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. 2 > Part 15
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. 2 > Part 15
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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
He was regularly licensed by the Baptist church of Willimantic, Conn., and ordained to the Gospel ministry in East Windsor, in 1839. From this period, for about twenty-three years, he pursued a ministerial work in different parts of Connecticut with remarkable success. He was first settled as the pastor of the Baptist church at Wethersfield, where he labored successfully two full years. Afterwards he was settled five years over the Baptist church at Tariffville. Large additions were made to the congregation by conversion and baptismn. Ile next removed to the pastoral care of the First Baptist Church in Bridgeport, where he remained about nine years. Having received a unanimous call to the First Baptist Church of New London, he ac- cepted it. He labored about eight years in this field, during which
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REV. WILLIAM REID.
time large numbers were added by letter and baptism. From New London he removed to the pastorate of the First Baptist Church of Greenpoint, in the Eastern district of Brooklyn. Here he labored with great success for five years and a half. Many persons were con- verted and added to the church, and its means and influence were greatly increased. He next received and accepted a call to the McDougal strect Baptist Church, New York, where he ministered with his usual success.
This church originated in a colony from the First Baptist Church, then in Gold street, which went out in 1809, and a colony from the Fayette street Baptist Church, now Oliver street Church, which went out in 1813. It has thus been in existence for the period of sixty- four years. The first colony was for a while designated as the North Baptist Church, and the second as the Berean Baptist Church. Their meetings were first held in a brewery in Desbrosses street. In 1810 steps were taken to build a church edifice in Vandam street, which was completed, but finally sold for debt. Then they met in C. P. Wyckoff''s school-house in Dominick street. Soon after the formation of the North Berean Church, they purchased of the trustees of the Mulberry street Church the original house in Vandam street, which, however, was still followed by misfortune, and was burned in 1831. Afterward lots were bought, and the present church edifice in McDougal street was erected. The name of North Berean was changed to MeDougal street Baptist Church. The church has had nine pastors. One of these was the Rev. Duncan Dunbar, who served as pastor three different times, in all twenty years. Members of this church were the principal persons in the organization of the Berean Baptist Church, and of the Mariners' Church. A regular colony from the church originated the Sixteenth street Church.
Mr. Reid is of the medium height, and compactly built He has a great deal of physical activity and an indomitable energy. His head is round, with regular features, and a most cheerful, benevolent expression of countenance. He is a man of clear and quick intel- lectual perceptions, of an ardent abounding faith, and great practical judgment in the application of his mental and physical resources for whatever work he has to do. In the churches with which he has been connected, which he has taken in a condition of spiritual and financial prostration, it has been not only his zeal in strictly spiritual labors, but his judgment and ability in business matters, which have raised them to the highest prosperity in both particulars.
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REV. WILLIAM REID.
His sermons are well written expositions of the scriptures and of Christian and moral duty, and his delivery is earnest and eloquent. He has been a close, painstaking student, and he is clear and forcible in all his explanations. On all the doctrinal points, he is noted in the denomination as one of its most logical and effective writers and speakers. His mode of reasoning is always simple, and explained by many familiar illustrations, while at the same time it is elear in meaning, concise in expression, and spoken with the warmth and in- spiration of a kindly and devout heart. His voice is round and full, and is pleasantly modulated throughout. You cannot doubt either his sincerity or his deep, absorbing piety. He shows this in language, manners, and in every act of his daily life. He goes among his fellow-men with a beaming face, a cheerful heart, a patient spirit, and with humility and self-sacrifice in all his proceedings. IIe is earnest and untiring, and few men are more capable of securing that pop- ularity and influence which go so far with a public man in making his undertakings successful.
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REV. HENRY BASCOM RIDGAWAY, D. D.,
PASTOR OF ST. JAMES' METHODIST CHURCH, (HARLEM,) NEW YORK.
