USA > New York > New York City > A history of the Brick Presbyterian Church in the city of New York > Part 22
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The Brick Church had not been mistaken in re- gard to the man they had chosen. His "lovely Christian character and thrilling pulpit eloquence," to quote the words in which one of his successors in the Brick Church has referred to him,¿ soon won
* May 22d, 1859. The Rev. F. G. Clarke presided as moderator of the Presbytery. The Rev. S. D. Alexander offered prayer. Dr. Spring preached the sermon. The charges to pastor and people were given by the Rev. Dr. Krebs and the Rev. Dr. Potts, respectively. The Rev. Dr. Phillips offered the concluding prayer.
t "The Presbyterian," May 28th, 1859.
Dr. Henry van Dyke "An Historic Church," p. 23.
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him a place in the people's affection and drew great numbers to hear him preach. He delivered the gos- pel message with all the fire and passion of the Southland, from which he came, and soon the younger generation, who naturally did not share all the en- thusiasm of their parents and grandparents re- garding Dr. Spring, were again thronging the Brick Church.
Certainly a church that could thus appeal to all ages and varying tastes was well calculated to do a great work. Dr. Spring in 1860, at the time of his fiftieth anniversary, which was celebrated with great enthusiasm,* declared that the church's change of locality had resulted in great gain; and spoke with gratitude and joy of the fact that the services in the new edifice were "filled to overflowing." A study of the benevolences of the church at this time tells the same story and with a most decided emphasis. It will be remembered that for a number of years before 1850 the average annual benevolences had amounted to a little over $3,000. The highest figure for any single year up to that time had been about $5,800. Until 1860, this figure had not been exceeded. But in that year, it suddenly rose to $8,500, and from this time continued to rise by leaps and bounds, year after year. t
* The anniversary sermon was preached by Dr. Spring on August 5th. Owing to the illness of Mrs. Spring at that time and her death soon after, the rest of the celebration was deferred till October 15th. On that occa- sion a magnificent silver service was presented to Dr. Spring, while the words spoken by his oldest and dearest friends in the Brick Church were a still richer expression of esteem and love.
1861, $9,300; 1862, $9,600; 1863, $14,600; 1864, $14,700; 1865, $19,200. This increase was partly due to growing interest in the mission Sunday-school to be described in the next chapter.
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One evidence of the church's increased activity is directly traceable to the influence of Dr. Hoge. It has already been pointed out that his great oppor- tunity was with the younger people. It was surely by no accident, therefore, that "The Young Men's Association of the Brick Church" was organized during the first year of his pastorate .* It is easy to believe that the following words from the preamble of the society's constitution were suggested by Dr. Hoge himself, and that they represented with some exactness a chief purpose of his own New York min- istry. "The disciple who leaned on Jesus' bosom once said, 'I write unto you, young men, because ye are strong.' It is to the young men . . . that [our churches] must look as the future depositories of that Christian and moral influence which is to pro- tect and advance the highest interests of the church and the world."
It was, accordingly, the purpose of this organiza- tion to draw together as many as possible of the young men of the Brick Church, from fifteen years old and upward, into a comradeship whose objects were "to promote Christian friendship and social intercourse among its members, to improve their spiritual and mental conditions, and to take such measures for benevolent action as may be deemed proper, especially such as will tend to exert a salu- tary influence in the neighborhood of the church." The regular meetings were held on the second Mon- day of each month (except July and August), and no
* The constitution was adopted on February 27th, 1860. The officers for 1860-1861 were: Pres., George de Forest Lord; Vice-Pres., Robert Stewart, M.D .; Sec., Arthur Gilman; Treas., William D. Black; Mana- gers, George A. Bennett, Charles T. White, Thomas C. M. Paton.
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special regulations were made as to their nature, ex- cept for the provision that "all remarks or discus- sions of a political or controversial character shall be excluded."
When we remember in what year of our American history this society was formed, the year namely, in which Abraham Lincoln was first elected to the Presidency, we perceive a very special appropriate- ness in that one restriction just quoted, and when we realize further that Dr. Hoge was a Southerner, we can see that "political and controversial" subjects were especially dangerous to the peace of the Young Men's Association. But more than that, they were a danger, we may readily believe, to the peace of the whole church. How had it happened that on the very eve of the war a Virginian had deliberately been installed over the Brick Church in the city of New York ?
