USA > New York > Orange County > Newburgh > Centennial celebration of the First Presbyterian Church, Newburgh, New York, 1784-1884 > Part 5
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THE REV. DR. HALL :- We are not done with the feast of good things, though we have heard from those especially designated in the pro- gramme. There is more to follow. I have been casting my eye over the audience, in search of the Rev. Dr. Applegate. He promised me he would come and present the greetings of St. George's Church. We have heard from the Rev. Dr. Forsyth, of the friendly relations that ex- isted for about forty years between the Rev. Dr. Brown, who so recently left us for the glory beyond, and the Rev. Dr. Johnston. It would have given us great pleasure to have heard from his successor to-day. I know that something unforeseen must have prevented him from being present .*
We have heard from Dr. Forsyth about the famous historic Church triangle of Newburgh, and of the harmony and friendship between the pastors of these three churches, Dr. Johnston, Dr. Brown, and Dr. McCarrell. The triangle was broken by the removal of the home of the First Presbyteriad Church to this site. The harmony and friendship, however, that existed between the pastors of the Associate Reformed Church and this Church have been bequeathed to their successors. It will give us pleasure to hear a few words from the Rev. Mr. Macnaughtan, pastor of the Associate Reformed Church.
REV. J. MACNAUGHTAN'S REMARKS.
It is an unspeakable pleasure to me, sir, in company with so many of my breth- ren, representing the churches of Newburgh, to bring greetings to you and your people on this joyous Centennial occasion. It is a matter for congratulation that
* A letter was afterward received from Rev. Dr. Applegate, expressing his regrets. He was suddenly called away from home.
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through a century, so remarkable in its manifold developments in every direction, so prolific in great social, political, moral and religious revolutions and conflicts, this Church lias fought the good fight and maintained the faith. The century through which your Church has lived is perhaps the most remarkable in the world's history, and cannot be far surpassed in the conspicuousness and the importance of the great interests that have crowded its years, by any that are yet to come before the curtain shall fall and the great drama of time shall be completed. That this Church has done its part, in the midst of the great events transpiring around it, is abundantly evident from the words that have been spoken here this afternoon, as well as by this noble temple which faithful hands have reared, and the strong, hearty, vigorous, moral and spiritual life that here finds a home and an inspiration for itself. A Church that has breasted the waves of a century's conflicts and comes to its conclusion with the freshness, the enthusiasm and the enterprise which everything here-this noble gathering, this splendid adornment, the festive garments with which loving hands have added new beauty to this fair house of God, the words of welcome that have greeted us, warm and eloquent in the expresion of the devotion and zeal of this people to every good work, and of loyalty to Jesus Christ-indicates that its life has been builded upon numberless heroisms, nameless fidelities, and that the children are not unworthy of the sires from whom they derive their life.
You, Sir, and your people are to be congratulated that ainid all the changes and vicissitudes of these past years, a record has been made that so grandly justifies this proud occasion.
And we are glad to greet you also, because you have not left us out in your re- joicing, but have taken pains to link your life and history with the history of the Churches throughout the city. You have in this Centennial occasion brought be- fore this community not only the splendid history of your own Church, and the noble fidelity of the brave inen who have been her leaders, but, in connection therewith, the naines of the inen and the Churches who with your own have made Newburgh what it is to-day in its moral and religious life. You have thus made the occasion ours as well as yours. It is this fact that adds, if anything can, to the heartiness of the greeting which I bring to you from the Old Associate Refornied Church. These two Churches, which for so many years stood within sight of each other, with St. George's, are all children of the same time with common traditions, associations, memories, so that the story of one must tell in some measure the his- tory of them all. And your Centennial has reminded us of the magnitude of our obligation as citizens of this fair city to the three inen whose names are unsepar- ably connected with these three Churches. Clustering near each other as they did, they did but suggest the unity of heart and aim, the cominunity of enthusiasm and devotion which each felt for Christ, the undivided consecration, in the midst of radical differences of thought, of creed and polity, which they were not the men to forget. These are the men whose hands God has laid upon this community in benediction. And who, on this occasion even, of quickened interest and enkindled sentiment, will claim adequately to set forth our obligations to these faithful and departed ones ? We have to thank you, of the First Church, for reviving this old history, and setting before us the old life, that has so much to do with all that is best in the character and life of this conservative community.
