USA > Pennsylvania > Huntingdon County > Huntingdon > The Historical memorial of the centennial anniversary of the Presbytery of Huntingdon : held in Huntingdon, Pa., April 9, 1895 : 1795-1895 > Part 3
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churches. This was a day of small things as far as benevolence is con- cerned, and yet it indicates decided advance in the beautiful grace of giving, and was the earnest of the more extended benefactions which have rendered the period in which we live conspicuous for its benefi- cence. But the country has greatly increased in wealth, and the ability to give has proportionately enlarged; but withal, the one direction in which Christian character has broadened is in the munificence of Chris- tian liberality.
Half a century had passed since the Presbytery had been formed, and the aggregate seems to have been in keeping with the opportunities, which had been offered to the fathers. But the point at which the more marvellous advancement of the century begins had not as yet been fully reached. The border line of modern progress was only in fact being approached in the later years, and that, too, under conditions which must have greatly hindered ecclesiastical progress. The church was rent by the discordant cries of factions. Indeed, division was actually accomplished, and for more than a third of a century thereafter the great church of the fathers formed two bands. It was a humiliating spectacle which presented itself to the world in the distracted and divided condi- tion of the church. But the fathers were earnest men, jealous of their supposed personal rights on the one hand, and of doctrinal integrity and purity on the other. It was doubtless a wise determination which sepa- rated the one from the other.
But the division does not form an era in the history of our Presbytery. Not a single name disappeared from its roll, nor did a single church cast in its lot with the minority. In fact, the Presbytery was only incidentally affected by the controversies which raged without its limits. Two feeble churches in connection with the New School body were subsequently formed within its territory. But their existence contributed in no re- spect to any change in the polity, or any diminution of the authority or influence of this body. The division of the church as far as the effect directly upon the Presbytery of Huntingdon is concerned was unim- portant, and the same may be affirmed in regard to the union accom- plished a third of a century afterwards. It is referred to only inci- dentally, because of the coincidence of its occurrence near the period selected for comparison.
It would possibly be interesting to follow in detail the growth of the Presbytery in the direction of its ministers and congregations, and in its influence upon the material development of its territory ; but this would
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THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY
be impracticable in the time allotted for this exercise. At the end of half a century we find that notable progress has been made. The feeble bands scattered throughout this region have grown into strong and in- fluential churches. Where a few hundred communicants represented the cause of the Master, as many thousands rally under the blue banner of our Presbyterianism. Churches that had long been dependent upon occasional supplies enjoyed the stated ministry of the word, and the rude houses of worship were being rapidly succeeded by buildings of architectural beauty and modern convenience. In 1843 the largest ac- cession of members up to that time had occurred, and relatively the largest in a single year that the Presbytery has ever witnessed. It was a time of the right hand of the Most High. He poured out his Spirit upon the people, and the result was indicated by an ingathering amount- ing to more than twenty-five per cent. of its entire membership. This was a time of general refreshing throughout the entire church. More than four hundred congregations participated in the blessing, and a new impulse was given to Christian work. This is the more interesting as following so soon upon the schism which rent the church in twain.
By the time the semi-centennial anniversary was reached the early fathers had all passed to the church above, and the young men upon whom they had laid their hands in ordination had grown feeble from the weight of years. "Your fathers ! where are they ? And the prophets ! do they live forever ?" But as the fathers disappear from the scene of their labors others are raised up to take their places. Whilst the Lord's workmen die, his work goes grandly on.
