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 22
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 22
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On the election of the Rev. Dr. A. N. Littlejohn, then rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Brooklyn, to the newly-created bishopric of Long Island, a call was extended to Dr. HIall to become the rector of this important parish. He accepted, and entered upon his duties on March 1st, 1869, and has secured a wide popularity.
Holy Trinity Church is a splendid stone pile on the corner of Clinton and Montague streets, a section which is known as Brook- lyn Heights. This church was erceted by the munificence of Edgar J. Bartow, Esq., a citizen of Brooklyn. It was designed by that greatest of Ameriean architects, the late Lefevre, and the found- ation was commenced on April 1st, 1844. The cost of the property was not less than one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, which was then regarded as a very large sum to expend for a church site and edifice. The church was entirely completed by Mr. Bartow, with the exception of the spire. The rear portion of the main building is a chapel, and there is also a fine rectory on Montagne street. There are two hundred and twenty-six pews, which will seat
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about twelve hundred people. This grand and capacious edifice was first opened for religious services on Trinity Sunday, April 25th, 1847. The chapel had been opened on Trinity Sunday, June 7th, 1846. Being private property, it was not consecrated for several years, during which time it was under the rectorship of the Rev. Dr. Lewis, a relation of the owner. Dr. Lewis formerly had charge of Calvary Church, and the original Holy Trinity congregation was largely made up from this parish. At length, Mr. Bartow became involved in pecuniary difficulties, and the church was found to be mortgaged, chiefly for business indebtedness, to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars. In the spring of 1856 a sale of the church, under a third mortgage for over thirty thousand dollars, was about to take place, when such arrangements were made that it passed into the possession of the congregation. The church was consecrated in the autumn of 1856. Though laboring under a debt of more than thirty thousand dollars, prosperity at onee dawned upon the parish. Dr. Littlejohn was now ealled. During his reetorship the debt was paid off, and the church fully completed by the addition of the spire, which is two hundred and eighty-four feet high. The contributions during the year 1863 were nearly twenty-seven thou- sand dollars. In January of the same year over twenty thousand dollars were laid on the altar at one time for the reduction of the debt, which, with the income from the pews, gave the handsome sum of nearly forty thousand dollars for the year. In eight years the contributions were two hundred and sixty thousand dollars. In 1864 the number of communicants was three hundred and ten, whereas at this time the number is five hundred and fifty. The regular Sunday school has three hundred children, and a large Mission Sunday school is maintained on Fulton Avenue.
Dr. Hall received his degree of D. D. in 1860, from three col- leges at the same time, viz: Columbia College, New York, Hobart College, Geneva, and St. James College, Maryland. Beside a large number of sermons, he has published two important works. These are "Notes on the Gospels," in two volumes, and "True Protestant Ritualism," a reply to the work of Bishop Hopkins entitled "The Law of Ritualism." In this latter work he states in a very learned and forcible manner the views of the Low Church branch of the Episcopal denomination. He holds that Ritualism is antagonistic alike to the Gospel and the Church.
Dr. Ilall is of the medium height, well-proportioned, erect, and
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active. His head is more long than round, but every part of it is finely cast and strictly intellectual. The brow is especially perfect, rising, as it does, large and high from the very eyebrows, while beneath the deep-set, but bright, and dark, firm eyes beam forth in never-ceasing intelligence and gentleness. ITis dark hair is slowly changing to an iron-gray, and his face has the full maturity of a per- son of his years. His manners are courteous, self-possessed, and dignified. From both his countenance and manners you are instantly impressed with the ability and agreeable personal qualities of the man. If ever a face was a window to the mind, this one surely is, and the same vivid interpretation can be attained from his demeanor. You see that he is a man of great power of mind and energy. His natural ability and acquired learning rest on the broadest possible foundations, and his industry and perseverance in any and all labor are of the most positive and vigorous kind. Kind-hearted and gentle for most occasions, he can be lion-hearted and inflexible when these qualities are necessary. A clergyman and student, and a book-worm as he is, still he is a shrewd observer of all the world's affairs and of mankind. ITis eyes see everything that comes before him, and his brain penetrates to every source and means of human information. He is learned, and he is well informed, he is a conscientious priest, but not less an observing man. With these traits of character, with this thoroughness of education and observation, with this complete self-possession and energy, he is eminently fitted for the highest success in the ministry. IIe is a safe guide and example in all things. HIe makes no mistakes in his policy or proceedings, and he holds up no uncertain lights for himself or anybody else. Far-seeing, prae- tical, self-reliant and courageous, he is one who is the master of every situation, and naturally a leader of men. In all his parishes he has stood among the people as their devoted and fearless spiritual and moral guide, and his marked talents and personal character have been such as to awaken the utmost confidence and respect. The soldiers of Napoleon never relied more on the wisdom and ability of their great chieftain than do the parishioners of this able divine on his leadership in the path of Christian duty.
