the verdure of Spring, the changing hues of Autumn, the solemn grandeur of the starry worlds speak His praise and glory. But the work He does in the temples of His grace far outshines any inferior manifestation of His character, and will last when the evanescent loveliness of Spring and the fragrance of its flowers has departed and the very heavens themselves are rolled together as a scroll of shrivelled parchment. Soul can never die. Its affections will expand and grow under the more genial influence of a nobler condition; and then the fondest recollections and tenderest associations will be with those places and persons that aided in preparing us for that better state. Fields of human strife, where men court fame at the cannon's mouth, will find no remembrance there ; halls of forensic display, where the great ones of the earth debate and settle the destiny of nations ; palaces of wealth and royalty, where mirth and song and wine turn life's hours into one unbroken scene of amusement and revelry ; the
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marts of commerce, where the Midas touch turns everything into gold, and where fortunes are made and broken in an hour-these and such like will not be worth a hearing amid higher immortal interests. But it will be said of the taber- nacles of Zion (and we trust of this place, too,) "This or that man was born there." Long may the pure doctrines of the Gospel be here taught-long may streams of salvation here flow ; may no unhallowed tongue ever be here moved to pervert the Word of Life !
We, to-day, cleave anew to the doctrines of the Reforma- tion-those doctrines in the strength of which the martyrs triumphed in flames and passed in chariots of fire to glory -doctrines in the firm belief of which we confidently expect that this church shall be blessed in the future as in the past with revivals of religion by effusions of the Holy Spirit of God. Our motto is that immortal embodiment of Protest- antism and evangelical Christianity :
1. "The Word of God only-The rule of our faith and practice."
2. "The grace of Jesus Christ only-The ground of our hope."
3. " The work of the Spirit only-The efficient agency of our salvation."
The principle of our doctrine and government is the widest charity to all. We rejoice to co-operate with all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, and who aim to build up His kingdom. We claim as Presbyterians no ex- clusive ground of labor, but we work with all others ; we can do most in our own way, and rejoice to let others do the same. We welcome all to the great field, the world, and are ambitious only to do the most good. We love our Church, because we love our country and the church uni- versal on earth. We hold nine out of twelve essential doc- trines of faith in common with all other evangelical denom- inations. We differ from our Methodist brethren in that we put God first and not second in the order of salvation of
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a human soul ; we differ from our Episcopal brethren in that we hold that all ministers in Christ's Church are equal and do not believe in lords over God's heritage ; we differ from our Baptist brethren in that we can come into the Church as families (according to all God's covenants) and not as individuals only-of the mode of baptism we care nothing. We glory in the things in which we agree with other denominations, and are not ashamed in the things in which we differ. We here set up our Ebenezer. Thus far the Lord hath helped us. By His favor we have reached the present point, and by His grace only we stand.
If any should now ask what is meant by setting up an Ebenezer, the answer is plain. I would reply in passing:
1. It means a disposition to give God all the glory for every blessing that has come from His hand.
2. It is disowning our own wisdom and skill and man- agement, and giving God all the thanks, distinctly recog- nizing His hand, confessing our want of merit, and tracing through secondary causes all prosperity to Him who " doeth all things after the counsel of His own will."
3. It implies an open profession of the truth with a con- sistent example and attendance on the ordinances, diligence in the pious training of children and in the improvement of our several talents to the praise and glory of God.
4. It implies a dedication of ourselves to His service, de- pendence on His grace, and a purpose and desire of walking with Him all the rest of our lives, until He calls us hence from toil to our crown in heaven.
Brethren, let us remember time is short, and when another season like this past twenty-five years of history comes around again may those who then survive set up another Ebenezer to a long-suffering, most kind and most merciful God. I look forward from this point where we all now stand ; our stay here will be short ; with these external things we shall be conversant only for a little while ; here some shall come and bring their burdens and lay them down at
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the feet of Jesus ; here some of the present generation with whom our responsibility is interwoven shall accept the long- rejected overtures of mercy and find the balm for a broken heart ; here the believer shall sit down at the Supper of the Lord and have his soul rapt away to the temple of which the Lamb is the light ; and here the Gospel shall be to some of you and your children the " savour of death unto death." I roll back the curtain of a few fleeting years and I see another congregation gathered in this place, all unknown to us, and whom we shall never see, filling up these seats-an entirely new generation floating down on the stream of time ; I hear another voice speaking from this sacred desk, pleading with dying men ; I see then and there, as now, some sinner, as yet unborn, with a heart alienated from God, harder than the nether millstone, slumbering away the golden moments, and some devoted messenger of God weep- ing and urging his lingering flight from the " city of destruc- tion" to " the city of God ;" I see multitudes here listening to the words of eternal life, and I see them from the bosom of eternity looking back on this holy place with higher notes of praise or with a deeper tone of anguish; and, oh! I hear the voice of lamentation and woe at the memory of oppor- tunities lost, mercies slighted within these walls. But let us draw the veil and contemplate brighter scenes. I see these pews filled with devout and pious worshippers, souls hungering and thirsting for the bread of life-fathers and mothers, husbands and wives and their children here inquiring for Jesus, and He will meet them here and bless them.
Young men ! on you the mantle of a pious ancestry must fall when your fathers go up to dwell with God. There is room kept for you around our altar and in our hearts. We want you to come with us. Oh! there's room for you in the Saviour's mercy-room for you in heaven. Come- help to bear the ark of God. The world needs your activity and your strength. The Church calls you, and God expects you.
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I have said nothing about the dead of this church in the last twenty-five years. I could not; my heart is too full. They are our dead-part of the host who have " crossed the flood." The noble men and noble women whose hearts were in this church and whose hands were ever ready for service here to Christ-we miss them in the eldership, in the board of trustees, at the communion table, in the sanc- tuary, in the Sunday School, in the meetings for prayer, we never cease to mourn their loss. They finished their work and have departed from us for a season. Methinks their spirits hover over this assembly to-day and regard us with deepest interest and with tender love. They are among the " cloud of witnesses" that darken the canopy of the sky, and they are waiting to welcome us and call us to their lofty abode. Yes! yes! we come-we come! The tones of their voices steal upon our ears in solemn, beautiful cadences, and animate us to higher effort and holier self-consecration, and, God helping us, there is not one of us who does not seek salvation through the blood and righteousness of Jesus -not one who shall not share with you the throne and the diadem.
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