USA > New York > New York City > A history of the Brick Presbyterian Church in the city of New York > Part 29
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+ Dr. Prentiss was born in Gorham, Maine, May 16th, 1816. He was graduated from Bowdoin College, studied later in New York and in Europe for several years. In 1845 he was ordained and installed as pastor of the South Trinitarian Church of New Bedford, Mass., and shortly after mar- ried Miss Elizabeth Payson of Portland. In 1850 he accepted a call to the Second Presbyterian Church of Newark, N. J., as associate pastor, but a few months later resigned to take the pastorate of the Mercer Street Church in New York, which he served until compelled by illness to resign in 1858.
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Mercer Street Church, of which it was practically an offshoot, it was to be a Presbyterian Church of the New School, which accounts for the choice of a loca- tion so near to that of the Brick Church.
The beginning of the movement is described for us by Dr. Prentiss himself. * "The first religious service," he says, "which issued in the organization of the Church of the Covenant was held in the chapel of the Home of the Friendless, in Twenty-ninth Street near Madison Avenue, on the last Sunday in November, 1860. It had been decided upon, after much thought, and was the result of a strong and general conviction, that a new Presbyterian church was needed uptown in the vicinity of Murray Hill. . But although the movement itself was felt to be highly important, the time seemed most unfa- vorable for entering upon such a work. In my first sermon on the Sunday mentioned (it was, you will remember, November 25th, 1860, only two or three weeks after the election of Mr. Lincoln, and more than four months before the attack on Fort Sumter), I thus referred to this point: 'The state of the times, I confess, does not, at first thought, seem auspicious for the success of our work. Our dear country is in the throes of a great trouble; fear is on every hand; the most hopeful patriotism is smitten with anxious forebodings; we know not, we dread to guess, what awful calamity may be impending over us. . But, after all, is such a time as this really unfavorable to the beginning of a new religious work? ... God can make the hardest times illustrate all the more beautifully at once his own providential hand and the
* "Eleven Years of the Church of the Covenant, " (1873), pp. 4 ff.
GEORGE L. PRENTISS
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munificent temper of his children. "Troublous times" are the very ones in which the walls of Zion have usually been built; in which the grandest monu- ments of the faith and patience of the saints have been erected ..
"During the spring and summer of 1861, the long-gathering storm burst upon the country in all its fury. I need only recall the attack on Fort Sumter, the great uprising of the people that in- stantly followed, and the disastrous defeat at Bull Run. As I look back to those terrible days, my sole wonder is that we did not disband on the spot. We should certainly have done so, had not the movement been sustained from the first, not only by strong and devoted hearts, but by the special favor of God.
"In the autumn of 1861, our place of meeting was changed to Dodworth's new studio building, on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Twenty-sixth Street. Here, on the evening of March 21st, 1862, at a meet- ing of the congregation, of which Dr. Skinner was the moderator, and B. F. Butler, secretary, the church was organized, and three ruling elders were appointed. * The original members were eighty- three in number." +
The next step was the election of Dr. Prentiss to be the pastor, and on May 11th he was installed. Not until this time was a name for the new church se- lected. "It was a question of some interest," says Dr. Prentiss, "what the name should be. A strong repugnance was felt to the custom of calling a Chris- tian sanctuary, and the Christian people who occu-
* See Appendix, M, p. 530.
t See Appendix, L, p. 529.
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pied it, after a street or a corner of a street and avenue. To say nothing of the question of taste, the historical identity of some of our most important churches had thereby, upon the removal of the con- gregation to a new locality, been wholly lost to the public mind. After a good deal of conversation on the subject, we unanimously adopted the Church of the Covenant. It has become a name exceed- ingly endeared to us and to many all over the land."
The church was now named and duly organized, but as yet it had no place of worship of its own, and the awful events of the war then raging made diffi- cult the decision to enter upon an enterprise which would have been far from simple even in a time of prosperity. "I shall not easily forget," says Dr. Prentiss, "the hour or the incident which led to this decision. It was on Tuesday evening, January 6th, 1863. Somewhat wearied, not to say disheartened, by our long waiting and inaction, I called upon a friend to talk the matter over with him. To be, or not to be-that was the question. 'Well,' said my friend, 'I believe in work. If you can induce two others of the same mind to join with me, I am ready to put my hand at once to the plough.'"'
