USA > New York > History of the Church of Zion and St. Timothy of New York 1797-1894 > Part 18
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material fabric, the House of God; may fuller and ever in- creasing success attend the building of the spiritual fabric, the household of God, the 'congregation of faithful men, in which the pure Word of God is preached and the sacra- ments duly administered according to Christ's ordinance.' ' The royal priesthood, the peculiar people,' 'zealous of good works.' God's blessing rest upon the Rector and the Assis- tant-Clergy, on the Wardens and Vestrymen, on the architect and builders, the congregation and the choir, the contribu- tors of the present and of the past, the little children, and on our reverend father in God, the Bishop, to whose fostering care we already owe so much, and to whose faithful service we shall owe so much more, when the work, now fully started, shall ask its consecration at his hands.
"I send this hasty greeting from afar, but hearts are not severed which are one in Christ.
"C. C. TIFFANY.
" Rector Emeritus of the Church of Zion and St. Timothy. " FLORENCE, April 16, 1891."
In October, and until the church edifice was completed, morning service on Sundays was held in the Recital-room of Carnegie Music Hall, on Fifty-seventh Street. The parish house being finished and ready for occupancy, evening ser- vice was held there for the first time, Sunday, October 18th. May 1, 1892, upon the resignation of Mr. Chas. H. Sunder- land as organist and choir-master, Mr. Charles Winfred Douglass, Mus. B., was engaged.
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A day of gladness, a day of sacred and holy joy, long anticipated, at length arrived.
The Church of Zion and St. Timothy was opened for divine services on Easter Day (April 17th), 1892.
The services were as follows :
Holy Communion at 7:30 A.M. ; morning prayer and Holy Communion at II A.M. ; children's choral service and bap- tism at 3:30 P.M .; evening service at 8 o'clock.
The morning dawned bright and fair, giving promise of an ideal day. Not a cloud was to be seen, the air was warm and balmy, with an occasional breeze.
The stately edifice was picturesque within. The altar was hidden by palms and lilies, and tastefully arranged festoons of ferns were twined around the stone columns. Flowers and potted plants were clustered thick about the chancel, pulpit, lectern, and font.
At the early celebration of the Holy Communion more than three hundred communicants participated.
At the II o'clock service the grand, swelling notes of the organ sounded the processional hymn (281).
An overflowing congregation, numbering nearly fifteen hundred persons, testified by their presence the interest felt in the new parish.
The music was by a surpliced choir, consisting of thirty- five young men and boys, under the direction of the organ- ist, Mr. Charles Winfred Douglass, Mus. B.
The services were conducted by the Rev. Henry Lubeck, LL.B., Rector, assisted by the Rector Emeritus, the Rev. Dr. Tiffany, and by the Rev. Karl Schwartz.
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The Rector preached an Easter sermon, which was de- livered extemporaneously, and was taken down by a sten- ographer. He prefaced his sermon with a few remarks appropriate to the interesting occasion.
" My brethren, I wish you all the blessings of this joyful Easter Day. Those of us who assembled here this morn- ing at the early service, must have been gladdened by the bright sunshine, and by the loveliness and comfort of this new building. It was a service to be remembered, as is this also in which we are now engaged. What a happy coincidence, that the day which marks and proclaims the new life of humanity, should mark and proclaim something new in the history of our parish. We have room for con- gratulation, or, rather, reason for thanksgiving from the depths of our hearts, that we have this large block of build- ings, so simple, so substantial, so solid, and so sincere that in sincerity they set forth the truth of our holy religion. And not only have we these buildings, but we have them complete and entire. There is hardly anything in the whole structure, whether you take the church or the parish house with its three stories, or the various vestry rooms, that is lacking here,-such has been the attention paid even to minutest details. And then we are without debt. We are preparing to give all back, in the Consecration Service of Tuesday next, to the God Who gave it to us. We will offer it to Him as His temple, to be the 'House of God and the Gate of Heaven,' and when everything is paid for, we will possess a large fund to be kept as a permanent
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endowment for the insuring of the free church system. Thus we thank God to-day, for His goodness in enabling us to do such great things. But we thank Him likewise, for the great things they have done who preceded us in the two parishes which have been united, so as to form the one to which we now belong. The devoted laity and clergy in both, collected for us the materials with which we have builded, as David prepared and provided stones, and iron, and timber for Solomon, his son.
