USA > New York > Erie County > Buffalo > Manual, catalogue and history of the Lafayette St. Presbyterian Church of Buffalo, N.Y. > Part 26
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Resolved, That while we recognize the hand of a loving Father, who doeth all things well, in this bereavement, and humbly submit to his will, we are bowed down in sorrow at our grievous loss-a loss not only of a spiritual shepherd and guide, but of one who was as a brother and a father to each one of us-and we mourn for ourselves, for our Church, and for his bereaved family, whose loss is immeasurably greater than ours. Especially do we, as his Session, mourn the loss of his wise counsel and guidance, his earnest zeal for his Master, and his genial, loving, fraternal fellowship.
Resolved, That in the midst of our mourning our hearts rise up in thanksgiving to God, that, in His infinite goodness He created such a man to dignify, ennoble and adorn the human race; that He appointed him to be an embassador of Christ, and an exemplifier of Christian living ; that He has brightened, purified and exalted our lives by bringing us within the sphere of such an influence; that He has given to
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this Church a shepherd so Christ-like in his life and love, and has spared him unto us for so many years, and permitted him to do a work in our midst that would fill and beautify and crown an hundred ordinary lives ; that the endearing relations between pastor and people were allowed to remain unbroken to the end, so that we are the inheritors of the priceless legacy of his noble life and triumphant death ; that He gave unto our loved Pastor such a rich portion of the divine grace and love, and sanctified his life with such blessed experiences, and gave him so many souls to be stars in his crown of glory ; that He gave him dying grace, and strength, to leave such precious testimony of the all-sufficiency of Christ, and of the power of the Gospel to sustain the soul at the gates of death. Thanksgiving to God, that for him the emerald gates were opened, and he has " seen the face of God and is at rest."
Resolved, That we tender to the bereaved family our deepest sympathy for them in their unspeakable loss, and point them for consolation to that Gospel which was the strength and stay of him whom we mourn.
Resolved, That these resolutions be entered upon the records of the Church, and a copy be presented to the family of the deceased.
The following is from the West Side Presbyterian Church Session :
To the Session of the Lafayette Street Church:
DEAR BRETHREN : We are deeply pained at the sad intelligence of the decease of your great and good Pastor, the Rev. G. W. Heacock, D. D.
We shall ever remember him as a man after God's own heart-one who was the embodiment of love itself, and who served the Lord with a willing mind.
The announcement of our evening service of yesterday had been made before we had learned the sad news, else we should have considered it our privilege and honor to unite with our sister Churches in the memorial service of one who was so universally loved by us all.
In this hour of the deepest affliction-and at the same time of rejoicing, that it is your privilege to have so honored and worthy a representative in "the General Assembly and Church of the First-born " above-you have the heartfelt and truest sympathy of ourselves and all our people.
We remain, dear brethren, yours, in the love of God,
THE SESSION OF THE WEST SIDE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. BUFFALO, May 7, 1877.
MEMORIAL SERVICES ON THE THIRTY-SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF DR. HEACOCK'S PASTORATE, JUNE 10, 1877.
(From the Courier of Fune IIth.)
The Lafayette Street Presbyterian Church was filled by an immense congregation last evening, upon the occasion of the union services commemorative of the death of the late lamented pastor, Rev. Grosvenor Williams Heacock, D. D. The pulpit was occupied by Rev. Samuel M. Hopkins, D. D., of Auburn, N. Y .; Rev. W. C. Wisner, D. D., formerly of Lockport, N. Y .; Rev. James A. Daley, acting pastor of Lafayette Street Church ; Rev. D. R. Frazer, of the First Presbyterian Church ; Rev. Wolcott Calkins, D. D., of the North Presbyterian Church ; Rev. Isaac Riley, of Westminster Church ; Rev. William Reed, of Calvary Church, and Rev. Charles Wood, of the Central Presbyterian Church. In addition to the mourning drapery and decorations arranged at the time of the funeral, the pulpit was adorned with flowers, and there were also some beautiful devices, noticeably a white cross in front. Near this emblem, resting upon an easel, was an admirable life-size portrait of the deceased handsomely framed, the work of Mr. Ammi M. Farnham, the well-known artist of this city.
