USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > The past and present of St. Andrew's : two discourses preached in St. Andrew's church, Philadelphia, on the 12th and 19th of September, 1858 > Part 1
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THE PAST AND THE PRESENT
CHURCH
OF ST
C
GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 01790 5255
GENEALOGY 974.802 P53ST
1
The Past and the Present of St. Andrew's.
TWO DISCOURSES
PREACHED IN
ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH,
PHILADELPHIA,
ON THE
12th and 19th of September, 1858.
BY
REV. WM. BACON STEVENS, D.D., RECTOR.
"Jesus Christ the chief Corner Stone."
PHILADELPHIA: PRINTED BY C. SHERMAN & SON. 1858.
CORRESPONDENCE.
PHILADELPHIA, October 7th, 1858.
DEAR SIR:
I have the pleasure to inclose by order of the Vestry of St. Andrew's Church, the following preamble and resolutions, passed at their stated meeting on Tuesday last, 5th inst.
" Whereas, The two Discourses lately preached by our Pastor, upon the past history of St. Andrew's Church, are in the judg- ment of the Vestry calculated to promote the best interests of the Parish, as well as to exert a beneficial influence upon the cause of religion generally, and are a true exponent of the prin- ciples upon which this Church was founded ; Therefore
Resolved, That the Vestry do respectfully request their Rector to cause said discourses to be published, at their expense, with such additional notes or facts as may occur to him as necessary or proper ;
Resolved, That the thanks of the Vestry be presented to the Rev. Dr. Stevens, for the service thus rendered to his people, with
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the assurance of the undiminished confidence and affection of the Vestry, and their readiness in every way to promote his com- fort and usefulness.
Resolved, That the Secretary be requested to furnish the Rec- tor with a copy of the preamble and resolutions.
With much respect, Very sincerely yours, J. FISHER LEAMING,
Secretary. REV. WM. BACON STEVENS, D.D.
PREFACE.
WHEN I first thought of preaching a sermon on occasion of the Tenth Anniversary of my institution as Rector of St. Andrew's Church, it was with a de- sign of condensing into a single discourse the results of my ministry in this parish. I soon saw that in order to do this in a proper manner it was needful to know much of the past history of the Church, as my labors were very much mortised into the ministry of my predecessors. Enlarging my plan, these two sermons are the result ; and they give a brief sketch of our parochial life to the present time. The facts stated have been carefully culled from printed and manuscript sources, especially from the records of the Vestry, the minutes of the Berean Society, and the oral information communicated by several of the early members of the parish. The life of a church,
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even though it spans but thirty-five years, is much more interesting than the life of any one of its Pas- tors, because it is a memoir of many lives, a history of many spiritual births and holy deaths; but it can never be fully written as it is, or as God sees it : hence we can state only a few outlines of its corpo- rate existence, point out some of its doings, mark some of its blessings, and leave the rest to be told at that day and before that bar when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed.
W. B. S.
SERMON I.
O Almighty God, who hast built thy Church upon the founda- tion of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner Stone; grant that, by the operation of the Holy Ghost, all Christians may be so joined together in unity of spirit, and in the bond of peace, that they may be an Holy Temple acceptable unto thee. And especially, to this congre- gation present, give the abundance of thy grace ; that with one heart they may desire the prosperity of thy Holy Apostolic Church, and with one mouth may profess the faith once deli- vered to the Saints. Defend them from the sins of heresy and schism ; " let not the foot of pride come nigh to hurt them, nor the hand of the ungodly to cast them down." And grant that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by thy governance, that thy Church may joyfully serve thee in all godly quietness ; that so they may walk in the ways of truth and peace, and at last be numbered with thy Saints in glory everlasting, through thy merits, O blessed Jesus, thou gracious Bishop and Shepherd of our souls, who art, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.
Collect in the Office of Institution.
SERMON.
" And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strength- ened their hands for this good work."-NEHEMIAH 2 : 18.
TEN years have now passed since I was in- stituted Rector of this Church. It seems to me, therefore, a fitting time in which to re- view my ministry among you, and to present such facts in the general history of this parish as shall show, in some measure, what God hath wrought through that little band who said, one to another, "Let us rise up and build," and whose hands God "strengthened for this good work."
