USA > New York > Orange County > Montgomery > The Goodwill memorial, or, The first one hundred and fifty years of the Goodwill Presbyterian Church : Montgomery, Orange Co., N.Y. > Part 10
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At this point in the services the pastor of the church, at the equest of the Moderator of the Presbytery, took the chair. n doing so he said :
" Fathers and Brethren of the Presbytery of Hudson : It ; matter of profound gratification to me and to the people to whom it is my privilege to minister, that you are with us on his interesting occasion. Your presence here at this time is ingularly providential, for when the invitation was extended o you to hold this meeting of the Presbytery in this house- n invitation renewed from the year previous-no thought vas entertained of this anniversary. It is then a remarkable oincidence that just one hundred and fifty years ago this very veek, " the people of Wallkill"-for thus the first settlers here designated themselves-were, by the Synod of Philadelphia, o which body they had applied through their commissioner or supplies of preaching among them, referred to the Presby- ery of Philadelphia, under the care of which Presbytery and ts successors in this field, the Goodwill church, the religious centralization of " the people of Wallkill," has ever since re- nained. In coming together this evening to thank God for he past, we have brought with us what we could find that belonged to the past. This ponderous volume-an old book of theology-was the property of its first pastor. One hun- dred and thirty-nine years ago his eyes closed in death, and he book, then old, written in a dead language, has been handed down from generation to generation by his descendants. It was lately presented to me by Mr. Jacob Y. Shafer of this own, perhaps in recognition of the fact that the succession in the church outlasts that in the family. Its suggestive presence on my table has done much toward shaping this occasion. We nave here on either side of the pulpit the portraits of the Rev. Andrew King and his wife Ruth, kindly loaned by Mr. H. H. King of New York, a grandson of the venerable pastor. We have also a likeness of the Rev. Robert W. Condit, D.D., kindly furnished by his daughter, Miss C. N. Condit of Oswe- go. Rev. William Blain is represented in the audience by a
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grandson from New York, who is about entering the legal pro fession. His father, Rev. William J. Blain, the only survivin, son of the sainted pastor, in his enforced absence has com municated by letter.
AMSTERDAM, N. Y., September Ist, 1879. REV. JAMES M. DICKSON:
Dear Brother :- Your favor of the 28th ult. is received. I greatly regret tha it will be impractical for me to accept your kind invitation to be present and par ticipate in the proposed memorial services in commemoration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the old Goodwill church ; and all the more becaus from sickness in my family I was unable, some years ago, to accept a like invita tion to attend the dedication of your church. I shall, however, be present with you in thought on the interesting occasion to which you look forward; and as th son of one who served the good old church as pastor for over a sixth of her long and useful existence, I send her my most cordial greetings and congratulation. that she survives in such a vigorous old age, and also to yourself as a worthy suc cessor of those who served her as pastor so long and well, with expression o earnest wish and prayer that the present pastoral relation may continue through a long and prosperous period.
Around the old Goodwill church cluster the memories of my childhood and youth. With her are connected many of the most sacred scenes of my life there I first sat down to the table of the Lord, upon her roll my name stil stands, in her pulpit I first began the work of preaching the Gospel, in her graveyard lies dust most sacred to my heart, and I feel that the least I can say to her on this 150th anniversary of her existence is, may "the goodwill of him who dwelt in the bush " long, long rest upon the Goodwill church and the line of suc- ceeding pastors through centuries yet to come.
With best wishes for yourself, and congratulations over your past successes as pastor of the good old church.
Very fraternally yours, WM. J. BLAIN.
My immediate predecessor, Rev. D. M. Maclise, D.D., has come to us from St. John, New Brunswick, and most heartily do we welcome him. We have also the pleasure of the pres- ence with us of our brother, the Rev. Jas. R. Graham, D.D., of Winchester, Va., a son of a former elder of this church, whom I will introduce to you as the first speaker of the evening .*
* Those who were present at the Anniversary will miss from these pages much of the sparkle of the occasion-much, indeed, that was said which was like the foliage which cannot be preserved with the fruit. The singing was led by the choir of the church, consisting of Mrs. J. M. Dickson, organist; Miss Ella Harris, Mrs. R. B. McMonagle, Mrs. J. B. Hadden, Messrs. Milton C. Bull, R. B. McMonagle John and Charles Loskamp and Charles Graham, assisted by Mr. B.
