USA > New York > New York City > Historical sketch of the South Church (Reformed) of New York City > Part 3
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The Sunday School was always well taught and well attended. In Murray street Mr. WILLIAM FORREST, principal of the Classical Academy, was Superintendent. With his thorough qualification he secured the respect of both teachers and scholars. The con- gregation was under great obligations to him for his long and faithful labors. For years the Hon. JOHN SLOSSON held the office when the Church was on the Fifth avenue. He had long been the teacher of the Young Ladies' Bible Class in the school. In these relations, and as Deacon and as Elder, he rendered eminent service to the Church. When he resigned Mr. JOSEPH B. LOCKWOOD was induced to take the position. In his devotion to the welfare of the school and his unwearied exertions in its behalf he greatly en- deared himself to us all.
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OF OUR SEPARATE EXISTENCE
The Infant Class, under the tuition of Mrs. Doremus and Miss Doremus, had a peculiar charm for every one.
Were it permissible I would like to speak of the ladies of the South Church among whom I always found most willing helpers in every good work.
In our Church the Exposition of the Catechism and the Form for the Administration of the Sacraments were never neglected ; we felt no inclination to neglect themes of unsurpassed interest and forms of unrivaled excellence. 1714731
One stormy evening in 1854 very few were at the Prayer Meeting. After the reading of the Scripture and prayer, the meeting became conversational. Elder Thomas C. Doremus, ever ready to communicate pleasing news, said that he had a let- ter from Mr. Harris that stated the ratification of the Treaty with Japan which opened two of the ports to American commerce. I requested him to read it. When he finished I remarked that the Dutch had once carried the Gospel into Japan and I did not see why they should not do so again. With characteristic prompti- tude he asked : " What would it require to do it ?" I answered, A Mission of at least three warm-hearted Christian men ; if pos- sible, a Minister, a medical Missionary and a master of the useful arts of Western civilization. To his inquiry as to the expense, I replied, Five hundred a year for each of the three men ; and I thought there was no use in attempting it unless the money could be pledged for at least three years. After a moment's thought he said, I will be one to subscribe five hundred a year for three years. I said, I think I can tell you who will be another if you go now and ask him, and I named Mr. D. Jackson Steward. Mr. Dore- mus went immediately through the storm, called on Mr. Steward, and received his generous subscription of $1,500. The third $1,500 was soon subscribed by others of the congregation. This provided for the three Missionaries. Subsequent arrangements pro- vided for the support of their wives. We soon found the men we needed : The Rev. Dr. Brown, a fine classical scholar, who had resided for years in the East, recommended to us by Bishop Boone of China, as one of the best teachers of the Chinese lan-
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THE SECOND QUARTER CENTURY
guage ; Mr. Verbeck, a Hollander, who when in his native land had been anxious to devote himself to Foreign Missions, and who, in this country had become familiar with engineering, with the construction of locomotives and the laying and running of rail- roads ; and a young physician and surgeon who had studied in Paris, and could speak French. Dr. Brown proved a most effi- cient man and won the esteem of all. Dr. Verbeck, I need not add, has risen to the highest posts of usefulness. Our Mission to Japan has been a most successful one. To God be the praise !
I passed nearly twenty-five years in the South Church. I preached for them some time before I became their Minister. It was my first charge. Soon after my settlement I was prostrated with typhoid fever. During my long sickness and convalescence the Church showed me such kindness as made me ever afterwards devoted to their interest. All the subsequent years of my ministry I received similar manifestations of friendliness from members of the congregation. Since then I have gathered other congregations, have seen other Churches built, have been surrounded by other friends and have enjoyed kindness in my own and in other lands, but when I look back at those first years of my ministry, their scenes all rise vividly before me. In thought, I hear again the notes of the organ sounding through the shadowy arches; I rise invoking the gracious manifestation of the Divine Presence ; I utter the salutation, "The Lord bless thee and keep thee !" and feel it returned by hundreds of friendly, faithful Christian hearts. I listen to the hymns singing to me of Christ and Heaven, and join in the sublime worship of the Doxology to God.
