USA > Pennsylvania > Dauphin County > Harrisburg > Centennial memorial, English Presbyterian congregation, Harrisburg, Pa. > Part 23
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William Radcliffe De Witt, the sixth son of John De Witt, was born at Pandling's Manor, Duchess county, New York, on the 25th of February, 1792. He was named after his unele, the Hon. William Radeliffe, of Rhinebeck, Duchess county. The family of the Rad- cliffes, to which the mother of Dr. De Witt belonged, were distin- guished in civil life ; one of them, Jacob Radeliffe, serving for several years as a Judge of the Supreme Court of the State of New York ;
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another, Peter Radcliffe, an eminent lawyer of the New York bar, and a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Kings county : and a third, William Radcliffe, for many years United States Consul at ·Demarara.
At the early age of ten years, he was deprived, by her death, of the counsel and love of a mother. After spending several of his earlier years in school, and receiving a common English education, William R. was employed as a clerk, first in his father's store in the city of Albany, New York, afterwards with his brother Cornelius, in Fairfield, Herkimer county, and later still in the store of his father and brother at Newburg, New York. At about the age of fifteen he entered into the employ of Cairns & Lord, dry goods merchants, of the city of New York, and continued with them until the year 1811. Whilst residing with them, and in their store, his mind became much exercised on the subject of his own personal salvation ; and on Jan- uary 8, 1810, he made a public profession of religion, connecting him- self with the Presbyterian Church in Cedar street, then under the pastoral care of Rev. John B. Romeyn, D. D. Shortly afterward his attention was turned to the subject of the sacred ministry. and his own duty in respect to it.
After careful consideration and prayer over the matter, Mr. De Witt felt called of God to relinquish all worldly ends, and prepare for the responsible office; and in 1811, then in his nineteenth year, he left New York and went to reside with Rev. Alexander Proudfit, of Salem, Washington county, New York, and entering Washington Academy, began a course of classical studies under the tuition of Mr. Stevenson, the principal of the school.
While still a student at Washington Academy, the second war with Great Britain broke out, and leaving his studies, young De Witt en- listed as a volunteer in the regiment. of Colonel Rice, that was called out to resist the invasion of the British at Plattsburg, and was on lake Champlain at the time of MeDonough's victory, September 11, 1814, when the whole British fleet became the trophies of American valor. After the close of the war, sometime in the year 1815. he en- tered Nassau Hall, Princeton, New Jersey, as a Sophomore, and re- mained there until his senior year, when because of an interruption in his studies of the college. he withdrew and entered the senior class of Union College, Schenectday, N. Y.
Leaving Union College before the close of the senior year, Mr. De Witt returned to New York, and entered the Theological Seminary of the Associate Reformed Church. While in this Seminary Mr De Witt connected himself with the Presbytery of New York and was licensed by that body on April 23, 1818. The summer months of
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1818 were spent in preaching in the State of New York, but early in the fall of that year, having received from a friend an invitation to visit Harrisburg, he came hither and spent two weeks, preaching to the people several times. The result was that a unanimous.call to become Pastor was given him on October 5, 1818. The call was accepted and soon after he came on and commenced his ministry. Uniting with the Presbytery of Carlisle, at the earliest opportunity he passed the usual examinations required for ordination, and on the 26th of October, 1819. he was ordained to the office of the sacred ministry in the First Presbyterian church of Carlisle, and on Novem- ber 12th, 1819, he was installed as Pastor of this Church, having already served in the pulpit over one year.
The main events in the History of the Church during the pastorate of Dr. De Witt are rehearsed elsewhere and need not be alluded to in this personal sketch. Dr. De Witt was twice married. His first wife, whom he married on June 22, 1819, was Julia Anna Woodhull, daughter of Rev. Nathan Woodhull, Long Island. This happy rela- tion was sadly broken, within three years, by the, death of Mrs. De Wini. May 1, 1822. Memories of her long lingered in the congrega- tion as a woman of great personal beauty and attractiveness, of refined and winning manners, accomplished mind and unaffected piety of heart and life. On March 15, 1825, he married Mary Elizabeth Wal- lace. daughter of William and Eleanor Maclay Wallace, of Harris- burg. This union, by the kind providence of God, was continued until severed by his own death, a period of nearly forty years.