Dr. Hall, in his published works and sermons, has shown a fine literary taste and remarkable vigor of dietion. He writes in smooth, terse, compact sentences, and his arguments are logical in the ex- treme. He has imagination in his style of illustrating beautiful and original thoughts, but he is far from being impassioned, or simply
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giving hced to elegance of oratory. He reasons everything. He looks simply to the doubts and obstacles in cvery subject, and he addresses himself solely to their overthrow. Scholarship, literary experience, fluency of brain, and the ready pen, are all brought into active service, with results which are alike creditable to him as a thinker and writer. Hence his books and his sermons are very readable, and have had an extensive circulation among the learned and religious classes.
The pulpit has few, if any, in it, of more power with the multi- tude, than Dr. Hall. He is in no sense sensational, and practices no arts to attract attention or win approval. In fact, he shows how needless all these things are with a preacher of actual power of mind. Intelligence of a high or the lowest order can no more turn away from these sermons, in which the scholar and logician so brilliantly appear, than the magnetic needle can turn from the pole. It is an array of logical, well expressed ideas, which only the fool can fail to appreciate. It is not a mere pleasing of the fancy and taste with choice diction, but it is an unfolding of a great and comprehensive mind. Seeking light you find it; asking for bread you do not get a stone.
Lier, Q. b.h. 1829 5.
REV. JOHN HALL, D. D.,
PASTOR OF THE FIFTH AVENUE PRESBY- TERIAN CHURCHI, NEW YORK.
EV. DR. JOIIN HALL was born in the county of Ar- magh, Ireland, July 31st, 1829. His ancestors removed from Scotland to the north of Ireland in one of those ex- tensive emigrations which gave character to the province of Ulster, designating it as Protestant, in contrast with the south of Ireland, which is almost wholly Catholic. He first saw the light in the house occupied by his family for six suc- cessive generations. His father was an elder in the Presbyterian Church, and a man also of social influenee. At the early age of thirteen he was entirely prepared to enter Belfast College, where he carried off a prize for Hebrew. Having been graduated, he became a convert in the church of his fathers, and entered upon a course of studies for the ministry. He proved himself the foremost of his class, uniformly taking prizes at the examinations. In June, 1849, he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Belfast. He at once accepted a call, not from a congregation, but from his own class, to go as their missionary to a station among a Roman Catholic popu- lation in the west of Ireland. Only twenty years of age, and fresh from the academie halls, it was a trying position for him, but he showed himself equal to all its demands. More than this, he re- ceived a training which was a great after service to him. He was next called to the church at Armagh, the capital of the county of the same name, and the seat of the archiepiscopal see of the Primate of Ireland, where he was installed June 30th, 1852. Of him in this pastor- ship it was said : "Youthful, healthful, and vigorous, he devoted himself most earnestly to all departments of pastoral work. Labor- ing unceasingly all day, and studying frequently all night, his influ- ence now began to tell upon the country.
In 1858 he accepted a call to the Church of Many's Abbey, now
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REV. JOHN HALL, D. D.
Rutland Square, in Dublin, where he took his stand foremost among the preachers of the Irish Capital, and its men of letters and public influence. His scholarly investigations were given, not only to usual theological studies, but to those matters of science which some of the most brilliant intellects of the Old World were attempting to turn against the Bible. He received from the Queen the honorary appointment of Commissioner of Education for Ireland, and per- formed its responsible duties, without fee or reward, until his re- moval to the United States. With his usual earnestness of spirit, he sought to secure to his countrymen an undenominational educa- tion and literature. His name was proposed for the moderatorship of the Irish General Assembly, but though personally popular, he was defeated on account of his known opposition to religious estab- lishments. In 1867 he was a delegate of the Irish General Assem- blv to the Presbyterian Church of the United States. He was received by the Old School General Assembly, in session at Cin- cinnati, the New School at Rochester, and by other Presbyterian bodies, with a great deal of warmth and courtesy. His addresses and sermons, wherever delivered, were extremely eloquent.