The last half-century of the Presbytery's existence has witnessed the most extraordinary progress in every department of human activity. The church has, of course, been affected by this spirit of development, and has contributed thereto. It has not been by the teaching of new doctrines or by the presentation of novel phases of old truths. The simple doctrine of the Cross is under the power and demonstration of the Spirit, the mighty agency for the uplifting of the race. Its power extends to every faculty of the soul, and to every relationship in life. Its quickening force imparts newness of life, awakens hope, and stimu- lates to the utmost every spiritual and moral agency in the world. The church participates in the amazing progress of our land in every direc- tion, and is an important factor in the sum of that progress. Christian work has been systematized. Every possible moral and spiritual force is being happily utilized. A most distinctive and hopeful aspect of that
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work is the prominence which is given to the energy and enthusiasm of the young. Whilst we may deplore the lack of thorough home train- ing, the failure to dignify and exalt the teaching office of the head of the family, we must recognize the advancement made by the external organization in utilizing the reserved force of the church, latent in the freshness and the enthusiasm and the faith of the young. The con- servatism of the fathers is superseded by a sanctified liberalism that does not necessarily sacrifice doctrinal integrity or scriptural authority, and yet puts in operation moral forces which greatly broaden and in- tensify the church's work. The young Master taught the venerable doctors of the law new things, and furnished the grandest object-lesson in the power and beauty of divine truth on youthful lips. When he be- gan to consolidate and direct the forces to be put in operation for the introduction of the new economy, he rallied about him a band of men who had not attained to middle life, and constituted them the messen- gers of his grace to a dying world. The children, too, were recognized as special objects of his solicitude and care, and their cry in the temple court, "Hosanna to the Son of David !" was not without its purpose. But it is no reflection on the wisdom of the fathers. They carefully furnished the young, indoctrinated them from their childhood, equipped them by thorough training in the truths of our holy religion for Chris- tian work, and then strangely failed to properly utilize the very forces which their own system had created. With such an equipment as the fathers furnished, the youth of to-day would conquer the world for Christ in the lifetime of a generation.
The first half-century of the Presbytery's existence closed with the effects of the gracious revival visible in the increased number of com- municants, in the quickened spiritual life, and in the strengthened con- gregations. Soon thereafter the war with Mexico occurred. Its influ- ence, we would infer, would be inconsiderable on a religious organization remote from the scene of conflict. It would possibly involve particular households in grief, as their loved ones perished in the strife. The ven- erable Dr. James S. Woods, whose kindness to a young licentiate in the long ago has rendered his memory to him fragrant and precious through all these years, carried a beloved and gifted son-slain in battle-to his burial amidst the tearful sympathy of thousands, and other homes were desolated by the pitiless exactions of war. But the new territory which was acquired as the result of that war, the finding of gold in California, the construction of railways in the remoter parts of the country, all con-
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tributed to greatly change the condition of particular churches. The prevailing spirit of restlessness penetrated our quiet valleys, and led to the emigration of our people to the distant West. A new impetus was given to this depleting process by the fact that the vast stretches of tree- less plains in the western borders were found to be of inexhaustible fer- tility. They tempted our people from the homes which their fathers with toil and sacrifice had founded, and others with different religious traditions and sympathy for other forms possessed the ancestral acres. The deserted sanctuaries by the way-side, with the neglected graves of the fathers and the mothers in the tangled wilderness of the forsaken church-yard, make the heart ache, and unseal the very depths of the fountain of our tears.
It is one of the problems which confront the present generation to determine what shall be done for these decaying churches. Shall they die, uncared for by those in whose hands under God their destiny is held ? Shall we, without sacrifice even to prevent, suffer the doors of their sanctuaries to be closed, the ordinances of God's house to be with- held, the venerable churches which the fathers founded and loved to be- come extinct ? God forbid ! Shall the very fountains from which the living streams have gushed through all these years be forever sealed ? Shall the very sources of the strength of the town and city and western churches be paralyzed by decay when there is a possibility that the dis- aster may be averted through the tender sympathy, the generous liber- ality, and the willing sacrifice, if need be, of those who have grown strong at their expense ? The territory occupied by this Presbytery has always been missionary ground. The early churches nurtured the feeble congregations that sprang up around them, and now as their own vitality is enfeebled by the richness of their gifts, the beneficiaries that have grown strong thereby should return with loving heart and generous hand these benefactions of the past. We may all see why presbyterial sustentation of feeble churches should lie upon every tender conscience and upon every loving and grateful heart.
