The Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York : historical and biographical sketches of its first fifty years, Part 9

Author: Prentiss, George Lewis, 1816-1903
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: New York : A.D.F. Randolph
Number of Pages: 322


USA > New York > New York City > The Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York : historical and biographical sketches of its first fifty years > Part 9


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Dr. Peters's own reflections upon this part of his public life are excellent : -


These conflicts, I can truly say, have never been sought by me. On the contrary, I have ever shrunk from their responsibilities, and would gladly have avoided them. But the necessity of similar conflicts I now regard as often unavoidable in the life of every earnest man who is called to bear a leading part in the accomplish- ment of great things for the kingdom of Christ. I have therefore no reason to regret that such conflicts have fallen to my lot. What- ever of personal sacrifice they may have involved has been more than repaid by the consciousness of high resolves of duty, and of fealty to Him who judgeth righteously. To Him also I have learned to look for the forgiveness of whatever may have been wrong in the spirit of my advocacy even of a good cause, and patiently to wait for the vindication of motives and purposes, which even Christian men of opposing opinions are often slow to recognize.


In his defence of Mr. Barnes, in the General Assembly of 1836, against the charges of the Synod that had silenced him for heresy, Dr. Peters considered that he was maintaining the cause at once of ecclesiastical liberty and of a sound theology. While a sincere Calvinist, his Calvinism was of the New Eng- land type, and brought him into sympathy with what he re- garded as " improvements," and more Scriptural, as well as more reasonable, statements of the old doctrine. On the questions then in dispute respecting sin, ability, the nature and extent of the atonement, Divine sovereignty, grace, faith, and the way of salvation, his views were very decided, and such as he thought best represented the true spirit and prin- ciples of the Gospel.


1 Rev. Dr. Joseph P. Thompson, LL. D.


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For several years after retiring from the service of the Home Missionary Society, Dr. Peters devoted himself to liter- ary work. In January, 1838, he assumed editorial charge of The American Biblical Repository, succeeding Edward Robin- son and B. B. Edwards ; and in 1841 he commenced the pub- lication of The American Eclectic, a bi-monthly, planned by himself. In 1842 he relinquished his editorial labors to en- gage in a financial agency for the Union Theological Seminary. He was also elected Professor of Homiletics and Pastoral The- ology in that institution, but declined the appointment. On the 20th of November, 1844, he was installed pastor of the " First Church of Christ " in Williamstown, Mass. Here he labored with fidelity and success for eight years. In 1852 he undertook a financial agency for Williams College, and two years later resigned his pastorate. He was now sixty-one years old, and, owing to scrivener's paralysis and some other infirmities, felt that he ought to retire to private life. But the event proved that he had mistaken the symptoms of de- cline. Fifteen years of health and usefulness were still before him. In 1856 he commenced The American Journal of Edu- cation and College Review. He also contributed to other periodicals and to the religious press, besides supplying pul- pits in different places. He wrote during this period, with his left hand and with great labor and care, a volume to be entitled Co-operative Christianity : the Kingdom of Christ in Contrast with Denominational Churches; but it has never been published.


The last few years of his life were passed very happily in New York. In the poem already mentioned, he thus re- fers to the changes which time had wrought during his absence : -


The moving throngs, by boat and car, The squadrons hastening to the war, The crowds at rural gay retreats, In marts of business, or in streets, Of bustling city trade and show,


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Where restless millions come and go, With hosts of idlers, poor and vain, And thousands toiling hard for gain ; Thronged churches and conventions grave, Lost souls or commonwealths to save; And men in all the walks of life- Their competitions keen and rife - Of human kind the surging tide, The shady and the sunny side; Save here and there an old man gray - And oft the young politely say Kind words to old men, I see - Else all, alas! were strange to me.


Still, while yet lingering on the stage, he found con- stant delight in the new generations, whether known or unknown : -


I live in them, as sire in son, And joy in all their doings, done For man's advancement, and the praise Of Him who giveth length of days. Nor would I fail to sympathize With all that's good and just and wise, Though wrought by younger lives than mine, Increasing they as I decline.


