USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Newark > The fiftieth anniversary of the Second Presbyterian Church, Newark, N.J. : a discourse preached September 29, 1861 > Part 4
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In all the general benevolent operations of the church and of the community, this congregation has regularly borne part; if not always in a measure proportionate to its ability, yet with a systematic punctuality worthy of commendation.
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The causes of Foreign and Home Missions have been particularly dear to you; and the Young People's Missionary Association, which originated during the ministry of Dr. Condit, has accomplished much good by its annual contributions, and by nourishing and diffusing a missionary spirit.
Your Sabbath School, commenced during the pastorate of Dr. Griffin, and now approaching its fif- tieth year, has been a source of inestimable benefit to the church and the congregation. The time of its organization I have not been able accurately to determine; but it was probably in 1815. It is believed that the first Sabbath School in Newark was formed in 1813 by members of the First Presbyterian Church, and was for a time taught in the basement of the Academy on Broad street ; and probably some of the children of this congre- gation attended it. With whom our Sabbath School originated cannot be positively ascertained, though the names of many who were interested and active in its formation are preserved in memory. The first superintendent was Mr. George Rohde; who held the office for ten years, and was succeeded about 1825 by Mr. Theodore Freling- huysen. Mr. Frelinghuysen retained the office until 1839, his duties, during his absence in the Senate of the United States, being performed successively by the assistant superintendents, Mr.
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Alexander N. Dougherty, and Mr. Isaac Van Wagenen. On his removal to New York in 1839, Mr. Van Wagenen was appointed superintendent, and he continued in the office eighteen years, making with the six years during which he served as assistant superintendent, twenty-four years of continued and faithful service in the School. On his resignation in 1855, on account of enfeebled health, and the distance of his residence from the school, Mr. William R. Sayre was elected his successor ; and he is still the efficient and beloved superintendent. It is thus seen that in its history of nearly fifty years the School has had but four superintendents-three of them, Messrs. Freling- huysen, Van Wagenen, and Sayre, sustaining also the office of ruling elder in the church; a fact of no little interest, and of rare occurrence. Up to 1845 the School was taught in the galleries of the church; since that time it has held its exercises in the lecture room; though for want of sufficient accommodation there the Infant Class, commenced a few years ago, is still taught in the end gallery of the church. In 1817 the number of pupils was about ninety, and it steadily increased until it reached about three hundred. In 1838 it rose as high as three hundred and ninety-four. In 1852 it was two hundred and eighty-six. For several years past it has averaged about two hundred and
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fifty. While the population of this part of the city has so largely increased, it must be borne in mind, that instead of the one Sabbath School that was sustained here in 1817, there are now, in the district to which that then belonged, nine or ten large schools .* The amount of good which has been accomplished by our Sabbath School no one is able to compute. Within the last few years quite a large number of its pupils have been gathered into the membership of the church. A band of well qualified officers and teachers, devoted to their work and persevering in their labors, sustain it with vigor and activity, and merit the thanks of the congregation. Many others from among us are diligently laboring in several Mission Schools. And it may be added that scarcely from the beginning has this congregation been without laborers in Missionary Sabbath School work. From an early period "this Sabbath School Society had under its care a small school over the river at Lodi, which was superintended and taught for several years by members of this church. It was discontinued in 1831, and most of the children
* For many of the facts here stated I am indebted to the valuable report presented to our Sabbath School Society, by its Secretary, Mr. John Provost, at the annual meeting in 1852. Others I have gleaned from personal reminiscences, and from the records.
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came over to this School."* The Colored School has always had several of its teachers from this congregation, and as already stated you sustained a flourishing Mission School in the State street Chapel for more than eight years. Your history encourages, while it claims, your devotion to this work.
Since I have been with you, your parsonage, built during the ministry of Mr. Cheever, has been greatly enlarged and improved, the improvement costing over two thousand dollars, and making it much more commodious; the lecture room has been renovated; and last year this house of worship was greatly improved and adorned, at a cost of twenty-two hundred dollars, making it now very neat, and sufficiently beautiful, and one of the most comfortable edifices for religious uses. For the few weeks during which it was in the hands of the workmen, we worshipped in our lecture room on the mornings of the Sabbath, and in the afternoons in the North Reformed Dutch Church.
