USA > Pennsylvania > Dauphin County > Harrisburg > Centennial memorial, English Presbyterian congregation, Harrisburg, Pa. > Part 16
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There were at my coming, in 1854, about one hundred and seventy members in the communion of the Church. Forty years have since passed and but twelve of that number now remain on the roll. A few others are still living and are in the fellowship of other churches, but the great majority have departed this life in the faith of Christ's holy name.
Of this fourth occupant of the pastorate the following facts may be stated: He was born at North East, Erie county, Pennsylvania, January 30, 1828. In 1850 he gradu- ated from Oberlin College, Ohio, and in May, 1854, from the Western Theological Seminary. In coming here he came back to the early home of his ancestry. Thomas Robinson, his ancestor of the sixth generation back, was among the
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first settlers of Donegal in the early part of the last century. Philip Robinson, son of Thomas, and his great great grand- father, was among the founders of Old Hanover Church, and resided on a farm at the mouth of Manada Gap. A fort, known as Robinson's Fort, and a place of refuge and of defence during the Indian wars about the middle of the last century, is mentioned in the Pennsylvania Archives .* Ilis eldest son, George Robinson, removed to the head of Sher- man's creek, Perry county, about 1754, and was one of the founders of the Old Centre Church, and one of its first ruling elders. Upon his farm also stood a fort, mentioned in the Pennsylvania Archives as George Robinson's Fort, into which the the inhabitants of the valley fled upon incursions of the Indians. He was also a captain in service during the times of the Revolution. My grandfather, Thomas Robin- son, the youngest son of George R., removed to Erie county in 1798, and was among the first settlers on the shores of Lake Erie. IIe, with a few others, founded the first Presby- terian Church in that region, and was one of the original bench of elders. I came here a child of the Covenant, through many generations, a lineal descendant of the first settlers of Scotch-Irish blood and Presbyterian faith. It is needless to say I found myself at home. My ancestry lay buried in several of the ancient church yards of this region.
As in the case of my predecessor, Dr. De Witt, the first year of my ministry was blessed and brightened by a gra- cious revival of religion. Several, who at that time made a profession of their faith in Christ, are still active and devoted
* It stood on Philip Robinson's farm.
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workers in the Church of Christ. The Young Men's Chris- tian Association, of this city, which has so long been an agency of blessing, was instituted in the Lecture Room of this Church on December 12, 1851, largely, I may claim, through my own urgency. It is my impression that it was the eighth association organized in the United States. His Honor, John W. Simonton, was chosen its first president, and a large proportion of its earliest officers and members belonged to this congregation. The Association should cele- brate its approaching semi-centenary.
After the destruction of the second church edifice by fire on the evening of March 30, 1858, the congregation met for Sabbath worship, for nearly two years, in Brant's Hall, on Market street. Several of the other churches of the city vied with each other in kind and pressing offers of their own church buildings for our religious services. The gra- cious and Christian letters received from them are still preserved. During that period the Sunday-school was held, until October 16, 1859, in the upper room of the court house. On that day it took possession of the new school- room on the corner of Market Square and Second streets. The entrance upon the new home for the school was made an occasion of great rejoicing. The week-day lecture ser- vice was held on Thursday, and, by the courtesy of the Reformed Church, was held in their lecture-room, on Chest- nut street, until Monday, October 17th, when the lecture- room of this church was dedicated to God, and has been in use until this day.
On the 18th of March, 1860, this Church was occupied for the first time, and was solemnly dedicated to the purposes
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THOMAS HASTINGS ROBINSON. 1854-1884. FROM PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AT THE AGE OF 64 YEARS.
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of divine worship. At both the morning and evening ser- vices the church was crowded, and many could not find an entrance. The sermons for the day were both preached by the eloquent Dr. Rosewell D. Hitchcock, of Union Theolog- ical Seminary. They were sermons of remarkable power and great beauty. In the afternoon the Communion of the Lord's Supper was celebrated. For over one-third of a century this room has been the Sabbath home of this con- gregation. It has lost none of its first attractiveness, and through all these years sacred and precious memories have been gathering in it that continue to enrich it. Here the festal joys of marriage have been witnessed. From this room the bodies of our beloved dead have been carried, and laid away until the morning of the resurrection. Here wondrous scenes of revival have gladdened the hearts of Christians. Here, too, during the long struggle to save the life of the nation, the people met, sometimes under depress- ing fears and great forebodings, sometimes in periods of intense excitement and sometimes for seasons of devout thanksgiving.
