USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Orange > The Mountain Society : a history of the First Presbyterian Church, Orange, N. J. organized about the year 1719 with an account of the earliest settlements in Newark > Part 14
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where spirits blend,
Where friend holds fellowship with friend."
Christians came together "with one accord." All classes were represented. The New York mer- chant was present, to leave a prayer and a blessing behind, ere he stepped upon the train. The Orange merchant, lawyer, physician, tradesman and farmer were there, with wives and daughters, agreed as touching the things they came to ask. A similar meeting, which was earlier established, and which
234
DAILY PRAYER-MEETINGS.
continued more than a year, was held every morn- ing in the lecture-room of the Second church. The other denominations had also their special services ; while in March, a union noonday prayer- meeting was instituted at Willow Hall, which was kept up two months or more, and in all the meet- ings there were frequent and pleasant interchanges by members of the different churches. Pastors and private Christians were mutually stimulated to zeal and love by this intercourse. And He who gives and rewards each grace, made their zeal and love, their prayers and appeals, mighty in the sal- vation of others.
The distinguishing features of this revival were the same here as elsewhere. It exhibited, in a pe- culiar manner, the signs of a divine work. In no previous awakening were human agencies less con- spicuous, and the immediate power of God more manifest. The Holy Spirit came not down, indeed, in tongues of fire. His influences were rather like those of the sun, invisible, diffusive, still, yet work- ing in the deepest life of the church.
These influences were remarkably connected with prayer as a means. There was a general and extra- ordinary spirit of prayerfulness among Christians of the different denominations. A new and mys- terious attraction drew people to the prayer-meet- ings. Those who never before attended were now seen, and those who came but seldom were now
235
DISCOVERED GIFTS.
regular attendants. Men who had never prayed in public would rise and offer prayer with great readiness and fervor. And even while they were calling upon God, were answers given in the con- version of souls.
With this increase of prayerfulness there was a wonderful increase of zeal and activity among private Christians. This was throughout the coun- try a prominent characteristic of the work. It may be doubted whether, since the days of the Apostles, there has been so large a development of the lay talent of the churches. Long-buried gifts were ex- humed. The lame began to walk and the dumb to speak. The praying force of the First church was doubled. Men began to appreciate their long- neglected privileges. Christians of both sexes were stirred up to extraordinary efforts for bring- ing to Christ the unconverted around them. And it was most interesting to see how a few words, kindly spoken by a friend, were often the power of God to the salvation of those whom the Word preached had never visibly affected. The days had come, of which it was said, " I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh : and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy." And while individual Christians were thus "speaking the truth in love, and growing up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ : the whole body, fitly joined to- gether and compacted by that which every joint sup-
236
A FALSE IMPRESSION.
plied, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, made increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.".
The unusual attention that was drawn to the prayer-meetings, and the manifest success that fol- lowed the faithful endeavors of private Christians, created impressions in some minds to the disparage- ment of the ministry. While the secular papers were giving daily reports of the progress and inci- dents of the revival, it was more than once hinted by them that this was a work which lay outside of the sphere of ministerial labor. The great Head of the church, it was intimated, was not in this case saving men and carrying His kingdom forward by the foolishness of preaching, but setting that aside for another agency, or, at least, subordinating it to the latter. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The idea arose, evidently, from the fact, that the revival was not promoted by the labors of men known as revival preachers, but went on in connec- tion with the ordinary or extraordinary labors of the pastors. It was a harvest for which they had long been preparing the ground, and there was no class of laborers more active in gathering it. Ministers were everywhere leaders in the work. Each had his hands so full of it that they could scarcely assist one another. They added to their preaching appointments. They conducted prayer- meetings. They had meetings for inquirers. They
237
UNION OF CHRISTIANS.
spent much time with those who came to converse with them privately, and much in their labors from house to house. Never were the spiritual husband- men more busy, and never were their labors more blessed. It was the admirable union and harmony of the instruments employed-ministers and lay- men, male and female, in the pulpit, the prayer- meeting, the Sabbath-school, and elsewhere-that made the agency of the ministry less conspicuous.