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But before listening to him let us all unite in singing
A HYMN OF THANKS AND PRAISE.
Written for the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Goodwill Presbyterian Church by MABEL G. OSGOOD.
"I will give Thee thanks in the great congregation : I will praise Thee among much people." -PSALM 35 : 18.
Accept our homage, Lord, Thou by the just adored Through endless time ;
Come down among us now,
While we in reverence bow,
Stamp on each heart and brow, Thy truth sublime.
Hearken ! the Spirit calls ! Within these sacred walls Let praise resound. Thanks for the holy dead,
Here by the Gospel fed,
Who the blest seeds have spread Of love profound.
Through the rich sheaf of years, Father, Thy hand appears ; Blessings increase. Up ! and our anthem sing ; Up! now, the message ring Of Him who reigneth King, GOOD WILL and peace.
The Hymn concluded, Dr. GRAHAM spoke as follows :
" We enjoy a rare privilege to-night. We stand here with the history and traditions, the sacrifices and sufferings, the conflicts and triumphs of a century and a half behind us. Five generations of men have appeared and passed away since the foundations of this church were laid. In a country like ours, whose settlement by civilized man is so recent, and whose whole history is so brief, this is certainly something to
B. Johnston of Montgomery. It may also be stated in order to the understanding of an allusion in the address of Dr. Graham, that the ladies of the congregation served the members of the Presbytery and others with dinner and supper at the parsonage -- upwards of a hundred sitting down to their tables at once
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excite our interest, and to call for devout thanksgiving unto God; and it is eminently proper that the occasion should be commemorated by this expression of our sense of Divine good- ness to us.
It was not to be supposed that an event so rare in itself, and so full of interest to the members of this church, would fail to awaken the attention and enlist the sympathies of our friends of neighboring churches ; and while highly gratified, we are not surprised that that sympathy is testified by this large attendance with which we are honored to-night.
But while the occasion is one for general congratulation and rejoicing, there are some here who, having a birthright in "the old Wallkill Church," hail this anniversary with emotions in which others cannot be expected to share. Here we were born ; here we were baptized ; here we took upon us the vows of God; here is " the place of our fathers' sepul- chres," and the grave of many a loved one asleep in Jesus. To this sanctuary, then, we are bound by the strongest and most sacred ties. We claim a heritage in all that is glorious in its history. It was in the labors and sacrifices, the faith and prayers of our sainted fathers, that its foundations were so firmly laid ; and it was through their fidelity and unwearied zeal,-owned and blessed of God,-that it has been preserved and prospered, till now, in its maturity and vigor, it is trans- mitted to us. We accept it as their choicest legacy, and thank God for their graces and their gifts.
In these commemorative services it will naturally be ex- pected that some appropriate reminiscences of the bygone days should be presented. If the presentation of these should be thought to fall properly upon me, as has been suggested, I am happily relieved, in a great measure, of the task, by the timely and invaluable labors of its recent pastors. Through their diligent and patient researches, much of the obscurity resting upon the origin and early career of this church has been cleared up, and a satisfactory history written, which will tell to future generations by what men, and through what trials, this " goodly heritage" has been handed down to them.
