USA > New Jersey > Cumberland County > The Sesqui-centennial, or, The 150th anniversary of the Deerfield Presbyterian Church, Cumberland County, New Jersey, celebrated Thursday, Aug. 25th, 1887 : historical sermon, addresses, etc > Part 4
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It was during his service in Congress that the celebrated Missouri Controversy arose. In its settlement none took more interest than Dr. Moore, who was one of the select committee to whom the subject was referred. After the failure of all other efforts for peace, he suggested and presented to Mr. Clay, in the form of a resolution, the measure which that great states- man brought forward for the settlement of that controversy, and which was finally accepted February 27th, 1821. After the act was passed Mr. Clay, with highly complimentary remarks, handed the original draft to Dr. Moore, adding: "Take this paper home with you and preserve it for your children."
While a daughter could say of him, 'I never heard him say a foolish thing,' Dr. Moore was always attractive to old and young alike, as a companion, gentleman and christian. A man of whom any place might be proud as having given him birth."
But I must now draw my remarks to a close; pardon me for having wearied your patience and trespassed so long upon your time. In the limited time allotted me on this occasion, I could barely give an outline of the history of this part of God's Zion, which stretches over nearly five generations.
How rapidly we have passed the milestones to-day in our march along the line of the Church's History. We have observed
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one generation after another of workers pass away, while others have been raised up to fill their places; and so the work goes on in the midst of the many and serious changes. Rich and precious fruit have we been permitted to pluck to-day from this old tree, planted here one hundred and fifty years ago, whose roots strike deeper and deeper, and whose branches extend farther and farther, and which is destined to bring forth fruit in old age. The tall and large oaks of four score must decay and pass away, but the church will continue to be fat and flourishing-she will bring forth fruit in old age. Exposed both to fire and storm, this church building, or part of it, has stood for one hundred and sixteen years, and by God's pro- tecting care may stand many more. But the church proper, in her organic form, has passed through many and severe forms of trial, and yet survived them all. Adverse circumstances have frequently overtaken her in her onward march; false and untrue friends have cast the shadows of discouragement and despondency across her pathway. Deaths and removals have thinned the ranks of the soldiers of the cross and weakened the forces of the workers in the vineyard, and yet the church has strengthened and increased with the increase of her years, as she comes up from the wilderness leaning upon her beloved.
When we consider that the church on earth and the church in heaven are one, then it is clearly to be seen that the church's loss on earth is but the church's gain in heaven. Truly says the poet :
"One family we dwell in Him, One church above, beneath; Though now divided by the stream, The narrow stream of death.
One army of the living God, To his eommand we bow; Part of his host have crossed the flood, And part are crossing now.
Ten thousand to their endless home This solemn moment fly; And we are to the margin come, And we expect to die."
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As we look back over the past to-day, we cannot fail to enumerate many scenes, both painful and joyous. We therefore mingle our tears of sorrow with our feelings of joy. You can- not fail to call to mind when death robbed you of some of the dearest earthly objects of your affection, and sorrow filled your heart. Every time you visit their graves a new pang of grief pierces your soul, but many and rich have been your experi- ences of joy also in your connection with the church here on earth. As you glance over the past you are able to recount at least some of God's dealings of love and mercy. You have had your seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord; our Heavenly Father has answered your prayers, and the Spirit of God has been poured out in copious showers, and your sons and daughters have come from afar, and been gathered into the fold of Christ; and when the bands that have bound you to earth have been snapped asunder, it has only been to multiply the ties in heaven. With all these rich blessings of the past, which have made us what we are, what is the future likely to be? From the past, I venture to judge the future will be still more glorious. I apprehend the church shall flourish like the palm tree, and grow like the cedars in Lebanon. She has kept pace with the progress of events, and with the developments of the arts and sciences; indeed she has been, with Christ as her head, at the bottom of all true science and development.
And now with these thousands of broad acres of fertile land surrounding this cherished spot, all dotted over with beau- tiful and convenient farms, occupied with an intelligent and God loving people, with increasing advantages for giving your children a liberal education, favored also with a faithful gospel ministry proclaiming the standards of the church in all their purity and simplicity, and with God's blessing resting upon your labors, I predict a still grander future for the church than the past; increased prosperity and liberality, a more thorough consecration to the work at home, and a more intense love and devotion to the work of saving the millions of heathen abroad.
