USA > New York > New York City > A history of the Brick Presbyterian Church in the city of New York > Part 18
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On one occasion an unsuccessful attempt on the part of Dr. Spring to organize a movement was, nev-
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ertheless, so excellent an illustration of his relation to the larger interests of practical Christianity, that a de- scription of it may be here included, especially as he himself speaks of it at some length in his own auto- biography. The object which he had in view was Sabbath reform. In 1827, the year in which he made his attempt, conditions in respect to Sunday observ- ance had materially changed from those which had formerly existed. "When I first came to New York," wrote Dr. Spring, "Sabbath desecration was by no means so flagrant as it became at a later period. Carriages and carts were not allowed to run wild by our churches; an iron chain was stretched across Nassau and Beekman streets in order to pro- tect the church, at whose altars I served, in the quiet enjoyment of its religious services. ... The leading minds of our fellow-citizens strongly favored a decent observance of the Lord's Day." *
But as the years passed "the men and the times changed." In 1827, Dr. Spring preached a series of five sermons on "The Obligations of the Sabbath," the last of which, on "The Sabbath, a Blessing to Mankind," ¡ made so decided an impression upon Mr. Stephen Allen, then mayor of the city, that he wrote to Dr. Spring, asking him to publish it, and afterward consented to give his hearty cooperation in some general effort for Sabbath reform. He "en- gaged to preside at a public meeting of the citizens in the City Hall, summoned through the public press, for the consideration of this important subject."
* "Life and Times," Vol. II, pp. 141 f.
t This was printed, not only in English, but in Italian and Modern Greek.
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"I was warmly zealous in the cause," says Dr. Spring. "The meeting was called. Able speakers, both clergymen and laymen, saw the importance of the discussion, and the city was in a glow of excite- ment. But long before the appointed time the place of meeting was preoccupied by those who had taken the alarm at this supposed, and clerical, invasion of their civil rights. . .. It was not without difficulty that we got into the Hall; our friends earnestly entreated me not to attempt it. Those on whom we relied to advocate our cause, one after another, deserted us, and the Rev. Alexander McLeland and myself were left alone, of the ministers of the gospel, to face the storm. We forced our way through the crowd, and found ourselves in the midst of an indig- nant assemblage, passing resolutions requesting the ministers to mind their own business. We were marked men. The excited multitude looked daggers at us. They would not listen to us. Our persons were in danger, and we left the Hall without the op- portunity even of bearing our testimony for God and the Sabbath. There was more zeal than wisdom in that movement. It was a failure." *
But to return to the successes. The relations of Dr. Spring and the church to the creation and devel- opment of the New York Sunday-school Union has already been alluded to. A still closer connection ex- isted between them and certain societies which repre- sented the cause of home missions. The New York Missionary Society, a very old organization, ; whose work was done in "the Indian territory in the remote
* "Life and Times," Vol. II, pp. 142 f.
t See above, page 232.
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West," was aided after 1809, by an auxiliary, known as The Young Men's Missionary Society of New York. This society was composed of young men from all the evangelical churches in the city and, "by the enthusiastic spirit which animated it, gave a pow- erful impulse to the good cause, and promised to be one of the important agencies in the missionary work." Most unfortunately, however, the society after a few years, was greatly hindered by internal differences and jealousies. This state of things reached a climax in 1817, at which time Dr. Spring was a member of the board of directors. In November of that year a Mr. Cox was nominated as a suitable missionary to be sent by the society, but after a prolonged series of meetings, held, as it happened, in the session room of the Brick Church, he was rejected by a majority of the members, for the reason that he represented a somewhat less extreme form of Calvinism than did these opposers themselves. The minority, which in- cluded Dr. Spring, held that the objections were con- ceived in a spirit of bigotry and represented an at- tempt to achieve by main force such a theological narrowing of a supposedly undenominational society as would virtually exclude many of the members themselves. The result was that the minority with- drew and formed a new organization, known as the New York Evangelical Missionary Society of Young Men, declaring it their belief that the great needs of the time called upon true Christians, even if differing "in important articles of faith," to unite as laborers for the harvest, This new society at once achieved a striking success, enrolling more than four hundred members in a few weeks. In its beginning Dr.