A most delightful characteristic of the work was seen in the flowing together of the people of God without regard to their denominational peculiari- ties. The old walls of sectarian prejudice and jealousy seemed broken down. Christians came together, with one heart, to pray for the outpouring of God's Spirit, and to praise Him for His mighty acts. The watchmen saw eye to eye. They were agreed as touching the things they asked. They united in song without the least apparent concern as to what collection the hymn belonged. It was often observed, that none could tell a man's church connections by the prayers he offered. The citizens of Zion spoke one dialect, and poured out their desires before God in a common strain of suppli- cation.
Another observable feature was the quietude with which the religious meetings were conducted. There was none of the extravagance to which great excitements sometimes lead .. The praying assem- 11*
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THE SECULAR PRESS.
blies were solemnly joyful. Sobriety and good order blended with the liveliest zeal. The religious feeling, like a deep river, was profoundly calm, while the current flowed on with majestic strength.
These several facts may account for another. The work encountered little of opposition or ridi- cule from the world. It was contemplated and spoken of with great respect by those who took no personal interest in it; excepting, of course, the zealous advocates of religious theories antagonistic to it. While it was ridiculed by the ultra-ecclesi- astical and the ultra-liberal religious journals, it was treated by the more respectable secular papers as a grand religious movement, and a true development of the Christian life. They noted its progress. They reported its incidents; and men of the world generally appeared to regard, with respectful awe, a work of which the majesty and might, the depth and the extent, were such as proved it to be the work of God.
The subjects of the revival were found among all classes, yet it was easily discernible that God was working according to the established laws of His grace, in the conversion of those, especially, who belonged to pious families, or were under cor- rect religious instruction. The Sabbath-schools of the evangelical churches were particularly a field which the Lord blessed. Even children gave de- lightful evidence of having an intelligent experi-
239
SUBJECTS OF THE REVIVAL.
ence of the things of God. It was now seen that truth which had lain upon the mind, apparently without life, had not been put there in vain. The seed had received an invisible watering. It had felt the quickening warmth of the Sun of Right- eousness. In some cases, fathers and mothers, long in heaven, saw their prayers answered and their last earthly desire fulfilled, in the conversion of their children. And it required no very close at- tention to discover the fruits of an abundant seed- sowing by the Christian press. The stirring thoughts and earnest appeals of men who, being dead, yet speak, were now awakening a simultaneous response in many hearts, under the gracious operation of the Spirit of Life. Of the class of people who are little reached, or not at all, by the direct influences of the sanctuary and the religious press, compara- tively few were reached by the revival. We speak now of this place particularly, though we believe the statement would hold generally true. The union prayer-meeting, established in one of our public halls, was designed especially to draw in a class who would never attend a prayer-meeting elsewhere, and who habitually neglected the house of God. For a time the object was, in a measure, realized. The novelty of such a noonday gather- ing attracted a good many to it. But their curi- osity was soon satisfied. The Gospel had had too little connection with their thoughts and habits of
240
LAW AND GOSPEL.
life to admit of a long-continued interest in the exercises of a prayer-meeting, or of any deep im- pression from the services they witnessed. There were some, however, of this class, who were reached and rescued by the infinite mercy of God, and whose feet were turned to a way they had long de- spised.
The happy flow of Christian love in the prayer- meetings was the occasion of an impression-a quite general one-which we believe to have been erroneous. It has been supposed that the penalties affixed to moral law have had little force in this awakening, and have been little appealed to in the way of motive to bring sinners to repentance. It has been said, and with apparent satisfaction, that ministers have ceased to operate upon the fears of men, having learned the more excellent way of at- tracting them heavenward by the power of love. The statement has more the appearance than the reality of truth. For behind the prayer-meeting, which has stood foremost in the public view, have stood pulpits in which ministers have not shunned to declare the whole counsel of God. They never ceased to hold up the law in its proper relations to the cross of Christ-that law by which comes the knowledge of sin, and which the Redeemer came, not to destroy, but to fulfil. Nor can it be that that divine Agent, whose first work as the Com- forter is to convince men of sin, of righteousness,
241
NEW METHODIST CHURCH.
and of judgment to come, would have sanctioned a policy at variance with His own, by the bestowal of such blessings as the church has received.
