The First Church, Orange, N. J. : one hundred and fiftieth anniversary, November 24 and 25, 1869, Part 3

Author: First Presbyterian Church (Orange, N.J.)
Publication date: 1870
Publisher: Newark, N.J. : Pub. for the session, by Jennings
Number of Pages: 190


USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Orange > The First Church, Orange, N. J. : one hundred and fiftieth anniversary, November 24 and 25, 1869 > Part 3


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become toughened in its every fibre, and inured to endurance, and schooled to patient continu- ance in well-doing! Surely none should be suf- fered to surpass it in the piety of its membership, their purity of life, their holy zeal, their ardent devotion, their indomitable energy, their unwa- vering faith, their willingness to spend and be spent for Christ, their boldness of undertaking, their exalted conceptions of what is their high privilege, their joy and gladness in labor, toil and self-sacrifice for their Divine Master, in imitation of His example. May God grant that such a practical appreciation of the future which is before this church, and of its great privilege and respon- sibility in view thereof, as I have set it forth, shall be another answer which we shall give to the ques- tion, "What mean ye by this service ?"


III. But we may not stop here. Still further answer must we give to this query which we have put to one another. And it relates to the present. We are to respond as members of this church in regard to what we will do, in view of the position which we now occupy-a position midway be-


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tween its past and its future. It is no light thing to stand where we do to-day. It involves no ordi- nary responsibility. Not only do we hold in our hands, and subject to our disposal, what has already transpired in the history of this church, which is fitted to be of future service, but we are to deter- mine what shall transpire in time to come in large measure. Its ongoing is to be through us who are now upon the stage of action. We must do much, whatever our course of conduct in this matter may be, to give it shape and direction. We have to do with the prayers and labors, the seed sowing, and the tearful, but patient and hope- ful watering of the same on the part of God's ser- vants for a century and a half. It rests with us whether what has already borne much fruit, but is capable of bringing forth in years to come mani- fold more than in those gone by, shall yield yet more glorious harvests, for the ingathering of the angel reapers. How sacred the trust committed to us ! How solemn the duty in view thereof!


Especially is this the case, when it seems as if the very midsummer of the church's history is fast


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approaching, and even now is close at hand. For no one can for a moment doubt that the next half century of its existence, under the circumstances which are certain to surround it, may be far richer in results than any similar period in the past. It would seem as if this church were now about to enter upon the golden age in its history. And who of us shall dare to be in the way of the reali- zation of all that may be reasonably anticipated for it ? Who does not see that to be recreant to duty at such a time as this, is to trifle with the most sacred of trusts, and with the most inviting and promising opportunities for the fulfilment of what is reposed in us ? We cannot be unmindful of what belongs to us, in view of the position which we occupy, and neglectful of the duty growing out of the same, without inflicting a great wrong, both upon those who have preceded us, into the fruit of whose labors we enter, and upon those who are to come after us, over whose interests we at present have control. It is with us as when an army, con- tending long and bravely against a powerful and determined foe, gains substantial advantages, and


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puts itself in position at last to push the enemy to the wall, and achieve glorious results ; but finds that through exhaustion and the decimation of its ranks by death, it can go no further. Fresh troops come upon the field, to whom the privilege is given of taking up what has already been accomplished by it, and all the advantages which now lie before it, and make them successful be- yond what has ever been dreamed of by those who have hitherto borne the brunt of the conflict. How momentous the position in which such a body of soldiers is placed! How important that they at once, and with their whole energy, spring to their task, and carry all before them, until vic- tory be complete, and all its fruits be secured.


But suppose that they do not, and are unmindful of their position, and of the critical juncture which they are called to meet. What disgrace, what burning shame would cover them! How would they deserve to have the arms of their own com- rades who have fought so bravely, turned against them, and they be driven from the field, where they have brought such dishonor upon not them-


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selves alone, but upon those whom they should have covered with glory by causing their efforts to be successful, in the attainment of their object.