EV. DR. HENRY BASCOM RIDGAWAY was born in Talbot County, Maryland, September 7th, 1830. He went through a course of studies at the Public High School in Baltimore, under the Presidency of N. C. Banks, LL. D. In the summer of 1849 he was graduated at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Penn., having, prior to this time, re- ceived a license to preach as a local minister of the Methodist church. His first sermon was preached before his eighteenth year, at a camp meeting on the eastern shore of Maryland. After graduating he taught school for some months, and commenced his regular ministry in the fall of 1849, in the Summerfield circuit, Baltimore county. He was received on trial in the itinerancy, in the Baltimore Conference, at its session at Winchester, Va., in 1850, and appointed to the Win- chester circuit. The next spring he was transferred to the Loudoun circuit, where he preached, in connection with Rev. Win. Hirst, for two years. In 1853 he was petitioned for by the Summerfield circuit, and also asked for in Baltimore; and, from considerations of ill-health, took the country circuit. He was married in February of the same year to the daughter of the late Professor Caldwell, of Dickinson College. In the spring of 1854 he was appointed to the charge of the North Baltimore circuit, and in the following spring became second preacher of the North Baltimore station, which includes five churches, with three ministers. His next position was at the High street station, consisting of one church. Two years later, at the de- sire of the people of the Chestnut street church, Portland, he was transferred to the Maine Conference, and appointed to their newly completed church. His removal was much against the wishes of his Baltimore friends. Toward the close of his term at the Chestnut street church he was invited to become the pastor of St. Paul's Church, New York, and in the spring of 1861 was transferred.
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Henry Baseino Ridyaway
REV. HENRY BASCOM RIDGAWAY, D. D.
For some twelve years Mr. Ridgaway has officiated in the leading Methodist churches of New York, ineluding St. Paul's, Washington Square, and St. James', Harlem. At St. Paul's he has received several. appointments. He received his degree of D. D. from Dickinson College in 1868.
Mr. Ridgaway is a contributor to the editorial columns of The Methodist, the organ of his denomination in New York. Most of his sermons are either delivered from brief notes or memory. There is a prejudice among the Methodists against written sermons, and their preachers seldom write out their diseourses. As an instance of Mr. Ridgaway's powers of memory, we may mention that we heard him preach an exceedingly able sermon, entirely systematic in its arrangement and very elaborate in its argument; and he subsequently informed us that he only determined to preach this sermon during the singing of the second hymn, and that it was last delivered some two years before. A discourse by Mr. Ridgaway was published in a collection of sermons by ministers of different denominations, issued under the auspices of the Young Men's Christian Society of Wash- ington city, and entitled " The Union Pulpit. "
Mr. Ridgaway is something below the average height, and has sharp features. Without any of the highly distinguishing marks of intellectual greatness, still you see every evidence that he is a re- fleetive man. This thoughtfulness pervades him at all times, and is noticeable in the most ordinary conversation, for not a word is spoken without due consideration. His manners are cordial, and you soon find yourself on very good terms with him. He is altogether quiet and undemonstrative in both demeanor and speech.
Mr. Ridgaway opens his sermon in a subdued tone, and in rather a methodical way. As he passes on, however, his voice rises, and so earnest does he become, that he frequently steps away from the desk to the edge of the pulpit, and indulges in a strain of most elo- quent and animated reasoning. At these times, even when speaking extempore, he has a great command of select and vigorous language. Word follows word in such order, and the illustration of the argu- ment is so complete, that it seems that such a delivery ean only be from a earefully prepared manuseript. He is not particularly im- aginative, but his argument takes the widest range of logie. He labors to convinee, and shows a power of analysis and keenness of reasoning which are highly ereditable to him both as a scholar and observer of men.
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REV. ISAAC RILEY, PASTOR OF THE THIRTY-FOURTH STREET REFORMED CHURCHI, NEW YORK.
R
EV. ISAAC RILEY was born in the city of New York, February 2d, 1835, but was taken to Montrose, Penn., at an early age, where he was brought up. He is the son of the Rev. II. A. Riley, who many years since was pastor of one of the Presbyterian churches of New York, and subsequently was settled at Montrose and other places. ITis early studies were at Montrose. In 1858 he was graduated at Yale College, and in 1861 at the Union Theological Seminary, New York city. Ile was first settled as the pastor of the Forest Presbyterian Church, at Middletown, Newcastle county, Delaware, where he was ordained and installed in March, 1862. He remained in this pastor- ship over two years, until October, 1864, when he went immediately to the First Presbyterian Church, at Pottsville, Penn., where he la- bored three years, until October, 1867. At the latter date he be- ca:ne colleague pastor with the Rev. Dr. Joel Parker, at the Park Presbyterian Church, Newark, N. J. In September, 1868 he accepted a call to his present position, the Thirty-fourth street Reformed Church, New York, as the successor of the Rev. Dr. Peter Stryker. HIc was installed on the last Sunday of September, 1868.