We cannot but regard this occurrence as the result of a serious error in judgment on the part of the church and its officers, and of a singular lack of foresight. Dr. Hoge, on the other hand, urged to come to a great church in America's greatest city, was more pardonable. And yet upon him, of course, the chief punishment for the mistake fell. Some of the very qualities that made him eloquent, the quali- ties of a sensitive and high-strung nature, made him also the more quick to suffer from any of the thou- sand bitter words that filled the air in those days of controversy; while to avoid giving offence, on his side, required perhaps more tact than any ordinary man was likely to possess, and it must be confessed that tact was not his strong point.
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In 1861, when war had actually broken out, the situation soon became acute. Dr. Hoge had many warm friends in the church, men who, although, as he himself declared, they totally differed from him in everything relating to the national crisis, believed that he was following a wise and blameless course, * and were "unwilling to allow a dissolution of the pastoral relation on grounds of political opinions." Such prominent officers in the church as Daniel Lord, Abner L. Ely, Moses Allen, James Darrach, and Thomas Egleston, held this view of the matter. On the other hand, the preponderant element in the church felt that the situation was intolerable, and that the presence of an avowed Southerner in the Brick Church pulpit could not but cause continual and increasing friction, however careful he might be to avoid in his public utterances all controverted subjects.
The ideal of conduct which Dr. Hoge had set be- fore himself was in theory admirable.t On the one hand, he assumed that as a free citizen of the Re- public he had an unquestionable right "firmly to hold and calmly to express," in private, his opinions. His position, to be sure, required him to declare them "unobtrusively," and sometimes to waive conversa- tion on such topics, but "when fairly approached by any responsible person" in private conversation, he claimed his right to make known "frankly and cour- teously" his political faith.
On the other hand, he purposed to exclude abso- lutely from the pulpit the questions that divided
* "Farewell Discourse of Dr. Hoge," p. 8.
t The following outline is taken from his "Farewell Discourse," pp. 9ff.
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men's minds. His prayers he designed to make of such a character as would express the proper peti- tions of men in South or North, and his sermons he undertook to keep entirely out of the realm of poli- tics. Indeed, he held, and had held even before the war, that the rigid exclusion of politics from Chris- tian preaching was the duty of every minister of the gospel, even if he and his congregation were in agree- ment on every point.
In much of this, without doubt, Dr. Hoge was in the abstract quite right. But whether his plan fitted exactly the existing situation, or would work among ordinary human beings at a time of heated excite- ment, was another matter. The practical question was whether a man whose approval of secession was well known, could be listened to with composure by a Northern congregation week after week; whether he could go in and out as pastor among a people to whom he was a "rebel"; whether the studied avoid- ance of direct allusions to the war in prayer and dis- course would really keep the services free from all political significance, so long as the minister stood there as a personal representative of the enemy.
One concrete instance may be given by way of illustration. In the petitions for those in places of authority, Dr. Hoge had used such expressions as would include (of course without mentioning them) the rulers of the Confederate States. Now without doubt, such obedience to the apostolic exhortation that "supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giv- ing of thanks, be made for all men," is, as Dr. Hoge declared, in full accord with the truest Christian spirit. In every Christian Church in time of war the enemy
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ought certainly to be prayed for. But for a South- erner, who frankly hoped that the North would be annihilated, to lead a Northern congregation in ask- ing, however vaguely, for a blessing upon the rulers and fighters of the South, was, not unnaturally, a little more than average Northerners could stand.
At length in July, 1861, a meeting of the session was called for the declared purpose of discussing "the relations of the church and its pastors to the present state of the country." But Dr. Hoge felt that the time for discussion was over, and as soon as the meeting opened, he offered his resignation. It was accepted by a bare majority.
