USA > New York > New York City > Forty years of Covenant mercies : a description of historic memorials in the church of the Covenant, New York City > Part 2
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Faithfully yours,
HENRY VAN DYKE.
January 15, 1900.
To Rev. George S. Webster and the Church of the Covenant, men, women and little children in the unity of Jesus Christ.
REV. MALTBIE D. BABCOCK, D.D.
Dr. Babcock began his service in the Brick Church as pastor-elect, Sunday January 14th, 1900, and was installed pastor February 27th, 1900. During his brief pastorate, which ended with his death at Naples, Italy, May 18th, 1901, he was the affectionate and interested friend of this Church. On Sunday evening, March IIth, 1900, at an Anniversary service in this Church, he gave a most thrilling address, of which the follow- ing is a brief report :
A GREETING AND A PROPHECY.
"Nothing could be pleasanter or easier to bring you than a greeting this evening. Greetings are some of the most delightful things in life. I confess I cannot pass a dog without whistling to him, or a cat without wanting to pat it, or a child without a smile. I more than greet you to-night-I felicitate you, I more than felicitate you, I congratulate you. I rejoice with you in what God has done for you and through you in these years that have passed.
"But prophesying is another matter. Of the two kinds of prophesying, fore-telling and forth-telling, the only one that I dare venture upon is the latter, the practical kind, the forth-telling.
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Bodø
CHURCH OF THE COVENANT, 306-310 EAST 42d STREET Photograph taken by Mr. J. Cleveland Cady, January, 1895.
That was the principal business of the prophets of old times, who did not so much tell God's people minute events that would happen in the future, but announce, trumpet forth, forth-tell the consequence that would come upon them in obeying or disobey- ing God's great laws.
" The weather bureau does not guess the future, but watches conditions all over the country, and from the disposition of the winds, the rise and fall of temperature, the air pressure and the like, calculates along the lines of God's working laws, the ten- dencies and consequences of visible and immediate conditions. Let me then tell you, forth-tell you, and may I not make it fore- telling, that if you are loyal to your pastor, encouraging him in every way ; if you are faithful as church members in your meeting and greeting of strangers as they come to this church, inviting non-church goers to make a church-home with you ; and best of all, if in your daily life you show what God can do through the Spirit of Jesus Christ and His Church and His ministry to make you good, useful, joyful Christians, the future of this church will be brighter and brighter, and its last ten years be but a bud to unfold in new beauty and fragrance and fruitage in the years to come."
Dr. Babcock's portrait, in the middle parlor, is the gift of the Babcock Sunshine Circle, a band of girls in this Church organized in his memory and who are trying to live the sunny Christian life for which he was so famous.
Church Furnishings
The organ was built in 1887 by George S. Hutch- ings, of Boston, after plans prepared by Mr. J. Cleve- land Cady. It costs $1,670, and was the result of much self-sacrifice on the part of the congregation and their friends who raised the money under the leadership of Pastor McEwen. It was rebuilt and enlarged in 1905 by Kastengren and Peterson, of New York, at a cost of $600. The plans were prepared by our organ- ist, Mr. Reginald L. McAll, and approved by Mr. S. Archer Gibson, the Brick Church organist, and by Mr. J. Cleveland Cady.
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The Communion Table was designed especially for this Church by Mr. J. Cleveland Cady, and was the gift, in 1891, of ten families of the Covenant Chapel congregation who contributed $45 for this memorial to their "loved and lost awhile."
The silver communion service was presented to the Church March 7th, 1892, by our Assistant Sunday School Superintendent, Dr. Charles O. Kimball, and our Treasurer, Mr. Alfred R. Kimball, as a memorial to members of their own family. It was used for the first time April 10th, 1892, on the occasion of the or- dination and installation of Dr. Daniel H. Wiesner, as Elder, and of Mr. Charles W. Pack, as Deacon. The communion was served by Elders Charles O. Kimball, Alfred E. Marling, Henry D. Noyes, and Daniel H. Wiesner.
The women of the Covenant Chapel congregation raised $600 in November, 1892, for the new pews, which were used for the first time February 19th, 1893. The women also raised the money for the piano in the parlor and for the cushions and carpet. The pulpit, designed by J. Cleveland Cady, valued at $90, was made and presented by a member of the congre- gation, Mr. A. Grieshaber, in the Autumn of 1892.