He died in the peace of God, May 18, 1869, in the seventy- sixth year of his age, beloved and honored by all who knew him. A few years before his death he projected the beautiful Woodlawn Cemetery, on the line of the Harlem Railroad, and, as actuary of the company, devoted much of his time to the superintendence of the work. As an organizer and secre- tary of the American Home Missionary Society, as one of the founders of the Union Theological Seminary, and as projector of the Woodlawn Cemetery, - not to speak of other services, - his name is sure to be kept in lasting remembrance. This sketch may be fitly closed in his own words : -


It is characteristic of every enterprise which has God for its author to hold on its way. When the Holy Spirit moves the friends of Christ to co-operate with Himself in accomplishing any


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one of the eternal purposes of His love, He confers upon their influence a permanence answerable to that of its object. As God works in them to will and to do of His good pleasure, they work ; and when they die, the Spirit that wrought in them still lives, and constrains others to enter into their labors. Thus the enterprise goes on. Its object is as immutable as its author ; and though they that serve in its accomplishment do not continue by reason of death, their instrumentality becomes perpetual by the successive efforts of others, influenced and blessed by the same Spirit.


WILLIAM PATTON, D. D., (1836-1849,) was born in Phil- adelphia, August 23, 1798. Like so many other eminent ministers in our Presbyterian annals he was of Scotch-Irish descent. His father, Colonel Robert Patton, came in youth to this country, was an officer in the army of the Revolution, and served under Lafayette. Soon after the close of the war he was appointed postmaster of Philadelphia, then the leading post-office in the country, and this position he con- tinued to hold until his death in 1814, a period of about thirty years. He was a man of solid worth and universally esteemed. On the side of his mother, Cornelia Bridges, Dr. Patton could trace his ancestry, in one direction, to the family of Oliver Cromwell, and in another to the noble families of Chandoss, Culpepper, and Fairfax, of Virginia and England. In his nineteenth year he united with the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, then under the pastoral care of that distinguished divine, the Rev. James P. Wilson, D. D. Grad- uated at Middlebury College in 1818, he studied theology for about a year at Princeton, and was then licensed to preach by the Addison Congregational Association of Vermont, in June, 1819. Shortly after, he married Mary Weston, then residing with her brother, Captain Abijah Weston, in the city of New York. She was a woman of admirable qualities, a true help- meet in his pastoral work, and the mother of his ten children.


On leaving Princeton, the youthful preacher came to New York, and of his own accord entered upon the work of an


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evangelist. Going to what was then the very edge of the town, north of Canal Street, he hired a small school-house for use on Sundays at his own expense, and notified the people of the neighborhood that religious services might be expected. On the first Sabbath in March, 1820, he rang the bell, and called in an audience of seven persons, to whom he preached. Out of this humble beginning grew the Central Presbyterian Church, whose history forms so important a chapter in the later religious annals of New York. On the 7th of June, 1820, Mr. Patton was ordained by the same body that had licensed him to preach. The church was organized January 8, 1821, of four members only ; May 7, 1822, a neat brick edifice on Broome Street, near Broadway, built through his efforts, was opened for worship; and June 21, 1822, he was installed as pastor. Here he labored with signal success for twelve years. During this period five hundred and sixty-four persons united with the church on public confession of Christ, - an annual average addition of forty-two. The church was noted far and near for its liberality, its activity in various forms of Christian work, and for the revivals with which it was blessed. Harlan Page was one of its elders, and superintendent of its Sunday School.


But Dr. Patton's influence reached beyond his own congre- gation. He took a leading part in organizing the American Home Missionary Society, and later, in 1831, the Third Pres- bytery of New York. In 1834 he was persuaded to accept an appointment as secretary of the Central American Education Society, William Adams coming from New England to succeed him in the pastorate of the Broome Street Church. For three years he gave himself up to the cause of ministerial education with characteristic energy and enthusiasm, winning for it great favor among the churches. It was at this time, when his whole soul was aglow with the thought of training up laborers and sending them forth into the Lord's harvest, that he suggested a theological seminary in this city, and took so


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important a part in founding it. He was deeply interested, also, in the establishment of the University of the City of New York, in which his brother Robert, the eminent Greek scholar, was a Professor. On the resignation of Dr. Henry G. Ludlow, as pastor of the Spring Street Presbyterian Church, Dr. Pat- ton, now in his fortieth year, was invited to succeed him. He accepted the call, and was installed October 11, 1837. It is a curious indication of the difference between the New York of fifty years ago and the New York of to-day, that he was called with the tacit understanding that he should move in from the country, although at that time he was living in his own house, and " the country " reached no farther out than Ninth Street, between University Place and Broadway.