Dr. Hoge, as was very natural, felt some bitterness toward those who had plainly desired him to leave. The unfortunate tone of sarcasm and accusation in which he allowed himself, in public utterance and in print, to speak of them * makes this evident. And not a few of the congregation were inclined to feel that his personal qualities and his work in New York had not been fully recognized. On the day after that on which his resignation had been accepted by the session, a number of them expressed in writ- ing to Dr. Hoge their sorrow at his parting from them, and their veneration for his consistent preach- ing of the gospel, and for the Christian moderation and gentleness of his bearing "in the midst of angry, political excitements." Yet it must in time have be- come evident to his most warm admirers, and indeed to Dr. Hoge himself, that his position in the church at such a juncture was unnatural, and could not pos- sibly have long continued.
* "Farewell Discourse," pp. 7 f., 24.
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At the time when the resignation was accepted, the session voted to submit their action to a congre- gational meeting one week from that day. But for this Dr. Hoge refused to wait. On the intervening Sunday he preached a farewell sermon to a congre- gation in which the tension was extreme. One inci- dent of the occasion was especially significant of the irreconcilable differences which no attempt at fair- ness of statement could overcome. While the sermon was being delivered Dr. Spring sat in the pulpit. Dr. Hoge, at the close of a passage in which he had spoken of recent events in the country and the church, turned to Dr. Spring and said: "I appeal to my venerable colleague whether this is not in sub- stance correct." Dr. Spring shook his head in the negative, and in a decisive tone, loud enough to be heard by many in the church, declared, "It is not, Sir."* The truth was, no doubt, that a Southerner and a Northerner at that time inevitably saw the same events with different eyes.
Early in the following week, and before the arrival of the day set for the congregational meeting, Dr. Hoge took his departure, and thus passed out of the history of the Brick Church. He was soon at work again in a Virginian parish, and now threw himself, untrammelled, into the work that opened for him there on every side, exhibiting that Christian zeal and devotion which had always characterized him. The truth was, that when he went back to the South, he went to lay down his life for that Southern cause in which he conscientiously believed. Almost a year
* This scene has been described to the writer by an eye-witness. See also "N. Y. Tribune," July 23d, 1861.
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before the war was over his labors in the army hos- pitals, added to his work among the people of his parish, had worn out even so robust a frame as his, and made him an easy prey to the typhoid fever which then attacked him. He died on July 5th, 1864.
From the time of Dr. Hoge's departure, the Brick Church stood, without reservation, for loyalty to the Union, and that in no uncertain manner. Dr. Spring did not at all agree with the view that at that time the pulpit should hold aloof from the discussion of current politics. Rather he held that the national situation was such as to demand from the Christian Church a strong and unmistakable declaration of its attitude.
He was not, it should be said, one of those who, from the beginning, had bitterly opposed the policy of the South. He said himself: "When the first in- dications of this conflict made their appearance, all my prepossessions, as is well known, were with the Southern States."* As early as 1839, and again in 1851, he had delivered and published lectures de- signed to rebuke the extreme abolition spirit of the North, and even a short time before the war, he was strongly drawn to espouse the Southern cause, through his horror of a dismemberment of the Union. Slavery, he felt, was recognized by the Constitution of the United States, and the rights of the South in this matter could not be ignored, however much slavery itself might deserve extinction. It was only when he became convinced of what he regarded as a wicked and determined disloyalty in the South, and
* "State Thanksgiving during the Rebellion; A Sermon." N. Y., 1862, p. 32.
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especially when the seceding States had actually broken the Union, that his sympathy for the South- ern position came to an end.
It was not, therefore, because he was carried away by excess of passion that, after the war's beginning, he gave himself, in private and in public, in the pul- pit and out of it, to the support of the government, but because he felt that loyalty had been made the issue, and that the church ought openly and officially, to withstand the destroyers of the nation, as they would withstand any other enemies of public morals. "Strong as have been my predilections for the South," he said, " . I have not been able to see, nor do I now see, the justice, the equity of her demands. We regard the act of secession, so causeless, so rash, so fratricidal, so ruthless-as unequalled in wickedness. I do not know that the history of the world records a more criminal procedure." *
In May, 1861, at the General Assembly, then con- vened in Philadelphia, Dr. Spring introduced and urged certain resolutions, declaring the loyalty of the Presbyterian Church, which were, with slight modi- fications, passed by a large majority. The part of these "Spring Resolutions," as they were called, which now especially concerns us was as follows: "Resolved, that the General Assembly, in the spirit of that Christian patriotism which the Scriptures en- join, and which has always characterized this Church, do humbly acknowledge and declare our obligations to promote and perpetuate, so far as in us lies, the in- tegrity of these United States, and to strengthen, up- hold, and encourage the Federal Government in the
* "State Thanksgiving," etc., pp. 34 f.