Ere the congregation entered upon its new religious home another event occurred that left a deep impression upon the church and molded its history. We became two bands. Quite a number of the Church, by the circumstances of birth and carly training, by their associations with churches of the region, and by their own hearty convictions, had, for years, preferred that section of the Presbyterian Church known as the Old School. It was determined to organize a new Church in connection with the Presbytery of Carlisle and the Old School General Assembly. Letters of dismis-
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sion were granted to all who asked for them, and the present Pine Street Church was constituted. The withdrawal re- duced the Church to about one hundred and fifty members , the smallest number for many years. Painful as was the breaking up of many cherished associations, the departing of beloved friends and the rending of family ties, time and the gentle influences of divine grace have been busy healing the pains of separation, and the growth of two large and strong congregations, the enlarged activities of Christians in both Churches, and the rapid and substantial growth of Christ's kingdom in the city have demonstrated that the loving heart and hand of God molded the events of that hour to his own glory. As we look back upon the events of that time, at the close of these thirty-five years of Christian labors and victories and progress, the griefs and fears of the time pass away, and, exulting with the Apostle, we cry: "ITerein we do rejoice and will rejoice." With larger hearts and clearer vision we recognize to-day the unseen hand that then guided us, that guides us now, and evermore will guide us to his own blessed ends.
At my coming to the city in 1854 the population was about ten thousand. It is not far from forty-five thousand now. Its churches numbered about twelve. They have increased to over fifty. There was but a single Presbyterian Church with a membership of about one hundred and seventy. The Presbyterian Church was failing to keep pace with the growth of the city. Its Sunday-school num- bered two hundred and forty. The contributions of the Church, both for its own support and for benevolent causes, were less than twenty-five hundred dollars. Of this amount
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one thousand dollars were paid to meet the salaries of the two pastors, that amount being divided between them. There was no parsonage, and the pastors paid their own house rent. They were in no danger of growing rich upon their salaries.
According to the report made to the General Assembly of 1893 in May last, the Presbyterian Churches of the city now number six, with two large and flourishing missions and a prosperous growing Church just beyond the city limits. The number of Church members has increased from one hundred and seventy to two thousand and fifty-one. The growth of the city has been four and one-half fold, of the Presbyterian Church membership over twelve fold. The number in the Sunday-school has increased from two hundred and forty to four thousand eight hundred and and eleven, or twenty fold. The contributions of the Churches have increased from twenty-five hundred dollars for all objects, to sixty-five thousand, six hundred and ninety-six dollars during the last church year, or over twenty-two fold. Of this amount thirty-one thousand, five hundred and sixty-four dollars were given directly to benevolent objects, and thirty-four thousand, one hundred and thirty-one dollars were given to congregational expenses. These figures show how under the fostering care and smile of God these Churches have waxed in num- bers and strength.
This Church alone has grown from a Church membership of one hundred and seventy to seven hundred and seventy- six, and from a Sunday-school of two hundred and forty inembers to one of seventeen hundred and eighty-nine, and
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from a contribution for all causes, its own home work and the work of general benevolence, from twenty-five hundred dollars per year to over twenty thousand. During the last forty years, the years through which statistics have been in some good measure, though not fully, preserved, the con- tributions of this church to all objects have been over half a million of dollars. Of this amount over one hundred thousand dollars have been given to Home and Foreign Missions. Large as these sums may seem to be, let it not for a moment be thought that they reach at all the height of our obligation to God and our fellow-men, or the height of our ability to give. No one has been made poorer by these gifts. The world has been enriched, and every liberal heart has grown in spiritual wealth. The benevolent causes to which these sums of money have been given are too many to be enumerated. In addition to those that are especially required by the General Church, there have been such as the following: The American Bible Society, The American Tract Society, The Sunday School Union, The Benevolent Society of Harrisburg, the Home for the Friend- less, the City Hospital and numerous other causes.