The limits of one or two sermons will only permit me to give outline facts, and will not allow that minuteness of detail which the
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materials at hand would render both interest- ing and instructive.
Thirty-six years ago, a young clergyman, compelled by the threatened loss of health to leave his thriving parish in North Carolina, stood in the pulpit of St. Paul's Church, in this city, and preached his first sermon in Philadelphia. Youthful, but with a face " sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought;" slender in form, but with an eye kindling with intelligence, and a voice of sweetest modula- tion, he surprised and delighted his audience. Again and again, that same day, did he stand before admiring throngs and deliver sermons, marked by the fulness of the Gospel, and the charms of a graceful delivery. The people were electrified. The earnest rector of St. Paul's, the Rev. Benjamin Allen, at whose solicitation this young clergyman had visited Philadel- phia, was delighted with the impression made by the sermons, and with a few far-seeing and Christ-loving men, determined to organize a new parish, and place it under the charge of the eloquent stranger. That eloquent stranger was Mr. Bedell; who, though originally from the North, had been settled for several years
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as the rector of St. John's Church, Fayette- ville, North Carolina, but who had resigned his charge, and was now on his way to his native State, New York.
But God had work for him to do here, and here he was to remain. The various steps in God's overruling providence which led to this, are thus detailed in Mr. Bedell's own words : "On Monday morning (May 13, 1822, the day after he had preached three times in St. Paul's), some of the leading members of that church did me the favor to call, and request that I would delay my journey to New York for a few days. To this proposition assent was given, and on the Wednesday or Thurs- day following, the same gentlemen came with the proposition that I would establish my residence in this city for one year, they pledg- ing themselves for my support, and to an effort to erect a church, of which I should be the pastor. This of course, I being entirely disengaged, was considered by me as a decided indication of Providence as to the course of duty, and the offer was accepted. During the few weeks subsequent to this, the Rev. Mr. Allen, with the gentlemen already alluded to,
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were actively engaged in ascertaining whether it would be practicable to build an additional church. They had no doubts as to its neces- sity, and although much reproached and op- posed by some, who were not capable of taking large views as to the interests of the Re- deemer's kingdom, they determined that they would carry on the work. After many meet- ings, in which the blessing of God was con- tinually sought, it was determined to purchase this lot; and although the funds to which they could confidently look, did not, in the aggre- gate, amount to $10,000, the work was be- lieved to be agreeable to God, and in faith it was commenced. The great burden of respon- sibility rested upon two gentlemen, one of whom departed this life before the work was completed ;1 the other lives, and holds at this day, one of the only two offices of honor which this church can give. Delicacy forbids me to say more, yet I cannot leave the subject without this remark, that whatever of public service he may live to render, this house will be the proudest memorial of his public spirit, for it was carried on with the contingency of
1 William Thackara.
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great personal sacrifice." The person to whom Dr. Bedell refers, still lives,1 and still holds the office, which he then held, of Warden of this church. God has graciously prolonged his days, and permitted him "to see the work of the Lord prosper in his hands." Never, until the day of judgment, will it be known how much good this venerable and beloved Warden has accomplished, by the liberal ad- vances which he made towards the building of this church, and sustaining the ministry of Dr. Bedell. We can say of him as Ezra said of Hezekiah, "And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and pros- pered."
To the new parish Dr. Bedell wished to give the name "Grace Church," but Bishop White desired it to be called " St. Andrew's," and accordingly, on the 9th September, 1822, the corner-stone of St. Andrew's was laid by that venerable Bishop, with appropriate cere- monies. The address on the occasion was delivered by the Rev. Benjamin Allen, through
1 Cornelius Stevenson, Esq.
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whose instrumentality Dr. Bedell had been invited to this city, and by whose energy and self-sacrificing devotion to the extension of Christ's kingdom, this enterprise had been fostered and sustained. When some one cen- sured this clergyman for taking such an inte- rest in getting up a new church, and stated to him, " If this work goes on, you will injure yourself, and St. Paul's will go down," Mr. Allen replied, "I am persuaded that there is work for Mr. Bedell to do here; and if my Redeemer's kingdom is advanced, what matter how soon I fall !"
