USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > North East > The centennial commemoration of the founding of the First Presbyterian Church, of North East, Pennsylvania > Part 6
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The committee appointed to draft the constitution and by- laws consisted of Messrs. N. H. Clark and W. E. Belmap, and
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Mrs. N. H. Clark, Mrs. Galey, Mrs. S. Louise Ross, and Miss Nettie Belnap. The first president to serve was Mrs. N. H. Clark, who very efficiently inaugurated the new regime. The presidents following in regular order were Mrs. H. S. Southard, one year; Mrs. C. J. Hunter, one year; Mrs. S. Louise Ross, four years, and until her death in the fifth year in 1887. -
It is with loving remembrance that we pause to pay a de- served tribute to Mrs. Ross. She was always very active in the Society from its very beginning, and at the time of the building of the present edifice, after the first brick church was burned, she was especially interested, seemingly giving up her life to the work of getting the church ready for occupancy, but she was called home just before the auditorium was ready for service, and hers was the first funeral from this church, very soon after it was finished. She was a kind, true friend, and zealous in all good works.
SOLO-Mrs. G. B. Swaney. (Selected.)
PRAYER AND BENEDICTION-Rev. Thomas H. Rob- inson, D. D.
Almighty and gracious God, our Heavenly Father, we draw near to Thee with happy thanksgiving, and first of all, () God, we rejoice in Thee, we praise Thee, we thank Thee that we have Thyself, the source of all goodness, of all spiritual truth, of all our rejoicing for the years that are to come.
O God, the Father of our great and living Saviour Jesus Christ, we thank Thee for the church of all the ages, for Thou hast never left the children of man without the signs of Thy presence, without the assurance of Thy gracious care and love. For the saints of the Old Testament times, for the believers of later days, for those who through the storm and stress of bitter persecution and trial and death maintained their faithfulness to Thee, O God, this day we praise Thee. We thank Thee for this long line of holy ancestors. We thank Thee for the truth that under God they have presented and kept for our teaching and our salvation.
We praise Thee for Thy special care of this church of Thy Son. We thank Thee for all the grace Thou hast given it to be true and loyal. O God, unto Thee we pray that Thon
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wilt maintain it in all the years that are to come, and keep it true to Thee, and to Thy Son who redeemed it with His precious blood. We pray that this especial church so beloved by us, whose. history has been recalled throughout our gathering, may be kept in continued grace and in loving service of Thee, and be found ever abiding in the faith of the fathers and mothers of the past. We praise Thee for their lives and we pray Thee that in the years that are before this church Thou will guide it still by the consciousness of Thy presence, by the continued manifesta- tions of Thy gracious and sustaining power, by the faithful preaching of Thy Holy Truth, by delivering it from all that is evil and sinful in Thy sight, making its officers men of righteous- ness and men of prayer and men of godliness. Make all its members, old and young, loving and true and faithful to Him who is loving and true and faithful to them and who shed His most precious blood for them. We commend ourselves to Thee. We would shield ourselves, great God, in none other than Thy- self through Jesus Christ. We pray that the signs of Thy presence may be with us in life and death. O God, let not our feet swerve from the path of Thy commandments, or our hands. fail in their work for all mankind and their changeless love, () God, to Thee. We ask all for Christ's sake. Amen.
And now may the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen.
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NEW PARSONAGE.
1902.
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JULY 18, 1901 7:30 P. M.
ORGAN.
HYMN-No. 139, Coronation.
SCRIPTURE-Rev. R. Lewis Williams.
PRAYER-Rev. George B. Stewart, D. D.
Almighty God, our Heavenly Father and the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, regard, we humbly be- seech Thee, these Thy servants now bowed before Thee. Gra- ciously grant unto us in this hour Thy blessing, for we seek a father's benediction. We have come up from our several homes to this place of worship where Thou hast revealed Thy- self in times past; showing Thyself to be a God of mercy and truth and love; dispensing Thy grace unto the just and un- just; revealing Thyself even unto those that sought Thee not. so that the testimony of years is that whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord, the same shall be saved. We thank Thee that as we gather here we can make mention of that marvellous grace which Thou hast shown unto our fathers and dost con- tinue to show unto us, their unworthy sons.
