USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > Lives of the clergy of New York and Brooklyn: embracing two hundred biographies of eminent living men in all denominations. Also, the history of each sect and congregation, Pt. 1 > Part 13
USA > New York > New York City > Lives of the clergy of New York and Brooklyn: embracing two hundred biographies of eminent living men in all denominations. Also, the history of each sect and congregation, Pt. 1 > Part 13
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 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28
Hlis preaching shows the same characteristics. It is extem-
136
REV. FRANK S. DE HASS, D. D.
poraneous, and, while simple and unpretending, is very emotional. His effort is not to make a showy discourse, but it is to give utter- ance to the heart's faith, hope, and love. The argument is not defi- cient in order or comprehensiveness, and it is frequently illustrated by effective and original similes. But this is the merest shadow of the power which springs from his mellow-toned words, his trembling lips, and sometimes glistening eyes. Sincere in the doctrines which he proclaims, filled with an ardent desire to impart them to others, and with a bosom overflowing with its sympathies and attachments, he speaks from the heart and to the heart. He seems to be searching for this member, where it may nestle shrinking, saddened, and dead, that he may touch it with some quickening sense of courage, joy, and life. The preaching of Methodist ministers generally may be said to partake of this character. With Dr. De Hass, however, there is nothing of that high-wrought excitement, and that systema- tized pathos, so to speak, indulged in by so many of his ministerial associates. Ile discusses his subject with just sufficient animation to give force to his speaking, and his style of appeal to the feelings is as natural and unaffected as that of a mother to her babe. The inquirer for truth finds that the limits which exist between the pub- lic speaker and the auditor are quickly changed to the closer com- munion of friend with friend.
137
REV. THOMAS DE WITT, D. D.,
SENIOR PASTOR OF THE COLLEGIATE RE- FORMED CHURCH, NEW YORK.
EV. DR. THOMAS DE WITT was born at Kingston, Ulster County, New York, September 13th, 1791. He was graduated at Union College in June, 1808, and at the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Dutch Church at New Brunswick, being licensed for the ministry in June, 1812. His first settlement and installation was over the churches of Hopewell and New Hackensack, Dutchess County, New York, in November of the same year. After a number of years spent in this position, he removed to the city of New York, and was installed as one of the ministers of the Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church, Sep- tember 16th, 1827, of which he is now the Senior Pastor.
Rev. Dr. Chambers, also one of the pastors of the Collegiate Church, gives the following information regarding the Reformed Duteh Church of New York, commonly called Collegiate. "This," he says : "the mother church of the denomination in this country, is the oldest ecelesiastieal organization in New York, having been found- ed previously to A. D. 1640. For more than a century and a half this was the only Dutch church in the city, and, as the population in- creased, it multiplied its pastors and houses of worship. Subsequently, when independent churches were organized, each under the charge of a single person, this one, because of its plurality of congregations and ministers, became popularly known as the Collegiate Church, although this title does not appear upon its record, and has no official authori- ty. The first minister was the Rev. Everardus Bogardus, who came over from Holland in the year 1633. He was followed by ten others in regular succession, who also came from Holland, and preached in the Dutch language. In the year 1764 the Rev. Archibald Laidlie was installed, with the express view of meeting the wants of those who required the service to be in English. All the ministers who suc- ceeded him preached in English only, except Dr, Livingston and the
138
Thomas Dethit
REV. THOMAS DE WITT, D. D.
venerated Dr. Kuypers. The last sermon in Dutch was preached in 1803.
" The church of New York began its services in 1626, in an upper room, the spacious loft of a horse-mill, but after a few years erected a plain wooden building near what is now called Old Slip. In 1642 a much larger edifice of stone was put up within the fort, which stood on the plot of ground which has long been known as the Battery. Fifty years afterwards, the congregation removed to a new edifice in Garden street ( now Exchange Place ), which had been built for their accommodation. This church, which, after being rebuilt of stone, in 1807, was destroyed in the great fire of December, 1836, was the first to receive a geographical designation. After a second place of worship had been erected in Nassau street, in 1729, and a third in William street, corner of Fulton, in 1769, the oldest building took the name of the South Church, the second that of the Middle, and the last erected that of the North, a name which it still retains, although it has been, for a number of years, the farthest south by a mile of all the Dutch churches on the island, the Middle having been relinquished for sacred purposes in the year 1844."