However rich and grand the past has been, the future must necessarily be still more bright and hopeful, because the facilities for enlargement are increasing with the growth of years. Your most desirable pews are occupied and even crow-
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ded, and more are needed to supply the demand. The remov- als by death and otherwise cause no diminution in the size of our congregations.
A word of counsel from one who has already become warmly attached to this portion of the Lord's vineyard, I pre- sume will not be considered as an intrusion. Fathers and mothers in Israel, young men and maidens, and also little chil- dren, let me urge upon you the necessity of loving your church; the church your fathers loved; it is the birth-place of your soul; let it be as
"Dear as the apple of thine eye, And graven on thy hand."
Let your post of duty always be filled. "Whatsoever your hands find to do do it with all your might." Never fail to let your voice be heard in behalf of Zion; for her welfare let your prayers ascend; consecrate yourselves wholly to her service, but above all, love the Saviour who hath bought her with his own most precious blood. Then with the great apostle of the Gen- tiles shall we be able to "rejoice evermore." Therefore,
Joyful joyful let us be, On this Anniversary Day; Three times fifty are our years, With no cause for shedding tears.
God has brought us safely through All these years of trial too; Having reached this good old age, Adding now another page.
With the record of the past, Showing so much of God's grace; We can safely trust Him now, And perform to Him our vow.
Let us then fresh courage take, In God's work for Jesus' sake; Trusting in the Saviour's love, Till we all shall meet above.
THE STONE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF DEERFIELD -- ENLARGED IN 1859.
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ADDRESS OF REV. R. HAMILL DAVIS.
SUBSTANCE OF AN ADDRESS ON RECOLLECTIONS OF DEERFIELD PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, BY REV. R. HAMILL DAVIS, PH. D.
It were a strange heart that beats within me, if it did not beat faster here to-day; if, on this interesting historic occasion, and amid these suggestive surroundings, I could stand before you, without the throb of a more than ordinary emotion. Who is there, of all this assembly, that does not feel the inspiration of the hour? and who, among you, feels it more than I ?
Your invitation to join you and take some part in these exercises I gladly accepted. Your pastor has riveted your attention, as he has traversed, so ably and so fully, this long century and a half of years, in which God has protected and prospered this venerable church. And now, giving myself up to the past which we have had in common here, I propose to indulge for a little while in the "Recollections" that it brings. And how they come thronging upon me, at the bidding of busy faithful memory!
In the line of pastors who have come and gone, I occupy a somewhat isolated position. When I came to you, my two immediate predecessors were at work in other fields. One of them, the Rev. J. W. E. Kerr, now sleeps in the old church yard, among your kindred, and the people to whom he faith- fully and ably preached the gospel for many years. The other, I hoped to meet here to-day, but only a few weeks ago death came to the Rev. Dr. T. W. Cattell, in the midst of an active and honorable service, and he too sleeps in the grave. One of my two immediate successors, the Rev. W. H. Dinsmore, had but fairly entered upon his work here, with promise of great usefulness, when he was cut down, in your midst, by the hand of death. The other, the Rev. E. P. Heberton, a man of brilliant parts, whose monument is yonder chapel, not very long after he left you found a grave in the sunny South. Now all this seems to sound of the long ago, and yet it has not been
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very many years since I first stepped on Deerfield soil; and though I stand before you, with the few stray locks that are left, already whitened, yet it is not the frost of life's Winter, but rather of the carly Autumn that has touched them. But all this in passing, I am not a boy any longer, I felt more like that when I came to you, fresh from my scholastic life, an inexperi- enced young man, twenty-seven years ago. I had a great deal to learn, and I learned it; I left you a wiser man than I came. I wonder that you bore with me so kindly; it may be that my worst faults came first, and I corrected them as the years rolled on. I well remember my first visit; it was a gloomy day in April, 1860. The day gave color to my first impressions of Deerfield; but before I left I was drawn toward the people and the church and consented to repeat my visit. The next time it was a bright sunny day; the birds sang in the trees, the air was redolent with the fragrance of blossoms, and the fields were green. The people received me kindly, my heart warmed toward them, and I felt within me that if they called me I would come. They did call me, and I came.
