USA > New York > New York City > A history of the Brick Presbyterian Church in the city of New York > Part 31
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"Now, therefore, in consideration of the premises and of the mutual covenants herein expressed, the parties hereto, by their respective boards of trustees, have mutually covenanted and agreed, and they hereby do mutually covenant and agree, each with the other, as follows:
"First. As soon as the same can be legally accom- plished, such proposed union shall, subject to the approval of the Presbytery of New York, take place upon the following basis:
"1. The Brick Church shall preserve its name and ecclesiastical organization and historic continuity, and as such it shall receive into good and regular standing the members of the Church of the Covenant.
"2. The pastor of the Church of the Covenant shall become coordinate pastor of the Brick Church, with the same salary as that received by the present pastor of that church, and the two pastors shall con- tinue to be coordinate pastors until the Brick Church, after the addition of the members of the Church of the Covenant and as thus constituted, shall determine differently.
"3. Six elders from the session of the Church of the Covenant, to wit: Henry D. Noyes, M.D., W. H. H. Moore, William Warner Hoppin, J. C. Cady, Theron G. Strong, and Alfred E. Marling, shall be added to the session of the Brick Church. Six dea- cons from the Church of the Covenant, to wit, Wil-
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liam O. Curtis, William Seward, Charles O. Kim- ball, Charles W. McAlpin, Gerard Beekman Hoppin, and Henry N. Corwith, shall be added to the board of deacons of the Brick Church. Three trustees from the Church of the Covenant, to wit, Joseph H. Par- sons, Arthur M. Dodge, and Eugene Smith, shall become members of the board of trustees of the Brick Church in place of three of the present nine members of the board.
"4. All the property of the Church of the Cove- nant * shall be transferred to the Brick Church, sub- ject to the encumbrances existing thereon, except that the memorial gifts, tablets, and windows in the Church of the Covenant may be surrendered to the several donors thereof or their legal representatives. + Upon such transfer being made, the then unpaid lia- bilities of the Church of the Covenant for expenses of its maintenance during the current fiscal year ending May 1st, 1894, shall be assumed by the Brick Church.
"5. Pews in the Brick Church to the number of not less than twenty-five shall be provided for the accommodation of the congregation of the Church of the Covenant, for which pew-rents shall be charged and paid for at the same rate as that applicable to the other pews in the church.
* This, of course, included the chapel.
t Two of these memorials were subsequently placed in the new Church of the Covenant. These were the marble bas-relief representing "Faith," originally in the possession of Mr. William Curtis Noyes, and after his death in 1864, given by his family to the church of which he had been one of the founders; and the baptismal font given by Benjamin F. Butler and Robert Gordon in 1876. When the old Church of the Covenant was torn down, its corner-stone was transferred to its namesake, where it is set into the wall of the vestibule.
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"6. The work heretofore carried on at the Cove- nant Chapel in East Forty-second Street is to receive from the Brick Church that cordial sympathy and financial support which it has heretofore had from the Church of the Covenant.
"Second. The two churches covenant and agree, each with the other, that both will cooperate in an effort to obtain from the legislature of the State of New York the transfer of the property of the Church of the Covenant to the Brick Church, the merger of the Church of the Covenant in the Brick Church or the union of the two churches, on the basis hereinbe- fore stated.
"They also covenant and agree that they will unite in an application to the Presbytery of New York for its approval, and that in all other ways they will cooperate to the accomplishment of the purpose hereinbefore expressed." *
The desired action of the legislature was obtained by an act f passed on March 2d; on the 12th of the same month the consent of the Presbytery was given; and on April 12th, by the final transfer of the prop- erty, the union, which had been first formally pro- posed nearly a year before, became an established fact. The lot on Park Avenue, with the church and parsonage standing upon it, had been sold for $315,000 which, after a small deduction for the pay-
* A third section not here given related to temporary arrangements pending the consummation of the plan of union.
t Providing that the Church of the Covenant, with the approval of Presbytery, might "transfer its property, real and personal, by way of gift, grant, conveyance, or otherwise " to the Brick Church, and that the continued existence of the Corporation of the Brick Church should "not be impaired or affected by such transfer."
