The history of the Broadway tabernacle church, from its organization in 1840 to the close of 1900, including factors influencing its formation, Part 5

Author: Ward, Susan Hayes, 1838- nn
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: New York [The Trow print]
Number of Pages: 408


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 5


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This building, begun in May, 1835, and finished April, 1836, was largely planned by Mr. Finney. He says :


" The men that built the Tabernacle in Broadway, and the leading members who formed the church there, built it with the understanding that I should be its pastor, and they formed a Congregational Church. I then took my dismission from the presbytery and became pastor of that Congregational Church. The plan of the interior of the house was my own. I had observed the defects of churches in regard to sound; and was sure that I could easily speak to a much larger congregation than any house would hold, that I had ever seen. An architect was consulted, and I gave him my plan. But he objected to it that it would not appear well and feared that it would injure his reputation to build a church with such an interior as that. I told him that, if he would not build it on that plan, he was not the man to superintend its construction at all. It was finally built in accordance with my ideas, and it was a most commodious and comfortable place to speak in.


" When the Tabernacle was in the process of completion, its walls be- ing up and the roof on, a story was set in circulation that it was going to be an amalgamation church in which colored and white people were to be compelled to sit promiscuously over the house. Such was the state of the public mind in New York at that time that this report created a great excitement and somebody set the building on fire. The firemen were in such a state of mind that they refused to put it out, and left the interior and roof to be consumed. However, the gentlemen who had undertaken to build it went forward and completed it. . . " While in New York I had many applications from young men to take them as students in theology. I, however, had too much on my


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HISTORY OF THE BROADWAY TABERNACLE CHURCH


hands to undertake such a work. But the brethren who built the Tabernacle had this in view, and prepared a room under the choir which we expected to use for prayer-meetings but more especially for a theological lecture room. The number of applications had been so large that I had made up my mind to deliver a course of theological lectures in that room each year and let such students as chose attend them gratuitously." *


But all these fine schemes were never carried out, and Mr. Finney only occupied the pulpit of the big Tabernacle he had planned during the following winter, that of 1836 and 1837. The double care was too great a strain upon his health; and the demands of Oberlin upon his time and strength grew more importunate. His naïve confession, "I felt a great difficulty in giving up that admirable place for preaching the Gospel, where such crowds were gathered within sound of my voice," t can well be believed, for Mr. Finney, above all things else, was a preacher. During that last winter his religious experiences led him to adopt those views of Christian perfection which later, taken in conjunction with its New School teachings and its radical anti-slavery principles, made Oberlin for many years obnoxious to very many orthodox clergymen and ecclesiastical bodies. He was counted a fanatic by his foes, a religious en- thusiast by his friends; but his revival sermons continued to be blessed to multitudes. How these sermons were prepared he tells as follows :


" When I first began to preach and for some twelve years of my earliest ministry I wrote not a word; and was most commonly obliged to preach without any preparation whatever, except what I got in prayer. I almost always got my subjects on my knees in prayer, and it has been a common experience with me upon receiving a subject from the Holy Spirit to have it make so strong an impression on my mind as to make me tremble so that I could with difficulty write. When subjects are thus given me that seem to go through me, body and soul, I can in a few moments make up a skeleton that shall enable me to retain the view presented by the Spirit, and I find that such sermons always tell with great power upon the people." #


* Memoirs of Rev. Charles G. Finney, pp. 325, 326, 328, 332.


t Ibid., p. 334. # Ibid., pp. 95, 96.


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DR. FINNEY'S WORK IN NEW YORK


In the account which the Rev. Dr. Porter of Farmington gave of the first revival in that place, which began in 1793 under the preaching of young Dr. Griffin, he says of his sermons:


.


" There were certain leading topics such as the radical defect of the best doings of the impenitent, the duty of immediate repentance, the freeness of evangelical offers, and the natural ability of men to accept them, and the consistency of all these with the purposes of God, the election of the heirs of life and the grace of God in their regeneration which he presented with a clearness and a force that were new. There was also a simplicity, a vividness, and an affection in his manner which gave the truth great access to the mind."


In quoting this extract, Dr. Joshua Leavitt, who was a faithful attendant upon Dr. Finney's preaching and reported his sermons for two winters, adds this simple comment, " the very portrait of Finney." *


* The Evangelist, May 2, 1835.