Another series of events that had a great influence upon this church cannot be omitted from this brief history. It affected its growth and influenced its piety. It occupied very largely for several years its thoughts and directed its actions. The Church feels to this day the molding power of those events.
The stupendous war of the Southern Rebellion, which for nearly five years evoked the Inghest energies of the nation, and that came to the door of every home, and laid its
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demands on every man, found this Church and congrega- tion prepared for sacrifices. For many years there had been an enlarging contest and struggle in the State and in the Church over the questions that lay at the heart of the great conflict. The fact cannot now be overlooked. I found the members of this Church agitated upon these questions when I came here in 1854, seven years before the dreadful war opened upon us. The entire New School Church with which this congregation was connected had for many years been greatly affected and was far more pronounced on the question of freedom for all men than the other branch of the Presbyterian Church. But a small proportion of the Presbyterians of the South, after the great division in 1838, cast in their lot with the New School Church, and these few, after the meeting of the Assembly in 1857, four years before the outbreak of the Rebellion in 1861, withdrew from the New School Church on account of its attitude on slavery and formed a separate ecclesiastical organization. . This Church was in hearty sympathy with the body to which it belonged in its love of the country and in its opposition to the system of human slavery. It did not, however, dream -few did in that day-how grave and terrible a conflict was before the nation. The loyalty of the people was put to the severest test and its faith in God was sorely tried. Its love to the country stood the test of self-denials such as the people had never thought themselves capable of making. There were many dark hours during that memorable strug- gle. In the darkest the people did not falter. Large and generous contributions to be reckoned by thousands of dollars were made to the Christian and Sanitary Commis-
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sions for the relief of the sick and the wounded soldiery. The women of the Church were indefatigable in their labors and boundless in their sympathies. They made garments and haversacks before the general government was ready to meet the demands; they opened the hospitalities of their homes to the coming and going soldiers; they visited, like angels of merey, the hospitals that were formed in the city for the sick and the wounded from the fields of battle. The junior pastor was permitted by the Church to leave his pul- pit and spend months in the service of the Christian Com- mission in Virginia and Tennessee. Our city was often like a camp. The sound of martial music, the beating of drums and the waving of flags, the steady tramp of armed men, singing their patriotic songs on our streets, the coming and going of regiments and of brigades, the long trains of huz- zahing armies passing through the city and crossing the river, with their faces away from their homes and turned to the seat of war, soldiers at our homes, at our meetings of prayer and in our Churches at Sabbath worship, the sight of Presidents and Professors of College, of Doctors of Divinity, of men high in the professions in the ranks, or as captains and as chaplains, and the sad trains filled with the sick and the wounded for our hospitals, or passing through to hospitals elsewhere, the strange, new sight of prisoners of war on our streets, these were some of the things that occu- pied our thoughts for nearly five long sad years of weari- ness and hope. And then, too, came the terrible strain as we waited for news from the battle-fields and seanned the lists of the killed and wounded to see if mayhap the names of any of our own beloved ones were there, the strain as we
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waited and wondered when the end would come and what the end would be, our hushed and solemn places of prayer, where we plead with God for our country ; our days of fast- ing and our days of thanksgiving, too; our bated breath as we spoke of some great disaster, a battle lost, a great general fallen, and our lifted hopes as the tide turned; they were strange, thrilling days of which the children of to-day can scarcely form a conception.
The pulpit of this Church felt under bonds to truth and to the country to do its part in those trying times. Patriotic sermons, " War Sermons," as they were then called, were preached from time to time. In days of depression that followed any disaster to our armies, when saddened and despondent hearts need to be keyed up to a larger, firmer trust in God, and a firmer hope for the final issue in righteousness, peace and a united country. And in days of hopefulness and exultation when the spirit of thanksgiving to God needed to be called out, this pulpit spoke with no uncertain tones and this Church responded with no uneer- tain and wavering fidelity to the nation's peril and need.
