USA > New York > New York City > Manual of the Broadway Tabernacle Church, N.Y. containing the history of the church, its principles, rules, covenant, articles of faith, and a catalogue [of members] > Part 1
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Gc 974.702 N422nee 1851486
M.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY L 3 1833 02233 7072
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MANUAL
OF THE
Broadway Tabernacle Church :
CONTAINING
1
THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.
IT'S
PRINCIPLES, RULES, COVENANT, ARTICLES OF FAITH,
THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY CHICAGO
CATALOGUE.
COMPILED BY THE COMMITTEE OF THE CHURCH
NEW YORK : W. H. TRAFTON & CO., STATIONERS AND PRINTKES, 85 AND ST BROAD STRAKT 1866.
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/manualofbroadway00newy
1851486
D
1:
28516
.59
NEW YORK. BROADWAY TABERNACLE CHURCH Manual containing the history of the chart its principles, rules, covenant, articles cf faith, and catalogue. Compiled by the co !!! of tho church. Now York, W. H. Trafton & co .. 1866.
90p. 193cm.
0
NL 40-4333 2985 ..... CARD
BROADWAY TABERNACLE, NEW YORK Cor. Broadway and $4th Street
MANUAL
OF THE
rondway
Tabernacle Church.
The Broadway Tabernacle Church was organized in July, 1840, by the union of sixty-seven persons in a covenant for that purpose. Its public recognition by an ecclesiastical council took place on the 3d of September in the same year. The sermon was preached by Rev. Leonard, Bacon, D. D., of New Haven, Conn., the charge given by Rev. John Todd, D. D., then of Philadelphia, and the right hand of fellowship by Rev. William Patton, D. D., of New York.
In October following an Ecclesiastical Society was incorporated, pursuant to statute, under the name of the " BROADWAY TABERNACLE SOCIETY."
The Rev. E. W. Andrews, of West Hartford, Conn., having accepted the call of the Church and Society, was publicly installed on Sabbath evening, January 31st, 1841. Rev. W. W. Andrews, then of Kent, preached the installation sermon ; Rev. Mark Tucker, D. D., of Providence, gave the charge to the pastor;
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MANUAL OF THE
Rev. E. L. Cleveland, D. D., of New Haven, gave the charge to the people ; and Rev. S. W. S. Dutton. D. D., of New Haven, gave the right hand of fellowship.
In the summer of 1844 Mr. Andrews resigned his pastoral charge, and he was dismissed by a mutual Council on the 14th of August.
In March, 1845, the Church and Society presented . a unanimous call to the Rev. Joseph P. Thompson, then of New Haven, Conn., to become their pastor. He was installed on the 15th of the following April. Rev. Leonard Bacon, D. D., preachel the sermon ; Rev. Samuel Merwin offered the installing prayer ; Rev. A. C. Baldwin gave the charge to the pastor ; Rev. S. W. S. Dutton, D. D., gave the right hand of fellowship; and Rev. Edwin Holt addressed the peo- ple.
For twelve years after the settlement of Dr. Thomp- son the Church continued to worship in the " Broad- way Tabernacle," from which it derived its name. This building, situate I on the east side of Broadway, between Leonard and Worth streets, was erected in 1836 .* In 1840 the house was purchased by Mr. David Hale, under foreclosure, and was by him leased to the Congregational Society formed in connection with the Broadway Tabernacle Church. At the set- tlement of Dr. Thompson, in 1845, the Tabernacle Society purchased the property, Mr. Hale encourag- ing the movement by a liberal subscription.
So long as the location continued to be central to
* The religious society which first occupied this building was Con- gregational in its organization ; but in 1838 "The Free Church," which had for some time worshipped at the corner of Washington and Dey streets, united with it, and it became Presbyterian.
