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MEMORIALS 
 
 Rev. John Cantine Farrell Hoes D.D. 
 
 EDITED BY THE 
 
 REV. C. VAN SANTVOORD D.D. 
 
 Printeir, not |JublislieI> 
 
|\.'iUH-«^l 
 
 Copyright, 1883, bv L. M, HOES. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Biographical Sketch 7 
 
 II. 
 Funeral Addresses 39 
 
 III. 
 Public Testimonials 55 
 
 IV. 
 Individual Tributes 77 
 
 V. 
 
 Sermon of Dr. Hoes Before Classis 97 
 
 VI. 
 Appendix 119 
 
I. 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 AMONG the earlier emigrants from Holland who 
 found a home on the shores of this continent 
 was Jan Tysse Hoes, the ancestor of him who is the 
 subject of this sketch. The name of Hoes reaches 
 through eight generations in this country, extending 
 back to the early part of the seventeenth century. John 
 D. Hoes, the grandfather of Dr. Hoes, died January 25, 
 1789, at the age of thirty-five. His father, Peter I. 
 Hoes, was born in Kinderhook, N. Y., and after a resi- 
 dence of several years in Middleburgh, N. Y., returned 
 to Kinderhook in 181 7, where he continued to reside, 
 highly respected for his intelligence and all the quali- 
 ties that form a good citizen, till his death in 1846, at 
 the age of sixty-one. Hannah Hoes, the sister of 
 Peter, and aunt of Dr. Hoes, was the wife of Martin 
 Van Buren, eighth President of the United States. The 
 grandfather, on the mother's side, was Peter Swart, 
 a native of Schoharie, where he died in 1829, at the 
 age of seventy-seven. He was an officer in the Revo- 
 lutionary War, and rendered efficient service in the 
 valleys of the Schoharie and Mohawk. After the war 
 he held several civil positions of honor and trust, among 
 them being those of Judge of Schoharie County, State 
 
lo yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 Assemblyman and Senator, and Representative to Con- 
 gress. He was a man of high character and wide in- 
 fluence, and was held in marked estimation by all who 
 knew him. His daughter, Maria Swart, was married 
 to Peter I. Hoes, and died in 185 1, from the effect of 
 an injury received while on a visit to New York to her 
 son, the late Peter S. Hoes, Esq. She was a most 
 estimable lady in all the relations of life, leaving as her 
 memorial a name which none could mention without 
 praise. 
 
 The eldest son, John C. F. Hoes, was born at 
 Middleburgh, N. Y., July 13, 181 1. He enjoyed the 
 advantages of a Christian nurture, as well in the family 
 as In the society in which his lot was cast. His home 
 having become fixed at Kinderhook since 181 7, he was 
 brought under the pastoral care and training of that 
 devoted servant of Christ, the Rev. Jacob Sickles, D.D. 
 During the revival with which the Kinderhook Church 
 was largely blessed in 1827, Dr. Hoes was seriously 
 impressed by the manner in which his pastor urged the 
 claims of experimental religion upon the attention of 
 his people. " One sermon in particular," wrote Dr. 
 Hoes, in 1869, "I distinctly recollect above all others. 
 It was to myself a sermon of enlightening influence and 
 convincing power, making an impression on my mind 
 as enduring as my existence. The text of that sermon 
 was taken from the Prophet Haggai i. 5 : ' Thus saith 
 the Lord, consider your ways,' and by the blessing of 
 God upon that sermon, some of us were led to consider 
 our ways." On August 24th of that year, at the early 
 
