USA > New York > The earliest churches of New York and its vicinity > Part 14
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The Moravian preachers became acceptable to the people of the island, and they desired the establishment of a church among them. In the year 1762, they re- - quested this favor from the ecclesiastical authorities at Bethlehem. The original letter is still preserved among the archives at Bethlehem : "The signers request that the little flock here might be remembered, and that a brother might be sent hither to preach the Gospel, and teach the little lambs which had been baptized by the Brethren." For the benefit especially of old Richmond County readers, we add the names signing this epistle : Richard Connor, Stephen Martino, Jr., Tunis Egbert, Jacob Vanderbilt, John Vanderbilt, Aaron Cortelyou, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Cornelius Vandeventer, Stephen Martino, Mary Stillwell, Cornelius Martino, and Peter Perine. Numerous descendants of these early Mora- vians now reside near the present beautiful church, and many of its gravestones bear the same family names. The well-known Commodore Vanderbilt has here erected a very costly tomb, where the ashes of his venerable mother repose, and where he himself expects to be buried, when his voyage of life is over. We have often visited this sacred spot, and strolled thoughtfully about its heaped-up old graves. Near by the cemetery just referred to is a beautiful marble tomb, erected to the memory of Mr. Binninger. His family is one of the carli- est and best-known of the Moravians in our city. He was a pious young man, and died in the Lord, whilst seeking health, far from home, in sunny Italy. His romains were shipped for New York, the vessel wrecked on the coast of Spain, and all on board lost, it is said. The case,
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however, with the dead body, floated to the shore, was saved, and reshipped to New York, and buried in this beautiful rural spot, resting in hope until the last trum- pet will call all to the judgment. This burying-ground is very old, as it was used long before the Moravians came to the island. Part of the lot was purchased in 1763, for twenty-five pounds ten shillings, current money of the province of New York. In 1860 its area was enlarged.
On the 7th of July, 1763, the corner-stone of the Staten Island Moravian Church was laid, the Rev. T. Yarrel, pastor of the church in New York, preaching from Isaiah xxviii. 16: "Behold, I lay in Zion for a founda- tion a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation." The Rev. Hector Gambold was the first resident Moravian minister of this congregation, arriving in the following August. On the 7th of De- cember the church was consecrated, Mr. Yarrel again preaching, from "We preach Christ crucified" (1 Co- rinthians i. 23).
We are not digressing, as Staten Island congregation appears to have been only a branch of the Moravian in New York until some years after this period. Its pastor and members were in the habit of visiting the city on com- munion occasions, there to celebrate the Lord's Supper. From the year 1769 to 1779, the official journals of this church have been lost. After 1779, however, the con- gregation communed at their own church. when they must consequently have had an independent formation. Scarcely any records have been preserved of the Staten Island Church during the Revolutionary War. Some
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British soldiers forcibly entered the parsonage one night. for the purpose of plunder, and did much damage. On another occasion, they endeavored to break into the house of Captain Christian Jacobsen. Alarmed, he went to the door, when he was shot by one of the party. and soon after expired. The Captain is well known in Moravian history, as commanding the ship Irene, after Captain Garrison had retired from sea life. While Jacob- sen was master, his vessel was captured by a French privateer, in 1757, and sent to the cold and barren Cape Breton. On the 12th of January, 1758, she was cast away. Taking to their boats, the crew, thrown upon a desert shore, were forced to work their way, with great toil and danger, through ice and snow, until they reached Louisburg. After this, Jacobsen purchased a ship in London, which he sailed until he built a new one at New York, called the Hope, and she was used by the Moravians in their passages across the Atlantic.
In 1784, the Rev. James Birkby ministered to the Staten Island people. During 1787, the Rev. Frederick Mochring arrived, diligently laboring until 1793, and James Birkby to 1797. Mochring's diary still exists. At the commencement of his ministry, his little flock numbered twenty-seven communicants. He became very intimate with the excellent Dr. Moore, afterwards Bishop of Virginia, frequently visiting the sick together. Mochring died in 1804. the year after he left Staten Island, when Dr. Moore preached a sermon in his memory, at his own parish church, St. Andrew's, Rich- mond. He said that he had been a spiritual father to him, in his pious advice and admonition.