The tablet containing the Lord's Prayer, in the front parlor, was designed and carved by Mr. Nicholas Fred- erick Loi, who united with the Church at Covenant Chapel, June 13th, 1886, and was a most faithful and loyal member until his death in the Home for Incur- ables, February 5th, 1905. The tablet was presented to Pastor Webster, February 12th, 1894, and by him given to the Church.
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FRANCIS HENRY MARLING, D.D.
The Marling Memorial Parlor
T the Thirty-fifth Anniversary service, held Sunday morning January 27th, 1901, the sermon was preached by the Rev. Marvin R. Vincent, D.D., the Scriptures were read by the Rev. Wallace W. Atterbury, D.D., prayer of- fered by the Rev. Professor Francis Brown, D.D., LL.D., and the benediction pronounced by the Rev. Francis H. Marling, D.D. As Dr. Marling came into the pulpit for this service the sun shone upon his face, lighting it up with a heavenly radiance, which was re- marked by many who saw him. Those words of bless- ing, prompted by his loving interest in this Church for many years, were the last pulpit utterances of this noble man of God. The next Sunday morning as he was walking from the manse to the Presbyterian Church at Port Chester, N. Y., to deliver a memorial address upon the Queen of England, he was suddenly called home. From 1875 to 1887 Dr. Marling was the beloved pastor of the Fourteenth Street Presby- terian Church, New York. His successor, the Rev. Henry T. McEwen, was called there from Covenant Chapel. Members of his family belonged to the Church of the Covenant and taught in the Covenant Chapel Sunday School. He was one of a great host of loving friends, who were not directly and intimately associated in the work here, but who aided it occasion- ally, and who took an affectionate and loyal interest in it. His son, Mr. Alfred E. Marling, was for sev- eral years the teacher of the Young Ladies' Bible Class. He has furnished the South Parlor, our Young Ladies' Bible Class Room, with pictures as a memorial to his father and our friend. Three of them are copies of famous paintings, "Christ in the Temple," Hofmann,
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"Christ Stilling the Storm" and "The Good Shepherd," Dietrich. The remaining pictures are enlargements of kodak photographs taken in the Spring of 1901 during a trip to Egypt and Palestine, and are illus- trative of the Scripture texts with which they are labeled. "Gethsemane, the Kedron Valley and the Walls of Jerusalem," Luke 19:37, was taken by the Rev. Dr. Maltbie D. Babcock from the western slope of the Mount of Olives. The remaining pictures were taken by the Rev. George S. Webster. "Water Wheel on the Nile," Psalm 65:9; "Plain of Sharon," "Naz- areth Oven," Luke 12:28; "Plowing at Bedrashen, Egypt," Luke 9:62; "The Wilderness of Judea," Matthew 3:3; "Samos," Acts 20:15; "Syrian Shep- herd Calling His Flock," John 10:14; "Libyan Desert at Thebes, Egypt," Isaiah 32 :2; "Olive Tree in Geth- semane," Matthew 26:36; "Galilean Fishermen Mend- ing Their Nets," Mark I:19; "Dr. Babcock at the East Gate Damascus," Acts 9:11; "Glacier and Mountains, Switzerland," Psalm 72:3; "Bethlehem Sheep Mar- ket," Luke 2:15; "Virgin's Fountain, Nazareth," Luke 2:51.
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Affiliated Churches
SERMON BY REV. WILLIAM R. RICHARDS, D.D. PASTOR OF THE BRICK PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH SUNDAY EVENING, JANUARY 28TH, 1906.
"In what place therefore ye hear the sound of the trumpet resort ye thither unto us." Nehemiah, 4: 20.
HEY were building the wall of Jerusalem; and the wall was long while these Jews were few. At some unexpected point their enemies might break in and destroy their work. There- fore Nehemiah arranged this signal of the trumpet. He shows thereby the instincts of a great soldier, for the captain who can most promptly mass his forces at the point of collision is likely to win the battle.
