USA > New York > New York City > A history of the Brick Presbyterian Church in the city of New York > Part 17
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Exactly how long the session of the church retained control we do not know, but probably it was until about 1846, for when the school records are resumed at that time the superintendent is found to be a layman once more, and the minutes give the impres- sion that some important readjustment has just taken place. A new constitution, for example, is prepared and adopted, which resembles in substance (though not in form) the old constitution of 1833. Probably the session felt that its object had now been ac-
* Mr. Woods was superintendent. This school is probably the No. 12 referred to later in the records.
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complished, and at this time gladly surrendered the burden of direct management which it had tem- porarily assumed.
In any case the school continued to prosper. In 1847 it maintained thirty-five classes, including an infant class and Bible classes, and had on its roll one hundred and seventy-five scholars, much the largest number recorded up to that time. The standard of its scholarship, also, seems to have been high, for when the children who had memorized the whole of the Shorter Catechism were from time to time rewarded (according to a custom introduced in this period) the lists were surprisingly long, while a still larger num- ber of boys and girls received Bibles, Bible diction- aries, Bible geographies, "Illustrated Skethes," or "small books" as rewards for punctual attendance and good behavior. On one occasion a scholar named Miss Catherine Halsey received a "gilt Bible," which must have betokened a most extraordinary degree of goodness and punctuality.
But perhaps the two most interesting developments were those which still remain to be described. One was the system of visitation, which was at this time devised and put into practice. Here once more we see the reawakening of the old sense of responsibility for the children of the ignorant poor, the children of the slums as we should say to-day; and this awak- ening was due, no doubt, to certain important changes in outward conditions. For the neighborhood of the Brick Church on Beekman Street was now be- coming more and more a downtown region, full of the bustle of business, and used for residence by the poorer classes only. How to reach the many ne-
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glected children who lived within hearing distance of the Brick Church bell became, therefore, a more and more urgent problem. The officers and teachers of the school gave themselves earnestly to the solving of it. The section of the city in the vicinity of the Brick Church * was by them subdivided into con- venient districts which were assigned to individual teachers for "thorough" visitation. Full reports were then presented at the teachers' meetings, of the whole number of children in the district, of those at- tending the Brick Church school or other schools, and of those who attended none. Special pains were taken "to ascertain the wants and supply the neces- sities of those applying for aid," and especially to provide proper clothing for poor children, whose parents desired them to attend the school.+ A "char- ities committee" was at the same time appointed to solicit funds from the congregation and to relieve the cases of need reported by the visitors.
Finally, and this will complete the subject of this chapter, we must notice that the Sunday-school, to- ward the close of the period we are studying, began to take a direct and practical interest in missions. We have seen already that the moving purpose of the workers had long been, in no small part, the pro- vision of such religious training as might in the future prepare their scholars for the work of the
* The Sunday-school Union at that time apportioned a certain district to each church, much as the Federation of Churches proposes to do at the present day.
t One entry states that arrangements are to be made for visiting "ma- lignant children," but probably the secretary did not intend to refer to the ycung reprobates of the community. "Indigent," the word used in several similar passages, was no doubt the adjective he meant to use here.
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gospel at home and abroad. But now, in addition to this, the school began to make direct contributions to the work of missionaries already in the field. The initiative in this movement came originally from one of the school's own teachers, Miss Cowdrey, who when on a visit to Cincinnati, in 1836, was moved by the sight of "the destitute of the West," and wrote to her fellow-workers in the Brick Church Sunday- school, begging a donation of old question books, hymn books, etc. A prompt response was made,* and a precedent was set which had important con- sequences. Not until the late forties, however, was anything like a habit of missionary giving estab- lished. After that we read of comparatively frequent appeals for aid from Sunday-school missionaries in the West, asking still for books, but new books now, not old ones. "Raising a library" became accordingly a familiar undertaking among the Brick Church teachers. At last in 1850, at the very close of the period to which this chapter is devoted, occurred an incident which was dramatic in its effect and launched the school suddenly upon the high seas of benevolence.
