USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Newark > The North Reformed Church, Newark, New Jersey : the addresses delivered in connection with the observance of the fiftieth anniversary, Dec. 10-17, 1906 > Part 6
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The Episcopal Church in this country owes a debt of unspeakable gratitude to the Reformed Church in America.
Over two hundred years ago, when the Church of England was almost begging for a foothold on these Western shores, she came to Pennsylvania, and in a good, pious, religious way the Quakers retarded her and made it almost impossible for her to find a foothold in that commonwealth.
She knocked at the door of Massachusetts and found that the Puritans had already pre-empted that country.
In Salem, my native place, where all were sup- posed to possess the advantage of civil and relig- ious liberty, and of whom it was said "first they fell upon their knees and then upon the aborigines,"-they hated the Church, and showed their love of liberty by imprisoning her ministers and driving her laymen from the Bay State.
But when, in the year, 1693, the Church set foot in the City of New York, which had recently come into English hands, she received an hospita-
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ble welcome from the members of the original Dutch Reformed Church. They opened their lit- tle chapel for her, themselves holding service in the morning and allowing the English Church- men to worship in the afternoon; and the first Rector of Trinity Church in New York City, Mr. Vesey, a layman, who was afterwards called as Rector, was ordained to the sacred ministry and received induction into office at the hands of the Governor of New York in the Dutch Reformed Church in the old fort.
So I say the Episcopal Church in this country owes a debt of unspeakable gratitude to the Dutch Reformed Church, which is now known as the Reformed Church in America.
Going further back even than that, to those dark and bloody days of Queen Mary, many of the English reformers found refuge in the hos- pitable little country of Holland, and there re- mained until the tyranny in their own land had over-passed. And it was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church, William the Third, with his gracious queen, who, through the workings of Providence, finally became King of England, and thus the head of the English National Church.
So I suppose there are no two religious bodies in this country or in the Protestant world, that are nearer together by history, by doctrine, by creed and by the most sacred bond of hospitality
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than are the English Church and the Dutch Re- formed Church, or the Reformed Church of America and the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States.
So it is a great joy, and I count it one of the most pleasant things that has happened to me since my coming to Newark seventeen years ago, to know that I could receive an invitation from the Pastor and the officers of this church to come and add my congratulations to those of other men from this city and from other cities, from this church and from other churches in this your hour of jubilee.
You have had a proud record of fifty years in this city, and I think that one of the causes of success of this church, and of every successful church, in every city and every community, is that it has gone quietly and solidly along, mind- ing its own business, not interfering with other people's business and other people's convictions, except to stretch out helpful hands of love and grace to fellow men who are in need of physical, mental and spiritual help, and to lend a hand here and there. That is the only excuse I can think of that a church has for minding anybody's business but its own, and that is what this church has done during its glorious history of fifty years, and it seems to me that this is what accounts for its great success.
And so I come to you to-night, representing
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old Trinity and her one hundred and sixty years of work for Jesus Christ in this vicinity, to ex- tend her greeting, and through her the greetings of the Episcopal Church in the City of Newark to the North Reformed Church, and not only our greetings, Dr. Vance, but our most loving bene- diction on you and your work, our congratula- tions on all the activities of your church, and also the hearty prayers of the dear old parish of which I have the honor to be Rector, that what God has given you in the way of blessing during the last half century will increase a thousand fold during the years of the centuries yet to be, until at last you and I, and all those who, through our minis- trations, have been led to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, shall celebrate that great eternal jubilee about the throne and join in the song of the ransomed congregation-"to Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and the Father ; to Him be glory and domin- ion forever and ever, Amen."
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REV. DONALD SAGE MACKAY, D. D., Sixth Minister, 1894-1899.
ADDRESS
BY
THE REV'D JAMES DEMAREST, D. D.
NE of the most impressive lessons sug- gested by such an occasion as this, is the combination of the passing and the permanent, or rather the transmuting of the pass- ing into the permanent. Men die, but the institu- tions which they create live. They remain on the scene but a little while, but they leave behind them enduring memorials of their presence and their activity. The founders of this church have mostly passed away, but their work abides. If we miss their presence, yet we do not miss their work. They labored and we enter into their la- bors.