The first recorded step toward the removing of the Church from Murray street was taken at a meeting of the pew owners held May 10, 1847, when a committee of three was appointed to "take into consideration the subject of the finances of the Church, and the pro- priety of removing the Church building, to be sub- mitted at a subsequent meeting." After several meet-
THE CHURCH IN MURRAY STREET.
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OF OUR SEPARATE EXISTENCE
ings and much discussion, the removal was decided upon and the future site chosen. Upon the last Sun- day of March, 1848, the congregation worshipped for the last time in Murray street, and the following Sun- day occupied the chapel of the Union Theological Seminary in University Place. Here they worshipped until the first Sunday in June, 1849, when the new Church upon Fifth avenue and Twenty-first street was opened for worship.
While worshipping in this new Church, during the last year and a half of Dr. Macauley's Pastorate, the Rev. Roswell D. Hithcock, D.D., then a Professor in the Union Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, later its President, acted as Associate Preacher. His labors began in December, 1860, and were con- tinued until June, 1862.
At a Union Service, commemorative of the seventy- fifth anniversary of the separation of the South Church from the other Collegiate Churches, Dr. Hithcock thus spoke of his relation with the Church :
It is a rare and kindly Providence which prompts us to say of any period, that our recollections of it are of unmixed satisfac- tion. I can say this of the brief period of my service here : The relation which I sustained to you was one of some delicacy in more than one respect. What first impressed me in contact with the congregation was a high, delicate, kindly Christian regard for feel- ing on the right hand and on the left. I never knew a Clergyman more handsomely treated than your Pastor was in the time when I was here. Our relations were of the most delightful character; and if he had gone across the flood, I might say of him what it would be hardly delicate and proper for me to say to-day. God bless him, as I am grateful for the memory of the intercourse of
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THE SECOND QUARTER CENTURY
that time. Some of you must remember as vividly as I that awful time when the very foundations of the government seemed to be breaking up-when we were drifting so helplessly into that awful civil strife. I was myself profoundly moved, and I felt that I was called of Providence to stand here and speak outright just what seemed to me to be true and proper; and to your credit I put on record now, that I found the old Dutch patriotism here in all its vigor. And from the beginning to the end of that tremendous struggle I never held my peace. And I was conscious of a right, robust, manly, patriotic sentiment ; and I learned to respect and to love the old Dutch element, and I thank God for this pleasant memory of the past. This was my first distinct impression of this congregation. Then I got another impression-an impression of staunch loyalty to all Christian essentials, and a true catholicity and forbearance to all the non-essentials. I had heard of the Dutch Church as being somewhat strict and unbending. I had to revise all that rendering of the Dutch character. A Church which has had a history and a past like this must have a future. All the forms that we have been familiar with can hardly go with us through all the future. Christianity has suited itself to changing times from age to age. It can suit itself to changing condi- tions in any city. And a Church like this, that has stood so erect, has been so faithful to its traditions, has been so faithful to its great Leader, must have in its own history an assurance of continuance.
In January, 1862, Dr. Macauley's connection with the Church was dissolved, and for only the second time in the half century of its separate existence the Church was without a Pastor.
The Third Quarter Century of Our Separate Existence
CALL was very soon extended to the Rev. Ebenezer Platt Rogers, then Pastor of the North Dutch Church in Albany, which was accepted by him, and he was installed June 1, 1862. He was born in New York City Decem- ber 18, 1817, entered Yale College in 1833 and Prince- ton Theological Seminary in 1837. He was Pastor of the Congregational Church in Chicopee Falls, Massa- chusetts, from 1840 to 1843, when he accepted a call to the Edwards Congregational Church in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he continued until December, 1846. In 1847 he became Pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Augusta, Georgia, where he remained for six years. In 1854 he removed to Philadelphia and was Pastor of the Seventh Presbyterian Church of that city for two years, and was then called to the Church in Albany.