At the teachers' meeting on Sunday, February 17th, a Mr. Chidlar made an address on "The Needs of the West." What anecdotes he may have told or what arguments he used we do not know, but at length, pausing in his appeal, he unfurled a worn and faded banner which had evidently seen long service in some Sunday-school. While his hearers
* The secretary with singular accuracy records that 247 question books, 35 new hymn books, bound in leather, and 31 of the same bound in paper, were sent by dray No. 1304 to Mrs. Cowdrey, in Albion Place, to be for- warded to her daughter,
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were wondering what this meant, he told them that this banner was one that the Brick Church Sunday- school had itself sent out to Illinois eighteen years before. It had now come back from the faithful workers on the frontier, with the message that they had done with it all that they, unaided, could pos- sibly do, and that to send it westward again, unac- companied by the means for carrying out its glorious object, would be a kind of cruelty to those brave but exhausted workers in the West. It is needless to say that in a school which was, as we have seen, not unfamiliar with the cause of missions, such a direct appeal as this could not be disregarded. At once, there was proposed and adopted a resolution, which, brief as it is, still communicates to us something of the noble emotion which prompted it: "Resolved, that we will support a missionary to be our standard- bearer for the West, and will supply him with ten libraries to aid him in his labors."
But this growth of practical benevolence in the Sunday-school * was, in reality, part of a much larger movement of the same kind in the church itself, and this is the subject of the next chapter, to which we must now turn.
* It should be remarked that up to this time no attempt seems to have been made to interest the scholars in these practical enterprises. When money was needed it was raised by the teachers from other members of the congregation. The Sunday-school was apparently supposed to consist of two parts, opposite in character-the scholars, who were expected to be for the most part entirely passive, and the teachers and officers, by whom the whole active work was to be done.
CHAPTER XIV
MISSIONS AND BENEVOLENCE: 1810-1850
"In those great and benevolent enterprises, for which the age in which we live has been distinguished, it has been the privilege of the Brick Church to bear her part. Taking the forty-six years of my ministry together, no church in the land has given more bountifully to the cause of domestic and foreign missions."-GARDINER SPRING, 1856, "The Brick Church Memorial," p. 29.
"As ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give." -Matthew 10 : 7 f.
W HEN Gardiner Spring came to the Brick Church, almost all the money received in the collections was used for the church expenses. The two established exceptions, it will be recalled, were the annual collection for the support of the charity school * and the provision that on communion Sundays and at the time of the annual charity sermon the collections should be devoted to the needs of the poor of the church .; We have also seen that occasional exceptions had begun to be made from time to time in response to special ap- peals, but as yet the instances of these were so few and scattered, that they must be regarded only as a prophecy of greater things to come .¿
Under Dr. Spring the collections for the poor § and, as long as was necessary, for the charity school
* See page 90. t See page 85. # See page 87.
§ This money was administered as formerly by the deacons, except that a small sum was put into the hands of the pastor for special cases. The funds appear to have been ample till about 1842, from which date there was frequently a small deficit, easily made up.
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continued as before; but the growth of occasional benevolences was for a time checked, apparently by a combination of two causes. First, the period of business depression before and during the War of 1812 made it necessary to observe great economy in the management of the church's finances. And, second, a custom had by this time been adopted of taking up a special annual collection which should be in part devoted to missions .* This was usually set for a Sunday in April, and at first (in 1810), the sum received was divided into three equal parts, one- third being "for the use of the Presbytery," one-third "for missionaries," and the rest "for the use of the Commissioners of the General Assembly." Five years later a different apportionment was made. Two-thirds were now to be given to "The Education Fund," and the remaining third to be "divided be- tween the Commissioners and Missionary Funds." This regularizing of the church's benevolence, though it was but a small beginning, was a distinct advance upon the irregular and indiscriminate offerings of the earlier period. Moreover, the change in the appor- tionment which has just been mentioned, omitting altogether, as it does, the contribution to the purely ecclesiastical expenses of Presbytery,f and empha-
* The General Assembly as early as 1791, had resolved "that the Pres- byteries composing the Synod of New York and New Jersey and that of Philadelphia, use their best endeavors to forward; yearly to the General Treasurer a collection [for missions] from each of their churches." The only evidence that this was carried out in the Presbyterian Church of New York City is the record of three offerings, in whole or part for the purpose of sending missionaries to the frontier, in 1791, 1792, and 1796. (See above, p. 87.) The next allusion to a stated yearly collection is the one referred to in the text (1810).