This second pastorate lasted ten years and was not less remarkable than the first for its abundant fruits. Ninety- six persons were added to the church on confession during the first six months, and one hundred and twelve as the result of a great awakening in 1840. Many of the young men of the church were persuaded by him to devote their lives to the sacred ministry. After a brief pastorate in the Hammond Street Congregational Church, Dr. Patton gave himself up to literary work, to occasional preaching, chiefly in or near New Haven and Hartford, and to voyages to the Old World. In his latest years he crossed the ocean annu- ally, to visit a married daughter who resided in London. He spent a good deal of time in England, where he was intimate with leading Independent ministers, whose pulpits he often occupied, and by whom he was highly esteemed. A warm friendship existed between him and the Rev. John Angell James of Birmingham, who once stated publicly, that for the character and success of his ministry he had been more in- debted to the early influence of his friend, Dr. Patton of New York, than to any other human cause. Dr. Patton was a firm believer in special seasons of religious awakening, and labored earnestly, especially by republishing President Edwards's and


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Mr. Finney's writings on the subject, to promote such revivals in Great Britain. He was a man of strong catholicity of spirit, and took a deep interest in everything looking towards closer union among the followers of Christ. In a letter on the subject to Rev. John Angell James, dated March 28, 1843, he wrote : -


It appears to me that the time cannot be distant when it will be most proper to call a convention of delegates from all Evan- gelical Churches, to meet in London, for the purpose of setting forth the great essential truths in which they are agreed. I know of no known object which would awaken deeper interest than such a convention. It would command the attendance of some of our strongest men from all evangelical denominations, and the result would be a statement of views which would have the most blessed effect. Such an invitation should, with propriety, come from your side of the water. But if you think it desirable to have certain men here unite in it, I have no doubt I could procure a goodly list of names to any paper you and your brethren might send over. The convention might be held in July of 1845, in London. Dele- gates could come from the Evangelical Churches of the Continent, of America, of Scotland, Ireland, etc. The document calling that meeting should be well drawn up, clearly setting forth the object of the convention, as lifting up a standard against papal and prelatical arrogance and assumption, and embodying the great essential doctrines which are held in common by all consistent Protestants. Peculiarities of church order to be excluded. I am persuaded that such a convention would meet with the hearty con- currence and co-operation of a vast multitude. It would exhibit to the world an amount of practical union among Christians of which they little dream. It would greatly strengthen the hearts of God's people, and would promote a better state of feeling among the denominations. I trust, my dear brother, that you will act in this matter, and, before you are called home to your rest and re- ward, strive to secure such a meeting.


Open a correspondence with Dr. Chalmers, Dr. Wardlaw, and others of Scotland, with prominent men among the Baptists, Meth- odists, Moravians, and other denominations. Sir Cullen Eardly Smith will go heart and soul with you. Now may our beloved Lord, who prayed that His disciples might be one, graciously


-


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guide you and others in this matter, and make you instruments of great good ! Should such a document be published on your side of the water, calling such a convention, our ecclesiastical meetings would sanction it, and our religious papers would forward it. The convention need not be together more than ten days, at most ; but the result would be blessed for all future time.


Mr. James, in publishing the letter, added : "The subject of this letter is of momentous consequence ; it presents a splendid conception of the human mind." The convention, as is well known, was held at London in August, 1846, and there organized the Evangelical Alliance. Drs. Lyman Beecher, Skinner, Cox, and Patton were among the American delegates.


