USA > Virginia > City of Staunton > City of Staunton > The First Presbyterian Church, Staunton, Virginia > Part 20
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You are already acquainted with the program, so it will not be necessary for me to say more in the beginning, than that our brother, Mr. Joseph A. Waddell, one who is eminently fitted for the task, hav- ing been an active member of this Church for years, and whose an- cestry dates back to its beginning, has kindly consented to give a his- tory of this Church. I am also glad to say our Church is unencum- bered-that as a preparation for this occasion it has paid off all its debts.
Again I will remind you that this also is practically a family reunion, as you will observe that the participants in these exercises as far as could be arranged, have been or are directly or indirectly connected with this Church. For example: The first sermon will be preached by Rev. W. E. Baker, who was the beloved pastor of this Church for quarter of a century; Rev. J. P. Smith, D. D., the able editor of The Central Presbyterian, is a son of a former pastor; Rev. J. W. Rosebro, D. D., married a daughter of a former pastor; Rev. W. N. Scott, D. D., Rev. G. W. Finley, D. D., and Rev. Holmes Rolston and Rev. E. B. Druen are now pastors of churches, whose history or organization were connected with this Church.
I will now turn over the further direction of these services to our pastor, Rev. A. M. Fraser, D. D.
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At the conclusion of Dr. Walker's remarks the pastor introduced Rev. W. E. Baker, former pastor of the Church, who had come from his home in Georgia to take part in these Centennial exercises. Mr. Baker began his labors as pastor of this Church December 1, 1857, was installed as pastor April 23, 1859, and resigned his charge in 1884, thus serving the congregation twenty-seven years, or more than one-fourth of the time since the Church was organized.
Mr. Jett, representing the Ministerial Association, then spoke expressing the interest of all the preachers in the city, in the Centennial, and their pleasure at Dr. Fraser's remaining in Staunton. - Staunton Dispatch and News October 27, 1904.
OPENING SERMON, BY REV. W. E. BAKER
[To the Pastors Present:]
Welcome, Brethren, to participation in these services with us. We don't believe in falling from grace, but we believe in Methodists. We don't believe in immersion, but we believe in Baptists. We don't believe in confirmation, but we believe in Episcopalians. We are noted for magnifying the law of God, so are you, and therefore it will suit us all to consider the text.
ROMANS 3:20; " By the law is the knowledge of sin." There is a vague impression among men that they are sinners; like the impression in regard to the internal revenue system, or as to what is necessary to bodily health; but such an impression falls far short of knowledge. The public are aware in the general that tobacco manufacturers are required to pay certain taxes, but those engaged in the business must have definite information. The use of a cancelled stamp, or of an already emptied package, may subject them to a heavy penalty.
So the knowledge of sin is necessary in order to accurate obedi- ence, and accurate obedience is fully as important in dealing with divine, as with human authority. God's government is not weaker or laxer than man's. He is merciful, but not careless. The sinner is not let off any more than the forger, because he meant no harm. Our obedience is always imperfect, but it must not be inaccurate. The priests of old, Aaron and Eli, were imperfect, but they soon learned that to be accurate was indispensable. Nadab and Abihu offered strange and uncommanded fire before the Lord, and there went out
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fire and devoured them. Uzzah put forth his hand to stay the ark, and he dropped deadbe cause of his willful error and ignorance of the law.
There must be definite and precise knowledge therefore, of the law of God and of the sin which consists of any want of conformity unto, or transgression of it. In such knowledge alone is there safety and freedom from alarm. The man who touches the highly charged wire is killed instantly, and the crowd around flee in terror, as the crowd fled from the ark at Perez-Uzzah, Obed-Edom alone was fearless, because enlightened, and he joyfully received the object of the peo- ple's terror into his house. So the skilled electrician does not partici- pate in the general alarm at the smell of burning flesh because he knows exactly when to touch and where to touch. And the experi- enced engineer is no more terrified by the bursting and death-dealing steam than the experienced Christian is terrified by the destroying earthquake or pestilence. God and His mighty agents act according to law, and all that we need in order to safety is knowledge.