This church is such an army, and is engaged in the great warfare with the powers of darkness. Steadily and persistently, through many years of conflict, has it waged successful warfare, never trailing its standard in the dust, never giving way before the enemy, though ofttimes he has come in like a flood, until now a point is reached where the future is bright with promise of the most signal and sublime results, and the advantages already obtained are of such a character as to warrant the expectation that these results may be realized. But they who have thus manfully struggled, bear- ing the heat and burden of the day, where are they ? They have one by one fallen out of their places, even while fighting, and with their armor on, and they sleep in the city of the dead, and their souls have gone to their rest and reward. We


have come forward to take their places. And shall we fail to meet the present momentous crisis ? Shall we be recreant to duty, when so much is


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within easy grasp, and everything conspires to incite endeavor, nerve us with courage, and fill us with hope, nay with the most confident expecta- tion ? Heaven forbid ! We will not act thus basely. We will not bring this deepest disgrace upon ourselves, and upon those into whose labors we enter, that we may reap the fruits thereof. Be it rather our determined resolve to accept the trust which they of the past have given into our hands, together with all that it brings in the way of advantage, and in the form of responsibility. Be it ours to comprehend and deeply appreciate the significance of the times in which we live, and the promise of the future just before us. And in view of both, here and now let us solemnly dedicate ourselves to Christ, and to the work of promoting and building up this church, in a manner commen- surate with our privilege and opportunity. Let us do this with a fixedness of purpose that knows no · wavering, and with a loftiness of aim which shall in no way fall below what the future seems to give the certainty of attaining. How are we con- strained to do this, as to-day we stand in the


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presence of those who have gone before us in occupying the places which we now fill! Though they have been numbered, some of them long, with the general assembly of the church of the First Born on high, yet think you that they are indifferent spectators from yonder heavenly heights of what is transpiring here at this very hour ? Are those who have stood in this pulpit as the messen- gers of God to dying men, and gone among these homes caring for the flock of God, as faithful shepherds, through whose labors in word and doc- trine this church has been established and made to flourish; those who have died at their post with their harness on, and whose memories have been honored by these monumental inscriptions sacred thereto; are they unmindful of what we are now doing, and of what we here engage that we will undertake, in view of what lies before us ? I tell you, nay. These all are as a great cloud of wit- nesses by which we are compassed about, and they « hold us in full survey. I seem to hear them from the heavenly heights saying to us, "It was ours to sow. It is yours to reap. Fail not to do your


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appointed work, that both 'he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together,' in the day of final ingathering."


The great Napoleon once sought to inspire his army with enthusiasm for the task before them, and nerve them to the highest endeavor, while fighting in Egypt, within sight of its pyramids, by shouting to them as they were about to go into battle, " Soldiers, forty centuries look down upon you." So may it be said to you, but with greater significance and more solemn emphasis, and with far more to inspire and kindle your hearts with enthusiasm. Men and women of this church, full five generations look down upon you-not in the form of speechless monuments of human achieve- ment, but in the persons of your brethren in Christ. They are a part of this branch of the great family of the redeemed, who have crossed the flood, where they watch with intense interest the ongoing of what is so dear to them in remem- brance, and is so closely associated with their own past history.


How do they of the generations yet to come also


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rise up, and beckon to us with uplifted finger. They bid us note well the significance of all the great movements which are transpiring in the earth, and mark with care what the indications are respecting the prosperity of our beloved Zion. They call upon us to see what achievements may yet be granted through its instrumentality for the honor of our dear Lord, far surpassing and eclips- ing all. that has ever yet been attained-all of which may be transmitted to them as their inher- itance.


When asked, then, " What mean ye by this ser- vice ?" let us, in addition to the answers already given, with firm resolve and humble dependence upon Almighty God, and in clear ringing tones, unitedly reply, we mean the voluntary and abso- lute consecration of ourselves to the Lord Jesus in the accomplishment of the great work which He has given us to perform, as members of this His church. We here give ourselves, afresh, and with- out reserve, to be employed in promoting its advancement, and the honor of our common Lord, through its instrumentality ; saying to ourselves,


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as did the Hebrews of old by the rivers of Babylon, concerning Jerusalem, "If I forget thee, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remem- ber thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth ; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy."