Biographical Sketch. 1 1 
 
 age of sixteen, Dr. Hoes became a member of the Re- 
 formed Dutch Church of Kinderhook, being among the 
 fruits of the work of grace just referred to. That this 
 step was not tlie result of mere youthful emotion, and 
 was taken after mature and conscientious deliberation, 
 is shown by a record made by him and dated June 15, 
 1827, several weeks before his public profession of faith 
 in Christ. In this paper he says: "I have set apart 
 this day for humiliation and prayer, and particularly for 
 self-examination and the secret dedication of myself and 
 all that I have, or shall have, to God, for time and eter- 
 nity. After having examined myself by the word of 
 God, according to the best of my knowledge and abil- 
 ity, I think I can find evidence that my views and feel- 
 ings in relation to God and his character have been 
 radically changed, and that I have met with that change 
 of heart which is called in the Bible, Regeneration, or 
 the New Birth." He then writes down several reso- 
 lutions relating to personal duties and observances, 
 which, with the help of God, he purposes through life 
 to perform, the last being in these words : " 7th. That 
 I will, at least once in each week, faithfully and prayer- 
 fully examine myself, to see what are the ruling motives 
 of my heart, and also to discover whether I have in- 
 deed passed from death unto life." 
 
 This is a striking record as made by a youth of six- 
 teen, and evinces a degree of careful self-searching, of 
 conscious responsibility, with a maturity as well of in- 
 trospection as of forecast, rarely seen in one so young, 
 and auguring well for a devoted Christian life. 
 
12 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 In the Kinderhook Academy, then one of the most 
 flourishing and best-known institutions of the kind in 
 the State, Dr. Hoes pursued his preparatory studies. 
 The Christian ministry was his aim almost from the 
 beginning of his Christian Hfe, and long before leaving 
 school for college he had fully decided on his future 
 vocation. He accordingly entered the Sophomore 
 Class of Amherst College in 1829, and graduated with 
 great credit in 1832, with the Theological Semi- 
 nary directly in view as completing his preparatory 
 training for the honored office he was longing to oc- 
 cupy. He entered Princeton Theological Seminary the 
 same year he left college, and after pursuing his studies 
 there with great diligence for two years, was duly 
 licensed to preach the gospel, by the Presbytery of 
 New Brunswick, on September 16, 1834 — his term in 
 the Seminary, where his course was continued after 
 licensure, not ending till 1835. Dr. Hoes while in the 
 Seminary wisely improved all the opportunities afforded 
 him of preparation for his great life-work. With his 
 characteristic energy, he threw his whole soul into his 
 studies. His note-books of seminary lectures are 
 models of completeness, precision, and care. His dis- 
 courses prepared at that time bear the characteristic 
 marks of his subsequent preaching. They were simple, 
 consecutive, logical, and strictly evangelical. The first 
 discourse he ever preached was in old Kinderhook. 
 "In that church," he wrote in 1869, "with great fear 
 and trembling, for the first time, in the presence of 
 my parents, and those who had known me from my 
 
Biographical Sketch. 13 
 
 infancy, I was permitted to ascend the winding stairs 
 to the pulpit, and preach my first sermon." 
 
 During Dr, Hoes' last year in the Seminary, he 
 frequently supplied pulpits in the surrounding country 
 and elsewhere, preaching, among other places, several 
 Sundays in February and March, 1835, at Clover Hill, 
 N. J., in the Reformed Dutch Church. This Church 
 immediately extended to him a call to become its pastor, 
 which, though cordially given, and opening to him a 
 promising field of labor, he felt constrained, from a 
 sense of duty, to decline. " The decision has been 
 reached," he wrote to them, " from a regard to my youth- 
 fulness In the ministry, my consequent want of experi- 
 ence in managing church matters, and particularly those 
 of an infant Church, and my consciousness of the need 
 of more study and training to become efficient and skil- 
 ful In winning souls to Christ." After leaving the Semi- 
 nary in 1835, he officiated for several Sundays during 
 the summer of that year In the Reformed Dutch Church 
 of Chittenango, N. Y., the result being a unanimous call 
 to become its pastor. Mistrustful of his ability to meet 
 the expectations of the people, on account of his youth 
 and inexperience, he proposed to preach a year before 
 being installed, that the Church and he might ascertain 
 whether the pastoral relation between them were fitting 
 to be established. The trial being satisfactory, he was, 
 accordingly, duly ordained and Installed by the Classls 
 of Cayuga, April 22, 1836, the sermon on the occasion 
 being preached from 2 Cor. Iv. 5, by the Rev. W. H. 
 Campbell, D.D., late President of Rutgers College. He 
 
