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 21
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 21
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The First Society has a large and tasteful edifice on Thirty-fifth street, between Park and Lexington avenues, and is the only organi- zation of the kind in New York. There are one hundred and fifty members, and the attendance is about four hundred. The Sunday School has over one hundred scholars. The congregation own three lots, and the original improvements cost about sixteen thousand dol- lars, all of which was paid. The church has been enlarged at an ex- pense of seventeen thousand dollars.
The New Jerusalem Church is founded on the doctrines first broached by Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish philosopher and re- ligious writer, who was born in Stockholm, January 29th, 1688, and
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died in London, March 29th, 1772. His first religious work, pub- lished in 1749, under the title of " Arcana Celestia ;" or, " Heavenly Arcana which are contained in the Sacred Scriptures, or Word of the Lord, laid open, beginning with Genesis, together with Relations of Wonderful Things seen in the World of Spirits and the Heaven of Angels."
He says, in regard to this work : "It is not unknown to me that many will say that a man can never speak with the spirits and angels while he lives in the body ; and many that it is fantasy ; others that I relate such things to gain credit ; and others other things; but I do not hesitate on this account, for I have seen, have heard, have touched." He published his last work at Amsterdam, in 1771, under the title of " The True Christian Religion, containing the Uni- versal Theology of the New Church foretold by the Lord in Daniel, chap. xii, 13, 14, and in the Apocalypse, chap. xxi, 1, 2." When on his death-bed, he was asked " to declare whether all he had written was strictly true, or whether any part or parts thereof were to be ex- cepted." He replied with warmth : "I have written nothing but the truth, as you will have it more confirmed hereafter all the days of your life, provided you always keep close to the Lord, and faithfully serve him alone, in shunning evils of all kind as sins against him, and diligently search his Word, which, from beginning to end, bears incontestible testimony to the truth of the doctrines I have delivered to the World."
"There are a number of well authenticated eases in which Swe- denborg communicated facts," says another, " his knowledge of which is deemed by the receivers of his doctrines wholly inexplicable with- out supposing him to have had communication with the spiritual world. He never sought, however, to make any demonstration of this knowledge, nor does he anywhere in his published works appeal to them as evidenees of his mission or the truth of his doctrines. "They seem to have been mere incidents of his life."
The following account is given of the comparative increase and forms of the New Church :
"A century has elapsed since the commencement of the New Church, and the number of those who openly profess to be receivers of its doctrines and members of the church is still comparatively small. It is greatest in the United States and England. These doctrines find, however, zealous advocates in France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, and indeed, in almost every portion of the Christian world. In England there is a General Conference of the New Church, which holds an annual session in different parts of the kingdom. In the United States there is
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also a General Convention of the New Church, which meets annually in different places. There are church societies in both countries not in connection with these organizations. The General Conference has published a liturgy which is very gen- erally used in England. A liturgy has also been published, and from time to time revised, by the General Convention of the New Church of the United States. Several periodicals, both in England and America, are devoted to the elucidation and dissemination of its doctrines, and various able writers have published works for the same purpose. In the public worship of the New Church, in this country, generally speaking, no prayer but the Lord's prayer is used. The music consists mostly, and in many places entirely, of chants and anthems, the words of which are taken from the sacred Scriptures. The liturgy of the General Convention, be- sides the liturgized portion of the Book, contains two hundred and forty pages of scriptural selections, with suitable chants and anthems. The words of Scripture are regarded by the New Church as possessing an influence and a power in worship, whether in prayer or singing, altogether above those of any merely human composi- tion."
The New Church was first established in the United States about 1820, in Baltimore. It is strongest in Massachusetts. The New Jerusalem Messenger, the organ of the denomination, is published in Boston. There is one society in New York, another in Brooklyn, and another in Hoboken.
Mr. Giles is regarded as one of the most powerful writers of his denomination. He is the author of several books respectively en- titled " The Incarnation, Death, and Mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ ;" "The Nature of Spirit, and of Man as a Spiritual Being ;" " Heavenly Blessedness, Meet it is, and How Attained; a Series of Discourses on the Beatitudes ;" "Vital Questions Answered," and of many published sermons.
