USA > New York > New York City > A history of the Brick Presbyterian Church in the city of New York > Part 28
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"You can easily understand, then, what it is we want to do with this Wednesday evening hour. It is to make it a little less formal and more really useful and helpful and pleasant. It will not be merely a feeble copy of a Sunday morning service; it will be a common-sense meeting, in which we can come closer together in our study of the religion of the Bible and the Christianity of Christ. . . . " *
One immediate result of the meetings thus an- nounced was a movement to change the character of the room in which they were held-"the lecture-
* This programme for the mid-week service was only one of those adopted during this decade, the danger of too long a continuance of "one good custom " being realized. Thus in December, 1892, the following plan was adopted, having been proposed by Dr. van Dyke: "The first Wednes- day evening in each month, a meeting in the interest of missions; the second Wednesday evening, a lecture or Bible study; the third Wednesday evening, a conference meeting; the fourth Wednesday evening, a lecture or Bible study; the fifth Wednesday evening, a conference meeting." Two elders and a committee of the men of the congregation were to "aid the pastor in carrying out the details of the plan,"
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room" as it was called-and to make it, like the meetings, "a little less formal and more really useful and helpful and pleasant." Without any expense to the trustees a committee of the laymen removed the old set pews and the pipe organ, which had made the room a sort of little church, and provided instead a large open room, whose simple, cheerful decor- ation, movable chairs, inconspicuous platform, and piano for the singing, made such a meeting as Dr. van Dyke projected much more easy and nat- ural.
What the practical Christian activities of the con- gregation were during this period is compactly stated in the historical sermon of 1893, already several times quoted. "Ten years ago," said Dr. van Dyke, "your home Sunday-school was dying; there were, perhaps, ten children in it; two faithful teachers and a loyal assistant superintendent watched by its bed. To- day it is a vigorous little school of about a hun- dred members, well equipped for work, growing, and sending out generous contributions to missions and a steady supply of teachers for your branch Sunday-school of seven hundred members in West Thirty-fifth Street. * Ten years ago your Deacon's Fund for the care of the poor was in debt $500; to-day
* This resurrection of the Sunday-school was one item in the long and varied service rendered to the church by Dr. Albert R. Ledoux. Upon his resignation of the office of superintendent of the school in 1892, the session in a resolution declared that they "accept with regret Dr. Ledoux's resig- nation. . .. and that they place upon record their grateful sense of the large value of the service he has rendered to the church in this office for the last ten years, strengthening its spiritual life, and bringing its young people into close and living connection with the work and worship of the church. For this work so faithfully and so quietly done the session would express the thanks of the church to Dr. Ledoux."
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it has an emergency fund of nearly $1,000. Ten years ago there were two active working societies in connec- tion with the church; to-day there are eight: The Woman's Employment Society, * The Industrial School, t The Woman's Home Missionary Society, į The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, § The Sick Children's Aid Society, The Young People's Guild, The Woman's Prayer-Meeting, The Pastor's Aid Soci- ety. You have sent out a missionary of your own to China. You have supported a missionary of your own in the City Mission, and two visitors among the poor. You have sent thousands of poor children into the country in the summer time. You have contributed $10,000 as a memorial offering to the Presbyterian Board of Relief for Disabled Ministers. You have established a flourishing free kindergarten Il among the poor of the city. . . During these
ten years your total contributions for the sup- port of the gospel and the work of Christianity in this city and throughout the world amount to about $390,000. And your gifts for home and foreign missions, as reported in the minutes of the General Assembly, have risen from $3,000 a year in 1883, to $6,000 a year in 1892. It is your hope and expecta- tion to do more in the future, but for the past you thank and bless God who has prospered your labors and given to you so liberally that you have been en-
* See above, p. 329.
t That is, the sewing-school in West Thirty-fifth Street. See above, p. 345.
į Founded in 1886.
§ Founded in 1884.
|| The Murray Kindergarten in West Thirty-fifth Street, organized under the direction of the N. Y. Kindergarten Association, by the women of the Sick Children's Aid Society. See above, p. 354 note.
