USA > New York > New York City > The history of the Broadway tabernacle church, from its organization in 1840 to the close of 1900, including factors influencing its formation > Part 3
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At the very opening of the century with the removal of
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HISTORY OF THE BROADWAY TABERNACLE CHURCH
Increase Mather from its presidency, Harvard College, the trusted training school of Massachusetts ministry, had broken away from conservative control, and in the course of years it became the stronghold of those who opposed the stricter Cal- vinistic tenets. It was a Harvard student, James Freeman, who made the first open break with the orthodoxy of the day, and, by his leading, King's Chapel became the first Uni- tarian, as it had been the first Episcopal, church in Boston. From that time on, the differences in the two schools within the Congregational body became more marked. Churches counted themselves "evangelical " that accepted the Assem- bly's Shorter Catechism; such churches usually encouraged revivals and labored by missionary effort for the conversion of men, while those of Unitarian tendencies called themselves " liberal."
As the struggle went on, churches in the country towns and smaller cities generally kept their old faith, but all those of Boston, except two, became Unitarian.
When in a local church, as frequently happened, the majority of the church remained orthodox while the parish became Unitarian, the property question heightened the quarrel, for the courts recognized the rights of the parish only, as a prop- erty holder. One hundred and twenty-six churches and parishes were torn asunder. In eighty-one of them three- fourths of the church remained evangelical, but the Unitarian one-fourth retained its hold upon the church property.
The stricter organization of the churches of Connecticut en- abled them to put down any sporadic case of defection to Unitarianism; hence liberal theology made very little head- way south of Massachusetts, and a somewhat natural distrust of the Congregational doctrine of the independence of the local church gained ground in Connecticut. Meanwhile, in Massa- chusetts, the orthodox churches and ministers were drawn closer together, and the present system of local conferences with a general State Association developed, giving the churches organization without limiting the power of any local church. Thus these orthodox churches, though weakened in numbers,
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were strengthened and supported by the new ties that bound them together.
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And this trial of faith through which they had passed worked for the spiritual good of the evangelical churches, and renewed growth and religious awakening followed. Missionary socie- ties were formed in Connecticut and Massachusetts in 1798 and 1799, to aid and found churches in the new settlements of our country. The American Home Missionary Society, or- ganized in 1826, to include the New York Domestic Mission- ary Society which had been four years in operation, founded churches, carrying on the work still farther West. The Ameri- can Tract and Education Societies were formed in 1815, all for evangelizing work in the home land; while the American Board of Commissioners to send missionaries to heathen lands commenced its work in 1810, all begun by Congregational en- terprise which had been stimulated by the opposition of the Unitarian party.
The first English settlers on Long Island were New Eng- land Congregationalists. From 1640 they founded settlements, and in the latter part of the eighteenth and in the early dec- ades of the nineteenth century many of the churches founded by them were more truly Congregational than the established churches of Connecticut with their Presbyterian tendencies. Indeed, there was an organization of these " Strict Congre- gational " churches in Long Island, as well as in Connecticut, that differed from their sister churches in disapproving of the Half-Way Covenant and in maintaining the independence of the local church.
There were also settlements of New Englanders along the Hudson River and elsewhere in New York, in which Congre- gational churches were organized at an early date; while in New Jersey, from the time when the Rev. Abraham Pierson brought his church with him from Connecticut to settle New- ark for conscience' sake, Congregational churches were formed which flourished for half a century. The Newark Colony in the spring of 1667 entered into an agreement, sixty-four per- sons subscribing to it, that none should " be admitted freemen
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within our town upon Passaic River in the Province of New Jersey but such planters as are members of some or other of the Congregational churches; " and they further agreed:
" We shall with care and diligence provide for the maintenance of the purity of religion professed in the Congregational Churches."