14 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 commenced his labors among them with a strong- mis- 
 trust of self and as strong a reliance upon the grace of 
 God. " I would most solicitously ask an interest in 
 your prayers," he wrote to the Consistory, " and in the 
 prayers of all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ, at 
 Chittenango, that He would sustain me in the discharge 
 of my duties, and that my ministry may be blessed to 
 the temporal and eternal welfare of your Church and 
 congregation." He remained here, laboring with much 
 earnestness and acceptance, for nearly two years, when 
 his services were sought and secured for a wider field. 
 All through his life Dr. Hoes looked back upon his 
 brief pastorate at Chittenango with emotions of peculiar 
 pleasure. Some interesting reminiscences of his minis- 
 try there, in the form of a letter written by himself for 
 the semi-centennial anniversary of that church, are given 
 in another part of these memorials. 
 
 As an evidence of the favorable record and impres- 
 sion left by this brief ministry of two years at Chitten- 
 ango, it deserves to be mentioned that twenty-two years 
 afterward, that is in 1859, when Dr. Hoes was labor- 
 ing acceptably and efficiently in Kingston, a spirited 
 effort was made by the Chittenango Church to secure 
 once more the services of their former pastor, and he 
 was accordingly recalled with great heartiness and 
 unanimity. He was offered a salary much larger than 
 he was then receiving, and he was informed that it was 
 one-third more than they would be able to pay to any 
 other pastor. " There seems to be throughout the en- 
 tire Church," writes the Consistorial Committee, "one 
 
Biographical Sketch. 15 
 
 general expression of joy at the possible idea of your 
 becoming their pastor, and we cannot but hope that a 
 Gracious Providence has great good in store for this 
 people, and that you, dear sir, are to be the blessed 
 instrument in the Divine hand of a glorious work 
 here." Dr. Hoes could not but feel deeply gratified 
 by this movement on the part of the people forming his 
 first pastoral charge, but a sense of duty compelled him 
 to decline their invitation. The Kingston Church, to 
 which he was then ministering, had been largely blessed 
 under his labors, and had just been enjoying a remark- 
 able season of grace. Under such circumstances, he did 
 not feel justified in leaving his present field of labor, 
 and he accordingly communicated to his former people, 
 by letter, the result of his deliberations. The Con- 
 sistory, in referring to that letter, wrote : — '' It brought 
 sadness and gloom into the midst of our congregation, 
 for they had anticipated your return to the pastoral care 
 of our Church once more after so many years of separa- 
 tion — the Church of your first love. It may not be amiss 
 to say that under the banner of your name all factions 
 and interests were absorbed and centred upon you as 
 the instrument, in the hand of God, of a glorious work 
 among our people." 
 
 Dr. Hoes left Chittenango to assume pastoral 
 charge of the Reformed Dutch Church of Ithaca, N. 
 Y., to which, in May, 1837, he had been unanimously 
 called, the duties pertaining to the pastorate of which 
 he performed with assiduity, vigor, and success for a 
 period of eight years. Here, unknown to himself, he 
 
1 6 y-ohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 was undergoing- a season of delightful preparation for 
 gathering into the Master's garner richer fruits and 
 riper harvests in that larger vineyard which was to en- 
 gross the best spiritual and physical energies of his 
 life. His ministry in Ithaca, the longest in the history 
 of that Church, was truly memorable. The seal of 
 God's approval was stamped upon his preaching, and 
 one hundred and sixty-one new members were added 
 to the Church, a larger number than followed upon the 
 ministrations of any of its other pastors save its first, 
 the venerable Dr. Mann. 
 