t Of course the church by some other means than a collection must have continued to bear its share in these expenses.
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sizing missionary and benevolent objects, indicates a most wholesome tendency.
This one stated annual collection seems to have provided a sufficient outlet for the church's missionary benevolence for about eight years, but in October, 1818, the trustees passed a resolution which, simple as it appears to be, marks the beginning of a new ad- vance. It was the granting, to the directors of the African School, of the use of the Brick Church for their anniversary sermon, and of permission to take up a collection at that time for the institution which they represented. It is plain from this action and from other instances of the same sort which followed in the succeeding years that the church's sense of mis- sionary responsibility had again begun to outgrow the means provided for its exercise.
Moreover, from without the pressure at this time had greatly increased. To this the General Assembly had called attention in a notable communication in the year 1817. It had then declared: "The gradual increase of gospel light; the extension of the bless- ings of education to all classes and ages; the growing diffusion of missionary zeal and exertions; the rapid multiplication of Bible societies, and through their instrumentality, the wonderful spread of the knowl- edge of the word of life in languages and countries hitherto strangers to the sacred volume; the numerous associations for evangelical, benevolent, and humane purposes, which have arisen, and are daily arising, in every part of our bounds; and, above all, the convert- ing and sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit, which have been poured out for some time past, and especially during the last year, in many of the con-
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gregations belonging to our communion-form an assemblage which cannot fail to be in a high degree interesting and animating to the friends of pure and undefiled religion; an assemblage which, while it gratifies for the present the pious and benevolent heart, must excite the most precious hopes for the future. Such mighty plans of benevolence, such won- derful combinations, such a general movement to mankind, in promoting the great cause of human happiness, were surely never before witnessed.
"At such a period, dear brethren," this utterance of the Assembly continues, "let it be impressed upon the mind of every member of our church, that we are called to humble, diligent, persevering exertion. Much has been done, but much more remains to be done; and much, we hope, will be done by us. Every day makes a demand upon the time, the affections, the prayers, the property, the influence of the people of God, which it would be ingratitude, cruelty, nay, treachery, to repel." * To the great appeal which the times were thus making the Brick Church re- sponded, slowly for a while, but more and more as the years passed. From 1821, there is in the church records constant allusion to the granting of the use of the church,t and of collections, sometimes at special services on week-days, but more commonly at one of the regular Sunday services. The number and vari- ety of the causes to which the Brick Church thus rendered material aid is really astonishing. Widows, orphans, and other poor persons, both young and old,
* "Assembly Digest," p. 313.
t A nominal charge of two dollars was charged in most cases as a fee for the sexton.
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students, sailors, negroes, churches in America, in Europe and in Asia, Sunday-schools, hospitals, and more kinds of missionary enterprise than one would suppose possible, were among the debtors to the hos- pitality and liberality of the Brick Church .* The collections given to these causes (thus diverting money, be it remembered, that would otherwise have gone into the church's own treasury), amounted fre- quently to more than $100 each, and the sum total must have attained to a very generous figure.