Under Dr. Rogers's Pastorate the old South Church greatly prospered. For many years after his installa- tion there was rapid and constant increase in member- ship and attendance; and during the whole nineteen years of his connection with the Church the most per- fect harmony and cordial affection existed between
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THE THIRD QUARTER CENTURY
Pastor and people. And no Minister has ever left a more tender memory than he was permitted to leave in the hearts of his congregation, and in the whole community. His great, abounding sympathy for others brought to him their deeply felt gratitude, and his people expressed only the truth when they wrote upon the window erected by them to his memory in the Church, "Oh ! man greatly beloved." The true history of Dr. Rogers's Pastorate is written only upon the hearts that knew and loved him ; there was no strik- ing event, no great historical movement marking his connection with the Church; but some idea of his faithfulness and of his untiring energy may be gained from these facts : 558 persons were by him received as Communicants in the Church ; 287 of them upon confession of their faith. In the revivals of 1863-4 and 1869 the Church largely shared. He Baptized 279 persons, 65 of whom were adults.
In regard to Dr. Rogers, and one of the noble women who were associated with him in the life of the Church, the Rev. Dr. T. W. Chambers, of the Col- legiate Church, thus spoke at the services of com- memoration held in 1887 :
Your last Pastor was for many years the Pastor of my youngest sister in Philadelphia, where I formed an intimate acquaintance with him before he went to Albany; and he was such a Pastor as never, I think, has been seen in this city before, nor do I think it is likely will be soon seen again. I refer to that wonderful sympathy and kindness and attention and self-sacrifice which enabled him to make himself at home in the house of every one of his people, and to exert an influence the measure of which cannot be calculated.
This Church has the credit of having produced what I take
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OF OUR SEPARATE EXISTENCE ·
to be the most distinguished ornament to Christianity, of the female sex, which this country has seen or is likely to see. And it has often been a matter of great wonder to me that there was no adequate printed memorial of the life and character of Mrs. Dore- mus, of whom it is enough to say, that while being on the one hand a wife and mother in whom nothing was lacking from begin- ning to end, she superadded to the performance of domestic duties an amount of service to the cause of Christ, at home and abroad, which is almost incredible. Every good enterprise, no matter of what name or under whose auspices, found in her a wise adviser and an efficient helper. She was like "the beloved Persis which labored much in the Lord," and yet never overstepped the limits of her sex or gave occasion to unfriendly criticism. It is an honor-a bright and distinguished honor-to this Church, to have had such a woman reared here and live here for so many years, unto the last without a spot, without anything that requires explana- tion-her own presence anywhere a blessing and a delight.
In connection with these words of Dr. Chambers it is interesting to mention that at the death of Mrs. Doremus a MARBLE TABLET was placed upon the wall of the Church, with the following inscription :
IN MEMORY OF SARAH PLATT, WIFE OF THOMAS C. DOREMUS-who peacefully fell "asleep in Jesus," January 29, 1877. Aged 74 years. She united with this Church September 11, 1823. "Well reported of for good works, she hath brought up children, she hath lodged strangers, she hath washed the saints' feet, she hath relieved the afflicted, she hath diligently followed every good work."-I Timothy, 5-20.
This tablet is erected as a tribute of affection by the ladies of the South Reformed Church.
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THE THIRD QUARTER CENTURY
In connection with this period of our history oc- curred an event which will and should always be con- nected with the name of Dr. Rogers, and bring to him the gratitude of hundreds of hearts. It was owing to his religious enthusiasm and missionary spirit that the work upon the west side of the city was entered upon by the Church, and to his untiring energy and determi- nation amid many discouragements that the building of Manor Chapel was erected. The following extract from a sermon preached by the present Pastor Decem- ber 5, 1886, gives a short account of the history of this work, which is more fully set forth in a pamphlet printed by Manor Chapel Sunday School in 1880:
On the eighth day of April, 1855, in the old hall of Chelsea Manor in the second story of the south-east corner of Twenty-fifth street and Ninth avenue, were gathered a little company of Christian workers who in faith and prayer organized the Manor Mission Sunday School with fourteen scholars. The organizers included Mr. R. G. Pardee and others of the Madison Square Presbyterian Church, with Mr. George S. Conover of this Church. The hall in which they met was during the week constantly used for the most debasing sports by the abandoned people of the vicinity. The drinking saloon beneath was a well-known refuge for all sorts of bad men, and the building had become sadly marred and dilapi- dated by abuse ; but, being the only place available, it was secured for Sundays at a rental of six dollars per month. Generous friends, however, soon obtained full possession of the room, enlarged and cleaned it, adorned its unsightly walls, and as far as possible made it fit for a place of sacred worship. The rent gradually increased to six hundred dollars per annum, and until November, 1866, the enterprise was entirely sustained by voluntary contributions.