As we commemorate the great goodness of God and all the faithful, devoted, and reverent service of the disciples of Jesus who have been enrolled in the company of believers here, do Thou grant unto us that we may know the same goodness, and that we may adorn the doctrine of Jesus Christ our Lord with the same Christian virtues. Do Thou be pleased, we hum- bly beseech Thee, to grant that the services of this hour may be profitable unto us and acceptable unto Thee. May the mem- ory of the fathers' discipleship stimulate in us a desire to walk in the way of everlasting life; to be as they were, faithful even unto death, that we come into the enjoyment of the blessings which Thou hast promised to those that endure unto the end.
Fill us with sincere gratitude for the goodness of God re- vealed in this place and in those believers who through the cen- tury have lived a life of faith and wrought for the glory of God.
Grant that we may desire to know more and more of that grace ourselves, to be filled more and more with that divine
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spirit, to be drawn closer and still closer unto the side of our loving and gracious God. Be Thou with this beloved people, we beseech Thee, build Thou them up upon Thy most holy faith; grant that they may be zealous of good works, may they be careful to depart from iniquity and to avoid any appearance of evil. May they labor with all fidelity and patience, knowing- that of the Lord they shall receive their reward. May this church which the fathers planted and which the children now nourish and support, be in the coming generations as it has been and is now, a light to enlighten those that sit in darkness, a joy to those that sorrow and are oppressed, a comfort to those that weep, a strength and help unto those that falter and fall.
May the glorious gospel of the Son of Thy love, which has wrought such marvels in this world of ours, continue to be the gospel that Thy ministers proclaim from this pulpit, that is be- lieved in these pews. May the servants in this place and in every place make known the power of God, that men may praise the Lord for His marvelous works among the children of men. May we by Thy grace and in our love for righteousness herald the glorious appearing of our gracious God, teaching men every- where to worship and abide in Thee, until the time shall come when no man shall need to say to his brother, Know the Lord, for all shall know Thee from the least to the greatest.
Our prayer is before Thee, Almighty God, our Father, and we humbly ask that Thou wouldst grant it unto us, together with the pardon of our sins and life everlasting through Jesus Christ our Lord.
(Lord's Prayer.)
SOLO-Mr. George Hodges. "Caro Mio Ben."-Giordani. "Saviour Again to Thy Dear Name."-Franz.
RESPONSES BY EX-PASTORS.
SONS OF OUR CHURCH WHO HAVE BECOME PAS- TORS-Rev. Cyrus J. Hunter, D. D.
It is said that seven cities contended for the birth place of Homer; but North East is the birth place of men who have done more for their day and generation than a hundred Homers.
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REV. C. J. HUNTER, D. D. 1880 to 1893.
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The history of her sons would make a brilliant record; but I am confined to her Presbyterian sons who have entered the ministry.
Our subject is important and uplifting: "Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And departing leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time."
Some one has asked the question: "When should the edu- cation of a child begin?" The wise answer was given: "A hundred years before it is born." Ancestry has very much to do with our success. Blood will tell in the life of every man and woman. As far as I can trace the ancestry of the men we are to consider to-day, we find clean blood, brains, character, and above all religion. At the head of the roll, in point of age, we find the name of Rev. George W. Hampson.
Mr. Hampson was born at North East in 1797. Like most of the prominent men of his day, he had to fight his own battles with poverty and win an education by his own personal effort. The student of to-day has but little idea of the self- sacrifice and pluck of our pioneer college boys. Young Hamp- son made up his mind to graduate at the fountain head of Pres- byterian education, and hence graduated with honor at both the Princeton College and Theological Seminary. He finished his theological training in the spring of 1827. A year before graduat- ing, 1820, he married Miss Aunie McCord, a daughter of the North East Church. Thus equipped with a fine education and a splendid wife, he was ready to do the Master's work in what- ever field he should be called.
