USA > New York > New York City > A history of the Brick Presbyterian Church in the city of New York > Part 34
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38
The ideal of an ever-open door, Dr. Richards urged, is one that "any Christian church may well try to realize-especially a church like this, that is set on a hill and beside a main thoroughfare of the city." When these words were written in December, 1903, the plan which it proposed was already in oper- ation. There had also been inaugurated two new services, and Dr. Richards' comments upon these ought also to be quoted. "Repeated requests," he said, "had reached us for the appointment of a ser- vice on some week-day afternoon, and the quiet con- gregations that have assembled for some weeks past every Friday at twilight give evidence that such a service meets a spiritual need of the community.
"On the Lord's day especially," Dr. Richards continued, "we should wish that our room might be filled as often as possible with successive congrega- tions of different worshippers, thus ministering to
* In the report to Presbytery on April 1st, 1906, the membership of the church for the first time exceeded 1,000.
THE CHURCH OF THE PRESENT 481
two or three times as many persons as the walls would hold at a single service. Accordingly, in addi- tion to our usual services of the morning and after- noon, we recently announced another for the evening. Some of our friends, in view of the well-known diffi- culty of gathering a second Sunday congregation, treated the proposal of a third as somewhat audacious. That was the intention. But we think that the policy of advancing upon the enemy in the hallowing of the Lord's Day, however audacious, may be pleasanter, and in the long run safer, than any policy of contin- uous retreat." *
One purpose in this freer use of the church had been to reach, not only more people, but more sorts of people. This was, indeed, an ideal that was mak- ing its presence increasingly felt in the church, both within the bounds of its own particular work and in its sharing of the labors of the affiliated churches. The open church and the new services were but sam- ples of a more general effort to make the ideal a reality, and it is pleasant to know that some measure of success could soon be recorded. Speaking in April, 1904, Dr. Richards said: "We have been much cheered to learn from a good many friendly testimonies that these efforts are bearing some fruit; that many sorts of tired men and women passing our door, even when no service was going on, seeing the door hospitably open, have ventured in, and have found great comfort in this place of rest and prayer; that at our public services, and especially on Sunday evenings, a good many persons who had long been far from any sort of church connection, happening
* " Year Book," 1903-1904, pp. 5 f.
482
THE BRICK CHURCH
in here, have felt themselves at home-have felt that they were made one with the people of God. Oh, I wish this house might be a house of prayer for all- all nations, all conditions, all opinions; a true sanct- uary of the peace of God; where, if ever, a Greek Christian and a Roman Christian happened to find themselves in the same pew, forgetting their age-long quarrel, they would remember only that they are fel- low-disciples; where a Jew and a Samaritan might comfortably look over the same hymn book; or a Russian and a Japanese; or a bank director and the president of a labor union; or a college professor and a socialist; or a shop girl and her customer; or a master and his servant; or any two neighbors who for the last dozen years had passed without speaking on the street-here in this sanctuary all their old differences and grievances and misunderstandings forgotten-so completely forgotten that they could not recall them when they went out."
The helpfulness of these new services, and no less of those that were not new, was greatly increased by the character of the music that the church was re- joicing in at this time. It was, in a way, a legacy from Dr. Babcock, for he had proposed the calling of Mr. Archer Gibson, then in Baltimore, to the office of organist and choir-master; but he had already de- parted on his journey to Palestine when Mr. Gibson began his work in the Brick Church. Such music as the new organist produced from his choir of soloists and chorus had never been heard in the Brick Church before, music notable for its spirit of wor- ship even more than for its beauty of sound. The Brick Church organ, remarkable for its quality of
CHOIR REHEARSAL AT THE CHURCH OF THE COVENANT
THE CHURCH OF THE PRESENT 483
sweetness and its mellowness of tone, * had never been played as Mr. Gibson played it. No better time could have been chosen for a multiplication of the Brick Church services, or for the exerting through them of a wider Christian influence upon the New York public, than the time when the church could offer this noble ministry of music.
The activities of this period which thus far have been referred to, concerned chiefly the men and women; but the church was far from forgetting the boys and girls. On the contrary, taking the church's work as a whole, the part of it which related to the children was distinctly predominant.