It will readily be imagined that as appeals for these special collections increased in frequency, the officers
* The following is a list of societies, etc., aided from 1818 to 1838, in the ways described in the text: The African School; Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children; Institution in Amherst for the Classical Education of Poor and Pious Youths; N. Y. Evangelical Mis- sionary Society; * N. Y. Sunday-school Union Society; * N. Y. Religious Tract Society; Auburn Theological Institution; United Foreign Mis- sionary Society; * Church in West Farms; * United Domestic Missionary Society; * Society for Promoting the Gospel among Seamen; Church in Scipio; Orphan Asylum Institution; Presbyterian Education Society; Female Sunday-school Union Society; Church in St. Augustine; * Mari- ners' Church; * Marine Bible Society; Young Men's Auxiliary Education Society; Palestine Mission Association; widow and children of late James C. Crane, the Missionary; * American Colonization Society; * Bethel Union (for Seamen); Greek Committee; Colored Church lately under pastoral charge of Mr. Cornish; * Port Society of New York; * African Presbyterian Church of N. Y .; N. Y. City Bible Society; Infant Schools Nos. 1 and 3; Female Lying-in Asylum; Sunday-school No. 42 on Orange Street; Society for Relief of Respectable, Aged, Indigent Females; * Board of Education; * General Assembly's Board of Missions; Commissioners' Fund; Five Points Sunday-schools; Matron Association; * Young Men's Missionary Society; Seaman's Friend Society; American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions; * N. Y. Young Men's Bible Society; American Sunday- school Union; * N. Y. Colonization Society; Church in St. Petersburg, Russia; Church in Brussels, Belgium; N. Y. Academy of Sacred Music; *Poor of the City. The names are given in the form in which they appear in the church records. Those marked with asterisks received aid from the church two or more times. The N. Y. Sunday-school Union, for instance, was granted five collections in the twenty years.
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of the church would again grow dissatisfied with such a haphazard and unorganized method of distributing the benevolences. In giving full opportunity to the growing spirit of liberality, the absence of a hard and fast scheme had, for a while, been advantageous, but the time was bound to come when it would be desirable to control, in a more systematic way, the habit of generous giving which had now been well established. There was, moreover, another objection which made a change expedient. The admission to the Brick Church pulpit of the agents, who came to plead the cause of the various institutions, interfered seriously with the regular ministrations of the pastor, without supplying an altogether satisfactory equiv- alent.
Accordingly, early in 1838, when the subject of organizing the church's benevolences was seriously brought forward in the session, the first step taken was to exclude agents altogether, and to provide that "hereafter all appeals on behalf of the religious chari- ties be made by the pastor and, whenever necessary, be followed up by the session and members of the church."* This, however, was but a preliminary step. A month later a plan was presented and adopted by which, it was hoped, the current evils would be
* In this matter the Brick Church was evidently helping to form the opinion of the Church at large. In the next year the General Assembly passed the following resolution: "That while the necessity for agents is at present felt and recognized by the Assembly, in order ultimately to remove this necessity, and thus to reduce the expenditures of the Board, the indi- vidual agency and cooperation of every minister and church session, in · forwarding the interests of this Board, would, in the opinion of the Assem- bly, if faithfully employed, with least expense and the greatest certainty advance the cause and multiply the resources of the Board." "Assembly Digest," p. 315.
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remedied, and a more adequate use made of the church's present opportunity. What they really pro- posed to do was to expand the old idea of the three- cause offering taken in April, into a much broader and more inclusive scheme adapted to the later con- ditions. To this end it was resolved that, with the concurrence of the trustees, five specified causes should "receive the stated and annual patronage of the congre- gation." In January of each year the Presbyterian Board of Education was to receive its collection, in April the American Board of Commissioners for For- eign Missions, in June the American Tract Society, in October the Sunday-school Union, and in Novem- ber the Presbyterian Board of Domestic Missions. Nor was this all. Almost equally significant was the appointment of five special committees, of two elders each, to watch over the interests of these five causes.