But to me, Sir, and I doubt not, to you also, and I am sure that Dr. Applegate, if he had been able to be present with us, would have shared in the feeling, there has come a sense of grave responsibility, deeper than ever experienced, in regard to the trust committed to us. It is no small thing to have had such a spiritual an- cestry in the pulpits in which it is our privilege to preach the Gospel. It is no small thing to be the successors of men so faithful, so useful, and so consecrated. And as I have sat here, and heard that old story told, I have felt oppressed as never before with the responsibilities of my office, and have found a new motive to put behind my endeavors, in the hope of so working as to gain even the smallest claim to be remembered by those who shall come after with any smallest atom of the gratitude that has been poured out to-day to the memory of these fathers in Israel.
And the thing that has impressed me in connection with the references that have been made to these men is this: That little has been said in regard to their attain- ments in the line of scholarship, or in regard to their intellectual endowments, their capacity as preachers, or any of the other things that are reckoned by many as constituting the chief elements of power in the preacher. It has not been be- cause these men were deficient in these things that so little has been made of them. We know that they were all men richly endowed in these regards-men of no ordi-
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nary attainments and intellectual force. And there can be no doubt that the strength of their piety was greatly enhanced by these things. But the fact that has impressed me in this unfolding of the mnoral history of these past years is this: alinost all who have spoken in this place to-day have spoken only of the goodness and the consecration of the men who have been the leaders and the guides of this community.
And I am profoundly impressed by this fact. It is to me a revelation and an inspiration. That which has told in these old ministries through a hundred years, must be in ours, if our work is to live; we are to be helpers of men, and builders of the Church of Christ. O, let us make the aspiration and the prayer of our ministry be more hereafter than it has been before :-
" More love, O Christ, to Thee, More love to Thee ! "
And it is this out of which has come the fraternal relations of the Churches of Newburgh, the breadth, the catholicity of the Christian temper of this community. Not in the creeds and confessions is the Church to find its point of unity, but in its piety and consecration, in its devotion to Christ and its zeal to save and educate the souls of inen. This Church, the other Churches of this city, found this to be true, and in their practice, and in the grand results that are before us here to-day in this place, we have the witness to its utility. Standing, then, on this ridge of time, with the ripe and tender memories of these years about us, let us take the standard that their saintly hands have borne through a century's conflict, and, forgetting our differences, let us hold it aloft, and so let us try to realize here below that unity that will be the crowning glory of the heavenly life. One in the love and service of Christ.
THE REV. DR. HALL :- A few miles west from Newburgh a colony settled in the early days, known as Covenanters, and they were the true scions, of the old stock. From the old Church in Coldenham have sprung the churches of that faith and order in this city. We have heard this after- noon of the remarkable pulpit power of one of its ministers, the Rev. Dr. Wilson. We have with us upon this occasion one of his successors, the Rev. Mr. Carlisle, who has the honor, now that Dr. Brown has left us, of having had the longest pastorate of any of us-thirty-five years. May many be added to it. Brother Carlisle, we shall be happy to hear from you.
REMARKS OF THE REV. S. CARLISLE.
The circumstances connected with our assemblage to-day are peculiar and inter- esting. It is not to commemorate somne important discovery in the departinent of the arts or sciences, but the organization of this congregation in this city one cen- tury ago.
The friends of Christ everywhere rejoice in the Church's enlargement, growth and prosperity. They know that while the members of a new organization are few, their material and financial resources inadequate, yet, still, their strength and use- fulness are not dependent exclusively upon these things, but upon the presence and blessing of the Most High. Besides her mission (the preservation of the truth, the reformnation of society, the evangelization of the world, the salvation of souls) is precious, to be accomplished not by political stratagem and policy, not by disci- plined legions of armed men in marshalled array, nor by external coercion, but by the preaching of the Gospel, accompanied by the Holy Spirit.