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Spring was a moving spirit, and his connection with it was afterward still closer. "It was my privilege as the secretary," he says, "to correspond with the mis- sionaries, and to address the communities to which they were sent; and much as it added to my labors, it is with thankfulness that I look back to the part I was called to perform in originating and sustaining this society. It was an honor to be a fellow-worker with them. . They gathered around me, encour- aged, and strengthened me, and gave a hallowed influence to the church of which I was pastor and so many of them were members."
The second home missionary organization in which Dr. Spring and his church were directly interested was one of larger scope. Up to 1826, the missionary work in the United States had been carried on by a number of State or city societies, but the need of a national institution had for some time been felt, and at length, in the year mentioned, a committee of the home missionary workers in New York City "ad- dressed a circular to a large number of churches, in- viting them to convene at the session room of the Brick Presbyterian Church in the city of New York, for the purpose of forming an American Home Mis- sionary Society. . . The response to this invitation was a large assemblage in convention, of one hundred and twenty-six ministers and laymen from thirteen States and Territories of the Union, men of high char- acter in Church and State and from four different Christian denominations," * the Dutch, Scotch, Con- gregational and Presbyterian Churches. The plan was successfully carried out, and three Brick Church rep-
* "Life and Times," Vol. I, p. 265.
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resentatives were among the first officers of the new society, Dr. Spring as one of the directors, Peter Hawes as treasurer, and Stephen Lockwood as re- cording secretary.
If, in the founding of the first great American for- eign missionary society, the Brick Church did not play an equally prominent part, this was because the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- sions had already been organized while Gardiner Spring was studying theology at Andover. He was present, however, as a spectator, at the meeting in Bradford, Mass., in 1810, where that famous Board was first projected, and heard his fellow-students from the seminary, Mott, Mills, Newall, and Judson, pre- sent that"respectful and earnest memorial" which led directly to this result. Associated as he was with these men, he could hardly fail to feel a deep interest in the subject of foreign missions. Moreover, his own father, Dr. Samuel Spring was, as has been already stated in an earlier chapter, one of those who joined in the creation of the American Board. Dr. Gardiner Spring narrates one interesting incident which oc- curred in his father's church, on the Sunday imme- diately following the Bradford meeting. "On his return to Newburyport," he says, "my father, on the Sabbath morning, gave a brief narrative of the de- votement of the young men, . . . and also gave notice that he would preach on the subject in the afternoon, and that after the sermon a collection « would be taken up for missions to the heathen. In the days of my youth," Dr. Spring continues, "the town of Newburyport was an active, commercial vil- lage of great enterprise and wealth. My father's con-
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gregation had a large share of the wealth of the place, and a large share of its mercantile marine, composed of sea-captains and native mariners. At the close of the [afternoon] service, one of the old and rich sea- captains remarked, as he came out from the church, 'the Doctor has given us a grand sermon, and he has preached all the jack-knives out of the sailors' pock- ets.' On returning to my father's house and laying out the collection on the parlor table, there was gold, silver and copper, and not a few jack-knives. The sailors had little else to give. . .. I know not now the amount of the collection, and only know that such men as William Bartlett, Moses Brown [and others] contributed something besides jack-knives. And this, the first collection in the United States for foreign missions, was taken up in the North Church in Newburyport, where, by my father's hands, I was baptized." *
Interest in the American Board may thus be said to have been a part of Dr. Spring's inheritance, and it continued and increased after he became pastor of the Brick Church. In 1820 he published a life of Samuel J. Mills, one of the participants in the his- toric "Haystack Prayer Meeting" t in Williamstown, from which the whole foreign missionary movement
* "Life and Times," Vol. I, pp. 279 f.