There are eighteen congregations of the Reformed Dutch persuasion in New York. Of these the most influential and wealthy are those of the three Collegiate Churches. Their property is of large value, and the revenue, besides supporting four distinguished and efficient ministers, is also liberally devoted to city and others missions. In 1857, the Consistory employed Mr. J. C. Lanphier, a person of great Christian excellence, as a lay missionary in the down-town wards. In the autumn of that year, Mr. Lanphier originated the celebrated " Noon Prayer Meeting," still held daily in the Consistory Building of the North Church on Fulton street, "the results of which have resounded through the Christian world, and produced an impression which will never be erased from the minds of the present generation."
Dr. De Witt has been some sixty years in the ministry, and forty- five in his present pastorate. He is not in active service now, from old age, though in the full possession of all his faculties and in good health. His name stands at the head of the roll of the graduates of the Theological Seminary of the Church. He is the only survivor of the five students with which Dr. Livingston opened the Seminary in October, 1810. Dr. De Witt has been prominent in all the pro- ceedings of the church during his long career. He declined the pro- fessorship of Oriental Literature and Ecclesiastical History in the
139
REV. THOMAS DE WITT, D. D.
Seminary, but in the Board of Superintendents he has done faithful service. For more than thirty years he has been a trustee of Rutgers College, New Brunswick. He is likewise a trustee of Columbia College, New York, and from its early history he has been a member of the Council of the University of the city of New York. His name is recorded among the founders of the Board of Education of the Reformed ( Dutch ) Church, and a scholarship founded by his munificent gift bears the name and perpetuates the memory of a beloved son. He has been for years the President of the Board of Publication, also of the Board of Foreign Missions; of the American and Foreign Christian Union; of the New York City Tract Society; and Vice-President of the New York Historical Society. He received the degree of D. D. from Rutgers College, in 1828. His mastery of the Dutch language has made him extremely familiar with the his- tory and literature of his church. He has published various ser- mons, with one of which is included an authentic history of the Collegiate Dutch Church from its earliest period under the Dutch Colonial Government.
The following extract from a sermon, entitled "The Christian's Confidence in Committing his Soul into the Hands of the Redeemer," gives a very correct idea of Dr. De Witt's style :
" We learn the FREENESS, as well as GREATNESS, of the salvation which is in Christ Jesus.
"It is, by Christ Himself, dearly purchased through His atoning sacrifice; but to the sinner it is the gift of free grace, proffered and bestowed . without money and without price.' The invitation at the close of the sacred volume is, 'The spirit and the bride say come. And let him that heareth say come. And let him that is athirst come ; and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.' Jesus declared -' Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.' Paul (in Romans iii., 22) states- . The right.ousness of God, which is by faith in Jesus Christ, is unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.' Sinners under conviction are embarrassed, and do not diseem and appreciate the entire freeness of the way of access to God on the throne of grace through Christ, because they fail to distinguish between the warrant to believe in Christ and the views and dispositions requisite to embrace that warrant. The war- rant to believe is simply and wholly the free offer of the Gospel, in the freeness and fullness of the blessings of redemption to all who will accept. It isa faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save zinners. His only plea is, I am a sinner; his only claim, Jesus is the Saviour, able to save to the uttermost. The views and dispositions requisite to embrace Christ are alone a deep and just conviction of guilt and sin, an utter renunciation of righteousness of his own, and the refuge of the soul in the controlling desires to the needed, suitable, and all-sufficient salvation in Christ. The convinced and seeking sinner, delivered from his embarrassment, and discovering the new and living way in the freeness of divine
140
REV. THOMAS DE WITT, D. D.
grace, comes to Christ in the entireness of cordial dependence, and free and full surrender. His language is-
'Just as I am, without one plea, But that Thy blood was shed for me, And that Thou bid'st me come to Thee, Oh, Lamb of God, I come !
'Just as I am, Thou wilt receive, Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve, Because Thy promise I believe, Oh, Lamb of God, I come !'
"How wondrously great and free is this salvation. 'Come, for all things are ready. Well may we exclaim, ' HOW SHALL WE ESCAPE IF WE NEGLECT SO GREAT SALVATION?''