The number originally uniting to form this church, as already stated, was NINETY-THREE; all coming from the First Church. Of these but three still live in connection with this church : three mothers in Israel whom the Lord has spared
* Mr. Provost's Report.
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to see this day, and to encourage us still with their presence, and their prayers .* A few others are living in the membership of other churches. There are also still with us some who, though not among the number who brought their letters at that first date, took a deep interest and an active part in the formation of the congregation, and the building of this house of worship. To these original ninety-three, there have been added fifteen hundred and forty-five; six hundred and sixty- seven on profession, eight hundred and seventy- eight on certificate; making the whole number that have been in connection with the church sixteen hundred and thirty-eight.
The church has had seven pastors; including Dr. Prentiss, who was here as associate pastor for a short time, and him who now speaks to you. Three of these have finished their course on earth. The others are actively engaged in various fields of labor. It may be a matter of some little interest to add, three of them have been natives of New Jersey, three graduates of Princeton College, two of Yale College, and two of Bowdoin College ; three have been tutors in Colleges, and
* These three are : Mrs. Lucinda Cooper, widow of Stephen Cooper ; Mrs. Phebe Faitoute, widow of Moses Faitoute, joined originally as Mrs. Douglass, wife of Lucius F. Douglass ; and Mrs. Ann Vanderpool, widow of James Vanderpool.
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three Professors of Sacred Rhetoric in Theological Seminaries.
Thirty persons have sustained the office of Ruling Elder among you. Of these eleven died while in office, thirteen were dismissed to join other churches: six continue to discharge the duties of the office here. When I came to you your Session contained nine members. Since that time two additional elders have been or- dained, one has been dismissed, and four have died. These four, mentioned in the order in which their death occurred, were Robert Baldwin, David J. Hays, Morris Stiles, and David Doremus.
I have thus presented you as briefly as I could the principal facts in the history of this church. Time has not allowed me to enlarge on various particulars, or to enliven the narrative, to such an extent as might be desirable, with incidents and anecdotes. It would have been pleasant to call up before you the forms of those who have been active in your history, but have now finished their earthly career, and to present the portraits of fathers and mothers whose pious labors reared and sustained this church, and whose blessing you have inherited. It would be interesting to connect with these individual portraits sketches of the history of some who have gone out from this
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home to the missionary field, and to other import- ant posts of usefulness; and then to note the solemn scenes that have marked the dying hours of some well known saints. It would be interesting to enter more minutely into the history of the first consultations about forming a new congregation, the first plannings and efforts to secure the co-operation of suitable and sufficient persons ; and of the financial management of the enterprise from the beginning onward. Doubtless we should read a story of prayer and solicitude, of self sacrifice and toil. It costs an effort always to break away from old associations, and go out and form a new home: and though there was a glow of zeal, and a delight and ardor of anticipation, and a noble looking far into the future, in those who laid the foundations of this church, still sorrow must have mingled with their gladness when they turned their steps away from their parental home.
Then there is in every undertaking of this kind an inner history of struggle with difficulties. Behind the outward prosperity of almost all our churches there is a constant burden of pecuniary difficulties, which the world does not see, and which is often little understood by many even of the congregation itself. The trustees in every congregation have an important responsibility ;
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and they who thus constitute the Committee of Ways and Means have much to do even with the spiritual life of the church, and deserve the thanks of their brethren for wise management. I find in the records of this congregation evidence that such skill and effort have ever been exercised in defraying its necessary expenses, and evidence also of a determination on the part of the congre- gation to meet promptly its engagements, and to furnish the means necessary for carrying forward the cause of religion among you. And in looking over the financial history which is not disclosed to the world, we find that the experience of those who at the present day manage these matters is no new thing. Your predecessors have gone through perplexities equal or superior to your own. Money matters have always been difficult to manage; but a willing heart and energetic spirit have disposed of the difficulties, and accomplished their purposes. And I wish to say that your records show, and my experience testi- fies, that you have sought to treat your ministers with kindness, not only fulfilling your engagements to them, but going beyond this in tokens of liberality.