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After a voluntary on the organ, the hymn
" I heard a voice from Heaven,"
was sung ; a prayer was offered by Rev. Mr. Riley; following which, came the selection, "Servant of God, well done."
Rev. Mr. Calkins next read a portion of the Scripture, Rev. Mr. Frazer made a prayer, then Rev. Mr. Wood read the following Memorial Hymn, written by Miss Mary A. Ripley for the occasion, and set to music by Mr. James W. Bixby.
I.
Be pitiful, O Father, to our grief ! See how we sink beneath Thy heavy rod ! Bend from the skies and bring us sweet relief, Be merciful in this dark hour, O God !
II
Our leader falls upon his sacred field, No more we hear his stirring battle cry ; He lies asleep upon his dinted shield, With patient, folded hands and close-shut eye.
III. Our Shepherd has forgot his tended flock, He treads the mountain pathway all alone ; We stumble here against the cruel rock, And the young, helpless lambs make weary moan.
IV.
Be merciful, dear Father, to our need ! Our staff is shattered, and the shades descend ; Bind up the bruised hearts that faint and bleed, And be our great Physician and our friend !
It was rendered by a quartette composed of Miss Sara Barker, Miss Ella D. Barker, Mr. James W. Bixby and Mr. J. Albert Bixby, the organ accompaniment being played by Mr. E. L. Baker.
Rev. Dr. Hopkins delivered the memorial sermon in a clear and distinct voice, and commanded profound attention until the close. He spoke as follows :
MEMORIAL SERMON BY THE REV. SAMUEL M. HOPKINS, D. D.
" NOW THERE ARE DIVERSITIES OF GIFTS ; BUT THE SAME SPIRIT."-I. Corinthians, xii. 4.
The causes which contribute to give a man his individuality, as respects both his physical, intellectual and moral being, are partly traceable and partly lie quite beyond the reach of our investigation. We are often able to see the parents repro- duced in the child, sometimes the grandparents. Beyond them our knowledge of personal traits is generally lost or imperfect. If we could see further back, and carry out a minute analysis of personal characteristics, we should, no doubt, find the attributes of remote ancestors coming curiously to the surface in the tenth or twentieth generation. We can see this broadly in the case of nations. They con- tinue to perpetuate century after century the qualities of their founders ; and a nation is only an aggregate of families. It continues the same, because the families composing it continue to reproduce, generation after generation, the physical and moral traits of their ancestors. The continual mingling of different families, and the distribution of the qualities they possess in common among the whole, prevents anyone from being too sharply discriminated from the rest, so that through all their. diversity there shines out a general unity. But if we were able to prosecute a course of comparative physiology through the successive generations of a family, we should, no doubt, find that there is an individuality which inheres in each, and which expresses itself in the several members in various degrees and with various
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modifications. A man exhibits a certain calm strength, firmness and tenacity of purpose. Those who knew his mother remember the same traits. He has a natural fearlessness and indifference to danger. In this he is his father over again. There is a peculiar quality to his voice. Old men remember that his grandfather or some great uncle had the same. He has a marked feature-lip or nose-the portrait of an ancestor four generations back shows the same, though it may quite have disappeared in the intermediate generations. And so, if we could trace back and distinguish a family to the time of the English conquest of New York, or to the landing of the Pilgrims, or to the crusades, a sufficiently fine analysis might detect the individuality in it, which marks it or some of its members at the present day. Certainly there is one moral trait, not essential to humanity, but merely be- longing to character, which has come down to every family and every individual of us from our primal ancestor.
In almost all cases, however, we are content, as we are indeed compelled, to rest our inquiry into hereditary qualities with a man's parents or grandparents. In the instance of all marked men, no remoter source of their peculiarities is sought for than their mothers. Of many men who have been distinguished for their gifts, and have stamped their impress deep on society, we only know that the love which brooded over their cradles was found in union with a strong intellect and a forcible, energetic character.
