USA > New York > Erie County > Buffalo > Manual, catalogue and history of the Lafayette St. Presbyterian Church of Buffalo, N.Y. > Part 21
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May 2d, Wednesday evening-It is thought that Dr. Heacock cannot survive through the night.
The following, from a daily paper, gives a graphic account of the closing hours of his life :
Early Thursday morning it became generally known that he was rapidly pass- ing away, and it was scarcely thought that he would live through the night. During the afternoon, Rev. Mr. Wood of the Central Presbyterian Church, called and offered prayer, to which the prostrated man was able to respond with an Amen. During the same afternoon his attending physician, Dr. J. F. Miner, asked him if there was anything he wanted, and his answer was: "I want nothing more but to see the face of God and be at rest." That night he succeeded in communicating with the members of his family from time to time, and on Friday morning he, with great difficulty, made known his desire to have sung the following hymn :
Father ! whate'er of earthly bliss, Thy sov'reign will denies, Accepted at Thy throne of grace, Let this petition rise :
Give me a calm, a thankful heart, From every murmur free ; The blessings of Thy grace impart, And make me live to Thee.
Let the sweet hope that I am Thine, My life and death attend, Thy presence through my journey shine, And crown my journey's end.
" When the singing of this hymn was concluded he exclaimed, with unexpected energy, " THE VICTORY IS WON ! THE VICTORY IS WON !" Through Friday and Saturday he passed with only such changes as indicated exhaustion of the vital forces, meanwhile making his wishes understood from time to time. Sunday morn- ing, at his request, the following hymn was sung :
Burst, ye emerald gates, and bring To my raptured vision, All the ecstatic joys that spring From the bright Elysian : Lo ! we lift our longing eyes, Break, ye intervening skies ! Sons of righteousness, arise, Ope the gates of Paradise. Floods of everlasting light ! Freely flash before Him ; Myriads, with intense delight, Constantly adore Him ; Angel trumps resound His fame ; Lutes of lucid gold proclaim All the music of his name ; Heaven echoing the theme. Four and twenty elders rise From their princely station ; Shout His glorious victories, Sing the great salvation ; Cast their crowns before His throne, Cry, in reverential tone, Glory be to God alone, Holy ! Holy ! Holy One.
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Hark ! the thrilling symphonies Secm, methinks, to sieze us ! Join we, too, the holy lays -- Jesus, Jesus, Jesus ! Sweetest sound in Seraph's song, Sweetest note on mortal tongue, Sweetest carol ever sung- Jesus, Jesus, flow along !"
During the singing of the last stanza, at ten minutes before 7, Sunday morning, May 6, he entered upon his rest. The effect upon the community, as well as upon his own people, of the announcement of the death of Dr. Heacock is shown by the following extracts from the daily papers. The following is from the Courier of the morning of the 7th :
AT LAFAYETTE STREET CHURCH .- The fact of Dr. Heacock's death did not become generally known until shortly after the hour appointed for morning service. At the church, when the congregation were gathering for worship, the majority were quite unaware that their loved and honored pastor had breathed his last ; and although the melancholy event was looked for, the blow was painfully telling, and was like a thunderbolt to many as they came in sight of the church door and saw the simple crape that told the sad story. One lady was so much overcome that she sank down upon the steps of the church. Within the edifice, draped as it was in the symbols of mourning, the scene was solemn and impressive.
The Services were conducted by Rev. Samuel M. Hopkins, a brother-in-law of the deceased, and consisted of an introductory prayer, followed by the reading of parts of the eleventh chapter of John and the third chapter of the Epistle to the Thessalonians. After which Prof. Hopkins read from various detached memoranda kept by the family, an account of the last experiences and testimonies of Dr. Hea- cock, which expressed in various forms his firm and unwavering trust in the prom- ises of the Gospel. In concluding his remarks, he quoted the following lines of Longfellow :
" And when the morn, in all its state, Illumed the eastern skies, He passed through glory's opening gate, And walked in Paradise.'