 In September, 1845, the Reformed Dutch Church 
 of Kingston, N. Y., on the unanimous recommendation 
 of its Great Consistory, extended a call to Dr. Hoes, 
 which on mature deliberation he was induced to accept. 
 In communicating his decision to the Ithaca Church, 
 he informed them that the principal consideration 
 which influenced him to take the step was that a more 
 extended field of ministerial influence was opened before 
 him, and that the leadings of Providence seemed to in- 
 dicate that it was his duty to enter it. The separa- 
 tion was painful to both pastor and people, who were 
 strongly united in bonds of esteem and affection ; but, 
 at his urgent solicitation, they acquiesced in the dis- 
 solution of the pastoral relation, placing on record at 
 the same time their testimony to the " faithful and fear- 
 less manner " with which the pastor now leaving them 
 had performed his duties, and the happy relations which 
 had subsisted between him and his people during his 
 whole ministry among them. 
 
Biographical Sketch. 17 
 
 The ministry of Dr. Hoes to the Kingston Church 
 extended to January 7, 1867, a period of more than 
 twenty-one years. His labors as a faithful and devoted 
 servant of his Lord abounded here with signal tokens of 
 success. Large numbers were added to the Church. 
 The benevolent operations of the day were commended 
 and liberally 'sustained. The various interests of a 
 large congregation were assiduously watched over and 
 promoted, while the Church continued to occupy a high 
 position of influence and efficiency in the community. 
 The present spacious and attractive church edifice was 
 erected during his ministry, and stands as a memorial 
 to the enterprise and energy of himself and the people, 
 whose liberality and cordial co-operation served to 
 carry forward the work to a successful close. 
 
 In the early part of 1849, four years after his set- 
 tlement in Kingston, the Reformed Dutch Church of 
 Lodi, N. Y., sought to secure the services of Dr. Hoes, 
 and offered him its call. There were circumstances 
 about this field, thus unexpectedly opened, that com- 
 mended it strongly to his attention, and he laid the 
 matter before his Consistory, that their views might be 
 compared with his own in regard to the propriety of 
 continuing their connection as people and pastor. The 
 Consistory, by a unanimous vote, resolved: "That it 
 is our sincere desire that our present relation continue ; 
 and while we know of no reason why such connection 
 should be dissolved at any time, at the present crisis 
 especially, we think it would be detrimental to the in- 
 terests of our church, and that it would be contrary to 
 
1 8 John Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 the wishes and interest of the congregation, as well as 
 against our own wishes and feelings. With such sen- 
 timents influencing the Consistory, and the congrega- 
 tion in whose behalf they spoke, and whose feeling and 
 views they represented, the pastor had only the alter- 
 native to remain and labor where he was, by declining 
 the offer to go elsewhere. " I can assure you," he 
 wrote to the Lodi Consistory, in declining the call, 
 " that I am doing violence to many strong attachments 
 to friends and churches in your section of the State. 
 Those were some of the most delightful days of my 
 ministerial life which were spent with my brethren of 
 the Classis of Cayuga, and I can assure you it would 
 afford me great pleasure to be associated with them 
 again in the work of one common Master ; but my Con- 
 sistory and people feel that I ought by no means to 
 think of leaving them." His work in Kingston was 
 destined to occupy many useful years yet before it 
 reached a close, as his connection with the Church 
 there, both in its results and its duration, was to 
 mark the most important period of his ministerial life. 
 Besides the labors of his parish. Dr. Hoes was 
 much engaged in promoting the cause of education. 
 As evincing his interest in this department of labor, he 
 served as a Trustee of Kingston Academy from 1846, 
 for twenty years, and as President of its Board of Trus- 
 tees from 1854 to 1864. In 1861, on account of "the 
 duties arising from the relations he sustained to a large 
 parochial charge, and the impaired state of his health," 
 he resigned his membership and presidency of the 
 
Biographical Sketch. 19 
 
 Board. That body, however, declined to accept it, and 
 he continued its president until the Academy, by special 
 act of the Legislature, became merged into the system 
 of graded schools. The action of the Board of Educa- 
 tion, in view of his decease, appears in another place 
 in these Memorials. 
 
 The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred 
 upon Dr. Hoes on July 20, 1852, by Union College. 
 In 1867 he was elected President of the Board of 
 Superintendents of the Theological Seminary of the 
 Reformed Dutch Church at New Brunswick. 
 