These churches were independent, comparatively remote from one another, in scattered settlements with no organization to bind them together. After about forty years, the first pres- bytery in America was organized in Philadelphia in 1705 or 1706. This presbytery, says Dr. William B. Brown in his chapter on New Jersey in Punchard's "History of Congrega- tionalism," had at its organization but six or seven members, the majority of whom were Congregationalists. It was merely a " consociation " for twenty years until after the Synod of Philadelphia had been formed, to include with it three similar presbyteries, all without written constitution or established creed, or any form of discipline or authority over the indi- vidual churches. In fact, they were less Presbyterian than the Connecticut consociations, and the churches seeking fellow- ship naturally connected themselves with these presbyteries.
But in 1729 the " Enabling Act," as it was called, was passed by the synod, recommending the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Book of Discipline to the churches, and seven years later "these standards were made obligatory not only upon the synod and presbyteries, but upon all the churches. The Presbyterian system was now complete, and the Congrega- tional churches were entangled in its meshes. But they were restless there, so that the next twenty years of American Pres- byterian history were years of contest and division."
There had been a number of Scotch or Irish Presbyterian ministers settled over churches in New York, Philadelphia, or in the vicinity of these towns, whose influence was brought strongly to bear upon the building up of Presbyterian organi- zation. Connecticut, too, as has been intimated, saw that the independence of local churches in Massachusetts had made possible serious differences of faith among ministers and
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churches; and, growing suspicious of Congregational liberty, she threw her influence, as neighbor and mother colony of New Jersey, in favor of Presbyterianism. Connecticut felt, and even Massachusetts seemed to feel, that independent churches could hardly be trusted with full freedom in a new country where neither consociation nor association was at hand to direct or counsel; so newly organized churches were ad- vised to join the nearest presbytery. The accord in faith be- tween the two systems was magnified, the differences in polity minimized, both by the presbytery which invited and the con- sociation which urged the amalgamation. Doubtless Con- necticut Congregationalists were drawn nearer to New York ยท Presbyterians by their common dread of the encroachments of Episcopacy; and their fear that liberty, in new settlements, might degenerate into license was heightened by the horrors of French anarchy.
But Congregationalists of New York and New Jersey, though they adopted the Presbyterian nomenclature, were jealous of their Congregational liberty, and they struggled hard to maintain it. Our denominational Year-Book for 1899 gives the names of twenty-seven churches in New York State or- ganized before 1800. These must have fought a good fight barely to keep alive, through the first thirty years of the nine- teenth century. We know this to have been the case with the little church in Chester, N. J., founded in 1740 (the only one now left to the New Jersey Association from that century), which joined in the protest made by a company of ministers and laymen who, in 1780, withdrew from the Presbytery of New York and the Synod of New York and Philadelphia.
These stout old Puritans of New York and New Jersey formed a presbytery known, later, as the Associated Presbytery of Morris County. They declared :
" We think that the presbyterianism of the Church of Scotland and of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, is not wholly founded on scripture; but that it takes the power too much out of the hands of the
* A Brief Account of the Associated Presbyteries, published 1796, pp. 9, II.
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brethren of the church and gives an unscriptural and an unreasonable power to the elders, etc."
" We find the synod have made many rules, canons, or orders, which we think very inconsistent with the liberties of christian churches, which rules or orders now stand on their records: and we have found our- selves cramped and restrained by those rules, etc."
In their " agreements " when organizing we read :
" We agree that this presbytery as a body, shall never assume or claim any jurisdiction over the churches, etc."
" The presbytery shall make no rules which shall be authoritative, etc."
This Associated Presbytery was divided, twelve years later, for the sake of convenience, and the Associated Westchester . Presbytery was formed; and a year later, in 1793, the North- ern Associated Presbytery in the State of New York was organized, encouraged thereto by the two previously formed and by the Association of Berkshire County in Massachusetts. One man alone, the Rev. John Spencer, licensed by this asso- ciation in 1800, gathered nearly all the churches in Oneida County, forming, between 1804 and 1816, about thirty churches on a Congregational basis. Yet another and fourth, the Sara- toga Associated Presbytery, was formed in 1807. At that date, these associations, Congregational bodies with a Pres- byterian name, were strong and increasing in strength. Be- fore 1816 at least two hundred Congregational churches had been organized in New York, and, but for the unfortunate Plan of Union, unfortunate for both denominations, Congre- gationalism would doubtless have become the prevailing church polity in New York, Ohio, and other of the Middle States.