The Thirty-fourth street Reformed Church has an interesting his- tory. The congregation grew out of a missionary enterprise of the Reformed Dutch denomination, organized January 9th, 1822. It was the desire of the society to establish preaching near the corner of Canal street and Broadway, " a part of the city then growing rapidly," but no suitable room could be procured, and the locality was changed to the junction of Howard and Elm streets, where a room was obtained. Rev. Robert McLean was the first missionary. The enterprise prospered, and arrangements were made to build a church edifice on a site corner of Broome and Greene streets. The corner-stone was laid in June, 1823. In the month of October fol-
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REV. ISAAC RILEY.
lowing, services were commenced in the basement. On February 8th, 1824, the church was dedicated, and in a few years had one of the largest and most influential congregations in the city. The whole cost of the lots and building was sixteen thousand dollars. A debt of seven thousand dollars was paid off in three or four years. The congregation was formally organized in December, 1823, and Mr. McLean was called as the first pastor in the following year Rev. Dr. Jacob Brodhead was the pastor from 1826 to 1837; Rev. Dr. Samuel A. Van Vranken from 1837 to 1841 ; Rev. Dr. George Fisher from 1841 to 1854 ; Rev. Henry V. Voorhees from May, 1854, to December, 1855, who resigned by reason of ill-health ; Rev. Dr. Peter Stryker from April, 1855, to 1868, a period of thirteen years.
In 1859 the church in Broome street had accumulated a debt of seventeen thousand dollars, and the congregation was greatly re- duced in numbers by the removal up-town of its members. In May, 1859, a union was effected with the Livingston Reformed Dutch Church, worshiping in a hall on the corner of Thirty-third street and Eighth avenue, where services were continued. Meanwhile, the down-town property was sold, and eligible building lots purchased in Thirty-fourth street. The last service in the old church took place on April 15th, 1860, when Dr. Stryker preached an appropri- ate historical discourse. In a period of between thirty-six and thirty- seven years, eighty marriages were solemnized, five hundred and fifty-seven infants baptized, and one thousand two hundred and four members admitted. The edifice was one of the most beautiful of the old-fashioned brick buildings, and many of the old residents will re- member the throngs of well-to-do people who flocked to its altar, probably not one of whom now resides in that portion of the city.
A fine church building was erected on the site in Thirty-fourth street, and dedicated March 3d, 1861. The cost was some sixty thousand dollars. A debt of thirty-five thousand which remained was liquidated in three or four years. The church was built during the depression occasioned by the breaking out of the war with the South, and the heavy debt scriously threatened the prosperity of the congregation, but its increase was such that it was soon able to re- move all embarrassment. There are at this time about six hundred members, and three hundred and fifty children in the Sunday School.
Mr. Riley is of the medium height and well-proportioned. His head is of the average size, with delicate, regular features. His com-
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REV. ISAAC RILEY.
plexion is pale, and he has light brown hair and whiskers. He is plain and quiet, while altogether affable in his manners. A man of perseverance and force, he is so passive and amiable in ordinary in- tercourse that these only appear when he has some labor to perform. He makes neither noise nor show, and hence inferior men in the same circles obtain more reputation and credit. He has never sought fame, and never done other than rejoice at the success of his cotem- poraries. But, on the other hand, he has devoted himself with great diligence to a wide and thorough study for his profession, and an en- lightened and conscientious discharge of duty in all positions. In a word, he is one of those who show great strength of mind and nerve in duty and labor, and the utmost amiability and purity of character in all social and private relations.