 Dr. Hoes, for nearly thirty years, or since 1854, was 
 a Life-Director of the American Bible Society, and a 
 Life-Director of the American Tract Society since 1839. 
 He was a strong friend of the Young Men's Christian 
 Association of this place, and often visited their rooms. 
 In May, 1866, shortly after the organization of the first 
 Association, he presented it with a large and handsome 
 Bible for use in its public devotional services. " If we 
 can impress upon the minds of the young," he wrote in 
 his note accompanying the gift, " the importance of 
 ' searching the Scriptures,' a great point will be gained 
 in fortifying them against the temptations to vice with 
 which they are surrounded, and directing their steps 
 in paths of respectability and usefulness in this world, 
 as well as guiding them in the way of happiness in 
 the world to come." The action of the Young Men's 
 Christian Association in reference to the death of Dr. 
 Hoes is given elsewhere in these Memorials. 
 
 Dr. Hoes was a staunch advocate of the cause of 
 
20 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 temperance, and from his first entry into public life ad- 
 vocated its claims with perseverance and energy. He 
 was fearless and outspoken in his denunciation of the 
 use of intoxicating liquor, as a beverage, at a time 
 when the cause was unpopular, and its advocates too 
 often branded as enthusiasts and fanatics. Among the 
 earliest addresses he delivered, were two before his 
 fellow-townsmen in Kinderhook, before his ordination 
 to the ministry, in which, with rare beauty of diction 
 and strength of argument, he held up before them the 
 fearful evils of intemperance. He never poured more 
 pathos and earnestness into any of his discourses than 
 in those in which he portrayed the havoc, misery, and 
 ruin that follow in the course of the intoxicating cup. 
 Ever feeling sure of his position, he always presented 
 solid arguments, which he emphasized by Bible truth, 
 unanswerable statistics, and facts drawn from personal 
 observation. From the first he planted himself on 
 the broad platform of " Total Abstinence," as furnishing 
 the only permanent basis of safety. He, accordingly, 
 had no sympathy whatever with the advocates of 
 " Moderate Drinking," and ever denounced them as 
 among the most specious enemies of the work. While 
 Dr. Hoes approved of all proper external organizations 
 and other aids in the Temperance Reform, he, at the 
 same time, always claimed that the Church of Christ 
 was the best temperance society. He took the posi- 
 tion that all moral reforms were failures, except such as 
 were based upon the teachings of Bible Christianity, 
 and that by divorcing the claims of temperance from 
 
Biographical Sketch. . 2i- 
 
 the requirements of true religion, many so-called Tem- 
 perance Reformers were in reality the worst enemies of 
 the cause. 
 
 During the war for the preservation of the Union, 
 Dr. Hoes was ever staunchly loyal and patriotic. He 
 aided the cause with his best efforts both from his 
 pulpit and upon the public platform. His voice was 
 frequently heard in the various war meetings which 
 made the old Court House vocal with patriotic utter- 
 ances, and aglow with patriotic zeal, from the bombard- 
 ment of Sumter to the close of the momentous struggle. 
 He was, in the largest sense of the word, a patriot. 
 Patriotism was a part of his religion, and influenced by 
 its dictates, he ever sought to inspire those about him 
 with the great responsibilities of the hour. Although 
 he never carried his political views into his pulpit, he 
 recognized a wide gulf between politics and patriotism, 
 and he was never slow, upon proper occasions, in giving 
 forth from the sacred desk the most patriotic utterances. 
 " I am fully persuaded," he said from his pulpit in the 
 early part of the struggle, "that we at the North are 
 right in sustaining our National Government and over- 
 throwing rebellion, even, if need be, at the cannon's 
 mouth, and at the point of the bayonet." And that 
 sentence seemed to form the key-note of all his subse- 
 quent words and actions throughout the war. He 
 never swerved in his belief that the union of the States 
 would be preserved, and treason made odious. " I 
 believe," he said from his pulpit, in 1863, "that God 
 is always fighting on the side of Right, and that, in the 
 
22 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 result, He will vindicate the cause of Justice, Humanity, 
 and Religion. And such is my estimate of the cause 
 in which we are engaged. We are aiming to vindicate 
 and sustain the Constitution of the United States as 
 the supreme law of the land. We are aiming to 
 perpetuate free institutions to generations yet unborn 
 — to protect ourselves and all that we hold dear on 
 earth from a band of wicked conspirators, who, when 
 they can no longer control the policy of the nation, 
 seek to overthrow the government." 
 