Dr. De Witt received the degree of A. M. in course from Union College, and on July 13, 1538, he was honored by the University of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia, with the the title of Doctor of Divin- ity.
He was called by the Church courts of his own denomination to serve as Moderator and to discharge high and responsible duties. lle was a member of several of the General Assemblies of the Church.
With the originators and leading men in that earliest and greatest of American agencies for evangelizing the world, "The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions," he maintained a life long friendship and hearty co-operation, having been chosen a cor- porate member of the society in 1838, and in 1842 receiving the honor of an appointment to preach before the Board the annual sermon.
In the closing years of his life, when the burdens of the pastorate became heavy and he sought the aid of a colleague, he accepted the office of State Librarian that was pressed upon him by the Governor of the Commonwealth, and discharged its duties with great faithful- ness through two terms, a period of six years.
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Dr. De Witt was a facile and elegant writer, but was disinclined to publish his writings. The following list comprises all that are known of his private discourses : 1. A Discourse in behalf of the Coloniza- tion Society ; 2. A Sermon on the Death of Adams and Jefferson ; 3. On the Evils of Intemperance ; 4. An Address on the Death of Gov. F. R. Shunk : 6. A Pastoral Letter to the Churches under the care of the Presbytery of Harrisburg ; 6. A small vohune entitled, " Her Price above Rubies ;" 7. The Sermon before the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions ; 8. An Address at the Dedica- tion of the Harrisburg Cometery : 9. A Sermon on the Death of Rev. Dr. Moody ; 10, 11. 12. Three synodical sermons. entitled. " Min- isterial Responsibility," "Prayer for Zion " and " The Church that Christ Loved ;"> 18. A Sermon when Seventy Years of Age.
The ties that bound him to this Church. the Church of his early and his life-long love, the only one among all the Churches of America that he had ever called his own, and for whose sake he had refused repeated calls and solicitations to settle elsewhere, seemed only to grow stronger as the burden of years divorced him from active labors in its behalf.
Here he had buried their dead and his own. To them he had given the dew of his youth, the strength of his manhood, the care and counsel of his ripest years. It was natural and reasonable that, after so long a pastorate, he should desire to live and die among the people to whom he had, for nearly half a century, preached the unsearch- able riches of Christ ; and that the bond between him and them, of pastor and people, should be broken only on the edge of the grave. It was a wish often expressed. The wish was gratified : for while he yielded to his colleague the active daties and pastoral care of the Church, he retained, to the moment of his death, his relation to the Church as its senior pastor. His official labors were now nearly ar- complished. So long as he was able to go out at all, even when the increasing infirmities of years weighed heavily upon him. he attended the house of God, at the Sabbath service and the social meetings of the Church, taking his accustomed seat in the pulpit. His last public address was in behalf of the female prayer meeting of the Church. which, during the whole of his long ministry, had been regularly maintained, and had proved a most faithful ally to his labors. He spoke with great tenderness of its past history, and urged upon all the female members of the Church an attendance at its weekly gath- erings. His last official duty is believed to have been the examina- tion of a young candidate for the ministry. Sitting up in his bed, he faithfully and kindly, drew from the young man an account of his re- ligious experience, of his views of the ministry. his call to the work,
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and purpose in entering upon it : and, with the experience of half a century before him, uttered his words of counsel and encouragement, and pronounced his benediction upon the youthful worker.
The elements of personal character and of personal power over others, very seldom proceed from the pre-eminence of one distinguish- ing trait ; but usually from the combination of many qualities, physi- cal, mental and moral. There was no one element in the character of Dr. De Witt that would instantly and universally be pointed out, as the source of his influence, or the characteristic of his life. There was rather a balance of qualities and elements in him that preserved him from all idiosyneracies.