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During the first half century of this Moravian church, its minister received no fixed salary, the people supply- ing him with provisions, grain, and fuel, &c. About 1798, the amount was fixed at twenty pounds cash, with other benefactions, and the sum was afterwards increased to one hundred and sixty dollars. From so small a sup- port, the minister's family often needed the common necessaries of life ; but Moravian Brethren are well- known self-denying followers of their Master. The Rev. N. Brown succeeded Mr. Moehring in 1803, con- tinuing until he ended his earthly work, 1813. Then came the Rev. J. C. Bechler, and the second Sabbath after his arrival, the congregation celebrated its semi- centenary, October 10, 1813. IIe selected for his text the same words from which the foundation sermon was delivered, fifty years before : "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone," &c. At this anniversary, he stated that the archives of the church were defective, from the robbery of the parsonage and its papers during the Revolutionary struggle. Mr. Bechler remained, with much success, until 1817, and was succeeded by the Rev. George A. Hartman. He was consecrated bishop in 1835, and retiring to Herrnbut, Saxony, he died April 17, 1857, aged seventy-three years. Succeed- ing him, came the Rev. G. A. Hartman, remaining twenty years, until 1837, whose memory is still fragrant on Staten Island. Then followed Ambrose Rondthaler ; in 1839, the Rev. II. G. Clauder, for years a missionary among the Creek Indians. His successor was Rev. Bernard De Schweinitz, whose death occurred July 20, 1854, while on a visit to Salem, North Carolina, to cole-
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brate a family reunion. Rev. A. A. Reinke was the next pastor, until October, 1860. After this, the Rev. E. T. Senseman, who, in September, 1862, was followed by the Rev. E. M. Leibert, the present beloved pastor, to whose authentic historical address, on the late cen- tennial anniversary in his church, we are indebted for much of our present information. From the establish- ment of the Moravian Church on Staten Island until the present time, thirty-three ministers have preached here, twelve hundred and forty children have been baptized, eight hundred and seven couples married, and twelve hundred and eight burials been attended by the pastors.
Now, we consider the branch of the Moravian Church in New York.
The Moravian Brethren, or Unitas Fratrum, who emigrated to Georgia in 1735, became acquainted with Jacob Boemper in New York, and made Boemper their agent for the purchase and forwarding of provisions. &c. Boemper was a pious German, and associated with a small circle of spiritually-minded men of different de- nominations, closely united in the bonds of Christian love.
Rev. Augustus Spangenberg and Bishop David Nitch- man, passing through New York in the spring of 1736, on their way to Pennsylvania, were hospitably enter- tained by Boemper, and became personally acquainted with . other members of this little circle, of whom the following are mentioned : Jacob Coolet, Thomas Noble, Richard Waldron, Samuel Polls. Jan Van Pelt, Joris Brinkerhoff, Cornelius Parant, and Peter Venema.
In 1739, Rev. Frederic Martin, Moravian missionary on the Island of St. Thomas, spent some time in New
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York, and on his return from Pennsylvania (where a few Moravians wore settling), he became intimate with Thomas Noble and others above mentioned. While in New York, Christian Henry Rauch, the famous Mora- vian Indian missionary, arrived from Germany, 1739. Martin met him, and took him to Thomas Noble's house. About this time. a " Pastoral Letter" from the Church Councils at Amsterdam, against the Moravians, arrived. The clergy were thus incited to preach against the " Brethren," when some of their friends became estranged. The deportment of Christian Henry Rauch, however, went far towards correcting erroneous impres- sions formed of the Moravians by such as were at first influenced by this pulpit war against them.
In 1741, Bishop Peter Boehler spent a short time in New York, while on his way from Pennsylvania to Europe. Ile organized a society in spiritual connection with the Moravian Church, consisting of nine persons. The following belonged to this earliest society : Thomas Noble and wife, Ismajah Burnet, Jane Boelen, Martha Bryant (afterwards Nyberg), Helena Gregg (afterwards married to Rev. Hector Gambold, one of the first Mora- vian ministers of the New York congregation), Eliza- beth Hume (afterwards Okelyn), William Edmonds, and Mary Wendower (afterwards Burnside). Thomas Noble and William Edmonds were appointed laborers, or ministers, not in the present general sense of the term, but in its literal sense. They were not ordained preachers, but ministered to the spiritual wants of the society to the best of their ability."
* Rev. Mr. Leibert, Staten Island.
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Bishop Boehler was the first Moravian minister who preached a sermon at New York, in a private house, January, 1741.
November, 1741, Count Zinzendorf arrived in New York, with a company of Moravians. He first landed on Long Island, and went to the house of Jacques Cor- telyou, a man of some note. The Count came to New York, December 2, 1741, and lodged at Thomas Noble's house, who was a strict Presbyterian and a gentleman of influence. Zinzendorf renews or perfects the organi- zation effected by Boeller, and Jacques Cortelyou was appointed lay elder.