III.


INAUGURATION OF


MURAL TABLET


TO THE


FIRST TWO MINISTERS OF THE CHURCH, BY


REV. W. HENRY GREEN, D. D.


" The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." " For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead."


II COR. XV.


ADDRESS.


HE word of God declares that the right- eous shall be in everlasting remem- brance, (Psalm cxii: 6,) and the memory of the just is blessed, (Prov. x : 7.) Of this we have an illustration in this large and spontaneous gathering to commemorate the founding of this church. A century and more since they have entered into their rest and their reward, this whole community rejoices to do honor to that pious band of Christian men and women, to those self-denying and devoted ministers of Christ, who planted this church in what was then a wilderness. It is now in the heart of a populous and thriving commu- nity-the abode of civilization and wealth and refinement-it has grown to fair proportions-it has sent out its branches on every side-this whole region is dotted with flourishing churches, the offspring of this parent stock. It has a goodly


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history of a century and a half to look back upon -a record of the ordinances of religion sustained and perpetuated in their purity and power through all that period-a record of a constantly increasing number of faithful worshippers to honor the name of Jesus, to exemplify and adorn His gospel, and to advance His cause and kingdom,-a record of souls hopefully converted to God, generation after generation, who have gone successively to swell the company of the Redeemed above, and who are now rejoicing in the presence of God and of the Lamb,-and an ever-widening circle of influence, which has leavened this whole region, set its stamp upon its population, given its direction to the cur- rent of public sentiment, and largely contributed to make Orange and the country around it what it is this day. All this we gratefully refer to the self-denying labors and privations of that godly people and their faithful pastors, who laid the foundation of this church of Newark Mountain. They who painfully watched and nurtured the feeble germ just sprouting from the earth, might find it difficult to recognize the giant trunk be- neath whose spreading branches we are gathered


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now, with its noble proportions, its pleasing ver- dure and its refreshing shade.


The good men whose names you have engraved upon the walls of this church, with a view to their perpetual remembrance, could they be recalled from their blissful seats, would not recognize the work of their own hands. The successive build- ings which they erected, and in which they wor- shipped, have long since disappeared ; the voices which there proclaimed the word of life, and the voices which were there joined in songs of praise, have long since been hushed; the ministers and their auditors have long been numbered with the dead; only scanty notices of them remain, which antiquarian research has succeeded in gathering up; but the results which have flowed from the beginnings which they here made, are their im- perishable monument, and this whole generation, sensible of their indebtedness, rises up and calls them blessed.


It is very difficult for us to transport ourselves back to the times in which our fathers lived- almost as impossible as it would have been for them to have imaged in advance the condition of things


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in which we now are. We must recall the period when this new continent was as yet unexplored ; when the primeval forests covered not only regions more remote, but this very territory all about us here, except as the few sparse settlers had effected their partial clearings, and the axe of the wood- man, and " Harrison's saw-mill," made their in- roads upon it; when this was frontier ground ; when bounties were still offered for the destruction of wolves, and panthers, and foxes ; when the sav- age aborigines still held their title to the soil, and the French and the Indians were forever inspiring the colonists with fresh terrors of torture or of mas- sacre ; when, instead of the great empire now built up on this broad continent, under whose protection we rejoice and which takes rank with the most powerful nations of the earth, there were only a few scattered and feeble settlements ; when New York was a town of perhaps 7,000 or 8,000 inhab- itants ; in the very year in which the first Presby- terian church was founded in that metropolis of churches ; six years before the first newspaper was printed there ; a dozen years before the first stage line was established between New York and Bos-


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ton, running once in a month, and occupying four- teen days in the journey ; when New Jersey was still under the Proprietary government, and the grasping demands of these claimants of the soil led to frequent disturbances on the part of the hardy settlers ; when the seas were infested by pirates, and the notorious Capt. Kidd had but recently been arrested in his murderous career ; when the entire Presbyterian body in this whole country could muster but twenty-three ordained ministers, and three probationers ;- such was the state of things when the foundation of this church was laid. How can we return to the present from such glimpses of the past, without thanking God, and taking courage !