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exercise of all its functions under our Constitution; and to this Constitution, in all its provisions, require- ments, and principles, we profess our unabated loy- alty."*
By this declaration, which Dr. Spring had led the Church at large to make, the Brick Church was guided throughout the war. The stars and stripes flew from her steeple. The sermons to which her congregations reverently listened were filled with the love of country as with the love of God. The prayers in which the people were led, from Sunday to Sunday, asked in all plainness that the endeavors of the national enemy might be brought to nought.
We who live so long after that tragic conflict, and who, with the disappearance of old prejudices, know now that honor and truth and love of country were by no means the exclusive possession of one side, do not care to dwell more than is necessary upon that period of division and bitter strife; and it is more con- genial to us to note, as we may, in concluding the account of the attitude of the Brick Church through the war, that even in the heat of those passions which war inevitably arouses, the Brick Church people were not permitted to forget the bond of Christian brother- hood which bound them to the people of the South- ern States. "We reluctantly take up the sword in defence of the rich heritage God has given us," said Dr. Spring in the Brick Church pulpit in November, 1861, "and most cheerfully will we return it to its scabbard when this heritage is secure. . . . It will be
* Dr. Hoge did not resign till two months after these resolutions were passed. Their effect upon his continuance in the Brick Church pastorate will be evident.
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the joy of our hearts and the thank-offering of our lips to sound the retreat the moment the voice of re- bellion is silent. We have no bitterness against the South. We do not wish to reign over them, but to reign with them, and wish them to reign with us, as they have ever done, in all the rights and immunities of the Federal Government." *
While the war was in progress the church had once more called and, to the great regret of all, lost again, an associate pastor. On February 6th, 1862, the Rev. William G. T. Shedd, Professor of Ecclesi- astical History and Pastoral Theology in Andover Seminary, was unanimously called to be the col- league of Dr. Spring. Dr. Shedd hesitated not a little to change his field of labor from that of teach- ing, in which he had been engaged for seventeen years, to that of the active pastorate; and probably, had it not been that the call also offered him an op- portunity to enter the Presbyterian Church, whose doctrine and polity were peculiarly congenial to him, he might not have accepted. At length, however, his duty in the matter seemed to him clear, and he en- tered with gladness into the service of the people of the Brick Church, and into the close fellowship which it offered with "their revered pastor, whose praise and influence," as Dr. Shedd said, "are in all the churches." +
It was a remarkable fact that Dr. Spring, though so far advanced in years, was still able to carry a very large part of the burden of the church's work. But Dr. Shedd had not long been settled in New York
* "State Thanksgiving," etc., p. 42.
t The installation took place on April 13th, 1862.
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when it appeared that the senior pastor must with- draw largely from active service. Upon the associate, therefore, the responsibility fell more and more heavily, and toward the close of 1863 it became evi- dent that soon he must bear the whole burden alone. This sudden increase of demand upon his strength Dr. Shedd had not anticipated, and his health began to break down under it, so that when in September, 1863, he received a call to the chair of Biblical Liter- ature in Union Theological Seminary in New York, he felt constrained to accept it.
The church allowed him to go with the greatest reluctance. He was most affectionately regarded by the people and by his senior colleague. His brief work in the church was felt to be "eminently useful and acceptable," and had given to all "encouragement and hope for the future." If at the last moment he had been willing to remain, his decision would have been hailed with joy, and such assistance would have been given him in his work as would have freed him from all anxieties on the score of overtaxing his strength. But Dr. Shedd persisted in his decision, and his subsequent life abundantly proved that in returning to the work of a teacher and a writer, he was following the natural bent of his genius. It was a happy circumstance that, after leaving the pastor- ate of the Brick Church, he continued his allegiance to her as an attendant upon her services until the time of his death .*
The choice of a successor to Dr. Shedd was de-
* In November, 1894. He had continued as Professor in Union Semi- nary until 1891, but had been transferred to the chair of Systematic The- ology in 1874.