Mr. Benjamin F. Butler was the speaker, and the two others were soon secured, Mr. Charles H. Leon- ard and Mr. Enoch Ketcham. As a result of the un- tiring energies of these three, aided materially by Mr. George B. de Forest and Mr. William E. Dodge, the lot on the north-west corner of Park Avenue and Thirty-fifth Street was secured, and on November 5th following the cornerstone was laid.
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Of the circumstances of that auspicious service a picture is presented to us by one who was a witness, and upon whom the event made a deep impression. He recalls "the pleasant autumn afternoon, with the heat of summer over, and the city once more made cheery by the presence of dear friends and neigh- bors; the attractive neighborhood of Thirty-fifth Street and Park Avenue-then far less built up than now; the fine assemblage of interested and interest- ing people gathered upon the church site; the scaf- folding of new lumber rising above the crowd and elevating those taking part in the brief service; the heartfelt prayer; the profoundly touching hymn by the late Mrs. Prentiss, a hymn filled, not only with holy aspirations for the new enterprise, but a fine sentiment of patriotism that in those days of the war for the Union was deeply felt by all present." * The chapel was the first part of the building completed (in May, 1864), and the church itself was opened and dedicated on April 30th, 1865. 1
The congregation thus provided with a home was at first small, but it included men and women of singularly noble Christian character and unusual abil- ity, while the very fact of their small number resulted in increased individual effort, and what was still more important, in a very strong and intimate union of all the members to one another. In a degree rarely known in city churches the people of the Church of the Covenant constituted one household
* From an address by Mr. J. Cleveland Cady, delivered December 16th, 1894, unpublished.
t The cost of the church, chapel, and adjoining parsonage (completed in 1867), including land, organ, and church and chapel furniture, was $160,000.
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of faith, bound together by deep personal attach- ments, and inspired by a common purpose.
What this purpose was is well expressed by their pastor. "I have observed," he says, "that churches, like private Christians, have their peculiar type and individuality of character. It was my earnest desire, from the first, that this church might be marked by a vivid consciousness of the real presence and glory of the risen Christ; by simple whole-hearted devotion to him as a Friend and a Saviour; and by constant growth into his image; as it was my prayer from the first that Christ himself might vouchsafe to dwell in it in all the fulness of his grace and truth." All who knew the church, who attended its services and prayer-meetings, and had opportunity to observe the spirit by which the church life was animated, will bear witness that the prayer of Dr. Prentiss was in no small measure answered. He had warrant for his belief, confidently expressed at a later time, that "Christ Himself has been veritably present with this church, and has wrought in and through it dur- ing all these years."
One of the clearest manifestations of the Master's presence was the beginning, almost as soon as the Church of the Covenant was itself started, of a mis- sion work on the East Side of the city. This important step resulted from a young men's prayer-meeting, which met once a month on Sunday afternoons under the leadership of Mr. J. Cleveland Cady, beginning in the fall of 1865. Among those who attended soon grew up."a general desire for a field of labor especially their own," and after earnest debate they decided to start a mission Sunday-school.
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When the time came to find a hall or room where the projected school could meet, the best quarters that could be found were over a stable at No. 206 East Fortieth Street. No doubt pleasanter surroundings would have been selected, had they been available, yet the friends of the school have often reflected with pleasure upon the fact that even in the humble place of its origin the Covenant Mission was not unlike its Master, whose cradle was a manger.
At the first meeting * there were twelve teachers ready for classes, but only one scholar could be found, a singular reversal, it has been pointed out, of the text, "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few." These twelve modern apostles, however, were not to be discouraged by a small be- ginning, and soon they saw more ample results of their labors.
A pleasant picture of the school-room has been given us by the man most closely identified with the whole enterprise, Mr. Cady, who, except for the first few months, has been the school's only superin- tendent, + a record of more than forty years of con- tinuous and devoted service. ¿ Under his guidance, we will take a glimpse at the school as it appeared in its early days. "We pass up a rickety flight of stairs,
* On January 28th, 1866. The following were the officers and teachers present: Henry A. Backus, J. Cleveland Cady, Henry A. Crosby, William O. Curtis, John C. Eastman, Edward C. Miles, Miss Isabel N. Miles, Miss Annie L. Prentiss (afterward Mrs. Henry), William Allen Smith, Miss Mallville M. W. Smith (afterward Mrs. McClellan), William R. Sheffield, and Charles Woolsey.
t His predecessor for the brief period named was Mr. Charles Woolsey.