Several years ago I remember to have looked through a package of the correspondence of Rev. Caleb Smith, preserved in the family, but of which I have now only a very imperfect recollection. I have, however, in my library, a copy of Poole's Commentary on the Scriptures, which I frequently consult, and greatly value for its intrinsic excel- lence, but which I hold in especial esteem on ac- count of its history. It is in 2 vols., folio. The title


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page of each volume, with a few pages at the begin- ning and the end, have been torn or worn away, though the volumes are otherwise in perfect pre- servation. I cannot, therefore, determine the year of their publication ; but it contains a family record of three successive generations. The second family whose history is here traced, is that of Rev. Caleb Smith, the second pastor of this church. The date of his own birth, that of his marriage, and the births of his several children, are therein clearly and legibly noted by his own hand. I may men- tion that these dates, which are unquestionably authentic, while corroborating in the main the figures given by your late pastor, the Rev. Mr. Hoyt, in his very full and accurate history of this church, suggest a slight amendment in one par- ticular. Rev. Mr. Smith was married one year earlier than is stated by Mr. Hoyt-September 7, 1748, O. S. ; (and not September, 1749.) So slight a correction would scarcely be worth referring to, except as it destroys some of the romance which in the admirable history of this church before men- tioned, is gathered about the young minister then recently settled in this parish, and his frequent


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visits upon a tender errand to Elizabethtown-the home of Miss Martha Dickinson-while the par- sonage was in the course of construction by the considerate people of his charge. I am sorry to mar this pleasing picture, but historic truth obliges me to say that Mr. Smith was already married at . the time of his settlement, and the special occasion for visits of the kind referred to was therefore past.


Another consideration which obliges me to insist upon the correction of this error, trifling as it seems, is that Mr. Smith's eldest daughter Anna, from whom I claim the honor of being descended, if she was ever born at all, was born before Sep- tember, 1749. So that this unfortunate mistake would have the effect of rendering her existence purely mythical, if not of entirely annihilating the entire body of her descendants; a misfortune to which we cannot be expected tamely to submit.


This venerable Commentary of which I have spoken, no doubt had its place in the pastor's study, in the new parsonage, and contributed its share to his instructions and his expositions of Scripture, during his entire pastorate.


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Before they came into the possession of Rev. Mr. Smith, these volumes had been owned by his father-in-law, Rev. Mr. Dickinson, of Elizabeth- town. Mr. Smith, soon after his graduation at Yale College, came, at Mr. Dickinson's invitation, to assist him in teaching his classical school, the germ of the College of New Jersey. While there he studied theology, and was licensed by the Presbytery of New York. His acceptability as a preacher is shown by the fact of his receiving calls from a number of different churches, among which he concluded to accept that which was ten- dered to him from this church. He was accord- ingly settled here, in November, 1748, bringing with him, as his wife, Mr. Dickinson's youngest daughter, to whom he had been married two months before, and who is represented to have been a lady of rare excellence.


According to the family record to which I have already several times referred, Mr. Dickinson had eight children. The seventh, his daughter Mary, was born in October, 1722, and baptised by Mr. Webb. The readers of Mr. Hoyt's history will recognize this as the name of the minister, whom


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an incorrect tradition makes to have been the pre- decessor of Rev. Mr. Taylor as the pastor of this church, but who was really settled over the church in Newark, though he may have occasionally sup- plied this church before they obtained the services of a regular pastor; and who was subsequently drowned, together with his son, while crossing the Connecticut river at Saybrook.


Mr. Dickinson's youngest daughter, Martha, the future Mrs. Smith, was born in May, 1726, and baptised the same day, by Mr. Jedediah Andrews, the first Presbyterian minister ever settled in Phil- adelphia.