Two circumstances have distinguished this century: Increased and active efforts in every department of the Christian Church, for the extension of the Redeemer's Kingdom at home and abroad, introduced with wars widespread and universal, but these were followed with the glorious triumph of the Prince of Peace. Second, the translation of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments into many of the languages of earth, together with their extensive dissemination, so that the world is practically leavened with the Word of God, and the indications are that the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth. In both these objects this Church participated and shared.
To commemorate departed worth, generous and noble deeds for Christ, is both
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reasonable and scriptural. The Most High has stamped it with his approbation, by erecting a commemorative tablet in the Eleventh of Hebrews, on which are inscribed the names and transcendent excellencies of those of whoin the world was not worthy, and in this spirit we have inet to-day, to inake mention of the names and acts of those who founded this Church, though they little thought that their efforts would be so successful, or that so many would asseinble in this spacious house of worship, at the close of a century, to express gratification at what they did.
It is sometimes said that the congregation moulds the pastor. However this may be, there is no doubt the pastor inoulds the people, and that the prosperity, growth and enlargement of a Church is under God inainly owing to him, and we rejoice that this fact has been so prominently recognized in these services-that honor has been given to the former pastors of this Church and to the present pastor, for to them much honor is due.
The dead require no such commemoration. The founders of this Church are gone; they have entered into rest, and are enjoying their reward; nor are they intended for theni; still, the names of the righteous shoud be had in continual remembrance, and one generation should praise His works to another, and declare His inighty acts. They are profitable and beneficial to the living-stimulating them to greater activity and self-denial in the Redeemer's service. But it should never be forgotten that the best memorial, the noblest monument you can erect is the reception of those great fundamental principles for the propagation of which this church was founded : such as salvation through the Cross-that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the word of God, the only rule of faith and iuorals-that it is the duty and privilege of every inan to search these Scriptures for himself, and to receive and profess what they teach-and that the Lord Jesus Christ is the sole and exclusive Head of the Church.
Like the Ark, the Church was early cast upon the floods. Upon it the winds have blown, the billows have raged, threatening its destruction, but the Church lives, and the well founded hopes and fond expectation is that she will live, and live for ever and ever, and that in process of time she will be guided to the haven of rest, where eternal peace and absolute security will be enjoyed.
Accept my Christian salutations; assured that my earnest wish and prayer is that the success of the past inay be an earnest and foretaste of that prosperity which will attend you in the present century.
THE REV. DR. HALL :- Fifty years ago next month the First Baptist Church of this city was organized. Previous to that time, however, there had been temporary organizations and spasmodic attempts to organize. But for fifty years it has had a continuous history. In its early beginnings it was very ambitious for an inordinate quantity of water, Orange Lake being used for a baptistry. In recent years it has been satisfied with less water, and has been more ambitious for the extension and glory of the Kingdom, in the conversion of men. Brother Jones it will give us pleasure to hear a few words from you.
REMARKS OF THE REV. ARTHUR JONES.
My Brother : It is with deep gratitude as a Christian iuinister for God's blessing upon this people that I bring the hearty congratulations and God-speed of the First Baptist Church to its nearest neighbor.
Upon one of my first visits to Newburgh there were fields of floating ice in the river, and the ferry boat, in order to secure an open passage steamued quite a dis- tance to the north. I was looking at the church spires and counting them. I saw two at the upper end of the town, but when, after a few moments of wandering, my eye returned, I could see only one. We had come to that portion of the river where both were in the same line of vision. The height of the one had been given to the other, and the breadth of base of the other had been given to the one-so perfectly did the color of the cut stone blend with the weather beaten cypress shin- gles. And the one spire I then saw was far better proportioned than either could claim to be, viewed separately. Well, it was an optical illusion, and hardly worthy of mention here. But I take great comfort in thinking that here is a spiritual
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point of view, (and who shall not say it is not the truest) from which these two churches are really one. No man believes in his denomination, its mission, more than I. We are two in views of doctrine; necessarily adhered to because honestly held. We are one in a common faith in the same crucified Lord. Let us never for- get that our unity is higher and stronger than our separation, by as much as Christ himself is greater than any doctrine.