The first sermon he preached, outside the Seminary, was in his home church, a log building which stood in your now beau- tiful city of the dead. His father, Robert Hampson, obtained the deed of his farm directly from the government, and I am told it is the only farm in Erie County that has never passed out of the original name. Rev. Mr. Hampson did not start out candidating for some big, rich city church, but settled at Titus- ville, at that time a poor town and a weak struggling church. All the poverty and indifference of that day confronted him.
Hle had a brave heart full of divine grace and he was red hot with zeal for immortal souls. He laid the foundation for
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the Titusville church broad and deep. The after life of churches, like that of men, is determined by their early training. The impress of a master builder has ever been upon the church. In the bounds of the Presbytery of Erie, I doubt if it has its equal in all that constitutes a live, working, giving church. My impression of Mr. Hampson as a man and as a preacher, and of the kind of preaching he gave his people, were derived from con- versations years ago with his sister, Mrs. Joseph Moorhead. He was what would be called in this day a doctrinal preacher. Of course, this is a silly distinction for any man to make. No man
can preach Bible truth and ignore the doctrines. It will be a sad day for the church when this sneer at doctrines shall lead men to preach on the "live" topics of the day, and try to find immortal souls with sensationalism. Rev. Mr. Hampson was not a creed tinker. When he was ordained to the ministry he said: "I do believe the Confession of Faith and did not play the Roman Catholic with mental reservations." He perhaps would not be called an "up-to-date" preacher for this superficial, materialistic age; for he was honest enough to follow Paul when he said: "Preach the Word."
He truly believed that this was a lost world; that churches were not built to give some preacher a place to entertain ruined souls. He preached as an ambassador sent of God and not to please human culture. That is why God honored his life and ministry. That is why he was so successful as a soul winner. . That is why he was sent for far and near, to preach at protracted meetings. He was not satisfied to preach to his own church alone. There were places all around him where the people did not have the means of grace. It meant hard work, but he gave
it gladly to the blessed Master. Take a map of the Presbytery of Erie and mark that group of ten churches around Titusville and you have the result of this tireless worker for God and man. In young manhood he and John Brown became fast friends. Their friendship was welded by the intensity of their natures. One friend by the love of souls, the other for the shackled slave. He always considered it an honor that he officiated at the mar- diage of John Brown and keenly followed his history and mourn- ed his untimely death as a martyr of human liberty. Rev. Mr. ITampson did not believe in short pastorates. ITe did not be- lieve churches could be built up by "yearlings," but believed
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REV. GEO. W. HAMPSON, Son of the Church.
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that there was no limit to a pastorate but loss of power and use- fulness.
He preached at Titusville twenty-five years and seventeen years at Cambridge. He died in the harness, in his last pas- torate, at the ripe age of 72 years. His grave is in your cemetery near the spot where the old log church stood, where, he first heard the Gospel, where he gave his heart to Christ, and where he preached his first sermon.
It is with a feeling of unfitness I now take up the next son of the church in point of age.
The life of Dr. Cyrus Dickson is too great and important to be considered within the limits of a few minutes. I have not the heart to leave out nine-tenths of his history and yet this is my task to-day. Cyrus Dickson was born in a log house, about a mile and a half west of North East, on the road to Erie, De- cember 20th, 1816.
He grew up a rugged lad familiar with farm work and the privations of a pioneer life. It is said: "The child is father to the man," and to indicate the drift of young Dickson's mind and the germ of that eloquence that thrilled the hearts of his fellow men in after years, we find him the boyish preacher whenever the children "played church." The children recognized his abil- ity as did children of an older growth in after years. My old friend, Barnett Moorhead, once related to me the funeral sermon young Cyrus preached over the remains of his favorite dog. The children cried as if their little hearts would break; for the elo- quence and pathos of after years were in that boyish effort. At the age of 15 years, August, 1831, he gave his heart to Christ and united with the North East Church. Indeed he was dedi- cated by his mother from his birth to the Christian Ministry His mother was a Moorhead. Dr. Eaton says "she was small and graceful, with large blue eyes." She was the first one to de- fy and break up the universal custom of dealing out grog at the raising of houses and barns. It was a terrible undertaking in that age of pioneer life, but her courage and unconquerable will were victoriuns.