This revival added to the different churches of Orange between three and four hundred communi- cants,-the First church receiving about fifty. Its results were greater in the township, but less in this congregation, than those of the two revivals noticed in the earlier part of Dr. Hillyer's ministry.
The Methodist congregation, which was consider- ably strengthened by the revival, undertook at this time the building of a new house of worship. For the auspicious circumstances which gave rise to this undertaking, much credit might be accorded to the pastors who had successively served the con- gregation. The minister who had just left the charge (Rev. James M. Freeman) had been espe- cially laborious. For three months and more, during the revival, he had conducted a religious service every evening in the week but Saturday, the service consisting of a short discourse, followed by a season of prayer and conversation with in- quirers. The building enterprise fell into the hands of Rev. Lewis R. Dunn. On the 15th of September, 1858, the corner-stone was laid for a neat Gothic edifice of brick, which was placed on the old site in Main street, the former house being removed to the rear, to be used for Sunday-school and other purposes. The building was completed
242
ORANGE GAS-WORKS.
the next summer, and, on the 28th of July, was consecrated with appropriate services. This con- gregation, which has been steadily prosperous since it was known to the writer, has now before it the fairest promise of continued prosperity.
At the last parish meeting of the First church, an appropriation was voted for the purpose of hav- ing the church and lecture-room lighted with gas, then about to be supplied to the village. The business has since been executed ; the Orange gas- works are in operation, and the time is evidently near when our citizens generally will enjoy, in their houses, the benefit of this agreeable illumina- tor. The gas-works, located in the valley near the west end of White street, were erected by Messrs. Hoy & Kennedy, of Trenton.
The mission Sunday-school, which was founded by Mr. Greacen, in Orange Valley (at first called Freemantown), was, after his death, placed under the superintendence of Mr. Abraham Baldwin, by the unanimous desire of the teachers engaged in it. Mr. Baldwin had for some time been connected with it, and he has since devoted himself to its interests with peculiar earnestness. The enterprise, vigor- ously carried forward by him and his fellow- laborers, has been a remarkable success, the school having now a roll of a hundred and seventy-five pupils. It shared the influences of the late revival in copious measure. Meetings for prayer were
243
MISSION CHAPEL.
held in the school-room several times a week, and for some time daily. Preaching services were also held, and the families in that neighborhood were visited by the superintendent and others, the pas- tor participating so far as was compatible with the multiplicity of his engagements. About that time, the stated services of the Rev. Dr. Hay were en- gaged for the Sabbath afternoon, and a small but regular and promising congregation has been gath- ered under his labors there, which are still con- tinued. The Sabbath-school and congregation hav- ing become too large for a school-room, it was resolved, during the last summer, to provide for their use a chapel. The means required ($3,500) were promptly subscribed, and the work was im- mediately begun. A site for the edifice was select- ed, the ground being donated by Mr. Ira Tompkins. The stone was soon on its way from the quarry. On the 12th of September, the corner-stone was laid by Dr. Hay, with suitable ceremonies, in pres- ence of a numerous assemblage of the surrounding residents. The building fronts upon a new street, soon to be opened, on a line between the Orange Valley railroad-station and the mountain. This enterprise, which is yet of a missionary character, will ere long add another to the growing list of Orange churches.
The Sunday-school formed in 1816, for the ben- efit of the colored population,-it being previous to
244
AFRICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL.
their emancipation,-was, in process of time, dis- continued. For many years, while they were wast- ing in numbers, no special provision was made for their religious instruction. They have continued to be sparsely mingled with the general population of the town, and with the membership of its churches. In the summer of 1857, one of the youngest of the female members of this church, having just conse- crated herself to the service of the Meek and Lowly, undertook the instruction of a colored class at the close of the afternoon service of the Sabbath. The class increased till others joined her. As it con- tinued to grow in numbers and interest, the need was felt of a gentleman to superintend the exer- cises. This service was kindly undertaken by Mr. Jarvis M. Fairchild, who has continued to perform it, except when absent from the place for the re- covery of his health. The labors bestowed upon this hitherto neglected class are a praise-worthy exhibition of the spirit of Christian love.