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abled to do something for his kingdom and for your fellow-men." *
Of the numerous societies mentioned in Dr. van Dyke's summary two or three deserve a more ex- tended mention.
The Sick Children's Aid Society was the out- growth of that other organization with a somewhat similar name which, as we have seen, had been founded in Dr. Murray's time, but subsequently had more or less declined, because the boys and girls who originally composed "The Children's Society," grew up in the process of time, and there did not seem to be others in the church to take their place. Their work, however, whose purpose was to minister to the children connected with the mission, especially those who were sick, was not abandoned. The children of the society had always been directed by their moth- ers and other older women, and by these the work was carried on. There was an intermediate period during which the society hardly knew whether to regard itself as a children's organization or merely as an organiza- tion that worked for children-this transition state is indicated in the records by an evident uncertainty in regard to the society's name, which appears now as the Sick Children's Society and again as the Chil-
* "An Historic Church," pp. 27-30. In introducing this summary of the decade's achievements, Dr. van Dyke had said: "It is the custom of ministers, in preaching their anniversary sermons, to give an account of their labors, to tell how many discourses they have delivered, how many visits they have made, how many baptisms, weddings and funerals they have performed. I shall not follow this custom, for I do not feel I have done anything to speak of. I will only confess that I have worked hard, both from necessity and from inclination. But my purpose to-day is to tell what you have done during these ten years, for this is your church and you have made it what it is." p. 25.
THE SEWING-SCHOOL IN THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL HALL ON WEST THIRTY-FIFTH STREET Taken in 1905
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dren's Aid Society-but finally, at the time of Dr. van Dyke's arrival, the transformation had become complete, and at his suggestion the work was entirely reorganized as a work of the women of the church, and called the Sick Children's Aid Society, a com- bination of the earlier tentative titles, and the name under which this beautiful work has ever since been carried on. *
At about the same time, it may here be parentheti- cally observed, a new organization was created for the boys and girls, and in order that it might not be avoided by the older ones among them, who might object to being classified as "children," it was dip- lomatically called the Young People's Guild. Its work resembled that of the earlier children's society, -the dressing of dolls, the making of garments, the pasting of scrap-books, the holding of an annual fair -and it continued to exist until 1895.
But to return to the related organization among the older women. Soon after it had begun work under the new name, the need arose to procure a visitor to take the place of Miss Griffiths, who had died in the service. The Sick Children's Aid Society determined to assume responsibility for her salary, and secured the services of Miss Mary Ziesse. | To this devoted worker, whose ministry has continued to the present time, the success of the work has been in
* Among those who joined in the reorganization of the society were Mrs. W. D. Barbour, Mrs. James F. Bills, Mrs. C. R. Blakeman, Mrs. L. D. Bulkley, Mrs. M. P. Corning, the Misses Harmer, Mrs. D. J. Holden, Miss Louise Knox, Mrs. A. R. Ledoux, the Misses Martin, Mrs. Alexander McLean, Miss Anna Olyphant, Mrs. Robert Olyphant, Miss Susan Parish, Miss Porterfield, Miss Roberts, Mrs. W. T. Shedd, Mrs. van Dyke, Mrs. A. A. Wilson.
t She began work on January 1st, 1885.
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a large measure due. Her "untiring faithfulness and discriminating good sense" * were early recognized and have constantly called for grateful acknowl- edgment. f
The special work undertaken by the Sick Chil- dren's Aid Society is indicated with sufficient clear- ness by its name, but the service actually rendered was limited by no set boundary. Beginning with ministry to sick and destitute children connected with the West Side Sunday-school-the provision of food and medicine and medical attendance, and the arrangements for summer outings in the country- the visitor soon discovered all sorts of other needs by the way, and wherever a need was met the effort was made to meet it. If a family was found to be in- sufficiently clothed, garments were provided. The summer outings were extended to include not only the mothers with their babies, but working girls, who were neither "children" nor "sick" but none the less in need of this service. At Christmas and Thanks- giving the society adopted the custom of providing dinners for worthy poor families. Mothers' meetings were organized; a station of the Penny Provident Fund was opened; a kindergarten, as we have seen, was established. There was no telling to what new enterprise the energies of this vigorous society might not be directed. And all the time its blessed
* "Year Book, 1888-1889," p. 27.