Dr. Patton was a clear and forcible writer, quick, fresh, and suggestive in thought, and knew well how to reach the popular mind. In 1833 he recast an English commentary called The Cottage Bible, made a substantially new work of it, and issued it in two royal octavo volumes. More than one hundred and seventy thousand copies of this family commentary had been sold in this country up to the time of his death. He also published The Cottage Testament. Dissatisfied with the hymn- books then in use, he united with Thomas Hastings in com- piling The Christian Psalmist, which had a wide circulation. Two of his books were first published in England by the Religious Tract Society ; namely, The Judgment of Jerusa- lem, and Jesus of Nazareth ; Who was He ? What is He not ? His last work, a volume of over six hundred pages, is enti- tled, Bible Principles illustrated by Bible Characters.


Dr. Patton was in full sympathy with the reformatory spirit of the age. Strong antislavery principles came to him as a heritage from his father, who declined the offer of President Madison to make him Postmaster General, because unwilling to remove his family to a slaveholding community. His patriotism, too, was inherited from his father, who, as a Revolutionary hero, put country above party and self, and


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when made postmaster of Philadelphia refused to appoint any of his sons to a clerkship, and on his dying bed forbade them to apply to be his successor, saying the office should now go to another family. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Dr. Patton, who was then in England, joined with other Ameri- cans abroad in purchasing a Whitworth battery for the Union forces. Besides writing articles for the English daily papers in explanation and defence of the North, he published in London a pamphlet entitled, The American Crisis, or The True Issue : Slavery or Liberty. And he amazed, as well as affronted, many of his English friends, by assuring them that every dollar of American property on the high seas destroyed by Confederate cruisers fitted out in England would be paid for ultimately by the British government.


Dr. Patton became a temperance reformer at the very outset of his ministry. His own account of the matter deserves to be given, as throwing light upon his strong character and upon the drinking usages of New York sixty years ago : -


My interest in the cause of temperance was awakened by the evidence which crowded upon me as a pastor, in the city of New York, of the aboundings of intemperance. The use of alcoholic drinks was then universal. Liquor was sold by the glass at almost every corner. It stood on every side-board, and was urged upon every visitor. It was spread upon every table, and abounded at all social gatherings. It found a conspicuous place at nearly every funeral. It ruled in every work-shop. Many merchants kept it in their counting-rooms, and offered it to their customers who came from the interior to purchase goods. Men in all the learned pro- fessions, as well as merchants, mechanics, and laborers, fell by this destroyer. These and other facts so impressed my mind, that I determined to make them the subject of a sermon. Accordingly, on the Sabbath evening of September 17, 1820, I preached on the subject from Romans xii. 2, " Be not conformed to this world," etc. After a statement of the facts which proved the great preva- lence of intemperance, I branded distilled liquors as a poison, because of their effects upon the human constitution ; I urged therefore that the selling of them should be stopped. The sermon


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stated, that, whilst the drunkard is a guilty person, the retail seller is more guilty, the wholesale dealer still more guilty, and the dis- tiller, who converts the staff of life, the benevolent gift of God, into the arrows of death, is the most guilty. Then followed an appeal to professors of religion engaged in the traffic to abandon it. These positions were treated with scorn and derision. A por- tion of the retail dealers threatened personal violence if I dared to speak again on this subject.


During the week, a merchant, who had found one of his clerks in haunts of vice, in a short paragraph in a daily paper exhorted merchants and master mechanics to look into Walnut Street, Cor- laer's Hook, if they would know where their clerks and apprentices spent Saturday nights. This publication determined me, in com- pany with some dozen resolute Christian men, to explore that sink of iniquity. This we did on Saturday night, September 23, 1820. We walked that short street for two hours, from ten to twelve o'clock.