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BROADWAY TABERNACLE CHURCH.
the population of the city, the vast edifice was ordi- marily filled, and often thronged, upon the Sabbath by a congregation composed largely of strangers, young men, and persons who, having no stated place of worship, sought occasionally the privileges of the Gospel in the ample free galleries of the Tabernacle. The great Head of the Church mani- festly smiled upon the enterprise, and made it an in- strument for his glory in the salvation of many souls. Since the organization of the Tabernacle Church, sev- eral Congregational Churches have been formed in New York, Brooklyn, and vicinity, and the principles of the Congregational faith and order have been wide- ly diffused beyond the pale of New England. In several instances the organization of new Churches may be distinctly traced to the example and influence of the Tabernacle as the mother Church. This Church has itself been blessed with many seasons of special mercy, and during the first twenty-five years of its existence there were added to it by profession 450, by letter 1,060.
In June, 1855, the Broadway Tabernacle Society, after mature deliberation, unanimously voted to au- thorize their Board of Trustees to sell the Tabernacle, and seek a location for the Church in the midst of the resident population of the city. The encroach- ments of business compelling families to remove up town, made it well nigh impossible longer to sustain the Church in its original home. In 1857 the Taber- nacle was sold, and the last religious service was held within its walls on the 26th of April in that year.
A site was selected for the new Tabernacle at the intersection of Broadway, Sixth avenue, and Thirty-
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MANUAL OF THE
fourth street, nearly three miles north of the old loca tion, and the building was completed in April, 1859 During the interval the Church worshipped in the City Assembly Rooms, the chapel of the "Home for the Friendless," and the chapel of the new building on Thirty-fourth street.
The Tabernacle faces the Sixth avenue, which Broadway here crosses diagonally. It is built upon a lot which measures 100 feet on the avenue by 150 feet on Thirty-fourth street ; and the building is 89 feet S inches front, and 150 deep, including the chapel in the rear, which is under the same roof. The main audience-room is 76 feet wide by 90 feet in depth in the clear, exclusive of the recess for the pulpit ; the entire length from the pulpit-screen to the front wall is 118 feet.
In the ground plan of the interior the building pre- sents a parallelogram ; but the roof is cruciform, and the elevation of the transepts gives a pleasing variety to the exterior walls and buttresses. On the corner of Thirty-fourth street and the avenue is a massive and finely-proportioned tower, 135 feet in height. The side view presents three tiers of windows ; the lower tier lighting the aisles, the second the galleries, and the third forming the clear story of the nave. The several heights of the building outside are 32 feet to the top of the aisle walls, 64 feet to the top of the nave-the clear story rising 32 feet above the aisles- and 88 feet to the ridge of the roof. The transept walls are carried up to a line with the ridge; these have a lower tier of three windows, and a great triple window above. Directly in the rear of the transept wall, the wall of the chapel rises to the same eleva-
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BROADWAY TABERNACLE CHURCH.
tion with that of the aisles, and above this again, is seen the clear story, which here forms an apsis, in the rear of the pulpit, over the chapel-thus presenting in the interior of the church, an arched ceiling 150 feet long, at an elevation of nearly 70 feet from the floor.
The style of the building is perpendicular Gothic, carried out with a chaste and almost severe simplicity, which imparts an air of grandeur and beauty to the whole structure. The interior effect is rich and im- posing.
The windows are of colored glass, so happily toned as to subdue the light without making it sombre, and are free alike from grotesque figures and gaudy colors. The walls are colored uniformly in drab. The pews are of oak, without doors, and are finished with erim- son upholstery ; and the pulpit, the organ case, and the galleries correspond with the oaken pews. There are 312 pews in the house, 212 on the ground floor. These are arranged in three double-blocks, with an extra tier of wall pews upon either side ; that is, there are eight rows of pews the entire length of the build- ing, divided by four aisles. The front gallery ex- tends back over the vestibule, to the front wall of the building, and contains some of the most eligible pews in the house. Each gallery contains five rows of pews through its entire length. Counting only the sittings unobstructed by the pillars, the house will seat comfortably about 1,600 persons.
