USA > New York > New York City > A history of the Brick Presbyterian Church in the city of New York > Part 12
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But we have yet to observe the most important characteristic of Mr. Spring's plan of work. Of greater significance than his natural talents, his strong personality, his enthusiasm, or his faithfulness, was the high aim which he held constantly before him. He was literally possessed by a great determination to use all his power and opportunity in the reclaiming of sinful men and the establishing of them in the kingdom of God. Not to write learned or elegant or striking sermons was the purpose he had set before himself, but "by the foolishness of preaching" to save men from sin. He was not even content to address himself to the less urgent needs of those who were already Christians, but from the beginning labored "rather with the view of being instrumental in the conversion of sinners, than of comforting the people of God."}
How serious and deep-seated this purpose in him was, is shown by the fact that he maintained it in face of the greatest obstacle of all, namely the surprise and
* Dr. Murray says, "He loved to recall the incidents of the earlier period of his ministry; and on several occasions, while riding with him to funerals, it seemed to me like the telling of some curious dream to hear him say in the midst of some busy street, shadowed by massive buildings; 'There ran a stream, and there is the spot over which I used to jump my horse in my afternoon rides years ago, during which I composed my lecture for the evening.'" ("Memorial Discourse," p. 20.)
t "Life and Times," Vol. I, p. 112.
# Ibid., Vol. I, p. 109.
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criticism of some of those who were his best friends. Both the congregation and the officers of the church, he tells us, were eager, when he first began his work among them, that their minister should win the popu- lar ear. Not that this was their chief desire, but they not unnaturally wished to see him cultivate such qualities in his sermons as would draw large numbers to the church and keep them there. And perhaps he would not have been greatly blameworthy had he adopted their point of view. On the contrary, he showed the depth of his conviction by refusing to forfeit anything whatsoever to the lower motive. He boldly preached a sermon to his own people from the ironical text, "Speak unto us smooth things," and by it succeeded in establishing once for all, as the rule of his preaching in the Brick Church and as the test for judging it, that a sermon should aim to please God, whether it pleased men or not.
Perhaps it is not surprising that a man so strongly moved by conscientious considerations, should have had doubts from time to time about the value of his work. This was, at any rate, the case with Mr. Spring. There were periods during his early ministry when he was utterly discouraged. "Many a time, after preaching," he writes, "did I remain long in the pulpit, that I might not encounter the faces of the people as I left the church, and many a time, when I left it, did I feel that I could never preach another sermon." "*
This depression in regard to the real usefulness of his ministry was by no means the only great difficulty by which he was beset in those early days. His health
* "Br. Ch. Mem.," pp. 21 f.
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threatened to give way and frequently caused him serious anxiety. In 1813 it was twice necessary to employ a ministerial assistant for him on account of his "feeble state," and during the next year he was compelled to leave his work altogether for a couple of months.
A still more serious difficulty in those early years was the doubt entertained by a number of his Presby- terian associates in regard to his orthodoxy. As we have seen already, he had been received under care of Presbytery with a good deal of hesitation on this score. After he began his regular preaching in New York, the feeling of uncertainty in regard to him in- creased rather than diminished. It was a time when theological questions excited the greatest interest in all the churches, so that any supposed peculiarity of doctrine, even on points of secondary importance, would at once be seized upon with avidity. Congre- gations enjoyed and expected theological preaching from their pastors, so that almost invariably the sermons preached on Sunday supplied to the critics of orthodoxy abundant material for the coming week.
Mr. Spring, moreover, was thoroughly in sympathy with this theological interest and his sermons were distinctly of the theological type. This does not imply that he for a moment lost sight of the sermon's practical purpose. On the contrary, that was con- stantly and prevailingly before him; but he was convinced that that purpose could hardly be achieved except by the theological mode of approach. "Men who complain of doctrinal preaching," said he, "are strangers to the worth and power of practical preach- ing. . I do not see how any man can preach
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practically who does not preach doctrinally, for the obvious reason that Christian doctrine is truth in theory, and Christian practice is truth in action." *
From what has been said it will readily be seen that any differences between the theological views of Mr. Spring and those of other Presbyterian clergymen of the city would soon be thoroughly known and become the subject of anxious consideration.