Persecutions became quite violent from this time. Domine Boel, after preaching a sermon against the Mo- ravians, June 23, 1754, announced to his congregation that he would give them another sermon on the same subject the next Sunday. But he died that week, and at the time of his proposed sermon, his funeral services were held !
As early as the spring of 1743, the little band of Mo- ravians suffered some religious persecution. Bishop Boehler was cited to appear before the mayor of the city, accused of no crime except preaching the Gospel. Without trial, this servant of God was ordered to leave New York, and when he asked the reason for this hard sentence, it was answered. " Because you are a vaga- bond." The bishop was a learned and pious man, but meekly obeying this arbitrary sentence, he left, and ro- mained temporarily with a friend on Long Island. A Jaw had even been passed, but not ratified by the Eng- lish Government, forbidding all Moravian ministers to
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preach for one year ; and two missionaries, travelling through the province of New York to the Indians, in 1745, were seized and cast into prison. These were David Zeisberger and Frederick Post, and arrested at the instigation of the Rev. Mr. Barclay, the Church of England minister at Albany. They were accused of being French spies-strange suspicion against humble Moravian brethren ! But they were found innocent, after strict examination, and released.
In December, 1748, Bishop Johannes de Wattivel arrived from Europe, and made a regular organization of the church, its membership numbering less than one hundred. They met, during two years, for worship, in the house of Mr. Noble ; and, in 1751, purchased two lots of ground on Fair street, now Fulton, where they erected a small frame building. Its corner-stone was laid June 16, 1751, by Rev. Owen Rice, and the sacred edi- fice consecrated by Bishop Spangenberg, June 18, 1752.
Moravian ministers who earliest labored in New York, from 1742 to 1757 :
1742. David Bruce.
1743. Peter Boehler (bishop). 1743-1745. Hector Gambold.
1745, 1746. Jacob Vetter.
1746. George Neisser.
1747. Hector Gambold and John Wade. 1748. George Neisser. 1748-50. James Greening.
1750-54. Owen Rice and Jasper Payne.
1754. Abraham Reinke, Jasper Payne, and Abraham Rusmeyer.
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1755. Henry Beck and Richard Utley.
1756-57. Jacob Rogers.
1757. Valentine Haidt.
1757-65. Thomas Yarrel.
1765-75. G. Neiser.
1775. Gustavus Showkirk. He ministered for a short time, the Revolutionary War breaking up the congre- gation, as it did most others in the city.
After the peace, the congregation again collected. The Rev. Ludolph A. Rusmeyer became pastor, and was succeeded by the Rev. James Birkley and the Rev. Godfrey Peters, who died here, October, 1797. He was the first minister who had finished his course while in the service of this congregation. Next followed the Rev. Messrs. Moder, Bardill, Moulthier, successively, the last for seven years, and closing his ministry with the year 1812.
Then the Rev. Benjamin Mortimer, who had been a faithful missionary among the Indians, took this pasto- ral office, successfully discharging its duties for seven- teen years, until his Gospel labors ceased by death in 1829. Thousands of New Yorkers and others will re- member, at the mention of his name, his strikingly mild, dignified, and venerable appearance, and call to mind his sweet and humble piety and character. When he became infirm, a year before his death, the Rev. William Henry Vanyleck commenced his ministry in the Moravian Church, with much success, continuing it until 1836, when he became bishop. The Rev. C. F. Kluger succeeded him, and, in 1838, the Rev. Mr. Bleck became the pastor, who left for Salem, North Carolina, 1812.
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when the Rev. David Bigler was appointed in his place.
The old house on Fulton street was sold, and the Mo- ravian Brethren now occupy a new and beautiful place of worship on Houston street, their only one in our large city. We call the former the old house, because, as was the arrangement with the earliest Moravian churches, the minister's residence was a part of the . sacred edifice, and he went into the sacred desk directly from his dwelling.
We have written a long chapter about the Moravian Church, because but little, comparatively, is known about the "Brethren in Unity." They seek not noto- riety, or honor, or the praise of men, but the salvation of souls. They "walk by the same rule," and "mind . the same thing." In principle, they have made St. Au- gustine's motto their own-" In essentials, unity ; in non-essentials, liberty ; in all things, charity."
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CHAPTER XX.