Back of the pulpit, upon either side, is a gallery for the choir, the manuals of the organ being upon the same floor. The great organ, with the "swell" and "pedal," occupies the space in the apsis over the
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MANUAL OF THE
chapel, and the choir organ is directly over the pu pit, at a lower level.
The following Scheme of the Organ exhibits it compass, variety, and power, and its admirable adap ation to the demands of Church music :
COMPASS ON THE MANUALS CC to G, 56 Keys.
COMPASS ON THE PEDALS. CCC to E, 20 Keys.
GREAT ORGAN. 12 STOPS.
1. Double open Diapason. 16 feet.
2. Open Diapason ..
3. Gamba S
4. Stop Diapason S ..
5. Melodia. 8 ..
6. Night Horn. 1 ..
7. Principal 1
8. Twelfth. 3 ..
9. Fifteenth ..
10. Sesquialtera
ranks.
11. Trumpet s feet.
12. Clarion 1 ..
SWELL ORGAN, 11 STOPS.
13. Bourdon 16 feet.
14. Open Diapason ..
..
15. Dulciana. S
16. Stop Diapason
17. Principal 4
15. Fifteenth ..
19. Cornet rauks.
20. Mixture 3
..
21. Hautboy
8 feet.
22. Trumpet
23. Clarion
..
CHOIR ORGAN, 6 STOPS.
24. Open Diapason. feet.
25. Stop Diapason 5
..
26. Principal 1 ..
27. Flute Harmonie 4
2S. Picolo.
29. Cremona 5
PEDAL ORGAN, T STOPS.
30. Double Open Diapason, . wood .32 feet. 31. Open Diapason, wood .. ... 16 .
82. Grand open Diapason, metal . .. 16
33. Gamba, metal. 16 ..
34. Trombone, metal.
10
35. Quint, wood
12
..
36. Violoncello, metal. 5
COUPLERS, OR MECHANICAL STOPS.
37. Swell to Great.
33. Choir " Great.
89. Swell " Choir.
40. Great to Pedal. 43. Vox Tremulant.
41. Swell " Pedal.
.14. Bellows Attachment.
42. Choir " Pedal. 45. Bellows Alarm.
COMPOSITION STOPS. 1 47. Chorus. 1 4S. Solo.
46. Full.
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BROADWAY TABERNACLE CHURCH.
The Tabernacle is built of Little Falls (Jersey) rub- ble ; the dimension-stone and the porches throughout are of cream-colored New-Brunswick stone. The front porch, of this stone, is a beautiful specimen of carved Gothic. The outer doors are of solid oak. There are ample facilities for ingress and egress.
The chapel, directly in the rear of the main audi- ence-room, is 28 feet by 85 in the clear, and will seat nearly 500 persons. This is used as the principal Sabbath-School room, the seats being fitted with re- versible backs. Under this is a finished basement- room, with a good entrance from Thirty-fourth street ; and over it a fine suite of rooms for Bible classes, and parlors for social gatherings.
On the north side of the main building, at the angle formed with it by the rear wall of the chapel, is a neat two-story edifice for the accommodation of the pastor. On the first floor is a reception-room, which communi- cates with the chapel, and with the pulpit of the church. In the second-story is the study, well-lighted and ventilated, with ample book-shelves and closets ; and adjoining this, occupying the recess between the Church and the Chapel, is an additional library, of two stories, with book-cases, drawers, and galleries for maps. All these apartments are for the pastor's pri- vate use.