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Some of the names of those who first banded together to build here an altar for God, and also of those who first minis- tered at this altar, have been rescued from the oblivion to which they were rapidly descending. A few of these names are known and honored in our community to-day: but many of them have entirely ceased from among us. The fact is not a little remarkable, that in this church itself there is not a single individual to-day, so far as is known, who bears the name-though there are not a few who are the lineal descend- ants-of its early founders. They are scattered, however, in countless numbers, in every part of this broad land, and we may hope are repeating the good deeds of their pious fathers, and perpetuating in other communities the salutary influence once so happily exerted here. It would be an interesting work, had we the necessary data, to count up the multitudes that have sprung from these early fathers, and who are now serving the God of their fathers in the various and widely scattered spheres in which He has cast their lots. Their numbers would amaze us. As an illustration and proof of this, take the single instance of the first pastor of this church -my own ancestor-the revered Houston, whose memorial tablet is before you. I know whereof } affirm, when I say that if all his living descendants were present to-night, not one- half of them could be crowded into this house : and were all, both living and dead, descended from him, to pass in proces- sion before us now, they would constitute an exceeding great army, to be numbered by thousands. How far-reaching, then, for good or evil, must be the influence that has gone forth and is still going forth from the whole of that little band that first assembled for worship here !
When we speak of this as the one hundred and fiftieth aum- versary of our church, we seem to carry back its history to a very remote past-and its age is great as compared with most other similar organizations around us. It is the oldest Presbyterian church in this State, but one, west of the Hud son, and probably not more than thirty others, of our faith and order, in this whole land can claim an antiquity as great. 8
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Yet there are those present whose memories cover probably one-half of that entire period. And there are not a few among us who are not willing yet to be ranked as old men-of whom I am one-whose memory easily covers nearly or quite one- third of our history, reaching even to the ministry of Dr. Condit. In reverting to-night to the dim recollections of child- hood, it requires no effort on our part to recall, at least in general outline and in some of its leading features, the scenes which fifty years ago were presented here every Sabbath day. The old " meeting house" with its double tier of windows-a venerable relic of the last century-stood on the site and furnished the framework of the present edifice. Where your graceful spire now points to heaven stood the old " steeple," which to our childish eyes appeared many times higher, and ever so much more beautifuland grand, than its modern suc- cessor. Entering the church, there, on the west side, stood the pulpit, as near to the ceiling as it well could be and yet leave room for the far-famed "sounding-board" above; and in the lofty barrel-shaped pulpit, beneath that sounding-board (which every Sunday I expected to see fall like an extin- guisher upon him), stood the graceful form of that beloved man and "eminent herald of the cross," the pastor of our childhood, Robert W. Condit. Beneath the pulpit sat the chorister, Capt. Benjamin Mccutcheon, long our leader in the " service of song ;" while in the old-fashioned high-backed pews, some of which were square, and in the spacious galleries which surrounded the church on three sides, crowded the overflowing congregation which then worshiped here, and which, in pleasant weather, came thronging at the hour of worship through the porch of the main entrance in front of the pulpit, through the door under the steeple, and through the side door on the north which gave entrance from the grave-yard. And the men and women composing that congregation ! I recall vividly the curiosity with which we youngsters regarded some of them, and the awe which others of them inspired. To some of them wealth gave conse- quence ; to others birth and position gave distinction, and to
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others still age and worth gave dignity ; while to many god- liness gave excellence and grace.
The Elders, as brought more prominently into view, are those who have left the most distinct impression of individual excellence. Who that ever saw JUDGE BARBER can forget the marked dignity of his demeanor as he entered the house of God, or the impressive reverence which characterized his at- titude as he stood in prayer? Time would fail to more than mention his colleagues in the Session,-the venerable MILLER, the genial MEAD, the excellent LYON, and that " Israelite in- deed, in whom there was no guile," who, later than these others, was called to his reward, NATHANIEL BREWSTER.
With these rulers in the house of God. whom we " count worthy of double honor" because they " ruled well," are asso- ciated, in my earliest recollections of the church, many worthy and even distinguished men whose names have ceased from among us, but many of whom were honored in connection with churches since organized in Montgomery and Walden ; as, Boreland, Hill, Pelton, Millspaugh, Lindsey, McNeal, Walden, Kidd, Neaffie, Parshall, Capron, Hunter, Belknap, Chandler, Monell, Colden, Pennoyer, Faulkner, and Rhea. There, too, were those godly men and saintly women whose children still rise up among us to call them blessed : Beatty, Bowne, Crawford, Fowler, Graham, Haines, Harris, Hawkins, Howell, Jagger, Miller, Scott, Sly, Smith, Van Keuren, Wood- ruff, Young, and many others.