The body of that devoted servant of God now lies in the great charnel-house of the ocean, but he lived to see this edifice erected, consecrated, and filled with devout worship- pers.
While the church was being built, services were held by Dr. Bedell, for the purpose of gathering and consolidating a congregation, in the old Masonic Hall, on Chestnut Street ; and afterwards, through the liberality of the vestry of St. James's Church, in the Sunday evenings of autumn and winter, in that church. So rapidly, however, had the building-com-
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mittee pressed on, and so effectively had God " strengthened their hands for this good work," that by Saturday the 31st of May, 1823, the edifice was ready for use, and was on that day consecrated to the worship of Almighty God by Bishop White, who preached a sermon ap- propriate to the occasion. On the next day, Sunday, 1st June, the church was opened to the congregation, and a sermon from the text inscribed over the pulpit, " Holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, forever," was delivered by the Rector. It was to him a day of joy and thanksgiving. But a few days over a year had elapsed since he came to this city, a stranger, and without a parochial charge; now he stood in the pulpit of the most beautiful house of worship then erected in Philadelphia, surrounded by a body of devoted and ener- getic laymen, and in the midst of a congrega- tion which filled the spacious edifice, and clustered with affection around him as their beloved Rector.
God had, indeed, strengthened the hands of the projectors of this good work. Conceived in prayer, pushed on in faith, sustained by hope, it had been completed with thanks-
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giving; and the chorus of the anthem, which rolled through the church on the day of its consecration, truly reflected the jubilant emo- tions of the congregation : "O give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people. Glory ye in his holy name, for his mercy endureth for- ever."
From this time, St. Andrew's took its place in the front rank of city churches, and soon outstripped each, in the number of its com- municants, the size of its congregation, the contributions which it made to benevolent objects, the extent of its Sunday-schools, and the efficiency which marked each department of labor for the good of the Church and for the spread of the Gospel. How faithfully and with what results Dr. Bedell labored, we learn from the following extract from a ser- mon which he delivered on the tenth anni- versary of his ministry. " On Sunday, October 5th, 1823, the first communion was celebrated in this church. There were then present thirty- four persons, all of them, it is believed, having been communicants of some of the other churches of our city. It is not my intention
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to trace the gradual increase; suffice it to say, that on Easter last (1833) our actual number amounted to three hundred and thirty-four, exactly three hundred more than when the communion was first administered.
" This, however, does not give as favorable a view as the case really requires, for during the ten years which have passed, changes have taken place, by death and removals, to the amount of more than one hundred; so that there has been actually added to the church more than four hundred, the most of these by a profession of religion here first made." This was surely a large increase, and, up to that time, unparalleled in the history of any single Episcopal church in this country; and when, to this spiritual increase, we add the other manifestations of its growth and vigor in its Sunday-schools, which from the handful who first met in the vestry-room in September, 1823, rose to the more than a thousand, teachers and scholars, which filled the church eighteen years after; in its educational efforts for the support of candidates for the ministry ; in its missionary organizations for the spread of the Gospel, at home and abroad, we are
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constrained to say, "This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes."
Thus prospered was this church in its minister, and in its practical working; and I could scarcely present you a better summary of the blessings which God hath showered upon this congregation, than by enumerating the heads of a discourse which Dr. Bedell preached on the tenth anniversary of his first standing in this pulpit, from the words, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." "1. The Lord hath helped us in the pecuniary arrangements of this church. 2. In the in- crease of its regular attendants. 3. In the ability wherewith the Rector has been able to discharge his duties. 4. In the unbroken harmony always, as yet, preserved in all its departments. 5. In the wonderful success of its Sunday-school arrangements. 6. In the number and character of its communicants. 7. In its influence on the general interests of the Episcopal Church and the cause of reli- gion." Under these heads he traced the growth and prosperity of the church, and how great things God had done for it.
He was not long permitted thus to labor.
