USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > St. Peter's Church in the city of Albany : commemoration of its two hundredth anniversary, November, A.D., 1916 > Part 5
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Let us be concrete in our thought of worship. To be concrete we may erect, maintain, perpetuate and commemo- rate the houses or churches, and the organizations, the great bodies representing belief and the symbols of belief created and contributed for the development of the religious idea by St. Peter's Church and not only by it but also by thousands of other churches and temples. (Applause.)
At this point Mme. CULP sang three selections: "Long, Long Ago," "By the Waters of Minnetonka," and J. H. Rogers' "The Star."
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THE TOASTMASTER: I want to say just a word which will express our gratitude to Madame Culp for her sweet graciousness in coming here to sing for us tonight after a day's travel and a strenuous evening. She told me this afternoon she had but an hour after her concert tonight before taking the train on her way to keep her next engage- ment. I know you will appreciate, as I do, her sacrifice in sharing that hour with us. Her singing indeed has added that touch which only the music of a great artist can give.
I was very much impressed, as I always am, when some one can look back into history, as Mr. Stetson did, and bring out from it living characters. It proves that those are immortal, as Dr. Finley said the other night, who attach themselves to a work which is immortal. No one appre- ciates more than I do that it was permitted me in coming to Albany to take up work in St. Peter's to know those two great men to whom he alluded at the end of his address: Bishop Doane, who welcomed me on my first visit to Albany, even before I was called to St. Peter's and who not only extended to me the courtesy of his house but showed me many personal kindnesses; and my distinguished prede- cessor, Dr. Battershall, in whose shoes I have been trying to rattle around, in an effort to grow up to them, only to discover how impossible it is. The joy that I have in still being able to be associated with him is very great.
One of the most interesting parts of the Adirondacks which seems to me today-you may think I am wandering from my subject, but I assure you I am not-unspoiled by the touch of man, is the section around Racquette Lake. In former years I used to spend part of the summer there. I think it is about twelve years ago I met a New York woman there whose name would be familiar to you if I should mention it. Knowing my clerical affiliations, she asked me if I knew the Rector of St. Thomas'? I said, " Yes, I know the Rector of St. Thomas'," and, as I wanted to be truthful, I added, "But I doubt very much if he knows me." She said, " Have you ever heard him?" I said, " I have had that pleasure." She responded, " He is wonderful, wonderful, perfectly wonderful ! Why, you know, I have had a great many troubles, Mr. Harriman,"-(I
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have been very much gratified that most of you have called me "Doctor ")-" I have had a great many troubles in my life, a great many disappointments and a great many sor- rows, and it was one day last Lent when I felt as if the struggle were no longer worth while, as if I could not pos- sibly live on another day, that I went into St. Thomas' Church and I heard the Rector. I came out on the wings of the morning, my faith was restored, my hope renewed I knew everything would work out all right."
I asked, " What did he say? "
"Oh, I don't remember. I haven't the slightest idea," she replied.
Now, it is nothing against the Rector of St. Thomas' that one cannot remember some years after what he had to say on a certain occasion. I know from my own ex- perience it is very difficult to get parishioners to remember from Sunday to Sunday what I say ! But the remarkable thing is that the inspiration he gave that woman lasted. So I feel that we are very fortunate indeed to have as one of our speakers one whose inspirational power is such that, after the words he speaks have been forgotten, the inspiration will remain.
Surely, it is not necessary to introduce to you one who is known for his universal courtesy, his generous and kindly spirit, his ability in the pulpit, for his services to the church at large, and above all, perhaps as "The Rector of St. Thomas'." (Applause.)
Rev. Dr. ERNEST M. STIRES: Mr. Rector, my dear Bishop, ladies and gentlemen-I am profoundly grateful for these kind words. Perhaps I like them all the more because I know that I do not deserve them.
I must take great care that on this occasion, at any rate, I do not send you out "on the wings of the morning." (Laughter.) I observe that the suggestion is carried unan- imously. (Laughter.)