Of those who then constituted the Presbytery of West Jersey, but one still answers to his name, the Rev. A. H. Brown, who well deserves to be called our "Ecclesiastical His- torian" in New Jersey, and has been wisely chosen to take an important part in these exercises to-day.
Of the session that rallied around the new pastor, only one, my old neighbor, David Paris, remains.
And the congregation, O! the congregation! I see them still, as they were wont to appear in other days, but I look, in vain, among you now, for vanished forms that come not back again. There is scarcely a house in this whole congregation that Death has not entered since first I looked in upon the liv- ing ones. If we were to let the great Conqueror lead us along from home to home, at almost every door, he would grimly boast of his triumphs.
Then there are reminiscences of blessed memory that we gratefully recall to-day, times when the Spirit's presence was powerfully manifested among us; but, as a general fact, they kept gradually dropping into the fold, so that there were rarely two successive communion seasons without some additions to
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the church. Individual cases of peculiar interest come to my mind just now, but I cannot even allude to them here. It is a great pleasure, though not without its sadness, to go with you into this past, where we have so much in common. But it is not necessary to come back to Deerfield to have the reminis- cences awakened. They have often come to me when far away, and if I should go to the ends of the earth, I would carry with me Deerfield, the old church, the old parsonage near the stream, and the old familiar forms and faces, on to the end of my pilgrimage. There are some memories that fade not with years; some photographs that no future can harm; some im- pressions that time cannot efface.
Just here, I know that you will pardon a very personal reminiscence. For nearly two years I lived among my people a bachelor, shy of the young ladies, fond of the little girls. One Sabbath I announced that I would be absent for a few weeks, and a good lady, as I passed down the aisle, playfully remarked, "I believe you are going to get married," and sure enough, it was not long before I brought from the city a young inexperienced maiden, whom I have ever since been proud to call my wife; and so it is to me a happy circumstance, that our "silver wedding" coincides with the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the old church. And there could be no better place and time for me to testify, that if God has made me useful and happy here, or anywhere, it is due in the largest measure, to the true wife, who alike in sunshine and under the clouds, has stood faithfully at my side, and who comes back to-day with a heart that warms to you as to no other people on the face of the earth, our first church love, and the old Parsonage, where all our birdlings were nestled. Is it any wonder that it still has to us the charm with which only such associations can invest it? We left with the nest unbroken, but some of you remember the fair little blue-eyed girl, who spent seven bright summers among you, and used to play under the willows; she and her sister were the last of the little girls that played under those willows before the woodman's axe cut them down, and she now lives where the angels live.
But time passes on, and we must drop these reminiscences. Some day in that wonderful 20th century, of whose dawn we
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already catch somewhat the first glimmering light, the people will come, we trust, as we come to-day, to the two hundredth anniversary of the old church of Deerfield, but we shall not be liere. Some of these children will still be this side the River, but most of us will be over on the other shore. What the great developments of the world's history are to be the next fifty years we cannot tell, God only knows. In the shaping of that history, among the vast multitudes of Earth, but little, com- paratively, depends on what your hands may find to do-but not so with this old church of your fathers. Whether the men and women of Deerfield in 1937 are to hang their harps upon the willows, and weep when they remember Zion, or take their harps and touch the cords, and make the air vocal with their songs of joy as you do here to-day, will depend largely upon your fidelity to your heaven-appointed trust. You are the keepers of this ancient church; keep it for Christ and the gen- crations yet unborn.
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REMARKS OF HON. C. S. SIMS.
BRIEF REMARKS BY THE HON. CLIFFORD STANLEY SIMS OF MOUNT HOLLY, N. J.
My friends, it would be very difficult, if not impossible, for me to describe to you my emotions as I stand here in the church which was the last charge of my great-great grandfather, the Reverend John Brainerd, and where he lies buried.
There should, however, be no feeling of pride on account of descent from such a man, but rather a feeling of determina- tion to endeavor to always remember his Godly life and to seek to emulate it.