With her deep religious life and noble character she im- pressed her boy with an influence that time and death could not efface. The boy was given to the Lord, but how was he to be educated and tramed for his work ? £ The farm could barely give
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the family a living, and the outlook was gloomy indeed. But in spite of the lions in the way, we soon find the boy in the old Erie Academy.
Next we find him entering College in 1832. Jefferson Col- lege, the school he entered, was at that time the best institution of learning west of the Alleghenies. Few students, now-a-days, would like to raise potatoes at twenty-five cents per bushel, to help them through College. This is what he did for four years. Dr. Matthew Brown, the President of the College, took a warm interest in the red-headed lad from North East. He had studied boy nature so long that he realized that young Dickson had the genius for hard work and would some day be an honor to his Al- ma Mater and a blessing to the great busy world. He gradu- ated with honor in 1837. In one month after leaving college he began teaching school at Girard, Pa. He was now a very busy man. Besides the duties of school teaching, his spare time was spent in the study of theology. He could not afford to attend the seminary and it was customary in that day to study theology privately. He was not too busy, however, to fall in love with Miss Delia McConnell, of Girard, and they were married in Janu- ary, 1840. This noble helpmate, this grand Christian woman, survives him to-day, busy as ever for the loving Master.
Dr. Dickson was licensed to preach the Gospel by the Presbytery of Erie in October, 1839. With his commission in his hands, where should be preach? This was a very anxious question. Presbytery sent him to supply the church of Frank- lin, one hundred miles from home, and the journey to be made on horse back. Franklin was then a small sleepy town with no indication of its present importance. The church was small and discouraged. A call was given to him at once, April, 1840.
With his native born fluency, tireless energy, his soul on fire in the pulpit, his off-hand manner with the people, he soon made friends with both saint and sinner. . He had that which is better than talent o: scholarship, he had common sense, Scotch- Trish tact! He had that which won the Presidency for Mc- Kinley, and had Dr. Dickson entered politics he would have been in the U. S. Senate or the Presidency! But a man of Mr. Dick- son's ability must go up higher. After eight years of faithful and successful labor at Franklin he accepted a call to the Second Church of Wheeling. This was in 18448.
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REV. CYRUS DICKSON, D. D. Son of the Church.
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This was a new church. A colony had gone out of the old First Church. They had no church building and met for worship in a hall. From the start the growth was wonderful. A fine building was erected within a year or two, and to-day it is a mon- ument of the zeal and ability and fidelity of Dr. Dickson. Had he been asked why he was so successful he would have answered: "Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit, saith the Lord."
His preaching, like Rev. Mr. Hampson's, was doctrinal; yet he had such a fund of illustrations that these doctrines glowed and burned with living power. He spoke with great rapidity and yet his enunciation was perfect as the notes of a flute. Like all great orators he was full of intense passion and feeling. His face glowed from the fires burning upon his heart. It was my fortune to have heard him in the greatest efforts of his life, be- fore the old Synod of Wheeling and the General Assembly, and he carried his hearers with him by a magnetic power few men possess. After another eight years pastorate at Wheeling Dr. Dickson was called to the Westminster Church of Baltimore, Nov. 1856. As in all his churches he was successful, so his work here was no exception. He gave it an impetus it has never lost. He was there in a period of our history that tried men's souls. He was there in the years covering the agitation of the slavery question, the war for the integrity of the Union, and the days of reconstruction.
Many of the people sympathized with the South. A weak man would have failed and split the church. It was a time when he needed all his common sense and tact. His people knew how he stood on the burning question of the day, but he had grace and gumption enough to keep it out of the pulpit. He weathered the storm and brought his ship of Zion into port without a leak of the loss of a single spar.