Now Mr. Spring had been somewhat influenced by what was known as the New England Theology, in the midst of which he had grown up; and New England Theology, though Calvinistic in its basic principles, was regarded with grave suspicion by the New York Calvinists. Mr. Spring's father was a follower of Dr. Hopkins of Newport, one of the New England leaders; and the son in his sermons in the Brick Church gave some reason for fearing that he also might be a Hopkinsian. When it was said that Dr. Mason, preaching in the church on Murray Street, in his denunciations of New England divinity made "unmistakable allusions to a rising young preacher, who was suspected of favoring some pecul- iar views of the New England School," the reference was to the pastor of the Brick Church.t The Rev. Ezra Stiles Ely published a book entitled "The Con- trast," which, in its discussion of the difference be- tween Hopkinsian and Calvinistic theology, was plainly aimed at the same person. Such attacks as these he could well afford to ignore except so far as preaching the truth "more plainly and pungently" } was an answer. On the other hand, he felt bound to
* "Br. Ch. Mem.," p. 116. + "Br. Ch. Mem.," p. 136. # "Life and Times," Vol. I, p. 129.
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give full and frank replies to a series of questions propounded to him in writing by certain members of the Presbytery, who had been disturbed by his sup- posed errors, and who in a courteous and straight- forward manner sought to learn just how far their fears were well grounded.
Some ground there was. Mr. Spring had, in truth, adopted certain Hopkinsian views and was by no means slow to express them. Especially he made much of a distinction between "natural" and "moral" inability to become holy, the former of which he denied, against the old Calvinists, while the latter he accepted, with them. It would be difficult perhaps to awaken any enthusiasm on the subject nowadays, or to explain the ardor and enthusiasm with which Mr. Spring contended that men have in themselves "all the natural faculties that are necessary to holi- ness," and, if disposed to use them aright, would be holy, since he at the same time admitted, nay, urgently asserted, that the total depravity of human nature creates "an invincible aversion to holiness," and that the "moral inability" thus produced is actu- ally innate in the human heart. * But at the time of which we write, this subject aroused the keenest interest, and Mr. Spring's position was regarded as more than questionable. There were, besides, other New England views of smaller importance, which, with more or less certainty, he was prepared to urge as a modification of the older Calvinism.
All this, however, was far from amounting to an acceptance of Hopkinsianism as a whole. The most characteristic doctrines in that system, as he took
: * Spring's "Essays" (1813), p. 35, note.
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pains to assert, he had always emphatically rejected. He did not believe, for instance, that God's absolute sovereignty in all things should be so construed as to make him the direct cause of sinful as well as of holy actions. Nor did he believe in "unconditional sub- mission," the doctrine that a man ought so wholly to resign himself to the divine will as to be ready to be damned for the glory of God. The truth was that he remained, after all, a Calvinist of the stricter sort, yet one who had come near enough to the New Eng- landers to share some of their good points, while maintaining his own freedom and avoiding their extreme positions By degrees this became plain to all, and in the end, instead of being regarded as sus- picious in his theology, he was accepted as a champion of orthodoxy.