In the first place, the church's own Sunday-school made a distinct advance, under the leadership first of Mr. Alfred E. Marling and then of Dr. William V. V. Hayes. That it should be a large school is not possible, because it is situated in a neighborhood where the number of children is decidedly limited; but by patient and devoted work it has at least been made to cover successfully the restricted field, while in its method of teaching and in its plan of study it has been distinctly improved.
The affiliated Church of the Covenant offers a very much larger field for work among the children, and it has been cultivated with a success propor- tionately great. The ingenuity of Dr. f Webster and of his helpers, especially Mr. Cady and Dr. Kimball of the Sunday-school, in arousing and holding the children's interest, and the response of the children
* It was greatly improved in detail by Mr. Gibson himself.
f He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Hamilton College in June, 1902.
484
THE BRICK CHURCH
both in numbers and in character-development, have together produced as pleasant a chapter of church history as could anywhere be found. There is no dan- ger that the Church of the Covenant will ever die out at the bottom; and the sight of the pews full of chil- dren at a Covenant Sunday-morning service, or the sound of their singing, especially at the wonderful festivals at Christmas and at Easter, are not only a promise for the future, when these children shall have grown up and taken their place in the active work of the church; they are also an inspiration for to-day. The men and women in the Church of the Covenant get their sermons from two sources, from the lips of their beloved pastor and from the faces of their own children, who under the church's influence are al- ready unconscious carriers of the sweet gospel of Jesus Christ.
In Christ Church, also, these recent years may be called the age of the children, * the age of clubs for girls and clubs for boys, of sewing-school and kinder- garten, of winter sports and summer outings, to say nothing of the great Sunday-school, which in 1907, celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. +
* Among those who have contributed to the enlargement and increased efficiency of this part of the work, one volunteer worker, whose name has not yet been mentioned in this history, must here be gratefully recorded. No one has been a truer friend to the Christ Church children (or to their mothers, either, for that matter) than this resourceful, untiring, modest worker, Miss Mary Stewart.
+ Mr. Herbert Parsons, who had become superintendent in 1897, and who held that office till 1905, when his public duties required his presence in Washington during the greater part of the year, brought the school to a very high degree of efficiency. The system of regular examinations which he perfected, introduced a new standard of excellence in Bible study. He was succeeded by Mr. William S. Coffin, under whom the school still advances, meeting with enthusiasm and success the enlarging
CHILDREN'S ROOM AND KITCHEN, CHRIST CHURCH MEMORIAL HOUSE
THE CHURCH OF THE PRESENT 485
Mention has already been made of the movement, begun in the year of Dr. Babcock's ministry, and set a long way forward by the memorial gift of $50,000 at the time of his death, to provide new buildings for all this work which had grown up in connection with Christ Church. To this movement Dr. Richards gave his hearty support. The attainment of the goal toward which it moved was to be the chief event of the early years of his pastorate.
At his suggestion, a number of informal conferences were held in the winter of 1902-1903, and the whole subject thoroughly discussed. It so happened that real-estate conditions in the neighborhood of West Thirty-fifth Street had resulted in a large increase in the value of the Christ Church property. In view of the opportunity thus opened, it was deemed advisable to sell, and with the proceeds buy a site more central to the Christ Church congregation, that is, at a point slightly further north and west, where the lower prices would also make it possible to secure a lot of larger size.
At a meeting held at the parsonage on April 23d, so favorable a sentiment was aroused that almost $25,000 was contributed on the spot, and before the season ended, including the original memorial gift, over $100,000 was in hand. With this sum the trustees were enabled to purchase an excellent lot, with a frontage of one hundred and twenty-five feet,
opportunity. The large intermediate department maintains its old record of success under that staunch supporter of the Brick Church, universally beloved, Mr. William D. Barbour, assisted by his brother, Mr. Norman Barbour, among others. Miss Ziesse and Miss Stewart, with admirable skill and patience, take care of the swarms of smallest children, almost babies, in the primary.
486
THE BRICK CHURCH
on West Thirty-sixth Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues.