In his personal appearance Mr. Giles is plain and unassuming, with much of the clerical dignity. He is under the medium height, well-proportioned, and active. He is evidently one of those men who can endure a great deal of patient labor without feeling it any tax upon a strong and vigorous body and mind, and also one of those who prefer to make no parade of anything that is accom- plished. His head is round, with a prominent brow, and otherwise intelligent and amiable features. His manners are courteous and friendly ; but there is always a reserve and modesty about him, un- less he is specially brought forward. He has a mild and cheerful disposition, and a frankness and amiability which are particularly engaging with young people, over whom he has always exerted a most happy influence both as teacher and minister.
Mr. Giles is an interesting and impressive preacher, without the slightest effort on his part at anything like display. Indeed, his lan .
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guage and manner are simple and undemonstrative in the extreme, but characterized by a great deal of religious solemnity. His ser- mons are replete with argument-sometimes, too, of a deeply meta- physical character ; but the great feature is a tender and affecting elueidation in regard to those impulses in the human mind and heart which are to be trained into the fully developed religious na- ture. The earnal and the spiritual conditions, the sins which debase, and the perfect love which elevates. the soul's yearnings for the higher state of heavenly beatitude, the road by faith and works to attain it-all these, and others, are the constant themes which absorb the mind of the Swedenborgian minister. Mr. Giles, like all his brethren in that ministry, diseusses them in a manner which is most likely to arrest the attention of the reflective hearer. They do not desire to effeet eonversion by the powers of oratory or rhetorie, but by establishing the doetrines as aeeepted and understood truth in the mind and conscienee. They appeal to intelligence, to conviction of moral and religious duty, and to the impulses of human nature, sof- tened and bettered by the baptism of love and religion. In making all this plain there is abundant room for the use of learning, but more especially for the exercise of keen powers of theological and philoso- phieal reasoning. The Swedenborgian ministers and authors excel in these partieulars, and the people at large are noted as a most in- telligent class of believers.
Mr. Giles is greatly esteemed, not only for his intellectual talents, but for a consistent, upright private life. He became a convert to his partieular faith by a long and earnest course of investigation, and since its publie adoption he has always sought to exemplify his doc- trines, as far as possible, by his daily practices. He has a stern re- solution in maintaining his principles, and a deep conscientiousness in regard to all his aetions. While he is without a vain and selfish ambition, still he is desirous to achieve a distinction which may be useful to his denomination and the cause of morals and religion gen- erally. To this end he has already devoted his fine intellectual abilities as a writer and preacher, with a success which is affirmed by the popularity of his literary works as denominational books, and his high position as a pulpit expounder.
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REV. A. D. GILLETTE, D. D.,
OF THE AMERICAN AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY, NEW YORK.
EV. DR. A. D. GILLETTE was born at Cambridge, Washington county, New York, Sept. 8th, 1807. He is one of four brothers who entered the ministry, only one of whom beside himself is now living. His education was obtained at the District School and the Greenville Academy, Washington county. He pursued a theological course at Madi- son University, and also privately, likewise enjoying the privileges of a university student at Union College. In September, 1831, he was ordained at Schenectady, and installed as pastor of the Baptist church in that city, where he remained nearly four years. He be- came pastor of Sansom street Baptist Church, Philadelphia, in May, 1835, in which position he continued until 1839, when he went to the Eleventh street church, a congregation formed out of the Sansom street organization. In 1852 he was called to New York, to take charge of Calvary Baptist Church, now in West Twenty-third street, but formerly known as the Broadway Baptist Church. He received the degree of A. M. from Union College, and that of D. D. from Madison University. Many invitations have been addressed to him to take other positions in the pastorate, and from various institutions. Ile was twice, in an interval of four years, elected chaplain of the University of Virginia, at Charlottesville. He wrote, in conjunction with his elder brother, Rev. W. B. Gillette, a memoir of Rev. D. H. Gillette, and is also the author of a life of Dr. A. Judson, of Burmah, several pamphlets, published sermons, and some fugitive poetry and prose in newspapers and magazines. He introduced the missionary, Judson, to the lady who subsequently became his wife, and he en- joyed relations with them, and the cause in which both were distin- guished, of the most intimate nature.