It was my lot to be associated with many of those who laid the foundations of this church. Coming third in the succession of pastors, I was familiar with the ideas and aims of the men who projected this enterprise for extending the sway of the church of their fathers in this growing city, and gathering into its communion the increasing population of this section. They were men loyal to the traditions and ambitions of the Reformed Dutch Church. They were proud of her history, they loved her order, they believed in her mission, and more than all they believed in making proof
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of their loyalty in employing their efforts, their influence, and their money, in propagating the church and extending her influence. The social position of not a few of them was such as to command the respect of the community for the new enterprise from its very inception ; and when I came here the church had a standing second to none in the city in its social influence, in its mani- fest spirit of Christian sincerity, in devotion to the work of the Lord, and in its effectiveness as an evangelizing and uplifting force among the many of all classes whom it was gathering around its standard. When I mention the names of Fred- erick T. Frelinghuysen, at that time Attorney- General of the State of New Jersey, and after- ward United States Senator, and Secretary of State of the United States, of Joseph P. Brad- ley, then an eminent lawyer, and afterward Jus- tice of the Supreme Court of the United States, of Peter S. Duryee, a retired manufacturer and prominent citizen, the Rev. William H. Steele, a retired missionary, John C. Woodruff, Robert F. Ballantine, John Duncan, John A. Miller, Fran- cis Brown, John H. Wakeman, Daniel Holloway, Peter Vanderhoff, not to speak of many others, and honorable women not a few, the strength and standing and efficiency of the church in those days are evident enough. And all turned in and worked. The Sunday Schools were equipped with a most faithful teaching force. The prayer meet-
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ings were centers of spiritual power. It was be- fore the days of Christian Endeavor, but a Young People's Prayer Meeting was established that did good work in its particular sphere. There was a debt of $14,000 on the church, but it was presently taken hold of, and easily wiped out. A spontaneous and glad activity along all lines of Christian work insured a steady progress in all directions. The Spirit of the Lord was with us, and there was a joyful liberty in Christian ser- vice.
As I recall these happy days-the delightful association into which I was thrown, the kind consideration that anticipated my wants and stud- ied my comfort, and the hearty co-operation on all hands in Christian work, I wonder that I was willing to sever the ties that bound me to such a people, especially against their loving opposition, and almost their protest. But I was taken with the western fever, and strongly affected by the ap- peal of a struggling church to lead a forlorn hope in a western city. I have some times thought in later years, that the judgment of many friends at the time, that I was very foolish in doing what I did, may have been correct, and that my course in that matter is to be classed perhaps among the mistakes which are often made when one is young and foolish. I was the former, and may have been the latter. At any rate, I have always cher- ished in my heart of hearts the individual ex-
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pressions of regret at parting which were made at that time, and especially the expression which the Consistory put on record of personal attach- ment and appreciation of my work here, and so- licitude for me in the work to which I was go- ing, as one of the most precious possessions which my ministerial experience has brought me. Coming back here from time to time I have felt that I was coming home. This church has ever had a warm place in my heart, and though of late years my acquaintance with it has not been so constant, and my visits to this old home less frequent than in the earlier years after leaving it, yet the old affection for it abides, and the dear memories of the past will never be obliterated. How I should rejoice if I could to-night grasp the hands of all those who stood by me during those happy years so loyally, so lovingly, and re- new the fellowship of our matured service in the Master's cause ! But one and another and another have passed away to the higher fellowship of the just made perfect. They have finished their course, and do now rest from their labors. Not many familiar faces do I see before me to-night.
But the spirit of the earlier time I am sure is here,-it rests like the mantle of Elijah on you who have taken up the succession of the prophets into whose labors you have entered. You are carrying on nobly the work which they so nobly began. In your aggressive spirit, your enterprise
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for the Kingdom, your devising of liberal things, you are worthy successors of those who in the establishment of this church planned and labored for church extension through the ingathering of the lost sheep into the fold of Christ. I con- gratulate you on what you have accomplished, on the large work you are doing, and the prospect of yet larger achievement in the future. You will go on, I doubt not, from strength to strength. At the celebration of your next semi-centennial you will be surrounded by a group of other churches, the outflowing and overflow of your zeal and en- terprise,-fair daughters that shall bear the im- press of your fidelity and efficiency in Christian work, and carry forward in other fields through the inspiration imparted here the ministration of the gospel of the Son of God. You have reached now a stage of development and growth where colonization would appropriately find place, and you will know how to take advantage of oppor- tunities for planting new churches, by sending out detachments from your force of workers to occupy strategic points as subordinate centers for carrying on the Lord's work in other localities in this growing city,-not as missions attached to you, and depending on your support, but as sepa- rate churches, having their own autonomy, helped into existence by your fostering care as long as this may be necessary, but started upon an independent career to work out a destiny of
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their own. This is the way to extend the church, and to this you are committed by the very fact of your power, the possession of ample resources for this work, not to speak of the other fact which lies back of this, the aggressive spirit of enter- prise in which this church was first conceived, to which it owes its very existence, and in declaring and emphasizing which it must find its true mis- sion, and the normal outworking of its life.
