USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Annals of the First Presbyterian church of Cleveland, 1820-1895 > Part 4
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nificant to find a place on a map, has been lifted into fame, when a Carey, a Livingstone, a Lincoln, respond- ing to these influences, from parts near and remote, rise up to the task of their lives, and send back to every corner of the earth an influence which adds somewhat to the betterment, not only of the known but of the, as yet, unknown segment of mankind.
It does make a difference in what age we live, and what is going on in it. It is a good thing to have one's life run on, in any part of it, contemporaneous with the great lights of English letters and science. Scott, Coleridge, Keats and Wordsworth live into this our day; Brewster, Faraday, Darwin and Tyndal ; Carlyle and Macauley, Thackeray and Dickens, Browning, Tennyson and Ruskin, Charlotte Bronte and George Elliot, people of yesterday; and to have claimed as men of our own time, Longfellow and Whittier, Holmes and Lowell and Emerson ; Webster, Sumner and Wendell Phillips ; Bushnell, Beecher and Phillips Brooks ; and of theologians, Taylor, Parks, Smith and Hodge ; and to have felt the inspiration of a missionary era in the church, such as this has notably been.
II. What have we seen in this our day ? 1. We have seen the conditions of human life completely revolutioned by industrial science through its mastery over the subtle and the more obvious forces of nature. This is a subject too vast to enter upon here. But, as to the means of communication, by travel, or through the mails, near or far; the instantaneous flash of thought from continent to continent, the possibility of
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conversing, Clevelander with Chicagoan or New Yorker, without leaving the fireside; the reduction of letter post from twenty-five cents to two; the speed of the locomotive raised from six to seventy miles an hour; an ocean passage by steam cut from fifteen days to less than six ; from the sailing packet, six weeks, to one! If this means much to commerce, it means no less to the church, set for the conquest of the world.
Or looking at machinery, from the tilling of the soil to every fabric of loom, or furnace ; in the work- ing of mines, the tunnelling of mountains, and construction of harbors, revolution has followed revolution, throwing, at every great movement, new problems upon society and the church.
Weapons of destruction have made war so terrible as almost to confine it to the aggressions of the strong upon the weak, and to force the great powers of the world to be at peace among themselves.
In the whole field of literature, from the newspaper to ponderous tome-style, quality, quantity-any one able to call up a child's book or reader of half a cen- tury ago-the illustrations, type, press-work, contents and cost-and put it side by side with the typical book, magazine, newspaper of today, has in hand one of the most suggestive evidences of the advance that has been made, putting, as it were, a millenium be- tween us and the men of 1820.
Of course, this is not, all in all, to be put to the credit side of life. But all these things, and the like of them, we have seen, and they have had to do with the social and religious life of the people, with the
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practical outcome of our Christianity. They make it self-evident that our problems are quite other than the problems of our fathers. Herein are found opportuni- ties which, utilized, will hasten the foretold day when the knowledge of the Lord shall fill the earth, and the brotherhood of all men, the unity of all races shall stand confessed.
2. We have seen great changes in theologic thought brought about by the inductive study of the Bible and a better knowledge of the world's past. The religious world of today, as it voices itself in print, in thought, in deed and life, is far removed from that of 1820. Some of us may think the change for the worse rather than the better. We may think that since the Bible of today is, chapter and verse, the Bible of our fathers, religious thought and belief ought to be stationary. But then, they are not, nor should they be. The men of 1820 had no more got out of the Bible all there was in it, than they had got out of nature all there was in her.
The Bible used to be approached from the side of the creeds. Men were taught to believe so and so, and went to the Bible to prove it. Now, men go to the Bible to try to find out what it teaches, and, if need be, to revise their creeds. The Bible has been put in the focal light of Archaeology and Biblical Geography. It is read with a better understanding of the man and the times, the real purpose of prophet and apostle, whose thought we are trying to get at.