THE REV. DR. HALL :- When the Second Presbyterian Church of New- burgh ceased to exist, its meeting house was sold to the Second Metho- dist Episcopal Church, or as it is now called, St. John's M. E. Church. And there it has its home to-day, though the building has been much en- larged and improved to accommodate the needs of that prosperous and active congregation. But there is another fact of interest to offset this. We stand to-day by the cradle of Methodism. It was here, on the very site of this Church, and in close proximity to if not on the very spot where this pulpit stands, that Elnathan Foster, the Class-leader, gath- ered weekly around him in his home, the class from which grew the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Newburgh.# So, Brother North, you can feel quite at home here. And while your people are kind enough to preserve the old Church home of the extinct Second Presbyterian Church, we reciprocate by protecting the cradle of Newburgh Metho- dism with this edifice built over it and around it.
We will now listen to the Rev. Mr. North, of St. John M. E. Church.
REMARKS OF THE REV. C. R. NORTH.
Dr. Hall has already given you the best points of my speech. Whilst the various members of your theological family have been claiming relationship to the First Presbyterian Church, as cousins, aunts, sisters, daughter, etc., I have been trying to decide what connection inight be claimed by the Church which I am privileged to represent, and conclude that it inust be a son-in-law. I have no doubt that among other excellent reasons for the good understanding be- tween the St. John's Methodist Episcopal Church and the First Presbyterian Church is the fact, that the son-in-law and inother-in-law keep house separately.
It is not a little interesting to discover the evident uncertainty in the minds of the projectors of that first Second Presbyterian Church as to what would come of it. In his charge to the Elders at its organization Dr. Prime plainly shared their per- plexity when he queried in his text " By whom shall Jacob arise, for he is small?"
It was evidently foreordained from the beginning to be a Methodist Episcopal Church. Whether it was through the tough roots of your tlieology that the sap of that pure gospel, which has always run in the fibres of the Presbyterian Church, came into that Second Church, or whether drawn by the leaves out of an atmo- sphere charged with the prevailing Arminianism, certain it is that when the Rev. Mr. Hill was deposed for inculcating a doctrine deemed heretical, and having to do with certain views about Christian perfection, the decree was seen to be working, and the first Second Presbyterian Church made way for Methodism.
There are two ends to the history of the St. John's Methodist Episcopal Church. The one, confessedly, is a Presbyterian end, the other a Methodist end. And there are, in point of fact, two ends to its church edifice : the one a Presbyterian end, and the other a Methodist one. And the North end is the Presbyterian one. [Dr. Hall :- " That is the end you occupy. Is it not ?" "Yes ; and it is the hardest end to fill."]
The truth is the currents of Presbyterian and Methodist history in this region have run close together. It was only two years after the organization of your So- ciety that Ezekiel Cooper established on this very spot the first Methodist Class. During the years when your Society belonged to your Presbyterian New Windsor
*The Rev. Dr. Crawford, Presiding Elder, has informed me that he was married in the parlor of Elnathan Fos- ter's house. He is, and ought to be, grateful to our Church for spreading such a beautiful canopy over a spot of such pleasant associations to him,
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Circuit our Class formed a part of the Flanders Circuit of the Methodist Episcopal Church. We both, you observe, started out with the circuit system. When you adopted the station system in 1810, and installed Dr. Johnston, our Society built the old brick ineeting-house and likewise entered on a more independent career. And now, not claiming to be their delegated representative, but rather by your appoint- ment, I am here to bring to the First Presbyterian Church the greetings of the nearly two thousand communicants of the Methodist Episcopal churches of New- burgh. I am sure I represent them in assuring you of their joy in your century of prosperity, and in pledging their prayers for peace to you and a triumphant future.
The scene here to-day is an inspiring one. It could not have been a hundred years ago.
My brother of the Baptist Church has beautifully set forth the unity of our Evangelical Church. The coming together of streams into one great body of water, is often proof of some one strong stream with a high source. Such a stream from even a great fountain may divide in its course, but its waters come together at last. The waters of the Mississippi by devious channels, through an intricate delta, at last meet in the Gulf and so in the mightier sea. The Nile, by many channels with divided waters beyond its delta, is made one again in the midland sea. So with God's blessed truth. From its Eternal Source it has poured into the world ; run- ning in the divided channels of the denominations, its living waters are meeting in the very fulness which they have produced. One in their source and one in their confluence. Of this blessed truth, this union of greetings to the Frst Presbyterian Church to-day is a demonstration.