May I tell you, first of all, that the greatest reason why I am here is because I feel at home. I feel as though I were one of you, perhaps even more so than the colored brother from my native state of Virginia, who on one
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occasion, having to his great distress been inconveniently discovered in a white man's chicken coop, heard the voice of the man, who had missed his chickens for several nights and on this night was in a condition of preparedness. The owner stalked out toward the coop carrying his gun, and crying three times "Who is there?" Getting no reply he said, "If you do not answer, I will shoot," and then there came a faint sound,-" Boss, there ain't nobody here but us chickens." (Laughter.)
Now, we are all here, and we are all at home, and we are all chickens, and I am not sure but that the youngest of all the chickens is the one here by my side (Dr. Batter- shall).
But another reason why I feel thoroughly at home here is, my brother, that in a sense I am almost your parishioner, and belong for a good part of the year-I sometimes am tempted to think the best part, if not the largest part- under the supervision of your Bishop, because I have had the good taste to make my summer home in this diocese. Up there on the shores of Lake George my two younger boys were born, born in this diocese. I feel very grateful for that, and because of my associations with the country just north of you and the pleasure and interest I have had in passing through this city so often, and because of close and affectionate associations with dear Dr. Battershall and Bishop Doane and Bishop Nelson for so many years back, I feel thoroughly at home, and I am quite sure that you will believe me when I tell you that I do not come for your sake at all, but thoroughly to enjoy myself.
And yet often in my summer home on Lake George I have thought of St. Peter's. Naturally I began to study the region which played an important part in the history of our country, and all the roads in those early days led to Albany.
When I began to trace all the great trails, off here to the west, off to the north, into the great woods, off toward Lake George, all of them practically going right by the door of the first St. Peter's, and when I thought of the tragedy that laid low the brilliant young Lord Howe, hav- ing its final act in the reverent laying away of his remains
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in the crypt of St. Peter's Church, all of my thoughts of the history of that north country seemed to bring me back here to St. Peter's and the great part it had played in the early history of our land, and particularly of this part of it.
And then I like to think of the privilege the Parish had in those early days of building upon such splendid founda- tions as were afforded by good English blood and good Dutch blood. They were heroic souls, those English, with their splendid traditions; and not less heroic, those deter- mined old Hollanders. What an amazing little country Holland has been ! What a great fight they have always maintained and how that fight has developed them ! Seiz- ing their little kingdom from the threatening, greedy grasp of Neptune himself, holding it against the ocean, holding it against all the nations; and although other small nations have been somewhat unceremoniously treated on the con- tinent of Europe, the Hollander is still on guard, and they show no disposition to disturb him. (Applause.)
And so I think that you are most fortunate, Mr. Rector, in having your Parish built upon such splendid foundations in those early days. As Mr. Stetson has so beautifully told you tonight, you have behind you " two centuries of dis- tinguished service," for I cannot help thinking of that adjec- tive in connection with the history of St. Peter's for two hundred years past. It has been a distinguished past, distinguished for more reasons than your patience would suffer you to hear tonight. It has had the advantage of great leaders, and it has the present advantage of having one of the greatest of them all still with them, one whose life with them has measured more than one-fifth of those two centuries. (Applause).
While I think, with congratulations, of this distinguished past, I must confess I am far more impressed with your great, inspiring present. When I consider that, there comes to me at once a picture from that Testament of which Mr. Stetson was speaking, and of one of the most striking stories in that Testament,-Jacob, the young man, going out to make his way in the world, wondering what fortune should come to him, what should the future hold, counting over his equipment, measuring himself against all
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the changes and chances which he knew were inevitable. While he thinks and wonders and hopes, he falls asleep, and a vision is vouchsafed him, angels ascending and descending a ladder that was raised towards the heavens. I think of it for two reasons in connection with your inspiring present; because, first of all, that picture suggests two qualities absolutely essential in your success as an important part of a great Church, and I think of them because I find them markedly present in your Parish as I know it today. Consider that ladder. You know there are three positions in which you can place a ladder. One is to let it lie flat on the ground; another is to suspend it in the air; and the other is the natural and useful method, with one end upon the ground and the other aloft, that one may climb. There are some people who undoubtedly were intended to be leaders, but, with no vision other than that of the grossest materialism, they lie prone upon the ground. They never get beyond what they call the prac- tical method; they are moved by no great inspirations.