New blood, and a good deal of it, has since been intro- duced ; but those bringing it have not failed to show that, for the most part, it comes from that same old Scotch-Irish stock which predominated so largely in our earliest settlers, and gave character and form to the institutions which they reared. It is pleasant to know that they mingle so readily with the element already here, and aid with equal energy and zeal in carrying forward the noble work which the fathers so auspi- ciously began.
It is our privilege, as well as duty, to-day, to commemorate the virtues and extol the worth of our fathers. They were
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a strong race, whose heroic endurance and pious achievements we recall with pride. The example of their nobly useful lives should be held up to the view of their children, and cherished as inviting and assuring beacons by the aspiring youth of this ancient church. Yet, while we cheerfully accord them all proper honor, and bless God for the grace that enabled them to plan so wisely and build so well, we must not claim that either they or their works were perfect. The world moves, and progress is the law of the Christian life. As with the indi- vidual, so with the church-it ought to become better as it grows older. And, without meaning to detract from the fame of the fathers, or wishing to disparage either their faith or works, we cannot be insensible to the fact that there has been substantial advancement here, both in Christian enterprise and in Christian morals, since their day. The sweep of Christian sympathy and the sphere of evangelical effort are now wider in their range and more far-reaching in their effects than was dreamed of when this church was planted. Nor has zeal for the cause of Christ in other lands dampened the ardor of God's people for the welfare and purity of His cause at home. These also are carefully consulted and secured. As evidence of pro- gress, a variety of facts might be adduced. Take, for exam- ple, the cause of Temperance. Within the memory of some who are yet in middle life, there were within the bounds of this congregation, and outside of the villages which it then em- braced, not less than a dozen tippling-houses, whereas now there are but two or three, and these upon the outskirts of the congregation. In examining some old church papers (during a visit here a year or two ago), I found an account against this church for liquors to be used (if my memory serves me) at "the raising" of the parsonage : bought, I suppose, "for me- chanical purposes." And I found another document, of more immediate interest to us to-night-a bill presented to the treas- urer of the church by Joshua Conger-for whiskey furnished for the use of Hudson Presbytery during its sessions at Goodwill ! -and this within the memory of some now present. Did brother Dickson have the forethought to include that item in
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his bountiful provision for the entertainment of this same Presbytery to-day? The good man is horrified at the sugges- tion ! The world docs move, and the church too.
Our beloved Zion, while highly favored of God, has yet not been exempt from trials. She has experienced many re- verses and sustained some disasters. There have been dark days in her history-times which have sorely tried the faith and constancy of God's people-times when the strong staff and the beautiful rod have been broken-when revolutions convulsed the land, when financial distress projected its fright- ful shadow over every threshold, when external conflicts dis- turbed her peace and internal dissensions threatened to rend her, and indeed did rend her in sunder; for more than once has she evinced her genuine Presbyterianism, by showing that, like the hickory, she was " hard to break but easy to split." But through the distinguishing mercy of her God she has withstood every shock and survived every storm, and stands to-day among her sister-churches as vigorous in her strength and as fair in her proportions as in any previous period of her existence.
And now arises the momentous question : Shall this pros- perity abide? Shall there be other anniversaries to witness the existence not only, but the continued growth, of this vine of the Lord's planting ? Under God, it rests in a great mea- sure with you, Christian brethren of this congregation, to answer this solemn question.