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ment of outstanding debts, became an endowment fund for the work of the Brick Church. *
The consolidation thus effected proved an un- questionable success. Dr. McIlvaine, for whom, perhaps, it had from the beginning involved the greatest sacrifice, expressed emphatically his satis- faction two years after the event. "The union of the former Church of the Covenant with the Brick Church," he said, "is now confirmed and estab- lished, and the united congregation is working smoothly, happily, and efficiently together."
To the Brick Church, on the one hand, the coming of the Covenant people had been a great gain, in spiritual and personal power even more than in fi- nancial resources. It was like new blood in the body, and both in the deliberations of the official boards and in the church's practical work, the effect was felt at once. The people of the Covenant, for their part, were happy in the change. They had made their sacrifice and left it behind them; and they
* In May, 1897, a tablet commemorating the union of the two churches was placed in the Brick Church vestibule. It is of yellow Sienna marble, and was executed from a design by Mr. J. Cleveland Cady. In the border appear the mottoes of the old and the new Church of the Covenant, quoted as a heading for the preceding chapter of this history (p. 405). The central inscription is as follows:
THE CHURCH OF THE COVENANT FOUNDED MARCH 21, 1862
PASTORS:
GEORGE L. PRENTISS, D.D., 1862-1873
MARVIN R. VINCENT, D.D., 1873-1887
JAMES HALL MCILVAINE, D.D., 1888-1894
UNITED WITH THE BRICK PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH APRIL, 1894
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were heartily prepared to rejoice in the prosperous and inspiring life of the united church. *
There was, it may be said, but one serious imperfection in the plan of union as it had been carried out, and this was one which had been un- avoidable under the conditions by which the union had been governed. It was the duplication of the office of pastor.
The existence in a church of two coequal and co- ordinate ministers, both of them occupying the same position of leadership and holding identical respon- sibilities, must always be an arrangement fraught with peculiar difficulty. Something of this sort had been tried by the New York Presbyterians in the eighteenth century and had been at length abandoned as decidedly unsatisfactory. No one, it may be as- sumed, would have proposed to repeat the experi- ment for its own sake. At the time of the union it was adopted merely because it was then necessary to the important end in view; and, after the union had been accomplished, the disadvantages which had been foreseen were, of course, only the more apparent. A dual pastorate was clearly not economical, it was cumbersome, and after the success of the union had been assured, it was unnecessary.
No one was more conscious of this fact than were the two pastors, and in January, 1896, they ad- dressed the following joint letter to their people:
* Dr. Richards, the present pastor, speaking in 1904, said, "On both sides the magnanimous spirit of fellowship must have been strong, I think; for the union was so real that, coming to you after a few years' interval, I find it quite impossible to discriminate among you which used to be which. There seems to be no 'which' now; you are all one." "In the Unity of the Faith: A Sermon," p. 9.
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"To the Members of the Congregation Worship- ping in the Brick Presbyterian Church :
"DEAR BRETHREN :
"The dual pastorate, under which we are at pres- ent ministering to you, was entered upon as a condi- tion of the union of the Church of the Covenant with the Brick Church, now happily and successfully accomplished to the satisfaction of all who are con- cerned. We recognized at the time that this duplicate arrangement of the pastorate was experimental. We are now convinced that it is not calculated to be the best working arrangement for the church, and there- fore, that it ought not to be permanent. After earnest and careful consultation, for more than a month, with the session whom you have appointed as your representatives and our advisers, we find them unan- imously of the same opinion. Our duty is therefore made perfectly clear and simple. We agreed with each other and with you, at the time of the union, that in the event of the retirement, death or resigna- tion of one of the pastors, the resignation of the other should be immediately presented. We intend to keep this agreement in loyalty to each other and to all the members of the united congregation. With a deep and single desire to promote the best interests of the church, whose servants we are, and with sin- cere regrets at the thought of the dissolution of rela- tions which have been so pleasant, we come together to place in your hands our resignations from the dual pastorate of the Brick Church. We beg you to unite with us, according to Presbyterian law and usage, in our joint and several application to the Presbytery to
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dissolve the pastoral relation. And we pray that the Holy Spirit of wisdom may direct you and us in all our actions, and that the Lord Jesus Christ may make us perfect in every good word and deed to obey him and to serve the welfare of his blessed kingdom of peace and love upon earth.
