USA > Pennsylvania > Huntingdon County > Huntingdon > History of the Presbytery of Huntingdon > Part 20
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The following overture was presented by the Rev. D. H. BARRON, viz:
" Is it Presbyterial for a session to hold stated meetings, and is it the duty of all the members of that session to attend every meeting, if not pro- videntially hindered ?" .
It was answered in the affirmative. This overture was probably suggested by a reference from the session of Lower Tuscarora Church of the case of two elders, who declined attending the monthly stated meetings of the session, as recently practised in that congregation. The following paper was offered by Dr. GIBSON, and made the order of the day for consideration after public worship in the evening of the day on which it was offered, and then adopted, viz:
"WHEREAS, The Board of Publication of our church having been largely engaged in distributing religious books and tracts gratuitously among the soldiers and sailors of the Union army and navy, and the funds for this
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purpose in the hands of the Board being now exhausted : Therefore, the Presbytery earnestly recommend to all the congregations within our bounds, and especially the wealthy in the congregations, to contribute to this fund and thus enable the Board to continue in this good work, and even if possible to enlarge their operations."
. In connection with the passing of this paper, inquiry was made as to contributions to the various Boards of the Church, when, on mo- tion, the following paper was unanimously adopted, viz :
" The subject of benevolence being under consideration, and upon inquiry it appearing that a number of churches have not yet adopted the recom- mendation of the Assembly to take up annual contributions for all the Boards of the Church ; it was
Resolved, That all the ministers be directed to bring this matter before their respective charges, and that the vacant churches not represented in this meeting be addressed by letter, calling their urgent attention to the subject, to report at the next stated meeting of the Presbytery."
Near the closing of the session of the Presbytery held at Pine Grove, October 8, 1863, the following paper was adopted on the state of the country :
"WHEREAS, This Presbytery has never expressed in any formal manner its attachment to the Union, and its sympathy with the country in the con- flict of loyalty with an uncaused and wicked rebellion, supposing that the action of our General Assembly-the highest court of our church-was sufficient evidence of our loyalty, as for all this action our commissioners have always voted. But least hereafter it should be supposed from the absence of any Presbyterial action on this subject, that we as a Presbytery were indifferent to the cause of the country, and of doubtful loyalty, there- fore, we deem it proper to adopt the following resolutions :
1st. Resolved, That we are unalterably attached to the Union, and instead of having sympathy with those in rebellion against the Government, we unhesitantly condemn and denounce the rebellion as wicked and uncaused.
2d. Resolved, That we approve of the Government putting down the rebellion.
3d. Resolved, That we nevertheless will hail the return of peace on just and honorable terms, securing the unity of all the States, and promising permanent security against a similar rebellion in all time to come."
Mr. ANDREW PARKER, a member of the church of Mifflintown, was taken under the care of Presbytery as a candidate for the ministry, and recommended to the Board of Education for aid.
The Presbytery held its Spring sessions in Bellefonte, commencing April 12, 1864.
The history of the Presbytery during this year, is only a record of the several changes which occurred in pastoral relations, and the
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addition of new names to the roll of Presbytery, with other ordinary business. Mr. WILLIAM E. IJAMS was received under the care of Pres- bytery as a candidate for the Gospel ministry, after the usual exami- nations. He was introduced to the Presbytery by Rev. O. O. McCLEAN, under whose superintendence he had studied theology heretofore. His literary and scientific education had been received with a view to another profession. At the adjourned meeting in June following, he was licensed to preach the Gospel; also at the same time Mr. J. E. KEARNS was licensed.
The Rev. S. T. LOWRIE was dismissed to the Presbytery of Alle- ghany city. The Rev. R. M. WALLACE was received from the Presby- tery of Redstone, a call put into his hands from the Church of Altoona, over which he was installed on the 6th of May following.
Mr. WASHINGTON O. WRIGHT, a licentiate of the Presbytery of New Castle, was after examination taken under the care of Presbytery. Mr. W. having been called to the pastoral charge of the congregations of Philipsburg and Morris, was ordained and installed pastor of the first named Church on the 13th of June, and on the next day of the Church of Morris by a committee of Presbytery.