In November, 1903, the general scheme for the new buildings was adopted. * Ground was broken in the middle of the following June, and on October 26th, the second anniversary of Dr. Richards' in- stallation, the corner-stone was laid. "The weather was favorable, and a large audience of ticket-holders was admitted to the first floor of the building which had been boarded over for the occasion. A large space at the west end of the building was re- served for the children of Christ Church Sunday- school, who marched in procession six or seven hun- dred strong from the old building to the new. Not the least interesting part of the audience, however, was composed of those who, having no admission tickets, crowded the windows and even the roofs of the tall tenements on every hand. Every point of vantage was occupied; the workmen sat upon the beams rising for the second story of the parish house in the rear, and the side windows of the adjoining tenements, usually so cheerless of outlook, were upon this occasion much sought for the sake of the view." + It was an appropriate and auspicious inauguration for a work whose purpose was to bring interest and cheer and every sort of uplift to the whole neigh- borhood.
Meantime more money for the undertaking was coming in-$30,000, for example, at a single meet- ing of the men of the church.
In the fall of 1905 the buildings were completed,
* The architects being Messrs. Parish & Schroeder.
t "Year Book," 1904-1905, pp. 167f.
CHRIST CHURCH MEMORIAL BUILDINGS
THE CHURCH OF THE PRESENT 487
and on October 27th they were formally opened and two days later the church was dedicated. The entire group of buildings was designed to be memorial in its character. The church commemorated "the loving and faithful service of Henry van Dyke." It is a Gothic structure, presenting its side to the street, and forms architecturally the dominant feature of the group of buildings. Within, it is dignified and churchly-all the details being in excellent taste. No church of its size in the city is more attractive.
The church house both perpetuated the gift of its predecessor in memory of Randolph McAlpin and also became a memorial to Dr. Babcock. It was necessarily much larger than the church, but the greater part of it was skilfully placed in the rear of the lot, where the high church roof completely con- cealed it from the street. It contained everything that Christ Church workers had been longing for and dreaming of for many a year. First of all, of course, there was a great Sunday-school room, where the work, out of which the whole organization had grown, might be continued on a still larger scale. Above, below, and around this central auditorium were placed bowling alleys, pool-room, library, gymnasium, workshop, kitchen, offices, rooms for church work, for kindergarten and for clubs and classes of various sorts, together with living quarters for the janitor and the workers. *
* It may be noted at this point that while this larger enterprise was in hand, the Brick Church had also made some minor improvements in her own building. In the fall of 1903, by a shifting of the stairs and the addi- tion of a mezzanine in the "chapel" in the rear of the church, four new rooms and a large amount of closet-room were added, and the whole arrangement greatly improved. The lecture-room also was redecorated.
488
THE BRICK CHURCH
Every room in the building meant the meeting of a definite need whose reality had been amply tested by experience in the old quarters. There was noth- ing theoretical about it from cellar to roof; and no sooner had the transfer been made from the old building to the new, than the enormous benefits of the change began to manifest themselves. * The work commenced to expand at once; the neigh- borhood responded fully to the opportunity; and during the two and a half years that have passed since the building was opened for use, old enterprises have enlarged their scope and new activities f have sprung up, until every room is occupied for one pur- pose or another almost the whole week through. There is no busier, cheerier, more inspiring place in the whole city.
And it was entirely paid for in a remarkably short space of time. By the sale of the old site and the continuance of contributions, the whole sum ex- pended had been received, and the last dollar paid, in the early summer of 1907. The total cost of land, buildings, and equipment was $382,097.24.
A single event remains to be added to this brief sketch of the activities of the present pastorate. On
* With the occupation of the new building a more complete unification of the work at Christ Church, than had heretofore been possible, was achieved, with great gain in economy and efficiency. See "Rules of Gov- ernment," Appendix Y, page 548.
+ Most interesting, perhaps, among the new activities, has been the "Tuberculosis Class," organized in November, 1906, for the purpose of giving to a small group of sufferers the same sort of treatment in their homes that they would receive in special sanitariums. The work has been carried on by the devoted volunteer service of Dr. Walter L. Niles and Miss F. V. Stewart, and its results have already proved the great practical value of the plan.