WILLIAM G. T. SHEDD
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layed for some time through the failure of the church, on two occasions, to secure the persons whom they desired to call, and the year 1864 had almost come to a close before this important undertaking was accomplished.
PART THREE THE MODERN PERIOD
CHAPTER XVIII "THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH": 1864-1875
"Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare; be- fore they spring forth I tell you of them."-Isaiah 42 : 9 f.
"It is the duty of those who have anything to do with sacred song, to educate the Christian popular heart in the very best and highest forms of devotional ex- perience."-JAMES O. MURRAY, "Christian Hymnology," p. 37.
O N December 12th, 1864, the church called to be its associate pastor the Rev. James Orms- bee Murray, who, ten years before had been one of Dr. Shedd's pupils at Andover, and was now recommended to the church by him. Although osten- sibly his position was the same as that held by Dr. Hoge and Dr. Shedd before him, the conditions under which he entered upon his pastorate were in one respect essentially different. Dr. Spring had now so far withdrawn from active work that his associate became in everything but name the sole pastor of the church.
Six months before Dr. Murray was called, Dr. Spring had communicated to his people the fact that "by reason of his age and increased infirmities" he felt unable to continue even so great a measure of service as he was then rendering. The name "pastor emeritus" was not used, but the understanding was that he should now be retired on a reduced salary of
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$3,000, and that the associate, about to be called, should assume practically the whole burden of labor and responsibility.
During the eight remaining years of Dr. Spring's life it was his joy to take such part in the services of the church as his strength permitted, and to his old parishioners the sight of his venerable head and the sound of his voice seemed like a benediction upon the church's work. By the thoughtfulness of the trustees a railing was erected beside the steps at the right-hand side of the pulpit in order that he might ascend and descend in safety. He was now almost totally blind, yet so richly was his memory stored, that he could, if there were need, conduct an entire service, repeating the Scripture lesson and the words of the hymns with as much accuracy as though he were reading them from the book. Not only by his own congregation-the grandchildren and great grandchildren of the generation among whom he had begun his work-but also by the whole city, the presence of this aged saint was counted a blessing: "the patriarch of our metropolitan pulpit," Dr. Adams called him.
It was regarded by every one as a peculiarly happy thing that Dr. Spring lived long enough, not only to see, but to take some part in, that reunion of the Old and New Schools for which he had long been hoping and praying. It will be remembered that in 1837 he had been one of those who deeply deplored the divi- sion, and that he had done his best to prevent it. Thirty-two years later, in 1869, he rejoiced in the coming together again of the two schools in a reunited Church. The Assemblies that year, with a special
MEMBERS OF THE LAST NEW SCHOOL ASSEMBLY Taken outside of the Church of the Covenant
"THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH" 317
view to facilitating this happy consummation, were both held in New York and within four blocks of one another, that of the New School at the Church of the Covenant at Park Avenue and Thirty-fifth Street, since incorporated into the Brick Church, and that of the Old School at the Brick Church itself.
In spite of the strong movement toward reunion, which had been gathering strength for several years, there was at the last moment a feeling on the part of many that the attempt was, after all, premature. Dr. Spring, eighty-four years of age, and knowing that his time on earth could not be greatly prolonged, was one of those who would not listen to the word delay. At the opening of the Old School Assembly, sitting in the pulpit beside the presiding officer, he suggested to him the propriety, as the first business, "of notifying the other branch of our readiness to consummate the reunion immediately." This did not at the moment appear to be practicable, and Dr. Spring, called upon to make the opening prayer, felt that there was still work to be done by him in his Master's vineyard. "When this majestic and veter- an pastor . . . rose in prayer," says Dr. Jacobus in the official history of the reunion, "he uttered such exalted petitions, in such glowing and godly words, as even he, perhaps, had never excelled." *
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