# Through practically the whole of this time he has been ably seconded by his friend and fellow-worker in the Covenant Church, Dr. Charles Otis Kimball.
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· and along a dark, narrow hall until we come to a large low room, seated with settees. This is the home of the Covenant Mission. The wide boards of the bare floor spring under our feet, owing to a too eco- nomic construction, but they are scrupulously neat, for the young laborers, however limited their means, will not have filth for an environment. The plas- tered ceiling is badly cracked and rough with many a rude patching. A piano, a little lectern for the superintendent, a blackboard, and a banner-case, constituted the furniture. This banner-case, of stained pine, with its banners, * was of home manu- facture, and a marvel of ingenuity and 'boring,' its chief decoration being a perforated strip, formed by the judicious use of the auger. On the walls are some large, brightly colored scriptural scenes, also of home manufacture. + These alleged water colors have been produced monthly-for the education and edification of the children. Near by is the infant class-room, about fifteen by twenty-five feet (seated with little seats), which three of the male leaders have made a marvellous sensation, by painting in red, white, and blue. They spent several nights in accom- plishing the result, and perhaps never completed a more patriotic work."
It is not difficult to see with how much ardor and devotion this enterprise was carried on, nor to believe that work thus heartily done brought its own re- ward. With a thoroughness that only love could in- spire, every detail was faithfully attended to. If the
* Upon the banners the words of the hymns were stencilled by Dr. Kimball, thus obviating the necessity of individual hymn-books.
+ Mr. Cady himself painted them and they are still treasured by the school.
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task was the preparing and teaching of the lesson, it was undertaken in a spirit of consecration as a most vital service. If it was the guidance of the music, for which the school has ever been famous, no pains were spared in the selection and arrangement. Or if it was only the decoration of the school-room, re- ferred to above, the paint-brush was wielded with en- thusiasm.
The outcome was such as might have been ex- pected. "The smile and favor of heaven," said Dr. Prentiss, "have rested upon this school in a wonder- ful manner. Nor is this any matter of surprise; for it has always been carried on reverently, discreetly, advisedly, and in the fear of God. No false, sensa- tional methods have been followed; no trifling with sacred things has been allowed. The children have been treated as responsible human beings, gathered here, not to be amused, but for the good of their immortal souls; not to keep them out of mischief and teach them to repeat, by rote, verses of Scripture, or even to sing stirring hymns, but to acquaint them with Jesus Christ, their Lord and Saviour, and help to fashion them into honest, dutiful, serious-minded, pious boys and girls. Large numbers have never been one of its chief aims. It has wrought upon the theory that a school of fifty children, instructed and trained in all respects in the right way, will bring forth more and better fruit than a school of five hundred children, conducted upon false, worldly principles. The result is a model Christian school." *
Although, as we are thus told, mere size was never * "Eleven Years," pp. 23 f.
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one of the school's chief aims, the growth was steady and marked, so that after a few years the need of larger and more suitable quarters became urgent. In 1870, the members of the Church of the Covenant took steps to purchase land and erect a building. "It seemed a great venture, considering the large amount which the church had just raised for its fine plant on Park Avenue, but the pastor urged that it would be a shame for them to worship in such com- fort and leave their East Side brethren poorly accom- modated. ... This was the first building of its class to consider the matter of beauty and effective-
ness. Up to this time it had been thought that accommodation and shelter were all that was needed in such buildings. But this was not the spirit of the Church of the Covenant. It desired that the house of worship which it erected for its East Side branch should be the most attractive place its worshippers should find in all the week." * In spite of the great difficulty of an undertaking so large in itself and so generously conceived, the Covenant people, led by their pastor, accomplished their purpose, and in De- cember, 1871, the "Memorial Chapel," at 310 East Forty-second Street, designed by Mr. Cady and adapted most perfectly to the needs of the work, was dedicated. + Its name referred to a historic event
* From an address by Mr. J. C. Cady, quoted in the "Memorial of Dr. Prentiss," published by Union Seminary, pp. 13 f.