There is also running through the history even of a christian society a vein of humor; and he who sets himself to search out such a history,
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turning over records and gathering from the lips of the living stories of the past, will fall on many a pleasant anecdote illustrative of individual character and of the times .* It is very pleasant to hear some of the stories of the eccentricities of good men, whose deep toned piety did not obliterate their individual peculiarities; and to hear them with the feeling that their names are none the less dear and precious on account of them.
The Choir of almost every congregation has a history of its own ; and sometimes very discordant notes issue from it. But I am glad to say with regard to the choir of this church, though a few things live in tradition that provoke a smile, its history is marked by uncommon harmony.+
* I find that on one occasion a committee was appointed " to keep the boys in the gallery on the Sabbath from playing, or being noisy :" and we are told of the manner in which by a quiet tap with a cane these juvenile offenders were brought to order ; a provision, which, I am happy to say, we do not now find necessary.
t The first record of the appointment of a chorister with a salary, that I find, is under date of November 3, 1816, and he is there called the "Clerk or Leader of Singing." This was Mr. Amos Holbrook, father of our present chorister, who has so faithfully and acceptably performed the duties of that office for the past five years. Evidently there were leaders previously : but no mention is made of their appointment. For a time the clerk stood near the pulpit, in front of the congregation, to lead
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But I may not linger upon these things; or among the lights and shadows of the social life of the congregation ; or on all the lessons that come to us from the graves of our fathers. These allusions will call up to you many familiar scenes. You will look once more on well known faces. You will remember oddities of character, that, seen through the mellowing influence of time and the grave, wear a softened beauty, and awaken only pleasant thoughts. You will hear again the
the singing. It is related that on one occasion when there were two parties claiming to lead, a chorister in the gallery, and a clerk below, the clerk by his superior promptness in com- mencing led off the congregation, and secured the victory. It is recorded at one meeting of the trustees, when it appears that there was considerable difference of views and feeling with regard to the singing, and especially with reference to intro- ducing some new method of singing, that the leader should "be requested to sing after the old manner, and in his own mode, alternately :" and then we find two or three weeks after that the office of " clerk " is " vacant," and, with considerable exultation, a chorister is appointed to conduct things after the old manner. There is a story, too, that at a time when the feeling on this subject was running pretty high, and a clergy -. man from abroad was supplying the pulpit, a good deacon stepped up to him in the pulpit, and requested him not to give out any hymns, as a certain person then in the choir should not be allowed to lead the singing ! There are also some amusing things told .of the effect of introducing one or two musical instruments into the service of the choir. We are yet one of the few churches that have no organ.
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voices that you were wont to hear in the prayer meetings, and your hearts will rise heavenward with the hymns and tunes that you used to sing when you met in little bands in your different homes in town and country, or in the hallowed conference room. There is very little that you will not wish to remember; and memory will throw such a sacred veil over the past as to hide what might seem less than beautiful.
And now with a few reflections suggested by this historical review I must close.
1. The obvious reflection presses itself upon us, how inadequate is such a mere history of facts to convey to us the full meaning of the life of a church.
I have detailed the external history of a large and important church in a rapidly growing city. The statistics, the facts, that have been presented, are of vast significance. Take the one fact, for instance, that here six hundred and sixty-seven persons have been, as we confidently trust, con- verted. Why! we are told in holy Scripture that the angels in Heaven rejoice over one sinner that repents ! Is there not in that one fact an ample reward for all the sacrifice, and the cost, of founding and sustaining the church ? But attempt to follow out the lives, the influence, of these six hundred and sixty-seven persons, making ample deduction for those who have only run well for a
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season and have not maintained godly living. Think of them-ministers of the gospel, mission- aries, christian parents, senators, professors and teachers in colleges and schools, men in the several professions, business men, men of influence, superintendents, officers, teachers in Sabbath Schools-and compute the amount and variety of influence, influence upon families, upon commu- nities, upon States, upon the nation in all its manifold institutions and interests, upon the christian and the heathen world, influence going down from generation to generation, which God has sent, and is sending, out from this church along these various lines. But vastly important as this is, it is but one fact in the history of the church. Every pastor can call to mind many precious ones whom he has seen go down to the grave trusting in Jesus, whose names for various reasons have never been written on the records of the church, but who are the fruit of the church's ministration through the grace of God, now gathered safely into "the Christian's home in glory." Some most delightful recollections now come clustering into my mind of dear friends of yours to whom it was my privilege to minister, in whom it was my joy to see faith springing up and growing bright and strong, and who, I earnestly believe, are now with Jesus; though they passed
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away from earth without having been enrolled on the list of church members, because of some mistaken apprehensions and timidity which they could not overcome, or because declining health and hastening death gave them no fit opportunity to take upon themselves the public declaration of the faith they humbly but earnestly entertained. Then think of the strength and comfort week after week imparted to Christians; of the guiding and guarding of the young; and of the silent, restraining, and elevating influence exerted on the community.
