USA > New York > Orange County > Newburgh > Centennial celebration of the First Presbyterian Church, Newburgh, New York, 1784-1884 > Part 6
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I rejoice that all the Churches, sending in their greetings to-day have so much of Christian unity in the great central truths of the Gospel, held in common by us all,-Christ, His divinity and redemption by His blood. As my brother from the Baptist Church has intimated, we are "all one in Christ."
We will find in the centuries to come, as in the ages that are gone, that it is " the old, old story " that softens and converts the wayward and the lost. It is "Christ, and Him crucified" that will ever be the power of God unto salvation to all who believe.
THE REV. DR. HALL :- Friends: Ipromised that these services should not extend beyond half past five, and here it is a quarter of six. I notice that Dr. Crosby has a very anxious face, and he is doubtless wondering if we keep up this feast much longer, how he will be able to draw any to his that he is to spread for us this evening. I desire exceedingly to call upon these Ministers of our city and of neighboring Churches, who have not yet addressed us. I am sure that they are all in a congratula- tory mood. And I am confident that their hearts are so turned toward us that they will be willing to furnish for the printed Report of these Exercises, the thoughts that they would now utter. We will have this understanding between us.
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We will now unite in singing the original hymn on the programme, composed by the Rev. Dr. Wheeler, of Poughkeepsie. We will sing it to the tune of " Lenox," after which the Rev. Dr. Crawford will dismiss us with the Benediction.
I.
III.
One hundred years have fled Since here our fathers wrought ; And lo, their work not dead, For lives the Church they sought. Thy Church, O God, preserved by Thee, Thy work, O God, all praise to Thee.
IV.
What memories arise From out the misty past ;
Glad visions greet our eyes, And sorrows shadows cast. O Christ, our King, thy love so great,
We grateful sing and celebrate.
V. From out the gate of years, Along the King's Highway, We march through stormy fears, To reach eternal day. Our watchword, Christ, Humanity : The world for Christ, in loyalty !
In accordance with the mutual understanding referred to above, the following salutations have been kindly sent to me.
FROM THE REV. F. B. SAVAGE, PASTOR OF THE UNION PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, OF THIS CITY.
Dear Brother: I feel that it would be ungrateful on your part did you not remember on this occasion the land fromn whence ye sprung and the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. I come with greetings from the " old stand," that has been mentioned as being highly approved of by one of our commercial brethren, and though our connection with the Presbyterian branch to which you belong is of more recent date, yet as possession is nine-tenths of the law, we claim a part in this Centennial. We own the land on which Dr. Johnston's Church stood, corner of Montgomery and First Streets, a lot soaked with the prayers of the saints and hal- lowed by the memories of one hundred years' services. We took possession of the old white Church in February, 1857, and by good work and steady preaching wore it out, so that a new one was built more glorious than the former house. The only thing we have of Dr. Johnston's memory is the old bell that rung out on the air of this hillside, summoning the worshippers to God's house, and ringing out the news of a salvation broad and universal. But, alas, even the old bell wore out in the good cause, for it not only rang for the services of the Sanctuary, but also for alarms of fire, not to mention Fourths of July and other occasions. But the bell is not lost or thrown away, but, fused again with the addition of more metal, rings out its greeting to you on this Centennial occasion. Union Church greets you on this joy- ful festival and marks your progress with joy and gladness, and wishes you noth- ing but the largest growth and prosperity in the future. Ye are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief cor- ner-stone ; in whom all the building fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
Our earthly years, O God, Are at thy sole command ; And paths by mortals trod, Are from Thy mighty hand. Our history, a passing dream, A mystery, and fitful gleam.
II.
And yet, O God supreme, Our years are not in vain ; But richer than they seem, In solid, lasting gain. Along the years, we live for Thee.
In joy and tears we build for Thee.
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FROM THE REV. C. W. FRITTS, PASTOR OF THE REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH, OF FISHKILL-ON-HUDSON.
Beloved Brethren : It affords me great pleasure to extend to you my best con- gratulations as you celebrate to-day the first century of your existence. To recall the piety, the deeds, the endurance, the rare worth of our ancestors is not only a duty but privilege.
