USA > Virginia > Henrico County > Henrico County > History and reminiscences of the Monumental Church, Richmond, Va. : from 1814 to 1878 > Part 26
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September 12th he says, "Held service in the Sunday-school room in the morning, because of the repairs of the church. In the afternoon held service in St. Paul's Church, which, during the repairs in the Monumental, was kindly offered by the vestry of St. Paul's."
"November 7, in the morning service in the Sun- day-school room, and holy communion, assisted by Rev. Mr. Munford. Afternoon, raining, and but few present Fat St. Paul's. November 25th, thanksgiv-
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ing day, I preached at St. John's ; the Monumental closed."
CORRESPONDENCE.
"Rev. Geo. Woodbridge, D. D., Richmond, Virginia, December 6, 1875, Rector Monumental Church.
"DEAR SIR .- We, the undersigned, members of your church, who were so fortunate as to hear your sermon on yesterday morning, desire a copy of it for distribution among the congregation and friends of our church.
"It is not often in the history of a church in this country, that a pastor can preach his thirtieth an- nual sermon, and such an event should make us all thankful to the 'God of all mercies' for His good- ness to us. May the Bishop and Shepherd of the church ever have you in his care and keeping, and long spare you to us as our pastor and friend.
"Your obedient servants,
WM. H. POWERS, THOMAS POTTS,
P. H. MAYO,
P. C. WARWICK,
JAS. H. GARDNER, JOHN H. TYLER,
THOS. W. DOSWELL, GEO. D. FISHER,
R. H. MEADE, H. D. WHITCOMB.
" To Messrs. Wm. H. Powers, Thos. Potts, P. H. Mayo, and others.
" GENTLEMEN .- If you think the sermon preached last Sunday may be 'useful for distribution among the congregation and friends of the church,' it is at your disposal. I would observe that the period of 'thirty years' only begins with the first of Decem-
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ber, 1845. Previously to that I ministered in Christ Church, from Whit-Sunday, May 25, 1833, the statistics of which are left out as not material to the subject. But the congregation is the same. So that my ministry embraces but one congregation to the present time-a period of more than forty-two years.
" Very truly, "GEO. WOODBRIDGE. " RICHMOND, Dec. 8, 1875."
DISCOURSE.
"This is an eventful day in the history of this congregation. Just thirty years ago to-day, my be- loved people, we took possession of this church in the name of the Lord. And now, to-day, we stand here once more to praise and bless His holy name.
" The history of this church is in some respects peculiar. During its existence it has never had but two rectors-if we except the short period of two years-Bishop Moore and myself. Of what other church in this country can the same be said ? The per- manence of the pastoral relation has become so dis- turbed and so inconstant, that it now continues but a very few years. And congregations are agitated with the breaking up of the pastoral relation, and perplexed with the difficulty of a choice, and fre- quently with the suspension of services altogether for a considerable length of time.
"There is another peculiarity. There has never been, through the grace and mercy of God, a single
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ruffle of discord since it was first opened. During Bishop Moore's rectorship every thing moved on so harmoniously that no root of bitterness ever sprang up to trouble them; but ' peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, were established among them.' And during my own rectorship, I do not recollect one instance of discord which has ever risen up to trouble us. To the Lord alone be the praise, for He is the 'author of peace and the lover of concord.' It is His mercy and grace which have preserved us in peace and harmony. And to Him be the praise.
"The first sermon in this church was preached by the Rev. Wm. H. Wilmer, at the opening of the convention, May 4th, 1814. At the same time a resolution was passed, ' that the Rev. Wm. Meade be requested to deliver a discourse in the Monumen- tal Church in this city on the next Sabbath day, ap- propriate to the occasion of admitting that church into the general church of this diocese.
" Bishop Moore was consecrated to the Episcopate on the 18th of May, 1814, and immediately after- wards entered upon his duties as rector of the Mon- umental Church. He died November, 1841. The Rev. Dr. Norwood succeeded him, and continued in the rectorship about two years. The second Sun- day in advent, the 7th of December, 1845, the con- gregation of Christ Church took possession of this church, and to-day is the thirtieth anniversary of that event.