One by one friends were raised up just in time of need. Quiet and almost secret assistance was rendered, when other sources
Rockwood Auto-type.
E. O. Rogers,
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OF OUR SEPARATE EXISTENCE
failed, by the late Mr. James Lenox, who for a time supplied the yearly deficiencies of the treasury. Another friend was found in Col. W. R. Vermilye, who, without solicitation, relieved the treas- urer when financial help was greatly needed, and by wise counsel cheered the hearts of officers and teachers. Constant contributors to the finances of the school were found among those who gave their time as well to instruction on the Sabbath, and one of this number frequently assumed the burden of expense incurred by necessary and extensive repairs on the old building. At this early day a care- ful canvass was made of the neighborhood, and within two blocks, with 244 tenements, forty places for the sale of liquor were found. Tenement house prayer meetings were speedily instituted, and a marked improvement in the character of the neighborhood soon became apparent.
In 1858 a Sunday evening preaching service was begun, and having been maintained for some time by the neighboring minis- ters, students from the Union Theological Seminary were after- ward statedly employed. Frequent visitation of the families of the neighborhood by these gentlemen, and the cooperation of an efficient Lady Missionary, besides the acquaintance of the teachers with the parents of their scholars, assured the steady growth of the school, and the secretary's report of 1860 shows an increase in the average attendance of scholars during the first five years from eighty to 225, and the number of teachers from twenty to forty, the latter representing at one time sixteen different churches.
During these years the Manor Mission looked to no particular Church for its spiritual or financial support. But when the enter- prise was thoroughly established its friends came to realize the uncertainty of voluntary and individual offerings, and began to cast about for some strong religious arm upon which to lean. And by the ordaining of Providence the South Church, then in its high- est tide of prosperity, was looking for some means of wisely ex- tending its influence. Thus it came about that upon November 25, 1866, the school and mission were taken under the fostering care of the Church. Four hundred children were then on the roll
.
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THE THIRD QUARTER CENTURY
of the school ; and the annual expense of the mission was $2,000, which was then easily raised among us, especially as for some years the greater part was given by one officer of our Church, still among us.
In 1874 the present Chapel building was completed at a cost of $25,000, of which $4,000 was raised in a fair held for that purpose, and $21,000 contributed.
Among the interior decorations then placed in the Chapel and still remaining are three Tablets containing the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the Apostles' Creed, presented by Mr. A. H. Muller, and three stained-glass windows presented by the Sunday School children of the Church.
The first service was held in Manor Chapel on September 6, 1874, but many teachers and friends of the school being then ab- sent from the city, the dedicatory exercises were deferred until November 8th, at which time several Clergymen and a large congre- gation united in the interesting service. Addresses were made by Dr. Wm. Ormiston, Dr. William M. Taylor, Dr. Rogers and others, congratulating and encouraging all who were interested in this field of labor in view of the possibilities before them. During the fol- lowing winter the evening preaching service was faithfully con- ducted by Mr. W. A. Brooks, of the Union Theological Seminary, who was called from the city in May, 1875. Others from the Semi- nary succeeded Mr. Brooks, and the missionary work has been since continued without interruption. Several regular attendants of the Chapel services had previously become members of the South Church, and some had become attached to other con- gregations. The Chapel Missionary and his associate workers felt very deeply the need of uniting the people by the bond of Church ordinances in their own accustomed place of worship ; their appeal to the Consistory of the South Church was heard, and the privilege of having the sacraments regularly administered at the Chapel was granted. From Mr. Matthew Bird, of our Church, the kind gift of a Communion Service was received, and on the fourth Sunday of January, 1876, Dr. Rogers presided at the first sacrament held in the building, at which time nineteen
¥
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OF OUR SEPARATE EXISTENCE
persons were received into membership, sixteen of them upon confession of their faith.