We have now reached the end of a history which, from the first settlements in Newark, has been brought down through a period of nearly two hun- dred years. As we have followed it, our thoughts have blended with the life of six generations. We have seen, indeed, but little of their inner life, and we have taken but a cursory view of what was outward and historical ; but we have seen enough
245
CLOSING THOUGHTS.
to beget a feeling of sympathy with these men of the past, who once walked upon the same soil, looked upon the same landscape, worshipped the same God, and lived for the same high purpose with ourselves. They have transmitted to us a
goodly heritage. Their language is ours ; their faith is ours ; the fruits of their toil and suffering are ours. Well may we cherish their memories !
How much do we owe to the enterprise, how much to the patience and piety, of these men of other days ! As we walk into the old graveyard, and brush the grey moss from their tomb-stones, we may read upon each, or almost each, the name of a benefactor .. They lived for the future. They cleared the soil, built the sanctuary, founded Chris- tian institutions, and labored together in the gos- pel work, not less for us than for themselves. They had posterity in their thoughts, and the prayer went often up from their hearths and their altars, that the institutions which they planted might live, and the blessings which they enjoyed might be perpetuated through many generations.
Nor to them only is this debt of gratitude due. There was a power above them, a wisdom higher and a purpose mightier than theirs. He who liveth for ever and ever wrought in them and by them for the carrying out of His own plans, for the perpetuity and increase of that "Church of the living God" to which all human histories
246
PLANS OF PROVIDENCE.
belong. It is His divine counsels that bind the centuries together. His providence unites in one grand system all that is past with all that is pres- ent and to come: "He only hath immortality," and but for Him they and their works would have perished together. Yet their works have followed them. The Church which they founded still rests upon the rock on which they laid its foundations. The gospel which they loved, and for whose de- fence they were set, is still proclaimed, and be- lieved, and made the power of God unto salvation. Others have entered into their labors, while they have entered into their rest. And this Providence is still over the world, over the Church, over the present generation. And it will save all that is worth saving in their works. It carries a fan in its hand. It separates the chaff from the wheat, burn- ing the one, while it garners the other. Of its net- gatherings of all kinds, both good and bad, the good only is permanently preserved; the bad is, sooner or later, cast away. There is, somehow or other, under Providence, a peculiar vitality in truth and virtue-in that which is like God. The memory of the just is blessed, while the wicked perish and are forgotten. The institutions of the Church abide, while the world passeth away, and the lust thereof. He who sits upon the throne, judging right, will eternally guard the great inter- ests of His spiritual. kingdom. With Him the
247
SOCIAL PROGRESS.
Church is safe. In Him all institutions of His es- tablishing have a strength, a power, a life, that de- fies decay.
These truths have their illustration in the history here given. The great land-monopoly, which so long embarrassed the New Jersey settlements, and interfered with their prosperity, has come to end. The evils inseparable from the old colonial govern- ment, administered by a power too remote to feel a due sympathy with its subjects, have ceased to exist. An unfortunate people, long held in unprof- itable and dangerous bondage, have been emanci- pated, and in a measure elevated. Many walls, built up and guarded by ecclesiastical bigotry and prejudice, have crumbled down. There is a far better understanding of the rights of property, the rights of labor, and the rights of conscience, than there was a hundred, or even fifty years ago. The knife of Providence has been gradually pruning the institutions whose planting and growth this history records. Much that was evil, and produc- tive of evil, has been removed. What was conso- nant with the genius of Christianity, and with the best interests of the future, has been preserved.