The hymn of the late Dr. Muhlenberg, "I would not live alway," was next sung, and Rev. Dr. Hopkins then offered the following prayer :
O Lord, our God, we thank Thee for the life of this Thy servant, and for all the influences that surrounded his early years ; that Thou didst bring him early to con- secrate his powers to the ministry of Christ ; that Thou didst call him to exercise those powers in this city-the city of his birth-and so long and so successfully to continue that ministry here. We thank Thee, O Lord, for the continued blessing that has attended his labors, and their influence elsewhere. Many, O Lord, here present can thank Thee that Thou hast blessed the services of Thy servant to them, when the waters of sorrow and bitterness rolled over them. There are those here who have been led to Christ and to a better life by his guiding hand ; many who have been strengthened, many to whom he has been a guide by Thy blessing. We bless Thee, O God, that the life of Thy servant was indeed an epistle read and known of all men, to the honor of Thy name, and that his passing away was not as when a common man falls. We bless Thee that he was permitted to depart so peacefully, and to feel Thy strengthening hand to the last, and may we comfort our- selves with these thoughts. Now, O Lord, we commend to Thee this people, this con- gregation, to whom he has been for so many years a spiritual guide, counselor and leader. Be very gracious to the family whom Thou hast bereaved, and comfort them out of Thy Word. And may we all be enabled to have our loins girt about with truth, and our lamps trimmed and burning, so that when Thou dost call us, when our work is done, we may be made meet for a place with the just made per- fect. Hear Thou our prayer, O Lord, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
The benediction was pronounced and the congregation dismissed.
No Sabbath School session was held to-day.
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The following appeared in the Courier of Monday 7th :
MILNOR STREET SABBATH SCHOOL .- At the Milnor Street Chapel-which is a mission of the Lafayette Street Church-the Sabbath School services yesterday afternoon were in memory of Dr. Heacock. Mr. John Gowans, the superintendent, opened the school, and singing and reading the Scriptures were the first in order. Mr. C. G. Brundige, Superintendent of the Lafayette Street Church Sabbath School, offered prayer, and Mr. Gowans announced the death of Dr. Heacock, and spoke with great feeling. After singing again, brief and touching tributes to the memory . of the good man were rendered by Messrs. Edwin G. Sawn, Joshua Parker, Henry J. Pierce, Willard W. Brown and Henry H. Hale. The chapel was appropriately draped, and a portrait of the deceased hung at one end of the room.
OTHER CHURCHES .- At most of the churches in the city, yesterday morning, the death of Dr. Heacock was announced by the Pastors in fitting terms, and received with unmistakable evidences of sorrow.
MINISTERS' UNION MEMORIAL SERVICE .- Last evening a Union Memorial Service, arranged by the Pastors of the various Presbyterian Churches of the city, was held at the North Presbyterian Church, and long before the appointed hour the audience-room was thronged. The pulpit was occupied by the Pastor, Rev. Wol- cott Calkins, Rev. D. R. Frazer, of the First Church, Rev. Charles Wood, of the Central, Rev. William Reed, of Calvary, and Rev. W. H. Crabbe, of the United Presbyterian.
The services opened with the singing by the choir and congregation, of the hymn commencing
" There is a land of pure delight, Where saints immortal reign.'
After the reading of the twenty-third Psalm, and an appropriate prayer by the Rev. W. H. Crabbe, the hymn, " Jesus, lover of my soul," was rendered by a quar- tette from the First Presbyterian Church Choir.
REV. WOLCOTT CALKINS, D. D.,
then addressing the congregation, said it was perhaps unnecessary to explain the occasion of calling them together, yet it was important to state that the present services were not intended to take the place of the regular funeral or memorial services of their departed friend. The meeting had been called without any con- sultation with the bereaved family, as a spontaneous expression by the broken circle of Presbyterian ministers of their esteem for their friend, brother and co-laborer, and to testify to the affliction felt in the common loss to all. It was not intended that any preaching should be done to those present. Their thoughts were doubtless in that home shrouded in sorrow, where the form of him they loved so well was lying cold in death. The response to the call showed how deep an impression had been made upon the community by the loss of Dr. Heacock. Perhaps it should be said that the gathering had been prompted by a love for the lamented dead, and a desire to ask God for mercy in the loss incurred and sorrow experienced. At the burial of Raphael, his unfinished picture of the " Transfiguration" was carried in the procession, and it occurred to the speaker, since the appointment of the meeting, that there was something of the nature of an unfinished picture in the last words of Dr. Heacock as they dropped from his dying lips. They could never be presented at a more appropriate time, and he would therefore ask the Rev. Mr. Hopkins to give them.