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His health could not bear the constant strain and tension which the duties, pulpit and paro- chial, of such a parish demanded of him. He threw his heart and mind into the work as a living sacrifice, and the altar soon smoked with the consuming offering.
In 1832, an assistant was provided for him, and temporary suspensions of duty were re- quired to revive his prostrate energies; but these offered only partial relief. He was obliged, during the latter part of his ministry, to sit during the delivery of his sermon, and often could only appear in church just as his services were required in the pulpit. Yet he still clung to hope, and still worked on, with occasional interruptions, until the first Sunday in July, 1834, when he entered for the last time this pulpit, and preached his last sermon as Christ's ambassador on earth.
Walking solemnly and thoughtfully along the verge of the grave, he felt that it became him ever to preach with his own nearness to eternity in view. The sermon which proved his last, however, is said to have been heard as well as given with the conviction that it was a dying testimony. "During the progress of
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the services, he lay on a sofa in the vestry, fanned by a friend, and panting for breath. He did not rise till the moment arrived for him to ascend the pulpit, and when he began, his utterance was so faint that it was difficult even for those who were near to hear him. His text was Proverbs 9: 12. "If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself; but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it." Gathering strength from his subject, he rose and rose, till his weakness was forgotten, and he seemed to stand triumphant above the reach of death, and speak out from the threshold of heaven, a last warning to those who had declined the calls of mercy, and turned away from Him that speaketh from heaven, "If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself; but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it."
" But he had not passed the gates of death. He sank down from his unearthly height, and unable to stand even during the doxology, he retired from this pulpit and from his people, to be there seen as an ambassador of the Saviour to sinners no more." He left Philadelphia the next day to make one more effort to strengthen his shattered frame. It was too late! Sinking
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slowly, but majestically, lustrous with faith and hope even to the horizon, the sun of his life went down without a cloud, on the 30th August, 1834,
The church edifice had been repaired and beautified during his absence, and its first open- ing in the fall was to receive the corpse of its Rector, and the weeping congregation, which clustered around his bier and bore him to his tomb. His body sleeps beside the church which is the monument of his zeal and fidelity, there to lie till the archangel's trump shall bid him rise and ascend to his crown and to his throne.
During his ministry in St. Andrew's, five hundred and twenty persons were added to the church, two hundred and seventy of whom were confirmed at this chancel. Of the com- mittee of fifteen appointed at a meeting of the friends of Mr. Bedell, in Masonic Hall, on the 20th May, 1822, to take the necessary mea- sures for obtaining subscriptions for building a church, only Cornelius Stevenson and George Hawkins are with us now. Of the first vestry of twelve, elected on the 3d March, 1823, con- sisting of Henry Kuhl, Dr. John Redman Coxe, James M. Brown, William Thackara, Samuel
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Keith, Robert A. Caldcleugh, Jonathan Patter- son, John Andrews, Cornelius Stevenson, Dr. George Jones, George Feinour, and Lawrence Brown; only Dr. Coxe, and Messrs. Patterson, Andrews, and Stevenson, are living.
Of the thirty-four communicants who first gathered around this chancel on the 5th Oc- tober, 1823, only three it is believed are now alive,-Louisa Claxton, Ann Dolby, and Mrs. Nicholas.
Of the three hundred and sixty communi- cants in the last published list of Dr. Bedell, only sixty-two are still connected with St. Andrew's.
Thus did these friends of the church arise and build and strengthen their hands for this good work, and thus has death and removals scattered the materials of this living temple. So will it always be on earth. The building of the visible church is ever rising, but is never completed. Course after course of living stones is laid, but stone by stone is removed, and the new material added, scarcely repairs the gaps in the wall, and ever presents an un- finished state. Only when God shall gather in all his elect, shall the fabric rise unimpair- ed, in full majesty, and only then shall the
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topstone be brought forth and laid by the great Master Builder of the Church, amidst the shoutings, "Grace, grace unto it !"
There have been ministers of greater intel- lectual breadth, of deeper religious experience, of wider comprehensiveness of plan, of more aggressive zeal, of loftier eloquence than Dr. Bedell, yet there has scarcely appeared in the Protestant Episcopal Church, a man so well proportioned in mind, so symmetrically con- structed as to all the real elements of a faithful and successful minister of Christ.