In January, 1864, he left Calvary Church to become the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Washington, D. C., where he remained
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five years. Having lost his health he went to Europe, and passed a year am agreeable relaxation. After his return he took the pastoral care of the Gethsemane Baptist Church, Brooklyn, for a year and eight months. He then became Corresponding Secretary of the American and Foreign Bible Society, which position he still holds.
Dr. Gillette is slightly above the average height, and broad in proportion. His complexion and hair are light. ITis manners are easy and cordial, and his conversation is fluent. He evidently makes no claim to unusual dignity, but desires to appear an unassuming gentleman. He is of a cheerful, hopeful disposition, and friendships made with him are generally lasting.
He preaches with considerable power and eloquence. His text is well-elucidated, and he always embellishes his sermons with efforts of his fancy. His impulses are quick, and he is disposed to take the brighter view of life's pictures. This is soon apparent in all inter- course with him, and is particularly observable in his writings. He is a great comforter for the sorrowing heart. With a nicer skill than any surgeon in the case of a physical wound, he seeks to extract the fangs of grief. He is not satisfied with cold, formal, professional words, but his own bosom is filled with concern until the darkness of sorrow in the heart of his friend yields to the softly falling rays of generous, kindly consolation. There is no sky in which he cannot find a star; no fate in which he cannot discern a good Providence ; no destiny which he cannot make beautiful with hope. In these and the other social duties of a pastor he is greatly and justly appre- ciated.
Dr. Gillette is very popular with his brethren of the ministry of all denominations. In every good work he is found among the fore- most, assisting with discreet counsels and laboring with a heroic spirit. His genial nature, his cheering confidence, and his eminent piety, everywhere, and at all times, commend him as a congenial and successful co-laborer. Widely known, universally beloved, an ac- complished student, a popular preacher, the name and qualifications of Dr. Gillette find no mean place in the annals of the metropolitan clergy.
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REV. EZRA II. GILLETT, D. D.,
LATE PASTOR OF THE HARLEM PRESBYTE- RIAN CHURCH, NEW YORK.
EV. DR. EZRA H. GILLETT was born at Colchester, Connecticut, July 15th, 1823. He prepared for college at Bacon Academy in that town, under Myron N. Morris, and, entering Yale College, was graduated at that institu- tion in 1841. After graduation he studied a full term at the Union Theological Seminary, New York, where he had charge of the library in 1844. and was graduated the same year. He was licensed by the Third Presbytery of New York, and in December, 1844, commenced preaching as a supply in the pulpit of the Harlem Presbyterian Church. In the spring of 1845 he was invited to be- come the pastor, and, having accepted the call, was ordained and installed on the 16th of April following. In 1846, the synod of New York and New Jersey divided the Third Presbytery, forming the Fourth, and attached this church to it. Dr. Gillett remained pastor until April, 1870, a period of twenty five years. At first the church was very feeble, having only fourteen members, but it finally became a prosperous body. A new church edifice was dedicated August 22d, 1844, which was sold many years after, and the present fine property on One Hundred and Twenty-fifth street purchased. In 1872 a Lecture Room was erected on a portion of this site, and a large main edifice is to be built.
Dr. Gillett is now Professor of Political Science in the University of the city of New York, to which he was appointed in 1869. He preaches frequently in New York and vicinity. Dr. Gillett received his degree of D. D. from Hamilton College, New York, in 1864. He is the author of the following works, viz: " A translation of Luther's Commentary on the Epistles of Peter and Jude," one volume ; "Life and Times of John Huss," two volumes ; " History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States," two volumes; "Life Lessons," one volume ; " England Two Hundred Years Ago ;"
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REV. EZRA H. GILLETT, D. D.
" Ancient Cities and Empires : their Prophetic Doom read in the Light of History and Moslem Research," one volume, and " What That or the Soul's To-morrow," a tract. Most of these volumes have been published by the Presbyterian Publication Committee, Philadelphia.