You have asked me to speak at this Anniversary, and to say how the work of the Church of the Covenant looks from my point of view. The serious problem before all the Christian people of New York, from my point of view, is the comparative inefficiency of the church in our great cities. In the country at large the church is gaining on the population. In 1850 there was one church for 614 inhabitants; in 1870, one for 611 ; in 1880, one for 438. Later statis- tics would probably show a similar gain. But for the principal cities the figures are, 1850, one church for 3,680 inhabitants ; in 1870, one for 5,104; in 1880, one for 5,375, a steady loss. The most distressing circum- stance is, that in the worst parts of the cities, we find the conditions growing steadily more and more un- favorable. For the few churches left in such a neigh- borhood find it increasingly difficult to maintain them- selves ; and therefore are always tending to move away to some more religious and congenial environment.
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South of Fourteenth Street there were in 1888 two hundred thousand more people than there had been twenty years earlier, but there were fourteen less Protestant churches. Very lately we have heard of one church from the neighborhood of Thirtieth Street West moving up to Washington Heights; and the old First Church itself must appeal for help from outside that it may not be forced to a similar migra- tion. So in the city the prospects of the church seem to be bad now, and constantly tending to grow worse. The trouble seems to be that there is no common man- agement such as might combine their various resources into one efficient army. Each little church is left to defend its own short section of the wall unaided. We have no Nehemiah's trumpet, and therefore our ene- mies get together more promptly than we. Yet the city possesses some immense advantages. With re- gard to many human interests we look to it for the most encouraging progress. "In the city democracy is organizing. It is becoming conscious of its powers. There the industrial issues will first be worked out," and there was a time when the Christian church also made its best showing in the cities. It was in those early centuries when Christianity was making its first conquest of the ancient world. In the New Testa- ment itself, all the great churches that we read of are in great cities, such as Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, Rome. Indeed, these centers of population became Christianized so rapidly that the word "pagan," or countryman came to mean "heathen."
Now, if we ask for the explanation of that rapid progress of the ancient church at the very point where we suffer the most discouraging defeat, we find that in those days they had just what we lack, namely a unity of management for the entire church of every great city. I will quote from a letter written some
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1,650 years ago from Rome to Antioch, in which the Bishop of the former city speaks of the rich and varied resources of his own church: "Forty-six presbyters, seven deacons, seven sub-deacons, forty-two clerks; readers, janitors, in all, fifty-two; widows and other needy more than fifteen hundred; an innumerable mul- titude of people, some of them wealthy"; all in one church organization, all following the one plan of campaign. No wonder in those days such a church moved forward like a mighty army, and made great progress against the enemy.
It may seem almost too much to expect that all the many different kinds of Christians in our immense metropolis should be thus combined in the near future into one single army; although the recent Conference of the Church Federation marked a most hopeful step toward that end. But it is not too much to hope that some of our churches might accomplish this sort of unity on a smaller scale. That, from my point of view, is the most interesting fact connected with the history of this church, whose anniversary we are cele- brating. From the first beginning, forty years ago, you had been growing up in peculiar relations of af- fectionate fellowship with the old Church of the Cov- enant, whose honored name you have now inherited. This long-continued experience had been training you to join in a similar fellowship and co-operation, when Providence so appointed, with the Brick Church in the middle of the Island, and with Christ Church far over toward the West. And so it is that we of these three churches now find ourselves set in this central strip of this great city, reaching from river to river, not as three rival armies, but one army, with one plan of campaign, able to respond promptly to the one trumpet signal, and to pour in our resources of men or money wherever they are needed most. The very thing the
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city church has generally lacked we possess. And this relationship was most happily designated by a former Brick Church pastor, Dr. van Dyke, as an "affiliation," so that we call them not "Missions" or "Branches," but "Affiliated Churches." I believe that God has made it possible for us to prove that under such unity of management, the church, like the fire department, or any other agency of human betterment, may show the greatest efficiency and success in the heart of a great city. I believe that through these forty years God has been preparing you of the Church of the Covenant to do a large share in the rendering of this immense service to the whole City of New York. Speaking of the fire department, I happen to live on the same street with an engine house; and any night in the year I am likely to be roused by the sound of that ingenious mechanism of salvation rushing past my door toward some more or less remote building, which has been threatened by this remorseless enemy. Before falling asleep again, a languid sense of thank- fulness passes through my heart that the city has or- ganized so efficiently its army of defence against fire. But what it all means was forced more vividly upon me a few evenings ago when, just as we were starting down for dinner, there came a thundering signal at our door; and as we threw it open we found the en- gines halting before our house; and the dense clouds of smoke pouring from the windows next door; and if the fire department had not been organized for the promptest service at any point of need our own house might have been in ashes. That is the kind of prompt service against the spiritual enemy that our three Churches must be rendering in this part of New York. And that brings to my mind one other thought of God's providential guidance. A man who has been married happily is apt to let his mind run over the
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past sometimes and think of the strange ways by which God has brought together himself and that one woman of all the world who was made for him. To me this reflection may be peculiarly interesting since I myself was born in Boston, and my wife in Shanghai. So I have often thought of the different men now serving as ministers of these three churches; and from my point of view I cannot refrain from thanking God for those ways of His Providence by which He brought together just these men who now find such joy in doing our work side by side, and hand in hand. So long as He may spare us to work on here together, I believe that our close association with each other will add immensely not only to the pleasure but also to the efficiency of our work. At least that is the way it looks from my point of view.