The Hebrew people often rehearsed to their children the great events of their history. From generation to generation they handed down the story of the bond- age in Egypt, the flight, the Red Sea, the wilderness journey, the founding of the nation in Canaan. Their leaders, in order to deepen the impressions of the past, used various auxiliaries. Places were named, monuments and altars built, heaps of stones raised, the "rod that budded" and the pot of inanna were preserved, all to remind of the times of old and how the Lord had led them.
As a Church yours has been a marked history. For five score years you have sown the good seed of the Kingdom beside the waters of this majestic river, and the harvest has been thirty and sixty, and an hundred fold.
Here consecrated and eloquent Pastors have declared the unsearchable riches of Christ; here devoted Elders have labored for the Master; here true and noble wo- men, a great company have wrought for the upbuilding of Zion. What inulti- tudes have been converted here ! How many have been instructed, cheered, strengthened and comforted ! What a host have fallen asleep and have passed froin earthly care and struggle to eternal rest !
The immortal poet Homer tells us that Diomede saw the gods in battle after Pallas Athene had blown the mist from before his eyes. .
To-day you are dispelling the mists that have gathered about your history, and I am sure you have discerned much that is heroic and saintly. The characters, the services of the fathers, to recount these cannot but awaken gratitude, quicken piety and inspire zeal. Moabite soldiers once prevented a burial and the remains were hastily cast into the sepulcrhe of Elisha. And we read that " when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood upon his feet."
Even so, contact with the sacred past of the providence and grace of God will be to you reviving and life-giving.
May you ever cultivate the historic spirit, and then memory with mystic chains will bind together the bygone and the living present.
I congratulate you, brethren, that for a century your Church has held and de- clared a pure faith. You have never abbreviated the creed, nor shortened the commandments. In your Bible there has not been one verse too much, nor one miracle too many. In every period of unbelief and scepticism you have contended "Earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints."
I congratulate you upon your harmony and prosperity. Having obtained help of God, you continue to this present time. From the side of Heaven and eternity there is nothing on earth so glorious as a Church of Christ where disciples are edi- fied and sinners are converted.
I congratulate you upon your feeling of brotherhood and Christian fellowship manifested by including in your jubilee representatives of so many denominations of Christ's Church.
The attitude of neighboring Churches in relation to one another as they battle against their common foes should be the same as that of the men of Israel under Joab toward their brethren under Abishai.
"And he said, if the Syrians be too strong for ine, then thou shalt help me; but if the children of Ainmon be too strong for thee, then I will come and help thee."
I thank God that inore and inore we are seeing eye to eye and face to face, liv- ing and laboring together in the "unity of the Spirit and the bonds of peace." In the early church the tests of discipleship was: We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren."
And now, brethren beloved, for the future take as your watchword the motto of the ancient band of Redemptorists: "All for Thee, blessed Jesus, all for Thee." "God is able to make all grace abound towards you; that you, always, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work."
In the language of one of old, I say to you : "The Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you, as He hath promised you."
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1512197
FROM THE REV. J. R. THOMPSON, PASTOR OF THE SECOND REFORMED PRESBY- TERIAN CHURCH, OF THIS CITY.
In behalf of the Westminster Reformed Presbyterian Church, of which I have been Pastor for about twenty-eight years, I tender cordial greetings to the First Presbyterian Congregation of this city that is assembled here to-day, under most auspicious circumstances, to celebrate the Centennial of its existence.
In extending these fraternal salutations I assure you that they are not a cold and formal expression of common courtesy; but the sincere greetings of a Congre- gation in a sister branch of the great Presbyterian family that holds the same sys- tem of evangelical doctrine and form of Church government. Purified and fused in the furnace of persecution, the Presbyterians of Scotland and Great Britain, that were our honored ancestry, were one body about two hundred years ago; but unhappily after the Revolution that elevated King William to the throne of England, in 1688 a family separation took place, and this once united church diverged into new lines, and consequently are to-day found as different tribes, yet, thanks be to God, following the same Leader, and animated by the same spirit of Christian love that is the true bond of church union.