" They did a splendid work, and who can tell how near they are to us, or how they sympathized with our rejoic- ings ? But, my brethren, while there is something inviting in considering our own parochial blessings, while there is something to take us on and on in this field, something to assist our hearts in gratitude to God, let us remember that this is Easter Day, that it has its special lessons, and that we must not turn aside to think of other things. Will you, therefore, consider with me the second verse of the sixteenth chapter of the Gospel according to St. Mark : ' And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.'
" My brethren, the feast of the Passover lasted for seven days, and began on the evening of the last day but one of the week, corresponding with our Friday. As the sun was setting, and darkness deepening, the paschal lambs were slain ; and then on the last day of the week, corresponding with our Saturday, there was a Holy Convo. cation, and for the greater part of the day the Jews rested
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from all labor, except that which was absolutely necessary. On the first day of the week, corresponding with our Sunday, they rose up and brought the first sheaf of the harvest and waved it before God.
I.
" Note some instructive points of resemblance and difference.
" I. Our Lord was crucified on the very day of the slay- ing of the paschal lambs : therefore, as it was meet that the shadow of night should follow the sacrifice, so was it meet that a supernatural night should gather around the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, slain for our sins. In darkness He descended to the tomb. But when that was past,-when as the anti-type, He had fulfilled all that was typified of Him in the Jewish law, early in the morning, at the sunris- ing of the first day of the week, He rose up 'the Day- Spring from on High, the Sun of Righteousness rising with healing in His wings.'
"2. Again. At sunrise on the first day of the week, the Jews brought the first sheaf of the harvest and waved it be- fore God. So Christ came up from the grave-the First Sheaf of the greater harvest. This glorious truth called forth from St. Paul that marvellous burst of eloquence which has filled the earth with its music, and moved it heavenward with its power : 'Now is Christ risen from the dead and be- come the First Fruits of them that slept : For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. Therefore, my brethren, be strong, be hopeful, be brave !'
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" 3. Further. The Jewish Passover marked the deliver- ance of the Jewish people from bondage, and St. Paul, know- ing that, could say, 'Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast.' We have something to commemorate, some great historic feat to rejoice over, some splendid truth to celebrate. This, our feast, marks for us deliverance from the bondage of sin.
" 4. Note again. When Christ was born, He was born in the night. The stars shone brightly over the plains of Beth- lehem, when there came the flood of Heaven's glory and the song of Heaven's choir, with glad tidings to the shepherds, and all people. But it was morning when the resurrection occurred. Christ was born into the night of man's sin, and He remained in the world, a man with men, until He had brought in the Day. He was Himself the Rising Sun, dissi- pating forever in His resurrection the darkness that rested over our earth.
" But in ignorance of these resemblances and differences, in ignorance of the resurrection itself, the women referred to in my text, turned their faces towards their Master's tomb as night was disappearing from the sky. Night ! Its dark pall rested on the mangled corpse of Judas, traitor and sui- cide. Its gloomy folds gathered thickly around the blood- stained souls of Pilate and Herod. Its grim phantoms haunted the slumbers of priests and rulers, who for the mo- ment had gained a triumph that made them miserable, be- cause it was the maddening triumph of wrong over right. Its fleeting hours must have seemed to move so sluggishly to
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the minds of cowardly disciples, as to represent a darkness without end. But the day came, a bright and beautiful spring morning. 'The winter was past, the rain was over and gone, the flowers appeared on the earth, the time of the singing birds had come. The voice of the turtle was heard in the land, the fig tree put forth its green figs, and the vines of the tender grape filled the air with a sweet aroma.' In its opening splendor, the women, faithful to their Master, hast- ened on their way to the tomb, the loveliness of dawn being out of harmony with the sadness of their hearts. And yet, just the morning on which to meet their risen God-the brightest, happiest, most blessed day of all their lives !