There was weight in his personal presence. There was that in his ap- perance and bearing, when in his prime. or in his vigor of full health. that inspired respect and indicated power. His person was of full size, and good proportions, in early and middle life, and was the ex- pression of manly vigor and dignity. Those who remember him as he entered upon his ministry here, speak of his handsome and im- posing presence, his noble carriage, his finely developed frame, and glowing, manly countenance. And, at the latest years of his life,. when his step was enfeebled and slow, and the body began to bend, his patriarchal aspect, as the whitened locks gathered like a crown of glory on his head, the calmness and gravity of a face so slightly altered by age, secured for him an involuntary homage and defer- enee.
He was a man warmly social and genial in his temperament. His home life was filled with true and tender affections ; and they who have often met him in society. know that there were few who could better enliven and entertain than De. De Witt. He was a ready and fluent talker, a man of quick impulses and generous feelings, of ready wit, apt at repartee ; and when he opened his fund of reminiscences of earlier times and men, all were ready to listen. In the meetings of the Presbytery and Pastoral Association of this city, his presence was ever welcomed as that of a friend of peace, a genial spirit, a pattern of gentleness and forbearance. And in his own congregation, though often deeply depressed and despondent over his labors. there was never a substantial sorrow to which he did not give his presence, or a grief that lacked his sympathy.
Dr. Dewitt was a man of self-depreciative and modest nature. With a keen and high sense of his calling as a minister of the Gospel, and an honest desire to preach the Gospel worthily and powerfully, he seldom left the pulpit without a sense of failure and personal nn- fitness, wholly unwarranted by the character of his preaching, either in the matter, or the manner of its delivery. There was no self-glory in his nature.
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Dr. Dewitt was a man of unquestioned power as a preacher. His posi- tion at this center of influence, the capital of the State, gave him un- common opportunities of reaching many men of intellectual standing and of great influence from all parts of the State. He was a man of fine scholarship. He possessed a voice of great sweetness, clearness of tone and power. As a reader of the Holy Scriptures very few ex- celled him. In his early ministry, his preaching is said to have been peculiarly bold and eloquent in manner ; and by the added novelty, beauty and pungency of his thoughts, stirred to the depths the ele- ments of society. His discourses were written with great clearness and purity of style. Many of his sermons, in their matter. form, and in their delivery, were models of pulpit eloquence. He was impres- sive, dignified and graceful. . Other men have excelled him in versa- tility of talent ; but it has fallen to the lot of few men to mould edu- cational. moral and religious influences in so wide a sphere and through so many years. The end at which he aimed was the turning of men to God and the training of religious life of his people : and his chief instrumentality was the studious and careful preparation and the impressive delivery of good sermons.
He was eminently a Christian preacher. Converted in his early youth ; brought under the influence of men whose praise was in the American Churches for their zeal, and piety, and deep devotion to the cause of Christ ; drawn by his own youthful ardor into the min- istry, the preaching of the Gospel was a work of love. And to his vision all truth arranged itself around one center -- the cross of the world's Redeemer. From that center he seldom strayed ; seeking to obey the maxim of an old divine, to have enough of Christ in every discourse to point the way of approach to Him to any inquiring soul. Ite was decidedly evangelical and scriptural. He cared little for human speculations, dealt sparingly in what may be called the phil- osophy of Christianity ; but taking the tenths of the Divine Word as they are revealed ; the lost, ruined, helpless condition of man as a sinner; the provision which God has made for his recovery in a vicarious atonement ; the contrasts of law and grace : the character and completeness of that righteousness of Jesus Christ which is "imputed imto us and received by faith alone ;" the regenerating and sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit; the divine nature and kingly authority of Jesus Christ : the relation of his atoning blood to all promises of good, all growth in Christian life, and all hopes of heaven ; as well as to all threatenings of evil, and the condemnation of the guilty ; in the region of these and their related truths, that bring the great facts and principles of the Gospel before the mind, Dr. DeWitt was a preacher of great power. Clearness, precision,
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force, characterized his demonstrations ; fullness, fervor and pathos marked his appeals. Perceiving the glory and feeling the precious- ness of the truth himself, he exhausted his powers to secure a like impression on the mind and heart of his hearers.