There are others, unfortunately, who are a little like a ladder completely suspended in air. They have no practical foundation at all, they are mere visionaries. But there are others standing as men should stand, with their feet planted upon the solid, practical earth, and their heads up in the higher air to catch inspirations of things greater than this earth can teach.
Now, it is because I find those two notes in your Parish, and because I am acquainted with your Parish of today better than that of the two hundred years past, that I am disposed particularly to emphasize these two adjectives: practical and spiritual. I knew your Rector to be such a man when he was in the diocese of New York,-he was constructive, helpful, progressive, and yet always a man of devotion, of spirituality; practical, yet able to catch the higher inspirations which alone can make the progress worth while. And I find it not merely in your Rector, but in your laity and, therefore, I am disposed to believe it must be a characteristic of the Parish.
A distinguished layman of the Church, a distinguished layman of St. Peter's Parish, Albany, was a lay deputy
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from this diocese to our recent General Convention. He presented a very remarkable report one day. Every line of that report rang with important practicalness, and the whole Church listened. It was the report of the " Com- mittee on Business Methods in the Church." "Ah, what a change," St. Paul would say, when the church is under- taking really to conform to genuine, constructive business methods ! There was tremendous applause, in spite of the rule of the House that applause was not permissible, when that report was presented. That same layman, I find on a later occasion, presented the report of another commit- tee, and what do you suppose it was this time ?- on the Revision of the Hymnal. He isn't merely a business man, for now he is dealing with the hymnology of the Church, the songs that are to inspire her people through the years to come, and those " who toil along life's weary way with painful steps and slow," and help them to look for " glad and golden hours;"-the hymnal of the Church, to convert, to strengthen and to inspire. Your Mr. Pruyn presenting the report on business methods in the Church, and then presenting the report for the committee that gave us the new hymnal, suggested to me at once the solid practicalness on the one hand, and the aspiration and inspiration on the other, which are the two essentials of any great Parish or a great church. (Applause.)
Now will you permit me to say a word to you about what I feel convinced is to be your still greater future? You have a splendid equipment. I wonder if you realize how splendid it is in every regard. Your assets, real, personal, and spiritual, are very great. No wonder the Church is expect- ing much of you, and it is; and it cannot help it after the story of your Bicentennial goes out. And it is good for us that people expect much of us; it is good for us to remember that they do. But be sure you realize how splendid your equipment is. You will be enabled through the generous provision of one of your members to do more for the cause of humanity than before. There are those here in this city and in the diocese who are going to be blessed more than ever before through St. Peter's.
I like on your coat of arms that exquisite legend of St.
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Peter that we find there in the reversed cross, and I happen to think just here of another story of St. Peter. I do not know whether the people of St. Peter's Church, Albany, happen to be acquainted with it. The legend runs that one day St. Peter and the others were going with the Master from a little town on the shore of the Sea of Galilee into the country back from the sea. They crossed a large field filled with stones, and the Master said, " If every one who crossed this field took only a stone out of it, soon all the stones would be removed, and the labor of the man who has to till the field would be much lighter. At the suggestion each picked up a stone, but it was a warm day, possibly, and Simon Peter did not care to be burdened with a heavy one, and so he took the smallest he could find. When they reached the other side of the field they rested under the shade of a tree, and the Master said, " It is time to eat, sit down." They replied, " Master, we have no food." He raised His hand, and the stones became bread; but Simon Peter's luncheon was extremely small. Later in the after- noon they returned toward the town across the field, and again each picked up a stone, but Simon Peter's was the largest. When they came to the seaside the Master said, " Cast your stones into the sea, lest any man think that we have been serving for reward and not for love." And the legend says that that day Simon Peter fasted long and learned much. (Laughter and applause.)
But you are going to have such a large equipment, you are going to be able to take so many difficulties out of your neighbor's way, that I am sure that the needs of humanity, not merely in this vicinity, but in regions far distant from this, are going to feel the impact of the impulses that shall come from your loving hearts.