ORIGIN OF METHODISM-CONDITION OF ENGLAND WHEN WESLEY AP- PEARED -- OPINIONS OF BISHOP BURNET AND ARCHBISHOP SECKER AND BUTLER-WESLEY PREACHING TO THE POOR PALATINES IN IRE- LAND, 1750 -- PHILIP EMBURY, THE FATHER OF AMERICAN METIIOD- ISM -- IRISH LAY PREACHERS, SWINDELLS-PHILIP GUIER-WALSHI- SOUTHEY'S OPINION OF HIM-HIS GREAT LABORS AND SUCCESS- EMBURY EMIGRATES TO NEW YORK, 1760, DELIVERING HIS LAST SERMON IN IRELAND FROM THE SIDE OF THE SHIP-ANOTHER ARRIVAL, IN 1760, AT NEW YORK, OF IRISHI WESLEYANS-PAUL RUCKLE, JACOB HECK, AND OTHERS.
THE lamentation of Bishop Burnet, on the state of the Church in his day, has often been quoted : "I am now," he says, "in the seventieth year of my age, and as I cannot speak long in the world in any sort, so I cannot hope for a more solemn occasion than this of speaking with all due freedom, both to the present and to the suc- ceeding ages. . . . I cannot look on without hanging over this Church, and, by consequence, over the whole Reformation. The outward state of things is black enough, God knows, but that which heightens my fears rises chiefly from the inward state into which we are unhappily fallen."# Archbishop Secker, at the same period, says: " In this we cannot be mistaken, that an open and professed disregard is become, through a vari- ety of unhappy causes, the distinguishing character of the present age. Such are the dissoluteness and con-
* "Pastoral Care."
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tempt of principle in the higher part of the world, and the profligacy, intemperance, and fearlessness of com- mitting crimes, in the lower, as must, if this torrent of impiety stop not, become absolutely fatal." He further asserts, that "Christianity is ridiculed and reviled at with very little reserve, and the teachers of it without any at all."
This sad testimony of the times, it must be remem- bered. was made only one year before that which com- memorates the epoch of Wesleyan Methodism.
About this time, Butler also published his great work, on the Analogy between Religion and the Constitution and Course of Nature, as some check to the infidelity of that age. "It has come to pass," he says, "to be taken for granted that Christianity is no longer a subject of inquiry, but that it is now at length discovered to be fictitious." Southey says: "The clergy had lost that authority by which many alnost command at least the appearance of respect." In the great majority of the clergy, zeal was wanting. Burnet, in another place, ob- serves : "Our clergy had less authority, and were under more contempt, than those of any other Church in all Europe. It was not that their lives were scandalous, but they were not exemplary, as it became them to be ; and they never would regain the influence they had lost till they lived better and labored more."
Such was the moral condition of Protestant old Eng- land when Methodism came forth from the walls of Oxford, not to revive the theological contest between Churchmen and Puritans, but simply to recall the masses to their Bible and their prayers. Wesley formed no
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creed for his English followers, and in providing, which was absolutely necessary, an organization for Methodism in the New World, where the system was destined to . have its widest range, he abridged the "Articles of the Church of England," so as to exclude the most formida- ble of modern theological controversies, and thus enable both Calvinists and Arminians to enter its communion : he prescribed no mode of baptism, virtually recognizing all modes. Some sects strive to sustain their spiritual life by their orthodoxy. Wesley made no such vain attempt, and Methodism has sustained itself for more than a century, by caring especially for its spiritual life ; and it has had no outbreak of heresy, notwithstand- ing the myriads of untrained minds gathered within its communion. In this respect, no other religious body of modern times affords such an example! It became a revival church in spirit, and a missionary one from its organization.
Wherever there was a door opened to preach Christ, there John Wesley and his pious itinerants went. As carly as the year 1765, he had visited the settlements of the "Palatines," in Ireland, on his missionary work. "Good Queen Anne," in 1710, had extended her hands of pity and kindness towards these persecuted Luther- ans. She sent a fleet to Rotterdam, and conveyed seven thousand of them to Protestant England. The Govern- ment granted twenty-four thousand pounds for their im- mediate relief, and Her Majesty assisted three or four thousand of their number to emigrate to America, most of these settling in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Five hundred families also removed from England to
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Ireland, chiefly locating in the County of Limerick. Each settler was allowed eight acres of land, at an an- nual cost of five shillings an acre, which the Government agreed to pay for twenty years.