Dr. De Witt is a man of venerable, striking presence. Of a well- formed, stately figure, he has a countenance showing the most decided characteristics of the manly, upright nature. It is one of those faces that bespeaks the individual as truly and as clearly as the record of daily deeds. There is no disguise in it; no measure of dissembling, even the slightest; no expression which is not a correct index of the inward man. You see in him the fair-dealing, out-spoken, incor- ruptible man, decided in his opinions, and living up to every precept that he inculcates. ITis mouth is rather large, and, being habitually compressed, gives his face, as a whole, a stern as well as decided look. The eyes, however, are ever soft and kindly, and at the same time searching and admonitory. About the brow are to be seen the best evidences of natural ability of the highest order. It is deep and wide, and has that rotundity noticeable in those of superior mental endowments. An examination of the character and capability of Dr. De Witt will prove him true in every particular to these con- clusions, drawn from his imposing and expressive physical structure. All his personal qualities are those of the Christian gentleman, and Ins intellectual accomplishments are both varied and comprehensive. IIe is one of the foremost men, not only in his own denomination. but in the entire ministry. His long life has been given to a diligent and scholarly investigation of theological topies, and no man is more conversant with all doctrinal points than himself. He is in the strictest sense an expounder of the Scriptures and of creeds, giving to them a thoroughly critical and learned analysis. In personal inter- course he is never other than dignified, but it is accompanied with so much true courtesy and friendliness that he occasions no restraint. He is an experienced discerner of character, and is quick to appreciate and encourage those traits tending to moral and religious worth.
141
REV. THOMAS DE WITT, D. D.
The young, especially, are subjects of his almost paternal attention, and his appearance and manners are well calculated to give forec to his valuable and gentle counsels.
Dr. De Witt is a citizen of the olden time, having little eon- geniality of spirit with the new era. Looking about him, he feels as if he had been in a Rip Van Winkle sleep, so complete and yet so rapid have been the changes wrought by what men call progress. His memory is linked with the humble beginnings of half a eentury ago, and he finds it impossible to identify himself with the astonishing realization of the present. He talks about the past, he loves the society of those who delight in its reminiscenees, and in his study are to be found its memorials in furniture, books, &c. We would not have it understood that he is without appreciation of the magnifi- cent results of the well-directed energy of his countrymen, but simply that he finds himself whirled into the midst of influenees at variance with his habits and prejudiees. Standing as he does on the verge of the shore of life, he turns away from the noise and show of the rest- less, reckless present, to the contemplation of the sober, reflective past. The follies, the sensations, and the peculiar teachings of the hour do not attraet him from his evening musings over the morning and noon of a life to be, until its sunset, a true illustration of the substantial virtues of the earlier day. And to those who are watch- ing the evening which he has reached, its elosing glories seem to have lost nothing in splendor since the long-past but never-forgotten dawn.
To our view, the character of this godly and distinguished man meets exactly the poet's pieture of the exemplary preacher, as delineated in the following lines :
" Would I describe a preacher, such as Paul, Were he on earth, would hear, approve, and own, Paul should himself direct me. I would trace His master-strokes, and draw from his design. I would express him simple, grave, sincere ; In doctrine uncorrupt, in language plain, And plain in manner; decent, solemn, chaste, And natural in gesture; much impress'd Himself, as conscious of his awful charge, And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds May feel it too; affectionate in look, And tender in address, as well becomes A messenger of grace to guilty men."
142
REV. JACOB W. DILLER, D. D.,
RECTOR OF ST. LUKE'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH, BROOKLYN.
EV. DR. JACOB W. DILLER was born at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, September 25th, 1810. After pursuing a course of academic studies at the Flushing Institute, Long Island, under Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg, he remained for eight years an instructor in the Institution, at the same time preparing himself for the Episcopal ministry. He was admitted to deacon's orders in April, 1834, at St. George's Church, Flushing, by Bishop Benj. T. Onderdonk, and priest's in June, 1835, at St. John's Church, Brooklyn, by the same bishop. From 1835 to 1838 he was assistant to Rev. Dr. ("Domine") Evan M. Johnson, at St. John's, and in the latter year became rector of St. Stephen's Church, Middlebury, Vermont, where he remained until June, 1842, when he entered upon his present rectorship of St. Luke's, Brooklyn.