Added to our larger concern for the whole country this Church had its own precious personal investments in the war. About fifty men and youth belonging to the families of the congregation then, or but a little time before, served with the army of the Union. They filled positions from the private to the general. Some are to-day bearing their scars. Some fell on the field of battle. One of the Elders of the Church lost a noble son. Another had a son who was brevetted as captain for gallant services at the battle of Weldon Railroad, Virginia, and who in that engagement
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received a wound that gave him trouble until his early death in 1883. Others lie with the unknown heroes who fell on the field and were hurriedly buried with no stone to mark their resting-place. This Church had its share in the fears and the tears of that sad conflict. It felt to its inmost heart the savage shot that laid the great and calm leader of the nation low. And when the end came and the white wings of peace fluttered over the battle-fields of strife and blood, this Church joined in the universal gratefulness to God that war was over and rest had come. It had been very hard to carry on the work of God amid the unceasing excitements of those perilous years. It was hard to get back again to the quiet and calmness of our holy Gospel.
After the close of the war, the years passed quietly and rapidly along. In 1867 the venerated senior pastor, now ripe in years, was called to his reward. Negotiations had already begun to heal the division in the Presbyterian Church. The years of separation had been continually demonstrating the substantial unity of the two branches of the Church in doctrine and polity, and in all forms of christian work. They had been drawing towards each other. The common struggles and sufferings for the salvation of the country had warmed the hearts of the people towards each other. The spirit of union was in the air. Hopes were entertained that there might be a fusion of all the families of the Presbyterian genealogy. We became espe- cially interested in the re-union movement, because one of the conferences which greatly promoted it was held in this church during the session of the New School General Assembly in 1868. In fact it was in this Church and at
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that time that the report on the basis of re-union, as pre- sented by the joint committee of fifteen through its chairman Rev. William Adams, D. D., of New York, was adopted by a unanimous vote. It was the harbinger of the good time coming.
A number of the great leaders of the two Churches were here, and this room resounded to their eloquent and fraternal addresses. Twelve who have filled the chair of Moderator in the New School General Assembly or in the Re-united Assembly, were present, viz: Rev. Drs. William Adams, Samuel Hanson Cox, Thomas H. Skinner, Henry B. Smith, George L. Prentiss, Samuel W. Fisher, Laurens P. Hickok, George Duffield, Jonathan F. Stearns, Robert W. Patterson, Edward D. Morris and Henry A. Nelson. There were present also as Commissioners from the Old School General Assembly to confer on the subject of re-union, Rev. Drs. Charles C. Beatty, Richard H. Richardson, Villeroy D. Reed, and Chancellor Henry W. Green, Robert Carter and Henry Day. Addresses were made by all the represen- tatives of the other assembly. Telegrams of greeting and brotherly love were exchanged between the two Assemblies, and a common hour of prayer for one of the days of the week was appointed. The occasion was one long to be remembered. In the consummation of the union two years later, 1870, this Church most heartily rejoiced. It was brought again into closest and most happy relations with Churches from which it had been separated for a third of a century, and to their hearts and their homes the members of this Church once more welcomed the representatives of Presbyterianism in Cumberland Valley.
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Fourteen years of the fourth pastorate now followed each other in quick succession. The years passed quietly away. They were years of mingled sorrow and joy. Gladness and grief alternated with each other. The Church grew in strength. It multiplied its agencies of usefulness. It increased its charities. Sometimes it moved along gently in the ordinary channels of grace. The family, the Sunday-school, and the sanctuary, social prayers, pious lives, gospel preaching, works of charity among the poor were evidences of the living power of true religion. The silent dew falling unseen when men are asleep has its inission in hastening on the harvest as well as has the breaking cloud which fills the thirsty earth and chokes the stream and swells the river to a flood. There were times when God came in gracious power to His temple, when He crushed the clamors of worldliness and awakened large numbers in a simultaneous concern for their salvation. Glorious times they were. But as the Master looks down into his vineyard, He rejoices also in those quiet days when under the light and warmth of His smile the leaves are putting forth and the buds are swelling, when the flowers and fruits of grace are quietly coming to perfection.