Near the close of the fourth century, there was preaching in the city of Antioch a minister of the gospel named John. He had been born, and received all his early education, in that city. We know little of his father, who died young, but like his great contemporary Augustine, he has embalmed the memory of his mother, An- thusa, in his own eloquent description, and made it fragrant to all later ages ; a woman who, in the general laxity of Christian morals in Antioch, lived the life of a saint, who spared no care or expense on the education of her promising son, and who, even when he had come to be illustrious, retained her influence and almost her parental control over him. In this city he exercised nearly his entire ministry, often having occasion for bitter regret that, yielding to the authority of the court, he consented to exchange his pulpit at Antioch for the cares and intrigues, and, as it turned out, the enmities and persecutions connected with a greater Church in Constantinople.
Family names, as you know, were not introduced till long after the time I am here speaking of. The name of John was common then as it is now, and about three centuries after his death this John began to be distinguished from other Johns as Chrysostom, the golden-mouthed, one of the very few instances in history where a man's proper name has become entirely lost in a descriptive appellation.
It would be thought pedantic and extravagant if I should undertake to institute anything like a particular comparison between this world-renowned Father of the Church and splendid light of the oriental pulpit, and that honored and beloved pastor who, born and educated and exercising his whole ministry in this city, has so lately passed away from us amid the tears and benedictions of an entire com- munity. There are several respects in which the comparison would not be extrav- agant ; would not be, indeed, by any means to the disadvantage of the latter. But my object will be answered by availing myself of the features of resemblance between the two, to illustrate certain traits and point certain lessons connected with
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the history of your lamented Pastor. But following out first a thought already sug- gested, I ask your indulgence for a few words on that hereditary endowment of qualities which furnished the basis on which grace and culture built up such a char- acter as his. Some of you knew both his parents-many of you his more recently deceased mother ; the latter identified with the very earliest church organization in this city, and both of them with the history of this particular Church from the beginning. The father was a man, who, if his life of intense business activity had left him either taste or time for literary culture, might have been perhaps equally distinguished with the son. He had an intensity of mind-a force-a drive which carried him with tremendous energy toward his objective point. Whatever he willed, he willed with all his soul. When he had set his mind on an object, he over- looked all obstacles to its attainment. It was a nature to go far in good or evil, and that he did not persist in the latter direction, after his early manhood, was due under God to the wisdom, the patience, the firmness, the faith of that admirable woman whom God had given him to balance the defects or the excesses of his own temperament.
" A perfect woman, nobly plann'd To warn, to comfort and command."
While she stood alone on the side of Christ, her own bed-chamber was the sanctuary in which she worshiped with her young children, dedicated them daily to God, and instilled into their minds the principles of the Gospel. When her hus- band joined her, that very day religion came down stairs and took possession of the house. From that time the daily sacrifice ceased not. Let the calls of business be ever so urgent, there was time for the reading of a long chapter, and the singing of a hymn, in which the untuned but intense organ of the husband followed one of the sweetest and most musical voices, whether for speech or song, that God ever put in a woman's throat. She came as near in all respects the ideal wife and mother of the proverbs, as any one it was ever my happiness to know. Her children regarded her with a love which bordered on veneration. When she died her grandchildren stood around her bed and sung, with voices only less sweet than her own, the hymn in which she herself had delighted, as expressing the thought that she was "only waiting till the angels opened wide the mystic gate."