And as to these three churches, I do firmly believe that the value of the service either of us can hope to render will grow very largely out of the bond that binds us all together. God lays upon us the responsi- bility of showing how successful a fight can be waged against all the powers of unrighteousness even in a great city, when His people are thus bound together into one army of Jesus Christ.
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Forty Dears of Covenant Mercies
ADDRESS BY J. CLEVELAND CADY, LL.D. SUNDAY MORNING, JANUARY 28, 1906.
OMETHING less than fifty years ago, many families in New York were gladdened by the return of a beloved clergyman-a former pastor-from a temporary sojourn in Eur- ope, where he had gone for his health some two years before.
The feeling manifested was quite remarkable-it was as though some good fortune had come to pass- and confident hopes were expressed that he would resume his ministry in some field "up town."
There was good reason for all of these manifesta- tions of interest-for the Rev. Dr. George Lewis Prentiss, whose return was greeted with such satisfac- tion, was remarkable, both in intellect and character. When a young man, barely past his majority, he visited England and Germany, and with suitable let- ters of introduction, not only met the literary men of the time-such men as Newman, Coleridge, Faber, Carlyle, Wordsworth, Baron Bunsen, Prof. Tholuck, and others-but formed an acquaintance with many of them that was long and cordially maintained. He must have been a very remarkable young man to have interested and held the attention of men of such emin- ence. The same qualities made a deep impression on the best minds and hearts in New York during his seven years of Pastorate of the Mercer Street Presby- terian Church, and his return to the city was looked upon as a great addition to its spiritual forces and in- fluence.
I hardly need tell you that this welcome return led to the founding of the Church of the Covenant, and
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J. CLEVELAND CADY, LL.D.
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later the erection of its buildings on the beautiful Park Avenue site-and to his installation as its first pastor. The people who gathered to his leadership were those who had much in common with himself-people of unusual intellectual qualities, of refinement, and the gentleness we associate with loveliest character, and with all, intense devotion to the right, as well as to Christian service. The influence and ministration of such a pastor, and the environment of such a people had great effect upon the young growing up in the church. They caught the spiritual tone; they met together for prayer, and encouraged each other in the Christian life. On one Sabbath afternoon in each month, the young men of the church, some thirty in number, gathered in a prayer meeting of delightful character. It was generally participated in, unconven- tional, earnest and affectionate, and an admirable preparation for future service, as the devoted Christian lives of many of them afterward proved.
Such gatherings for prayer and experience among the young are invaluable. They are a commitment to the service of Christ; they encourage and develop Christian life, and are nurseries for training and bringing forward those who are to uphold the stan- dards, when the present generation has passed. More- over, the freshness and enthusiasm of such young Christians is a contagious and remarkable force, capable of much that seems quite beyond the reach of the "Fathers and Elders."
At length this strong religious interest among the young people led to a general desire for a field of labor, especially their own, and they appointed a com- mittee to seek for some hall, or place where they could start a Mission Sunday School. After much search, the room of an industrial school in East 40th Street was hired for Sabbath uses, and it was here that there
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seemed to be an inversion of the Scriptural words, "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few." On the first Sabbath, January 28, 1866, there were twelve enthusiastic "laborers," but only one pupil to suggest the harvest.