In May, 1879, Mr. John A. Billingsley, then a student in the Union Seminary, became the Missionary Preacher of the Chapel. This position he occupied until, upon graduation, he was called to the Pastorate of a Church in the South. His departure from the Chapel was of great injury to it-as had been the sudden de- parture of every student Missionary who had preceded him. So impressed was the Consistory with the evils resulting from these stated changes in the Preachers, and from the necessarily incom- plete work done by those who, busily engaged in their own education, could give but little time during the week to the Chapel, that in the fall of 1881, six months after Mr. Billingsley's departure, they decided unanimously to recall him and offer to him the position of Permanent Pastor. At much self-sacrifice he accepted the invitation, and has ever since labored with us most faithfully and successfully. This was a second great step in advance, equal in importance to that taken at the time of the building of the Chapel. The interested student of life at Manor Chapel, since this enlargement of its labor, sees certain growth in the quantity and quality of its members. The field is not less important than thirty years ago, when the few pioneers organized the Sunday School with fourteen scholars. The Chapel has had, however, a marked effect upon the neighborhood; and the improvement in the attendance has been so great as to give good reason to hope for the establishment soon of a self-govern- ing if not self-supporting Church.
Upon the 17th of February, 1881, Dr. Rogers re- signed the position of Pastor, owing to the failure of of his health. This resignation was approved by the Classis, April 19, 1881.
The Consistory, when accepting his resignation, adopted a minute as follows:
" This Consistory can but feebly express the warm affection
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THE THIRD QUARTER CENTURY
and personal regard of the congregation for our Pastor. Our families have been gathered and kept together in harmony and love during these many years, and in ties of close affection and personal regard for him. Our people, and their children, and children's children, will follow our dear Pastor with their prayers that God's care may be specially over and about him to sustain and direct him."
After resigning the Pastoral charge, Dr. Rogers moved to Montclair, N. J., where he passed the sum- mer in rest, but in constantly increasing weakness; and in that village, upon the 22d of October, 1881, in his sixty-fourth year, his useful life was ended, and he fell asleep. The funeral services were held in the Church, where a crowded congregation listened to words of respect and affection from neighboring Min- isters such as are rarely heard even at the biers of God's most faithful servants.
Soon after his death a memorial was placed in the Church, consisting of a beautiful stained glass window, beneath which is a tablet of marble and mosaic work bearing this inscription :
Chou Greatly Belobed !
Ebenezer Platt Rogers, D.D. Forn December 18, 1817. Called to this Church April 17, 1862. For 18 pears ber faithful minister and Deboted pastor. We entered into Rest October 22, 1881. Erected in 1882 by the Congregation.
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OF OUR SEPARATE EXISTENCE
V AY 10, 1881, the Rev. Roderick Terry was called to the Pastorate, and he was installed Pastor October 23d of the same year.
Dr. Terry was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., April 1, 1849. He was graduated at Yale College in 1870, and at the Union Theological Seminary in 1875. In the fall of that year he was installed Pastor of the Second Pres- byterian Church of Peekskill, N. Y., where he remained until the fall of 1879.
During the six years of the present Pastorate the Church has progressed slowly but with constant growth. Of the wise and honored men who supported the Church life and superintended her interests dur- ing the past quarter century, many, notably the ven- erable and devoted Elders, John Slosson, Thomas C. Doremus, Erastus C. Benedict, James M. Morison and Adrian H. Muller, have been taken from the Church below to worship among the Saints in Heaven. Their successors, men no less wise and devoted, have put their hands to the labor, and with the same spirit which Dr. Mathews found in the hearts of the faithful few who brought forward the early movement in Gar- den street, are now exerting themselves to preserve and strengthen the life of the Church, which, after seventy-five years of change, finds herself once more the " down-town " Church of the denomination. "A Church which has had such a history," said President Hitchcock, "must have a future. The wave of popu- lation moving northward has already struck its barrier, and is beginning to be refluent, and there is a better time in the near future for ecclesiastical and all other
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THE THIRD QUARTER CENTURY
interests that centre about Madison Square." In this hope and with this belief are the people of the old South Church entering upon the fourth quarter cent- ury of separate and independent existence. The gracious Hand of our God has ever been upon the Church for good ; and we believe that that same Hand will sustain her; and that blessings even in excess of the past are ready to be poured out upon the people who labor, and faithfully wait for His appearing.
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