There is but little I can tell you beyond what you already know regarding him. He was born in Haddam, Connecticut, February 28th, 1720; entered Yale College in 1742, and gradu- ated from there in 1746; was licensed as a Minister of the Gos- pel in 1747; was a Trustee of Princeton College from 1754 until his death; was a Chaplain in the army in 1759, in the Old French War; and was the Moderator of the Old Synod of New York and Philadelphia in 1762; but it is principally as an earnest mission- ary in this State that we know of him, and the Presbyterian Church in West Jersey owes much to his self-sacrificing labor.
He was an ardent patriot during the Revolutionary War; in 1776 he preached at Blackwoodtown a sermon from Psalm cxliv, 1, "Blessed be the Lord my strength: who teacheth my hands to war and my fingers to fight," and appealed to his congregation to enlist and fight for their country. Finally the British forces burnt his church and house at Mount Holly, and in 1777 he removed here and took charge of this church; and here, March 18th, 1781, he died.
Though a stranger to you all, I venture to urge one thing, namely, that it is almost a duty that some steps should be taken to place in print, and so preserve, a record of the celebration here to-day of an event as remarkable in this country as the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Deerfield Church.
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ADDRESS OF REV. ALLEN H. BROWN
ON "THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN SOUTH JERSEY, ITS ORI- GIN AND PROGRESS."
The term South Jersey is here applied to all of New Jer- sey, south of a line drawn from Sandy Hook through Amboy to Bordentown. Ecclesiastically, it contains the Presbyteries of Monmouth and West Jersey. These two Presbyteries cover nine and a half counties, or more than all the combined territory of the six other Presbyteries of the Synod of New Jersey .*
Among the early settlers of South Jersey were Friends or Quakers, Baptists, and Episcopalians. Some emigrants came from Sweden; Huguenots from France; the Reformed from Hol- land; Presbyterians came from England, Scotland and Ireland, while from New England and by the way of Long Island, many came to our coast, ascended its rivers where now familiar names of persons and places indicate the origin of the first settlers.
Assembled to celebrate the one hundred and fiftieth anni- versary of the organization of the Deerfield Church, let us go back a hundred years or more to learn the condition of the country. In the last century there must have been an intimate relation between the Egg Harbour district, and Pittsgrove and Deerfield.
Enoch Green having been licensed to preach in 1761, labored in Egg Harbour, how long we know not. Thence he was called to settle at Deerfield, and was installed in 1767. Hc died December 2, 1776.
John Brainerd, failing in health, was called from Egg Harbour missions in 1777, to succeed Mr. Green at Deerfield, but was not installed. Here he died in 1781. Both these men were buried in this church, beneath the aisles, which were orig- inally paved with bricks. Can we recall them from the grave? Enoch Green! John Brainerd! In the spirit world are they cognizant of these scenes? However that may be, they being dead, yet speak to us by their deeds and writings.
*Omitting the Presbytery of Corisco in Africa.
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In August, 1761, John Brainerd wrote to Mrs. Smith, * "I spend something more than half my Sabbaths here at Broth- erton, the rest are divided. At this place I have but few white people. The other places are in the midst of the inhabitants, and whenever I preach there I have a large number of white people that meet to attend divine service. But besides these, I have preached at eight different places on Lord's days, and near twenty on other days of the week, and never fail of a con- siderable congregation, so large and extensive is this vacancy. Two large counties and a considerable part of two more almost wholly destitute of a preached gospel, except what the Quakers do in their way, and many of the people but one remove from a state of heathenism."
John Brainerd's letter to Enoch Green, earlier in the same year, (June 1861), illustrates both the destitutions of the coun- try and how diligently those men labored to supply the peo- ple with the gospel. The field is from Toms River to Tucka- hoe. He mentions only one meeting house, but gives the names of seventeen heads of families, at whose houses meetings are usually held, viz: at Toms River, Goodluck, Barnegat, Manahocking, Wading River, Great Egg Harbour and Tuck- ahoe, and advises Mr. Green to make appointments for Mr. Smith and Mr. MeKnight, who will succeed him.
Although Dr. Thomas Brainerd published the life of John Brainerd in a large volume, (492 pages) full justice has not yet been done to his memory.