 On retiring from the charge of the Church of Kings- 
 ton in 1867, Dr. Hoes received from the people he was 
 leaving a testimonial which pleasantly exhibited the 
 estimate in which his character and long services were 
 held by his late parishioners. The testimonial was in 
 the form of a paper, signed by more than three hun- 
 dred communicants and pew-holders, who knew best 
 and prized most both him and his work. This paper 
 sets forth with great distinctness the qualities which 
 had made the ministry of Dr. Hoes to the Church he 
 had served so long, acceptable, honored, and ejfificient, 
 in an eminent degree, — and as an expression of the 
 sentiments and feelings of a flock toward a shepherd 
 whose unwearying watchfulness had afforded them 
 such protection, help, and benefit, reflects credit as well 
 upon the giver as upon the recipient. On this account 
 it is fitting that the paper, with the response to it, 
 should appear in the present sketch, and it is accord- 
 ingly subjoined : 
 
Biographical Sketch. 23 
 
 Rev. John C. F. Hoes, D.D. 
 
 Dear Sir : The ministerial relation you have held to 
 the "Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of Kingston," 
 for more than twenty-one years, having been termin- 
 ated by the joint action of yourself and its Consistory, 
 the undersigned, communicants and pew-holders in that 
 Church, cannot suffer you to leave this field of your 
 labors, hopes, and large success, without some ad- 
 ditional memento of the feeling of the people so long 
 in your charge, in regard to the faithful and earnest 
 ministry you have exercised among them. So we 
 esteem it our duty to the Church, as much as to your- 
 self, to obey the Apostolic injunction to "render honor 
 to whom honor is due," and to place upon record : 
 
 First. — An expression of our gratitude to the Divine 
 Head of the Church, that for more than a score of 
 years, during which you have been the minister of this 
 people, they have been kept "in the unity of the spirit 
 and the bond of peace," as well as from the excitement 
 and danger that often attend a change of the pas- 
 toral relation ; while we have enjoyed, without interrup- 
 tion, and with a regularity that has added great com- 
 fort to the services of the sanctuary, the ministrations 
 of one who has not only been " faithful in word and 
 doctrine," but has not spared himself from any labor 
 or sacrifice by which, in his judgment, he could advance 
 the interests committed to his charge, and to which 
 he has devoted the ripest vigor of his mind, and the 
 best years of his life. 
 
 Second. — We desire to express our sense of the 
 consistent and exemplary walk and conversation, the 
 sound principles and untiring vigilance and zeal, by 
 which you have done so much — under God — to sustain 
 and elevate the character and reputation of this ancient 
 
24 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 Church, and especially during so long a period of 
 social, civil, and religious excitement, unparalleled in 
 our history, and in the midst of elements not less 
 diverse than those which, in other communities, have 
 wrought fearful dissensions and divisions. 
 
 Third. — We have great reason to commend the exe- 
 cutive ability and business talent you have been enabled 
 to display in the management of the temporal affairs of 
 the Church, throughout your whole ministry among us, 
 and this without causing you to omit, in any degree, your 
 attention to the spiritual welfare of the people. The 
 very large expenditures made, at different times, in 
 alterations and repairs, the erection of our present sub- 
 stantial and beautiful church, at a cost of nearly forty 
 thousand dollars, provision for a revenue adequate to 
 all the requirements of the Church, the rental of every 
 available pew, and the absence of' any indebtedness, 
 are, in a great degree, owing to your efficiency, pru- 
 dence, and care. 
 