The statistics of the whole church at the end of fifty years show that there were one hundred and fifteen Presbyteries, and that only eighteen had more ministers in connection with them than this Presbytery, and three others the same number; six had more churches, and one other the same number, whilst Huntingdon Presbytery reported more com- municants than any other. In this respect it was the leading Presby- tery in our connection. From an obscure condition among a feeble
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group it had taken a conspicuous place. This is the enviable position into which the fathers under the blessing of the Great Head of the church had brought this organization. What great things hath God wrought !
But we can only glance at the statistics of another fifty years. It would be impossible to take them in detail, although useful lessons may be embodied in the formidable array of figures. They start into life and broaden into columns of living men and women working for Christ and humanity. They sum up in seeming heartless aggregates the tears and prayers and toils of godly thousands. They become animated by a new life which pulsates and glows and warms by the stimulating contact of the divine grace in hundreds of human hearts. Could they tell the story of their formation it would be fragrant with the love of pastor and of people working together for the glory of God and the salvation of men. The results of fifty years of toil and sacrifice by hundreds of devoted men and women cannot be easily told. The consequences are so far-reaching, the aggregates are so stupendous, that justice cannot properly be done the theme. The cold statistical statement fails to present motives and prayers and sacrifices and toils and tears, that much is necessarily left to the imagination roused into intense activity by sym- pathy with so glorious a cause. For fifty years have earnest workers been building on the stable foundations which the fathers laid; and who can tell the towers of this stately Zion, within whose sheltering walls so many thousands dwell ?
Throughout the limits of the Presbytery the churches which were once feeble have grown strong. On the other hand, some have waxed weaker and weaker until the point of extinction has been almost reached. A number which had no existence then have been founded and fostered, and are now the strongest churches numerically within our bounds. As before stated, the total number of communicants reported to the General Assembly in 1807 was five hundred and fifty-eight, and now at least three churches organized within these fifty years have each quite that number or more in their fellowship,-viz., the First and Second of Altoona and the church of Tyrone; whilst Clearfield Church, at that time a feeble flock, has more communicants than the entire Presbytery reported in 1807. Some years ago the policy that prevailed led to the division of pastoral charges and the increase of independent congregations ; but the times have changed. Some of the congregations have become weaker, and now a return to the consolidating processes of the earlier
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years seems necessary. This does not mean of necessity a general decay, but simply a return to more conservative and safe practices.
The statistics for the last year of the century have not been furnished us as yet, and we can only use for our comparison the facts which the last year's report furnishes us. The total number of communicants is ten thousand nine hundred and one, of churches seventy-five, and of ministers sixty-two; contributions to Home Missions, including presby- terial sustentation, eight thousand three hundred dollars, to Foreign Mis- sions nine thousand four hundred and seventy-five dollars, and to all other boards five thousand four hundred dollars, making an aggregate for benevolent objects alone of more than twenty-three thousand dollars, in contrast with the two thousand dollars of fifty years ago. But the contrast is not unfavorable to the devotion and benevolence of the fathers, for the country has increased in wealth in perhaps as great a ratio. There has, however, been an advance in Christian giving as there has been in intelligent methods of work in all departments of Christian activity within these years.
More than one thousand additions on profession of faith were made during the past year, and the grand aggregate represents many thousands of earnest and hopeful workers in the vineyard of the Lord. I am deeply conscious of the inadequacy of figures to set forth in proper fulness the progress of these years. When the century began the total number of ministers in connection with the General Assembly was one hundred and seventy-seven, and now there is one-third of that number in con- nection with our own Presbytery. In 1807 there were not quite eigh- teen thousand communicants in connection with the entire church, and now in our own Presbytery alone there are considerably more than half that number in the fellowship of its churches. But it is not in the number of its members or in the amount of their contributions to objects of benevolence that the great work of these years is to be discerned. We never can tell the sum of Christian work. It increases and extends through all the years. It reaches into the limitless stretches of eternity. The great day will scarcely disclose the glorious results of this work, protracted through the pregnant decades of the century agone.
