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 27
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 27
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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
The first American Methodist organization was a society of five members, formed by Philip Embury, a German-Irish emigrant, in his own house, in New York, in 1766. The earliest Methodist Church in America was erected in John street, where the present church now stands, and was dedicated October 30th, 1768. Em- bury's house was in Park place, near Broadway. Afterward meet- ings were held in a rigging loft in Horse and Cart lane, now 120 William street. In 1768 a piece of land, known as "Shoemakers Ground," was leased of Mary, the widow of Rev. Henry Barclay, of Trinity Church, which became the site of the John street Church, and was finally purchased two years later. All denominations sub- scribed to the fund, " To build a house for the worship of Almighty God after the manner of the people called the Methodists." Among those who gave were Robert Livingston, signer of the Declaration
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of Independence; and Duane, the first Mayor. The pastor of the church worked on the edifice as a carpenter. A rough dwelling was built for him in the yard. The church was unfinished for many years, having only a ladder to reach the gallery. Each person ear- ried a light at night. As dissenters were not allowed to build a church, the difficulty was overcome by a suggestion of the official given in this form : "Put a fireplace and a chimney in your building," he said, " and it will be a dwelling, and not a church." Although the site is now in the strictly business portion of the city, religious ser- vices are regularly maintained.
The first annual conference was held in Philadelphia in 1773, and consisted of ten preachers, who reported a membership of 1,160. The first general conference was held in Baltimore in 1784. Methodism on this continent, it will be seen, began about the same time that the colonies were striving for and attained their independ- ence. The infant Methodist Church had to depend very largely upon local preachers for the ministration of the Gospel. Wesley and Whitefield crossed the ocean several times, and traversed the seaboard of these United States, organizing societies, founding churches, and ordaining ministers and preaching the Gospel with great power. Their success was marvellous, notwithstanding they were received very coolly by their brethren of other denominations, and met with some opposition also. But the societies grew apace, and in 1784 Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury were ordained bishops or superintendents of the Methodist Church in America, and were sent hither. They had been members of the British Wesleyan Conference for some years before. Dr. Coke died at sea, in May, 1814, at the age of sixty-seven; and Mr. Asbury died in Virginia two years later, aged seventy-one. They were succeeded by Richard Whatcoat, also a member of the British Wesleyan Con- ference, ordained a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church of America in 1800. He died in Delaware in 1806, aged seventy-one years. He was the last of the superintendents sent from the other side.
The total lay membership of the Methodist Episcopal Church of America in 1870 was 1,367,134 ; and preachers, regular and local, 21,234. Its churches number 13,373, and the value of its church edifices and parsonages is in round numbers $60,000,000. Its Sun . day schools number 16,912, into which were gathered last year 1,221,393 scholars and 189,412 teachers. Its benevolent contribu-
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tions for the year amounted to about one million dollars. The annual collections for missionary purposes reach eight hundred thousand dollars. In 1866 over eleven millions of dollars were sub- scribed as a centenary offering. The educational institutions may be classified as follows: First, colleges and universities, of which there are twenty-seven seattered all over the country, from New York to California ; second, theologieal seminaries, of which there are six, one, however, being located in Frankfort-on-the-Main; and, third, seminaries, female colleges and academies, of which there are sixty-nine located in twenty-four States of the Union. The number of students, male and female, instructed in those institutions during the last academic year was 16,300, and the number of instruetors 880. The aggregate number of volumes in the libraries of the uni- versities and theologieal seminaries was 171,789. The endowments of those two classes of educational institutions amount in the aggre- gate to $2,653,123, and the aggregate income to $243,834. The value of the buildings, etc., of all sorts, for the three elasses of insti- tutions, is $5,857,939. In New York and Brooklyn and the imme- diate vicinity, there are eighty-two Methodist churches and thirty-two parsonages, of the aggregate value of $3,790,000. One of these churches is valued at $200,000, another at $140,000, and very many range in value from $50,000 to $100,000. Such is the wonderful growth of the Methodist Church in all its departments of effort from the little seed planted in John street in 1768.