And let us not imagine that there is any general amnesty which renders such knowledge unnecessary-that the pardon of our sins removes all occasion for the consideration of them. The pardon, we should remember, is always preceded by the trial, and is never issued until the question of guilt is settled. To pardon before trial, is to give license to every man to sin as he pleases and without restraint. We have nothing therefore, to do with pardon at this stage of the legal process against us. Our business now is to go into court and hear the charges of the prosecutor, and see that our case is well presented. We must have knowledge, therefore, and all the knowl- edge we can get, and this knowledge, according to our text comes "by the law."
FIRST: The law distinguishes-shows what is right and what is wrong. Heathen communities have very erroneous ideas as to morals. Every possible crime is justified in some one or other of them. Even among nominal Christians many approve what God condemns. True, we are endowed with conscience and a sense of what is equitable, but this is not enough. The laws of the State are intended to be equitable, but an equitable man cannot tell what they require, unless he reads them. Conscience cannot decide when a title to property is perfect. Moreover, the law strengthens conscience by its definiteness. The yard stick is a powerful aid to honesty. It is harder to cross the line between good and evil, if we know exactly where it is. When a man is perfectly certain that a thing is wrong, he is not so apt to do it, and he is more seriously disturbed when he
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does do it. We would have more carefulness in conduct, if every forbidden spot had a red mark around it, and every forbidden pleas- ure were labelled poison.
SECONDLY: The law not only spreads its statute book before us, but it provides for the delivery of a special charge. The statute book may not be familiar; it may, in part, be intended"for a different time and place; some of its provisions may be thought obsolete, and it may be a question whether they will be enforced; the whole seems in a measure powerless and dead, and does not, like the charge of the living judge, bring home our offenses to us. This charge calls attention to what is present and actual; puts us on notice of what we may expect, and makes every offender within hearing tremble.
The charge of the human judge, at the opening of the court, sug- gests to us that other charge which the Judge of all the earth makes by His Spirit to every sinner. True, this latter has not yet taken His seat on the great white throne of final judgment, but as the Christ was present before his birth, by anticipation in the angel of the covenant, so the Judge is present now by anticipation through His represen- tative, the Holy Spirit. This representative is come; is present among us; and it is His office work to convince the world of sin. His agency transmutes the dead law into a living charge, and as He reasons of righteousness, temperance and a judgment to come, the guilty con- science trembles at the sound.
THIRDLY: The law indicts. Transgressions of human law are very common, and do not always affect ones standing in the com- munity. Almost every one trangresses at some point, and we do not cease to have confidence in persons, because of such delinquency. But when I write for the character of a proposed agent to attend to some business for me in a distant part of the country, and the county clerk replies that that man is under indictment by the grand jury, for larceny, to be tried at the next term of the court, I drop him at once. The rumors that have come to me, about the man may be favorable; he seems no worse than many others, and no more guilty than he was be- fore the indictment, but the official word outweighs every minor consideration.
So when the grand jury of the sixty-six inspired books of the Bible, agree in bringing an indictment against a man as a sinner, the case begins to appear much more serious than was first supposed. And yet this is the legal status of every sinner here. Judicial process has various stages, and he is at the stage of indictment. The statute book has been spread open, the charge delivered, and now the indict-
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ment has been found, and the trial is to come off, at the next term of the court, the only and the final term, the grand assize of the judg- ment.