t No one person has known the people connected with the West Side work of the Brick Church-men, women, and children-during the past twenty years, as thoroughly as Miss Ziesse has, nor would it be easy to tell of how many of them she has been the best friend. In addition to her work as visitor she has had charge of several important departments of the work.
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work of personal visitation was going on from day to day-hundreds, sometimes literally thousands, of visits in the course of a year.
The Pastor's Aid Society, another of the new agencies in the list given a few pages back, was organ- ized by the men of the church at the very beginning of Dr. van Dyke's pastorate, for the purpose of giving assistance to him by furnishing teachers in both the home and branch Sunday-schools and to aid in any other work that might present itself. It was thus a successor of the similar organizations started in the time of Dr. Hoge and during Dr. Bevan's pastorate, but it was destined to run a much longer course.
As might have been expected, its labor increased as time passed. In 1887, we find it carrying on its work through five committees, including one on "charities," * and one on "strangers." ¡ At this time monthly meetings were held at the parsonage or some other private house, and included an address by one of the members or by a friend from outside. Subsequently the meetings were held at the church rooms and were "entirely social and informal in their character." In the report for the year 1889- 1890, the following matters are mentioned as having been discussed and acted upon: "the transformation of the Wednesday evening prayer-meetings into a most valuable course of Bible instruction; the change
* For rendering aid to the sick, persons out of employment, etc.
t This included the ushering at the church services.
# The first recorded list of subjects (for the season 1886-1887) is inter- esting: "The Subway Commission and its Work," by Dr. A. R. Ledoux; "East and West" (historical), by Prof. William M. Sloane; "Bohemia, Its People, and Their Religious Work in this Country," by Rev. Vincent Pisek; "Things in Heaven Above and Below," by Mr. W. S. Gilman.
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from pulpit notices to the publication of a weekly bulletin of announcements; * the adoption of better methods of welcoming occasional visitors to the church services; the alteration and improvement of the chapel and the charitable disposition of the re- placed furniture; the interchange of information with a view to obtaining positions for unemployed per- sons; the voluntary and unremunerated assistanceren- dered by our doctors and lawyers to the suffering and wronged poor"-from which enumeration it will be evident that several of the important enterprises men- tioned in an earlier portion of this chapter were either originated or furthered by the Pastor's Aid Society.
The most interesting single event of the decade under discussion remains to be described. It con- cerned the work which had grown out of the mission Sunday-school on the West Side. This work, which from the beginning had taken a chief place in the hearts of the Brick Church people, and which at some periods of discouragement had been the one really bright and hopeful feature of the church's life, continued to hold its place of importance after Dr. van Dyke's arrival. In 1885, the cost of maintaining the whole group of enterprises on West Thirty-fifth Street was between four and five thousand dollars, from which it will be evident to what large propor- tions the work had grown.
In 1888 it appeared to many, especially to the pas- tor of the mission, Mr. Lampe, that the time had come when the chapel, which was gradually being prepared for independence, as has already been re-
* A most valuable part of the machinery of the church, edited with great faithfulness and skill for many years by Mr. C. M. Bergstresser.
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lated, should now be organized as a church. The Brick Church session were disposed to view this measure with favor and took up with patience the devising of a plan by which the evident difficulties incident to such a step might successfully be met.
The problem was to secure to the new church the advantages of a genuine independence, without en- dangering through possible mismanagement the large interests of the kingdom which were involved. To effect the merely ecclesiastical part of the separation was easy enough. It was merely necessary to organ- ize a new church according to the prescribed form and dismiss to it the chapel members of the Brick Church, some three hundred and fifty in number. Beyond this point the way was not so clear.