We are seeing that Revelation is progressively given, and are holding the Old Testament to its
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appointed task, and judging it by that, rather than imposing upon it the loftier standard of the new. We are seeing, more clearly than ever before, that God has not left Himself without a witness among other peoples and in other faiths, till in the fulness of times He sent forth His son. This has not accrued to the disparagement of the Christian faith, nor made the Bible less a book for the people; but God is appre- hended as more lovable, more father-like, more imme- diately nigh at hand, more certainly the God and father of all men, and who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Sin is seen to be not less terrible, righteousness is not less resplendent, penalty not less sure to follow upon sin but less arbitrary, redemption is not less a necessity for man, viewed in the light of the new science of heredity and environment. The Gospel was never more needed than when the appeal of the material world is so incessant and urgent, and the rigor of law is emphasized.
The transition, of which we are all conscious, is one, I think, not so much of views as of view, and must be judged by its fruit. It must make men not less serious but more earnest, devout and righteous. No change of belief, is matter of congratulation, if it does not lead out to something nobler and grander, and make better men. One has well said, that progress in religion "must seek not merely for new notions and ideas, but for a larger and deeper sight of God; and must test itself, and let itself be freely tested, by the eternal and universal standards of devoutness and
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morality." Of the transition there can be no doubt. Will it bear this test ? But now
3. We have also seen the life of the church express itself in unwonted missionary zeal at home and abroad, and in attempts to apply the teachings of Jesus to all the real problems of our time. The mis- sionary and humanitarian agencies of the church are counted by the thousand, but nearly all of them date their birth since this church was organized. Indeed, the greater part of them are not more than twenty-five years old, and but few ante-date the middle of this century.
The American Board ante-dates this church by ten years, the American Bible Society by four. As with this church, so with them, it took a long while to get under way; but like everything else in this half cen- tury, the march of Christianity has been marvellous. The American Mission force began to go into Africa when this church was a year old. The Moravians and a few English missionaries had gone into South Africa before them. Today there are a thousand missionary stations, in a continent, then shrouded in densest gloom, now partitioned off among the great powers of Europe; the story of whose unveiling is full of the heroism born of faith.
It is but yesterday that Khama, a South African prohibitionist Chief, stood up in the City Temple, London, before a vast congregation, to say: "The work in which we stand today is the work of goodness; the work that excels all work in real goodness; the work we find in the land is the work that tires men
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and passes away; the work of God has no ending and goes on ever before us. I have been trying to help all my young people to go forward in learning, in schools, and things like this. And I say that that town is a town of beauty where the work of God is taken up with both hands." This scene is typical of the Africa of today.
Twenty-two years ago a newspaper had never been issued in Japan. In one city, Tokyo, there are now seventeen dailies ; in the empire seven hundred period- icals ; in elementary schools 3,000,000, and the imperial edict runs thus : "It is intended that hence- forth education shall be so diffused that there may not be a village with an ignorant family, nor a family with an ignorant member." Yet when this church was fifty years old the empire was still placarded with bulletins forbidding the profession of christianity on pain of death. Christ went before the great awakening and the new birth of the Japanese empire. Four hundred churches and its Christian colleges and semi- naries are at the heart of her immense progress. These events are typical of Japan.
When this church was organized converts on foreign fields were hard to find. But O, the wonderful power of God these years in the Sandwich Islands, in India, Persia, Japan. Wherever this gospel has been taken abroad, the race of martyrs has been multiplied. Now from one Lord's Day to another, two thousand are added to those who are being saved, on foreign soil alone-100,000 a year! The East India Company, that scoffed at Carey's coming to India and forbade
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his landing, set the British flag at half mnast when he died, forty years later. And the London Times, that used to scoff, now treats with consideration the great gatherings of Indian missionaries. These, too, are typical facts.
Since 1820 the Bible, in whole or in part, has been put into about two hundred and fifty new dialects and tongues ; and in Uganda, invoice after invoice, is speedily exhausted, with something of the eagerness with which the revised New Testament was welcomed in this country.