II.
" It was the day of their Master's victory. Oh, how its power rushed into their souls, and lighted up, and bright- ened the world with a glory that far excelled that of the bright sun !
" I. It was a triumph of love over hatred. Christ was put to death by the priests and pharisees : they had laid snares for His feet : they had dragged Him to the judgment bar, and had crucified Him : and they gloried in the pain of His last hours on the cross. ' Surely, now,' you say, 'their malice is spent, there is nothing left for them to do.' But their venom carried them further than that, and they went to Pontius Pilate and said, 'Sir, we remember that this deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command, therefore, that the sepulchre be
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made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him away and say unto his people, He is risen from the dead, so the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch; go your way : make it as sure as ye can. So they went and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone and setting a watch.' Their hatred knew no bounds, and they took every care and precaution that it should be known to the world. But the loving Lord rose triumphant over them. And what does it mean ? That while men are to-day suffering, by reason of the intensity of human hatred and the ill that one life directs against another, this world possesses the counteract- ing Force of Another Life, and that Force shall triumph ;- and if at present we fail to see a perfect and universal union, the day is coming when men everywhere will love each other. And in the experience of your own life, while now you are fighting against the hatred that rises up with its tempest and storm, the hatred that plunges you into war with your neighbor, cultivate the little love that you have, and keep on cultivating it, for there is a pledge, a promise, a prediction, in the resurrection of Jesus, that there is love enough poured by Him into the human soul, that will correct the hatred and the misery that have made their way there.
" 2. The resurrection is also a triumph of truth over error. 'What is truth?' said the infidel Pilate, and the Sadducees might have said the same thing. They did not believe in resurrection from the dead,-but on the third day Jesus came out of the tomb, He Whom the Sadducean
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priests had slain, and they could see in the Being before them, the overthrow of their false philosophies ; and His return to life said with silent eloquence 'Behold me ! I am risen ! now with this ample evidence, say, if you dare, there is no resurrection of the dead, or that man is only a material frame.' And that same truth is to-day spreading every- where, and error is being driven out of the world fast before it. What mean you by your attendance at this service? It is to hear the truth of the resurrection, to know its con vincing power.
" 3. Then it was a victory of faith over doubt. We read in the Gospel to-day that even our Lord's own disciples did not believe that He would rise from the dead, as they did not believe He would be crucified ;- but in spite of all their doubts and questionings, He was crucified, and buried, and He rose again from the dead. Would they not say, 'Oh, if we had only believed the words He spake, what misery, what cowardice, what weakness, we would have been saved in these few awful hours.' In your life do you doubt God, my brother? Oh, never do that! Never doubt the provi- dence of the Most High, or the power of the Omnipotent One. Whatever be the sorrow, whatever the trial, whatever the anxiety, whatever the difficulty, cast your life, with all the intensity of its feeling, upon the bosom of this loving God, and when the storm has gone, and there has come out of it the brilliant sun, you will rejoice in the triumph of your faith over doubt. There is victory in the cry, 'I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me !'
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" 4. Furthermore, it is a triumph of Christianity over hea- thenism. Even the Roman soldiers, the representatives of the best civilized heathenism of their day, said, 'If thou be the King of the Jews, save thyself !' and they cast his appar- ent helplessness in his face. But Roman soldiers were the first witnesses of the resurrection. Perhaps some of the men who uttered those words were among the guard at the tomb. Before the little band of Christ's followers beheld their risen Lord, these Roman soldiers had seen Him and felt His power, fleeing before it. This signifies that gradu- ally, like the silent leaven, the pervading influence of that resurrection shall go throughout the world,-and now that more than eighteen centuries have passed since the resur- rection took place, a missionary spirit has set in, intenser than ever before. Consider that there are not wanting thou- sands, who will leave home and everything, to preach Jesus and the resurrection in the dark world, as Paul preached both in Athens.