The death of the Rev. G. W. THOMPSON, D. D., late pastor of Lower Tuscarora church, being announced, a committee consisting of Rev. O. O. McCLEAN, Rev. J. W. WHITE and Rev. D. STERRETT were appointed to prepare an obituary of Dr. THOMPSON for the Book of Presbytery, kept for this purpose; but for the present the following minute was made in reference to this sad event.
" Inasmuch as it has pleased God, in the exercise of his infinite wisdom and goodness, to remove from earth, since the last meeting of Presbytery, the Rev. G. W. THOMPSON, D. D., who was yet in the strength of his man- hood, and the midst of his usefulnees ; therefore,
Resolved, That we, as a Presbytery, mourn his death as the loss of an in- strument owned of God in turning many to righteousness-an able and faithful preacher of the word-an honored member of our Presbytery, and a brother beloved. We recognize the hand of God in this unexpected event, and bow in humble submission to his will. While we sorrow that we shall see his face no more, we sorrow not as those that have no hope. We also feel stimulated by this solemn event to be more zealous and active in the Master's service, that we may finish our course with joy, and be ever ready to exchange the labors and trials of earth for the rest and enjoy- ment of Heaven."
The Rev. JOHN MOORE, pastor of the church of Williamsburg, signi- fied his purpose to resign the charge; and the congregation being noti-
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fied and consenting, at the adjourned meeting in June his relation was dissolved, and, at his request, he was dismissed to the Contral Presbytery of Philadelphia. Mr. MOORE, having made arrangements to take charge of a female seminary in Mantua Village, West Phila- delphia, the following paper offered by Dr. GIBSON was adopted :
" Resolved, That Presbytery have confidence in the ability of the Rev. JOHN MOORE to teach and conduct such a school as that of which he is about to take charge, and commend his female seminary to the patronage of those who have daughters to educate."
The Rev. WM. A. HOOPER's pastoral relation to the churches of Bir- mingham and Tyrone city, was also at this time dissolved. As the vacant churches of the Presbytery had got into the habit of asking leave to supply themselves with preaching, the Presbytery adopted the following resolution on the subject :
" Resolved, That the custom of churches asking leave to supply them- selves has been abused ; the original design of the privilege being to enable the churches to obtain pastors, or with the permission of Presbytery, stated supplies ; and that we cannot regard it as according to Presbyterian order that churches should make their own arrangements independent of Presby- teries ; and therefore this Presbytery would earnestly enjoin upon the churches under our care to return to the old paths."
It is not known that this resolution produced any perceptible effect. The churches continued to apply for leave, and the Presbytery was hardly ever known to refuse the privilege to this day. The Rev. Dr. KNox being present as the representative of the Board of Domestic Missions, and having addressed the Presbytery on the subject, the fol- lowing resolutions were adopted, viz :
" Resolved, That we hereby express anew our profound sense of the im- portance and obligation of this great scheme of benificence, as identified not only with the progress and influence of our own church, but also with the righteousnesss and glory of our land; believing that the Gospel is not only the salvation of the soul, but also the strength of the State.
Resolved, That we cordially approve of the plan of extended operations of the Board of Domestic Missions as clearly called for in the Providence of God, by the extraordinary circumstances of the times.
Resolved, That we will do what in us lies to increase our contributions to this cause for the coming year."
The Presbytery, at this time, re-affirmed the resolutious adopted October 8, 1863, in relation to the state of the country.
At the close of this stated meeting of the Presbytery, the venerable Dr. JAMES LINN, now in the 81st year of his age, after a few solemn
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and affecting words, stated that, in all probability, he had met with the Presbytery for the last time, and closed the sessions with prayer. It proved to be the last time, though Dr. LINN lived till the begin- ning of the year 1868, but through infirmities was unable to go from home to attend the after meetings of the Presbytery. Indeed it was at his special request that this meeting was held in Bellefonte, that he might be present. In addition to the items of business already noticed, as transacted at the adjourned meeting of this year, held in June at Philipsburg, a call was presented to Presbytery for the Rev. N. G. WHITE of Carlisle Presbytery, but having been made out before Mr. MOORE's pastoral relation to that church was dissolved, the call was returned to the congregation, with directions to hold another meeting of the congregation in accordance with the rules.