About this period, the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church of New York was seeking a pastor; and, though Dr. Hall had never been heard by the members, a unanimous call was extended to him in the autumn following his visit to the United States. He at once accepted, so deeply had he been interested in the country, and was installed on the evening of November 3d, 1867.
The Fifth avenue and Nineteenth street congregation, belong- ing formerly to the Old-school branch of the Presbyterian Church, many years since worshiped in Cedar street: then removed to Duane; and finally constructed a fine edifice on the corner of Fifth avenue and Ninteenth street. For a long period it was under the pastoral charge of the distinguished Rev. Dr. James W. Alexander. In April, 1861, the Rev. Dr. N. L. Rice, a very learned and emi- nent man from the Kentucky, St. Louis and Chicago churches, be- came the pastor, who, in turn, was succeeded by Dr. Hall. Since the coming of Dr. Hall, the congregation has, in fact, grown and strengthened in every way. Crowds attend each service, and great vitality and personal zeal are shown in all branches of the Christian work. Dr. Hall has certainly secured the warmest affection of the people. His week-day services, and his Bible class, are attended both by his own members, and those of other denominations.
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At the date of this writing, a magnificent church is in course of construction for this congregation, on the corner of Fifth avenue and Fifty-fifth street, over a mile and three-quarters further up town than the church corner of Nineteenth street. The corner-stone was laid with appropriate ceremonies, on Monday, June 9th, 1873, and the completed building will cost four hundred thousand dollars.
Dr. Hall is much above the medium height, and has a large, full, sturdy-looking figure. He has plenty of bone and strength. There is force of brain and of body. His head is round, with marked in- tellectual characteristics, and a cast of features peculiar to the cul- tivated Irishman. His manners are not without dignity, but they are always most respectful and agreeable with all persons. His ap- pearance is clerical, as he adheres to the " white cravat " and the plain attire of the early ministers. A man of scholarly taste, and thorough devotion to the manifold duties of the ministerial posi- tion, he is cheerful and animated in all social intercourse. He is frank and genial, has just and generous views on all subjects, and quickly endears himself to those with whom he comes in contact. You at once discover, however, that he is a person of strong charac ter, and capable of exerting a powerful influence by reason of both great talents and energies. Hopeful and earnest, able and conscien tious, he shows a happy union of those qualities which are pleasing in social life and invaluable in a public career.
His contributions in the religious press are frequent and able. He is in much demand as a speaker on public occasions. It is his custom to spend his summer vacations in Ireland, where he passes a few months among his relations, and ministerial friends.
Dr. Hall is a profound theological scholar -- not one of your sur face, showy men. He is one who has spent midnight oil to some purpose-one who has gained a clearness and power of understand- ing that illuminate and expound the deeper topics of theological and classical scholarship. His doctrines are matters of faith, but his preaching is a scholarly labor. He aims not at eloquence, at fine writing, at sentiment and fancy, but he seeks, with all the ability and force of a profound mind, to expound the Scriptures, and discuss human motives and duties. In law there are pettifoggers and spe- cial pleaders; and in the ministry there are sophists and talkers of commonplaces. He is great, indeed, in any sphere, who is entitled to be called an expounder. In such a man there must be a breadth and scope of intellect which approach to the godlike. Before it, the
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lesser understandings are dwarfed and dumb. Before it, doubts, misconceptions, and ignorance are no more than mists meeting the effulgent sun.
Dr. Hall is an expounder of the Scriptures. He teaches them as he explains them. He does not merely make statements, but he proves assertions. He argues, illustrates, examines, penetrates, and convinces. It is not prudent for sceptics to talk with him, or listen to his sermons. He has an armor of scholarship which has served him in many a tilt with heresy and irreligion, and he has those keen powers of natural intelligence which give the greatest force to argu- ment and persuasion. When a man is converted under the preach- ing of Dr. Hall, he is not likely to have any doubts either as to faith or his duty. Ile will have not only an awakened soul, but an un- derstanding mind. He will feel that his feet have been turned into a new path, and also know that his own mind has been so enlight- ened that he is capable of guiding them aright in the future.