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CHAPTER III.


THE FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH.


THE second quarter of the nineteenth century was a period of intense moral activity. With increasing numbers of people the question was not so much, Is this pleasant or popular or established custom? but, Is it right? A deeper sense of per- sonal responsibility seemed to prevail, and where any good, large or small, needed to be done, more people were ready to do it, and to do it at once. Cities were seething with new ideas, new principles, and the promulgators of any doctrine that disturbed the old order of things assumed, without ap- parent hesitancy, the attitude of defenders of their faith.


The seven Free Churches of New York City were but a small proportion of the many new church enterprises that sprang up during the thirties. Few of them survived the disastrous consequences of the great fire of 1835 and the financial crash of 1837, but their members, while they held together, worked strenuously for others, and much good was accomplished. The variety of topics that interested active Christian men and women in those days is surprising. Naturally, anti-slavery and temperance were test questions. Society frowned upon their advocates and loaded them with obloquy ; but these advo- cates were nearly all, at the outset, active and avowed Chris- tian men and women. The New York City Anti-Slavery So- ciety was organized in Chatham Street Chapel, October, 1833, with a noble list of officers, while a mob battered at the doors before they were out of the building. A Young Men's Anti- Slavery Society was organized in Dr. Lansing's church, May, 1834, and the Ladies' New York City Anti-Slavery Society, in the same church, with a hundred and sixty signatures to the constitution less than a year later; the venerable Dr. Em-


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mons was called to the chair at the second anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery Society held in one of the Free Churches in 1835, and the Rev. Baron Stow offered prayer ; while, in the Rev. Mr. Ludlow's church, ladies held a series of meetings to hear the famous Grimke sisters give " Exposi- tions of the System of Southern Slavery." The second an- niversary of the emancipation of West Indian slaves was cele- brated on August 1, 1837, by intelligent colored citizens in Broadway Tabernacle, the house being " very well filled," and " Solemn Religious Services " were held by the American Anti- Slavery Society over the death of Rev. E. P. Lovejoy, No- vember, 1837, in the same place. Hard names, however, were bandied about when the Chatham Street Chapel or Broadway Tabernacle was spoken of by pro-slavery advocates. During the riots of 1833, when negroes had been attacked in the chapel, the Courier and Enquirer of July 8th announced :


" Another of those disgraceful negro outrages, &c., occurred last night at that common focus of pollution, Chatham Street Chapel."


Temperance advocates fared not much better. When Mr. Arthur Tappan advertised for communion use a pure juice of the grape without any added alcoholic liquor the newspapers uttered a howl of derision. Dr. George B. Cheever was cow- hided, and tried for libel in a Massachusetts court, and suffered thirty days' imprisonment in the common jail because of his little temperance skit, "Enquire at Deacon Giles' Distillery." Yet the temperance leaven was so working that in 1834 New York State was accredited with 2,500 temperance socie- ties, large and small, and temperance societies for young men flourished in the churches, while there was a great cold-water army of children in the Sunday-schools.


Among the various organizations whose meetings were no- ticed by the religious press were a Manual Labor School So- ciety that had many enthusiastic supporters and the eloquent young Theodore D. Weld as its agent; a New York Society for the Improvement of Common Schools; a Young Ladies' Education Society of the Free Churches of New York; an


A


-


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HISTORY OF THE BROADWAY TABERNACLE CHURCH


Anti-Tobacco Society; the American Seventh Commandment Society, and the Ladies' Auxiliary to the Seventh Command- ment Society; the Ladies' Moral Reform Society; the Mag- dalen Society; New York Female Bethel Union, Female Branch of the New York City Tract Society, Maternal Asso- ciations in many churches, and the Oberlin Female Professor- ship Association, to support the Principal of the woman's de- partment and the women teachers. These and many more benevolent organizations were keeping the thoughts and hands of women, as well as men, busy, and their hearts warm, while Drs. Graham and Mussey were directing them to adopt a vege- table diet or to use unbolted flour, anti-slavery advocates were urging them to reject all products of slave labor, to drink their tea and coffee without sugar, or to use beet sugar; and Dr. Finney would have them dispense with coffee and tea altogether. These various organizations, and the great national benevolent societies for the advance of education and home and foreign missions, Bible, and tract societies, held their anniversaries in New York, and Broadway Tabernacle became famous, as did Chatham Street Chapel before it, for its great mass meet- ings, for which purpose these houses were rented to them.