The more one considers that text of Dr. Primne's, in which so many years ago he asks " By whom shall Jacob arise?" I am satisfied of the confusion of his inind, for Jacob surely could not fairly have been in question before Isaac saw the light, and we are told that " Abraham was a hundred years old when Isaac was born." One hundred years of Abrahamic life have been yours,-years of usefulness and of faith. May your century bring forth to you some grander unfolding of your life ! In behalf of the denomination I represent I challenge you to a deeper consecration of life and energy until we mingle together in the eternal unity of Heaven !
THE REV. DR. HALL :-- There is a Church that is more Presbyterian, both in its polity and in its doctrine, than the Presbyterian. It is from the Dutch Church that the father's derived the essential principles of Pres- byterianism. The Rev. Mr. Myers, pastor of the Dutch Church, or rather, of the American Reformed Church, of this city, will now say a few words to us.
REMARKS OF THE REV. H. V. S. MEYERS.
My dear Friends: I come to you to-day bearing congratulations and greetings of the oldest religious denomination in the State.
You are marking your Centennial by these services. More than two and a half centuries ago the Dutch Church was formed in New York City. And in many localities all along this valley of the Hudson, these churches were established nearly two hundred years ago. But the Dutch skipped Newburgh, which was of course a great misfortune to the settlement, now a city. It is a matter of congrat- ulation that the Presbyterians came in to occupy the ground. But it is to the ad- vantage of this city that it is surrounded by Dutch churches throughout the coun- try regions. And if the Dutch Church had nothing to do with the establishment of Presbyterianism here, it has had much to do with its perpetuation. It has been remarked that the prosperity and continuance of this church have been caused by the strong infusion of Scotch blood. I venture to say that if this Church were canvassed, it would be found that there is far more Dutch than Scotch blood in it. From the surrounding churches the Dutch people drift into this city. We gladly
receive them and after a while pass them along to the other churches. They do good service for us, and when we send them to others we do so with the hope that they may be as useful in their new relations.
If there were a relationship nearer than sisterhood, I should claim it for my church to-day. I believe the utmost cordiality and good feeling has always existed
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between this church and that of which I am pastor, and it will not be my fault if it does not continue.
I bear to you our hearty good wishes. You have lived a hundred years-" May you live a thousand years and your shadow never grow less."
THE REV. DR. HALL :- There is yet another Church of the Presbyterian family in Newburgh, from whom we have not yet heard. And though the time allotted for this service has passed, we cannot be dismissed with- out hearing a brief word of greeting from the pastor of the United Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Mr. Findley.
REMARKS OF THE REV. J. G. D. FINDLEY.
In bringing you the greetings of the United Presbyterian Church, I speak in behalf of one of the newest to the oldest of the Evangelical congregations of our city.
We have not yet reached our Quarter Centennial; while you have rounded out a full hundred years. We rejoice with you that these have been to you years of growth-growth in numbers and influence and in power for serving the Master- years of large Christian usefulness and years in which you have had so many evi- dences of the Spirit's blessing attending the preaching of the Divine Word. As you review the past and look out on the future, what reason you have to thank God and take courage ! How wonderfully God in His providence is widening the field for Christian work to you and to all his Churches ! It is our earnest wish that in the century to come you may attain a much larger growth and influence, abounding in every good work, and that you may be in the fullest sense as a church, a pillar and ground of Gospel truth. Reference has been made to the po- sition of this church and her then Pastors as Old School, in the mnemorable contro- versy of 1838. Let me say that though I am speaking in behalf of one of the youngest of Newburgh's churches, I represent one of the most conservative branches of the Presbyterian family. A writer in New England some years ago, referring to three of these branches represented here to-day, spoke of them as the " Old School," the " Older School," and the " Oldest School." May not we of the different schools continue to be in mnost hearty accord-holding the unity of the Spirit, if not in the peculiar views of the " older" and "oldest," at least in stead- fast adherence to our common heritage of "Old School" theology-the doctrines of grace-the scriptural Calvanisin imbedded in our common Westminster Stand- ards ? Let us hold fast the form of sound words.
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