In complying with this request,
REV. SAMUEL M. HOPKINS, D. D.
said it was well to hear a few specimens of the last words and sentiments expressed by great and good men in the prospect of death. That Dr. Heacock was a good man none would deny, and he believed that there were many who would admit his having been a great man. This statement, however, he did not make, he said, to
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influence those before him in such a belief. All who knew the deceased, his life and his characteristics, would readily understand that he did not shrink in the expe- rience of his approaching end. With these few remarks, the reverend gentleman proceeded to present the following epitome of what had transpired during Dr. Heacock's last hours :
Rev. Grosvenor W. Heacock died at seven o'clock Sunday morning, May 6th, in the fifty-sixth year of his age.
The following are some of the expressions taken down from his lips within a short time-mostly within a few hours of his death. They are disconnected, and were repeated by him at different times, and over and over again :
A fortnight ago he began to use a preparation of opium vaporia to control the nervous excitement from which he suffered. Later, he was unwilling to use it for fear of beclouding his mind. He said he wished no remedy employed that would confuse his views of the Gospel promises. He wanted his mind clear to rest in the love and grace of God. Accordingly, he had for some days, partly through physical disability, taken nothing of the sort, and his mind was apparently clear, whenever he was waking, to the end. His power of utterance was greatly affected, except at intervals. Many times he only responded to the repetition of passages of Scripture, or suggestions of hope and triumph, by saying, "Yes, that's so," &c. But he often uttered his own feelings in clearly expressed language. He had said some time ago that he did not think it was necessary to bear any dying testimony to the Gospel. Still his feelings would break out ; and, without effort or affectation, he again and again testified to the love of Christ and the salutary power of the Gospel. These were so numerous that only a scanty specimen of them can be given.
He liad been, as is well known to all, a diligent student of the Scriptures, and of no portion more than that great Christian argument, the Epistle to the Romans ; but what he wanted now was not theology, but Christ. "The simplest truths of the Gospel," he said, " are what I now rest on. I cannot grasp the Epistle to the Romans. Thy rod and Thy staff, that's enough ; the love of Christ, that passeth all knowledge."
Over and over again, many times, in varied forms of expression, he spoke of the " preciousness of Christ ;" " He is my all ; the Rock of my salvation ; upon Him I rest absolutely, securely ; He will never leave me ; He will never let me perish."
As his physical weakness increased, and it became more and more difficult for him to move himself, or even to take the slightest nourishment through his almost locked teeth, he prayed again and again for strength to endure to the end. "Give me strength, O Father," he cried, and then he added, " Dear Father, help me to glorify Thee here or hereafter, just as is Thy will ; Thy will, not mine be done." This he repeated in substance many times over ; "Christ is my all ! First, midst, last, and without end."
He said imperfectly, but emphatically, that he hoped he should preach Christ more effectually from his death-bed, than he ever had during his life.
It is about a fortnight since he definitely contemplated a fatal result to his illness ; and he had some apprehension that the actual experience of death might be pro- tracted and distressing. He said, "You are praying that my life may be prolonged. Pray harder than you ever did for anything, that I may be released ; your prayers hinder me ! Let me go !"
But he had very strong affections and friendships; no man had a more devoted family, or more enthusiastic friends ; no Pastor had a more warmly attached People, or kinder and more appreciating brethren in the ministry. He had the warmest affection for them all. On one occasion, while suffering greatly, his mind turned to the thought of how they were suffering with him. He said, " I love all my dear kindred; my dear people; my dear brethren in the ministry, and in all the churches."
These are but few, of many similar utterances within the last few days.
Saturday evening it became more plain that he was, gradually but steadily, draw- ing near his end. His mind was still perfectly clear, his hearing natural, his sight partly glazed, but still able to distinguish the faces of the friends who clustered around his bed. About ten o'clock, after a protracted and exhausting spasm, he
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was laid back in the bed from which he had been partly lifted, and said, " Good bye." His physician said, "Not quite yet, Doctor ; not to-night ; but very soon." As if accepting the correction, Dr. Heacock said, " Then good night." He had a few more brief words to say: "Grace is enough," he said, "just as Thou wilt ; whatever pleaseth Thee." At eleven o'clock he dropped into a quiet sleep, from which the Angel of Death waked him at six o'clock to die. The signs of dissolution just at hand were perceived. The family joined in singing his mother's favorite hymn of Christian triumph, " Burst ye emerald gates."
His breathing grew fainter, and just as the last stanza was completed, and without one bodily pang or struggle, his spirit passed silently away, and went through the Emerald Gates into Paradise.