It is not only the backward look which is ap- propriate on such an occasion as this, but the forward look as well. We indulge in reminiscence with gratitude to God for what the fathers were, and how they wrought. We survey the founda- tions which they laid, and gratefully mark their strength and durability; we rejoice to see the structure erected upon those foundations rising in proportionate stateliness and beauty ; but there is a future beyond all this which also attracts our gaze. We instinctively ask the why of past la- bor and present achievement. Strength and beauty are in this sanctuary, not as an end in themselves, but as subserving the great end for which God's sanctuary exists at all-the sanc- tuary of consecrated hearts and devoted lives ce- mented into the spiritual house in which God dwells. The goodly fellowship of all you who have the Lord here is to be the radiant example not only, but the compelling power for similar goodly fellowship among as many as you can
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gather into the embrace of that love which flows forth from the great heart of Christ, and warms vour hearts, and impels you to testify of that love to your fellows. So, plainly, it is not for your- selves simply that you are here, not to sit down in complacent self-felicitation on the strength and eminence which you have attained, but while thankful for this, and legitimately proud of the past which has flowered out in so goodly a pres- ent, to look onward in the exercise of a noble am- bition to what the future may disclose, as the re- sult of your devout consecration now to an ever- enlarging service of the Master. There are bright visions ahead-make them actual realities. As your present fulfills the prophecy of your past, so make the future secure by due appreciation of present privilege and opportunity, and an alert ear to hearken to the Master's call.
Fifty years of church-life-how much that means !- years of earnest toil, of lofty purpose, of unselfish devotion to the noblest ideals; years bright with hope realized in the advancement of Christ's Kingdom, or dim with disappointment of cherished plans; years blending their lights and shadows into a picture of all that makes life genuine and satisfying. How the incense clouds of prayer fill the sky in that picture, rolling up toward the throne of God! How the monuments of self-sacrifice arise here and there towering up into the sunlight! How the charm of the Christ-
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like spirit seems to pervade the whole, attesting the mysterious but not uncertain presence of the Master, shining through the lives of His conse- crated disciples, who like Himself are going about doing good! Fifty years of organized, unified Christian service, of the many hundreds of Christ's followers who have here made com- mon cause in glorifying the Master and saving men-how much it means ! The record is on high, written in the archives of the eternal kingdom, -- and the record is below as well, written in souls renewed and sins forgiven, in brightened lives and happy homes, in an ever-widening influence of blessing in many human relations, extending throughout this city, and to other cities, and even to the ends of the earth. You cannot trace nor measure this influence, but, like the unfolding of a flower, filling the air with fragrance, it has gone abroad to cheer and bless. May this church stand as long as the world stands !- the pillar and ground of the truth, a living witness for Imman- uel, God with us, a beacon light of hope and blessing for the seekers after God, and the glory of His Israel !
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REV. JAMES I. VANCE, D. D., Present Minister, 1900 ---
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ADDRESS
BY
THE REV'D CHARLES E. HART, D. D.
CONFESS I experience this moment a singular sensation to stand where I stood at the opening of my ministry; to be known as one of the oldest ministers of the Church now celebrating its semi-centennial.
I well remember the smile of my neighbor across the park, who rejoiced in the dignity of a century, when I asked him to attend our first cel- ebration of the decennial of our church. He looked upon me as a very young man, represent- ing a very young church, and with very high as- pirations ; and, I may add, that at this time the venerable Dr. Frazer had not appeared on the scene. I go back to Dr. Demarest-I wish I could say back to the beloved Hasbrauch Dubois, whose memory was still fragrant when I came here. I look back to the first period, to the begin- ning of the history and life of the church which puts us older ministers in a position to appreciate the feeling of this hour, not in the amazement of surprise, but in the glad fulfilment and realiza- tion of the aspirations and expectations of that company of rare spirits we were called upon to lead in the course of this magnificent history.
I came to it before the spire of this edifice was
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completed-this edifice, the composition of the finest creation of Upjohn's genius in the Metro- polis, when they were following the ancient us- age of the celebration of the Lord's Supper in the aisle, when the founders, in the possession of the richest elements of eloquence, learning and business sagacity, and of energy wrought togeth- er under the magnetism of the college friendship -for the men united in this organization with Dr. Polhemus were his college friends,-a mag- netism, I say, of a college friendship. They were in their first love and consecration, so near in the period of the Founder that I could feel the pres- ence of his spirit, which was made more sensible by the presence of his family and of the gracious woman whose life ran on through the years bind- ing them together as with a silver cord.
The Decennial was a renewal of the foundation of this church, laid at the close of the first decade, marked by a celebration in which the exercises were assigned to those who had been active in the movement. To Mr. Bradley was given the preparation of the historical sketch which he de- livered with great dignity; to Mr. Duryee the financial history ; to Mr. Frelinghuysen, the ora- tion to stir the hearts of us all, as we started afresh in this stage of the history; and to Dr. Campbell the wise counsel of the father of the church from the beginning.