As early as 1835 a parish, known as Trinity Church, was organized in the eastern section of Brooklyn, then a mere rural dis- trict, by Rev. D. V. M. Johnson, the present rector of St. Mary's Church, Brooklyn, and a church was erected on what is now the site of St. Luke's. The parish languished during several years under different rectors, and was finally abandoned, and subsequently the church was sold by the sheriff. In 1842, however, the parish of St. Luke was organized, and the property was purchased, through the assistance of Trinity Church, New York, for the sum of four thou- sand dollars. Dr. Diller was called as the first rector, the church having twelve communicants. The congregation gained greatly in strength, and in 1853 an enlargement of the church was completed, at a cost of fifteen thousand dollars. A rectory was also built, cost- ing three thousand dollars. The whole property is free from debt, an encumbrance of thirteen thousand dollars having been paid in 1864. During twenty-one years of Dr. Diller's connection with St. Luke's, up to 1863, there were 1,301 baptisms, 537 persons confirmed,
143
REV. JACOB W. DILLER, D. D.
1,095 new communicants, 248 marriages, and 705 burials. The church services read by Dr. Diller from May, 1834, to June, 1842, numbered 984, and in St. Luke's, up to 1863, 8,887. Daily church services have been held for many years, and Dr. Diller officiates about one hundred and fifty times in the year. He is also the super- intendent of his own Sunday School. The last annual report of the parish shows three hundred and forty communicants, and about two hundred children in the Sunday School.
Dr. Diller received his degree of D. D. from Middlebury College, in 1861. He has published various sermons and pastoral addresses.
Dr. Diller is over the medium height, of broad, round person, and very erect. His hair and whiskers are considerably sprinkled with an iron gray, and he shows his age in everything save the surprising vigor of the physical man. He walks with the firm, elastic tread of a much younger person, and the severe toils of an extended and more than ordinarily diligent ministry have rather developed than impaired a naturally robust constitution. Like all men who are not merely hard workers, but cheerful workers, he has an abounding, overflowing good nature. In social life, if there is any possible way to penetrate you with a ray of sunshine, he is pretty sure to accom- plish it. A love of good, wholesome, refreshing cheerfulness beams forth in his countenance. His eyes sparkle and laugh as he ex- periences the enjoyment of animated conversation, always enriching it from his own never-failing resources of fancy, wit, and humor. While thus a cheerful man, with a sprightly genial nature, and ever seeking to find a silver lining in every cloud, still he exhibits no departure from ministerial decorum. On the contrary, his upper- most thought is the discharge of his holy offices, and his whole life has been a painstaking application of his energies to his Christian labor. But he is not one of those religious characters whom you invariably find in sackcloth and ashes, in sorrow, and tears, and gloom. True to his God, his church, and his conscience, hopeful and cheerful in earth's brief pilgrimage, he has seen no reason to conquer a natural buoyancy of spirits which, to his view, demon- strates a chief beauty of the regenerate heart.
Dr. Diller belongs to the section of the Episcopal sect known as "High Church," and is a most rigid observer of the ritual. He takes it in its strict letter and spirit, and rigidly enforces both in all his professional duties. His sermons, pastoral addresses, and Sabbath school instruction are comprehensive expositions of the Episcopal
144
REV. JACOB W. DILLER, D. D.
faith, and none who fall under his instruction fail to receive light re- garding every point of inquiry. This may even be called a pecu- liarity with him. He holds that every man, woman, and child should have a faith; and, having one, should understand it. His own he accepts as the true interpretation of the Gospel, and with a scholarly address and a holy enthusiasm he proclaims it, lives to illustrate it, and seeks to enlarge his beloved church. To be an ambassador of the Most High and a presbyter of the Protestant Episcopal Church with him is not a mere professional occupation, but it is to be a priest in its fullest religious sense. Principalities and powers, fame and riches, and all the world's allurements and glitter, do not weigh " in the estimation of a hair" with the perform- ance of the smallest of his ministerial functions. For him there is no human exaltation like that of rugged toil in the holy calling, and no human achievement like that of giving peace to the anxious soul. HIe preaches very effectively, but in a style altogether simple, and devoid of display.
145
REV. MORGAN DIX, S. T. D., RECTOR OF TRINITY PARISH, NEW YORK.