Ilis rugged health now began to fail and he made up his mind to cross the ocean and visit Europe and the Holy Land. He returned invigorated in both body and mind. After four- teen years of exhausting labor in Baltimore he was elected the Permanent Clerk of the General Assembly. At the re-union of the Old and New School Churches in 1870, he was elected, with Dr. Kendall, as Secretary of the Home Mission Board of the United Church
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This was the last round of the ladder he had been climb- ing from North Fast to New York, from a village pastor to one of the highest and most honored places in our great church. 1 have not the time, nor have you the patience to recount his wonderful career in this responsible position. His history for ten years at the head of this great Board is the common history . of our church. Few men know, or care to know, the awful burden laid upon his heart and brain in the care of 1,200 Home Missionaries. When the churches failed to respond in their benevolence to the Home Board and he realized how his men must suffer, it would grieve his heart, and he carried his troubles from his office to his home. Sometimes large sums of money had to be borrowed and that crushed his sensitive nature. It was his duty to make appointments of men for the vacant fields, to receive and pass upon their quarterly reports, a clerical bur- den enough to crush a giant. Every now and then he traveled over vast Missionary fields, personally visiting the frontier sta- tions covering many thousands of miles. Once a year he was expected to stand before the Assembly to give an account of his stewardship and plead, with the pathos of an angel, for more men and money to build up the waste places of our great land.
As a minister, as a patriot and as the responsible head of this great work, he trembled and staggered under the fearful load. It was at this time Mr. A. F. Jones, of your church, paid him a visit in his staffy office at 23 Center Street, New York. "Oh," said he, "I can't stand this wear and tear much longer. Nothing I could wish better for myself than a little church on the shores of Old Lake Erie, where I might rest and die where I first saw the light."
The General Assembly now voted the weary worker a vaca- tion, but it came too late. Insomnia now began to plague his life. Restful sleep to repair the waste of mind and body was denied him.
It was the beginning of the end. As Christ could not come down from the cross and at the same time die for the world; neither could the great Secretary give his life for the church and yet keep it. Loss of memory now set in and he could no long- er electrify synods and assemblies. He had burned his candle at both ends. And now to him, as to Abraham of old, there came the "horror of a great darkness." Law ever demands its
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pound of flesh. We may over work even in the service of the Master. Softening of the brain followed with all its awful gloom, and then this Prince in Israel went to his reward!
The sun that had risen amid the storms and mists of the Lake Shore and had traveled to its meridian glory as student, preacher, pastor, and secretary, now went down amid storm and darkness only to arise in the "Sweet Bye and Bye" to newness of life and eternal vigor. Thus ended the life of the old man eloquent of the Presbyterian Church, crowned at last a King and Priest unto God.
The third ministerial son of the North East Church we de- sire to notice, is the Rev. Dr. Thomas Hastings Robinson. I could not find the date of his birth in the Ministerial Directory. It may be he intends to do some candidating, and a man's age would kill him far quicker than if he had mental and spiritual paralysis.
Dr. Robinson graduated at Oberlin College with the de- gree of B. A. in 1850. In 1854 he graduated at the Western Theological Seminary. Ile was licensed to preach the Gospel by the Presbytery of Ohio, June 13th, 1854. He was ordained Jan. 21st, 1855, by the Presbytery of Harrisburg, and was the pastor of the Market Square Church, Harrisburg, Pa., from 1854 to 1884.
Hle was elected Professor of Pastoral Theology, Church Government and the , Sacraments, and Sacred Rhetoric in the Western Theological Seminary in 1884. Ile resigned a few months ago to enjoy a well earned and needed rest.
Like most of the men who have reached eminence, Dr. Robinson had the heritage of poverty and a will power discour- agement could not throttle. Whilst his brothers entered the race for a business life, young Robinson made up his mind, by the grace of God, to preach the Gospel. I have no data of his early struggle; but his history is doubtless like all the rest.
I know he taught school at one time, at Canal Fulton, (., a small town just north of my present field of labor.
Through thick and thin, dark and bright days, he struggled on until his first and only pastorate was one of the best churches of our denomination. He had the brains and grit and tact to remain in this important field thirty eventful and useful years. Laymien, as a rufe, do not comprehend what reserve force a
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man must have to come before the same people with something fresh and bright, Sabbath after Sabbath for a whole generation! But that is not all. The most remarkable thing is yet to be stated. Hle preached thirty years without ever repeating a single sermon! I do not believe this can be said of very many men in our church. I do not mention this mental achievement as something worthy of imitation. I do not believe it was any advantage to his people and it was no kindness to himself.
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