" The following "Dedication Hymn" was written for this occasion by Mrs. Elizabeth Prentiss:
Thankfully, O Lord, we come To this new and happy home; Wilt thou not from heaven descend, Here to dwell as friend with friend, Granting us the wondrous grace To behold thee face to face?
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L
INTERIOR OF THE COVENANT CHAPEL-THE PRESENT CHURCH OF THE COVENANT
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which has already been mentioned in this volume, the reunion of the Old and New School Presby- terians in 1869. * The new chapel of the Church of the Covenant was designed to be a "Memorial" of that reunion.
While the mission Sunday-school was thus prosper- ing, the mother church was quietly and steadily grow- ing in numbers and influence. In 1873, Dr. Prentiss, to whom, in large measure, the church owed its rev- erent, liberal, and devoted spirit, resigned his charge to accept the Chair of Pastoral Theology, Church Polity, and Missionary Work, in Union Theological Seminary.
He had done a great and lasting work in the Church of the Covenant. His gentle and affection- ate nature, his cultured and scholarly mind, and, above all, the wealth of his personal Christian faith, had been used by him to implant a living Christianity in the hearts of his people. "Religion," as has been said of him, "was the great, impelling, controlling
Teach us here to praise and pray, How to live from day to day; Teach us who and what thou art, Write thy name on every heart; Make us pure, and clean, and white, Blessed Jesus, in thy sight.
May the weary here find rest On the tender Shepherd's breast; May the erring cease to stray, Learning here the perfect way: And the mourner find that here Jesus wipes away the tear.
And when life's short day is o'er, And we hither come no more, Father, Saviour, loving Friend, Guide us to our journey's end; Thankful that we often came Here to learn thy blessed name.
* See above, p. 316.
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force of his life and work," * and under his leader- ship the Church of the Covenant had, in a marked degree, acquired a spirit like his own: religion was not merely its sphere of activity, but the vital force by which it was moved and directed. Combined with his unusual spiritual power, Dr. Prentiss possessed also the vigor and determination by which hard, practical tasks were carried steadily to their comple- tion. His pastorate was begun by the building of the church and crowned by the building of the chapel. To the end of his life, continuing to live and la- bor in New York, he was the church's faithful and deeply loved friend, and in his later days he was re- garded by his former parishioners with something of the affection and reverence that must have been felt for the aged St. John at Ephesus.
The successor of Dr. Prentiss was the Rev. Marvin R. Vincent, D.D., who was called from the First Presbyterian Church of Troy, and was installed in the Church of the Covenant on May 8th, 1873. The service thus begun was to continue for fifteen years.
A graphic characterization of the church and its people during this period is provided by Dr. Vincent himself. + "Dr. Prentiss," he says, "had laid solid foundations with his Christian culture and his sym- pathetic personal ministry. The church was dis- tinctly and essentially a family church as distin- guished from what is known as a popular church. Neither its general character, its ministrations, nor its situation invited the crowd which goes to stare
* Funeral Sermon by Dr. Vincent, p. 28.
t In an article in the "Evangelist " quoted by Dr. McIlvaine in the sermon preached February 11th, 1894, pp. 21-24.
MARVIN R. VINCENT
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and to be entertained. But the gospel was faithfully preached, the children were gathered into the fold, and the church was represented strongly by individ- uals in numerous benevolent and philanthropic enter- prises. Its internal harmony was perfect.
"Such a congregation as it was! Representing so many different sides of life! Of ministers there were Dr. Prentiss and Henry B. Smith and Dr. Eastman, Dr. Briggs, Dr. Francis Brown and Dr. Wallace At- terbury. Of doctors, Buck's noble head appeared under the fourth gallery, and his son, Albert, was a little farther down the aisle; Post sat just in front, the light through the colored panes falling on his full white beard, his Greek Testament in his hand. Then there were Noyes and St. John Roosa and McLane and Brayton Ball, Henry Walker, Yale, Stimson, and Streeter. The lawyers, too, were a goodly company: Judge Sutherland was just behind Dr. Post; Charles Butler opposite, John P. Crosby further down; William Walter Phelps over on the left; Daniel Lord not far from the door; on the mid- dle aisle, Charles D. Adams, so early taken away in the freshness of his manhood, with all his sterling worth and graceful culture. Then Theron G. Strong and William G. Choate and William C. Whitney and Hugh J. Jewett and W. W. Hoppin and S. J. Storrs and Walter Howe and Eugene Smith. And the art- ists, too, Mrs. Candace Wheeler and her daughter Dora, and Oliver Lay and George Yewell and Cleveland Cady.