"At that time the number of communicants was
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one hundred and three, of whom, the following June, three were admitted to holy orders. Since then, to the first of last May, eighteen hundred and sixty- four have been admitted to the communion of the church ; six hundred and twenty-two have removed, and received letters of dismission ; one hundred and fourteen have died ; and nineteen have either with- drawn from the holy communion, or have been sus- pended. The number of communicants, as last re- ported, is two hundred and thirty-seven. There have been one hundred and forty adults, and seven hundred and thirty-three infants baptized. There have been two hundred and sixty-four marriages, and there have been six hundred and twenty-three funerals. The amount collected, independent of the regular expenses of the church, such as ministerial salary, music, sexton, etc., is $89,755.79. This amount is- for the general purposes of benevolence, and of the church, not only diocesan, but general.
" Ten persons have been ordained to holy orders. in this church, of whom three are now resting from their labors in the grave. Three others have been consecrated as bishops in the church, of whom one,. the Right Rev. Channing Moore Williams, is now the devoted, self-denying, single-hearted missionary bishop to Japan ; another, the Right Rev. Henry C. Lay, of Easton, and the other, the Right Rev. Thos. U. Dudley, Jr., of Kentucky, all of whom are faith- fully and laboriously discharging the duties of their high office. And here, too, I would pause for a moment to pay a tribute of deserved praise to the
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vestry of this church. There has never been among them at any time ought but the utmost harmony of feeling and Christian propriety; never any other than the most earnest desire to promote the welfare of the church and congregation, whose interests were committed to their charge; and this, too, at the ex- pense of much time and care and thought in the midst of pressing business avocations.
" In the review of the past we have great cause to- be thankful, and to exclaim, 'What hath God wrought ?' And we have great cause for encourage- ment as we look on to the future. It is true, we might have done better than we have done in time past. Let it be our effort to do better in the time to come.
"We have just repaired the church edifice in a most beautiful and appropriate manner. It has been, with the limited means at our disposal, accom- plished with great taste and beauty and economy. We owe much to the energy and faithfulness of the committee who have been entrusted with its manage- ment. Though they have been burdened with the cares of a large and extensive business, yet many of them have taken time to visit the church several times each day, and to advise with the artist and to superintend the work. The congregation owe them a debt of gratitude for what they have done. But they will find a higher reward in the approba- tion of Him, for the love of whom and for the sake of whose cause they were willing to make the sacri- fice of their time and labor. It has been indeed, with them, a labor of love, and they already find a.
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reward in the gratification with which they survey their work.
"The painting of the interior of the church has been already paid for by the liberality of the com- mittee and a few others. But the painting of the exterior, including about one-half the whole amount, is yet to be raised. And will you not, my beloved people, when next Sunday you once more occupy your accustomed seats in the house of God, put in the plates, as your thank-offering to God, enough to pay off at once the whole debt. Already one-half the whole amount has been paid by the generosity of the committee. It would be a most noble and generous work to pay off the whole debt at once, and to leave no debt upon the house of God when we once more occupy our accustomed seats there.
"Fifty dollars from five persons; thirty dollars from ten persons; twenty dollars from fifteen per- sons; and a like generous contribution from others according to their means, would pay off the whole debt at once. And we should then have the high satisfaction of worshipping in the house of God on which no debt was resting, and for laboring on which no mechanic was suffering. When David, the King was about to buy the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, on Mount Moriah, that he might build the temple of the Lord God of Israel, Ornan offered the place, the victims for sacrifice, the threshing instruments for fuel, as a free will offer- ing. 'I give it all,' said he. 'Nay,' said David, ' but I will verily buy it for the full price; for I will
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not take that which is thine for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings without cost.' Observe, he would not worship God with that which cost him nothing ; nor would he presume to serve God at other peo- ple's expense and charge. Let me commend this to your example and imitation. We find too many willing to do this. But will God be pleased with us if we suffer others to adorn and beautify His sanctuary, while we never raise a finger to help them; if we enjoy in ease and comfort and satisfaction, the fruit of their labor and self-denial, while we bear no part ourselves in the expense and cost required ? God forbid! We might expect a curse rather than a blessing ..
"And see how God testified His acceptance of the offering thus presented. 'He answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering.' St. Paul, in his second epistle to the Corinthians, says: 'See that ye abound in this grace also.' What grace ? Why, the grace of liberality. He styles it a 'grace.' He associates it with faith, and hope, and knowledge, and love. He evidently regards it as a very important grace, nay, an indispensable one. By it he would test the sincerity of our faith and love. And he seems to intimate that there can be no genuine love where this grace is wanting.