As one of you, having a birthright here which I am not willing to surrender, and still feeling a joy almost as keen as your own in all that contributes to the welfare of this church, I adjure you, by the memory of the fathers, by your love for the fair bride of Christ, by your love for Christ Himself, not to destroy or weaken, but to preserve and enlarge this precious heritage bequeathed to you ; that you, in turn, may bequeath it to your children and your children's children, enriched with the memory of your fidelity, and your abundant labors and cheerful sacrifices for Christ. To accomplish this will subject you to no little expense of time and toil and means; but the
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end to be secured is worth manifold more than all it may cost. No living man can adequately estimate the benefits which our own generation and those gone before us have enjoyed, in consequence of the wise forethought of our fathers, and of the sacrifices they so cheerfully made, in building an altar here for the worship of their God. And if you are faithful to the trust committed to you, and which you publicly recognize and pro- claim to-night-if you carefully nurture and cherish this goodly tree, the seed of your fathers' planting, whose boughs already spread so far and are laden with such precious fruits, and beneath whose welcome shade so many now are seeking refreshments and rest-eternity alone can disclose the abun- dance and richness of the fruitage, in the blessings it will yield to the grief-stricken and penitent here, and in the glory to which it will be the means of bringing an innumerable multi- tude of immortal souls, "when it shall please God, of His gra- cious goodness, to accomplish the number of His elect."
But if this church is to abide and to be a blessing to the gen- erations yet to come, you must see to it that it be not moved one hair's breadth from that sure foundation on which it was originally builded-" the foundation of Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone." The men of God who planted here the institutions of religion, and the men who through successive generations, even down to our own time, received these institutions as a sacred trust from them, and the ministers of God, and the elders ruling with them in this house-leaders of this sacramental host-were men, all of them, who held and were valiant for the truth- "the faith once delivered to the saints." They never doubted that the Confession of Faith and the Catechisms of the West- minster Assembly embody the very truth of the Word of God; and they never hesitated to receive them in their entire- ness, as the authoritative standards of their church ; nor were they ever afraid, in face of Arminian, Socinian, or Infidel, to own them as the true and actual symbols of their faith. Em- bracing these doctrines of grace, which they found crystalized in all the creeds of the Reformation, which constitute the cen
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tral truths of the writings of Calvin, Augustine, and Paul, and which are the burden of all the teachings of Jesus Christ, they builded thereon and prospered. And this-just this, "the truth as it is in Jesus "-is the foundation, the " bed rock " of the Christian church, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail. If you continue to receive these God-exalting and man-humbling doctrines in their simple meaning, and, in felt- dependence upon the spirit of truth, allow them to exert their legitimate influence in strengthening your principles, purify- ing your spirits, elevating your characters, and moulding your lives, we may confidently expect this venerable and beloved church-reared by the sacrifices and fragrant with the prayers of men who revered the truth-to abide in favor with God and man; and, with growing numbers, to transcend in noble living and in useful deeds all that is recorded of her in the his- tory of the past. Her walls will still be salvation, and her gates praise.
But if, in an evil hour-which God in infinite mercy forbid -you shall forget the solemn lessons of the past, and, deaf to the admonitions of the Divine Word, prove recreant to your trust and to your God-if, abandoning the testimonies of your fathers, you shall embrace or even tolerate those errors which have corrupted and destroyed so many churches in our own and in other lands-your title to this blessed heritage will be forfeited, and this legacy of a pious ancestry, which it is your duty to transmit unimpaired to all the forthcoming generations to the end of time, will be lost to you and to your children for- ever. This beautiful edifice may not crumble into ruin, nor these eager crowds cease to throng your courts, but the " abomination which maketh desolate" will stand in this holy place. And then, blotting out these present inscriptions, ex- pressive of your faith and love and devotion to God, which now adorn your walls, you may inscribe in their stead that wail of a broken heart-Ichabod-the mournful symbol of departed power and vanished glory.
" But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak."
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Anthem: "Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness."
Rev. Dr. MACLISE was the next speaker. As he came upon the platform, the pastor of the church took him by the hand, addressing him in these words :
My brother: I am most heartily glad to welcome you. You and I, of all the pastors who have ministered to this people during the past one hundred and fifty years, remain upon the earth. We call ourselves comparatively young, yet it will be only a few years before others will take our places, and we will be spoken of as those who were, but are here no more. And when another one hundred and fifty years have passed away, when they celebrate the three hundredth anni- versary of this church, many will inquire who Maclise and Dickson were. So perishable are all our memorials here !
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