USA > New York > History of the Church of Zion and St. Timothy of New York 1797-1894 > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20
100
ZION CHURCH.
Upon concluding his address, he spoke touchingly to the children of the Protestant Episcopal Orphans' Home. These children, numbering seventy-eight, attended Zion Church because of its nearness to the Home. They were striking examples of good order and devout attention, and merited and received the sympathy and regard of the entire congregation. The children arose and stood during the delivery of his parting words.
The following day he tendered his letter of resignation to the Vestry :
" NEW YORK, June 12, 1859.
"TO THE WARDENS AND VESTRYMEN OF ZION CHURCH, NEW YORK :
" GENTLEMEN :
" A tie which has existed thirteen and a half years cannot easily be broken. The causes of my attachment to Zion Church are too many to allow me to separate myself from it without pangs amounting almost to agony. But I am constrained to listen to the voice of duty. I am called to the Rectorship of St. John's Church, Santa Cruz, W. I., a parish comprehending fifteen hundred communicants and several thousand souls. The opportunities for usefulness it offers must be very great. All who have a right to advise me, urge me to accept the invitation on the ground of my personal fitness for the field. Thus influenced, I offer you my resignation. To yourselves personally, gentlemen, I acknowledge myself indebted for many acts of kindness.
IOI
REV. RICHARD COX.
Not the least have been a cordial and harmonious co- operation in all I have attempted to do for our Parish, and a liberal estimate of my efforts to make full proof of my ministry. Praying for your individual, temporal, and spiri- tual prosperity, and for the best and holiest success of Zion Church and its people, I am
" Affectionately yours in Christian Bonds, (Signed) " RICHARD COX."
The Vestry in accepting the resignation of their Rector passed the following preamble and resolutions.
"WHEREAS, The Rev. Richard Cox, Rector of this Church, has informed this Vestry that having been called to the Rectorship of St. John's Church, Santa Cruz, W. I., he has been influenced by the great opportunity for usefulness thus offered, to accept the same and consequently tenders the Vestry his resignation.
" Resolved, That though the separation is painful it does not become us to interpose an obstacle to his assuming the charge of a parish comprehending fifteen hundred com- municants and several thousand souls and that therefore his resignation be accepted.
" Resolved, That we entertain a deep conviction of the talents and attainments of the Rev. Mr. Cox fitting him as they eminently do for usefulness and success in the pul- pit and other ministrations of a Parish, and of his very high order of executive ability directed by an earnest and dis- criminating zeal.
IO2
ZION CHURCH.
" Resolved, That it is to his laborious and self-denying services we are mainly indebted, under God, for the temporal and spiritual success with which our Parish has been favored.
" Resolved, That we take pleasure in testifying that as dur- ing his Rectorship of more than thirteen years his labors have been abundant, so has his life uniformly been above reproach and consistent with his calling.
" Resolved, That we hereby appropriate to the Rev. Mr. Cox, the sum of twenty-five hundred dollars in token of the gratitude and affection we owe him, and we assure him that notwithstanding his removal to a distant Church we shall continue to hold ourselves united to him in the bonds of Christian fellowship and affection."
We have already spoken of the kindness of the old Lutheran trustees toward their first pastor, the Rev. Mr. Strebeck, in offering him as a mark of their esteem the occupancy of the parsonage for a year after his resignation. We have just recorded another striking example of Chris- tian liberality. These incidents we record with pleasure.
The Rev. Mr. Cox devoted himself to the work in his new field with the most untiring zeal. At her altars he stood until complete physical prostration absolutely compelled him to return to his native clime. But he came home to languish and die. His earthly work was done. Al- though desirous to live for the sake of the good work to which he had devoted himself, he submitted in hum-
103
REV. RICHARD COX.
ble resignation to the will of God. During a long and painful illness, he waited in patience for the end, unap- palled at the steady approach of death. And when the last conflict came, he departed in peace, having "The confidence of a certain faith and in the comfort of a rea- sonable religious and holy hope." He entered into rest on Sunday, December 16, 1860, in the 53d year of his age and the 25th of his ministry. The last official act of the Rev. Mr. Cox was the baptising of an infant in Zion Church, October 19th, 1860.
His funeral took place at Zion Church, December 18th.