Without any Gospel minister, these Irish Palatines greatly neglected religion, but as soon as Wesley's itin- erants found them, they readily embraced the truth, which made them "free indeed." A more exemplary people was not then to be found in all Ireland. The vices of profanity, drunkenness, and Sabbath-breaking, entirely ceased, and no ale-house was permitted among them.
Wesley himself visited these Palatine settlements as early as 1750. In June, 1765, he writes: "About noon I preached at Ballingran, to the small remains of the Palatines. Part had gone to America." Here Philip Guier, master of the German school, united with the new seet, the Methodists, and under his tuition Philip Embury, the father of American Methodism, commenced his education. As his name is so intimately connected with this type of Christianity, we dwell longer on his interesting history.
In the year 1749, one of John Wesley's preachers lifted up his voice in the old city of Limerick. This was Robert Swindells, from Dublin. In the true spirit of Primitive Methodism, he felt that the whole of Ire- land was his parish. It was on the 17th day of March, "Saint Patrick's ;" the streets were crowded, and among the visitors, many Palatines. That place was intensely Popish, and just as the people were coming from Mass, Swindells, with characteristic boldness,
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commenced singing in the streets, and then preached the Gospel truth to the crowds, from "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." What a spectacle ! a solitary, humble Methodist preacher, without money, friend, or patron- age, standing up boldly on "Saint Patrick's Day," to declare Christ, the only friend of sinners, in Popish Lim- erick, one hundred and fifteen years ago! God was in the word. Amidst this street congregation there was a young man educated for a Romish priest, whose mind had been also enlightened by plain, honest, praying Philip Guier, the Ballingran schoolmaster. Seeking an interview with Swindells, he abandoned his Roman- ism and sins, and. instead of a priest, became a Metho- dist evangelist. This was the remarkable, useful, and zealous Thomas Walsh, whose name, fragrant with so many pious associations, still lingers as a household word among many families in both hemispheres.
"One of the few immortal names, That were not born to dic."
In the year 1750-52, Mr. Wesley visited Limerick. Vast crowds came to hear him preach, and among others, we doubt not, was Philip Embury, the future evangelist of America. Guier became the first lay-preacher with the Irish Palatines, and to this day. " There goes Philip Guier, who drove the devil out of Ballingran !" is the salutation which Romanists use as the Wesleyan itiner- ant rides past.
Walsh had now begun to preach salvation through faith in Christ alone with wonderful power and success.
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Ilis parents were stern Roman Catholics, and, when a child, they taught him the Lord's Prayer with "Ave Maria" in Irish, his native tongue, and also the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm in Latin. At a later period, Wesley wrote respecting this Irish youth, that he was so thoroughly acquainted with the Bible that, when questioned concerning any Hebrew or Greek word, in the Old or New Testament, after a brief pause he would tell how often it occurred, and its meaning in each place. Such a master of biblical knowledge he declared he never saw before and never expected to see again. When he was converted, he declared that no saint or angel was ever again to be invoked by him, for he now believed that "there is but one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." No man, he resolved, should be- guile him into a voluntary humility in worshipping either saints or angels .* From this time to his death, a more saintly life cannot be found in the records of popu- lar Protestant piety. If he had become a priest, as was carly intended, with such devotion, he would have been canonized ; and well may Robert Southey declare that his life "might, indeed. almost convince a Catholic that saints are to be found in other communions as well as in the Church of Rome." He rose at four o'clock in the morning during his whole religions life, to study the Bible, often reading it upon his knees. His memory was a complete concordance, and no Catholic saint over pored over his breviary more devoutly or diligently than this remarkable man did over the original Scriptures.
* Stevens's History of Methodism.
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Ile went like a flame of fire through Ireland, preach- ing two or three times a day, and usually in the open air. Crowds of all denominations attended his ministra- tions, and his command of the Irish language gave him great advantage with the native Papists. They flocked to hear him, and would often weep, smiting their breasts. and invoking the Virgin Mary, with sobbing voices, declared themselves ready to follow this new saint over the world ! One of his hearers called upon Walsh with money saved for masses, when he should be dead. "No man," replied the preacher, "can forgive your sins. The gift of God cannot be purchased with money ; only the blood of Christ can cleanse from sin." "No man, it is admitted," says Southey, "contributed more than Walsh to the diffusion of Methodism in Ireland." During nine years did this remarkable minister pursue his tireless course of doing good, until his final triumph and entrance into his promised and everlasting rewards. HIis last words were : "He is come! He is come ! My beloved is mine and I am IIis !- IIis forever !"' and died.
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