" 5. But the triumph was carried further. It was, and is, a victory over death,-that subject that we do not like to speak, or think about, that subject that we need not speak, or think about, unless we mention and meditate on the resur- rection, at one and the same moment. Death is overcome by the resurrection of Jesus. The poet Heber said :
' Thou art gone to the grave, but we will not deplore thee Though sorrow and darkness encompass thy tomb,
For the Saviour hath passed through its portals before thee, And the lamp of His love is thy guide through the gloom !'
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" The man who to-day is busy toiling in the narrow con- fines of earthly woe, doing all he can to alleviate men's pain, spending his time on the dreary, prosy side of life, and filling it with his earnestness, is at length stricken down and can labor no more. Another, seeing the romance and poetry of human existence, lifts himself and his fellow-creatures up on the wings of imagination, and reveals a larger, brighter realm ; he sees the greatness, the good, the pleasantness of life, the expansiveness of the sphere in which we live and move. Yet while we listen to the notes of his song, and look on the wide world he opens up to our view, he falls to earth and is dead. Another, touched with the experiences of men-weeping, praying, laughing, singing, with those around him-hies him to some quiet spot and thinks out some plan for the benefit of his race,-but in his thinking, he is cut down, and the throbbing power of his life ceases and he is laid away in his tomb. You think of that when you stand in such a burial place as Westminster Abbey, among the mighty dead. You go to their graves and monuments and you know that you are on sacred soil. You turn, perhaps, to the little chapel at the West end and see three marble busts,-one to John Keble, the saintly high churchman, and singer of the Chris- tian Year ; another to Charles Kingsley, the genial, large- hearted, broad churchman ; the other to Frederick Denison Maurice, the dreamy mystic ; all great thinkers in different schools and spheres, who have blest the whole world with their thought. But they are gone ! and that ancient burial- place tells you, that even the best and the greatest of the
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sons of men must live his life a little while, and yield it up, and go. And so you say that death is defeat, death is humiliation, and the place of burial is the land of exile. But is it so, my brother ? Can you, with the love of your home, can you bear to think that the whole of the intensity of life, its good, its power, and its affection, are all of them to come to an end? You can not think it. There is an instinct in your life that tells you something better, and this instinct is absolutely proved by the resurrection of Christ.
" Mark how Christ goes to the cross,-from Ephraim to Bethany, from Bethany to Jerusalem. You listen to the words that fall from His lips,-how gloomy they are, how mournful, revealing a heart full of woe. You feel, as He pours out His sad soul in utterances that are painful but true, that He is without question 'a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief.' You know, while the shadow of the cross is over Him, that He is touched with the feeling of our infirmity, He is bearing and carrying away our sins. He knows of the sunrise of the morning of the resurrection, knows of the great day that is so near, and yet the grimness of death hangs over Him. It is an awful thing to die, to be left absolutely and entirely to oneself, and to know that the living and loving ones at your side cannot help, or lead the way through the dark valley of the shadow of death. And Christ went through it alone. One of His own disciples denied Him. Another betrayed Him. The rest forsook Him and fled. What human power was there that He could rest upon? There was none. And although He
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finally committed His spirit to God, He cried out at one time 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' Then He felt death's physical pain as well. All this, though He knew the morning of the resurrection, and the day of His triumph were at hand. And what was it for? Why did He not change the whole aspect of death itself and make -what is now revolting and hard-so lovely, so attractive, so fascinating as to create within us all an anxiety for it? My brother, the purpose of the crucified Redeemer was far better than that. His death admits the horribleness of death, but His resurrection assures you most positively, that it is worth your while to face this horribleness, on account of the inexpressibly glorious immortality awaiting your soul hereafter. Through unutterable loneliness and blackest darkness, you pass to the never-ending sunrise of life. This existence is a struggle, and death is the worst and severest part of it. But the struggle is richly rewarded in the glory and victory that lie beyond. And so here is the great mes- sage of the resurrection, the grandest, most solemn lesson that comes from the skies of our glorified Master,-do not be afraid of life ! and do not be afraid of death! There is that in immortality which will repay you. The glory of the morning will make you forget the shadow and pain of night, and the loneliness of death. Thus, the whole of our life on earth, from the day of its birth, right on through the days of its trials, and business, and worship, is filled with a new picture of humanity, and in the risen Lord you see this incontrovertible fact that there is immortality. More than
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that-you learn a new lesson : What can you get in this world unless you first suffer for it? The man who sees at the end of life, a prize, will never get it if he sits where he is; he must travel over the roughest stones and thorns, he must run with bleeding feet. He must suffer. My brother, as you stand to-day and look out over the days coming to you in the unknown future, know as you grow older, as your responsibilities increase, as the glory of some earthly reward stands before your eyes, you must be pierced by many a dart, often weighed down and crushed. But go on and suffer, and fight your battle, and then when the prize is yours you will be satisfied. What would have been the resurrection without the crucifixion ?