" But to have this grace is not sufficient. The apostle would have it to be ever growing and increas- ing,-'See that ye abound in this grace.' Diminish not then your contributions, but see that they in- crease year by year. Say not that your expenses
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increase; that you have built a house and have not yet paid for it; that you have bought new furniture at a large outlay; that you wish to increase your capital in order to assist some new enterprise ; that you have married a wife and taken an expensive bridal trip. Oh, tell it not in Gath, lest the uncir- cumcised triumph.
"There are many reasons which make liberality desirable. It is useful-useful in a thousand ways. It is also advantageous to those relieved. But none of these grounds does St. Paul take. 'I mean not,' said he, ' that other men be eased and ye burdened,' as though the benefit to the poor were the main end ; as though God cared for the poor and not for the rich ; as though to get from those who have, and to give to those who have not, were the main object of inciting to liberality. No, he takes higher ground. It is a grace of God. He contemplates the benefit to the giver. Charity is not merely useful; it is lovely. It is not a mere engine of our nature to work for social improvement; it makes us Godlike.
" But Christian liberality must be the work of the willing mind. For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not accord- ing to that he hath not. Plainly, it is not the value of the contribution, but the love of the contributor which makes it precious. The offering is hallowed or unhallowed in God's sight by the spirit in which it is given. This truth is most strikingly illustrated by the widow's mite. Tried by the guage of the treasurer of a charity it was next to nothing. Tried
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by the test of charity it was more than that of all. Her coins, worthless in the eyes of the rich Phari- see, were, in the eyes of Christ, transformed by her love into the gold of the eternal city.
" Yet St. Paul does not say that a willing mind is all. He makes a wise addition, 'Now, therefore, perform the doing of it.' . Because, true though it be, that willingness is accepted where the means are not, yet where the means are, willingness is tested only by performance. Good feelings, good sentiments, charitable intentions are only condensed in sacrifice. Test yourself by action. Test your feelings and your fine liberal words by self-denial. Do not let life evaporate in slothful sympathies. You wish you were rich, and fancy that then you would make the poor happy, and spend your life in bless- ing. Now, now is the time ; now or never. Ha- bituate your heart to acts of giving. Habitu- ate your spirit to the thought that in our lives something is owed to God. Neglect this now, and you will not practise it more when rich. Charity is a habit of the soul. Therefore now is the time.
" But time admonishes me to pass on to a conclu- sion. We know not how long, my beloved people, the relation which has subsisted between us for so many years will continue. In the ordinary course of hu- man events it must be short, very short. When a few more suns shall have run their annual round, when a few more advent seasons shall have come and gone, this relation will be closed in death, and the voice that is now speaking, and the ear that is .
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now hearing, will be alike silent in the grave. God grant that when the Master cometh, and calleth us to our long and last account, we may each and all be found faithful.
"As I look back on the years that have passed, I think I can say I have tried to be faithful in the duties of my ministry. I have labored and prayed to be faithful. And yet the prayer will involun- tarily rise, 'Lord enter not into judgment with Thy servant! Weigh not my merits, but pardon my of- fences, for Jesus Christ's sake.'
"But in that judgment which will then take place, the long years we have spent together will come up for review, and the questions of my faithfulness and of your faithfulness will be among the most solemn and important that will then be asked. When the great white throne shall be set, on which shall be seated the Judge of all, the grand enquiry will be, what have you done with all the time of life in yonder world? You spent thirty or forty years there, perhaps seventy or eighty. I gave you this time, with a thousand opportunities and means of grace and salvation. What have you done with all? How many sermons have you heard? How many Sabbaths, how many seasons did I give you for prayer and retirement, and converse with God and your own soul ? Did you improve your time ? Did you pray? Did you converse with God and your own soul ? or did you suffer them to slide away without any improvement, and neglect the one thing needful? If we look back on the year now near its.
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end, how small a space do striking circumstances occupy in our individual lives! The daily tasks make the year, but surely these are not unfruitful. God was in them visiting and trying us; silently, perhaps unobservedly, raising up small trials, and then as silently removing them; offering us means of grace, and then laying them by with their fruits for eternity; suggesting holy resolutions and deeds of self-denying love-just suggesting them-softly uttering them in the whispers of conscience, and then leaving them to be heard and followed by gen- tle, loving, watchful hearts, or to be slighted by the cold, or drowned by the world-engrossed hearts.