But I think not only of what you may do generally for the cause of humanity. I cannot help remembering that we of New York City must expect a great deal of help, and I say it in the presence of the distinguished Acting Governor tonight; that we must expect a great deal from you in your influence upon good legislation. You have an unrivalled opportunity. The echoes of what is said and done in St. Peter's will reach the Capitol, or they ought to.
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Some of you may remember that our distinguished and witty friend, Mr. Lewis of Philadelphia, in the closing hours of the General Convention said that the Episcopal Church had this year put prayer to the supreme test by proposing to put into the prayer book a prayer for legisla- tures. (Laughter.) He did not doubt the efficacy of it, but he gave us a picture of some of his ruminations when he passed by legislative halls where he said, " I often ob- served on the outside the ancient leaders done in bronze, and on the inside the present leaders in brass." (Laughter.)
I cannot help thinking, sir, that in this day when there are so many good causes appealing to us, and the number of our practical activities has so increased that we some- times lose sight of that which is the secret and the only inspiration of all the really permanent good we can ever do or can ever have,-the ability to realize quite literally the truth that greets us in God's house that "the Lord is in His holy temple," and that His faithful soldiers are there to salute, to report, to honor him, and to take orders; that we are there to do what the Brotherhood of St. Andrew some years ago so admirably provided in its two simple rules, the rule of prayer and the rule of service; first to kneel and pray, and then to rise and work. Because if we really pray we will go to work; and so all that we are going to be and all we are going to do is dependent upon the absolute reality of our religion, and our being able to see our living Leader in His house, when we kneel before Him for forgiveness for the past, and for consecration for the future.
I remember that a milk man in Conncticut once was stopped out on the road by a lady hailing him, a maiden lady of certain age. She called him back while she tasted the milk and said, "It is just as I thought; it was sour yesterday, sour the day before, and sour today." He said, " Madam, I am extremely sorry. I have only one question to ask you. Is the milk perfectly good in other respects? " (Laughter.) You know and I know, and it doesn't hurt us to remind each other of it, that the test comes every night when we go back to headquarters to report for the day; and when we will not take up the King's work on the morrow
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with unclean hands, but first ask the Master Himself to send us forth; at such times and whenever in His house we kneel before Him, it is the reality of it all that makes splendid things possible in us and through us.
Do you happen to remember those lines that George Eliot wrote, and in which she puts some words into the mouth of Stradivarius, the greatest maker of violins the world has ever known ? Stradivarius is represented as saying,
" When any master holds twixt head and chin A violin of mine, he will be glad
That Stradivari lived, made violins And made them of the best For while God gave them skill, I gave them instruments to play upon,
God using me to help Him If my hand slacked,
I should rob God, Leaving a blank behind, instead of violins.
He could not make Antonio Stradivari's violins Without Antonio."
So God has decreed that His wise plans for the world can- not be fulfilled without our help.
Now, sir, it is because I feel so sure that this means to you what it must mean to us all, that I am disposed to ask you to forgive me for attempting to be, first for my own sake, a bit serious on such an occasion as this. It isn't fair to you. Perhaps I have scarcely any better right to ask for mercy for being so serious on a festive occasion than the man who, in Europe some year ago, murdered his father and mother and then asked clemency of the court on the ground that he was an orphan. (Laughter.)
But I know what it is to have a great equipment. I know what it is to have a sense of responsibility and a strategic location. I know what it is to have a beautiful church, and people with great power and influence, and how much depends upon the clear vision and the purity of mind and heart of that officer of the army of Christ who stands there as leader. I know what it means. Sir, yours is an inspiring ancestry. Your founders were patriots. Many of them were great heroes; one consecration after another has made your St. Peter's Church holier and holier. Therefore, knowing something of the character of those of
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the present and being certain that God is going to lead us into greater things than this world has ever yet known, I am convinced that your greater centuries are before you.
" The stars indeed are old, but life is young, That in earth's ruddy morning-time first sung Its salutation to the radiant dawn; The yesterday of life seems hardly gone.