It is impossible for any mind to estimate the full measure of good resulting from establishing and sustaining in a growing community a christian church, where the gospel is preached in its purity, and the pious men and women who compose it seek to honor God. To multitudes of souls this church has been an unspeakable blessing. The sound of its bell, the counsels and exhortations and instructions of its pulpit, its Sabbath Schools, the lives of its numerous congregations, have been felt in this city, and vicinity, and the streams of its blessed influence will go flowing down the course of time. These churches are
" The honors of our native place, The bulwarks of our land."
They are the candles of the Lord shining afar, and
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guiding the voyagers on the sea of Time. They are trees of life whose fruit is for the healing of the nations.
2. This history awakens emotions of gratitude to God, and desires for spiritual blessings.
You have reason to be grateful for such an origin as yours. You sprang from worthy parent- age. A godly ancestry stretching through succes- sive generations transmitted to you the inheritance of a sound, earnest, orthodox piety. You came out from the mother church with her blessing; not- driven forth like Ishmael; not bursting away in anger, and laying together the stones and timbers of your dwelling in contention. A generous rivalry may have animated the movement, but it was not permitted to degenerate into bitter jealousy or quarrelsomeness, or to prevent the continuance of brotherly love.
And the church begun in harmony has continued to live harmoniously. Of course there have been at times differences of opinion; but never has this church or congregation been rent by faction or disturbed by contention. Great unanimity has characterized your choice of pastors, and all your important acts.
And you have reason to be thankful that the great doctrines of grace on which this church was. founded, have continued to be the themes of its
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pulpit, and the source of its life. You have had a succession of ministers who have sought to preach the truth as it is in Jesus; conforming to the system set forth in the Westminster Confession of Faith, and maintained by the Presbyterian body in these United States : and you have had a succession of Elders, and of others, who have sus- tained them in this, and aided in carrying forward the work of the pulpit. All your ministers have so preached, and God has blessed them. Such, you will allow me to say, has been the endeavor of your present minister. I would know no other gospel; and I cling with increasing confidence to the great truths which centre in Jesus Christ, made to us, through the grace of God, "wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification and redemp- tion."
And your history is marked with revivals of religion ; precious visitations of the Holy Spirit. Such a blessing was granted you in the beginning, and such blessings have attended you even to the present time. All along, at intervals, there have been manifestations of God's grace giving power to His word and ordinances. Not one of your pastors has been without these delightful evidences of God's presence and blessing to cheer his heart. But there were marked interpositions of that kind in 1812 and 1813, in 1817, in 1824 and 1825, and
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in 1857 and 1858. Truly you have been favored of God. Truly this is a field which the Lord has blessed.
Such goodness of God towards you calls upon you to seek earnestly to maintain the piety, and the scripturalness, and the harmonious living of the past; to hold fast the faith committed to you ; and to endeavor to secure for yourselves and your children a recurrence of such precious seasons of revival. A church with such a history ought to live near to God, and to long and pray for the abiding of His Spirit. You ought to be a highly spiritual church, and to look with habitual desire and confidence for God's blessing on the estab- lished means of grace. You are witnesses of the value of those means, as the true instruments of power, of perpetuated life and growth in the church, and of God's faithfulness to His covenant.