"J. H. MCILVAINE, "HENRY VAN DYKE."
That the church should allow both its pastors to go was manifestly out of the question, and the con- gregation was brought face to face with the peculiarly embarrassing necessity of making a choice between them.
But here the qualities of Christian generosity and self-forgetfulness in the former members of the old Church of the Covenant, already exhibited by them at the time of the union, once more took control of the situation. They were now members of the Brick Church, and however the fact might be disguised, the choice about to be made was between the pastor whom they had brought with them into the union, and the man who had been pastor of the Brick Church for ten years before the union was so much as thought of.
It was by representatives of the old Covenant Church that the deciding vote was moved and sec- onded, approving ' the acceptance, in the Christian spirit in which it is proffered of the proposal of Dr. McIlvaine to retire from the copastorate," and rec- ommending "that Dr. van Dyke be requested to withdraw his resignation." No better evidence could be desired of the spirit in which this action was pro-
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posed and adopted-for the vote was unanimous in the affirmative-than the words with which Dr. Henry D. Noyes had accompanied his seconding of the motion. "There may, perhaps, never be an- other time," he said, "when such a word as is in my heart may perhaps be fittingly spoken. It is simply to this effect-it is only the personal confirmation of what has been so abundantly and eloquently said by both the pastors. It is not an easy thing for me to take any step which will eventuate in the removal from the pastoral office of this church of the man whose coming to New York was to no small degree due to my personal efforts. Under his ministrations, I have sat with great comfort and edification and de- light, and when the movement to bring the Church of the Covenant into close relations with this one was initiated, it brought with it, not only the earnest pur- poses of our pastor, but the hearty cooperation of almost all the members-practically all the mem- bers-of the Church of the Covenant. Since that consolidation has been effected, I beg to assure all of you that there has been but one heart and one mind on the part of those who have come into this congre- gation-that our united purpose should be for our mutual good, for our better fitting for the work of Jesus Christ, and that we should here seek together for the prosperity of this old-established and re- nowned church. And at this moment, when circum- stances have pointed to the desirability of a separate arrangement in the pastorate, while I am sure that I voice the sentiment of many that it is with deep regret that this sundering shall be effected, it is at the same time, true that the dominant thought and
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feeling in the heart of those who have come here is that we want the prosperity and the success and the consolidation in work of this church itself. We are part of you; we have joined you; we have no pur- pose to separate from you; we clasp hands with you, and we will be always with you in the service and work of our blessed Master."
When the chief action of the meeting had been taken, another resolution, moved and seconded by men who represented the older Brick Church of the days before the union, * and by them supported in cordial words of a more informal and personal char- acter, was offered in the following terms: "Resolved, That we cannot allow Dr. McIlvaine to leave us without putting upon record our high appreciation of his ability as a preacher and his endearing quali- ties as a man. To the friends who came with him to the united church he has added the larger number of those to whom he has ministered in his new field. We appreciate the unselfish and self-sacrificing mo- tive which has led him to insist that he shall be per- mitted to resign, and that Dr. van Dyke shall be asked to stay. We wish him Godspeed, and shall pray that he may be safely kept in his journeyings, and prosper in any new field of labor which he may select."
When this motion has been heartily and unani- mously carried, this trying experience, which had yet been the means of revealing in a new light the Chris- tian strength of the church, was brought to a close. A private letter written at the time, said, in describ- ing the meeting, "It was characterized by unusual
* Mr. John E. Parsons and Dr. Albert R. Ledoux,
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solemnity and impressiveness, and absolute unanim- ity as to every resolution offered and proposition made. ... When the meeting was dismissed and the strain taken off, every face was wreathed in smiles and it looked like the departure of a Christmas party."