The Rt. Rev. Bishop Potter, the Rev. Wm. E. Eigen- brodt, the Rev. P. T. Babbitt, the Rev. I. A. Williams, and the Rector, the Rt. Rev. Bishop Southgate, took part in the services. The burial was in Trinity Cemetery.
The Vestry, upon the death of their former Rector, passed the following preambles and resolutions :
" Whereas it has pleased the Lord and Giver of Life to remove from this world by death, the Rev. Richard Cox, who for nearly fourteen years prior to June 1859 was the Rector of this Church, and to whose influence and exer- tion under Providence the Parish is chiefly indebted for our present beautiful Church Edifice, long to remain, we trust, a monument of his industry and faithfulness.
" And whereas, it is most fitting and proper that an ex- pression of the sense of this Vestry in reference to one whose decease in the midst of his usefulness was hastened, there is
104
ZION CHURCH.
every reason to believe, by his earnest and untiring devotion to the interests of the Church, therefore
" Resolved, That in the death of the Rev. Richard Cox the Church has lost one of her most sincere, active and in- defatigable ministers, who from the time of his entrance upon the duties of his sacred calling until his decease was constantly laboring in sickness as well as health, to dis- seminate and extend the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and to promote the prosperity of his Holy Church.
" Resolved, That the Rector and two other members of this body to be selected by him, be a committee to cause to be erected at the expense of this Vestry on one of the walls in the interior of the Church a monumental tablet with a suitable inscription commemorative of the clerical life and labors of the Rev. Richard Cox."
The mural tablet thus ordered was placed over the door entering the Vestry Room, and is inscribed as follows :
IN MEMORY OF THE REV. RICHARD COX,
FOURTEEN YEARS RECTOR OF
ZION CHURCH.
BORN DECEMBER 17TH, 1808.
DIED DECEMBER 16TH, 1860. THIS CHURCH BUILT BY HIS SKILL
AND ENERGY IS THE NOBLEST MONUMENT OF HIS MINISTRY. ERECTED BY THE VESTRY.
TRt. TRev. horatio Southgate, D.D.
Horatiosouthgate.
RT. REV. HORATIO SOUTHGATE, D.D., THE FIFTH RECTOR.
B ISHOP SOUTHGATE, was elected Rector August 5, 1859, and entered upon the rectorate September Ist.
Another bright prospect awaited this parish under the ministrations of its distinguished head.
Bishop Southgate was born July 5, 1812, in the city of Portland, Maine, graduated at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, in 1832, then studied in the Theological Seminary of the Congregationalists, in Andover, Massachusetts. In 1834 he was confirmed in St. Peter's Church, Boston, by Bishop Griswold, and admitted to Holy Orders July 12th of the following year, in Trinity Church, Boston, by the same Bishop. Shortly afterwards he was appointed by the foreign committee of the Board of Missions to make an investiga- tion of the state of Mohammedanism in Persia and Turkey. On that duty he sailed from New York, April 24, 1836, and was occupied some time in this field of research. Upon his return to the United States, December 30, 1838, he was advanced to the priesthood October 3, 1839, in St. Paul's Chapel, New York, by Bishop Benjamin T. Onderdonk. In May of the following year, he again sailed for the Orient,
105
106
ZION CHURCH.
arriving at Constantinople during August. After a tour through Mesopotamia, he left for America May, 1844.
The Episcopal Church having resolved to send bishops into the foreign missionary field, the Rev. Mr. Southgate was appointed by the General Convention as Missionary Bishop for the dominions and dependencies of the Sultan of Turkey, and was consecrated in St. Peter's Church, Phila- delphia, October 26, 1844. In 1845, he again took his de- parture for Constantinople, where he continued his Episcopal labors without intermission until 1849, when he returned to the United States.
Bishop Southgate received the degree of S. T. D. from Columbia in 1845, and the same from Trinity College in 1846. At the first Convention of California held in Trinity Church, San Francisco, July 24, 1850, he was elected bishop by the concurrent vote of the clergy and laity. He, however, declined the invitation.