 Fourth. — We bear our united and cordial testimony 
 to the constant and unwearied acts of personal kindness ; 
 attention to the sick, infirm, and bereaved ; of wise 
 counsel to those who have sought advice in temporal 
 or spiritual matters, which, in a very large and widely 
 extended congregation, you have been enabled to ren- 
 der — and also to your strict fidelity to the constitution, 
 standards, and customs of the Church, and the fearless 
 presentation of scriptural truth, "whether men would 
 hear or would forbear." 
 
 Fifth. — You have our best wishes for the health, 
 happiness, and prosperity of yourself and family, and 
 earnest prayer shall not be wanting that the blessings 
 of that Gospel you have so long labored to impart to 
 others, may cheer your own heart ; and that having 
 
Biographical Sketch. 25 
 
 " fought the good fight and kept the faith," your course, 
 when finished, may be rewarded with "the crown of 
 Hfe." 
 
 Dated February 5, 1867. 
 
 REPLY. 
 
 To Messrs. Cornelius Bruyn, H. H. Reynolds, James 
 
 KlERSTED, T. P. OSTERHOUDT, JaCOB BuRHANS, AND 
 
 Three Hundred other Persons, " Communicants 
 AND Pew- Holders," in Protestant Reformed 
 Dutch Church, Kingston, N. Y. 
 
 My Dear Friends and Former Parishioners : On 
 the day after my return to Kingston, having been ab- 
 sent nearly four weeks, I was agreeably surprised and 
 delighted to receive your kind and friendly communi- 
 cation. 
 
 Language is inadequate to express the deep emo- 
 tions of my heart in view of this renewed evidence of 
 your respect, confidence, and affection. I know not 
 what return I can make, except to say that it is my 
 hope and prayer that nothing may ever occur, in the 
 least, to mar the recollection of all that is delightful and 
 pleasing in the protracted social' and pastoral intercourse 
 which we have been permitted together to enjoy. 
 
 You allude to the large measure of success which 
 has attended my ministry. I am pleased that you bear 
 witness to this fact ; and it should be remembered that 
 this success has been granted, by the Divine Head of the 
 Church, to such an extent, that I have received into its 
 communion between four and five hundred persons — a 
 number larger than the present membership of the 
 Church, while, during the same period of time, there 
 have been organized four other churches, all drawing, 
 
26 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 to a greater or less extent, upon the pecuniary and 
 numerical strength of the " old mother Church." 
 
 I feel profoundly grateful for this voluntary testimo- 
 nial, and would hereby express my gratitude to each 
 and every individual whose name is affixed to it ; and 
 my prayer shall ever be offered in their behalf, and be- 
 half of the Church for whose temporal and spiritual pros- 
 perity I have made so many sacrifices, and devoted 
 twenty-one of the best years of my life. 
 
 Your friend and former pastor, 
 
 John C, F. Hoes. 
 Kingston, February ii, 1867. 
 
 After closing his pastoral connection with the Church 
 of Kingston, Dr. Hoes did not assume again the duties 
 of a settled pastor. His home continued in the midst 
 of the community with which his long residence had 
 made him so familiar, and which was endeared to him 
 by a multitude of grateful and tender associations. His 
 purpose was to dwell where he had longest served as a 
 tiller and a reaper in the field, till the Lord of the Har- 
 vest should call him home. He did not, however, sit 
 down at his ease and decline farther service at the 
 Master's bidding. He stood ready to obey every call 
 to preach the Word and minister to the spiritual needs 
 of men. He suppHed for a period of two years, ending 
 December, 1872, the Reformed Dutch Church of Wood- 
 stock, N. Y., where his labors were highly blessed to 
 the temporal and spiritual advancement of the Church. 
 Shortly after the close of his labors there, he presented 
 the Church with a Communion and Baptismal Service. 
 The Consistory, in accepting it, "Resolved, that we will 
 
Biographical Sketch. 27 
 
 keep and cherish the same as a precious memorial of 
 our kindly and pleasant intercourse with the donor, and 
 also of his zealous and successful labors, whereby the 
 temporal and spiritual interests of this Church have been 
 largely promoted." Elsewhere in these Memorials may 
 be found the Resolutions passed by the Consistory of the 
 Woodstock Church, in view of the decease of Dr. Hoes. 
 