A writer in the Methodist furnishes the following very accurate description of Mr. Weed:
" About ten years ago we first became intimately acquainted with Rev. L. S. Weed, at that time stationed at the Sands street Church, Brooklyn. He had been for six years, since he joined the Conference, filling some small appointments on Long Island and in Northern Connecticut. His introduction to the Sands street Church is an illustration how merit, in the Methodist system, will readily find its place of honor. He came the previous year to assist a brother in a series of meetings in that church, and his amiability, bis devotion to his work, his talents, and his success in huis labors made him naturally the choice of the people for their future minister. They were not disappointed in their expectations, and he gained a legitimate posi- tion for the employment of his talents. Since that time he has been in demand for some of the chief stations of the Conference, and wherever he has been he has left a pleasant fragrance with his name. He is naturally confiding and unsuspicious in the professions of others, which, while it mnay expose him to imposition from the deceiving, only secures more effectually the confidence and esteem of his true friends. To those but little acquainted with him, he might seem unsocial and dis- tant ; but this, if it ever appcars, is more the result of constitutional diffidence than of any lack in the warmth of his heart. To those with whom he is intimate, he is a
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genial, taking friend. He had an opportunity while pastor of the Sands street Church-which it would be of great advantage to every minister to enjoy-to study and co-operate in the workings of a superior Sunday school, and we think it inten- sified and strengthened his impressions of the value of this institution as a means of saving the young and increasing the prosperity of the Church. In all his suc- coeding appointments he has been renowned for untiring zeal and fidelity in this department of ministerial duty. Parents have honored him and the young people and children have loved him for it. He is less stately and grand than chas e, earnest, and attractive in the pulpit. He does not take unbeaten oil to light up the sanctuary, for his sermons are the product of both genius and preparation, and they leave a saving influence on his congregations."
Mr. Weed is about of the average height, with broad, square shoulders and erect carriage. His appearance gives evidence of abundance of physical stamina, and of a man not likely to be afraid of personal exertion. His head is of good size, but the features are small and delicate, particularly the mouth. He has light gray eyes of very full and clear expression. Without looking, in the strict sense, an intellectual person, he has a brow of considerable breadth, and altogether a highly intelligent countenance. In conversation, his face has a lightsome, animated cheerfulness, and, in public speak- ing, it is vividly expressive of his emotions. He is ceremoniously polite and quite cordial in his manners, but there is at all times a ยท quiet, natural, and becoming dignity. He converses with a measure of deliberation, but has a happy flow of words, which are always addressed calmly and understandingly to the best points of the sub- ject. While he has a great deal of serious religious reflectiveness, he has likewise a buoyant temperament, which renders him a cheer- ful, pleasant companion.
Mr. Weed is one of the most promising preachers in the Meth- odist denomination. At present it is to be seen that he is in the pri- mary development of his powers. His mind is ripening and expand- ing with years and experience, to exercise a commanding intellectual influence. His advance in the ministry has been rapid, and marked at every step by unquestionable talent and worth. Commencing with the most substantial groundwork of character and study, he builds methodically, and to some extent slowly, but he is assuredly uprearing a proud and enduring monument of personal reputation. and professional fame. He is an eloquent speaker; and still his force as a speaker does not come from mere bursts of declamation and feeling. These of course have their influence in arresting atten- tion and moving the heart, but there is throughout an array of logic
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which is quite as irresistible. His sermons are thoughtfully pre pared, and generally written out, but in the pulpit he uses a mere outline of the subject, and frequently introduces much new matter, suggested by the inspiration of the moment. Thus he is very little controlled by what he has written before him, and speaks with the case and animation which belong more particularly to the extem . porancous address. He has a great deal of well-conceived gesture, and he also moves about the pulpit with a self-possessed freedom. His voice is strong, and indeed somewhat harsh, but it has an impas- sioned fervor. In his more brilliant passages-when mind, heart, and eloquence are all in action-he holds his audience enchained. His tones are as ringing as those of the trumpet, his countenance is aglow with his high-wrought fe lings, and his attitudes are as expres- sive as his language. Grasping his subject with the powers of a superior mind, his utterances are made additionally impressive by his fascinating gifts as an orator.
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REV. JOHN D. WELLS, D. D.,
PASTOR OF THE SOUTH THIRD STREET PRES- BYTERIAN CHURCH, BROOKLYN, (E. D.)