I sieze these few typical facts, just to show, (1) that the progress of the kingdom, extensively, is not a whit behind the march of events in other realms of thought and action. Nay, that they play into each other's hands, and the whole vast stir is not truly seen till it is apprehended that the providence of God is over it all ; and (2) that the transitional period of belief has been attended by the greatest progress of the kingdom through world-wide effort. The nobler and the more real, to us, the character of God, the better life and work. Nor has this outreach been to the neglect of claims near at hand. The development of this continent has mostly come to pass within our day. Chicago was settled in 1831, four years before Dr. Aiken came to Cleveland, three years before the fifteen-year-old church, to which he came, was sheltered in a house of worship.
Stand at the Sault Ste. Marie for a day, in thought, and bring the unbroken stillness and charm of the rapids in 1820 along side the tremendous traffic that
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presses through these locks, and think that seventeen million tons of freight are expected to pass from Lake Superior to the ports below in 1895. Let these facts be taken as typical of the development of the country.
But is this any more wonderful than to be told that, voluntarily, the churches of Christ have under- taken to keep pace with the march of improvement across the continent, and put the school and the church on the same train with the emigrant, these to be followed by the academy and the college at the cost of millions of dollars ? Or take the actual working of the churches in cities that antedate our own and contrast what was thought to be the mission of the church then and now, or the work of the churches here, before and since the war. Intensively and at close range, the church, with all her derelictions, is alive to the demands of the age, and seeks to adapt herself to the needs of all sorts and conditions of men. She is not reading her Bible amiss; verily, our eyes have seen great things. We have been a part, how- ever humble, of great movements, as well as had our being in a marvellous time.
III. What have we stood for ? 1. This church has stood as a witness to the saving power of the Gospel of Christ. It has had a succession of ministers who believed that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, that it is a Gospel of sweet reasonableness and fulness of all comfort. To preach it they were com- missioned. Preach it they did, and what they preach-
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ed they tried to live. Along with the stated means of grace they have welcomed from time to time the evan- gelist, sometimes to edification, sometimes not, but glorious times of refreshing have been here enjoyed, and about 4,000 have joined themselves to us, as an organization.
It has been essential to our conception of the Gospel that this church should be New School and progressive; conservative, and yet willing to be taught, and making room for all established facts, with a welcome for the new light ever breaking on the world. In 1853 the Rev. Frederick J. Brown, in a foot-note to a printed sermon, gives it as his confident opinion that "if the two systems of doctrines-New and Old School -could be placed side by side, in all their fulness, before the Presbyterians of Cleveland, there could not be found in the city a sufficient number of New School to compose exceeding one self-sustaining church !" Dr. Brown failed to get these doctrines before the churches in fulness, or else he was mistaken. He must have been mistaken, for the one Old School church to which he ministered is long since extinct.
The Old School was and is tethered to the past. In the thirties it tried for heresy such men as Albert Barnes and Lyman Beecher. In 1837 it cited the judicatories to purge the church of existing evils; it exscinded four synods, three in New York, and the Western Reserve with special emphasis, as defective in doctrine ; and then the church was rent in twain. That is Old Schoolism now. History repeats itself.
The New School Assembly met here in 1857,
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recorded its testimony against slavery, and twenty Southern members withdrew. It met here again, after the re-union, in 1875, when the honey-moon of that union was crescent. Loyal to Christ, His word and kingdom, to us He is greater than assemblies, and His word authoritative over Confessions, and the liberty wherewith Christ makes free is still the heritage of all good Presbyterians, if they will to have it. I agree with one who says : "The world waits, and we must pray and labor, not for a more complete and logical theology, but for a more real and true and living Christianity."
2. This church has stood for the people. It has always been cosmopolitan. There has always been here no proscription of race or class. If anything of this sort has cropped out it has been individual and not the mind of the church. It has for long made the church wholly free half the time, and open to everybody all the time. It has enrolled among its members rich and poor together. Nor is this all. It has heard the Master's "to every creature," and believed that He was lifted up for all, and gone about it; is at it yet. We regard it as a dreadful thing, an act of disloyalty to the Master to abridge that com- mission, the intent of which is that all the kingdoms of this world shall become His. The church for the people and the people for the church, this is our motto.