Dr. Gillett is of the medium height, sparely made, erect, and ac- tive. His head is round, with an agreeable face, having small, regular features. His brow shows a great deal of intellectual de- velopment, and his sharp, elear eyes, beam with peculiar intelligence. His manners are simple and courteous, and evince an humble and obliging disposition. Indeed, there is something particularly notice- able in the perfect humility of Dr. Gillett's character. He has made himself somewhat famous as a preacher and author, and still he does not seem to be aware of it, or does not care about it. He arrogates nothing to himself in the way of pride and dignity, and while he toils in the same direction with unabated zeal, it is evidently for the purpose of doing good rather than to satisfy any ambition of his own. As an instance of his personal feelings, it may be mentioned that he never uses his honorary title in any of his works which remain under his control. On more than one occasion he refused offers of posi- tions which were peeuniarily much more to his advantage than the pastorship he held. He is a great student and teacher, and he has devoted no inconsiderable part of his ineome to the collection of a rare and extensive library, which is the source of all the pride he allows himself to feel. In his library and out of it, at home, books are his companions. His mind is a perfect encyclopedia of well digested lore, covering the whole limit of learned and polite literature. His memory is little less than wonderful, and whatever he rea is is accurately retained for after use. In his writings he is fond of illus- trations from other minds, and he is prolific of those references which take the widest range. He seldom uses notes in the pulpit, and it is said that in two hours after preparing his longest discourse he has every line of it committed to memory. Many of his sermons are en- tirely extemporaneous.
Dr. Gillett is one of the ablest preachers in the New York pulpit. His sermons are powerful in argument and in dietion, if written, and are seareely less profound, while more fervent and touching in lan- guage, when extemporaneous. He is fluent, and his active, eager mind turns from point to point and topic to topic with the facility given by inexhaustible resources of scholarship and observation.
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GUSTAV GOTTHEIL, PH. D.,
ASSOCIATE RABBI AND ENGLISH PREACHER OF THE TEMPLE EMANUEL, NEW YORK.
EV. DR. GUSTAV GOTTHEIL was born at Pinne. May 28th, 1827. His elementary and Hebrew education was in the local schools, and his classical and rabbinical studies were at Posen. Later, he pursued an academical course at the University of Berlin, and a theological course under the direction of Funz, Lebrecht, Steinschneider, and Holdheim. In 1855 he was appointed one of the ministers to a reform congregation at Berlin, and in 1860 was elected rabbi of the Congregation of British Jews in Manchester, England. He gave evidence of high scholarship and much force of character in both of these positions, and drew upon himself the attention of the religious and intelligent classes. In 1873 he was elected one of the rabbis of the Temple Emanuel, New York, and entered upon his duties in the autumn of that year. Some months before he had visited New York, and been received by the congregation, when he returned to Manchester, and made his preparations for a permanent residence in New York. The eminent Rev. Dr. Samuel Adler for many years has been the rabbi and German preacher of the congregation, and Dr. Gottheil was called as his associate, and as a preacher in the English language. IIe receives a salary of six thousand dollars a year, and, as is the custom with the Israelites, the contract is for a term of years.
The services of the Jewish ritual are highly interesting, and the reform temples of New York, especially, are visited by many Chris- tians. The language of the prayers and chants in the Hebrew, and German and English translations, is execedingly solemn and beauti- ful. An impressive part is the opening of the Ark and taking out of the Pentateuch, or scrolls of the law, which the poet Croswell thus delicately describes :
"The two-leaved doors slide slow apart Before the eastern screen, As rise the Hebrew harmonies, With chanted prayers between ;
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And mid the tissued rails disclosed, Of many a gorgeous dye, Enveloped in their jeweled scarfs, The sacred records lie."
Aside from the interest of the services, there are reflections which naturally arise in the sanctuary of this extraordinary people. These are the children of Israel, the early people of God, and through ages a scattered and persecuted race. Contemplate them in awful cove- nant with the Creator of mankind; trace them in the splendid eras of their greatness; remember them when "the vail of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom ; and the earth did quake," in the dying hour of the rejected king; behold them exiles from their country, and pilgrims throughout the earth. Grandest of the nations of antiquity, most scorned of all peoples of modern time, they have a distinetiveness from all other races, and have been as proudly Jews in shame as ever in glory. Heathen and Christian governments and communities have alike persecuted them ; they have been reviled and spit upon, massacred and trodden under foot; but they have exult- ingly foretold a day when Judea should again be great, with her new- come Messiah, her re-united tribes, and her uprisen temples.