After Mr. Finney's departure in the spring of 1837, the Rev. George Duffield was engaged to act as pastor of the Tabernacle Church, though he was not installed. During this year Mr. David Hale, nephew of the patriot Nathan Hale and cousin of Mr. Nathan Hale of the Boston Advertiser, who had been look- ing for a church in the city where he could find congenial church work and companionship, began attending its services. Mr. Hale and Gerard Hallock, Esq., were, at that time, joint proprietors and editors of the Journal of Commerce, founded, about ten years before, as a Christian daily commercial news- paper. Mr. Hale was a man of strong will, able mind, posi- tive views, upright character, and a stanch upholder of Con- gregational church polity. Though his journal had been founded by Mr. Arthur Tappan, and had come into his hands through Mr. Lewis Tappan, he was not in sympathy with these brothers in their Abolition sentiments. Mr. Lewis Tappan was


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THE FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH


at this time a fellow member of the Tabernacle Church, though Mr. Green and Mr. Dimond, its first generous helpers, had both left it.


With no regular income, a free pew system, dependent upon Sunday collections, and burdened with mortgages upon their building, the church sank deeper and deeper into debt. The proposition was made that they invite the First Free Presby- terian Church, worshipping in Dey Street, to give up their house of worship and unite forces with the Tabernacle. At first Mr. Hale opposed this plan, fearing it would involve a sacrifice of the church's Congregational independence. But the burden became insupportable, and messages came from their creditors that entrance to the Tabernacle would be closed and gas shut off unless rents and gas bills were paid. The question of consolidation was considered once more, and ac- tion was taken as follows: *


" A joint meeting of the Sessions and Trustees of the Tabernacle and Dey Street Churches, was held at the Tabernacle on Friday evening, Feb. 16th, 1838. Present from the Tabernacle, Messrs. Benedict, Colton, Tappan and Hutchinson-from the Dey street Church, Messrs. Bliss, Faxon, Colt, Clover, Joy and Hurd. Mr. Clover was called to the chair and J. F. Joy appointed Secretary. Meeting opened with prayer.


" Dr. Bliss from the Committee appointed at the last meeting to draw up a plan of union, reported verbally that the Committee had not had an interview, and consequently had not agreed upon any plan, and moved that they be discharged from the further consideration of the subject, which was unanimously carried.


" Mr. Benedict presented the proceedings of the Broadway Tabernacle Church and Congregation, being a statement of the terms on which they would consent to the proposed union, which, on motion, was considered by sections and unanimously approved, with the exception of the second, third, and fifth, which were amended. The proposals, thus amended, were unanimously approved and are as follows.


" Ist. Each church to pay its debt for current expenses in full to Ist March.


" 2d. Mr. Dimond to transfer his mortgage from the Tabernacle to the first Church, take a second mortgage on that property-be put in full possession and to relinquish all claim on the Tabernacle Church or its members, it being understood that he is, in addition to the above,


* David Hale, Facts and Reasonings on Church Government.


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HISTORY OF THE BROADWAY TABERNACLE CHURCH


to pay Mr. Baker $2500, for his claim of $4000, against the Dey street Church; and that, for the balance of his claim ($1500), Mr. Baker is to receive a mortgage upon the Tabernacle.


" 3d. The churches to be united at the Tabernacle under the pastoral charge of Messrs. Duffield and Helffenstein,* Mr. Duffield to receive his present salary, and Mr. Helffenstein's to be increased to $1700.


" 4th. The two churches to be connected with the Third Presbytery of New York,t it being understood that such principles of the Congrega- tional order shall be engrafted AS SHALL BE APPROVED BY THE UNITED CHURCHES.


" 5th. If the two churches, previous to the first of March shall sub- scribe a sufficient sum in weekly or monthly payments to defray the expense of the United Church, and shall pay one month of the same in advance, then the seats in said Church shall remain free; but in case they fail to do this, the seats are to be sold or leased by direction of the Church-and the proportion of said expense shall be for the Dey street Church $2400, and the Tabernacle the balance.