3. This church has stood for a Sabbath service, dignified, devotional and inspiring. Dr. Goodrich led the way in those innovations which brought the Creed, the
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Lord's Prayer and the Responsive Reading into the service. It was not done without friction. Some of the older members resented it, but acquiesced, and of some of them it is true that they came to love it.
Emphasis has been put upon sacred music from an early day. The gift of song was with the pioneers. Pioneer and not sing! The choir serving here has almost always been churchly, that is, composed some- times wholly, always in part, of members of this or other churches, with a sense of the fitness of things, and of a mission to lead the service of song, elevate the taste of the people, inspire and comfort them, and then, when not so occupied, to realize themselves members of the congregation, entitled to the privilege of doing just what is fit and proper for anybody else to do in the house of God, during worship. These choirs are remembered with gratitude to God, in spite of occasional disappointments. It is said that when the first house of worship on this site was dedicated the singing was most inspiring, that the 24th Psalm was sung antiphonally with electrical effect. One, at least, of that choir is still singing the songs of Zion on earth, and some who were then present are still among us. The singing of From Greenland's Icy Mountains, for the first time in this church, is remem- bered as an inspiring event.
What the fathers sought we still believe and rejoice in-good, churchly music. It is well, sometimes, to ask ourselves how much is our debt to sacred music ? It is well to remember that singers and preachers, in the service of the church, do all need the touch of
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heavenly fire, and to pray that it may descend upon and inflame them all with a holy ardor.
4. We have stood for patriotism in the time of the country's peril. Eight days after the fall of Ft. Sumter, Dr. Goodrich preached upon "The Christian Necessity of War." In this sermon he said : "We have believed that in civilized nations the law of progress would call for no conflict but that of free discussion ; but how it would be in a nation, where side by side with every liberty that is precious to man, has stood and grown mightier every day a system whose perpetuity requires that those liberties should be restricted and denied : this we have not taken into the account. And now the question has come squarely upon us whether we will relinquish these hard-earned liberties, or whether we will hold them in battle and cement them, if need be, with blood." * * And he goes on to say : "We cannot fight the battles of our country against treason without, at the same time, fighting a battle of freedom for mankind. * * We have a great work on hand. We are to prove in the face of all nations, that a pop- ular government is strong enough to punish treas- on." * * And thus he voices his faith : "God never will suffer, in this age, a government based on the doctrine of liberty to the strong and servitude to the weak."
I am not aware that the record of this church in the civil war was ever compiled, but under such leadership it must have been noteworthy. Notable in official capacity were Dr. H. K. Cushing, responding
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as Surgeon of the Ohio 7th, at the first call ; Colonel Chas. Whittlesey, 20th Infantry ; Lieut .- Col. George S. Mygatt, 41st Infantry ; Col. Oliver H. Payne, 124th Infantry ; Dr. Gustav C. E. Weber, Surgeon 125th Infantry. Col. Creighton and Lieut. Col Cram, killed at Mission Ridge, Nov. 27, 1863, were buried from this church, and services "In Memoriam" Abraham Lincoln, the martyr President, were here held, Hon'. Sherlock J. Andrews presiding, Col. Richard C. Parsons making an address. The Soldiers' Aid Society of Northern Ohio was notably an organization for good. Foremost among the women of the war was Mary Clark Brayton, its Secretary. The receipts of a Sanitary Fair, in 1864, in which the women of this church toiled with conspicuous patriotism, netted nearly $70,000. Of these memorable years, and of those who here served their country, we cannot now speak at length.
We have stood for education as the handmaid of religion. In all other particulars named we have stood on a plane with other churches of the city. In this it will be conceded that we have a certain preemi- nence, as the monuments of the generosity of our people are studied, and as the gifts of members and pewholders here testify, amounting to the munificent sum of two million, nine hundred and nine thousand dollars, during the last seventeen years.