It should be added at this point that his relation to the Hopkinsians had given him something far better than the few minor doctrines he had adopted from them. It had early given him the power to appreciate men from whom he continued to differ on many im- portant points. It was no small thing, at a time of theological controversy and in a man whose own views were always clear-cut and positive, that he could in so large a measure keep his Christian sym- pathies free from the influence of intellectual preju- dice; and the characteristic which we here observe was without doubt one of those that most contributed to the large usefulness of his career. In this connec- tion it will be interesting to note two passages from his autobiography which exhibit admirably his liberal- mindedness. In mentioning at some length the pub- lished sermons which he had read with most profit,
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he says, "I do not hesitate to include the name of Emmons" (that name was to strict Presbyterians like a red rag to a bull), "because, while in my judgment he has some errors, he has more truth than any writ- er whose works have fallen under my notice. The young minister who refuses to read Emmons because his name has been proscribed by the Princeton reviewers, will remain ignorant of truth which, as a preacher of the gospel, he ought to know."* The second passage is still more significant. He has just been speaking at length of certain Hopkinsian doc- trines from which he strongly dissented. Then he continues: "Great and good men have been the zealous advocates of the views here animadverted on, nor are we among those who have called in question the excellence of their Christian character. As a class I have never known more godly men. Men of greater humility, greater self-denial, greater devoted- ness to the interests and enlargement of Christ's kingdom, have never existed in New England than the disciples of Dr. Hopkins. If their opposers had known them as well as I have known them, I am confident their prejudices would vanish." t
It is certainly pleasant to note these expressions of generous sympathy, and the tolerant spirit which they display. At the same time, we must not give them an exaggerated meaning. It must be admitted that outside the pale of Calvinism Mr. Spring's views were not so free from bias. He had not much patience, for instance, with the so-called New Haven Theology #
* "Life and Times," Vol. I, p. 114.
t Ibid, Vol. II, pp. 14 f.
# Yet see below his attitude toward the allied New School Presby- terians.
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of Dr. N. W. Taylor, with its complete denial of native depravity; he could countenance the excom- munication of a woman from his church for no other reason than that she disbelieved in the eternal pun- ishment of the wicked, the Universalist heresy; he frankly regarded the papacy as antichrist, and af- firmed that he actually preferred infidelity to Roman Catholicism. But, as we have seen in the passages quoted above, among the different kinds of Calvinist (and they were many and none too amicable), Mr. Spring set a notable example of liberality. "I do not ask," he said, "that in every particular my brethren should subscribe to my creed. I only ask that they 'sincerely receive and adopt the Confession of Faith of the Presbyterian Church, as containing the system of doctrine contained in the Holy Script-
ures.' . .
. Few in this age of inquiry, believe every
word of it. Nor did our fathers. I myself made two exceptions to it, when I was received into the Pres- bytery of New York. ... I could specify more points in which not a few of our ministers and rul- ing elders do not exactly agree with our standards. Yet they are all honest Calvinists. . The iron bed of Procrustes is not suited to the spirit of the age."* We shall shortly have occasion to ob- serve how at an important historic crisis he urged in vain that his own liberal attitude be al- lowed to guide the counsels of the Presbyterian Church.
It must not be supposed that the opinions and char- acteristics which have been described were, at the beginning of his ministry, as clear-cut and mature as
* "Life and Times," Vol. II, p. 21.
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they appear in some of the quotations by which they have been illustrated, and which have been derived in a number of instances from utterances of his later years. Yet in a less complete form they were a true part of his original mental and spiritual equipment. They plainly make their appearance, for instance, in his "Essays on the Distinguishing Traits of Christian Character," published in 1813, to which, as his first printed book, a few paragraphs may properly be devoted.
This small volume, which ran through nine edi- tions, was the outcome of the theological controversy, already described, in regard to the two kinds of "inability," yet I believe a reader of the present day would be surprised at the practical vein in which it is written. It distinctly is not controversial in tone, but makes a direct and continual appeal to the wills of those to whom it is addressed. This was in accord with Mr. Spring's often expressed ideal of what Christian preaching and teaching should be. In the first five chapters he exhibits the several traits of character "that cannot be relied on as conclusive evidence of genuine religion." * These are, a mor- ality which, however excellent, proceeds from selfish motives; observance of the outward forms of religion, however assiduous; a merely intellect- ual apprehension of religious truth, however or- thodox; the conviction of sin without genuine re- pentance; and a merely inward assurance of conver- sion and salvation unaccompanied by the evidences of a redeemed character. In the rest of the book he describes, on the other hand, those traits
* "Essays" (1813), p. vi.