"So learn of Christ. Passing through experiences that were like ours-birth, childhood, youth, manhood, labor, suffering, joy and success-coming up to its grimest feature in death, going through the tomb, and rising again, He tells you that the end is not the grave, the end of life is life.
" Rise us, immortal soul, Into the light !
This is the resurrection morn ; Past is the night. This is the day of joy, Awake and sing To the praise of thy risen Lord, Victor and King. This is the day of work, Go to thy toil.
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Thine must the fierce-fought battle be If thine the spoil.
Out to thy task and on,
Peace is not yet. Shines o'er thee this resplendent sun, Never to set. Labor and think and pray Till life is o'er ; Then rest in resurrection life Forevermore."
Then followed an offertory for "The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society," which amounted to $1182.88.
The services were concluded with the celebration of the Holy Communion.
At 3.30 P.M. a choral service was held for the Sunday- school of the church and of the chapel, followed by the ministration of baptism.
At 8 P.M., evening prayer and sermon.
On Tuesday in Easter week, the church was solemnly set apart for its sacred purpose. Owing to the absence of the Bishop of New York from the country, the consecrator was the Rt. Rev. George Worthington, D.D., LL.D., Bishop of Nebraska.
The church was beautifully decorated with flowers, and the imposing ceremonies commenced with the processional hymn, "O 't was a joyful sound to hear." The Wardens and Vestrymen received Bishop Worthington at the entrance of the church, accompanied by the Rt. Rev. Leigh Rich-
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mond Brewer, Missionary Bishop of Montana, and the other clergy, among whom were the Rev. Dr. Brady E. Backus, the Rev. James W. Bonham, the Rev. E. Spruille Burford, the Rev. Dr. Cornelius R. Duffie, the Rev. Dr. Thomas Gallaudet, the Rev. William M. Geer, the Rev. Dr. David H. Greer, the Rev. Dr. Thomas R. Harris, the Rev. Dr. Eugene A. Hoffmann, the Rev. James O. S. Huntington, the Rev. G. Ernest Magill, the Rev. Dr. Newland Maynard, the Rev. Henry Mottet, the Rev. Dr. James Mulchahey, the Rev. Dr. Thomas M. Peters, the Rev. Dr. J. Shaw Shipman, the Rev. Thomas H. Sill, the Rev. J. J. Rowan Spong, the Rev. Dr. I. Newton Stanger, the Rev. James Nevett Steele, the Rev. Dr. Isaac H. Tuttle, the Rev. Dr. Maunsell Van Rensselaer, the Rev. George H. S. Walpole, with the clergy of the parish, the Rev. Henry Lubeck, the Rev. Dr. Charles C. Tiffany, the Rev. Isaac C. Sturges, and the Rev. Karl Schwartz moved up the aisle, the clergy not officiating occupying the pews reserved at the head of the middle aisle. The music was rendered by an excellent vested choir of fifty voices, under the direction of Mr. Douglass, organist. The senior Warden read the following instrument of donation :
" In the name of God, Amen !
" We, the Rector, Wardens, and Vestrymen of the Church of Zion and St. Timothy in the City of New York having by the good providence of Almighty God erected a Church in West Fifty-seventh Street in the twenty-second ward of
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said city, do hereby appropriate and devote the same to the worship and service of Almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, according to the provisions of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, in its ministry, doctrines, liturgy, rites, and usages, and by a congregation in communion with said Church and in union with the convention thereof in the Diocese of New York.
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