We do not call Dr. Hall an orator, in the common acceptation of that term. He makes no demonstrations, he is calm and moder- ate in both language and gestures, and still he is deeply impressive. But it is the impressiveness of dignity, of solemnity, and of learning. There is solid intellectual and religious food for the mind, and there is the pathetic appeal to principle and duty. All is said kindly, but forcibly. All is said under a full conviction of obligation on the part of the speaker, and with no motive or policy in regard to any person or circumstance. His heart and mind are fully interest- ed in his efforts. Standing immeasurably above any human influ- ence or ambition, and as eager for the attention and salvation of the beggar as the millionaire, he is a preacher who has won fame by a consistency and devotedness which are worthy of all imitation. His ministry has been a great success in all places, and this end is the sum of his ambition and pride.
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REV. BENJAMIN I. HAIGIIT, D. D.,
ONE OF THE ASSISTANT MINISTERS OF TRIN- ITY PARISII, OFFICIATING AT ST. PAUL'S CHAPEL, NEW YORK.
EV. DR. BENJAMIN I. HAIGIIT was born in the city of New York, October 16th, 1809. He was gradu- ated at Columbia College in 1828, and at the Episcopal General Theological Seminary in 1831, being ordained the same year. He was settled as the first rector of St. Peter's Church, and thus remained for three years. During this time he was librarian of the Seminary. From 1834 to 1837 he was rector of St. Paul's Church, Cincinnati, and then returning to New York, officiated at All Saints' Church for nearly ten years. He did not al- low his duties as rector to prevent him from accepting the acting pro- fessorship of Pastoral Theology at the General Theological Seminary in 1837, and, becoming professor in 1841, he held the position until June, 1855. His connection with Trinity parish commenced in 1855, subsequent to which he went abroad in greatly impaired health, re- maining some three years. On his return he was assigned to St. Paul's Church, with which he is still associated. He was secretary of the convention of the diocese for twenty years, and member and seere- tary of the standing committee for ten years. He is one of the oldest trustees of Columbia College, from which institution he received the degree of D. D. in 1846. He has published a small volume of ser- mons, and other occasional sermons and addresses. In 1873 he was elected Bishop of Massachusetts, but declined the office.
Dr. Haight is of the medium height, and stout, with some inclina- tion to corpulency. He has a large, round head, with the face full, fat, and ruddy. His countenance has a serious, reflective, and half- anxious repose, which, however, under certain influences, changes to a peculiarly animated, gladsome expression. He is a man of the most thoughtful attention to duty, showing an entire absorption of mind in his daily professional avocations. Hence he is always found
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active and busy, allowing nothing to draw him away from a hearty and practical application of his energies to his Christian work. A long eareer of manifest usefulness is a sufficient proclamation of his consisteney of faith and practice, which even moderate personal asso- eiation is sure to confirm, both by declaration and deeds. While thus given up to his religious duties, his mind is free from that gloominess, and his manners of that austerity, not unusual with the elergy. On the contrary, Dr. Haight has a cheerfulness of spirits and a geniality of character of the most appreciable description. With a studied decorum natural to a public man, he mingles those conside- rate unbendings of dignity which give a charm to social intercourse, and with those of congenial temperaments he indulges in a flow of spirited, lively, entertaining conversation. The reserve, formality, and coldness noticeable in him while in the discharge of his publie functions, disappear in private. He is entirely approachable, friend- ly, and communicative. Moreover, he is diffident of his own merit and humble of his own performances, his only pride being in the fidelity and zeal of his labors. Regarded in his public or private re- lations, he is equally deserving of praise, and in each exhibits those characteristics which prove most acceptable in the preacher and the man.