t It is interesting that, according to Dr. Spring's own statement, he was the first to make known the story of this meeting, in the book referred to in the text. For this reason it may be worth while to give his descrip- tion of it in full. "He [Mills] led them out [two or three of his more inti- mate fellow-students] into a meadow, at a distance from the college, to a retirement probably familiar to himself, though little exposed to observa- tion or liable to be approached, where, by the side of a large stack of hay, he devoted the day to prayer and fasting, and familiar conversation on this new and interesting theme [of foreign missions]; when, much to his sur-
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in America started, and one of those who presented themselves for service at the Bradford meeting. In 1824, Dr. Spring was chosen one of the corporate members of the American Board, and he and his church were its faithful friends and supporters through a long series of years.
It has been already stated that, in accordance with the organized system of benevolences inaugurated in the Brick Church in 1838, the American Board was the organization appointed to receive the church's foreign missionary offering. This is especially inter- esting because the Presbyterian Church had formed a Board of Foreign Missions of its own in the pre- ceding year, whereas the American Board was at that time interdenominational.
It is natural for us to wish that in both their home and foreign missionary work the Christian churches of America might have continued to work together, instead of starting independent and, in some cases, rival organizations. But apparently the times were not propitious. Men of differing views within the national organizations seemed more and more in- clined to come into open conflict, and if this could not be avoided in any other way, it was better, as even those who were themselves most liberal agreed,
prise and gratification, he found that the Spirit of God had been enkin- dling in their bosoms the flame which had been so long burning in his own. The reader will not be surprised to learn that, from this hour, this en- deared retreat was often made solemn by the presence, and hallowed by the piety, of these dear young men. . . . The operations and existence of this Society were unknown to the rest of the college, and have remained con- cealed by a veil which has never been removed till now. Though some of this little company yet remain on earth, I am forbidden by very sacred ties to lisp any other than the name of Samuel J. Mills." "Life of Samuel J. Mills," by Gardiner Spring (N. Y., 1820), pp. 29 f.
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to create separate societies, which might provide con- genial opportunity for all sorts of Christians without danger of internal contention .* Accordingly the dif- ferent denominations proceeded to create mission boards of their own.
When a distinctively Presbyterian Board had been thus formed, it was natural, indeed almost inevitable, that Presbyterian churches should sooner or later rally to the support of their own organization. In home missions this had happened comparatively early. In the Brick Church's benevolent system of 1838 the American Home Missionary Society, which the church had itself helped to found ten years before, had no place. Instead, the allegiance of the church was pledged to the Board of Domestic Mis- sions of the Presbyterian General Assembly.
The church and its pastor had been criticised in some quarters for this change of front, especially as they had always been forward to urge a liberal and
* The following extract from an act of the Presbyterian General As- sembly in 1840 throws further light upon this subject. "The relation in which we stand to other denominations furnishes another reason why we should consolidate our strength and foster our own institutions. It is obviously for the interest of the evangelical churches in our country that they should preserve a mutually good understanding with each other. Perhaps the best way to secure this is for each to act in its own appropriate sphere, the different denominations uniting together only in those plans and organizations which require no sacrifice of their distinctive principles. Our sister churches are, it is well known, actively engaged in fortifying their respective positions and extending their boundaries. We are so far from complaining of this, that we commend them for their fidelity to their principles; and in so far as they are propagating the truth, we bid them Godspeed. But we urge their activity as a motive why we also should be up and doing. If it becomes them to be active, it becomes us much more. For they are imbued with a denominational feeling of long standing and mighty energy; among us this feeling is in its infancy." "Assembly Digest," p. 313.