Thus two important results were sought to be accomplished; first, it was insured that henceforth the chief appeal to the church's liberality should be made by causes of paramount importance, and second, the people were to be trained by pastor and elders to feel that these causes were worthy of their regular and generous support. There was, it is true, a special provision that collections should from time to time be taken for "such other occasional charities as the urgency of the case may require," but at the same time, there was an evident intention that these occasional appeals should become much less frequent than heretofore. The money formerly avail- able for them was now to be appropriated by those five objects selected by the session as the ones which the Brick Church ought most strongly and constantly
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to aid. As a matter of fact, the special offerings be- came, after this, noticeably rare, and two years later a regulation that outside organizations should usu- ally be charged $25 for the use of the church, tended still further to diminish their number.
Reviewing briefly the thirty years of development which reached a culmination at this time, we observe that the advance had been by a sort of pendulum movement. In 1810 an enlarged capacity to give to missions, etc., evidenced by a growing readiness to respond to occasional appeals, was met by the estab- lishment of a regular annual offering mostly devoted to benevolent objects. At once the irregular benevo- lences ceased. Eight years later, although the annual collection still continued, the occasional offerings once more made their appearance and rapidly multi- plied, showing again that there was a surplus for be- nevolence, over and above the sum which the existing scheme demanded. Whereupon steps were again taken to adapt the scheme to the advance. The one annual offering, mostly devoted to benevolent objects, was replaced by five annual offerings, entirely devoted to benevolent objects. Once more the custom of occasional collections ceased at once, from which it might be inferred that the change had accomplished its purpose.
The chief test of success, however, must, of course, be sought not merely in the orderly working of the scheme, but chiefly in the amount of money produced by it for benevolent purposes. From this point of view, also, the result was eminently satisfactory. In 1838, although the month for the offering for the Board of Education had already passed before the plan
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was adopted, no less than $3,516.96 was received in the four remaining collections. Indeed, in this the congregation had apparently outrun its real ability. It was a case of the new broom performing a service which, as it grew old, it could not maintain. The next year all five offerings amounted to but little more than $2,700. Even this, however, was not un- satisfactory, and the average annual total for the years from 1838 to 1850 was certainly excellent, namely, $3,330. Each year in this period, except the last, the cause of foreign missions took the lead, receiving always more than $1,000. Domestic mis- sions came next; and the other three were about equal claimants for third place. Miscellaneous offerings were exceedingly variable; sometimes there were none reported, and sometimes they amounted to sev- eral hundred dollars.
This chapter would be incomplete without some account of the part played, directly and indirectly, by the Brick Church in some of the important religious organizations through which its benevolences were distributed. It will have been evident already that the forty years which we have been studying were marked by an extraordinary development of such organizations. When Gardiner Spring was installed one could almost have counted upon the fingers of one's hands the important societies then carrying on benevolent work, and as for societies whose work was distinctly Christian, Christian in definite purpose as well as in general spirit, there were almost none. But in 1850, as we have seen, the question for the Brick Church was not so much, How shall we put our
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money at work ? but, How shall we prevent it from being dissipated among a hundred different channels of Christian usefulness? In the marked change of condition which had thus taken place, the Brick Church and its pastor had played an active part.
The American Bible Society, for example, had Dr. Spring for one of its founders. It was, he tells us, his privilege, as delegate from the New York Bible So- ciety, to sit in the convention in New York in 1816, when the national society was organized. He was afterward one of its directors, served on one of its standing committees, and contributed not a little to its progress and efficiency.
In a still more interesting manner was the Brick Church connected with the origin of work for seamen in America. In the summer of 1816-and, by the way, it will have been noticed that this was a very eventful year in the history of the Christian activities of New York-some of the members of the Brick Church held meetings in the lower part of the city with the general purpose of reaching, if possible, the neglected and churchless people of that section. It was noticed that certain of these meetings, held in Water Street, were attended by numbers of seamen, which suggested the holding of meetings for sailors only, an entirely new idea in America at that time. The first meeting of this sort was held in a house at the corner of Front Street and Old Slip, and out of it grew, in time, the Mariner's Church in New York, similar organizations in many other Atlantic ports, and finally the American Seaman's Friend Society.
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