His mind was ballasted with sound learning and balanced by a true judgment. His imagi- nation, which had he cultivated it, would have made him a poet, was used as a handmaid in the dispensation of truth. His cultivated tastes were all servitors of the Gospel. His zeal was bridled by discretion, and his elo- quence, for which he was so justly famed, con- sisted not in the crashing thunder of sounding words; not in the lightning flashes of a scath- ing invective; not in the Niagara-like roar of a rushing tide of converging, chafing, impetu- ous, seething thought; but in the clear utter- ance, the lucid idea, the charming modulation of voice, the rhythmic harmony of his periods,
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the warm life-glow which his soul imparted to all his sentences, the kindling energy of a holy passion, the soul-elevating pathos of his mes- sage, and the conscious dignity that he stood here, not as a man merely, but as a minister of God; not to teach the philosophy of this world, but truth from heaven; not as one ame- nable to the creature, but to the Creator; not to please the fancy, but to save the lost ; not as a hireling for wages of filthy lucre, but as one whom the Holy Ghost had made an overseer, and for whose flock he must watch as one that is to give account.
When I consider the state of the Episcopal Church at the time he began his ministry here, the general apathy which, with but few exceptions, had settled down upon our commu- nion, the difficulties which beset his early efforts, the labors which he was permitted to perform by the pulpit and the press, and the influence which he exerted not in this city only but throughout the land, and not among our Church only but over other denominations of Christians, I am constrained to say, that to few under God is the Protestant Episcopal Church more indebted for its present pros-
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perity, vigor, and spirituality, than to Gregory Townsend Bedell.
For one year after his death the church was without a rector. The Rev. Dr. H. V. D. Johns, who had been elected to succeed Dr. Bedell, having declined the call, and the Rev. J. A. Clark, who was next invited, was not insti- tuted rector until the 23d of September, 1835. As a faithful and self-denying missionary in the then newly opened regions of Western New York, as a laborious and energetic as- sistant-rector of Christ's Church, New York, as the beloved and eminently successful rector of Grace Church, Providence, as the author of those admirable works, " The Pastor's Tes- timony," and "The Walk about Zion," Dr. C. was well known and highly esteemed. The people of Providence, among whom his labors had been very remarkably blessed, were un- willing to let him go: he was their first per- manently settled pastor; under him the church was thriving, and they almost rebelled against his decision to accept the call to St. Andrew's. There was much excitement, and even bitter- ness of feeling on the part of some, but God, who ruleth the raging of the sea, interposed
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by one of those inscrutable providences, which, in its effects, acted like the voice of Jesus to the troubled lake of Tiberias, for, just as he was entering the church to preach his farewell sermon, a messenger stopped him with the information that his infant daughter was dead. The sermon was of course postponed, the gathered congregation dispersed, the acrimo- nious thought and the dissatisfied word gave place to feelings of sympathy for the suffering man of God; and when, on the next Sunday, he delivered the parting discourse, all bitter- ness, and wrath, and clamor, and evil speak- ing, and malice, had been put away from the people. Death had solemnized their minds, and caused them to feel tenderly towards him whom God had now, for the fourth time, bereft of his children.
His reception here was cordial. He entered upon his work with a determination to know nothing among his people but Jesus Christ, and him crucified ; and such was the zeal with which he wrought, night and day, for the good of his flock, that in two years he broke down, and was forced, by the advice of three of our most reliable physicians, to intermit his labors
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for a year : the greater part of which he spent in travelling in the southern part of Europe. He came back better, but not well. He took up again his work, and toiled with a self- sacrificing earnestness, which soon brought him low ; yet he staggered on under a load of responsibility and duty, which he ought not to have borne : writing, when he should have been slumbering; working, when he should have been resting; preaching, when he should have been silent; shut up in the hot city, when he should have been climbing his native hills; and standing resolutely at the helm when, like his divine Master, he should have been " asleep, on a pillow, in the hinder part of the ship."
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