FOURTHLY: The law arrests. When a citizen of high standing is served by the officer of the court with a warrant, giving information that he has been indicted for some offense, which he had forgotten, or had hoped was unknown to others, he sinks at once into a weak and miserable culprit. Thus it was in the case of Paul, a citizen of the highest standing among his fellows, who said, giving his own experience, "when the commandments came, sin revived and I died." When the offense forgotten, or supposed to be unknown, was presented to him in the form of an indictment, officially served, he was conscious of a collapse that was like death itself. Now. the law of God comes to you this day, O sinner, and bids you consider yourself under arrest. Men under arrest, you know, are not always imprisoned. Their circum- stances may as effectually prevent their escape as bolts and bars. There is no danger that you will escape. You are in prison where you are. The whole world is a prison to one whom God arrests. Though you ascend into heaven, or make your bed in hell, though you take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, your keeper remains still just beside you.
Consider yourself then under arrest. You had forgotten perhaps your offense, but there is the exact description, copied from the records of the court. The charge against you, is not mere current rumor, or private opinion, but in official form, proceeding from an authority that is fully responsible, that is ready, in thus joining issue against you, to take all risks of insult and injury from you and yours, and that is solemnly pledged to follow up the case, through all the stages of trial, to ultimate condemnation.
FIFTHLY: The law particularizes. No suit is ever brought against a man because of his general bad character. No one is ever put on trial for being a thief unless there are specifications-unless he has stolen some particular thing, at some particular time, from some particular person. So, you cannot be a sinner in general, unless you are a sinner in particular. You cannot be a sinner, unless you have broken some one of the commandments, and if you are not a sinner, this house of mercy is no place for you, and Jesus is no Saviour for you, seeing that you do not need Him.
If, then, you are a sinner, single out and fix your attention upon some one of the commandments which you have broken, and upon some particular instance of the breaking of that commandment. Take the commandment, "Thou shalt not steal." What did you steal? From whom? At what time and place? Or let it be the ninth in the
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Decalogue. Recall some instance when you bore false witness against your neighbor. Who was that neighbor? What were your slanderous words against him, and where were you when you uttered them? These interrogatories I put not to witnesses, but directly, as is the usage of the courts of some countries, to the prisoner at the bar, If you have forgotten and are unable at once to reply, a little cross- examination may make the matter plain. Have you, then, in any way encroached upon your neighbor's interests? Have you inordinately desired the good things of this world? Have you been envious at the prosperity of others? Have you yielded to anxiety about your tem- poral support? These are four of the twenty-seven specifications, under what is forbidden in the eighth commandment. Or, have you been silent when iniquity called for reproof? Have you opened your mouth maliciously in speaking the truth? Have you been rash and hasty in censuring? Have you countenanced evil reports? These offenses are but a sample of the forty-nine ways in which the ninth commandment may be broken.
Hear, then, the summing up against you. You cannot deny that you are sinners in the general. You have confessed it a thousand times and are not allowed to take back the confession when the trial comes on. True, we find men confessing with one breath, and denying with the next. When in the presence of sympathizers, or in the circle of fellow sinners, they say without reserve, "O, yes, we are all sinners, of course," but when in the presence of those who condemn and where the commandments of God are urged, they wipe their mouths in self- satisfaction, and say, "All these have we kept from our youth up." They confess, when there is no fear of legal proceedings, yea, glory in their wildness, in their triumphs over virtue, in their sharp trading, in their evasion of the law, but the moment they are overtaken by indict- ment and arrest, they subside, and the prudent lawyer bids them close their mouths. So, the wild young fellow in college, glories in chicken- stealing, among his boon companions of the midnight supper, but when his father of legal education and standing assumes a tone of severity, and tells him that what he speaks of so lightly, is a peni- tentiary offense; ah, then, of course, he had nothing to do with the theft; that was committed by the others.
Now suppose that when a man was on trial for alleged fraud in business, every idle word among his partners and confederates, should be before the court and admissible as evidence; how soon would that man be covered with confusion? Such confidential and careless utter- ances, cannot. and may not be brought up, in the case of the human tribunal, but it is different in the case of the tribunal that is Divine. For, we are distinctly assured, that all the loose and light talk of men
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about their successful roguery, is to come up in the final testimony against them. "For I say unto you, that for every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment."