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comprehensive attitude toward all the large interests of Christianity. There is little doubt, however, that their action was made necessary by the conditions then existing. In 1837, the American Home Mission- ary Society had come under the control of men who represented that New Haven Theology which influ- enced the New School Presbyterians, and led, first to the Exscinding Acts, and then to the New School secession. One of the acts of the General Assembly, in the course of this unhappy development, was to declare its belief that the American Home Missionary Society had been conducted by such methods as were "exceedingly injurious to the peace and purity of the Presbyterian Church," and in particular, that some of its managers designed, if possible, to "break down" the Presbyterian Board, and to "introduce and propagate opinions at war with the standards" of Presbyterianism. It was, therefore, recommended that the Society should cease to operate in Presby- terian churches .* We can hardly be surprised that under such circumstances the Brick Church, which, however tolerant toward others, was itself firmly con- vinced of the truth of the Old School views, should feel compelled to transfer its allegiance to the Presby- terian Board of Domestic Missions.
In relation to foreign missions the change from national to denominational allegiance was deferred for some years longer, and was less abruptly made. From 1839 small sums, from five to fifteen per cent. of the whole foreign missionary offering of the Brick Church, were given to the Presbyterian Board, prob- ably by the expressed desire of the givers. In 1842,
* " Assembly Digest," pp. 754, 757.
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the Presbytery having urged the churches to do as much as they felt they could to strengthen their own organization, the Brick Church session declined to do more than regularize the special designation of offerings for that purpose. Undesignated offerings were still to go to the American Board. But in the next year, pressure no doubt continuing, it was ordered that the undesignated money for foreign missions be equally divided between the two socie- ties. Not until several years later did the American Board cease altogether to be one of the stated bene- ficiaries of the Brick Church.
As we look back over the forty years whose history has now been completed, it is hardly necessary to call attention to the great changes in benevolence, and, indeed, in every department of the church life, that these years had witnessed. At the beginning the church was comparatively weak, unformed in meth- od, confined to a rather narrow programme of Chris- tian work. From this it had grown to be a strong, efficient, and highly influential organization, active in every important movement, sharing liberally in the growing work of the Church at large, and itself not- able for the type of Christian character and conduct which it had succeeded in creating in its members.
Perhaps it was well that such a church was not permitted to rest on its laurels. At about the time which we have now reached it was called upon to face a new and serious difficulty, which threatened al- most to cause its overthrow. What this was, and how it was met and conquered, the next chapter will show.
CHAPTER XV THE LAST YEARS ON BEEKMAN STREET: 1850-1856
"Had any one told me twenty years ago that I should live to see [this church] abandoned as a place of religious worship, I should have thought him a romancer, if not a madman; yet the hour of abandonment has come."-GARDINER SPRING, 1856, "The Brick Church Memorial," p. 35.
"Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honor dwelleth."-Psalm 26 : 8.
S EVERAL allusions have already been made to the great changes that had taken place in the neighborhood of the Brick Church. The truth was that during the eighty-odd years from the build- ing of the church to the middle of the nineteenth century, the relation of the site on Beekman Street to the rest of New York had been completely reversed. In 1768 the church was at the extreme north end of the city; almost all the residence quarter lay south- ward toward the Battery. In 1850, on the other hand, so greatly had New York grown, that the church found itself practically at the extreme south end of the city; the homes of the people lay almost all to the north of it. The change from residence to business was not yet complete, for hotels and boarding-houses were still to be found in that vicinity in considerable numbers, but the private houses had moved away northward and they had taken the congregation of the Brick Church with them.
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The difficulties produced by this state of things will readily be perceived. In order to carry on the work and worship of a church, it is necessary that the members should come together at frequent intervals in the church building, and it is desirable that they should be known to one another, so that they may work together in a friendly and cordial spirit; but when they have moved to a distance from the church, and, not improbably, at the same time have moved in different directions, these desired conditions are very difficult of attainment.