When settlers began to pour into "Western New York " from Massachusetts and into the " Western Reserve " of Ohio from Connecticut, home missionaries were sent after them to organize churches in the new settlements. At first eight Con- necticut pastors were appointed by the General Association to visit, each for four months, the Western country; but after the Connecticut Missionary Society began to work in 1798 it sent out many men into the field. Missionaries were also sent
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from Massachusetts and New Hampshire by their local socie- ties. Before 1800 there were nineteen Congregational churches in Western New York and but four Presbyterian; and from 1800 to 1815 there were sixty Congregational and eighteen Presbyterian churches, the missionaries being supported in the main by Congregational societies.
As far back as 1766 there was a joint convention of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia and the General Asso- ciation of Connecticut. This met annually for a series of years until interrupted by the stirring events of the Revolution. After the war, when the General Association made overtures for closer union with the Presbyterians, a joint agreement was made in 1794 which allowed delegates from either body to attend the meetings of the other with all the rights of mem- bership. As both Presbyterians and Congregationalists had home missionaries laboring in the newly opened sections, though the latter were pushing the work far more vigorously than the former, it was thought that some plan of union might be devised, by which they might work harmoniously. Such a plan was agreed upon in 1801. This plan was intended to work with absolute fairness for the interests of both parties to the agreement, and for a few years it seemed so to do.
The Plan of Union * allowed churches with pastors of the other denomination to conduct their affairs according to their own church polity, while the pastors kept their own affiliation with association or presbytery and referred their difficulties to them for advice or decision. Churches whose membership was made up of both denominations were advised to have a standing committee through whom all discipline was to be administered to members; appeal being allowed a Presbyterian member to the presbytery and a Congregationalist to the body of church members, or to a council. These standing commit- tees could depute a member to attend presbytery with the same rights there as any ruling elder of the Presbyterian Church.
With this tiny wedge a small opening was made which was enlarged by a later plan through which Congregational * See Appendix A.
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churches and ministers, while still Congregational, were offi- cially brought into presbyteries. First, in 1806, the Albany Presbytery proposed to the Northern Associated Presbytery, that strong Congregational association and conference, that members of either body occasionally present at a meeting of the other should be invited to sit and act as corresponding members of the same. The next year the Synod of Albany admitted the Congregational churches of the region to be rep- resented by ministers and delegates with full rights of Presby- terian members at the meetings of the synod, always provided that while acting with the synod they use Presbyterian stand- ards of doctrine and government. The churches, feeling they were to reap the benefits of association with a highly organized body, adopted the plan blindly, expecting to retain their own polity; but soon they were transformed, in name if not in nature, and were reported in the minutes of the Presbyterian Church. Presbyteries were formed where there were but a handful of Presbyterians, and ministers and churches invited and urged to join them without giving up their connection with their own association. A majority vote in the membership of a church would carry it into the presbytery, but a unanimous vote was required for it to withdraw unless it had permission of presbytery. And while presbytery, synod, and General As- sembly were welcoming them with open arms, they were pushed out vigorously from the Congregational fold by Con- necticut and Massachusetts. The American Education So- ciety recommended "all young men who go from New England into the boundaries of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church to unite with the Presbyterians and not to hold on upon Congregationalism." The Home Missionary Societies did the same. They did not encourage their mission- aries to unite their newly formed churches into associations of their own, and Congregationalism, " west of Byram River," was hardly countenanced by orthodox New England.
But the Congregational element in the Presbyterian Church was progressive, independent, and hard to assimilate. Their New England trained ministers were accused of heresies.
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Princeton and New Haven theology were not in accord. Mr. Finney, too, was preaching new doctrines and introducing new revival methods, and New School ideas were gaining ground through Congregational influence. The more conservative Presbyterians felt that Congregational churches ought to have no representatives in General Assembly.