The decade of bereavement, of change, of trial
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served only to unite this band in the love of the church, the love of its every stone, till it became to them a personal affection. You cannot love a General Assembly or the General Synod, or a Classis with very much warmth, but the church where our hearts come in contact in the most blessed fellowship, we can love with a personal and lasting affection. To Mr. Duryee, as to oth- ers-but to Mr. Duryee characteristically-the Church was as a living being for which his heart throbbed with a love, I may say, even above the love which he bore to his own family.
There were two things which Mr. Duryee loved with his whole heart-he loved this North Church and he loved his college. And I must not omit as entering into the renewal of the founda- tion at this time, that infusion of the Scotch ele- ment which is as characteristic of this church as the Dutch, for which in the spirit of conservatism there was a natural affinity which entered into this company to enrich and to fortify it in all the qualities which made it strong and great. It en- larged the field of the work so that "Paisley" was included in my parish along with Newark, and it was as necessary for me to visit "Paisley" annual- ly as it was to visit our own city, so that I became as familiar with its delightful and charming fam- ilies and associations as with those at home in the "West."
I regarded myself as highly favored and hon-
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ored that my ministry should find its place in this period which we entered, and that I was called to labor with the founders of the Church when alive, enthusiastic and expectant in their first love. It is my honor and delight that I was associated with such men in the multiplied activi- ties in which they entered, in which it seemed to me I was rather like the leader of an orchestra whose occupation consisted solely in keeping in unison the voices and instruments which were making all the music. The spire was completed, the debt which rested upon us was paid. I well re- member the banquet at the home of Mr. George Clark where we met to celebrate that event, and which was in a sense the beginning of that pro- found interest and that magnificent help which is a characteristic of the members of his family in the work of the church. The church soon ad- vanced to a leading place in its labors and con- tributions until they were in excess of what it spent upon itself. It took a commanding posi- tion among the churches of the community in philanthropy and in the social life of that day.
Dr. Steele was at the head of the Board of For- eign Missions, Dr. Abeel of the Board of Domes- tic Missions, Mr. Frelinghuysen was at the head of the American Bible Society. Five of the most efficient and generous trustees of the College of our Church were drawn from this Church and drawn from that period of its history. At the
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head of the Foster Home and the Female Chari- table Society, and presiding over the Orphan Asylum you could find the elect ladies of this congregation in their labor of love. It was a church of leaders and leadership.
In the expansion of the Reformed Dutch Church in this city, which is renowned throughout our denomination as being far ahead of any section or field within its bounds, and in the creation of Classis of Newark-in which I believe I am the only surviving charter member left within it- the North Church was pre-eminent. This Church took the lead in the support and in the prosecu- tion of this work, and the Clinton Avenue Church, the Woodside Church, the Linden Church, and the East Orange Church-of which Dr. Bishop has already told us-were brought into being and fostered and strengthened, all in the period which closed the first quarter century of the Church.
In internal and parochial work, in missions and in cottage prayer-meetings, in Bible readings, in visitation and in tract distribution it sustained with characteristic vigor its efficient organization. In the Ladies' Benevolent Association and in the Young Men's Christian Association and in all the varied activities of the church it entered and pre- sented a record of efficiency and power which equalled that of any older churches in our city. And thesame spirit entered into theadministration
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of the Sunday Schools, the history of which has been given by Mr. Frelinghuysen with such ad- mirable fullness and faithfulness, in which he carried us back into the earliest period-and you may say the Church grew out of the Sunday School. In this period in which I had the honor and pleasure to minister, occurred the presidency of Mr. Frelinghuysen's beloved father, whose ad- dresses were prepared with the care of a State paper or an oration in the Senate, and which were delivered every Sunday afternoon and at- tracted us all. The church was, as Mr. Duryee told us in his decennial address, like General Grant's army, who when he called for any ser- vice, no matter what it might be, always found a man in the ranks for that service. I could show you, had I time, how that was true of this Church but I simply indicate one example, viz., that of the lectures on the English translation of the Bi- ble, which were delivered by Judge Bradley in the Lecture Room at my suggestion. He deliv- ered several lectures on this subject, which was then of great interest in our State. After their delivery these lectures were called for by the col- lege of our Church, and afterwards by the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, and I think led to the in- troduction in so many of our colleges of the liter- ary study of the Bible, because soon after their delivery the call for that course of study was
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made and it was introduced in the colleges of our land.
It was my happiness to labor with these men and these women, these elect ladies, in labor more abundant, to come into such close fellow- ship with them in my pastoral work, when pas- toral care in the simpler conditions that prevailed in those early days in Newark was practicable ; when I was received into their homes and entered into sympathy with them in their lives, through which, ministerial interest ripened into attach- ments and freindships which linked one's self with them in the most sacred events of their lives. I am glad to hear Dr. Vance say that I am still remembered in the event which is esteemed the most sacred in a man's life, and that I am still held in remembrance by those who I trust have enjoyed all the bliss which follows the consum- mation of the ties of which I took the direction.
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