Mr. JAMES C. BOAL, a member of Spring Creek church, was at this time taken under the care of the Presbytery, as a candidate, and recommended to the Board for aid.
The Rev. G. W. VANARTSDALEN was permitted to resign the charge of Upper Tuscarora congregation. Mr. J. D. BEALE, a licentiate of the Presbytery, was called to Middle Tuscarora, and at an adjourned meeting, held on the 11th of August at East Waterford, in the bounds of the Middle Tuscarora congregation, he was ordained and installed.
The stated meeting of the Presbytery in October, 1864, was held in the church of Shirleysburg. The business of Presbytery was mostly of the ordinary routine. Mr. W. B. NOBLE, a member of the church of Yellow Creek, after due examination, was taken under care of Pres- bytery as a candidate for the ministry ; and the Rev. W. A. FLEMING* was received from the Presbytery of Peoria, and his name entered on the roll of members. The Rev. JOHN M. GALLOWAY, by letter, re- quested leave to resign the pastoral charge of the church of Clearfield town on account of ill health. The congregation concurring in the request, it was granted. The Rev. N. G. WHITE presented a certificate of dismission from the Presbytery of Carlisle, and was enrolled as a member of this Presbytery. The call from Williamsburg having been renewed in an orderly way, was put into his hands, accepted, and a committee appointed to install him on the seventh of November following.
The following standing rules in relation to students for the ministry, were adopted :
" 1st. It shall be the duty of each candidate to report to Presbytery an-
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nually, in person, for the purpose of undergoing such examination as the Presbytery may deem expedient.
2d. When any candidate may providentially be unable to appear before Presbytery, according to the foregoing rule, he shall, in lieu of personal at- tendance, transmit to the chairman of the Committee on Education a written communication, to satisfy Presbytery of his industry, punctuality, and progress as a student, and his good standing as a christian.
3d. It shall be the duty of the chairman of the Commtitee on Education to inform each candidate of the existence and nature of these rules.
4th. No candidate shall afterwards be recommended to the Board of Edu- cation for aid, who, after being informed of these rules, shall fail to conform to them."
At this time the Presbytery, recognizing how unseemly it was to have a number of ministers unemployed, and yet urging upon parents to consecrate their sons, and the youth to consecrate themselves to the work of the ministry, in view of wants of the world, appointed the "Rev. Messrs. LOWRIE, McCLEAN and ALLISON a committee to de- vise a plan by which ministers out of charges could be employed in preaching the Gospel."