In carrying out the Plan of Union, Congregationalists and Presbyterians had joined forces in missionary effort. Both had worked through the American Board and the American Home Missionary Society. But Presbyterians of the Old School grew suspicious of the joint home missionary work and of the American Education Society. They were apt to supply men with a New School bias.
After two or three years of struggle the Old School party, in 1837, carried the General Assembly, abrogated the Plan of Union, declared the Home Missionary and Education Societies " injurious to the peace and purity of the Presbyterian Church," and cut off four synods-the Western Reserve, Utica, Geneva, and Genesee-all made up of churches formed under the Plan of Union, and ordered the Philadelphia Presbytery dissolved.
The following year the New School Presbyterian Church was organized. In church and humanitarian doctrines Con- gregational churches, formed under the Plan of Union, were in sympathy with New School Presbyterians. The latter con- tinued their missionary work through the societies organized by Congregationalists, and Congregational churches retained presbyterial relations in the exscinded synods. Many of those even of the Associated Presbyteries who had held out hereto- fore in opposing Old School doctrines and Presbyterian dis- cipline went over now to the New School church, and many Congregational churches and ministers, especially in Ohio, joined the new movement. It has been stated authoritatively that as many as 2,000 churches, originally Congregational, were, by the Plan of Union and these subsequent influences, swept into the Presbyterian fold.
But there was yet left some Congregational leaven in the State of New York. In 1834, four years before this split in
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the Church, the General Association of New York was formed. At that date there were one hundred and eight Congregational churches gathered into local New York associations, besides scattering ones that were not associated. The formation of this General Association gave a new impetus to the denomina- tion, and in 1840, the year that saw Broadway Tabernacle re- organized, there were one hundred and twenty-eight Congre- gational churches connected with eight district associations, besides fifteen that remained independent churches.
But the Plan of Union still worked friction, particularly in the West. When the Convention called by the General Asso- ciation of Michigan met at Michigan City, Ind., July 30, 1846, Mr. David Hale, founder of the Broadway Tabernacle Church, a stout, clear-headed Congregationalist, was sent from this church as delegate. Of this meeting he wrote as follows: *
" On the question of abrogating the Plan of Union there was perfect harmony. . The Western men called the Convention, and every man, whether from the West or the East, agreed that the plan of 1801 ought to be abandoned and no new one formed.
" The history of the Union of 1801 proved to the Michigan City Con- vention that in its perversions it had been a fountain of discord, of evils great and multiplied, beyond farther endurance, and that one of three things must be done, viz. : this controversy must continue and endure, or Congregationalism must be abandoned and handed over to Presby- terianism, or a friendly and entire separation must be pronounced. We unanimously adopted the last alternative."
Six years later, in 1852, when a general convention of Congregationalists of the United States was held at Albany, N. Y., this Plan of Union, which both denominations were now ready to repudiate, was formally set aside.
* Dr. Joseph P. Thompson's Memoir of Davia Hale, pp. 296, 300.
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CHAPTER II.
DR. FINNEY'S WORK IN NEW YORK.
THE great revival movement which began with the conver- sion of Charles Grandison Finney continued for a series of years in New York City. Broadway Tabernacle was but one of many churches growing out of that movement. Mr. Fin- ney's imprint upon the church was clearly marked during its earlier years, so much so that no adequate history of the Tab- ernacle could be written without taking into account the won- derful work and personality of that prince of revival preachers.
Mr. Finney was a native of Warren, Conn. He was born August 29, 1792. When not more than two years of age his parents moved to the wilderness of Oneida County, New York. There he was sent to a common school, summer and winter, until about fifteen or sixteen years of age, when he was considered capable of conducting such a school himself.
His parents were not religious, and he enjoyed no religious privileges, saw few religious books, heard no intelligent preach- ing of the Gospel. Indeed, he seldom heard any sermon at all except from some itinerant expounder, ignorant and ridi- culed by his more critical and better instructed hearers. Just as the little community had built their meeting-house and set- tled a minister, his father moved still further into the wilds.