On our return to my study we compared notes, and became satisfied of the following facts. On one side of Walnut Street there were thirty houses, and each one was a drinking place with an open bar. There were eleven ball-rooms, in which the music and dancing were constant. We counted on one side two hundred and ten females, and at the same time, on the other side, eighty- seven, - in all, two hundred and ninety-seven. Their ages varied from fourteen to forty. The mnen far outnumbered the women, being a mixture of sailors and landsmen, and of diverse nations. Many of them, both men and women, were fearfully drunk, and all were more or less under the influence of liquor. We were deeply pained at the sight of so many young men, evidently clerks or apprentices. The scenes of that night made a permanent impres- sion on my mind. They confirmed my purpose to do all in my power to save my fellow-men from the terrible influences of intoxi- cating drinks. I began promptly, and incorporated in a sermon the above and other alarming statistics of that exploration, which I preached on the evening of Sabbath, September 24, 1820, notice having been given of the subject. The text was, Isaiah lviii. 1 : " Cry aloud and spare not ; lift up thy voice like a trumpet," etc. My first topic was the duty of ministers fearlessly to cry out against prevailing evils. The second topic was the sins of the day, particularly Sabbath desecration and drunkenness, with their


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accessories. After a statement of facts and other arguments, my appeal was made to the Scriptures, which are decided and out- spoken against intemperance. The house was crowded with very attentive listeners. No disturbance took place.


Dr. Patton, in the days of his power, was a very earnest and effective preacher. The arguments, illustrations, and ap- plication of his discourses were alike fitted to make a strong and lasting impression. He was singularly happy in preach- ing to children, for whom he had a great love. On the plat- form, at the crowded religious anniversaries of fifty years ago, he was a ready and favorite speaker. He had a quick sense of humor, and it gave zest both to his public addresses and to his familiar conversation. In intercourse with his ministerial brethren, especially at " Chi Alpha," - a clerical circle which he aided in forming, - he was always genial and helpful. He made it a matter of conscience to be prompt and faithful in fulfilling all engagements. An anecdote may serve to illustrate this trait, as also his earnestness of purpose as a preacher : -


It was a very stormy Sunday in winter, when the snow lay some two feet deep on the sidewalks. Making his way to the church through drifts, he found but a single auditor, in addition to the sexton, and he a stranger seated in a front seat of the gallery. Dr. Patton was tempted to hold no service; but, on second thought, he reasoned that this stranger deserved a reward for his presence, and that God might have brought him there for special good. So the usual form of service was complied with, except the singing, and the sermon fully preached. At first, the auditor seemed surprised, and uneasily leaned forward, to see who might chance to be sitting below ; but, catching sight of no one, he sur- rendered himself to the sermon with marked attention. At the close, he hastened out before the preacher could accost him; but a few days later he called at the house for conversation, saying that he could not rid his mind of the truth heard on the Lord's day. He soon united with the church, was a useful member for many years, and then removed to Cleveland, Ohio, where he was well known in religious circles as an active Christian.


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It is not strange that a man like Dr. Patton, so frank, so fearless, and so large-hearted, should have had devoted friends outside the pale of his own church and creed. After his death, a learned Jewish Rabbi, Dr. J. Wecksler, published one of the warmest tributes to his memory. Here is an extract from it : -


This noble man has been called to his eternal home. When the sad intelligence reached me at the Far West, I could but shed a tear of sorrow at the loss I sustained by the death of my true friend. . . . Dr. Patton was a man of profound convictions, and I differed with him on many religious subjects, but never an unkind word was spoken by him. I spent many happy hours in his company, freely and frankly discussing questions of vital importance, but we parted always as true friends. Whenever I paid him a visit, he read to me many pages of manuscript for my opinion. Very fre- quently I had to criticise many views, but he always listened pa- tiently, often exclaiming, " I am not too old to learn." He was anxious to hear real Jewish questions discussed. There was some- thing especially remarkable in Dr. Patton ; it was his vigorous expression, his pointed remarks, on any occasion. Where others failed, he hit the nail at the first stroke. He possessed courage and energy, and expressed his opinions of right and wrong, without caring the least whether they were popular or not. He was a God-fearing man, kind and affectionate as a father, true and sincere to his friends, just and upright to all. Peace to his ashes.


Dr. Patton died at his home in New Haven, September 9, 1879, in the eighty-second year of his age. Always bright and cheery, he was interested to the very last in all the events of the day, and as full of hope for the triumph of the Gospel at fourscore as he had been in the enthusiasm of early manhood.




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