EV. DR. JOHN D. WELLS was born in Washington county, New York, October 25th, 1815. His early studies were at the Academy at Cambridge in his native county. He was graduated at Union College in 1839, and at Prince- ton Theological Seminary in 1844. In the same year he com- menced his career as a Presbyterian minister at a mission church in Madison avenue, corner of Twenty-ninth street, which is now oe- cupied by the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church. IIe remained in this position until 1846, when his health failed, and he took charge of the parish school connected with the First Presbyterian Church, then under the pastorship of the Rev. Dr. Phillips. IIis talents, but more than all his earnest diligence in his Christian labors, had already brought him into prominence in his denomination, and he was now called to a higher field of duty. On the first Sunday in January, 1850, he was ordained and installed as pastor of the South Third street Presbyterian Church in the Eastern District of Brooklyn, where he has continued up to this time, a period of twenty-four years.
This congregation grew out of the First Presbyterian Church of the Eastern District, and was organized April 19th, 1844, with twenty- seven members. The first preaching was in a school house, corner of South Third and Fifth streets, and the first pastor, the Rev. P. E. Stephenson, was installed February 20th, 1845. The erection of a church edifice was soon commenced, and the completed building was dedicated May 10th, 1845. Mr. Stephenson was succeeded by the present pastor. There are now about three hundred members, and four hundred and twenty-five children in the Sunday school. The contributions during the year 1868 were twelve thousand dollars for congregational purposes, nearly nine hundred dollars for foreign mis- sions, and five hundred dollars for domestic missions. Three other flourishing churches in the Eastern District have been organized by
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colonies from this congregation. Seventeen members founded the Ainsley street Church, and the same number organized a church in Throop avenue, where a mission had been established for the benefit of the rag-pickers, who live in that section. The original building used is now occupied by a large German congregation, which has a Sunday school of six hundred children, and another has been pro- cured for the Throop Avenue Presbyterian congregation. Twenty- seven members-the same number that withdrew from the First church-formed a new organization in one of the best improved por- tions of the Eastern District, and is known as the Ross Street Pres- byterian Church. Notwithstanding the loss of members by the mother church in founding these new organizations, and the contribu- tions of money made to aid in their establishment, that church has always successfully maintained its own importance both in point of members and wealth. In 1867, extensive alterations were made in the church edifice, and it is now one of the most tasteful buildings of the kind in the country. It is surrounded by well-kept grounds, and the approach is by wide, easily-ascended steps. The pews are well arranged, seating about one thousand persons, and the galleries, which are reached by neatly-constructed flights of stairs within the church proper, are low, and in excellent uniformity with the tastefulness and utility of the rest of the building. The interior is painted white, with a beautifully frescoed ceiling, and the carpets and upholstery are red, making contrasts that are very pleasing to the eye. The pulpit-desk is of black-walnut, designed and finished with rare taste and skill. It was a gift from the Sunday school children, and cost over two hundred dollars. The Sunday school room in the basement is also a model in its arrangement, and is divided into the principal school room, room for the infant class, and three rooms for Bible classes. Adjoining the church is a handsome parsonage. The whole property is valued at some sixty thousand dollars.
Dr. Wells received his degree of D. D. from Union College about 1866.
He is under the medium beight, of spare figure, but is a man of a great deal of physical energy and endurance. His head is not large, while it is proportional to his stature, and has very decided marks of intellectual power. The face in the lower part is narrow, but the upper portion of the head is very full, with a broad brow, which over- bangs his clear, expressive eyes. The nose and mouth are very re- gular, and the latter gives full evidence of the decision and resolu-
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tion which are leading traits of his character. There is a great deal of blandness and amiability expressed in his countenance, and you readily see that he is a kind-hearted, intellectual person, and one who wields a power and influence among men by the force of this intel- lectuality, a eireumstance which naturally gives him the place of a leader and counselor. He is a frank, just man, and while his opin- ions are plain-spoken, they are sincere, and never intended to be un- kind. Ile has a cheerfulness and geniality to a degree greater than in most men of his profession, but at the same time there is no laying aside of the self-respect and dignity which rightly belongs to a clergy- man. He grasps you by the hand like a friend and a brother; he laughs with you, he discusses all the current topies with good-natured animation, and in every way he shows that he is alive to all the emotions which draw man to man in social intercourse ; but, after all, he has that refleetiveness, prudence and wisdom, which are the best testimonials of clerical dignity. With all elasses, and with all ages, he is a popular and fascinating man. In his church among the adults his influenee is unbounded, and in his Sunday school among the children he is greeted with the warmth of a true affection.