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which "may be relied upon, without danger of de- ception." *
It is no small commendation to say that after a hundred years and in spite of all the doctrinal modi- fications that have taken place in that time, this book still provides profitable reading, is still a practical book. Practical, it should be added, for one sole purpose, the awakening of sinners to the conscious- ness of their perilous state and of their absolute need of Christian salvation. It does not deal with every- day morals except as they are directly related to that one momentous subject. It does not attempt to apply Christian principles to the details of daily life. It does not even undertake to train the already converted man in higher ways of holiness. Its one aim, pursued with extraordinary force and persistence, is the bringing of the sinner to the feet of Christ.
Occasionally Mr. Spring had some misgivings in regard to a possible one-sidedness in his message. "I early found," he says in a curious passage, "that I could more easily prepare a good sermon from an awakening and alarming subject, than from one that is more comforting. The fact is, I knew more of the terrors of the law than the preciousness of the gospel. The difficulty of preaching well on the more at- tractive and winning themes, has sometimes alarmed me, and made me fear lest, after having 'preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.'" } In this, it is hardly needful to say, he maligned himself: even
* The titles of the chapters indicate sufficiently what these are: namely, Love to God, Repentance, Faith, Humility, Self-denial, The Spirit of Prayer, Love to the Brethren, Non-conformity to the World, Growth in Grace, and Practical Obedience.
t "Life and Times," Vol. 1, pp. 109 f.
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in his early years he was by no means confined to the awful subjects of judgment. But the confession does certainly throw light upon a prevailing tendency of his thought.
Soon after the publication of his Essays he began the custom of preaching sermons in series, sometimes two or three, sometimes as many as twenty or thirty on the same general topic. Indeed, the first series con- sisted of more than a hundred discourses, and was really nothing more nor less than a whole system of theology. He himself describes it as "the great effort of my life," and says that in the preparation of it he spent "more than three years of laborious and continuous study."* A few sermons from one or another series, written in later years, still exist in the original manuscript, and not only their bulk but the inscriptions on their front pages create a feeling of respect, almost amounting to awe, for both the preacher whose industry and research produced them and the audiences to whom they were delivered. Thus we find that in February of 1826 he was engaged on "System No. VI," on "Divine Revelation," while in November of the same year he had already reached "System No. XVIII," on "The Goodness of God." In 1828 "Series of Discourses No. LII," on "The Method of Salvation" was being delivered. (It is in- teresting to note that on the cover of the still-existing sermon in this series, its individual theme being "The Nature of the Christian Atonement," is added this instructive legend, "All wrong. G. Spring, February, 1841.") In 1829 "Directions for Anxious Sinners" was the subject of "Series of Discourses No. LXV."
"Br. Ch. Mem.," pp. 17 f.
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Much of the material thus laboriously produced was doubtless incorporated in his later books.
In 1822 Dr. Spring, for by this time he had received the degree of D.D., took the occasion of the church's being closed for repairs to go abroad for four or five months. He had been invited to make the voyage as guest of one of the members of his church, and hoped that this might prove an effectual measure for the restoration of his health. In this he was not disappointed, but the sights of Europe, its "scenes of splendor, and of folly, and of sin," and especially the evidences of superstition which he observed there, seem to have disgusted and depressed him. His chief pleasure had been found in the ocean voyages and the friends whose companionship he had en- joyed.