In the course of a few years, when about twenty years old, Mr. Finney returned to Connecticut, where he had some oppor- tunity for study. He taught in New Jersey for a while, going back now and then to Connecticut for a season's study in the High School, until, when perhaps twenty-five or twenty-six years old (for Mr. Finney's * figures are not always to be trusted), at the solicitation of his parents, he returned to their
* Memoirs of Rev. Charles G. Finney, written by himself.
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home in Jefferson County, New York, and soon after entered, as a student, a law office in the town of Adams in that county.
In Connecticut Mr. Finney had heard the old village preacher deliver his old manuscript sermons which he read in a mono- tone; and during his years in New Jersey he hardly heard a half dozen English sermons, as the preaching in the neighbor- hood of his school was in German. So when Mr. Finney went to Adams he had no definite knowledge of religious truth. Here for the first time he became interested in church services. He went to the weekly prayer meeting as often as his office duties would permit, listened to the prayers of good men with pleased attention, but puzzled all the while because they prayed to be revived without any apparent expectation of receiving an answer to their prayers. He led the church choir, taught the young people sacred music, and put himself under religious influences. His study of the law and its frequent references to the Mosaic Institutes led him to purchase a Bible, the first he had ever owned, which he read and studied. His pastor, the Rev. George W. Gale, who afterward founded the town of Galesburg, Ill., with its college, girls' seminary, and acad- emy, was an Old School Presbyterian, versed in Princeton theology. His preaching and statements of doctrine drew Mr. Finney into discussions with the minister into which they both entered with zest, renewing their discussions frequently for two or three years. He criticised Mr. Gale's preaching with plainness and severity, asked for definitions of his theological terms, and with his lawyer's training, picked flaws in the min- ister's logic, pointing out the mystifications of his theology un- til the latter was impelled to warn young men of his parish to beware of Mr. Finney's heterodox influence.
But, notwithstanding his doubts of the preacher's scheme of divinity, and of the church's faith, his belief in the truth of the Bible strengthened ; and its doctrines, as they came to him with freshness from his own original Bible study, he received intellectually until his mind was made up to begin a Christian life. His struggle with pride and shame and the final com- plete surrender of his will to the will of God he describes
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graphically in his autobiography, as well as the marvellous bap- tism of the Holy Ghost that followed.
" Without any expectation of it, without ever having the thought in my mind that there was any such thing for me, without any recol- lection that I had ever heard the thing mentioned by any person in the world, the Holy Spirit descended upon me in a manner that seemed to go through me, body and soul. I could feel the impression, like a wave of electricity, going through and through me. Indeed, it seemed to come in waves and waves of liquid love; for I could not express it in any other way. It seemed like the very breath of God. I can recollect distinctly that it seemed to fan me, like immense wings.
" No words can express the wonderful love that was shed abroad in my heart. I wept aloud with joy and love; and I do not know but I should say, I literally bellowed out the unutterable gushings of my heart. These waves came over me, and over me, and over me, one after the other, until I recollect I cried out, 'I shall die if these waves con- tinue to pass over me.' I said, 'Lord, I cannot bear any more; ' yet I had no fear of death."
Like St. Paul, Jonathan Edwards, and William Tennent, he seemed to meet the Lord Jesus face to face, and by these spirit- ual experiences and rapture of emotion to be set apart, as they were, for special service as God's minister. He had said when he first realized that faith was not intellectual belief but volun- tary trust, while he prayed and trusted without realizing his heart was already changed, "If I am ever converted, I will preach the Gospel." The very next day after these ecstasies, he began, at once, the fulfilment of his vow. The lawyer with whom he had studied, the deacon who had retained him to plead his case in court that morning, were heartstricken with his first words and retired, the one to pray until he too was a convert, the other to settle his suit in a Christian manner. He had the impression, he says, that God wanted him to preach the Gospel, and that he must begin immediately. He seemed to know it without the possibility of doubt; and he felt un- willing to do anything else. Every person to whom he spoke that day was, soon afterward, converted. An impromptu con- ference meeting gathered in the evening, and the house was packed. Without waiting for any one to open the services Mr.
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