Mr. Riley is a young man in the ministry ; but, from what we have seen of him in public and private, we think that he will prove himself one of the bulwarks of the church. He preaches no fancies, but moral truths. Religion and preaching to him are serious things. They are not matters to be used for individual pride or ambition, but for the sole purpose of saving the lost. He shows these convictions in the performance of all his professional duties, and in his private life. In the pulpit he is modest and serious. He prays with his whole soul-not a vain, pompous prayer, but the. prayer of faith and hope. In his sermons he is equally serious, quite argumentative, and at times pathetic. You see that he feels all that he says, and that he has but one purpose. This is not to have people say " What a fine sermon," " What a scholar and orator;" but he wants these old men and women to rejoice in hearing the same comforting truths they heard from a Brodheal, a Fisher, and a Stryker, and he wants to touch impatient hearts with saving grace. He is warm and earn- est in his manners ; he speaks in those clear tones which give the most force and expression to language, and his every thought and utterance is pure and holy. Proud only of the ministry of Christ, strong only in the power of the gospel, he looks to the hereafter for the only reward to which he aspires.
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REV. CHARLES S. ROBINSON, D. D.,
PASTOR OF THE MEMORIAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHI, NEW YORK.
EV. DR. CHARLES S. ROBINSON was born at Benning- ton, Vermont, March 31st, 1829. He was graduated at Williams College, Massachusetts, in 1849, and studied theology privately in New York city, and then passed a year and a half at Princeton Seminary. He was or ained a minister of the Presbyterian Church by the Presbytery of Troy, June 14th, 1855, and at the same time installed pastor of the Park Presbyterian Church of that place. At the termination of about five years and a half he accepted a call to the First New School Presby- terian Church, Brooklyn, formerly under the pastoral charge of the celebrated Rev. Dr. Samuel H. Cox, commencing his new labors March 1st, 1860. He continued with this large and influential con- gregation for several years. The broken health of his wife obliged a foreign voyage, when he was appointed pastor of the American Chapel in Paris, where he remained three years. He was then called to the Memorial Presbyterian Church, New York, formerly called the Eleventh Presbyterian Church.
This Church was organized by the Third Presbytery of New York, May 13th, 1839, and consisted of eighty-nine members, who had been dismissed from the Seventh Presbyterian Church and the Manhattan Island Presbyterian Church for that purpose. In July, 1839, Rev. Mason Noble entered upon his duties as the first pastor. For three years their place of worship was an edifice in Fourth street, formerly occupied by the Manhattan Island Presbyterian Church. A new church was erected on the corner of Fourth street and Avenue C, which was dedicated in October, 1842. On January 8th, 1850, thirty-one members were dismissed to form the Union Congregational Church. In the spring of 1850, Mr. Noble was released from his pastoral relations to the church, having accepted a call to a church in Baltimore. During his ministry of about eleven years three hundred
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REV. CHARLES S. ROBINSON, D. D.
and eighty-four persons united with the church, of which one hun- dred and sixty were received on profession of their faith. Rev. J. Parsons Hovey commenced his labors as pastor in July, 1850. After an carnest ministry of thirteen years, he was called to his reward December 16th, 1863. In the winter of 1863 the church building was sold, and the church and society removed to a house of worship on Fifty-fifth street, between Third and Lexington Avenues. This edifice has been sold, and what is known as the Memorial Presbyterian Church was erected for the congregation, on the corner of Madison Avenue and Fifty-third strect.
About one third of a century has elapsed since the Old School and the New School opposition parties in the Presbyterian Church of these United States separated after a long controversy and became distinct communities. On both sides there were able and sincere men who deeply regretted the division, but saw no way to avoid it. For years carnest efforts were made to bring about a reunion of the two branches. In the year 1869 the Old and New School General Assemblies met almost within speaking distance in New York-one in the Brick Church on Murray Hill, the other at Park avenue Pres- bytcrian church. The movement toward union happily culminated the following year at Philadelphia. The bodies formerly one house- hold, but long sundered by questions of doctrine and polity, became one again after a generation of separate and often rival action, to the great joy of the Presbyterians of the country. In commemoration of this notable event the congregation of Rev. Dr. Robinson's church resolved to erect a Memorial Temple, in which to worship in the future. The plan was carried out by the crection of one of the most magnificent church edifices of the city, costing one hundred and sixty thousand dollars, which was dedicated on Sunday, January 26th, 1872.