After a little time the "laborers" were settled in their quarters. Their devoted personal efforts made the place look a little more tidy and home like. Sup- pose we take a glimpse at it as it appeared in those days. We pass up a rickety flight of stairs, and along a dark narrow hall until we come to a large low room, seated with settees. This is the home of the Covenant Mission.
The wide boards of the bare floor spring under our feet, owing to a too economic construction, but they are scrupulously neat, for the young "laborers," how- ever limited their means, will not have filth for an environment. The plastered ceiling is badly cracked, and rough with many a rude patching. A piano, a little lectern for the Superintendent, a blackboard, and a "banner case," constituted the furniture. This ban- ner case, of stained pine, with its banners, was of home manufacture, and a marvel of ingenuity and boring, its chief decoration being a perforated strip, formed by the judicious use of the auger. On the walls are some large, brightly colored Scriptural Scenes, also of home manufacture. These alleged "water colors" have been produced monthly-for the education and edification of the children. Near by is the infant class room, about fifteen by twenty-five feet (seated with little seats), which three of the male leaders have made a marvelous sensation, by painting in red, white and blue. They spent several nights in accomplishing the result, and perhaps never completed a more patriotic work. The bane of the whole place, however, is that it is over a stable, the fumes of
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which, at times are disquieting, to say the least. Said a teacher of that period, "The rythmn of the singing was punctuated by the hoof-beats of the horses."
It was not the first time, however, that there was a noble birth in humble surroundings, in the close proximity to stalls and cattle.
In this case, the inferior shelter was in great con- trast to the superior teachers who gathered there. Many of them in after years became leaders in work of importance elsewhere. Leander Lovell as Super- intendent of the Sunday School of the Crescent Avenue Presbyterian Church in Plainfield, N. J., with a son on the Foreign Mission field; Farnsworth and Coit in effective service, the one in Minneapolis, and the other at Grand Rapids; Miss Grace Rankin Ward, spending a life-time as a missionary in India; Miss Adelaide Beers, afterwards Mrs. House, doing a sim- ilar life-long service in Turkey, in co-operation with her husband, who had been, for a short time, a pas- tor at the Covenant. Mrs. Elizabeth Prentiss, famous by her writings, had a large adult class, which she held with such interest that they never considered the drawback of meeting at 9:15 on Sabbath mornings. In passing, it may be mentioned that this class was organized partly for strategic reasons. It would evi- dently be embarrassing for young people to say they were too old to come to Sunday School, when a large class of the fathers and mothers were in plain view. Time will not permit the pleasant task of mentioning in detail the fine self-sacrificing work of such teachers as Sheffield, Curtis, Will Smith, Miles, Crosby, Greves, Schaff, Yewell, Hooker, Backus, Woolsey, Eastman; the Misses Low, Smith, Prentiss, Grant, Miles, Denny, Backus, Hooker, Averill, Mrs. Cady, and others of that day; they and their work will never be forgotten. To three who have remained in the
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"Covenant" from that early time, I must allude a little more particularly, on account of the great value of their services. The brothers, Charles and Alfred Kimball, in devoted and unselfish service, have been sources of strength all the way-the one a spiritual and practical force, whose fine abilities were all, and always, at hand, wherever needed; the other a master of finance (in fullest sympathy with the work), who carried his charge safely through times of stress and danger, who was never discouraged; and had the fac- ulty of imparting his healthy optimism to others. An- other name should be mentioned, that of Charles S. Mckay, who was converted in the school not long after it commenced, and has served it year after year in general service, and as Secretary, with rare and unvarying loyalty born of deepest affection.
Mention has been made of prayerfulness as a char- acteristic of the young people from whose life the Covenant Mission sprang. It never ceased, however, to be a marked feature of this work. In its early days, when the teachers were not widely separated, as Sabbath evening came on, they would informally, by twos and threes, drop into the house of the Superin- tendent, and after discussing their several experiences, engage in prayer, so naturally and informally, that prayer seemed very real, and heaven very near. A week evening prayer meeting was conducted at the Mission, and when it was well established, three "neighborhood meetings" were commenced in dif- ferent parts of the field where humble homes were open to them. Three teachers were assigned to each gathering, and they proved to be highly interesting and successful. The intimacy that obtained in them, so much greater than in a more formal service, seemed to prepare the hearts of those present, to receive the Holy Spirit. There were many conversions, as well
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