"There were the two Scribners, John Blair and Charles. There was Charlton T. Lewis and Mrs. Elizabeth Prentiss and Whitelaw Reid and Charles
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L. Norton and Edward S. Mead and Stephen Walker. And then the business men, the men of affairs. William E. Dodge and Joseph R. Skid- more sat in adjoining pews. Robert Gordon, with his keen Scotch face; all the artists in New York knew him. Close behind him William H. Osborn, a large man every way; people who had any sham about them generally gave him a wide berth. Thomas Denny's fine, scholarly face looked up from the front pew on the middle aisle. There were Harvey Fisk and Calvin Goddard and Charles H. Rogers. There were William H. H. Moore and Robert H. McCurdy and David McAlpin. There were Enoch Ketcham and Joseph Parsons and Marshall Blake. There were Charles Trumbull White, the chemist, and Mancer M. Backus, the furrier, who would turn from selling a sealskin muff or cloak and discuss Greek roots, or theology, or mathematics with you at your pleasure."
To complete the picture we must place in the pul- pit the dignified figure of Dr. Vincent himself, in regard to whose power as a preacher the appreciative words of his successor may be quoted: "No better sermons were preached or published in this city than those delivered in this pulpit during Dr. Vincent's ministry. They were always fresh, thoughtful, sug- gestive, marked by spiritual insight and wide schol- arship, clothed in a vigorous and beautiful style." *
Perhaps the most noteworthy event of Dr. Vincent's pastorate was the appointment of the first chapel pastor, the Rev. Howard A. Talbot. + There had
* Sermon preached February 11th, 1894, p. 20.
t See Appendix R, p. 536.
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before been several missionaries connected with the chapel work, but in 1875, with Mr. Talbot's appoint- ment, the church which we now know as the Church of the Covenant began to take definite shape. A few months later the custom was inaugurated of celebrat- ing the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper at the chapel, a significant step in this instance, as we have already seen it to be in the parallel development of the mis- sion chapel of the Brick Church.
The direction in which things were moving has been well described by Dr. Vincent. * "Before I ceased to be the pastor of the mother church," he says, "the chapel congregation had begun to take steps toward its own maintenance; and, although unable to assume the entire burden, was contributing annually a respectable sum. . . It has been from the beginning the policy of the workers in this field to encourage and develop the ideal and the fact of self- support. In the early days ... its work was largely among the poor, and a large amount of poverty and distress appealed to it for relief. But while such appeals were habitually met with a genuine Christian compassion and tenderness, they were also met with a sound common-sense and with an enlightened con- ception of the nature of true helpfulness. While ju- diciously assisting the absolutely helpless, it was the constant aim to open the way in each case to self-help; to provide opportunities for honest labor; to train the children so that, in future days, they might com- mand remunerative employment, and thus to put the poorest into a self-respecting attitude. On this
* In the "Thirty-fifth Anniversary Sermon," preached January 27th, 1901, pp. 15 f.
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line arose the cooking-school, the sewing-school, and the Helping Hand, and along this line were directed the ministrations of the Bible readers and of the pastor, so far as they had to do with the material conditions of the people."
The fuller extension of this ideal of self-support and independence to the organized work of the chapel itself was, however, deferred to a later date. As Dr. Vincent himself has elsewhere said, * there were in the time of his pastorate "many and the best of rea- sons" why it was inexpedient to transform the Me- morial Chapel into an independent church. The accomplishment of that most important undertaking belongs to the history of the next pastorate.
Dr. Vincent resigned his charge in November, 1887, to become Professor of Sacred Literature in Union Seminary; and in December, 1888, his suc- cessor was installed, the Rev. James Hall McIlvaine, D.D., who had been called from the Union Church of Providence, R. I.
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