The new Tabernacle was dedicated to the worship of Almighty God, on Sabbath, April 24th, 1859. Devotional Services were conducted by Rev. Milton Badger, D. D., Secretary of the American Home Mis- sionary Society, and the sermon was preached by Rev. Edwards A. Park, D.D., Professor in Andover Theo- logical Seminary, from 1. Cor. ii : 2. The pastor of
ıl- ts ot-
3 1833 02233 7072
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MANUAL OF THE
the Church offered the prayer of dedication, prefacing it with the following declaration :
" It does not accord with our views of worship under the Christian dispensation, nor with the usages of our body, to attach sanctity to a material structure. But it does accord with the inmost sense of propriety and with the devout sentiment of Christian gratitude, and it has also the warrant of Scripture, that we should set apart with due solemnity the place in which we and our children shall worship God, and should hallow it in our thoughts and associations. Now, therefore, ( ye people, blessed of the Lord, I would call upon you to arise, and join with me in offering this new temple to the service of the Triune God-the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. 7
" We bring to God, with reverence and gratitude, this house of prayer and praise, beseeching him to hallow it with his presence in our assemblies and his blessing upon our worship. We dedicate these walls to the use of a church of Christ. We dedicate these seats for the solemn and joyful convocations of God's people, in the reverent worship of his Name, and the devout hearing of his Word. We dedicate this choir to the service of song in the house of the Lord. We dedicate this pulpit to the preaching of Christ and him crucified ; and this table of communion to that high and sacred service whereby we do show forth the Lord's death till he come. May he whose glory tills the heavens condescend to meet his people in this house ! May Christ here build into his temple new and living stones ! May the Holy Spirit here bless the Word unto sanctification and eternal life! May our .children and our children's children here worship in
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BROADWAY TABERNACLE CHURCH.
the beauty of holiness, when we shall slumber in the dust ! And when our earthly house of this Taberna- cle shall be dissolved, may we enter upon a purer, nobler worship in that city where the Lord God Al- mighty and the Lamb are the temple of it ! And to the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the only wise God, be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, through- out all ages, world without end, Amen !"
At the completion of the new Tabernacle there was a debt upon the building of sixty-five thousand dol- lars. The Society might have relieved itself of this encumbrance by the common expedient of selling pews; but it was resolved that there should be no private ownership in the building ; and as the financial con- dition of the community was not then favorable for a subscription towards reducing the indebtedness, the Trustees decided to carry the debt until arrangements could be made for removing it. In the Spring of 1863, the congregation, having then largely increased, by a free-will offering paid off twenty-five thousand dollars of this indebtedness ; and in 1864, by a renewed sub- scription, consummated on the second Sabbath in March, they raised the remaining sum of forty thous. and dollars, and cancelled every claim upon the pro- perty. The Society now holds the land, the building, and all its furniture free of encumbrance, for the occu- pation and use of the Broadway Tabernacle Church.
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MANUAL OF THE
PRINCIPLES
OF
CONGREGATIONALISM.
|The following statement of Congregational Principles and Usages published by the Congregational Board of Publication, will be of service to members of the Church, in respect to their personal privileges and duties ].
I. POWER OF THE CHURCH .-- It is a fundamental principle of Congregationalism that all ecclesiastical power resides in the associated body of the brethren, and not in the officers, nor in ecclesiastical bodies dis- tinet from or above the particular or local Church. The principal powers pertaining to the Church may be classified as follows :-
1st. The power of electing its own officers .- The Bishops, or Pastors and Teachers, and the Deacons, are elected by a majority of the Church.
2d. The power of admitting or excluding its own members .- Persons are admitted to the Church by a vote of the brethren : unworthy members are ex- cluded in the same manner.
3d. The power of forming its own creed .- Each Church frames its own Confession of Faith ; yet it is
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BROADWAY TABERNACLE CHURCH.
worthy of notice, as showing the unity of the teaching of the Spirit, and the safety of trusting the local Churches, that although the Confessions framed by these Churches may be counted by hundreds, there is the most substantial harmony and even identity of doctrine among them, upon the essential truths of re- ligion.
4th. The power of regulating the details of its own worship, and modes of procedure in exercising the previous powers .- The mode in which public worship shall be performed, the seasons for communion, the mode of receiving or disciplining its own members, special seasons for religious worship, are all regulated by vote of the Church.