Dr. Haight's style of preaching does not differ materially from that of the majority of Episcopal ministers. Ilis sermons are brief, and embody the plain, direct ineulcation of moral and religious truths without the slightest attempt at fine writing or brilliant delivery. He evidently sets out with the single purpose of offering appropriate pul- pit teachings, and there rests satisfied, without any efforts calculated to invoke encomium for the individual. There is much impressive solemnity in his preaching, however. Speaking with few changes of his voice, and using but little gesture, still his manner is so ex- pressive of personal seriousness and responsibility, and his tone is one of such earnestness and kindliness, that the heart is prone to be touched by something quite as potent as the silvery strains of elo- quence. Whatever he says is said so clearly, that no one can fail to understand his meaning ; whatever he condemns is condemned emphat- ically, and whatever he upholds is upheld zealously.
It is a sermon in the correct sense-a considerate and seasonable lesson from the holy desk-a shepherd's voice calling to earth's scat- tered fold, and, as such, leaves a permanent influence far exceeding that of the more ostentatious kind of discourse.
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REV. BENJAMIN I. HAIGHT, D. D.
Dr. Haight's title to public approbation and private love proceeds from his true and noble excellence of character, and great usefulness as a man. His labors have been, and are, truly valuable to the church and the community. As a rector in various parishes, as a theological professor, and as a coadjutor in many departments of Christian and educational enterprise, he has been a patient and faith- ful worker, seeking neither emoluments nor honors, but simply to toil. This, in a word, is his career. Quietly, unobtrusively, and with never-ceasing diligence, he has moved in a wide sphere of duty, at- tracting little public remark, but gathering to himself the affections of many illustrious cotemporaries, and writing his name in the hearts of the host made worthier through his teachings and example.
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REV. SAMUEL M. HAMILTON, A. M.,
JUNIOR PASTOR OF THE SCOTCH PRESBYTE RIAN CHURCH, NEW YORK.
EV. SAMUEL M. HAMILTON was born at Conlig, Down County, Ireland, April 19th, 1848. He was graduated at Queen's University, Belfast, in 1868, tak- the degree of B. A., and in the following year that of A. M. In 1870 he was graduated in theology at the Presbyterian Assembly College in Belfast. Having been licensed by the Presbytery of that city, in May, 1870, he was called to the pastorship of the Great George's Street Presbyterian Church, Belfast, and was ordained in November of the same year. He officiated most acceptably for two years and a half, making an extended reputation for the preaching of sound doctrines, and an earnest, pious devotion to his work. A call was now given him by the Scotch Presbyterian Church, New York, under the pastoral care of the venerable and distinguished Rev. Dr. Joseph MeElroy, to take the chief charge of this congregation on the retirement of the pastor, by reason of age and infirmities, which he accepted, and came to the United States. He was dully installed over the Scotch Church on the second Sunday in October, 1873.
This congregation was organized about a century ago, being com- posed of a body of seceders from the First Presbyterian Church. They were originally known as the First Associate Reformed Church, and later by their present title of Scotch Presbyterian. A new church having been erected on the corner of Grand and Crosby streets, it was occupied in 1837, and this was given up in 1853 for still more costly structures on West Fourteenth street. The property extends from Fourteenth to Fifteenth streets, and with the church and a school house on the last named street, cost over one hundred thousand dollars.
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REV. SAMUEL M. HAMILTON, A. M.
Mr. Hamilton is an erect, gracefully proportioned person, with a face beaming with intelligence and good nature. His manners are polite and cordial. You see at once that he is a cultivated, warm- hearted gentleman, and are naturally drawn to him as such; but there is so much of genuine and unaffected friendliness about his speech and actions, that even a stranger feels toward him like an old friend. Looking at his face, you see no line there which does not declare him to be an intellectual and upright man. His brow is con- spicuous for its evidences of the first, and the other features, by every type from which judgment can be formed, declare him to be a inan of unswerving principle. In his relations as a clergyman he is a model in all respects. Strong and clear in his judgment, conscien- tious and devoted, learned and unthinking of toil, he discharges his duties with efficiency and success. He is still a young man, and the future daily unfolding before him, is to make the reputation by which he will be judged. But it is now to be seen that he is laying broad and deep foundations. An absorbed and brilliant student, he is pro- perly seeking in sound and thorough theological learning the basis of his power in the pulpit. He preaches already with the fluency and vigor which come from talents, constantly enlarged under such a course of training, and he has made his mark in the American, as he did in the Irish pulpit. A pious man, an earnest scholar, and an eloquent preacher, he is worthily a colleague in the pastorship with the great McElroy.
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