On September 20, 1850, while at Portland, Maine, the Bishop addressed the following letter :
" TO THE HOUSE OF BISHOPS OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCO- PAL CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
" REV. FATHERS IN GOD :
" It has become my duty to inform you of a purpose to which the Providence of God has led me, and which involves a necessity for your deliberation and decision. It has pleased Almighty God to visit me with a sore bereavement, which, in addition to the affliction attending it, renders it
IO7
RT. REV. HORATIO SOUTHGATE, D.D.
impracticable, in my view and in the judgment of my nearest friends, that I should return to my field of labor in Turkey. I am left with five young children, entirely de- pendent upon me and requiring my paternal care. I can neither take them with me to Turkey, nor leave them here under such superintendence as would justify me in resigning my parental charge. It seems to me therefore, my duty, after careful inquiry and consultations with relatives and others most interested and most able to advise me in such a matter, to abandon the hope, until recently cherished, of returning to Constantinople.
" This being settled, the next step seems to me plain and simple. As I cannot exercise the office which the Church has conferred upon me, the only upright and honorable course appears to be to resign it. I was elected to the Episcopate to serve the Church in Turkey. My consecra- tion was in view of this object. I hold my Missionary Bishopric in that country for no other purpose. Having then, in the all wise Providence of God, been prevented from continuing in the exercise of the office and having no sure prospect of ever resuming it, I deem it my duty to resign it. This is the course which commends itself to my judgment and my feelings. Though the question might easily be embarrassed by private and personal considerations, and though I feel most painfully the act which cuts me off from all connexion with a work in which some of the best years of my life have been employed, and which has still my warmest interest, the decision which I have adopted
108
ZION CHURCH.
appears to me alike honorable and just, and in this view alone have I chosen it-leaving all doubtful and perplexing ques- tions to the wisdom of Him who has placed me in the position in which I am called thus to act.
"I do, therefore, present to you my resignation of the office of Missionary Bishop in or at the Dominions and De- pendencies of the Sultan of Turkey, to which I was elected by joint vote of the House of Bishops and the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies in the General Convention of 1844, and I respectfully ask you, Reverend Fathers, if so in your judgment it seems best, that this my resignation be accepted.
" HORATIO SOUTHGATE."
His resignation was accepted by the General Convention on October 12th.
Bishop Southgate resumed the duties of a presbyter, and during the following year organized in his native place the parish of St. Luke's, which has since become one of the strongest and most flourishing churches in that diocese, and is now the cathedral church of the diocese. In 1852 he was called to the Church of the Advent, Boston, as the successor of the lamented Dr. Croswell. He held this cure for nearly seven years, approving himself as a discreet and faithful pastor, and a bold and able defender of church prin- ciples. Among his chief labors in this parish was the con- troversy which he found pending between the Bishop of that diocese (the Rt. Rev. Manton Eastburn) and the
109
RT. REV. HORATIO SOUTHGATE, D.D.
Church of the Advent (which was printed in Boston, 1856). Through his determined efforts, and upon a memorial from the Church of the Advent approved by the entire deputa- tion of that diocese, the General Convention of 1856 adopted a revision of the canon relating to Episcopal visita- tions. When the Bishop of Massachusetts returned from the close of its sittings to his diocese, he, with a prompt- ness that did him credit, at once assigned a day for admin- istering confirmation in the Church of the Advent. On the third Sunday in Advent sixty-three candidates were confirmed ; thus ended a conflict of eleven years in peace, joy, and gratitude.
In 1858 Bishop Southgate resigned the rectorship. In the autumn of 1859 he assumed the rectorate of Zion Church.
His chief publications are : Narrative of a Tour through Armenia, Kurdistan, Persia, and Mesopotamia (2 vols., New York, 1840) ; Narrative of a Visit to the Syrian Church of Mesopotamia (1844); Parochial Sermons (1859) ; The War in the East (1856). This volume is a masterly review of the questions involved in the Russian and Turkish war, defen- sive of the position of the former power. It was extensively circulated in this country and in Europe, and quoted in Parliament by Earl Gray as unanswerable. He also pub- lished Practical Directions for the Observance of Lent (1850); The Cross Above the Crescent, a Romance of Constantinople (Philadelphia, 1877). He has also contributed freely to the religious reviews and journals. He speaks the Turkish,
IIO
ZION CHURCH.
German, Italian, and French languages, besides being a classical and Hebrew scholar.
His Oriental mission was everywhere appreciated; he strengthened the bonds of true Christianity, which is uni- versal brotherhood. Bishop Southgate has since 1887 been the senior bishop in order of consecration (1844) in the Anglican communion throughout the world.