REV. WILLIAM REED,
the next speaker, in presenting his tribute, said it had been his misfortune to come to Buffalo so lately that he had been enabled to know Dr. Heacock but a little while, yet he was thankful to God that he came soon enough to know him. Meeting him first about three years ago at White's Bank, and only then for about two minutes, he felt, when parting from him, as though he had known him for years. One could not meet the man without being benefited by the grace of God which seems to flow from him to those with whom he came in contact. That large, noble heart which he carried in his bosom was filled with love for Christ-the great element of religion. God's thought for the world-love-was represented in him more prom- inently than any other trait. He loved the world as God loves it ; he loved not only his own, but all churches of Christ, no matter what name they bore. The "good-night " he left, is a good-night where they do not need the light of a candle nor the sun, for there is the light of God. If the spirit of the man could speak to us, it would be that that same love which turned night into day might shine now upon us. It was God who said, "Let there be light," and brought light out of darkness --- out of chaos. He blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. Our brother met his time to die not at ten o'clock in the night ; not at the midnight hour of twelve; nor at one, two, three, four, five or six o'clock in the morning ; but in the perfect number he passed into the perfect day. By that same grace, that same glorious Gospel of the living God, we may pass from night, sin, death and every evil, with that same soft prayer and shout of triumph with which our brother, counsellor and father met the king of light, risen from his everlasting hills, to lead him into that eternal day which is the smile of God.
At the conclusion of Rev. Mr. Reed's address, the First Church quartette sang, " Abide with me," and Rev. Charles Wood, pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church, spoke as follows :
ADDRESS BY REV. CHARLES WOOD.
On the last Sabbath of May, six years ago, the First Church was draped with the symbols of mourning. Upon the great congregation gathered within its walls was a solemn hush, the sure token of deep grief. A mighty man had fallen. The fruitful ministry of Dr. Walter Clarke had been suddenly closed by the fatal touch of disease. At that Memorial Service there stood in the pulpit the majestic form which so soon was to follow to the grave. To him had been committed the honor of speaking, for hundreds, of the sorrow which filled their hearts, of their reverence for the life and ministry of a faithful servant of God. Some of you will never forget how tenderly he spoke.' Some of you as you listened learned to bear toward him a love which time has only strengthened. To-night, those lips so eloquent then, are cold and silent, and we have come to give some expression, even though in a poor and feeble way, to the sorrow that rests upon the heart. Not only will the devout men of this city lament for him, as of old the Disciples wept over the dead body of the Christ-like Stephen, but even men of worldly and dissolute life will shed a tear or speak some word of regret that this man has gone from us. There is that in a beautiful Christian life, such as his, which moves to admiration all but the most stolid. Men may look upon painting and statue ; may listen to the rythmic sen- tences of poem and oration, with no swelling of the heart, but we may well pity
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him who can look upon a life, such as this which has just closed, with no desire that, as this was, so his own might be. Dr. Heacock did, through his character, that which no man, though a golden-mouthed Chrysostom, could have done through his sermons. He showed the possibility of living, even in these days, a life as truly Christian as was that of the early Disciples. We call this a sordid, grasping, selfish age, but here was a man who lived in it, not the life of a monk in his cloister, but as a man among men, and yet kept his garments unspotted. He made real, doc- trines which some call visionary. In him they saw an incarnation of the truth he spoke. I have felt, when in his presence, after contact with ordinary men, as one who had been shut up in a little room might feel if lifted suddenly upon a mountain- top. The air is fresher, the view is wider, the toys that had given pleasure now look worthless. By the greatness of his nature you were so uplifted that the view of life was broadened. Things, before but vaguely seen, seemed worth living for. You will pardon this personal confession, but as I have said to myself more than once, as I came out of his study and walked down the street, " I ought to be a better man." We do right, then, as churches, we do right as individuals, to lament to-night over the loss of such a man. Let no sceptic taunt us with the cry of incon- sistency, because we weep when one has gone to receive the unfading crown ; we shed the tear, not for him, but for ourselves. Our great-hearted Stephen has fallen asleep, and can we not, like the Christians of Jerusalem, express our sorrow for the unutterable loss? Must we drive back the tears to rankle like poison in the soul ?
On the thirty-first day of August, 1869, the chapel of the Lafayette Street Church was filled with many people, though it was not the Sabbath day. No member of the Church had been stricken with death, and yet there was a look of sadness on every face, for on the morrow their pastor was to cross the continent to labor for a few months beside the shores of another ocean. They knew not what dangers might encompass him by the way. They could not protect him, but they could and did pray that he might be kept under the shadow of the Almighty's wings. On December 13th, of that same year, a great gathering packed even the aisles of Lafay- ette Street Church. No sad faces were there, all was gladness and joy, for he whose departure they had mourned had come back to them with health and vigor renewed. Like those who met in the chapel on that August evening, we to-night are sad and troubled, for again he has gone away,-gone this time across the ocean. But there are no dangers in that path. He is safe with the Shepherd who leads the way. Already that journey, long as it seemed to us, is ended. This morning his prayer was answered, he " looked into the face of God and was at rest ;" the rest which comes to the angels of heaven, who are ever spending themselves in the Saviour's service, but who are never weary.