" Though distinct as the billows yet one as the sea."
This organic separation, we trust, is only temporary; for the signs of the times in the ecclesiastical world seein to indicate, as appears from the quadrennial meet- ings of the Presbyterian Council, a closer alliance, in the near future, when the scattered fraginents of the broken Presbyterian body will, under the "Power from on high," be melted and moulded into one organic union, and shall approximate that desired consummation when they all shall "come in the unit, of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the ineasure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."
A survey of the progress of Presbyterianism, during the hundred years of the existence of this Congregation, awakens within us the profoundest gratitude; is a pledge and prophesy of still greater achievements; and is well calculated to stimu- late to a closer union and more persistent efforts for the salvation of perishing souls, the enlargement of the Church and the bringing of the nations into submis- sion to Christ, whom they shall "crown Lord of all." .
As brethren, then, united in the great fundamental doctrines of Christ's king- dom; laboring in the same inviting field; and eagerly seeking the same grand ends -the glory of God and the salvation of sinners-we convey to you the assurances of our fraternal regards and expressions of our sincere desire for still greater success in carrying forward the glorious work of your Divine Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
"The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord inake His face shine upon thee, And be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, And give thee peace."
FROM THE REV. C. C. MANZ, PASTOR OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH IN THIS CITY.
Brethren and friends, greeting: It gives me great pleasure to be present on such a memorable occasion. Those inany years that have passed have been a great blessing to this First Presbyterian Congregation. Many an organization starts out with a large membership and has bright prospects, but soon it becomes gloomy, the ineinbership gradually resign, and it remains nothing but a child. Now when we look back into the history of this Congregation, we notice the reverse. Its be- ginning was dependent on a few families; and helpless as an infant, it had to struggle to keep in existence, had to overcome that too often experienced-discour- ageinent, and grow in patience. Their faith in the Word of God, that He would be with them alway, gave thein encouragement to fight against the spirit that wished to rob them of this precious word and the means of grace, and they have nobly fought this fight of faith, as we see to-day, this grand structure, dedicated to the worship of the Triune God, filled to its utmost. The child congregation gradually grew and became a man. What a blessing this is for you, showered down upon you from year to year, and with what gratitude ought we to-day look up to God ! Our hearts are filled with joy, and we have reasons to be thankful for God's kind-
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nesses, which He has shown, permitting us to celebrate the Centennial Anniversary of this Congregation. Let this day be a day of great rejoicing and thanksgiving, and may every one take home to-day the lesson, which the Lord wishes to impress upon our hearts: "He that endureth to the end shall be saved," (Matt. 10: 22). May the Lord continually bestow His rich blessing upon this Congregation and its Pastor, and may they never forget the mercies of God, which He has so glor- iously shown during these many years; may every one give all glory, praise and honor to Him, who hath done such great things. Amen.
FROM THE REV. WILLIAM H. DECKER, BISHOP OF THE A. M. E. ZION CHURCH-THE FOLLOWING REMINISCENCES OF DR. JOHNSTON.
It was with my mother that I first went to hear Dr. Johnston preach. She was a member of the First Presbyterian Church about forty years. I united with the same Church, by letter, when I was about eighteen years of age, and continued in that connection until I gave my life to the A. M. E. Z. Church.
Dr. Johnston was a kind pastor to my mother's family. His goodness ever went beyond his word. He preached my sister's funeral sermon when we laid her away for the Resurrection. He married me, and I have often gone to hear him preach on the Sabbath, when not engaged elsewhere myself in ministerial work. His ser- mons were a happy medium between the old and the new. He neither clung to the old nor inclined to the new. He would the best, and sought and followed it. I always regarded him as a man of strong mind, but of tender sensibilities. As a preacher, the force of his feelings often overcame the man, and then you beheld the saint. I entertained for him a deep feeling of veneration and regard, and was intimate with him until his change came-August 23d, 1855.
EVENING SERVICES.