The Rt. Rev. incumbent commenced his labors in Zion on Sunday morning, September 4th, by officiating to a crowded church, and administering the Holy Communion to a large number of communicants. The Rev. Prof. Hackley, of Columbia College, read as far as the Creed, and the Rev. Dr. Price the concluding prayers. The Rev. Mr. Harriman, agent of the Church Book Society, was also present in the chancel. Bishop Southgate read the Ante Communion, the Rev. Mr. Capron, Rector of Grace Church, Quincy, Illinois, reading the Epistle. Those present who had familiarized themselves with the circumstances attend- ing the origin of St. Stephen's Church, to which we have elsewhere alluded in this history, could not fail to appreciate the peculiar propriety and deeply interesting character of the participation of the Rev. Dr. Price, the able, devoted, and energetic Rector of that parish, in the services of this interesting occasion.
The sermon was preached by Bishop Southgate from a portion of the Epistle for the day : "By the grace of God I am what I am not I, but the grace of God which was with me." I Cor., xv .: IO. It was an able discourse
III
RT. REV. HORATIO SOUTHGATE, D.D.
on the ministry of the church : the source of its commission, the nature of its work, its duties, trials, and responsibilities, and its chief dependence for success upon the grace of God, blessing the faithful discharge of ministerial labor. The Rt. Rev. preacher showed that the Apostle had reference here to the ministry, from which it appears that the ministry and its results are by the grace of God; that the object of the Apostolic Succession is to connect the office with the original gift of God; that the Divine gift which is thus con- veyed must be used by the minister with entire dependence upon God for the issues of his ministry; with an habitual feeling of his own unworthiness of being called to a work so closely connected with the Deity, and with a spirit free alike from vanity and discontent, since the work and its results are not his own. He then proceeded to mention some conditions of God's blessing, particularizing especially fidelity and devotedness on the part of the minis- ter, and a faithful reception of the means of grace on the part of the laity. Under this last head, he exhorted his own congregation to rely upon the means of grace as being of Divine appointment, to depend upon the office of the minis- ter rather than upon the individual man, and to remember that as God alone can give the increase, His blessing is to be expected only upon a faithful, punctual, and prayerful reception of His ordinances. The sermon concluded with a hopeful picture of the future of the parish under the fulfil- ment of this double condition of the united fidelity of Rector and people.
II2
ZION CHURCH.
We extract the following from the first parochial report of Bishop Southgate to the Diocesan Convention :
" The Rector cannot conclude his report without bearing a cheerful and cordial testimony to the great value of the labors of his predecessor, the Rev. Richard Cox. Able and energetic, he strengthened the foundation of the Parish by the erection of a Church, which, built chiefly through his perseverance, skill, and extraordinary business talent, will remain to future generations a monument (and who could desire a better) of his industry and faithfulness. The financial competency of the Parish is largely his work. And the general regard which the old parishioners retain for him shows that he combined with executive ability the higher fidelity of a spiritual pastor."
When Bishop Southgate assumed the rectorship, the uninhabited region in which his predecessor patiently toiled was marvellously transformed, being almost covered with elegant and costly brown-stone dwellings. These were mostly occupied by their owners, many of whom became attached to the parish and remained connected therewith
for many years. The Rector's well-known powers and scholarly attainments eminently qualified him as an able ยท expounder of the Church's doctrines, and soon attracted a large and permanent congregation, chiefly composed of churchmen, intelligent, cultivated, and of ample worldly means.
On Sunday, April 7, 1861, the Rector preached a parish sermon giving a statistical review of what had been accom-
II3
RT. REV. HORATIO SOUTHGATE, D.D.
plished since he had taken charge of the parish, a period of about nineteen months. The sermon opened with an ex- tended and beautiful analysis of the parochial system, and the mode in which it may be made to supply all the church's wants. Special emphasis was laid upon the fact that in this parish the charities were conducted without societies, the chief agents being persons appointed by the Rector himself to aid in their several departments.
The Parish Register shows :
Baptized, 71 ; confirmations, 71 ; communicants, 220.
Parishioners, 600,-about 360 of whom had come into the parish since he became Rector. The Rt. Rev. Rector resumed the subject the following Sunday, with special reference to the missionary work in which this parish had so zealously engaged during the past year.