There is often a curious felicity, if it is not rather to be called a prophetic forecast, in the naming of children. The parents' names seem to light on the children who most resemble them respectively. In this family the son, who was the first to die, bore the name of the first of the human race who died. The second had the name of the child whom God gave to Eve as a possession in the place of Abel. Both of them were men of the most vigorous intellects and great force of character. The third, who had the name and some of the marked qualities of his father, died as part of the sacrifice of the nation's life, on the field of Spottsylvania. The fourth had the name of his mother's family, Grosvenor. He had the large proportions which belonged to her lineage. Physically he towered much above the rest. His mother's lessons and prayers bore fruit early. He grew up a Christian child-con- scientious, prayerful, exemplary ; and being a member of the Church, catholic by his birth, he became, by voluntary adhesion, a member of the " particular Church " to which she belonged ; and made his first communion at the age of twelve years. It is the doctrine of our Church that the children of believing parents are "young Christians." Their baptism merely recognizes the fact of their birthright member-
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ship in the Church. " They are to be instructed in the Scriptures and the faith of the Church; taught to pray, to hate sin, and to love the Lord Jesus Christ ; and on arriving at years of discretion, if they are free from scandal, appear sober and steady, and have sufficient knowledge to discern the Lord's body, they are to be told that it is their duty and privilege to come to the Lord's supper." If this doctrine were practically carried out by parental faithfulness, it may be believed that a large portion of the children of our families, being theoretically "young Christians," would possess also all the other qualifications for an acceptable communion, and without needing to pass through any convulsive religious crisis would come gently and naturally into the visible fold of Christ's preferred disciples. What is called a " conversion " would then be only an awakening consciousness of an already formed life in Christ. Such was the process by which he of whom I speak was brought to take the step which is improperly called "joining the Church."
The boy already exhibited a fondness for reading. He was seldom, when at rest, without a book in his hands, but he showed no marked precocity. At the too-early age of fourteen he was sent to college. Few lads at that age appreciate the value of college studies as a means of mental discipline. A year or two is almost sure to be lost, or worse than lost. I judge that he took little interest in classical or mathematical study. What roused his dormant faculties was the collision of mind with mind in college debate and the problems of intellectual philosophy. He dearly loved an argument.
His mental constitution led him to let nothing go unchallenged. He wanted not authority but evidence on every point. He was one of those pupils whose inde- pendent, disputatious temper greatly embarrasses a timid teacher, but brightens, sharpens and exercises one who understands his business. It was in the early stage of the temperance and anti-slavery reforms; and he trained himself for future arguments and future triumphs on a larger field by that vehement zeal with which he threw himself into the cause of the right. His career at the seminary corresponded generally with this. He mastered his studies with ease and always maintained an honorable standing, but he felt no such enthusiasm for Hebrew or for history as to tempt him to go beyond his text-book. His delight was theology, and in this department he had the advantage of enjoying the instructions of that distinguished teacher, Dr. James Richards. Professors of ampler learning and broader fame have adorned the chair of theology in our various seminaries, but none of more native shrewdness, of sharper insight into character, of greater tact in dealing with young, active, questioning minds ; none who encouraged a pro- founder reverence for the word of God, or better knew how to exhibit the theolog- ical system of our Church ; disembarrassed from those superfluous skandala which often cling to it without adding either to its strength or beauty. From the temper of his mind it would have been very hard for Dr. Heacock to become the slave of any rigid system of dogmas. He was too bold and independent a thinker for that. But his own religious experience, the sound New England system taught by his mother, the instructive doctrinal preaching of the early pastors to whom he listened, had wrought the evangelical theology into the very fibre of his mind and character. It was through Dr. Richards that he was taught to harmonize its various doctrines ; to sustain them by a sound interpretation of Scripture, and to hold the more doubt- ful and speculative parts subordinate to that general principle which has been
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called (after Bishop Butler), the law of honor and conscience regulating God's deal- ing with men. The system of theology taught at Auburn did not differ in its terms from that taught in the older and honored seminary from which it was an offshoot. It was the system of the Westminster confession, cordially adopted and honestly , interpreted ; and yet it cannot be denied that it was discriminated by a marked though somewhat subtile quality from that of Princeton, a quality to be detected not in its form, but in its spirit. The influence of a theological system does not depend so much upon its dogmas as upon its theories, and the relative importance given to its different parts. It may be the same in its substance, and yet may be held in a narrow or in a liberal interpretation ; it may be formal, or it may be evan- gelical ; it may be polemic, or it may be ironical ; it may be fixed or progressive, and a theory of the nature of sin, or a theory of the nature of the atonement ; posited at the foundation of a theological development it may issue out, even as between evangelical schools or teachers, into considerably diverse results.