A Presbyterian by birth, education and preference, firm and de- cided in his theological views, in all the habits of his thoughts, con- servative and jealous of the new and untried, he was yet liberal and catholic in spirit. Never wavering in his preferences for, and ad- herence to the church to which he was attached, there was yet no spirit of exclusiveness in him, that claimed for his denomination all truth and goodness. During a ministry of nearly fifty years in this city, he enjoyed the confidence of all his ministerial brethren. He was ready to assist them in every good work, and seldom, in public prayer, omitted to call down the blessing of God upon them and their churches. Toward all who loved the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and truth, he preserved a true affection, and upon them all besought the grace, merey and peace of God.
Dr. De Witt came here in his youth, but with a mind admirably trained for the work that was before him. For thirty-six years he stood in the pulpit of this church sole pastor. He was the teacher and guide of the people. He quietly planted the seeds of divine truth ; he worked about the roots of character. He infused his own con- ceptions of saving doctrine into the minds of two generations. He was the regular visitant upon multiplying families. He baptized the children, guarded inquirers, and welcomed hundreds to the table of communion. He linked his life with hundreds of other lives in beneficent influence, and buried sadly from his sight the generation that welcomed his coming.
During the last years of his life he preached but seldom, having relinguished to his colleague the care of the church, but he continued still to illustrate the beauties of Christian character and the power of the Gospel he had so long proclaimed. His mental power remained unimpaired. His thought of the coming world became softened and subdued by the light that was breaking upon him from the heavenly world. He spoke of his departure with calmness, yet with tenderness of feeling. His earthly cares were dismissed and he waited the sum- mons of departure. It came as he had long desired-suddenly, and without pain and helplessness. In a moment " the golden bowl was broken," and he was gone from earthly intercourse to renew in an- other world the severed bonds of love and fellowship, and to greet the redeemed and holy ones who from the communion of this church had preceded him to glory.
It would be njust to the memory of one who impressed her life
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very deeply upon the lives of many in the church not to mention briefly Mrs. Mary E. DeWitt, who for so many years seconded the labors of her husband by her own.
Mary Elizabeth Wallace, wife of William R. DeWitt, D. D:, was the daughter of William Wallace and Eleanor Maclay. She was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, May 7, 1807, whither her father had re- moved from Harrisburg after his marriage. She was the first born of the household. The family returned to Harrisburg in 1810. Mrs. De Witt was closely connected with prominent families in the town. John Harris, the founder of the town was her great-grandfather. William Maclay, the first Senator from Pennsylvania in the United States Senate, was her grandfather. Her father established the Harrisburg Bank and was its first President. A large part of her early life was spent in the Maclay house, now the Harrisburg Acad- emy property and the residence of Professor Jacob F. Seiler. Her father died when she was but nine years of age, in 1816. He then resided on the southeast corner of Second street and Cherry alley. After his death the family occupied the Maclay house until the death of Mrs. Wallace, in 1823. The marriage of Mary E. Maclay and Rev. W. R. De Witt took place in 1825, while she was residing with her great-mele. Robert Harris, in the ancient Harris house on Front street, in later days the residence of the Honorable Simon Cameron.
One of her brothers, Rev. Benjamin J. Wallace, rose to eminence in the Presbyterian Church as preacher and writer, and as editor for years of " The Presbyterian Review." He died at an early age.
Mrs. De Witt married at the age of eighteen, but her mind was already matured and peculiarly bright and strong. She entered at once and very hertily into the work of the church and until her death, fifty-six years later she was an honored and wise leader. For forty-two years in the ministry of her husband she was permitted to stand by his side, in the home, in society and in the church, and everywhere helpful and beloved. She was a woman of rare powers of mind, of wide information and admirable judgment. Her home acknowledged her beneficent sway. Society was charmed by her con- versational powers, her taet, her winning courtesy and intelligence In the church she was at the head of the religious and benevolent work undertaken by the women of the congregation. For about fifty years she was a faithful and mneonuonly able teacher in the Sunday- school of the church. The female prayer-meeting of the church, established in her childhood, received her hearty co-operation and regular attendance for more than half a century. Those who were favored in hearing her voice in these meetings testify to her remark- able power in prayer. Few laymen in the church equalled her in
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power of expression, range of thought and fluency, joined to spiritual fervor and tenderness. She was surrounded through life by those who trusted, admired and loved her. She was calm in temperament, hopeful in spirit, broad in her charity and judicious in her utter- ances. Few have evinced so high, so tenacious and so courageous faith. Kind and liberal in her feelings and words toward all, she lived and died without enemies. Though suffering severely in her last days from physical pain, she retained all her faculties of mind unimpaired. Her trust in God, her composure of spirit and her love towards others never failed her. Death found her peaceful and serene and could not disturb her repose in God. A very precious memory survives her in the city and in the church where the greater part of her life was spent.