" So new is man's still unrecorded day, Whose noon is yet, perchance, so far away That his endeavors, only just begun, May change the scene before the setting sun.
" No past, but some far future, holds the key To that firm door that bars eternity; Its secrets sleep in aims still unfulfilled, In deeds undone, but yet not all unwilled.
" So turn we once again to our great task; A little more of life is all we ask; Spread all the canvas, every sail unfurled, To help complete this still unfinished world."
Upon St. Peter's part in this high undertaking may God's blessing rest, upon its valiant young leader, upon every member of this historic Parish ! (Applause.)
THE TOASTMASTER: We greatly appreciate the gift that Dr. Stires has of making himself immediately one of us, but I thought as he spoke that perhaps he didn't know quite so much about St. Peter's Church with reference to the Capitol as some of the rest of us do.
The next speaker is Bishop Lawrence. (Applause.)
Right Reverend WILLIAM LAWRENCE: Bishop Nelson, Mr. Toastmaster, ladies and gentlemen-Frankly, when I come to Albany, Bishop Doane is in my mind. I can't get rid of him, and perhaps I can tell you two little anec- dotes which you have not heard before. Indeed I think nobody has heard them except myself and one or two others.
After Mrs. Doane died I came here from Boston on my way to New York, and passed the afternoon with him. In the course of conversation, knowing how feeble he was, I hinted that perhaps he would now leave the diocese in the
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hands of the Bishop of whom he had spoken so lovingly, and go down to New York and live with his daughter. He spoke up very quickly and said, " Lawrence, God has blessed me with fifty years of happiness with my wife, and now that she is gone, I am going to play the man." And he did. He stood by his post and did his work. The last time that he went out, it was two days before his death, he was at the Board of Missions-I helped him to the street, put him into the taxi, and said to the driver, " Drive carefully, there is little left."
On the other hand, one day we were sitting at dinner, a little company of us, and were speaking of confidences, when the Bishop said, "Of course, every clergyman has confidences given him. He cannot mention them and does not mention them to others, not even to his wife." Mrs. Doane spoke up, " Yes," she said, " William never tells me anything, but he can't keep anything from me." (Laughter.)
It is a great pleasure for me to be here, sitting as I do between an old friend, Dr. Battershall, whom I love and of whom I have often said that among other fine qualities he is a master of a beautiful English style. (Applause.) On my left is one of my boys. All the good sermons that Harriman preaches, lay to me. (Laughter.) I must say that for several years I had a suspicion as to whether he was fitted for the ministry. I wrote him two or three times and questioned him. Why? Because he started for the ministry, and then he seemed, having put his hand to the plow, to turn back, for he went into business, and he stayed in business long enough to make me suspicious that his heart was not in the ministry. When he came back from business, he showed in the first place that personal considerations compelled him to go there, and in the next place that he was not content and he could not be content with mere business, for the call to the ministry kept echo- ing and summoned him back. We know that those experi- ences with his ladder upon the ground of practical work, help to keep the ladder solid and firm as he moves upward in the ministry towards higher and finer realms.
Now, he has said that he wants me to speak on church pensions. I protested the other day in the diocese of
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THE RT. REV. WILLIAM CROSWELL DOANE, D. D. Former Rector of St. Peter's Church and First Bishop of Albany
Massachusetts that I did not wish to be associated altogether with church pensions, as if I had only one idea, and I told them over there that I was the Bishop of Massachusetts and I wanted them to know it. Now, here I have such sympathy with the interest and history of St. Peter's that I break away from these with hesitation, but I am going to obey the behest of the Rector, and it may be, link up for a very few minutes what I have in hand with St. Peter's as a typical parish.
There were two elements in the life of the church and of society which were not recognized a hundred years ago but which have gradually emerged in our social and indus- trial life. The communities and the villages were small, and there was a personal relation between all the people so that when trouble or poverty came into a home there was the mutual neighborly helpfulness among the people. Whether it came to the old doctor or the old parson or the old laborer, somehow or other the hand and the heart of charity helped them along until they fell into the grave. It was beautiful.
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