If ever the right man was in the right place in the ministry, Dr. Wells is such a person. His temperament, his habits of mind, his convictions, and his choice of duty, his qualifications and his ambition are all most happily suited for the work. He is not restive in it, he does not look into other fields of professional effort and wish to be there instead of where he is, but he is emphatically a satisfied man, feeling himself in the right place, and doing his whole duty in it. Great have been the fruits of the harvest in the fields of his tilling. Not one flourishing congregtion, but four, can attest to his diligenee, his talents, and his sueeess. Among the humble and among the rich he has planted the cross and shed the light of the gospel. In the winter and in the summer he has been at his post, toiling and plan- ning for the salvation of souls. He has made no noise about it, but he has toiled himself, and those who assisted him have considered it their highest honor to imitate his unbounded zeal. His ministerial work has not been a sensational movement, intended to give its author public fame, but it has been a self-denying task for the moral and re- ligious improvement of the community in which he lives. So quietly and unobtrusively has all this been accomplished, that men may even be heedless of the name of the man who more than any other is en- titled to the praise of this great work in founding new church or-
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ganizations ; but as the eye of God looks down upon spire after spire which has lifted itself heavenward, it is known in those realms whose patience, energy, and faith have been their foundation stones.
Dr. Wells is an attractive preacher. In the first place, he is a very accomplished scholar; and in the next, he is a thinker of no ordinary capacity. Hence his sermons are productions of brilliant, original thought. All questions of doctrine and of the true interpretation of the Scriptures are discussed with a elcarness and learning which give great interest to all such disquisitions, and his treatment of other topics is equally thorough and effective. He speaks well, and has readiness of thought, but he makes no display either in matter or de- livery. It is a solid, practical, argumentative discourse, spoken for- cibly and yet tenderly. It has completeness in regard to a statement of the subject, and thoroughness in discussing it in all its bearings. And still there is nothing like dullness, but every part is vivid with intellectual power, and fervent with the sincere emotions of the heart.
Such is the character and career of this eminent and efficient clergyman. He has done a great work, and done it well. His private life is consistent with his public career, and in the church and in society his influence is all-powerful.
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Itm.
REV. SULLIVAN II. WESTON, D. D.,
ASSISTANT MINISTER OF TRINITY PARISII, OFFICIATING AT ST. JOHN'S CHAPEL, NEW YORK.
EV. DR. SULLIVAN H. WESTON was born at Bristol, Maine, October 7th, 1816. He was graduated at the Western University, Middletown, Connecticut, in 1842, and pursued a private theological course. He was or- dained a deacon of the Episcopal church in Trinity Church, New York, in 1847, and priest in 1852. Ilis connection with Trinity parish commenced at the first date, and has continued with- out interruption up to the present time. In 1852 he went to Europe, where he spent some five months in travel. After his return the death of Bishop Wainwright occurred, and he succeeded to the vacant assistant ministership of Trinity Church, and became rector of St. John's Chapel. In 1858 he was elected Bishop of Texas, but de- clined. He received his degree of D. D. from Columbia College in 1861. He was chaplain of the Seventh Regiment National Guard, and served two campaigns in the field during the late war. Among his published occasional sermons is one preached in the House of Representatives on the 28th of April, 1861, the Sunday after the arrival of the regiment in Washington, and another de- livered in St. John's Chapel, entitled the " March of the Seventh Regiment," showing the Providence of God in the heroic advance of the regiment to the endangered capital. A sermon on the "Sanctity of the Grave," preached at the period of the agitation in regard to the extension of Pine street through Trinity churchyard, created a decided sensation, and was published by order of a special committee of Trinity Church Vestry. In 1872 he went to Europe for an ab- sence of six months granted to him.