In 1886 Judge Joel Parker delivered at Mount Holly an address, recounting the work of John Brainerd, and the obliga- tion of the churches of other denominations in that region to his abundant labors. He quotes from a remarkable diary dis- covered since Dr. Brainerd published the life of Jolin Brainerd. That journal was brought from London by Doctor George Macloskie, when he came to Princeton college. The little book mentioned Princeton, but not the name of the writer. In Princeton, it was proven to be John Brainerd's Journal from January 1761 to October 1762. It is the more valuable because Doctor Brainerd, in his memoir, gives little notice of 1761, and of the year 1762 says, we have no report of Mr. Brainerd's mis- sionary labors this year.
*See Sprague's Annals, volume 3, page 152.
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The Diary gives a daily account of incessant itinerant work. Thus Brainerd visited Bridgetown, (now Mount Holly); Bordentown, Wepink, Timber Creek, Woodbury, Salem, Penn's Neck, Cape May, Great Egg Harbour, the Forks of the Little Egg Harbour, Cedar Bridge, Mannahawkin, Toms River, extending over a wide district. He attends to the repair of meeting houses at Timber Creek and Woodbury, promotes a subscription for the support of the Gospel in various places, and at Great Egg Harbour secured a subscription of £80 annu- ally for the support of the Gospel ministry. Well does Doctor Macloskie say, "The Journal furnishes a striking picture of missionary zeal, such as had few parallels in the century to which it belonged."
The Journal of Philip V. Fithian sheds light upon the pro- gress of the Presbyterian Church up to the Revolutionary War. He and Enoch Green married daughters of Beatty. Both were Chaplains in the army. Both died of eamp fever. At White Plains Mr. Fithian fought in the ranks. In 1775, or fourteen years after Mr. Green's first missionary tour above mentioned, Mr. Fithian visited a portion of the same district, viz: Egg Har- bour and the Forks, and proves that several houses of worship had been erected in the interval. Besides preaching at private houses, Mr. Fithian preached at Mr. Clark's little log meeting house; also at Brotherton and at Clark's Mill meeting house, and at Blackman's meeting house. Other churches are known to have been erected, though not mentioned by Mr. Fithian.
Thus have we noticed the diligent work of itinerants, and the progress of the Presbyterian church up to the Revolution- ary War. Then followed times of trial and retrogression, dis- aster and decline. New Jersey was a battle field. The Pres- byterian Church suffered much from the long desolating war, and was impoverished in men and means. None exceeded John Brainerd in zeal for independence. His churches among the Indians disappeared with them. His church at Mount Holly was burned. Rev. Charles MeKnight preached at Mid- dletown Point, Shrewsbury and Shark River. He was seized by the British and his church was burned. He died soon after his release in 1778 .* Crosswick's church ceased to exist. The
*See Webster's History, page 486.
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site of a church at Middletown is now a tangled thicket. That of Shark River is an open common. The location of Bar- negat church, mentioned in Webster's History and in John Griffith's Journal, has not yet been identified. A few grave stones mark the ground which John Leake by his will gave for a Presbyterian meeting house at Wading River in 1777. All the above mentioned were located in the territory of the present Monmouth Presbytery. The churches which survived the war in that portion of South Jersey and came down from the last century were Shrewsbury, which at one time was almost extinct; old Tennent, (or Freehold), Cranbury and Allentown.
In the territory of the present West Jersey Presbytery, we look in vain for Mr. Clark's little log meeting house. A bu- rial ground marks the site of Clark's Mill meeting house; and Blackman's meeting house fell into the possession of the Meth- odist Church. Long ago the churches of Longacoming, Aloes Creek and Penn's Neck or Quihawken disappeared. The churches which came down to us from the last century now existing in West Jersey Presbytery, are Woodbury, Black- woodtown, Pittsgrove, Deerfield, Greenwich, Bridgeton, Fair- field, (or Cohansey), and Cape May.
Thus, of our ninety extant churches in South Jersey, only twelve had their origin in the last century. After the Revolut tionary war the Old Stone Church was erected at Fairfield, and a brick edifice at Bridgeton was dedicated in 1795. With these exceptions we know of no efforts to build up, much less to extend the Presbyterian Church in West or South Jersey, from the beginning of the war in 1775 to 1820, a period of forty-five years.
In 1820 there was a remarkable revival of missionary zeal, and under the influence of Rev. Jonathan Freeman, of Bridge- ton, the Domestic Missionary Society of West Jersey arose and accomplished an important work during the remaining two years of his life.
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