Of Rev. Daniel Taylor, the first pastor of this church, I know nothing beyond what is stated in Mr. Hoyt's history, with which you are all familiar. His ministry carries us back to the formative period of this congregation, when its ecclesiastical organization even had not been deter- mined. It seems to have been first congregational. When, or under what influences, it became finally Presbyterian, is not certainly known. It might help to clear up some doubtful or disputed points


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in the ecclesiastical history of this region, if this could be satisfactorily ascertained. But there are no contemporaneous records to lend us a clue in this matter, and it must remain enveloped in ob- scurity.


We know, at all events, that Rev. Caleb Smith was a Presbyterian ; that he was installed here by the Presbytery of New York; and that from that time forth, if never before, this church was em- braced in the Presbyterian connection.


The schism in the Presbyterian church, which led to the formation of the Synod of New York by ministers who withdrew from the, Synod of Phila- delphia, had taken place but three years before the settlement of Rev. Mr. Smith in this place. At the very next meeting of the Synod of New York, in May, 1749, a motion was offered, and prevailed, · to make proposals of union to the Synod of Phila- delphia, and to appoint delegates to wait upon the Synod of Philadelphia with these proposals. Ne- gotiations were carried on between the two Synods for several years. At length, in the autumn of 1756, the Synod of New York appointed a com-


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mittee, of which Rev. Caleb Smith was one, to meet with a similar committee from the Synod of Philadelphia, to fix upon a proper plan of union, to be laid before each Synod at their next meeting. This plan was drawn up, submitted to the two Synods, accepted. by them, and the United Synod of New York and Philadelphia met in the city of Philadelphia, in May, 1758. It is a pleasing omen in connection with your anniversary celebration, that a like union, only on a far larger scale, has just been effected between the two great Presbyte- rian bodies in this land; and that next May will witness the assembling, in the city of Brotherly Love, not of a united Synod of six or seven Pres- byteries, and sixty or seventy ministers, but a united General Assembly of more than two hun- dred and fifty Presbyteries, and four thousand ministers.


I find the name of Mr. Smith upon several im- portant committees, appointed at different times by the Synod ; e. g., to prepare a plan respecting a fund for the support of ministers' widows and orphans ; to examine needy candidates for the min-


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istry ; to prepare an address to the commander-in- chief of all his majesty's forces. Once it is as the Commission of the Synod of New York, empow- ered to sit in the intervals of the regular session, to transact Synodical business ; and once as the Com- mission of the Synod of New York and Philadel- phia. And all his pacific qualities, for which he was distinguished, were brought into requisition by his being placed on a committee to appease the strife which had broken out in the refractory church in New York city, with its discordant elements, and which gave the Synod a world of trouble, coming up by complaint on reference year after year. One grievance related to Psalmody ; part of the congregation being wedded to Rouse, and another part preferring Watts, the first edi- tion of whose Psalms, I may remark, was pub- lished in London one hundred and fifty years ago, the very year that this church was founded. Ano- ther related to the singing of anthems in church, which greatly offended the consciences of some good people. Another cause of complaint was, that their minister offered prayer at funerals, when


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solicited by the relatives of the deceased to do so, and this they thought smacked of popery. Ano- ther was, that some of them thought it unpresby- terian that the property of the church should be held by trustees, instead of being committed to the deacons. All which goes to show that there were impracticable people then, as now; and if the com- mittee sent to quiet the matter succeeded in so doing, they must have had occasion for all their arts of pacification.


It may also be interesting to note that the Synod, in 1751, enjoined upon all their churches to take up an annual collection for the purpose of propagating the gospel among the heathen ; and it appears from the minutes of the succeeding meet- ing of Synod, that this church, as well as others, did take up the required collection ; and the sum so raised was put into the hands of Rev. John Brainerd, for the support of missions among the Indians, chiefly in New Jersey and in Eastern Pennsylvania. It would be curious to know what was the amount of this early collection for the cause of missions. Mr. Smith's lively interest in




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