5th. The power of independency .- That is, each Church has these powers in and of itself, which it may exercise without responsibility to any ecclesiastical authority above itself. Its votes on all these points are decisive and final. No ecclesiastical power can impose on any Church a religious teacher, or other officer; or admit or exclude members; or form its creed; or regulate its mode of proceeding. Each Church has the exclusive right of managing its own concerns.
II. OFFICERS .- Congregational Churches have two permanent and regularly elected classes of officers. These are Bishops (usually styled Pastors), and Dea- cons.
In the carly history of New England, it was com- mon for each Church to enjoy the labors of two ministers (distinguished as Pastor and Teacher), and the primitive Churches appear to have had several, composing a Ministerial Elderhood, or Presbytery, in
.
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MANUAL OF THE
(not over) each local Church ; Acts 14 : 23 ; Titus 1 : 5 ; 1 Timothy 4: 14; James 5: 14.
The Deacons appointed by each Church may be as many as the Church, in its discretion, shall determine.
The primitive Churches, founded by the Apostles, had these offleers, and no others. Those called " Elders" were the same as "Bishops." Compare Acts 20: 17, 28; 1 Peter 5: 1-5; Titus 1: 5-7. See also Neander's Church History, vol. i., p. 184, and Mosheim's Ecc. History, vol. i., p. 69. Thus Paul, writing to the Philippians, directs his letters to "the saints at Philippi, with the Bishops and Deacons." Phil. 1 : 1. It is evident, therefore, that in the single Church in that city were at least two Bishops. In the Church at Ephesus, also, were several Bishops ; for Paul, having invited the Elders of the Church at Ephesus to meet him at Miletus, Acts 20 : 17, styles those very individuals, verse 28, Bishops. Our trans- lators give the word "overseers ;" but the word in the original language is bishops, and is so rendered in every other text. As there were several of these in each of the primitive Churches, they divided the du- ties of the ministry among them according to their natural and spiritual gifts.
No text can be produced in which God assigns pow- er over the Churches to any individual, or set of in- dividuals. It is to be taken for granted, therefore, that no such power exists. The New Testament speaks of no organization above the local Church. It always uses the word " Church" to mean either the general company of the redeemed, or the congregation of professed believers in a particular place. The word never occurs in the sense of an external centralized
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BROADWAY TABERNACLE CHURCH.
organization, embracing and ruling a multitude of congregations ; as when we hear men say, "The Pres- byterian Church," or " The Episcopal Church." There is no such thing as " The Congregational Church of the United States," but "The Congregational Chur- ches," &c. Thus we read of "The Churches of Ju- dea," Gal. 1: 22, " The Churches of Macedonia," 2 Cor. 8 : 1, and " The Churches of Asia, 1 Cor. 16: 19, " The Seven Churches" in Proconsular Asia, Rev. 1 : 11, the Churches being separate and independent.
But there are various passages which fully indicate the possession of all the powers above named by the primitive Churches. The election of officers by the people was evidently a law of the Christian Church, from the time of its commencement. Even the desig- nation of an apostle to fill a vacancy, Acts 1 : 15-26, was made by the assembled brethren. The Church at Jerusalem chose the seven persons who were to ex- ercise the office of deacon, Aets 6: 3, 5. In Matthew 18: 15-17, the Church, and that alone, is expressly charged with the duty of exercising discipline. The Church at Corinth were directed by Paul to exercise discipline, 1 Cor. 5: 1-7, 6: 1-5. The command to exercise discipline is repeated in 1 Cor. 5: 11-13. The Church of Corinth actually exercised this power, as may be seen by 2 Cor. 2: 6-10, where the censure is said to have been "inflicted of many." Ecclesias- tical History, also, gives the same account of the primitive Churches. Mosheim (who was not a Con- gregationalist) says, Ecc. Ilist., vol. i., p. 68.