Thirteen years later he crossed the Atlantic again on a more important and more interesting journey, but before speaking of that, a brief reference must be made to an incident occurring in the interval. In the summer of 1832 there was a dreadful outbreak of Asiatic cholera in New York. More than a hundred persons perished every day, nearly a thousand in one week. The ministers of the Presbyterian churches in earlier days had already set a high standard of conduct in such emergencies, and Dr. Spring was not the one to lower it. He might possibly have withdrawn from the city without special blame, as it was time for his annual vacation, but, instead, he made announcement that as long as the danger lasted he would remain in the city with his people. Through the summer he ministered to the sick and dying by personal visitation, while to those who
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had as yet escaped he brought cheer and strength, both by the regular services of the church, and still more by a prayer-meeting held daily at six o'clock in the afternoon for many weeks, to which people of all denominations came in large numbers. This inci- dent is not mentioned here because it was the greatest proof of his faithfulness-there were a thousand days of inconspicuous, and for the most part unrecorded, service which really counted for more in his ministry- but this is at least an incident easily grasped, and it will perhaps serve as well as any to prepare us for the strong bond of reverent affection which had been growing up between the people and their pastor, and which in 1835, when he started on his second journey to Europe, already alluded to, found opportunity to express itself in an appropriate and emphatic way.
He had been appointed by the General Assembly as its delegate to the Congregational Union of Eng- land and Wales. He was also delegate to the meetings of the British and Foreign Bible Society in London and the French and Foreign Bible Society in Paris, and he was to attend besides several other important meetings. It was almost a diplomatic mission, its purpose being to draw together Christians living on the two sides of the Atlantic, and both the Brick Church and its pastor made extraordinary prepara- tions. The people collected a purse of $2,500 to pay the expenses of the journey, while he, until then utterly ignorant of the French tongue, mastered it in three months under two teachers, with such success that he was not only able to write in French his address for the French Society, but to pronounce it (as he says with pardonable pride) "almost without
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any foreign accent."* Then came the time for his departure, and on that occasion his people, through a committee, presented to him a letter which tells more of the relations that existed between them than could a whole chapter of explanations. It is possible to quote but a part of it:
"It is no light matter for any Christian church to be deprived, even for a few weeks, of the stated minis- trations of a beloved pastor; but in a case like the present, where the church is large, and its members [are] scattered over the whole extent of a great com- mercial city, the population of which is ever changing, and where the separation is not for a few weeks only, but for months, the trial is vastly greater. . . . But the objects of the mission were understood to be of such an interesting nature that the church has not felt itself at liberty to interpose an objection, however great the sacrifice-more especially as it feels that the confidence in their pastor, [expressed] by the General Assembly, has not been misplaced.
"But however much the members of our local com- munion may feel honored by the selection of your- self, their beloved pastor, for these high and responsi- ble trusts, or however strong may be their confidence in your ability, under God, to discharge the duties devolving upon you, with credit to yourself and your constituents, and far above all with acceptance to your divine Master, yet the moment of separation will be painful to a degree which language can but faintly and inadequately express. The long and intimate, the profitable and happy relationship which we have reason to believe has subsisted between yourself and
"Life and Times," Vol. II, p. 111.
GARDINER SPRING IN THE LATER YEARS OF HIS PASTORATE From a photograph
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us, the thousand endearing and sweet recollections which rush upon our minds, the depth and the strength of the affection which we entertain for you, and which we fondly believe, however little we may deserve it, is also cherished for us by you in return- all make us to feel that the present is no common parting. . .
"Allow the undersigned, therefore, Reverend and Dear Sir, in behalf of the church in whose name they have been deputed as a committee to act on this oc- casion, to give you a parting assurance of their high regard for your person in social life, and their most affectionate attachment to you as a faithful minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, an attachment that has been increasing through a long series of years, during which, at all times, in seasons of plague and pestilence, of personal peril and public danger, they have ob- served and marked your devotedness to the cause of your Master, and the zeal, perseverance, and activity with which your laborious and often painful duties have been discharged.
"Allow us likewise and in conclusion to request from yourself a continuance of your prayers in our behalf-prayers that have been so long put up for us, and, we have reason to believe, so often blessed-that we may be preserved in unity and concord, and kept steady in the faith once delivered to the saints, and that through God's rich mercy we may each and all of us be spared to witness your return with renovated health, crowned with abundant success in the objects of your mission, and with increased means of private and ministerial usefulness. Farewell."
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