What then, my hearers, can you say, or how will you clear your- selves? You have confessed that you are sinners in the general and, therefore, cannot deny that you are sinners in particular. You have broken the law of God as a whole and, therefore, cannot deny that you have broken the separate commandments: "Thou shalt not kill; steal; commit adultery; bear false witness; dishonor father or mother." You are guilty with regard to many of the specifications under these sepa- rate commandments and, therefore, cannot deny that you are guilty with regard to the main charge.
It is often the case that the prisioner or the witness breaks down under the terrible examination and cross-examination of the prosecutor. If there ever was a case for inevitable breaking down, it is that of the sinner under the terrible examination and cross-examination of the word and spirit of the heart-searching God.
SIXTHLY: The law exposes. As long as a delinquency is not made a subject of judicial investigation, there is more or less of restraint in speaking of it. The people whisper their thoughts, and the newspa- pers only hint. The moment, however, the law touches it, all restraint is removed; the name of the party, his family, circumstances, his pri- vate life is divulged and published throughout the world. All this re- sults from the fact that the law is essentially public, and its procedures and investigations are so also. Its first step always is to impale and hold up the act of transgression before the eyes of all men. And herein largely consists its power and the salutary awe with which it is regarded.
So the law of God produces knowledge of sin by revealing it when secret and exposing it upon the housetop. Not indeed that we are to confess at once everything to our fellow men, for that would bring ruin and chaos and turn the preliminary into final judgment. If, my hearers, the true character of every individual in the best church in the land were known, and every word that every member had spoken in twenty-five years against every other member were published, that church would be torn into atoms, and no two persons in it be left in friendly relations to each other.
While however, we are not at present for good and sufficient, reasons, to reveal our shame to those around us, our case is really more distressing than this. To confess to others, who know little of
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us, care and think little about us, and can do us little of good or evil, what is that to confessing to one always at hand and whose good opinion is absolutely necessary-in other words to self ?
Multitudes have reeled and blurted out their oaths on the street, who yet have never acknowledged to themselves that they were drunkards and blasphemers. That a man may be atrociously wicked, and yet entirely ignorant of the fact is unquestionable. And so abso- lutely necessary is the good opinion of self, to preserve from utter despair, that a man would surrender the good opinion of every creature on earth to retain it. He would rather that the whole world should see his wickedness than take a look at it himself.
But more distressing still is the fact that you are to confess, not to accomplices and sympathisers not merely to partial self, but to One infinitely holy and just, in whose hands your breath is and whose are all your ways.
Men think it easy to confess to God, because they do not realize God. Confessing to Him seems like putting their lips up against a stone wall or pouring out their words to the wild ocean. Multitudes of persons, the most refined and delicate ladies, communicate every mean and vile and filthy detail of their heart and life to the ears of the priest, who have never yet been willing to reveal a single word of their iniquity to God.
Even exposure, however, becomes a trifle, when the sin itself begins to sting. No man or woman ever had a thought about dress in the torture chamber, and so when the law of God begins to reveal our sin, showing the particular spot, whence the dull general pain proceeds, and thrusting its keen point into the diseased nerve, the agony result- ing at once banishes all concern as to how we appear to others.
SEVENTHLY: The law condemns. Condemnation by individuals is very common. You and I have, no doubt, been condemned a hundred times by those around us, and it hasn't disturbed us very much. Every one in the church condemns some of their fellow members; but it is very different when the church authorities in their official capacity, pass sentence upon an individual. The sentence may be a mild one, but it burns like a charged electric wire.