REV. THOMAS HASTINGS ROBINSON, D. D. Pastor 1854-1884.
BY THE EDITOR.
Thomas Hastings Robinson, son of William Andrew Robinson and Naney Cochrane was born January 30, 1828, in the township of North East. Erie county. Pennsylvania. His ancestors were Scotch-Irish, those on the father's side having come to this country about 1780 and settled in Lancaster (now Dauphin county. Pennsylvania), near the Susquehanna, and those on the mother's side coming in 1802 and settling in Ripley, Chautauqua county, N. Y. Both families were from the region of Belfast, Treland, and were from time to time humemorial Presbyterians in religious faith. Mr. Robinson received his early education in the common school, and in an academy at Ripley, N. Y. Subsequently he entered Oberlin College, Oberlin, O., 1846, and graduated from it in 1850. The vacations during his college course were spent in teaching, and for over a year after gradu- ation he was engaged in teaching a classical and English Academy at Ashtabula, O., and a normal school at Farrington, O.
Having made a public confession of Christ during his college course, he determined to devote his life to the gospel ministry. In the winter of 1851-1852 he entered the Western Theological Semin- ary, Allegheny, and completed its three year's course in May, 1854. He mited with the Presbytery of Ohio, since divided into the Pres-
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byteries of Pittsburg and Allegheny, June 15th, 1854, and on the same day after an examination in his college and theological studies, was licensed to preach the gospel. His first sermon as a licentiate was delivered on Jnne 20, 1854, in the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburg, of which he was a member.
Upon the last Sabbath in June, the 27th, 1854, and the first Sabbath in July, 1354, and on the Wednesday evening intervening he preached by invitation in the English Presbyterian congregation of Harris- burg, and on July 5th he was unanimously called to be colleague pastor of the church with Rev. William R. DeWitt, D. D. The call was accepted, and he came to Harrisburg early in the following October and took np the duties of his office.
On October 17th he was received as a licentiate into the Presbytery of Harrisburg, and on January 21st, 1855, he was ordained and in- stalled as co-pastor over this church. For the first ten years of the co-pastorate Dr. De Witt continued to preach occasionally. In 1864 he resigned all the active duties of the pastorate, and now Mr. Robinson continued to serve as pastor until the relationship was dis- solved by the Presbytery of Carlisle, to take effect on the first Sab- bath of June, 1884. He continued to fill the pulpit until the last Sabbath in June, the thirtieth anniversary of his first sermon to the congregation, when he preached his farewell discourse.
In November, 1883, he was called by the directors of the West- ern Theological Seminary to the Re-Union Professorship of Sacred Rhetorie, Church Government and Pastoral Theology. After several months of consideration he accepted the call, but was unable to enter upon the duties of the Seminary until January. 185. This position he still holds.
His residence at Harrisburg for thirty years called him to many duties outside those of his pastorate. He was for many years a trustee of the Harrisburg Academy and of Wilson Female College at Cham- bersburg, from 1875 to 1887, a trustee of Princeton College : from 1875 to 1884 a director of the Western Theological Seminary, and for some years past has been a trustee of Washington and Jefferson Col- lege and of Pennsylvania Female College.
He was the moderator of the Synod of Pennsylvania (N. S.) in 1801, and at the reunion of the churches in 1870 was made the stated clerk of the Synod of Harrisburg, and held the office until the consolida- tion of the four Synods in Pennsylvania into the single Synod of Pennsylvania, when he was chosen to the same office in that body, and continued in it until he entered upon the duties of his professor- ship, when he resigned, having held the office fourteen years.
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