And with this goes the evidence of civic spirit that crops out in the labors of such men as Hon. George H. Ely and others, for the development of the com- merce of the lakes, and in institutions of beneficence,
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sheltering the invalid, the child and the aged-bearing on to remote times the names of Case, Stone and Woods; and of noble women Clark, Stone, Fitch, Mather, Harkness. To recall these, and many another charged with the same spirit, is to stir the shades of recollection and open the fount of tears.
The aim of this discourse is not to glorify our- selves, but to emphasize the work in which we have found a place with others in these momentous years. Doubtless, that much of this may be said is due to the fact that this was the First Presbyterian Church. There must be a first if there is to be a second, and to be the first-born is, in itself matter, neither for praise nor blame; but to be first gives coign of vantage if men know how to use it rightly, imposes responsi- bility whether we will or no. If we have been able to meet and use this vantage ground, in any manner worthily, to God be all the glory.
What I have to say along these lines is now said. IV. The call of the Past to the Present for the Future. That there is such a call, is not open to question. An inheritance such as this is both a fact and a prophecy, a gift with a summons. A church without a mission has no right to be. We have ours, not so much sought as brought to us. We have a commanding position of influence. No other invites us. What does this endowment, the expression of the love of the living and the dead, mean? What does the generous annual bestowment for the carrying forward of christian work here, mean? What does this latest munificent gift for the enrichment of our
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public service and the joy of all worshipers, mean ?* What does the goodly presence of the morning and evening audiences mean? Do not these things say- "Your work is not yet ended. Renew your youth and press on. Everything must be kept up to high water mark. Let down in nothing. Make the service of this church as strong, winsome, welcoming, inspiring, comforting, as may be. Come as close to the people as may be. Espouse the cause of the people. Be just to all, as God is just. Be kind to all, as God is kind. Remember that God is no respector of per- sons and break the bread of life to all. Let the weak here find a friend, and the strong a mission, and the waster of God's heritage of human souls, rebuke."
Why not? Is anybody tired? Is anybody dis- couraged ? Are we no longer needed? Is the mil- lenium here? Is the city saved? Is the country evangelized ? Does the call from Macedonia pulsate on the air no more? The fathers have fallen on sleep, but they fell in their tracks, they fell face for- ward; some of them put into our hands treasure to be used for them, right here, and said,-"by this would I live on and work with you and them that come after you." These speaking windows, these tablets on the wall, these portraits in yonder, the pealing notes of the new organ-let us have more of such things, remembering how they who sow and they who reap are to rejoice together-builders all, the work of all gathered up and carried along in the unbroken life of
* Allusion is here made to the gift of an organ by Mrs. S. V. Harkness, a mem- orial of her daughter Florence.
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this historic church. After all, as one has said, "it is better to live than to write about life."
O dear church of God gird thyself afresh. Renew your vows O ye who have grown weary, or lost heart, or been turned aside. Pray, pray, every one of you, that this day, this week, may not go by, without leav- ing with us the signal blessing of God Almighty- Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
THEN AND NOW-A CONTRAST. 1820 --- 1895.
PREACHED BY THE PASTOR SUNDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 20, 1895.
Job 8. 7-10. Though the beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.
For inquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers:
(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are a shadow:)
Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, and utter words out of their heart?
In attempting to set in contrast periods so far apart as 1820-1895, with an interval so crowded with momentous progress in city, state and nation, in arts and industries, books and modes of living, we need to be guarded at two points. 1. We need to be careful to do ample justice to the men and women of 1820-
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to put ourselves in their place-to speak reverently and tenderly of them who smoothed the way of our feet. Indeed, I can do no otherwise.
And- 2-we need to emphasize the providence of God as much in the building of Cleveland as in the building of Jerusalem. God is in the 19th century, A. D., just as truly as in the 19th century, B. C. Nay, his hand is more visibly laid bare today than in the time of Moses and David. There is a divine pur- pose unfolding in history that grows more evident as time moves on.
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