The evening services were opened by a very effective rendering of an an anthem by the choir, after which the congregation united in singing the doxology, " Praise God from whom all blessings flow." The Rev. J. Macnaughtan invoked the Divine blessing :
Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: To-night, with the Church of all the Ages. with those of the vanished past, who, under Thee, have builded this Zion, we unite in the ascription unto Thy name of riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. Before Thee, the eternal, the unsearchable, the only wise God, we bow in adoring gratitude and thanksgiving, as we remember Thy great mercy and kindness to this people. And out of our praise come our prayers to Thee, invoking 'T'hy favor and the continuance thereof to this Church and Congregation. The past has been Thine and Thy rich grace has flowed through all the years. Let the future, Thou God of our fathers, also be Thine, and may it be to us, and to those who shall come after, richer in its memorials of Thy faithful- ness and enduring love. We stand on the verge of this new time with this rejoic- ing Church, and our hearts are full of hope because the past is so full of Thee. " Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." And now, we pray Thee, make this time of rejoicing, this time of remembered mercies, of remembered consecrations, of re- membered fidelties, by Thy presence, and the power of Thy grace, a time of re-con- secration of this People to Thyself and Thy service. And may there flow out from it, into all our hearts, inspirations by which there shall be brought forth in all our souls a deeper love for Christ and His Church, and in all our lives a braver, truer service of our common Lord. And unto Thy Name shall be the praise. Amen.
He then read a part of the 89th Psalm, after which the congregation united in singing the 1160th Hymn :
" Glorious things of Tnec are spoken, Zion, city of our God."
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The Rev. Dr. Hall then read for the Scripture Lesson the Third chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians.
The Rev. Jeremiah Searle, of Calvary Presbyterian Church, offered prayer. He thanked God for what He had been pleased to accomplish for the moral and religious elevation of this community, through the instrumentality of this Church, during the century of its life and labors; for what had been achieved in the siglit of men, and could be plainly discerned by them, and for the record known only to God, which would be unrolled in the day of final accounting. A record of weakness made strong, of indifference aroused into anxious thoughtfulness ; of sorrows lightened ; of forgiveness sealed ; of lopes assured ; of peace inbreathed into troubled hearts, through the ministration of the truth in this place. He asked that God would continue here a succession of faithful men and women to uphold the pure faith of the Gospel, that in all the gen- erations yet to come men might hear and accept the offer of eternal life through the Crucified. He plead for a blessing upon the Pastor and Officers of the Church ; for a spirit of entire consecration upon all its members, which should manifest itself in enlarged zeal in every depart- ment of Christian service ; and for the crown of success upon the labors of His servants here, that they might have the joy of seeing many souls saved through their instrumentality ; and for the Preacher and the Word which he should at this time bring to us in the Master's name ; that the Lord Christ might be honored, and the souls of all who hear be greatly helped and strengthened for life's duties.
The 885th Hymn was sung by the congregation, "I Love Thy King- dom, Lord."
The following Sermon was then preached by the Rev. Dr. Howard Crosby, of New York.
DR. CROSBY'S SERMON.
THE RELATION OF ANGELS TO THE CHURCH.
"To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God."-EPH. iii. 10.
The great mystery of God, of which the mysteries of Paganism were probably faint adumbrations derived from oral tradition and both expanded and perverted by human invention, was "God manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." In other words, it was the mystery of man's redemption from sin in its operative cause, the fact of which redemption has been announced from the begin- ning of sin's fearful course, and had been manifested in the triumphant faith of many a saved soul, but the construction of which had been but dimly prefigured in the types of the Mosaic Church and in the simpler forms of true worship which preceded. With these typical tokens we may well conjecture that there were oral teachings from a Divine source, which helped the early saints to form some vague outline of the coming Messiah. And from these we may believe that inany of the mysteries of Egypt, India and Greece, in which we find some traits of the Messianic relations, had their truthful origin.
The great mystery was completely opened, when the apostles of Christ pro- claimed His story to the ends of the earth and with it the end of an expectant and typical Church.