Dr. Gottheil is of the average height, with a round and ereet figure. Ile is in the prime of physical development and activity, and he shows it in his constant energy and buoyaney of spirits. His manners are extremely polite and fascinating. He has a large head, with a full face, which is equally expressive of intelligent and amiable characteristics. In social life he is greatly admired, for his polish and ease of manners, and his warm and genial disposition, while in his public relations he also exerts the widest possible in- fluence.
Hle preaches with much vigor of mind and eloquence of delivery. A learned man, he has also those quick and keen natural powers of penetration which go to the root of every thing, and he is a close ob- server of both events and men. Hence he always speaks with a clear understanding of his theme, and with opinions of human affairs which are based on sound knowledge and judgment. Distinguished in other lands for talents, virtues, and success, he is not likely to fall short of extended renown and usefulness in the one which is the scene of his present labors.
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REV. CHARLES H. HALL, D. D.,
RECTOR OF THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY, (EPISCOPAL,) BROOKLYN.
EV. DR. CHARLES H. HALL was born at Augusta, Georgia, November 7th, 1820. When quite young he attended an academy at Andover, Mass., and was graduated at Yale College in 1842. His theological studies were ¥9 partly in private, and one year at the General Episcopal Theo- logical Seminary, New York city. He was ordained deacon by the Right Rev. Benjamin T. Onderdonk, Bishop of New York, at St. Paul's Church, Red Hook, in 1844, and priest by Bishop Brownell of Connecticut, at Fair Haven in that State, in November, 1845. His first settlement was as rector of St. John's Church, Huntington, Long Island, in 1845, where he remained two years. At Easter, 1847, he took charge of the Church of the Holy Inno- cents, at West Point, officiating likewise as the pastor for the Military Academy. After remaining at West Point two years, he removed to South Carolina, where he became rector of St. John's Church, St. John's Island, which position he held for eight years. In 1856, he was called to the rectorship of the Church of the Epiphany, Wash- ington, one of the most wealthy and influential parishes of that city. The congregation was composed about equally of northerners and southerners. Among the latter were Jefferson Davis and his family. During the whole period of the war, Mr. Davis' pew was occupied by Secretary of War Stanton. Several of the chief officers of the government and army were regular attendants. It required great address and firmuess on the part of Dr. Hall to preserve calmness and Christian concord in his congregation at such a time of public excitement, regarding the war, at the capital of the nation. "Few men," says a recent authentie statement, "would have succeeded in standing clear of offense, especially at a period when churches were too often turned into political assembly-houses, and our preachers forgot the gospel of Christ in that of the Constitution. Dr. Hall, 241
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REV. CHARLES H. HALL, D. D.
however, was pre-eminently the right man in the right plaec. Real- izing his high voeation as an ambassador of Christ, he determined to know nothing and to preach nothing among his people save 'Jesus Christ and Him crucified.' At this the young and headstrong were diseontented-they wanted political harangues and party denuncia- tions. The graver and wiser members, however, approved his course. Secretaries and statesmen did not go to church to learn politics from their clergymen ; and thus, through all the heat and fever of that nervous time, the rector of the Church of the Epiphany steered his pastoral bark safely through the smooth waters of a tranquil Chris- tian faith. He believed firmly in the great doctrines of the nation, and that however dark appeared the national horizon, a morning of joy would at length break upon the night of heaviness, and the storm-clouds of war and hatred would, in God's good time, pass away."
Dr. Hall preached a sermon of great power and impressiveness on Easter day, 1865, the second day after the assassination of Presi- dent Lincoln. In October of the same year, he delivered another on "Conseience: in its Relation to the duties of the citizens of the State," which was published, and dedicated to his parishioner, the late Hon. Edwin M. Stanton. He was the rector of the Church of the Epiphany for a period of twelve years, and by his position ob- tained a national reputation for learning and eloquence.
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