The last half of the century which passes in review to-day is espe- cially notable in the great progress in the arts, the advancement in the processes of education, in the civil changes which have taken place, and in the broadening of Christian charity which the external church displays. We approach the end of the nineteenth century with the
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profoundest anxiety for the final result, which the signs of the times seem to foreshadow. The church in all its organizations has, perhaps, a higher conception of its office than even before. The strifes among denominations, which consumed their energies and wasted their resources to a large extent, have ceased. The unfriendly contests for pre-eminence have changed to greater effort to possess all lands for Christ. The external church seems to be approaching that point where it may be sung in the enthusiastic refrain of Christendom, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity !"
Whilst one schism occurred through the exigencies of civil war, and a great church has chosen to pursue its own way, departing from associa- tions which the fathers formed, another schism has been healed. The aggregate of benefit is doubtless greater than the loss incurred, but the friends of our Presbyterian Zion hope for the return of all to the support of the glorious standard of our common Presbyterianism. The civil war with all its sorrows and its triumphs belongs to this latter period. Its desolations reached every portion of our territory,-not in the presence of an armed foe, but in the desolations which it wrought. Every hamlet, and well-nigh every home, experienced its blighting, desolating force. But it is foreign to our purpose to dwell upon issues that awaken our interest as citizens rather than as Presbyterians. We rejoice in the results of that tremendous convulsion, in the broadening and deepening of our national life, in the consolidating and strengthening of our institu- tions, in the release of the bondmen, in the many things by which the country has been benefited.
But it is proper to glance at the work of the Presbytery for a little time further before the end is reached. Its influence in the direction of liberal education is noteworthy. The early fathers laid the foundations of liberal culture in all this region. They eked out a slender salary by teaching the youth who were ambitious to obtain a classical education, and many who subsequently attained to eminence in church and state owed their equipment to these faithful men. The facilities now furnished at the public expense, or through the benevolence of philanthropic men and women, were then unknown. The stately institutions that now gather under their shelter thousands of our youth were then in their infancy, or perhaps not even projected. The only facilities for a higher education available to the ambitious youth of this central region were to be found in the humble schools which the Presbyterian pastors had established. Many, who attained to positions of usefulness and honor,
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were fitted to adorn them through the offices of these unpretentious schools. Rev. John Coulter gathered about him the youth of Tuscarora and adjacent valleys, and among his pupils was the late Dr. David Elliot, of Western Theological Seminary, the eminent and devout teacher of a sound theology. The Rev. John Hutchison attracted many by his well- established reputation for scholarship and fitness to teach the higher branches of learning. The old stone church at Mifflintown, where he preached with acceptance the gospel of Christ for many years, was the scene, also, of his pedagogic labors. Rev. Dr. James S. Woods ren- dered the same grateful service to a wide circle of admiring pupils, and among them was the gentle and gifted Matthew B. Hope, who became an eminent instructor in the College of New Jersey. At an earlier day the Rev. John Johnston gathered about him in this town a band of earnest youth in quest of knowledge, and for many years the fame of his classical school was far-reaching. The humble struc- ture in which he so patiently taught remains as an ancient landmark until this day.
Many years ago this region was noted for its academical institutions. The youth were attracted to them from distant parts, and many that are eminent in all the walks of life owe their fitness for these positions to their training here. The venerable Rev. McKnight Williamson, who so recently passed from our midst because his Lord had called him to his rest and his reward, was instrumental in founding an institution in Tuscarora Valley that attained a high pre-eminence as a classical school. Rev. James Y. McGinnis was equally successful in establishing a famous school at Shade Gap. Their halls were crowded by young men from near and afar. Whilst their career has, unhappily, ended, their influence is an ever-widening circle. It may not be profitable to seek out the causes of the decay of these once prosperous schools and others like them. A prodigal expenditure of the people's money in State institutions of inferior grade is largely responsible for the disaster of their decay.