Should the management of the Sunday-school, for instance, be turned over to the new church, or re- tained by the Brick Church session? In spite of considerable discontent among Mr. Lampe's people, the latter course was firmly insisted upon. A second question concerned the future ownership of the property involved, though this could hardly be called a question, for the Brick Church held that a surrender of its rights and duties in that connec- tion was not to be thought of; and the wisdom of this position was strikingly proved almost at once by the discovery of a strong disposition on the part of Mr. Lampe and his congregation to leave the neigh- borhood of West Thirty-fifth Street altogether and migrate to some point farther uptown. Had they had a deciding voice in the matter, this undoubtedly would have been attempted.
The third question, and the one that most ad-
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mitted of debate, concerned the future relation of the Brick Church to the support of the independent con- gregation. A chief object of the whole plan, of course, was to encourage and hasten complete self- support. It was felt that, as long as the older and stronger church held itself responsible for the ongo- ing of the work, there would be but little incentive to the daughter organization to shoulder the burden in earnest. Could not provision be made, in connection with the granting of ecclesiastical independence, for the speedy achievement of financial independence also?
With this object in view it was proposed that, be- ginning with $2,000 for the current year, * the Brick Church contribution should be $300 less for the year following, and should be decreased by $400 annu- ally thereafter until discontinued altogether, as would occur, according to this plan, in the course of six years. Not unnaturally Mr. Lampe's congrega- tion took fright at this rapid promotion to complete responsibility, and expressed themselves as unable to accept these conditions. A new proposal was then made by the Brick Church to the effect "that the amount already raised this year, as suggested in the former proposition, should be paid, and for the year 1889 the sum of $1,850; and that on or before the first day of January, 1890, a new arrangement should be entered into, based upon the prospects of the new enterprise, as they should then appear." This prop- osition was at once unanimously accepted, "the com- mittee of the mission further pledging themselves to
* It should be borne in mind that this provided for the expenses of the new church only; the Sunday-school, sewing-school, etc., were still to be supported directly by the Brick Church.
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make every effort in their power to raise as large a sum as possible." *
On June 6th, 1888, the session accordingly au- thorized the clerk to issue, to the three hundred and forty-six members worshipping at the chapel, letters of dismission to the new church, when it should be organized. They also nominated six elders and four deacons, and they recommended that the new church adopt the name "Christ Presbyterian Church in the City of New York." On the same evening Christ Church was duly organized by the committee of Presbytery, and Mr. Lampe was chosen as the pastor.
Thus was completed an undertaking in which the Brick Church, disregarding its own feeling in the matter, and seeking with singleness of purpose to act for the best interests of those who had formed its mission and of the Church at large, had set an ex- ample of unselfishness and established a precedent in the management of so-called "mission" enter- prises, whose influence has been far-reaching. The new and peculiar relationship was not always, it must be acknowledged, free from its perplexities in succeeding years. Misunderstanding and friction occasionally made their appearance; and time and the grace of God were needed to show the full possi- bilities of fellowship and mutual service, which were presented by this league of two " affiliated " t churches.
* In 1890 the sum contributed by the Brick Church was $1,600. In 1891 and again in 1892 it had been reduced to $1,350. After that this item being merged apparently in the expenses of the branch Sunday-school, cannot easily be ascertained.
t This name was not used at the beginning. References to Christ Church in the records commonly employ the term "Auxiliary" until 1894, when the more fraternal word begins to take its place.
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In a later chapter we shall arrive at the period when at length patience had her perfect work.
It would carry us too far afield to notice in detail the share which the Brick Church pastor was taking at this time in the larger movements of the Presby- terian Church. It must suffice to say that in this period the question of a revision of the Presbyterian standards was being vigorously discussed, and especially that the Church was called to go through a severe experience in a famous trial for heresy before the New York Presbytery, afterward appealed to the General Assembly. In both these matters, Dr. van Dyke took a prominent and influential part, and, what is here most important to note, his influence, due primarily to his own acknowledged wisdom and personal power, was greatly increased by the fact that he spoke and acted as the minister of a church which had taken its place in the front rank of the churches of the denomination. In short, Dr. van Dyke's ideal, as he set it before himself in the be- ginning of his pastorate, had been realized in full measure: the Brick Church was now once more an acknowledged leader in the work of the kingdom of Christ.