The blame was not believed to lie at the door of the unemployed ministers, except in a very few exceptional cases. It was mainly sup- posed to exist from the want of appropriate means of bringing the unemployed ministers and vacant congregations together; but not only this, but also in the growing disposition in the churches only to settle a young minister just from the Seminary, or of but a few years experience in the ministry. It has become a sad and is still a growing *evil, and if some means be not devised to arrest the tendency, will do more than anything else in deterring young men of reflection from entering the ministry. Young ministers in time grow old, and as the fathers are being treated, and have been, so may they expect in their turn to be treated. It is a notorious fact, that after a minister has reached his forty-fifth, or his fiftieth year in age, in nine cases out of ten, he is considered as unsuitable to minister to most congrega- tions, though his eye be not dim, or his natural force abated. Con- trary to universal experience in all other professions, a novice is preferred to one of enlarged experience and attainments. Men and women will not trust the health of their bodies to the young and inexperienced physician, if they can help it, but souls seem to be less considered in the choice of a pastor. If it were not so serious a mat- ter, it would be a subject of ridicule, to hear old grey headed men and
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elders just tottering upon the brink of the grave, saying of a minister only just past middle age, " he is too old to preach to our congrega- tion !" The good elders, however, are just now having the tables turned upon themselves. What means this growing taste for rota- tion in the eldership? The elders are getting too old to serve their respective congregations. The Head of the Church did not think that age was an objection when he instituted the office, and called its occupants Presbuteroi. The very name implies that the elders shall be of experienced, established age. And every congregation in selecting their elders, will find it for the interests of peace and purity, to select that class of men. Brother ministers are also often to blame in hin- dering the settlement of unoccupied ministers. We do not know that many ministers are as inconsiderate as was one, who meeting an elder of a vacant congregation, asked "who supplied your pulpit last Sabbath ?" and when he was told, replied "why he is an old man ! You don't want an old man." At the same time the speaker was at least ten years older than the brother of whom he spoke, and the congregation thus advised has had at least two of the class of young ministers since, and that old minister has been serving another congregation with acceptance, and as vigorously as in his younger days, and far more wisely. Other reasons, no doubt, operate to this end; it is unnecessary to mention them, as they may occur to the reader's mind. In view of a circular issued by the Board of Foreign Missions about this time, the following resolutions were offered by Dr. CLARKE, and unanimously adopted, viz :
" WHEREAS, our Board of Foreign Missions in a recent circular to our churches, has given us the mournful intimation, that in consequence of the great difference in exchange the missionary operations are threatened with serious embarrassment, if not disaster, to the extent of recalling some of our missionaries, and abandoning important and promising fields, unless relieved by immediate and enlarged contributions ; therefore,
Resolved, 1st. That we earnestly invite our people to increase their gifts to this precious cause, that the eminent peril to its interests may with the Divine favor be averted, and the good work carried successfully forward.
2d. Relying on the guidance and blessing of the Master, we pledge ourselves to prompt and earnest efforts to give such a response to the urgent call of our excellent Board as will attest our sympathies in its trials, and afford as far as we can do it the required succor."
We have no means now of ascertaining the result of this appeal, but by referring to the minutes of the General Assembly of the suc-
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ceeding year. By doing so it will be seen, that while some congrega- tions always were forward in this cause, this year the contributions were doubled, and in some congregations more than doubled, when compared with previous years. And this was during the years of the rebellion, when private resources were taxed continually in behalf of the soldiers in the field.
In connection with the subject of contributions to the Boards of the Church, and particularly the Board of Foreign Missions, it may be appropriate to give the report of the Committee on the state of reli- gion during these years of distraction. After a free conversation on the state of religion, the Committee on the narrative, compressed the whole into the following report, viz :
"The Committee on the state of religion in our bounds report, that while there are no indications of the special presence of the Spirit in the churches, refreshing God's people and gathering in sinners largely from the world, yet in general the state of religion in our congregations is gratify- ing and encouraging.
The ordinances have been regularly administered, the attendance on the means of grace is good ; Sabbath-Schools are flourishing, and a general prosperity visible. One gratifying feature is, that amid the political excite- ment of the day, the Churches have been preserved from distraction and are in peace. We gather also from the statements of the brethren, that in many of the churches, the contributions to religious objects has been con- siderably increased, and in a number of the charges, the pastor's salary has been increased."
After the adoption of the above report, a motion was made and carried unanimously, "that the elders and trustees of the churches connected with this Presbytery, which have not recently made any additions to their pastor's salary, be requested to have a meeting and inquire whether duty to the Church's Head, and to his ministers, does not require that there should be an addition to the salaries of their pastors, and that said elders and trustees report to Presbytery at the next stated meeting the result of their deliberations and action on this subject."
The expenses of living had greatly increased during and since the war. A salary which before might have been competent, was now insufficient, while the truth is, the larger number of salaries never were sufficient at any time. The necessity of a suggestion on the part of Presbytery arose from inconsideration on the part of congre- gations. Farmers, tradesmen, and merchants, could live as comforta-
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bly as before, for the price of labor, and all kinds of merchandise, had been greatly enhanced.