The tremendous power of such a sentence, arises from the con- viction in us, that condemnation, like forgiveness, is a prerogative of God alone. "Who art thou that judgest thy brother, or condemneth another man's servant?" Human courts are multiplied, because it takes a long time for the morally blind to see the difference between the rogue and the honest man, and they have a real authority to condemn only so far as they are divine ordinances. The weight of the sentence in every case depends upon the certainty of its emana-
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tion from the great and righteous God. And this condemnation is not of sinners as a class, or of the race as a race. Condemnation always relates, and can only relate to individuals. When a rebellious province is conquered, it is not admissible to pass sentence upon the whole population. Each individual must be tried and treated sepa- rately. A superior ecclesiastical court can never sit in judgment upon the personel of an inferior, but only upon its official acts. To pass sentence upon a class, an organization, a majority or minority, would violate the most fundamental principles of justice, and, at once, raise a storm. Each individual must first be tried by regular judicial process. God condemns sinners as He saves them, one by one, and the plea of the penitent always is, "have mercy upon me." The charge is not against you in common with others, no name but yours appears in the indictment; no other offender is associated with you, to divide the guilt, or help you bear the shame.
Finally the law affixes a penalty to the sin, and we rate the sin by the penalty. We speak of a penitentiary offense. If there is no penalty in the popular judgment, there is no transgression. If the punishment is capital, the transgression is capital. Our knowledge of sin therefore is greatly increased when we learn that it bringeth forth death. Moreover the very idea of penalty is a startling one, making the difference between dying on the gallows, and in one's bed. Oh, the awful majesty of the law of God! What a volume of statutes it spreads before us; how terrific the charge which it brings from the Judge of all; how alarming the indictment which it finds against the sinner, how hard the hand of its arrest, how penetrating its examina- tion, and pitiless its exposure; how mercilessly it condemns, and how overwhelming is its penalty,
Much is said about the law's delay, yet every case must come to trial sooner or later for after death is the judgment. "And I saw a great white throne and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away." "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened, and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works."
How shall we appear, my brethren, on that day? How are we to endure the siftings, the exposures, the light flashing in upon the secrets of bye gone years, the revelation of deeds of shame?
Let us commit our cause to the great Advocate of sinners, and then when the final trumpet calls us to the bar, we shall hear His mighty voice pleading in the hushed assembly on our behalf, while we in the back ground rivet our gaze upon His glorious form, and draw life
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and hope from His matchless words. Yes, it is our only chance. "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, even Christ the righteous."
Mr. Baker closed by reciting in the most impressive manner, that great old hymn of the penitent, a version of the 51st psalm:
Show pity, Lord, O Lord forgive, Let a repenting rebel live. Are not Thy mercies large and free, May not a sinner trust in Thee?
THE CENTENNIAL ADDRESS OF HON. JOSEPH A. WADDELL DELIV- ERED IN THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, OCTOBER 26, 1904.
At Wednesday night's exercises, after short religious service, Hon. Joseph A. Waddell sketched the history of the First Presbyterian Church as follows:
We have no picture or particular description of Staunton, in the year 1804, a hundred years ago, but we may safely say that it was a shabby village. It was founded about sixty years previously on the frontier of civilization, when the war-whoop of Indians was some- · times heard in the vicinity. The number of inhabitants was probably from eight hundred to a thousand. The dwellings and other houses were clustered around the court house and near several springs which flowed into Lewis' Creek. A postoffice was installed here in 1793, and the relative importance of the place may be inferred from the fact that in 1789 the number of offices in the whole United States was only seventy-five. Staunton and Winchester were the first towns in the English possessions west of the Blue Ridge. The only house of worship in town, in 1804, was the old Parish Church, built in colonial times, when the Church of England was established by law. Possibly the first Methodist Church had been erected by that time, but of that I am not sure.
The famous Frenchman, Rochefoucault, visited Staunton in 1797, and, in his account of his travels, says that a Presbyterian Church was then going up here. He is certainly mistaken in regard to the denom- ination, as the Presbyterians built no meeting house in town until more than twenty years after 1797. It may have been the first Meth- odist Church, and yet the name of Staunton Circuit does not appear in the minutes of the Methodist Episcopal Church till the year 1806.
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