The mystery, as defined by Paul. included six distinct features. The first was the incarnation, the Word made flesh, God become man and dwelling among us. The second was the spiritual manifestations that accompanied the Messianic era
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in the miracles of Jesus and his apostles, and charismata of the Apostolic Church. The third was the presence of angels to witness the wonderful scene. The fourth was the spread of the good news to all nations and the consequent extinguishment of a local or national Church. The fifth was the evidences of this universality of the Church in the faithful lives of Christians in all parts of the world. And the sixth was in the ascension of the Messiah Himself at the close of His earthly career. The fourth and fifth features, having reference to the spread of the Gospel and the faith of the Gentiles, were seen during our Saviour's life in their beginnings and are, therefore, not recorded out of place in the Pauline category. And it was these features which the Apostle sometimes speaks of as " the mystery," giving the name of the whole to two of its prominent parts.
This mystery of redemption through the Son of God as Son of man is declared to be the wisdom of God carrying out His purposes of grace. And yet, preserving the allusion to the heathen mysteries, the Apostle declares that this wisdomn is re- cognized only by the initiated. To the world's sages it was foolishness. As they could not read it in nature nor evolve it from consciousness, it was ignored or despised by them. Even the faint traces of it that survived in their mythologies they regarded as a mere picture painting to amuse the people, and what survived in their technical mysteries was but a priest's trick for power. "The world by wis- dom knew not God." It has always been so. The world's wisdom excludes faith, while faith only leads the soul into the wisdom of God.
The Apostle designates the wisdom of God exhibited in Jesus Christ as " mani- fold," or more exactly " very variegated," where allusion is had, in the metaphor, to forin and color. One of the instances of its variegation (if we may use so strange a phrase) is the joining of justice and mercy. When "mercy and truth are met together," there is a contrasted union that could only proceed froin the wis- dom of God. T'hat God could pardon a sinner on the ground of justice was a para- dox which no human wisdom could solve or accept. Another instance is in the union of God and man, so that it is one and not two, God belonging to the race so that the race mnight belong to God. The old myth inade Apollo serve Admetus as a slave, but still he was never a inan. He was a god all the while. The Word be- coming flesh could only be presented to human thought by the wisdomn of God. Still another instance is in the idea of exaltation through suffering, the king of glory reaching his crown on a cross, penetrating to the loving heart of the Father through the fierce fires of his wrath. Do not such contrasted forms and colors in the Messianic story make it an exhibition of the many-colored or " variegated" wisdom of God? It was with respect to this inarvellous movement of God, as con- nected historically with the rejection of the Jews and their final ingathering with the Gentiles, that the Apostle elsewhere bursts into this exclamation, " O the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God !"
The history of man is its only trne nexus in this manifestation of the Divine wis- dom. Without it, history consists of unsatisfactory annals, and the philosophy of history is a vain struggle after a harmonizing principle to underlie the disjointed facts. Without it the race is but a inob, crowding confusedly along the ages with- out niethod or aim. But in its light the divine hand is seen guiding all and gather- ing to itself the wayward and the lost. implanting the elements of order through the chaos, and tinting the darkness with the golden rays of hope. It has been the cardinal error of all human philosophies that they have failed to see the necessity of starting with God's Revelation, and have thus missed the only clue to the laby- rinth of anthropology. Where they should have looked upward for a leading light they have even shut out the divine interference by au axiom of its impossibility, as if the Supreme Maker and Ruler were excluded from his creation, having neither power over it nor interest in it. As against all human philosophies, the believer follows the guidance of the highest reason in going to the God of all for his knowl- edge, and listening to the voice of revelation as an expected interpreter of the dark and mysterious universe around him. And it is in this appeal that he beholds the manifold wisdom of God as the key to unlock every difficulty and bring all things together into a comprehensive and comprehended unity. To him the Incarnate God is the centre of every scheme and theory, and froin that centre he can conteill- plate the fears and hopes, the good and evil, the losses and gains, the moveinents and destinies of inan with a clear perception of the harmony that exists amid all this apparently discordant material.
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