It will surprise most people to learn that the Brick Church had at least begun to experience this sup- posedly modern difficulty more than twenty years be- fore 1850, long before one would suppose the city large enough to make even the greatest distances in it a very serious obstacle to social intercourse or church attendance. It will be necessary for us to turn back thus far in the narrative and to trace through the in- terval the development of these conditions and their effect upon the church's life and the church's policy. We will begin for this purpose with the year 1828. None of the Brick Church people were then living above Fourth Street,* and yet the preface of the little church catalogue, issued in that year, remarks that
* It will, perhaps, be interesting to note the addresses of the officers of the church at this time (as given in the catalogue of 1833):
ELDERS .- Rensselaer Havens, Lafayette Place; William Whitlock, 80 Franklin Street; John Adams, 144 Thompson Street; Alfred de Forest, 26 Bond Street; Horace Holden, 34 Beekman Street; Moses Allen, 113 Hudson Street; Silas Holmes, 8 College Place; Jasper Corning, 60 Walker Street; Abner L. Ely, 394 Pearl Street.
DEACONS .- William Couch, 50 Bleecker Street; John McComb, 193 Fourth Street; John C. Halsey, 189 Water Street; Daniel Oakley, Jamaica, L. I .; Shepherd Knapp, 76 Beekman Street; Elijah Mead, 48 Cliff Street; Nichol H. Deering, 110 Grand Street,
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"the great obstacles to a personal acquaintance and familiar intercourse among Christians, in a city like this, are their wide dispersion, the continual change in their places of residence, and the consequent diffi- culty of ascertaining where they reside from year to year." Indeed the catalogue itself, which contained chiefly a list of the names and addresses of the con- gregation, was issued with the express hope that it might in a measure counteract these tendencies of the time, and lead to the cultivation once more of "that spirit of mutual intercourse which has in former years been so productive of good to this people."
Apparently, in 1828, the members still managed to attend the church services with regularity, but a little more than ten years later the session felt called upon to prepare a special circular, of which 250 copies were printed, expressing to delinquent members the con- cern with which the session had observed their "habit- ual absence from the public worship of God" in the church of which they were members. The cause of this, the circular says, has no doubt been in large measure "the distance of [their] residence from the House of God," although the session is constrained to attribute it in part to a blameworthy neglect of duty also. "Exemplary churches," the elders point- edly add, "are composed not of members whose names simply are upon their records." If this was the state of things among the grown-up people, it was no wonder that at this same time, as was related in a former chapter, the children were similarly affected, and that the Sunday-school had diminished in num- bers as a result of "the widely scattered condition of
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the congregation and the great distance of many families from the place of instruction."
In view of such real difficulties as these, the ques- tion began to be asked whether the Brick Church would not be forced to move, and already various rumors were current concerning its probable new quarters and its successor on the site at Beekman Street. A New York writer in 1839, informs us, for instance, that "for a year or two past there has been some talk of removing the Brick Meeting House to make room for a post-office building. But I be- lieve," says he, "that the danger is now past, and the venerable edifice will still continue to grace our city, and serve for many years to come as a temple for the worship of the Most High." *
The rumors here referred to were not altogether without foundation. At least, it was certain that the removal of the church had been seriously considered, and indeed, all but accomplished. The initiative in the matter had come from the city. In February, 1836, the chairman of "the Committee on Lands and Places, of the Board of Assistant Aldermen" had written officially to ascertain whether the trustees of the Brick Church would be willing to surrender to the Corporation of the city "the triangular piece of ground now in their possession on Nassau, Beekman, and Chatham Streets leased from the Corporation," and, if so, what sum of money they would be willing to accept by way of compensation.
The trustees, even at that early date, regarded the matter with sufficient favor to name a figure,
* "Familiar Conversations on the History of the Evangelical Churches of N. Y.," by R. Carter, 1839, pp. 176 f.
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$150,000, and even when the Corporation replied to this, offering $20,000 less, the trustees determined to bring the matter before the pew-holders, in order to gain their necessary consent. The pew-holders, however, by the smallest possible majority rejected the proposition. The vote stood fifty-one to fifty. It was thought that they might view the matter dif- ferently if the compensation were held at the trus- tees' original figure, but when, four days later this also was put to the vote, it met with a still more decisive defeat, sixty-one noes against forty- nine ayes.
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