" On motion adjourned. " (Signed)


J. F. Jov, Secretary."


The two churches were united at the Tabernacle on April 13, 1838, under the ministry of Messrs. Duffield and Helffen- stein. In the course of the following summer, Mr. Helffenstein having in contemplation the charge of a congregation in Penn- sylvania, some of the elders and members of the church, think- ing it might be for the interest of the church to have Mr. Duf- field also retire if they could unite the church in giving a call to the former pastor of the Dey Street church, Rev. Joel Parker, took measures to induce both pastors to resign at the same time. Mr. Duffield expressed a willingness to do so, but thought it his duty to refer the matter to the church.


Two church meetings were held, Mr. Tappan presiding; at the second, letters were read from both pastors, Mr. Helffen- stein giving an absolute and Mr. Duffield a qualified resig- nation. Both were accepted at once. Mr. Tappan thought the action precipitate in Mr. Duffield's case, and that he had been crowded into resigning by those members of the church and of the Session who had officiously interviewed both pas-


* Mr. Duffield acting pastor of the Tabernacle, Mr. Helffenstein pastor of the Dey Street Church.


+ Italics as used by Mr. Hale.


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THE FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH


tors in order to make way for Mr. Parker, then on a visit to New York. Mr. Tappan's attitude gave offence to these brethren, and in the two church meetings that followed a clergyman from the presbytery was brought in to preside, and, according to the arrangement of the ruling elders, Mr. Parker was nominated.


Mr. Tappan opposed the nomination chiefly because of Mr. Parker's change of attitude toward slavery and Sabbath ob- servance. When in the First Free Church Mr. Parker with his session had disciplined two brethren of his church for journeying on Sunday; since then Mr. Parker had drawn on himself rebukes at Oberlin for Sunday travel. Also, while in New York, he had signed a declaration of sentiments against Colonization and in favor of immediate emancipation; but after going to New Orleans he had, at Alton, Mo., just be- fore the murder of Lovejoy, encouraged Mr. Lovejoy's oppo- nents by taking active part in a Colonization meeting, and by ridiculing the doctrine of immediate emancipation. He had said, besides, that it was unchristian to go into a community to excite it, and that he should refrain from speaking upon any subject calculated to disturb or agitate a people. Mr. Tappan declared that he did not wish to have his children brought up under a minister who, instead of preaching the law of God in his pulpit with fearlessness, was like a vane on the top of a sanctuary to indicate which way the wind blew.


In spite of the minority opposition, a call was given and Mr. Parker became pastor of the church in the autumn of 1838. Mr. Tappan, in a private call upon his new pastor, assured him that he should organize no opposition against him, he should attend the meetings of the church, and wish him success in his ministry, but added: " I shall hold up the sub- ject of slavery perpetually in the confident belief that the church is in a great error, but that it will eventually agree with me."


Mr. Parker replied, "I shall do all I can to limit your influence in the church, because I think it a bad influence."


Mr. Tappan responded, "I shall try to limit what I see


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HISTORY OF THE BROADWAY TABERNACLE CHURCH


wrong in you, but not obstruct any of your efforts to do good."


Under the old régime the church had frankly, avowedly adopted anti-slavery and total abstinence principles in the fol- lowing resolutions :


" Resolved, That the using, holding, or trading in men as slaves is a sin in the sight of God, a great wrong to its subjects, and a great moral and political evil, inconsistent with a Christian profession, and that this church will admit no person to its communion who is known to be guilty of the same.


" Resolved, That this church will admit no person to its membership who refuses assent to the Temperance pledge."


An equivalent statement was prefixed to Manual No. I. of the church :


" This church is established on Temperance and Anti-Slavery prin- ciples. No one is admitted who will not promise never to buy, sell, or hold a slave, nor any one who will not adopt the Temperance pledge."


Now the session omitted the anti-slavery and temperance resolutions that had long been read at every communion to which candidates for admission to the church were expected to assent; and Mr. Parker refused or omitted to read notices of anti-slavery gatherings.


On December 15th, Mr. Tappan wrote to Mr. Parker:


" A call has been signed by about thirty members of the church for a meeting of the brethren and sisters of the church who approve of anti-slavery principles, to form an anti-slavery society in the Tabernacle Church and Congregation. More than twenty more are ready to sign it. A society will be formed. I have not time to explain to you all the objects intended; but as I do not wish to do anything in the church without giving you early information of it, I will observe that the object of the society will be to aid in promoting the abolition of slavery in the United States, and especially to purify the Church at the North, as well as at the South, from all its pollutions by appeals to the hearts and consciences of men, by warning, entreaty, and earnest prayer and the application of the Bible doctrine of immediate repentance to the sin of slavery, etc., etc."