# Of this amount $253,397.24 was met by subscription.
INTERIOR OF THE PRESENT CHRIST CHURCH
THE CHURCH OF THE PRESENT 489
January 22d, 1908, the Brick Church lost by death one of her strongest friends, one of her truest Chris- tians, Mr. Morris K. Jesup. Among the almost in- credible number of public interests in which he had actively shared, and to which he had given generously in money and personal service, the Brick Church held a prominent place. He had served on her board of trustees, and in much of her good work in recent years he had taken a leading part. When his will was read, it was found that he had bequeathed to the Brick Church the sum of $100,000, as an addition to its endowment fund, with the provision, however, that if the church should at any time remove from its present location, the money should revert to his estate. In his lifetime he had strongly counselled the turning of a deaf ear to all offers for the Fifth Avenue property. He believed that the church was needed where it was, and that it should be anchored there forever. Even if in the future the residences should all be driven northward and the Brick Church stand, as old Trinity does to-day, in a region given over wholly to business, there she ought still to stand, he thought; and in this his fellow-officers of the church heartily agreed with him. One of them said, on hearing of Mr. Jesup's generous bequest-and he probably expressed the thought of the whole con- gregation-"The condition of the gift is as welcome as the gift itself." If God will, may the Brick Church stand to serve him on the brow of Murray Hill as long as New York City occupies Manhattan Island.
Seventeen hundred and sixty-seven to nineteen hundred and eight-one hundred and forty-one
490
THE BRICK CHURCH
years: it is, after all, but a short space of time, and what changes have been packed into it! At the be- ginning we saw the New Church erected on Beek- man Street, on the northern edge of the city that then existed. To-day the present Brick Church, more than three miles farther north, is already grap- pling with the problems of a downtown situation.
These transformations in the outward surround- ings are most interesting to observe, but for the pur- poses of this volume they are far less interesting than the transformation that has gone on within the church itself. If the question be asked-as it some- times is, and with a tone that seems to call for a nega- tive reply-Is the Church of Christ alive? Is it something more than a venerable monument? Does it maintain a true relation to the needs of successive generations of men, and is it capable of adapting its message and its ministry to the changed, and still changing, conditions of modern life ? In particular, is the Church of Christ able so to enlarge its scope as to meet the tremendous social needs of our own day, and to become no longer a mere place of refuge for believers, but a head-quarters for apostles, from which the power of Jesus Christ, incarnated in Chris- tian men and women, shall go out to the relief of every kind of need, the righting of every kind of wrong, the supplying of every kind of good ?- if this question be asked, the facts of history related in this volume would seem to have some claim to make an affirmative and encouraging reply.
Less than a century and a half ago there was on Beekman Street a congregation of godly men and women who, in living up to the light of their day, did
TRIST CHURCH
EMORIAL HOOSE
SONJA SONOR BELE CLASSES2.
ONVIMOS Y SHAVE
GOLDEN WINDOW KINDERGARTEN AT DOOR OF CHRIST CHURCH MEMORIAL HOUSE
THE CHURCH OF THE PRESENT 491
produce a church whose interests centred chiefly in itself, in the maintaining of its own worship, the in- struction and training of its own membership, in short, the honoring of God and the following of Christ almost entirely within its own boundaries. Worship and preaching, the administering of the sacraments, parish visitation and the supervision of the morals of its members, the taking up of a collec- tion at the Sunday service-"one copper and no more," given alike by each member of the congrega- tion, and used almost exclusively for the church's own poor: such was the work of the church of 1767.
Compare with this the Brick Church of to-day, and see what changes have been wrought by the spirit of Christ in the hearts of its five generations of members, in answer to the changing and increasing needs of the city, the nation, the world. Not so much because of the precise results achieved, the definite ministry rendered, ought this development to be pointed out, but because of the purpose which it re- veals, the living power to which it testifies-a prom- ise for the future even more than a record of the past.
The latest report tells us that the people of the Brick Church contributed during the year, for the work of Christ's kingdom among men at home and abroad, something over $155,000. In the Brick Church itself, more numerous services are main- tained to-day than were ever regularly maintained on Beekman Street, to which should be added as many more in the two affiliated churches; but to-day these services, and all the more personal work of religious and moral instruction and influence, no longer sat- isfy the ideal of the people, nor exhaust their ener-
492
THE BRICK CHURCH
gies. On the contrary, this distinctly religious min- istry is now regarded as the central and culminating department of a work which reaches out in every di- rection, to touch and uplift every interest of the neigh- boring population.