A committee appointed on Systematic Benevolence reported in substance, that all the churches be enjoined to take up annual collec- tions for all the Boards and the disabled minister's fund, that it be enjoined on the Sessions of all the churches to record on their minutes a resolution to this effect, and that the moderator request a pledge of each member of the Presbytery now present that he will see to it that this matter be attended to without delay. The Presby- tery had previously adopted the following resolution :
" That no church be recommended to the Board of Domestic Missions for aid, unless it take up collections annually for all the Boards."
Dr. O. O. McCLEAN offered the following resolution, which was adopted :
" Resolved, That those who have charge of Sabbath Schools be more careful in the selection of books, and that, as far as possible, the books be selected from those published by our own Board."
At a meeting of the Presbytery during the sessions of the Synod at Lewistown, October 21, 1864, Rev. Messrs. WILLIAM PRIDEAUX and JOHN H. CLARKE were received from the Presbytery of Carlisle. Mr. PRI- DEAUX was called to Little Valley, and Mr. CLARKE to Tyrone and Birmingham.
Suggestion having been made in Synod in regard to furnishing del- egates to the United States Christian Commission, a committee was appointed to report on the subject, and so to arrange matters that pastors who may feel free to volunteer in this service temporally, as well as elders or other christian laymen, might do so with the least possible inconvenience and sacrifice on the part of the congregations. This committee reported at considerable length, offering a number of judicious suggestions for carrying out the objects of the Presbytery. This report was adopted by the Presbytery ; but it is only necessary now to record the first two resolutions, viz :
" 1. That the work of the United States Christian Commission is a very important and necessary part of the Church's duty to the suffering.
2. That the Presbytery hereby gives its earnest and cordial sanction to such of its ministers and ruling elders as may engage personally in this work of faith and love, under the direction of a committee to be appointed by the Presbytery for this purpose."
It is believed that several did, both before and after this, engage in the service of the Christian Commission.
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With some statements in regard to revivals of religion during the time embraced in the history of the Presbytery, it is deemed proper with this ecclesiastical year to close this history.
As it was not generally the custom to make any permanent record of the report of the committee appointed at each stated meeting on the state of religion, there are no means of arriving at any probable knowledge in reference to special times of revival, except by consulting the statistics in the minutes of the General Assembly of the reported additions from year to year. And yet these presbyterial reports are known to be very inadequate and inaccurate; not because of any neg lect on the part of the stated clerks, but because of insufficient or no reports on the part of the congregations. We know that there were extensive revivals throughout the churches of the Presbytery, which would scarcely be suspected by consulting the statistical tables.
However, consulting these tables from 1831 to 1864, it will be found that the years 1832-3, 1842-3, 1854-5, 1858-9, must have been years of the special outpouring of Spirit, compared with some former years. In the presbyterial report made to the General Assembly in 1843, there were noted the following unusual additions to the churches named, on examination. To the church of Lewistown, 52; to Franks- town, (Hollidaysburg,) 153; to Alexandria and Harts Log, 79; to Lower Tuscarora, 106; to Perryville, (Milroy,) 113; to McVeytown and Newton Hamilton, 125; to Williamsburg and Martinsburg, 75; to Middle Tuscarora, 52. In summing up the admissions on examination of that year, they will be seen to be nearly double those of any other year since the organization of the Presbytery. And yet other years were not without their fruits, and special indications of the presence of the Spirit of God in the churches. Churches, like individual christians, have their times of declension; and no doubt from much the same causes. But in the years wherein there were not so many additions to the churches from the world, perhaps believers were growing in grace, and becoming more established in the faith. The solid prosperity of the church is not always to be measured by the numbers added from the world. If the members of the churches be walking in all the ordinances and commandments of the Lord blame- lessly, the saving work of the Gospel upon those that are without, will not long be wanting. But a true revival of religion begins first among the members of the church. Indeed the very term properly implies this. A real and extensive revival of religion may be con- ceived of, where there is not one addition made to the church from
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