In the summer of 1860 a missionary was employed to explore that part of the city lying between and including Thirty-eighth and Forty-seventh Streets on the East River. The result of this exploration, which was very thorough, was the discovery of eighty-nine Church families numbering five hundred souls, of whom about half were adults, living wholly without the means of grace. Besides these there were seventy-four families (about 450 souls) unconnected with any denomination, but willing to join the church, and forty- five families formerly belonging to some denomination, but now without a place of worship of their own, and not likely to have one. These were chiefly Lutherans, and it was peculiarly appropriate that Zion, once a Lutheran society,
II4
ZION CHURCH.
should take charge of them. But in the whole district it was impossible to rent a room suitable for a Sunday-school or for public service. In this dilemma it was thought best to unite our efforts with the Church of the Atonement, then occupying a large room on the second floor of Second Avenue, northeast corner of Thirty-third Street. This church had its own parochial organization under the rectorship of the Rev. Matthias E. Willing and was doing an admirable work, though it sadly wanted qualified teachers for its rapidly increasing Sunday-school. Since its organization this parish had been chiefly maintained by the zeal of a single layman.
On Palm Sunday, 1861, the object was formally presented to the congregation of Zion, and $1440 was given on the spot for the support of this missionary work for the year. The Rector assured his people that it was one of the dearest consolations they could give him, to know that though Zion was, and he presumed was destined to remain, a pew church, she yet entirely supported another church in a section where it was so greatly needed.
The first anniversary of the Church of the Atonement was held on the afternoon of the same day (Palm Sunday). The statistics are as follows: Baptisms, 60; confirmed, 31 ; communicants, 100; parishioners, 400. The further growth of this work must necessarily be retarded until more ample and eligible accommodation could be obtained.
We here copy a sermon preached in Zion Church, May 5, 1861, by the Rector :
115
RT. REV. HORATIO SOUTHGATE, D.D.
"Subjection to the powers that be : a Christian duty."
This sermon attracted so much attention that its publica- tion was requested. It was delivered soon after the first gun was fired upon Fort Sumter, garrisoned by United States troops. Upon its surrender, April 13th, President Lincoln instantly called for 75,000 militiamen, for three months' service.
SERMON.
ROMANS, XIII., I, 2.
The powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever, therefore, resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God.
These words lead us, naturally, to consider the duty of the Christian to those who are over him in civil authority. That they afford a fitting theme for the teaching of the pulpit, is evident from the fact that they are themselves a part of the instruction given by an Apostle to Christians under his spiritual oversight. It is, also, evident from the fact that Christians have duties to civil government as Christians. Their holy religion teaches them how to apply its principles to the various relations in which they stand in life, and, among others, to the relation which they hold towards the civil power; and, inasmuch as it is the duty and the office of the ministers of the Church to set forth the obligations of Christians, in all their different aspects and applications (at least, so far as the word of God teaches them), so, as that word does plainly teach how the Christian
116
ZION CHURCH.
is to behave himself towards those who are in authority over him, the ministers of the Church, at the present day, can hardly be excused from giving the same instruction.
You will see at once the difference between such teach- ing and what is commonly called "political preaching." This involves no discussion of political theories or particu- lar acts of governmental policy. It simply lays down the rule of the permanent, abiding, and regular duty of the Chris- tian to civil authority ; as it does that of the child to the parent, the wife to the husband, the servant to the master, &c. The function of the minister, in enforcing it, is limited by the terms of Scripture. He cannot, rightfully, go be- yond the Word of the Lord to say less or more. And, if he keeps himself within that limit, there is no danger of his verging into the forbidden field of temporary or local politics. The duty which he enjoins is one which, once declared by the word of God, is the same, in all ages, under all forms of government, and in every condition of civil action and polity. It is a permanent duty, towards a permanent institution, without regard to the formal changes which that institution may undergo in different ages and in different countries.
This leads me to my first remark in the discussion of our present subject. The Bible does not indulge in theories of civil government. It assumes civil government as an exist- ing fact, and says that it has divine sanction and ordina- tion. "The powers that be," the powers which actually are, " are ordained of God." It does not allow the Christian
II7
RT. REV. HORATIO SOUTHGATE, D.D.
to look beyond. His duty to civil government is, in its performance, to be rendered to the government under which he lives. He is not at liberty to consider whether it is a government that pleases him, in its form or manner of action. As a Christian, he has a duty towards civil government ; and that duty is practically to be fulfilled towards the government under which, in the providence of God, he finds himself placed.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.