But no sooner was the fulfilment of this purpose in sight, than another came forward to take its place. It was not enough to make strong the church's posi- tion in the present; the future must also be provided for, that future in which the northward movement of population, responsible already for one change in the location of the church, would make it increas- ingly difficult to maintain a strong church on Mur- ray Hill. "Endowment" was the word that seemed
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to point out clearly the next problem for the church to face and solve, and this, it is important to notice, constituted the practical application of Dr. van Dyke's tenth anniversary sermon, from which quo- tations have been freely taken for the material of this chapter. *
"Let us provide for the future," he said, "by tak- ing measures at once to secure the permanence of this historic church where it now stands, in the centre of the city, as a tower of strength, a landmark -nay, better than that, a light-house, a source of saving illumination, through the coming years. . . There is very little that endures in this city; localities are altered, houses vanish; how beautiful it would be to think that this house, where you and those whom you love have prayed and communed with God, shall not vanish, but that in the distant years others shall come, and kneel here, and say in their hearts, 'Here my father and mother, here my grandparents, here those whose memory I love and cherish, wor- shipped and served the living God!' How beautiful it would be, to think that the influences of grace
* The church up to this time had practically no invested funds, nor did it own other land than that which it actually used in its work. A few small legacies had, from time to time, been received. Early in the nine- teenth century a few hundred dollars had been bequeathed by William Irving, father of Washington Irving, and Ebenezer Turwell (or Turrell). The Catharine Ryan legacy for the use of the charity scholars has al- ready been mentioned (p. 210). In 1847, Mr. Colin Read bequeathed $5,000 to the Brick Church to be used in aid of candidates for the ministry. After 1873, in accordance with the more modern view that theological students should not be taught to regard themselves as objects of charity, the interest from this fund has been paid to divinity students (usually of Union Theological Seminary) in return for services rendered in the Sun- day-school on the West Side. In 1876, a bequest of $5,000, whose interest should be used for the mission school, was received from Mr. Peter Naylor. Mr. John C. Tucker, who died in 1892, left $1,000 for a similar purpose.
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should flow from this place forever, and the gospel of Christ be preached here to all comers." *
A partial accomplishment of the purpose thus expressed was speedily to be achieved in an unex- pected manner, not by the gathering of individual subscriptions for an endowment fund, but by the in- corporation into the Brick Church of another distinct church of Christ, whose property would make at least a substantial beginning of the endowment needed. What this event signified, however, and how much greater treasure than that of money the Church of the Covenant brought into the Brick Church in 1894, can be appreciated only after some account has been given of the Covenant people and what they stood for, and the work they had been doing. To give this will be the purpose of the next chapter.
* "An Historic Church," pp. 36-38.
CHAPTER XXII THE CHURCH OF THE COVENANT: 1862-1894
"I will make an everlasting covenant with you."-Isaiah, 55 : 3.
"Come and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten."-Jeremiah, 50 : 5.
"A church, after all, is a sort of religious home; its peculiar offices and attach- ments are largely domestic in their character; its members are a Christian family, bound together by ties of Christian sympathy, labor, and fellowship."-GEORGE L. PRENTISS, "Eleven Years of the Church of the Covenant," 1873, p. 28.
I N the fall of the year 1860 were taken the first steps which led to the formation of the Church of the Covenant. * Dr. George Lewis Prentiss, formerly pastor of the Mercer Street Presbyterian Church, had just returned from a two years' absence in Europe, made necessary by ill health. + He came back restored in vigor, and a number of his friends and former parishioners immediately began a move- ment for the establishment of a new church on Mur- ray Hill with Dr. Prentiss at its head. Like the
* The history contained in this chapter will be told, wherever possible, in the words of those who were the leading figures in it.
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