In the period between the union of the two churches and the end of the century a large part of the history of the Brick Church was being made in East Forty- second and West Thirty-fifth streets, in the two "affiliated" churches, as the Brick Church loves to call them. It was realized at the time that the ex- periment then being tried in both of them, of real in- dependence within a real fellowship, was one that had an importance far more than local or temporary.
The new Church of the Covenant had, at its be- ginning, two adjustments to make, first to the new duties of independence, and second, to the new rela- tion with the Brick Church. Of its success in the first of these something has been already said, * and it need only be added here that both pastor and people used to the full the new privilege of inde- pendence, courageously accepting its responsibilities, and that, at the same time, they never showed the slightest sign of forgetting the larger interests of Christ's kingdom which were vitally bound up with the continuance of the plan of affiliation.
The second adjustment, to the Brick Church as successor of the old Church of the Covenant, was made easy by the loyal and thoroughly Christian attitude of the Brick Church itself. When the union
* See above, p. 421.
THE PRESENT CHURCH OF THE COVENANT-FORMERLY MEMORIAL CHAPEL
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was made, "we were assured," said Mr. Webster, in 1900, "of the same interest and sympathy and sup- port that had been given in the past. That pledge has been fulfilled in the spirit of most fraternal love. Six years ago we were strangers to most of the mem- bers of the Brick Church and to its pastor. Dr. van Dyke has been, and is to-day, our loyal and loving friend, and his devoted people have followed him in this loyalty and friendship. The word 'affiliation,' which he suggested to characterize our relations, has love for its root idea. . . . Let us appreciate it more and more and live up to its opportunities and respon- sibilities." To this summons his people heartily responded.
The most interesting and important feature of the present Church of the Covenant has always been its strongly marked character as a family church. In maintaining this characteristic it has made a perma- nent place for itself in the quarter of the city in which it is situated, where another church without this dis- tinctive quality might easily have become ineffective or perhaps failed altogether.
In 1894, at the very time when the Covenant Church was starting upon its independent career, the great Protestant Episcopal parish of St. Bartholo- mew's erected its splendid parish house on East Forty-second Street, less than a block from the Cove- nant's modest building. Many prophesied that in five years' time the church would find its usefulness gone, that the whole Christian work of the neigh- borhood would then have been absorbed by its younger rival. But the Church of the Covenant re- fused to admit that rivalry had anything to do with
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the situation. Cooperation suited them much bet- ter. St. Bartholomew's parish house should be wel- comed as an ally, supplying in particular all manner of social helps that the people of the district needed, clubs, classes, gymnasium and the like, while the Church of the Covenant would continue to aid in ministering to the distinctly spiritual needs of the population, and with the more concentration of purpose because the other important work was pro- vided for. The result of this enlightened and truly Christian attitude was, for one thing, a most happy relation of cordial fellowship and Christian coopera- tion between the two neighboring organizations and, for the Church of the Covenant in her indi- vidual work, the most cheering and unmistakable success.
Dr. McIlvaine, writing from his parish in Pitts- burgh on March 5th, 1900, said to his former col- league, Mr. Webster: "I congratulate you on the completion of ten years of arduous, faithful, hopeful service; and I congratulate the Church of the Cove- nant on the progress which it has made during these ten years under your charge. From what was virtu- ally a mission chapel, though the name was carefully and wisely avoided, it has passed into the larger duties and dignities of a fully organized church, in- heriting the name and traditions, and in part, the affections of a most honored and beloved church. Of all the churches that I have served or may be per- mitted to serve, the former Church of the Covenant holds the dearest place in my heart and always will. It was so earnest, so united and harmonious, so loyal, so unselfish, so spiritually minded, and so kindly
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appreciative, that it was a pleasure and a joy to be its pastor. One of the things that I look back upon with the most satisfaction in my ministry was the securing of your services to your present charge."