3. This review of the past suggests the duty of extending the blessings that you enjoy.
This church, as we have seen, is a fine illustra- tion of the true principle of Church Extension ; and of the way in which the parents should lay up for the children, and the fathers to the children should make known God's truth. Moved by the wants of the community, and looking forward to the demands of the future, a colony came forth from the parent church, and were aided in estab-
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lishing themselves in their new home. And other colonies have gone forth from time to time to beautify and bless the city; and still the old mother church stands, beautiful and strong, able this day to contribute still further of her sons and daughters, and of her treasures, to build up others. And this, my brethren, is the true principle of church extension. The strong and well established must send forth colonies, in due season, to occupy important positions, and thus to secure blessings to coming generations. Your very origin calls you to this. What you have received is to be extended and transmitted. I have fear that as a congregation we have failed to come up to this duty promptly. Fifteen or twenty years ago, or even at a later period, there was an opportunity of commencing another church at a point some distance north of this. Had this opportunity been embraced in an earnest spirit there might have been a self-sustaining and influential Presby- terian Church there; and this church to-day had been none the less numerous, active, and power- ful. But without uselessly regretting the past, let a wise christian policy, a sense of obligation to those who have gone before us, and to those who are to come after us, govern us in the future. You have not altogether overlooked this duty. Members of your church and congregation have
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been found in almost every new organization, at least of recent years; and you have aided in the construction of several houses of worship, and in the support of the means of grace in them. Continue, and increase, and bless others more and more.
4. Finally, my friends, we cannot turn away from this history of the past without reflecting on the changefulness of human life, and the sure coming of the hour of death.
"Our Fathers-where are they ?" Only three of the ninety-three are with us to-day; three others we know to be living elsewhere; a few are among us who with them took part in the burden and heat of the new enterprise. But the greater part of the congregation that were present at the dedication of this church fifty years ago, now sleep with the dead. The ministers who conducted the services, the old men and matrons who here bowed in prayer or sang praises to God on that glad occasion, with many of the vigorous youth and blooming children who were present, have passed from the scenes of earth to the invisible and eternal world. Each passing year has hid some of them in the tomb, and those who survive bear the marks of age. The children now stand in the places of the parents, and new faces fill the pews. So "one generation passeth away, and
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another generation cometh," and "we all do fade as a leaf." A few years more, and we all shall have passed away, and others will occupy our place. The church will remain. This venerable sanctuary will receive the assembling worshippers. Other lips shall from this pulpit preach the gospel of salvation, other voices shall here sing the praises of God. Where, then, shall we be-you and I-my hearers ?
As I look back on my ministry among you, and think of those whose cold remains I have seen laid away in the grave; as I think of the eighty-two members of this church who have died, of the three hundred and eight funerals that I have attended; I seem to hear voices from the tomb calling on you and me to be ready for the summons that will soon come to us-to be busy about our Master's work, and to live listening for that word from the skies which falls so sweetly on the ear of the departing saint: "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." I seem to hear a solemn warning rising on the air for those who have not the faith of the saints, and an earnest call to them to heed now the truth of the Lord, so tested by the experience of successive genera- tions, and to seek through his abounding grace a place and an inheritance among his children. Out of their happy home in Heaven your departed
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pastors, your fathers and mothers, call upon you to cease from dangerous and ungrateful delay, and to fall now before the Cross of Christ, that you may come to their arms, and join in their grateful songs of praise to redeeming love.
May we all by humble earnest living now with Christ be ready for all life's changes, and for its end.
Perhaps some of the children and youth who hear me to-day may, fifty years hence, listen to some other preacher who shall then, in the people's name, set up here an Ebenezer, and tell of all the way in which the Lord has led them. May they then hear of still richer displays of Divine Grace, and sing with a fuller heart : "Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!" And may the preacher on that day be able to speak with affectionate truthfulness of us who shall then be in the invisible world, as of those who, having kept faithfully what they received, and faithfully transmitted it, served their generation with great usefulness, and died in the peaceful hope of a perpetual dwelling with the Lord in the home on High !
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