The distinguished pastor of Antioch, to whom I have thought it not unsuitable, in some aspects, to compare your late Pastor and brother in the ministry, was an orthodox father of the Church, held ever since in the highest honor and repute. But he lived before the time of theological systems ; he drew his doctrines from the original fountain of truth ; and he was not concerned to shape and color them with a view to their being fitted into any elaborate confessional mosaic. His views of the nature and effects of the primal apostacy ; of the grounds of the atonement ; of regeneration ; of the Church and the sacraments, would be far from satisfactory to evangelical divines of the present day. He was looking to practical efficiency in the preaching of the Gospel ; to the conversion of man as his great object, and he preached a salutary heresy, without knowing or caring whether it were a heresy or not, when he thought the spirtual condition of his hearers called for it. " He avoided (to use the words of a justly honored writer of our own Church), narrow dogmatism and angry controversy, and laid greater stress on practical piety than an unfaithful orthodoxy."
Dr. Heacock, while holding fast the great substance of the evangelical theology, and preaching it without reserve, held himself somewhat free from the trammels of any theological system as such. The great Syrian preacher in his day, had not yet grown into such a thing, and your Pastor had grown out of it. His main interest was centered in a few vital truths of the Gospel : sin abounding; grace superabounding, was the substance of his theology, and he taught in a published sermon which was received with some degree of suspicion and criticism, that grace so superabounded in Christ as to make the fall and the introduction of sin, with the introduction at the same time of a remedial gracious system, an unspeakably greater blessing to mankind than if Adam had stood the test. Had Dr. Heacock carried out a scheme which I have understood he sometimes revolved in his mind, of publishing his views on theology, I cannot doubt but we should have in it a noble monument of his genius ; of his independent and vigorous thinking ; and his profound penetration into the heart of the Gospel ; but it is not improbable also that we might have had an expression of views on some minor points so far diverg- ing from the received system, as to alarm at least the more sensitive guardians of the Church's orthodoxy. He thought intently, even painfully, on some of the great problems in theology ; and in the freedom of social or ministerial intercourse, did
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not hesitate to betray the conflict in his mind; but he had too much conscientious wisdom ever to disturb the niinds of others or vex the peace of the Church by pub- lishing what did not rise to the dignity of convictions, but were mere doubts or speculations. It is to he hoped that no man worthy of a place, at least in the Christian ministry, so far parts with his prerogative as an intellectual being as to take down indiscriminately the entire body of any human system of opinion, but frequently brings every part to the test of "the only infallible rule of faith and prac- tice." A diligent reinvestigation, passage by passage, in the Word of God, of the mystery of the Trinity, or the nature and effects of the incarnation of the Divine Word, or the immateriality and separate existence of the soul, or of future retribu- tion, may be at any time becoming and fit for one who recognizes the supreme authority of Scripture ; and if he is led as the result, to question in his own mind, the validity of the Church interpretation on these points, and so to continue an humble and prayerful study of this subject, no harm will follow ; but to rush into type with doubts, to obtrude on the public speculations which have probably been exhaustively canvassed and dismissed by the Church as baseless ages ago, is a crim- inal folly of which no Christian minister ought to be capable. Nothing less than a clear, precise, carefully formed conviction can justify a minister in taking ground against the Church to which he has sworn allegiance. To think freely ; to pro- nounce slowly ; to print rarely, or never, ought to be the rule with every honest minister.
Dr. Heacock entered Western Reserve College with his mind already fixed on the work of preaching the Gospel. His mother's wishes, his own vague conscious- ness of latent, undeveloped powers, and his religious convictions, all led to that conclusion, and that these constituted a clear "call to the ministry," I presume no one can doubt. He might certainly have served the cause of human weal in some other vocation. At the bar he would have transcended the fame of that brilliant jury-lawyer, his uncle by marriage, whose name in part he bore, Elisha Williams. In the perilous crisis through which our country has been called to pass, when she looked round her in her anguish for great men, strong for the right, to take her part, and too often found them lacking, he would have been a splendid champion in the Senate-a paladin like Roland in the field. But well did he serve the coun- try, and well did he champion the cause of humanity while engaged in the less strong and ambitious but happier work of preaching the Gospel.
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