Such a character we claim, in no exclusive and uncharitable spirit, for the Church around which the materials of this narrative have been gathered. We are not given to ecclesiolatry. We have no reverence to spare for ancient temples of the truth
248
WHAT WE CLAIM.
from which the truth has fled. Our devotions are little drawn toward the once Christian sanctuary on whose dome the crescent has taken the place of the cross. We are well aware that error often en- shrines itself in sacred places, to the expulsion of the truth; that it assumes venerated names, and appears in the holiest livery ; and that it finds suf- ficient aliment in the nature of man to give it, if
God permit, a long vitality. But we believe-and the most of our readers, if not every one, will, we think, accord to us thus much-that our venerable Church has stood as the representative and guardian of a faith essentially true; that the candlestick upon its altar has been held by men honored and blessed of God; that it has been a fortress of freedom, a defence of the gospel, a blessing to generations liv- ing and dead. This belief is entertained with no feeling of jealousy or disrespect toward the many lights that are now shining around it. May they evermore burn, fed by the olive of peace, and blending their many-colored radiance to illuminate and beautify the one living temple of the Holy Spirit !
The following churches now exist within the parochial limits occupied by this Society alone, in 1825 :
1. The First Presbyterian Church, standing in
249
EXISTING CHURCHES.
Main street, near the North Orange depot. The Church was organized, in or about the year 1719, as an Independent Church; became Presbyterian in 1748; was incorporated in 1783, as the Second Presbyterian Church in Newark; received its present title in 1811. The average length of five consecutive pastorates, now ended, has been about twenty-seven years. Present membership, 326. Families of the parish, about 175. Pupils in the Sabbath-school, 135; Orange Valley school, 175; school for colored persons, 15 to 20.
2. St. Mark's Episcopal Church, organized in 1827, at the junction of Main and Valley streets. Its house of worship was completed and conse- crated in 1829. Present rector, Rev. James A. Williams. Communicants, 161. Families and pew-holders, 88.
3. Methodist Episcopal Church of North Orange, formed in 1829 ; situated in Main street, near Cen- ter. Its first house of worship was built in 1831; its second in 1859. Present membership, includ- ing probationers, 260. Minister in charge, Rev. Lewis R. Dunn. Sabbath-school attendance, from 150 to 200.
4. Second Presbyterian Church, corner of Main and Prospect streets. Organized in 1831. Mem- bers in communion, 417. Families, 185. Children
250
EXISTING CHURCHES.
in two Sabbath-schools, 200; mission-school, 50. Pastor, Rev. John Crowell.
5. South Orange Presbyterian Church, organ- ized in 1831. Communicants, 157. Families, about 100. Sabbath-school, 103. Pastor, Rev. Daniel G. Sprague.
6. Baptist Church at East Orange, constituted in 1837. The present pastor is Rev. William D. Hedden. Communicants, 67. Sabbath-school, 50.
7. Methodist Episcopal Church, South Orange. Formed in 1850. Persons in full membership, 20. The Society has a small house of worship, in which religious services are statedly held on the Sabbath, conducted by a local preacher.
8. St. John's Roman Catholic Church, built in 1851. It is now in charge of Rev. John Murray. Communicants, about 750. Children receiving in- struction, 100. The church is situated on White street, near Boyd.
9. Grace Episcopal Church, in Main, between Park and Hillyer streets. Organized in 1854. House of worship consecrated in 1858. Members in communion, 126. Families, 86. Sabbath- school, 64 to 70. Parishioners of both sexes, 380,
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EXISTING CHURCHES.
10. Baptist Church of North Orange, constituted in 1857. Communicants, 100; Sabbath-school, 150. The congregation meets for worship in Waverly Hall. Mr. Morse, finding his health im- paired, closed his ministry with this church Octo- ber 2, 1859. He has been succeeded by Rev. George Webster.
11. A "New Church," or Swedenborgian Soci- ety, has held separate worship for. the last two years under the ministrations of Rev. Benjamin F. Barrett. Its meetings, until last spring, were at Mr. Barrett's residence, on Main street. They are now held at Library Hall.
12. A Protestant Episcopal Society was formed, in October, 1859, at South Orange. This new So- ciety is yet without a minister and a house of wor- ship. Its religious services are held in the Meth- odist Church.
13. The Orange Valley congregation is not yet organized as a Church, but is erecting a house of worship. It comprises many families connected with the First Church, and has a flourishing Sabbath-school. Preaching by Rev. Philip C. Hay, D. D.
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