After seventy-five persons had signed this call, the pastor (Sunday, December 16th) requested the members of the


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THE FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH


church to remain after the morning service and read a paper which, he said, originated with the session and had been adopted by them, disapproving of the formation of the pro- posed society. Mr. Tappan said, in response, that the measure was a peaceful and Christian one, and that, in exercise of their Christian liberty, the signers would feel it their duty to pro- ceed and form the society.


The meeting was held in the lecture-room, Friday, Decem- ber 21, 1838, under difficulties. The use of the room had been granted by the proper authorities, but when the hour of meet- ing came the room was found locked. When it was at length opened by recognized authority and the meeting organized, they were interrupted and ordered from the room. In the " Proceedings " of this meeting, published soon afterward, we read :


" It seems somewhat extraordinary that a hundred members of a church, including one elder, four or five deacons, and two members of the Board of Trustees, one of them being the chairman, should be denied the use of their own Lecture-room, and when it was not wanted for any other purpose." *


The constitution was adopted at this meeting, more than eighty members of the church signing it or authorizing their names to be put to it; only members of the Broadway Taber- nacle Church, or professors of religion belonging to the con- gregation or to its Sunday-schools or Bible classes, being eligible for membership. The officers were elected and an address to the church read and approved.


Two days earlier, however, Mr. Tappan had been cited to appear before the session of the church on Tuesday evening, January 8, 1839, to answer to the charge of disorderly and un- christian conduct. It was naturally supposed that the animus of this was opposition to anti-slavery principles, but when the indictment was framed, it was found to be based on the accu- sations brought by Mr. Tappan against Mr. Parker at the church meeting in the September previous, when the nomina-


* Proceedings of a meeting to form the Broadway Tabernacle Anti-Slavery Society, etc. New York, 1838.


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HISTORY OF THE BROADWAY TABERNACLE CHURCH


tion of the Rev. Mr. Parker for the pastorate was under dis- cussion. The charge against him was slander.


Mr. Tappan defended himself earnestly, and, at times, warmly, when he appeared before the session, and insisted upon his right to have a reporter with him who should take notes of the trial. This right the session denied. As Mr. Tappan continued to insist upon the presence of the reporter, he was condemned by the session for contumacy, without trial upon the charges brought, and excluded from the communion of the church until he should give evidence of repentance. Mr. Tappan appealed to the presbytery. Among his reasons for the appeal were the session's refusal to place important parts of the proceedings upon record, and to allow him to have an accurate record kept. The presbytery, after six meet- ings, voted, eleven to sustain Mr. Tappan's appeal, and four- teen against it. On March 4th the appellant addressed an ap- peal to the General Assembly.


It was well understood that the members of the session before which Mr. Tappan had been summoned were not all unprejudiced judges. One of them had openly asserted that something must be done to "put down" Mr. Tappan, be- cause, if it were not done, he would influence the minds of the church and "get a majority." In the General Assembly Rev. George Beecher warmly defended Mr. Tappan's rights. This was not long after Dr. Lyman Beecher had been tried for heresy. His son said:


" When my father was arraigned for heresy-he knew that he had prejudiced judges; we had evidence enough that they were prejudiced from the statements that had been made. I was witness to the anxiety and depression and sleepless nights which he suffered. And when the trial came on, and the reporter, Mr. Stansbury, came into the court, my father went up to him and threw his arms around his neck and said 'Brother, I bless the Lord that you have come.' And I know the joy which this occasioned the family, and I know it was the means of saving his reputation. Under these circumstances, if the court had ruled out the reporter, I know how it would have come home to us. I know how the brother felt. I don't wonder at what he did. The wonder is that he did not do worse."


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THE FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH


The Assembly's decision, made May 27, 1839, sustained Mr. Tappan's appeal. It ruled that the act of the session, exclud- ing the reporter, was of very questionable wisdom as well as a dangerous precedent; that the session had been too precipi- tate and absolute, and, though granting that the appellant's resolute opposition might be construed as contumacious, it reversed the sentence of the session and the decision of the presbytery.




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