" The assembled people, therefore, elected their own rulers and teachers, or by their free consent received such as were nominated to them. They also, by their
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MANUAL OF THE
suffrages, rejected or confirmed the laws that were proposed by their rulers in their assemblies; they ex- eluded profligate and lapsed brethren, and restored them ; they decided the controversies and disputes that arose ; they heard and determined the causes of pres- byters and deacons; in a word, the people did every- thing that is proper for those in whom the supreme power is vested."
Mosheim says again, ITist. Com., vol. i., p. 196 :-
" Although all the Churches were, in this first age of Christianity, united together in one common bond of faith and love, and were in every respect ready to promote the interests and welfare of each other by a reciprocal interchange of good offices, yet, with regard to government and internal economy, every individual church considered itself as an independent communi- ty ; none of them over looking in these respects be. yond the circle of its own members for assistance, or recognizing any sort of external influence or authority."
Congregationalism is true republicanism. Each Congregational Church and Society elects its own officers, owns its own house and property, judges of the qualifications of its own members, allows to each brother an equal vote, and has no superior, lord, or overseer.
It is worthy of remark, also, that the principles on which Congregational Churches are organized, being thus purely republican, are in entire harmony with the principles of our civil government, and had much to do with its origin.
III. POWERS AND DUTIES OF OFFICERS .- Congrega- tional Churches intrust no ecclesiastical power to their officers. The New Testament denies to the officers
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BROADWAY TABERNACLE CHURCH.
authority of any original or exclusive character, and represents them rather as the servants of the Churches. Matt. 20 : 25, 27.
The great duty of the primitive scriptural Bishop was to teach and to preside in the assembly of the Church. As the passages which relate to this subject are too numerous and too long to be quoted, let the reader refer to Acts 20: 28, 1 Tim. 3: 1-6; 5: 17; 4: 12-16; 2 Tim. 2: 1-27; 4: 1-5; Titus 1 : 7, 9;2: 1-15; 3: 1-11; IFeb. 13: 7. 17; 1 Pet. 5 : 1-3.
The duties of Deacons in Congregational Churches are to assist in distributing the elements of the Lord's Supper; to attend to the secular business of the Church ; to visit the members for the purpose of re- ligious instruction and prayer ; and, in behalf of the Church, to minister to the wants of the poor.
Very little is said in the Scriptures respecting the office of Deacons. Their character, though not their duties, is described in 1 Tim. 3: 8-12. Neander says, in his Church history, vol. i .. p. 188 :-
" Besides these (the Bishops), we find only one other Church-office in the Apostolic age, -- that of the dea- cons. The duties of this office were, from the begin- ning, simply external, as it was instituted in the first place, according to Acts vi., to assist in the distribu- tion of alms. The care of providing for the poor and sick of the communities, to which many other external duties were afterwards added, devolved particularly on this office."
IV. CONDITIONS OF ADMISSION TO THE CHURCH .- It is the unanimous opinion of the Congregational Chur- ches, that a credible profession of personal faith in
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MANUAL OF THE
Christ is the indispensable condition of communion and membership in the Church. It is by no means maintained, that entire assurance of salvation should be required, or perfect agreement in the details of doctrine ; but as the Church was designed to include only true Christians, it follows, of course, that credi- ble evidence of being a Christian, including belief of the fundamental doctrines of the Bible, should be the condition of membership.
This part of the system, also, is in accordance with divine and apostolie example. For we are informed, Acts 2: 47, " that the Lord added to the Church, daily, such as should be saved ;" while Philip required of the eunuch before baptism a statement of his belief .as to Christ, Acts 8: 37. The apostolic epistles ad- dressed to the Churches are inscribed " to the saints," "to the faithful," to the "believers in Christ," with other similar epithets ; and they were required to ex- clude those who lived in sin, or who denied the faith ; 1 Cor. 5: 11-13; 2 Thess. 3: 6, 14; 1 Tim. 1 : 19, 20; 6:3-5; Titus 3: 10; 2 Pet. 2: 1-3; thus showing that the Churches were to be made up of true Christians.
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