Through those years we had our marriage joys. Chil- dren blessed our homes with their songs and laughter, sinners came into the kingdom of grace, and saints left us for the kingdom of glory. New faces greeted us, and the friendly faces of many years passed out of our sight. Lifelong warriors laid their armor by and younger soldiers stepped into the ranks and the winning cause swept on towards the final victory.
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The history of these years would be incomplete were we to omit from the record certain events that had a very great and marked influence upon the character of this Church and of Presbyterianism in the city. In the winter of 1875-1876 there occurred in the city a revival of religion of unusual power and extent, by which many hundreds were led to come out from the world and make a public confession of Christ. In the fall of 1875 it was very deeply felt that there was a pressing need for a quickening of religious life in all the Churches and an awakening of the whole city to the subject of salvation. An association of the evangelical clergy of the city discussed and prayed over the matter at its meetings. Several of the leading and most active Christian laymen were called into the confer- ences and it was decided to hold a series of union meetings of all the Churches. The union of Churches and minis- ters was very general. There was almost a complete break- ing down of all denominational lines and a fusion of sympathies and labors. A very happy state of fraternal feeling prevailed. The religious movement became general.
James W. Weir, the beloved Elder of this Church, at one of the conferences urged that the Rev. E. P. Han- mond, a widely-known Evangelist, should be secured. The great confidence felt in Mr. Weir by all the Churches led to an engagement for Mr. Hammond to come. Before he reached the city the daily meetings had become very large and very impressive. The Churches were awakened. The Pastors spoke with new power. The irreligious world began to question what it all meant. When the Evangelist
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came he found the Churches all united, earnest, praying, and assembling in large numbers.
Selecting this Church as the most central and one of the largest in the city, most of the services were held in it. At times the crowd in attendance was so large that the opera house was used. The services were held daily. Usually a service of prayer was held in the morning, and though it occurred during business hours, it was very largely attended. These morning meetings were greatly loved by the Christian people who attended them.
In the afternon, generally at the hour when the public schools closed for the day a service was held for children. Mr. Hammond has been called " the children's preacher." He throughly believes in the conversion of children, even of tender years, and makes it a prime matter in his evan- gelistic work, to instruct and interest the children and bring them to know and trust, and love Jesus Christ as their personal friend and saviour. He was very clear and simple and graphic in his addresses to them and wielded a great and good influence upon them.
The evening services of the revival were the times of greatest public interest. Night after night for weeks this house was filled to overflow. Often many stood during the entire service and many were compelled to go away as a place to stand could not be had. At times the lecture room was also opened and another meeting for prayer was carried on at the same time.
The people came from all parts of the city and from all classes, the professions and the laboring men, the rich and the poor. They came in from the surrounding country.
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They came on the railways from five to sixty miles. The evangelist seldom preached less than an hour, and spoke with great earnestness. He was at times dramatic in man- ner. ITis sermons were full of the Gospel, presented, argued, illustrated, enforced in every way to carry light and con- viction and persuasion to the minds and hearts and wills of his hearers. He was thoroughly orthodox. The common people heard him gladly. The working classes from our rolling mills and manufactories and shops of every kind, after the day's work, would hasten to the service. The poor, the uneducated, were always ready to hear him. Some of the rich and fashionable and refined were not at home in the meetings. Religion was getting too common for them, too low, too obtrusive, too exciting. They could not com- prehend nor endure the sorrows and tears of the penitent, nor the joys and happiness of the reconciled who had found their Saviour. At the close of the sermon all who desired to remain for conversation and inquiry upon the way of sal- vation were invited to do so .. Often the entire audience would abide in their places, and the evangelist, with a large body of workers, the ministers present and earnest Christian laymen would pass through the house from pew to pew and seek to have a few words of personal appeal with those who had not come out on the Lord's side. Friends sought their impenitent friends, Sunday-school teachers sought their pupils, workmen sought their fellow-workmen. The
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