In former years a pastor of the Presbytery, a relative of the writer, surrendered his pastoral work that he might help to teach in a wider circle the gracious principles of our holy religion through the agency of the religious press, and many years thereafter his paper was absorbed by the Presbyterian Banner, which was founded through the enterprise and zeal of a former member of this Presbytery,-the gifted and per- sistent Dr. David McKinney. His long struggle for the success of his scheme was bravely maintained and loyally upheld by his own brethren.
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But failing to enlist the General Assembly in the enterprise, he under- took it alone, and the result is before the world in the career of a periodi- cal which has brought blessing to innumerable homes. It seems a fitting thing that a son of this eminent man should be connected with the edito- rial staff of the venerable Presbyterian, the invaluable friend and mentor of our childhood and youth, and which has been an oracle for much more than half a century to its many readers in Central Pennsylvania.
The cause of education always excited a lively interest, especially in the minds of the fathers; and from the outset appeals were made to the congregations for contributions towards the education of young men for the gospel ministry who could not without this aid obtain a liberal education. It would be an honorable record for a hundred years if it could be examined in detail. It seemed to be at considerable sacrifice that the fathers gathered the meagre sums to help to supply the waste places with the ordinances of religion.
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It would be an injustice to the memory of the dead if we did not place on record our appreciation of their love for the work of the Master in its most common forms. The great commission was to them the marching orders of the great Captain of our salvation. The necessity of preaching the gospel to every creature did not arise out of the exi- gency of the times, but from the positive command of the great Head of the church himself. It was not a question of expediency at all, but of absolute duty, and so the great work of missions at home and abroad has always pressed upon the consciences of our pastors and people. The Presbytery from the very beginning has profoundly sympathized with this glorious work. Her sons and her daughters have gone to distant lands to proclaim the glad tidings to the perishing. The Pres- bytery has always been ready with gifts and personal co-operation to advance this blessed object. Its members gladly imposed their hands in ordination on the heads of bright and consecrated men that they might go out with the torch of truth in hand into the darkest places of the earth. With their prayers and their gifts they have followed them to their fields of labor among the perishing heathen. It is a noteworthy fact that at least three of her sons are telling the story of the Cross to the benighted people of distant lands to-day.
In home mission work it has been quite as distinctly engaged. Many have gone out from its borders to carry the gospel to the frontier settlements of our own land. In forest and on prairie the voices of her sons have been lifted up in the interest of truth and righteousness.
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They have braved the winter storms, have submitted to the rough ex- periences of frontier life, that they might lay the foundations, and estab- lish ordinances, which would bless and save multitudes who were seek- ing to establish homes in the distant West-land.
Early in the last decade of our ecclesiastical history the Presbytery undertook the care of its feeble churches, and the prosecution of mission work within its own bounds. The work has been a helpful one, as it enlisted the sympathies of our people in the welfare of our feeble con- gregations, and brought us in pleasant contact with new fields of Chris- tian enterprise. The magnitude of the undertaking alone has prevented us showing that sympathy for the sustentation enterprise of the Synod of Pennsylvania, which in its broader field and amidst greater hin- derances it justly deserves. With a perfect co-operation on the part of all our congregations we would be able to accomplish greater things, and to give of the surplus of our gifts to other needy ones. Within less than a decade about twelve thousand five hundred dollars have been raised and disbursed without any expense of administration what- ever. Many feeble churches have been aided in maintaining the ordi- nances. Other churches have been gathered and helped to prosecute the work for the Master under favorable conditions, and many a faithful toiler has been cheered and helped by its prompt and timely aid.
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