The Memorial church is a stone structure 125 feet front by 120 feet deep. It is built in the round Gothic style. The Church covers. 80 feet front; the remaining 45 are occupied by a lecture-room, connected with the church by a common entrance. At the corner of Madison avenue rises the tower to the height of 90 feet, and the spire, both constructed of stone. The distance from the sidewalk to the iron finial to surmount the latter will be 220 feet. The spire is peculiar, and differs in most respects from all others in the city. On the south of the main building is a smaller tower, also entirely of stone, eighty-five feet in height.
Dr. Robinson has published various sermons, and is the compiler
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REV. CHARLES S. ROBINSON, D. D.
of a book of hymns used in the Presbyterian and Congregational churches, entitled "Songs of the Church; or, Hymns and Tunes for Sacred Worship." He received his degree of D. D. from Hamilton College.
Dr. Robinson is slightly under the medium height, with an erect, graceful figure. His head and features are small, but the latter are well defined, and of a classical mold. He is one of those men in which the physical development borders on the delicacy of effeminacy, and the mental predominates in the expression, in refined finish of feature, and in the cultivation of the general appearance and manners. He looks the gentleman, the man of refinement and culture, and the man of exalted sentiments and correct practices, and his looks in no case belie him. In his disposition he is of a cheerful temperament, tending very frequently to broad humor. He is disposed, in his domestic and social intercourse, to impart sprightliness and mirthful- ness to every occasion when it may be proper, and does this by an inexhaustible fund of happy, genial, merry thoughts and sayings. He has a way of talking in the semi-humorous, ironical style which not only imparts much amusement, but shows the quickness with which he can give a cheerful shading to every picture. He is by no means a heedless, frivolous person, for all this geniality is marked by culture, and an entire propriety as to seasons, places, and persons.
Dr. Robinson certainly illustrates the more attractive phase of Christian character. The human heart, no matter how deeply bowed in penitence, is more readily influenced by the counsellor who warms it with touches most akin to nature itself. The religionist may take it warm, sensitive, and quivering to the touch, and he may think this very condition most suitable for his purpose of molding it to his despotic creed and unyielding discipline. And he may readily ac- complish all that he seeks. But when his work is accomplished, the subject of his experiment has no more a human heart than the Chinese woman has perfect fect after they have been contracted, bruised, and formed in an iron shoc. A heart without a joyous ap- preciation of the life given of God, and willing and capable of yield- ing to its cheerful influences, is a heart dead to natural impulses, a mere skeleton of its natural proportions, and a tenant-house of morbid sentimentality instead of inspiring joys. The glooms of religion, and the prudishness of some of its ministers, to all that is genial, mirthful, and worldly, have produced just this wreck of many a noble heart, and saddened many a glorious nature. In view of this lament-
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REV. CHARLES S. ROBINSON, D. D.
able fact, it is the more satisfactory to meet a person like Dr. Robinson, who bears a sunny face, and is not averse to showing nature in its truly genial characteristics. Those who come in contact with him are none the less impressed with all that his religious instruction can teach, while they are made alive to the beauty of the gladsome heart.
Dr. Robinson is an eloquent, foreible preacher. His sermons are argumentative, and he will make no sacrifice whatever to declamation, but his mode of handling his subject is so original and scholarly, and so graphic and chaste is his language, that he is very successful in arresting the undivided attention of an audience. He becomes greatly absorbed in his theme, and evidently labors for its full and clear understanding by every hearer. There is a total want of oratorical effort, but not of oratorical effect. He has a natural, unrestrained, un- tutored delivery ; he speaks in an easy, free, and conversational manner, and still there are modulations, pauses, and bursts of eloquence which impart universal power to preaching of his particular kind. In judging him the critic would say that he was lacking in much that completes the orator, and at the same time it must be ad- mitted that he has most effective powers in r aching the heart and in- telligence. When he has fully elaborated his subject he seems con- tent. All his display, if such it may be called, is in the chasteness and grace of his expressions, and he seldom tarries for those passages of fine writing which lead to brilliant speaking. Scholarly without being pedantic, plain without being common-place, argumentative without being tedious, he presents the most valuable combination of characteristics which can exist in the man seeking the salvation of souls rather than personal triumphs. These latter, however, though never sought, are constant, and from the circumstance of being un- sought, adorn with that pure luster which always belongs to those who are humble of great talent.
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