EV. DR. MORGAN DIX is the son of Major-General John A. Dix, and was born in the city of New York in 1827. He was graduated at Columbia College in the class of 1848, and at the General Theological Seminary in the class of 1852. He was ordained deacon in St. John's Chapel, New York, in September, 1862, by the Bishop of New Hampshire, and priest in St. Mark's Church, Philadelphia, in 1854, by Bishop Alonzo Potter, of Pennsylvania.
His first position was as assistant to Rev. Dr. Wilmer, recetor of St. Mark's church, Philadelphia. In 1855, he became one of the assistant ministers of Trinity parish, New York; 1858, assistant rector; and November, 1862, rector, having succeeded Rev. Dr. William Berrian. He received from Columbia College the degree of A. B., in 1848; A. M., in 1851; and S. T. D., in 1863. He has published several devotional manuals, numerous sermons, an essay on Christian art, a commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, and other writings.
Trinity parish is the oldest church organization of New York, with the single exception of the Reformed Dutch Collegiate Church ; the last came of the early Dutch settlers, and the other came of the English conquerors. About 1664, the first meetings were held for public worship, in a chapel within a fort on the Battery.
On the 6th of February, 1697, divine service was first performed in an edifice which had been erceted on the present site of Trinity church, on Broadway, at the head of Wall street. The rector was Rev. M. Vesey, who went to England and was married. He officiated ably and faithfully for the long period of fifty years. In 1715, Queen Anne made a grant to the corporation of Trinity church, of certain land known as the "Queen's Farm," lying on the west side of Man- hattan Island, and extending from St. Paul's chapel, Broadway, northerly, along the river, to Skinner's road, now Christopher street. This property is now the heart of the business portion of the city of New York, and is of course of great value. Some of it has been
140
REV. MORGAN DIX, S. T. D.
sold by the church, and much of it is under long leases at merely. nominal rents. The leases of a large number of lots held by Wm. B. Astor, worth millions, and only yielding a rental of some seventy dollars per year, expired in 1866. St. John's park property, an entire square opposite St. John's chapel, belonging to the corporation, and the property fronting it, was sold to the Hudson River Railroad Com- pany for a depot, at the handsome price of one million of dollars. The value of the property still owned by the church amounts to many millions. The corporation has had its title to this property as- sailed before the Legislature and in the courts, by persons who claim to be heirs of a certain Dutch woman named Anneke Jans, but it is not probable that they can ever be dispossessed. Grace church congrega- tion was much assisted in building their former church edifice on the corner of Broadway and Rector street, by the Trinity corporation. From 1745 to 1847, the loans, grants, &c., made by the corporation at the then value of land, exceeded two millions of dollars, which was more than two-thirds of the value of all that remained. Of this, one-half was leased at merely nominal rents, amounting to only four hundred dollars per annum ; and there was a debt of four hundred and forty thousand dollars.
The amount received from ground rents, pews, and other sources for many years never rose higher than $57,932 37, leaving a net income of only $33,130 to meet the ordinary expenses of the parish, the annual allowance to most of the Episcopal churches of the city, and many throughout the State. Trinity church was enlarged in 1737, de- stroyed by fire in 1776, rebuilt in 1788, then taken down, and in 1846 the present building was completed at a cost of $358,623 34. The church is entirely of brown stone and is one of the most mag. nificent in the country. St. George's chapel in Beekman street was erected in 1752. St. Paul's chapel, on Broadway and Fulton and Vesey streets, was completed in 1766. Its centennial anniversary was celebrated by the re-delivery, by Dr. Vinton, of the sermon preached as its consecration. It was built in the middle of a wheat- field, and its front was placed facing the Hudson river, as it then stood on its bank, though now several blocks distant from it. St. John's chapel, in Varick street, was completed in 1807, and at a more recent period Trinity chapel was erceted in Twenty-fifth street. All the churches erected by the corporation, with the exception of St. George's chapel are still connected with the parish. There is, beside the rector, seven assistant ministers in charge of the different churches.
147
REV. MORGAN DIX, S. T. D.
The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States has fifty- three bishops (six missionary ), 2,900 elergy, or one bishop for every fifty-five clergymen, 225,000 communicants, 24,500 Sunday school teachers, 230,000 Sunday school scholars, and contributes, for church purposes, $5,600,000 annually.
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.