The Brick Church, in union with Christ Church and the Church of the Covenant, that singularly per- fect example of true Christian brotherhood, has consciously undertaken the task of ministering to every need that it can discover in an entire district of New York City. It sets no limit to its responsibility. The nursing and doctoring of the sick; the improve- ment of the homes of the people; the provision of in- struction and of the means of culture and of industrial training-books, classes, workshops; the arousing of a sense of civic pride and civic responsibility; the improvement of social and industrial conditions; the promotion of the happiness of individuals, through the ministry of personal friendship, through oppor- tunities for wholesome social intercourse, through the encouragement of sports and other recreations- happiness for people of all ages, from the little chil- dren at their nursery games, to the fathers and the mothers, whose need of relaxation and refreshment becomes more and more pressing as the strain of our modern life grows greater-these are some of the activities to which the present church believes itself called by the voice of Jesus Christ.
It is a great change from the conditions of 1767, but it has been accomplished, it should be observed, without the church's losing in the slightest degree its character as a church, without its ceasing for a mo- ment to be still an association of Christian believers,
BOWLING ALLEYS AND LIBRARY, CHRIST CHURCH MEMORIAL HOUSE
THE CHURCH OF THE PRESENT 493
of Christian worshippers, of teachers of Christian truth, of trainers in Christian character. But the old ideals and the old work have been transformed, re- generated, by a new baptism of the essential Chris- tian spirit of service.
There is no intention to assert that the Brick Church has yet done its full duty, or that the service it has rendered has been adequate to existing needs. The aim is not at all to declare that the goal has been reached or even that it is within sight, but only to point out that the Church of Christ, as the typical history of the Brick Church makes evident, moves toward that goal with a certainty and a genuineness of purpose which cannot be mistaken. The Chris- tian Church is a living church. It lives in the pres- ent world, and hears the cries for help and shares the suffering and trouble, and knows that its com mission from the Master is to spend itself in ministry.
If the history of this volume is a fair assurance that the Brick Church has made an inspiring ad- vance in the century and a half already completed, and, if it is a true prophecy of the direction of her development and of the distance that she will travel in the century and a half now lying before us, there is reason why the members of that church should thank God and press on with confidence and courage.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I. KEY
TO ABBREVIATIONS OF TITLES USED IN THE NOTES OF THIS VOLUME
Assembly Digest
See below, No. 3
Br. Ch. Mem. .
56
Church of the Covenant (The)
90
Common Council
20
Cutler's Life, etc. .
8
Decade of Work (A)
190
Disosway .
9
Document No. 37
66
82
Eleven Years
111
Historic Church (An)
179
Jones N. Y. in Rev. .
13
Life and Times
58
Manuscript Hist. .
191
Mem. Hist. of N. Y.
19
Memorial Discourse .
110
N. Y. in 1789
15
Rodgers Mem. .
34
Sprague's Annals
16
State Thanksgiving, etc.
166
II. GENERAL AUTHORITIES CONSULTED IN THE PREPARATION OF THIS HISTORY
ADAMS, JOHN, 2d President of the U. S .---
1. Works of. (1850.)
ALEXANDER, S. D .-
2. The Presbytery of New York, 1738 to 1888. (N. Y. 1887.)
BAIRD, SAMUEL J., Editor-
3. * A Collection of the Acts, Deliverances and Testimonies of the Supreme Judicatory of the Presbyterian Church. (2d edi- tion, Phil., 1858.)
* Throughout the following lists an asterisk means that the work to whose name it is prefixed is contained in the Brick Church Library.
497
498
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BANCROFT, GEORGE-
4. History of the United States.
BEECHER, REV. LYMAN-
5. Autobiography of, ed. by C. Beecher. (N. Y., 1865.)
BOURNE, W. O .-
6. History of the Public School Society of New York. (1870.) CARTER, R .-
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.