But is there nowhere to-day a joyous assembly like that which filled the church when he came home from the West? Think you there were none to give welcome, when, this morning, the soul returned from its earthly pilgrimage to the God who gave it? If there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, that turns from the ways of darkness into the path that leads through the gate of pearl, what must be the joy that swells and breaks forth in anthems of praise along the streets of gold, when a soul redeemed by Christ has been brought by the power through all the dangers of earth into the safety and glory of heaven ?
Following this address a quartette from the North Church Choir, sang the chant " Come Unto Me When Shadows Darkly Gather."
REV. MR. CRABBE,
Pastor of the United Presbyterian Church, arose, and said he had intended not to make any remarks, but, lest his silence should be taken for indifference, he wished to express the grief and sorrow which he and his congregation felt in the loss of Dr. Heacock. Since his first meeting with the deceased, four years ago, he had learned a great deal from that good man's Christian life and experience, and looked upon him as possessing the warmest heart and tenderest sympathy of any member of the ministry.
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REV. D. R. FRAZER,
Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, said : This is one of those occasions when silence is the only fitting and adequate expression of sorrow. Our sense of loss is so great, our pain so severe, that we cannot embody an expression of our feelings in words, and in the failure of the attempt is made manifest the fact that these sor- rows are unspoken, because unutterable, and that they are greater than those that may be given in human speech. To say that we stand staggered by the blow, by this calamity, conveys all that might be presented in a formulated address. The thoughts of the man who had been stricken down insensible, when he recovered consciousness, reverts to what transpired when he received the blow, and then the present surroundings. Between the two there is a great blank. The speaker had received just such a blow upon hearing of the death of Dr. Heacock, and instinct- ively he thought of the time when he saw him first, and then to his last meeting with him. Between these two occasions there was a great blank. It was his priv- ilege to be a member of the General Assembly, which met in the Church of tlie Covenant in 1869, in New York City. The business of the last day's session had been about closed up, and the only thing of importance that remained was the vote which was to decide the attitude of the Assembly with reference to the reunion of the two branches of the Presbyterian denomination. About the hour of adjourn- ment at noon, the advisability of adjourning over the afternoon was brought up. During the discussion that ensued a great, stalwart, noble-looking man arose, and, mounting the platform, said that if the Assembly was to be adjourned as proposed, he had something to say, ard, if not, he would postpone his remarks until the afternoon session. The motion for an adjournment was immediately voted down. Dr. Heacock had something to say, and everyone wanted to hear it. His simple presentation and announcement of a purpose was sufficient. When the Assembly convened in the afternoon, the Church was thronged, and Dr. Heacock made the most earnest, the most fervent, the most eloquent appeal for Christian liberty it had ever been the privilege of the speaker to listen to from mortal lips. Two or three others felt called upon to speak, and one of these, a gentleman of recognized abil- ity and eloquence, stuttered, stammered, stumbled and hesitated. Finally, in sheer disgust with himself, he threw up his hands and exclaimed, "Who can come after the king !" The best of men, Mr. Frazer thought, could have made the same failure, and the contrast would have been against them. The last time he saw Dr. Heacock was just after the death of Dr. Lord, but how changed from the man that paced the platform of the Church of the Covenant like a caged lion. When leav- ing him he said " good bye, " but Mr. Frazer little dreamed that that was the final farewell for all time. He had, during the afternoon, stood beside the corpse of the deceased. There was the sweetest expression upon the face, one that said " I am at rest, " and the speaker had said to himself, "thank God, there remaineth a rest for the people of God." When looking at the features of the departed, he had experienced feelings of sorrow and of sadness, but, also, of joyous triumph that filled his breast because of what the Gospel will do for a man. In closing his address, Rev. Mr. Frazer said that while the cloud of sorrow o'ershadowed those before him, in the midst of their depression they should take courage and thank God for the dying testimony of Dr. Heacock, for in all clearest outspoken vindica- tion of the power that he was, and in all that he did, it was the Gospel.
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