The happy impression which this letter produces, is deepened by another letter written on the same occasion by Dr. van Dyke. An extract from it will serve to sum up the result of the work of the Church of the Covenant during this period. "My associa- tions, from the beginning, with your church," Dr. van Dyke wrote, "were intimate and cordial. The atmosphere that greeted me, on my first visit to the church as one of the triumvirate of pastors bound to- gether in the affiliation, was warm and friendly. I felt myself at once at home; it seemed to me a 'home church.' The spirit that prevailed there was the quiet, firm, fruitful love that animates the household of our divine Father. The loyalty of the people toward their church and to you, their pastor; the evident sincerity of their worship and their religious work; the temper of gladness and simplicity and order in which all things were done, gave me a deep sense of satisfaction and comfort in your company. All that I heard of your members; of their patient continuance in well-doing, and of their willing sacri- fices for the cause of religon, gave me great confidence in them and made me feel sure they were Christians, not in name only, but also in deed and truth. I am sure that the Church of the Covenant is doing good in New York City. It is making a centre of light in the midst of darkness, and the rays from it flow out into many a city home, and beyond that to dis-
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tant parts of our land. Personal influence, after all, is the thing that counts most in building up the kingdom of Christ. I am sure that you realize this in the Church of the Covenant, and that you are living up to it." *
Christ Church, the affiliated church on the West Side, had six years' start of the church on East Forty- second Street, but it was more slow in "finding it- self" than was the younger organization. For a number of years a spirit of disquiet made its appear- ance from time to time in the congregation and even threatened serious consequences. After the resigna- tion of Dr. Lampe in December, 1895, f great diffi- culty was found in securing a new pastor and the Rev. Richard R. Wightman was not installed until April, 1897.
When this event had taken place, the session of the Brick Church felt a great sense of relief, and with much thankfulness they received the report that an era of prosperity and good feeling seemed to have set in, that many new members were being added
* This picture would be incomplete without a particular reference to one who, from 1882 to the present time has served the Church of the Covenant. "One of the most faithful, devoted and consecrated Christian workers in this or any city," said Mr. Webster, "and most invaluable to the development of the church life here, has been Miss Anna M. Juppe. In addition to the administering of the benevolent work of the parish, she has taught the primary department in the Sunday-school and had charge of an average of three organizations each week. Each summer she man- ages the fresh-air work, which has brought comfort to thousands of homes and more than 10,000 people in these ten years. . . . She is a tried and trusted assistant to the pastor, as well as a most useful bond between our church and the churches that have furnished her support these years. Her earnest, quiet work in the spirit of prayer and love has entered largely into the life and growth here." "A Decade of Work," p. 11.
t To accept a call to the chair of Old Testament Literature in Omaha Theological Seminary.
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under the new pastor's ministry, that the attendance at the Christ Church services was increasing, and that, in general, the prospects of the church seemed bright. It was determined that, if possible, the future should be made secure. Following the wise plan which the Church of the Covenant happily adopted at the beginning, Christ Church now received into its membership certain chosen members of the Brick Church, who unselfishly transferred their allegiance to the organization in which they felt their service would most contribute to the cause of Christ. These were Mr. Daniel J. Holden, who had been clerk of the Brick Church session, Mr. William B. Isham, Jr., who had been secretary of the board of deacons, and Mr. Fulton McMahon. The two former were elected at once to the office of elder and, with Mr. Wil- liam H. Wilson, also elected at this time, added greatly to the strength of the Christ Church session. From that time on the voyage, though often requiring hard work, of course, on the part of the crew, was, in the main, smooth sailing.
The Sunday-school had suffered but little from the church's perplexities. Mr. Holden, who had become superintendent in 1877, held that office until 1894. It was a devoted and most successful service, whose termination was very reluctantly accepted by the
session of the Brick Church. Adding his years as teacher to those of his superintendency, Mr. Holden had served the Sunday-school for thirty years, and, although he felt constrained to retire at this time from his office in the school, his relation to the work on. West Thirty-fifth Street was very far from being ended. As has been stated in the preceding para-
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