" God's purposes will be fulfilled in His own good time; and our efforts, if sincere and earnest, will not lose their reward, though we see not as yet their fruit. And still less must we mourn over worldly failures, the severance of ties, the changes of cir- cumstances, which time may bring. Our work must be to use them to God's glory while they last, not to pine after them when they are gone. If we thus strive to use them to our profit, they will have done God's work, and be sure we shall hear of them again with joy in the last great day,-that day when all those seeming trifles of life, those daily tasks of which the world takes but small reckoning, but which are in truth so momentous-for are they not fraught with an eternity of joy or woe ?- when all these trials of God shall appear before the awful judgment throne, to give up their fruit for heaven or hell, and we by their reckoning shall live or die
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for ever. So, too, with this departing year. A few more days and it will have passed away, and its deeds, great and small; its incidents, ordinary or not, will have gone, but not so their fruit. The effects upon ourselves, the characters which they have stamped upon us, that which they have made us, these will abide for ever, and in these they will live again. The year is going, but its work remains. It has done its work. I pause not to consider what that work has been in the world around. Rather let us turn and look within. Let us search and try our own hearts, for there, too, has the expiring year done its work; and whose work is it? God's or satan's ? God has tried us, and how have we passed the trial ? He has been with us, each one of us in- dividually, trying us in various ways, putting means of grace within our reach, and watching our use or our neglect of them, suffering temptations to come upon us, and then fixing His all-seeing eye upon us to mark our behavior under them. In unnumbered ways has He uttered words of warning and encourage- ment; would that we had heeded them more. And now all this is at an end. The year is near its close, and what account have we to give ?
The thirty-first year of his ministry in the Monu- mental Church, ending in 1876, Dr. Woodbridge records : " On 12th December, 1875, held service in Sunday-school room; church repairs finished, but paint not dry enough to use the church." Again, on the 19th, he says : "Church to-day used."
On the 2nd January, 1876, he says : "The Rev.
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Mr. Bartlett, of Philadelphia, read the service." February 6th : " The Rev. Mr. Alrich preached for me in the morning; I read the service; I was quite unwell."
February 13th : "In the morning the Rev. Mr. Tidball preached ; also in the afternoon; I was con- fined to the house sick." February 27th : "Ex- changed with the Rev Mr. E. Wall, and preached in St. James' Church." April 23, afternoon : "The anniversary of Monumental Church Sunday-school. I made an address, followed by Rev. Mr. Weddell and Rev. Mr. F. M. Baker ; the occasion and ser- vices interesting."
"April 30 : Morning, sermon to those confirmed ; afternoon, baptisms. May 7: Morning, I preached, and Rev. Mr. Baker read the service and assisted in the communion. In the afternoon I baptized four children. May 14: In the morning I preached, Mr. Fisher read the service. In the afternoon the anniversary of all the Episcopal Sunday-schools was held in St. Paul's Church. May 21 : Morning, Rev. Dr. Wade preached, and in the afternoon the Rev. Mr. Tizzard." He says, " I left the city on the 16th to attend the council at Alexandria. I left Alexan- dria on the 20th, to go to Chester, Penn., to perform the marriage service for Edwards (his son) to Miss Deshong, in which I was assisted by the Rev. Mr. Brown. I returned Saturday, the 27th, after visit- ing the 'Centennial.'" Under 28th June he says, " Tuesday, the 20th, I went to William and Mary, to
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attend the college commencement of the Board of Visi- tors. Saturday I went to Norfolk, having exchanged with the Rev. Mr. Barten. June 25th, I preached in Christ Church, Norfolk. In the evening read the service at 6."
"July 2: Preached in morning, and Rev. Mr. Baker assisted me in the holy communion, and read the service. July 9 : Morning very warm, mercury at 92 in the church ; made an address from the chancel. In the afternoon, at 4, performed the funeral service of a colored child, and had our usual church service at 6. July 30 : Rev. Mr. Baker as- sisted me in the communion. Mr. Gardner (our former senior warden) very ill.