Some account of the vast and costly missionary work constantly going on in Trinity parish is appropriate in this place. There is a chapel on Governor's Island, established at the time of the war for the especial benefit of the soldiers stationed there, a free mission
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chapel in the Bowery, a free church in Thirty-ninth street, and four others, these latter having an aggregate of between one and two thousand free sittings, and three or four entirely free services every day. None of the six city churches are ever closed summer or win- ter, and three of them have services twice a day throughout the year ; the work in most of them is largely missionary. A church in Hudson street and two free mission churches on the east side of the city are sustained by the contributions of Trinity, ten thousand dol- lars having been given in 1873 to one of these mission churches. There are also a home for aged women, six sewing schools, five daily parish schools, and various benevolent societies. One of these societies spent in a single winter five hundred dollars for shoes alone. Three thousand children are under instruction in the Sunday and other schools of the parish. St. John's Guild directs its efforts to works of charity among the poor in the Fifth and Eighth wards. More than fifteen hundred children who had attended school in that vicinity were provided with clothing in the winter of 1873, and over four hundred families were cared for, at an expenditure of over ten thou- sand dollars. The Guild of St. Chrysostom cares for its poor and buries its dead. The Missionary Union numbers fifty members, and the Sunday School Teacher's Association maintains a library. The Guild of St. Paul has its field of mission in the lower wards. It maintains a reading-room which is opened every evening, and gives instructive entertainments to the poor. The Guild of St. Augustine is another younger association. The Guilds of St. Margaret and St. Agnes, numbering thirty members each, and the Sisterhood of the Holy Cross, do a most noble work. In 1873 the juvenile Guild of St. Nicholas numbered seventy-five boys, and the Guild of St. Agnes had ninety girls pledged to modesty and good behavior.
Dr. Weston is a tall, finely proportioned, and gracefully appearing man. His head is large, round, and of the higher intellectual char. acteristics. IIe is bald, and his prominent, glistening forehead and otherwise handsome features attract observation in all places. His manners are extremely courteous, and he has but little reserve with strangers. He is a person of an extremely nervous, impulsive tem- perament. Ile talks to you in one seat, and then throws himself into another ; he stands up and sits down; he assumes first one position and then another-always talking, always busy, always making him- self agreeable to you. In the pulpit he is equally restless. There is a constant movement of his body and limbs, and he has far more
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gesticulations than most of his Episcopal eotemporaries. He is al- ways in a hurry, and still he has time for everybody and everything. In his study there is the greatest confusion, but he says that he has a general knowledge of where every paper and book is to be found. Ilis appointments crowd in upon him, and he seems half distracted for time, and after all keeps more of them, and finds more time to dispose of for the benefit of others, than almost any city professional man. IIe is heartily interested in the work of his parish. It is among the poor, the field of the Christian's noblest labor. The wealthy people worshiping at St. John's Chapel in an earlier day have gone to the upper sections of the city, leaving the altar to hum- bler followers of the same Redeemer. But the doors of the noble old temple stand open, every one is welcome, and there is the same talent in the ministrations, with probably more personal devotion to the fold. A congregation quite respectable in numbers attend, and the schools connected with the church have sixteen hundred children. These children are of every faith, and many of them come from the cellars and garrets of the lower wards, and since the establishment of the schools the statistics of morality and crime have shown a great improvement. One of the schools is held on Saturdays for Industrial purposes, and the garments made are distributed as prizes to the children. At Christmas time of each year there is a general distri- bution of presents among all the scholars of the church. Dr. Weston gives a great deal of his personal attention to the school. He is familiar to the children and beloved by them. His christenings are very numerous, reaching as high as fifty at one service. He also officiates at a large number of weddings and funerals, many of them being of persons disconnected with his church. He willingly, and in the true spirit of his calling, goes everywhere and to everybody, rejoicing to render any service, glad to do good. In many a place where wretchedness and misery abound, he gives consolation to the dying, and where all else is gloom and sin little children prattle of his kindness and teachings. "When I dic," he remarked to us, "I would rather have the children of the poor in the schools of St. John's come to my funeral, than all the rich men of New York."
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