"August 6: Right Rev. Thos. U. Dudley preached this morning." He says, "I left the city, with my daughter Mary, by the steamer Old Dominion, for New York. I left New York Friday morning, August 4th, and reached Saratoga about 2 o'clock. I left home the 1st of August, and returned Friday, the 15th of September. I left Saratoga the 15th of August, and reached Quogue, on Long Island, same evening. I left Quogue August 29th, and reached Woodside, in New Jersey, the same evening. Fri- day, 1st of September, I reached Germantown. I left Germantown the 5th of September, and reached Chester the same day, at 11 A. M. I left Chester Friday, the 15th, and reached home the same day. I preached at Quogue, at Germantown, at Chester.
" October 1st, Rev. Mr. Williams preached in the forenoon, and Rev. Mr. Randolph read the service
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and assisted me in the communion. In the after- noon Mr. Randolph preached. Choir complete.
"October 29: In the afternoon the anniversary of the Henrico Sunday-schools took place, at which the Rev. Robert Gibson and myself made addresses, and a collection for diocesan missions was taken up. At night the union service for the 'Episcopal Church Home' took place, at which I made an address, and the Rev. Mr. Jackson preached. A collection was taken up for the church home.
" November 19th: In the afternoon the church was closed, to attend the meeting of the Bible Society at St. Paul's."
"1877, November 29, Thanksgiving day. " The sermons as recorded in Dr. Woodbridge's journal, preached in the Monumental Church for the year ending as above, add up sixty-one, and sixteen by other clergymen for him.
Under date of 10th December, Dr. Woodbridge says : "I went to 'St. John's' at night, and delivered an address at a Bible meeting in behalf of the Vir- ginia Bible Society, and the Rev. Dr. Hoge delivered an address also."
On the 17th, he says: "I went to Hanover, to ad- minister the holy communion at 'Fork Church,' and preached. Stayed at Mr. Doswell's; daughter Julia went with me. I returned home Monday; the Rev. Mr. Roller took my place at the Monumental."
"January 14: I read a communication from the vestry touching the disturbances to the congrega- tion. "
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" March 25 : Baptized four adults in afternoon : Mrs. Crawford, Mrs. Crutchfield, Miss Nott, and Robert Saunders."
"April 15: In the afternoon held the service of anniversary of our Sunday-school. I made an ad- dress, also the Rev. Melville Jackson, of Grace Church."
"May 9, Ascension day : Rev. Mr. P. H. Robert, (formerly Sunday-school scholar of Monumental,) of St. Louis, preached for me in the forenoon. The 13th, Rev. Dr. Wheat preached in the morning. 20th, Whit-Sunday, Rev. P. Robert preached and assisted me in the holy communion."
"July 15: Rev. Mr. Armstrong preached morn- ing and afternoon. I went Monday, the 9th, to Buffalo Lithia Springs, where I remained until the 20th, when I returned home; I preached there."
"I left home August 6th, Monday, with my daughter Julia. We went first to Quogue, Long Is- land, to enjoy sea-bathing. We left there the evening of Thursday, the 23rd, for Sag Harbor. Friday, we left for Hartford, arriving there at night. I left Hartford Wednesday, the 12th September, and went to Germantown, where I stayed till the 18th, when I went to Chester, where I remained till Thursday, the 22nd, when I returned to Richmond, having been absent seven weeks and three days. I preached at Hartford, at the church of 'the Good Shepherd;' at Christ Church, at Germantown."
" During the last three Sundays in August the church was closed ; but it was opened in the morning
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the first three Sundays in September, by the Rev. Mr. J. W. Shields.
" October 14: Rev. Mr. Williams, of Georgia, baptized the child of Mr. Isaacs after the second les- son in morning service. I therefore omitted the ante-communion service.
"November 4: The Rev. Mr. Williams, of Geor- gia, assisted me in the holy communion, and in the afternoon baptized two children, Clement Thaw Morton and Hubert P. Lefevre.
" November 11 : Morning, I read the pastoral let- ter of the House of Bishops.
. " November 29 : Thanksgiving day ; preached in forenoon." This completed his thirty-second year's ministry in the Monumental Church.
Entering upon his thirty-third year as pastor of Monumental Church with Advent Sunday, Decem- ber, 1877, Dr. Woodbridge records : " In afternoon baptized infant, Elizabeth Higginbotham, daughter of Bell and Edward H. Fisher, and catechised also the children in the Sunday-school."
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