 Dr. Hoes rendered stated services for shorter terms 
 to other churches, while he frequently officiated in sur- 
 rounding congregations, by whom his services were 
 sought, and to whom he preached with much acceptance 
 and effect to the very close of his life. Indeed, he had 
 engaged to supply a pulpit, several miles from his home, 
 only three days before his death, and was obliged, when 
 sudden illness seized him, to request a friend to ren- 
 der the service in his stead, — and when that Sabbath 
 dawned his spirit had fled. It was a happiness and a 
 joy to him to preach the Gospel, and every opportu- 
 nity that presented itself to proclaim Christ and bear 
 witness to the truth, he failed not cheerfully to embrace. 
 His wide acquaintance with the churches around him, 
 and his acceptableness as a preacher, brought these 
 opportunities often to him, and thus the influence which 
 as an " ambassador for Christ" he had wielded when in 
 charge of a parish, he continued to exert, through these 
 frequent pulpit ministrations, to the very last. 
 
 The month of October, i860, furnished a memor- 
 able incident in the hfe of Dr. Hoes, and one never to 
 be forgotten by those who witnessed it. He was ap- 
 pointed by the Classis of which he was a member, at 
 
28 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 its meeting- held in June, i860, to defend a ministerial 
 brother, about to be brought to trial for alleged offences 
 seriously affecting his character. At that meeting the 
 prosecution closed its case, and adjourned until the Oc- 
 tober following, when the defence was conducted. To- 
 tally unacquainted with the facts involved, and with 
 the testimony relating thereto, Dr. Hoes gave him- 
 self to the study and defence of the case with unweary- 
 ing diligence, and in the end, after a summing up of 
 five hours and a half, in which he displayed not only a 
 vast amount of dialectic skill, but a marvellous acquaint- 
 ance with ecclesiastical, common, and statute law, he 
 triumphantly secured the acquittal of his client, by an 
 overwhelming vote of the Classis. But this, his great- 
 est forensic effort, nearly cost him his life. Walking 
 through the streets after his return to Kingston, his 
 brain still aglow with the terrible excitement of the 
 case, he was violently attacked with congestion of the 
 brain, and carried to the house of a parishioner, where 
 in his delirium he continued to talk about the trial. 
 Skilful medical aid was summoned, and, through un- 
 ceasing watchfulness and diligence, in due time he com- 
 menced to rally from an attack which well-nigh carried 
 him through the gates of death. 
 
 Several years before this, in 1859, Dr. Hoes was 
 appointed by the General Synod of the Reformed 
 Dutch Church to argue a case before the General As- 
 sembly of the Presbyterian Church, involving, to a cer- 
 tain extent, the relations of cordiality existing between 
 those highest judicatories of the respective churches. 
 
Biographical Sketch. 29 
 
 In 1867 he was the delegate from the Reformed Dutch 
 Church to the meeting of the General Assembly of the 
 Presbyterian Church held at Rochester. His address 
 on that occasion was listened to with deep attention, 
 and furnished the occasion of an incident which must 
 have been especially gratifying to Dr. Hoes. Dr. Nel- 
 son, the Moderator of the Assembly, in the course of 
 his reply to him, remarked that he distinctly recalled 
 the first time he had known of the Reformed Dutch 
 Church, and that it was through a sermon preached by 
 Dr. Hoes himself, from the text: "But I thy servant 
 fear the Lord from my youth." " I never have forgot- 
 ten," he remarked, "and I never will forget, the im- 
 pression it made upon me." 
 
 On July 13, 1871, Dr. Hoes having that day com- 
 pleted his sixtieth year, a large concourse of citizens, ir- 
 respective of sect or creed, met at his residence, to 
 offer their congratulations to their fellow-townsman, and 
 to extend to him the renewed expressions of their es- 
 teem and affection. The gathering was a surprise to 
 Dr. Hoes, and he found it difficult at times to suppress 
 his emotions. Toward the close of the evening, the 
 company was addressed by the late George A. Shufeldt, 
 Esq., then one of the veteran citizens of the town, who 
 feelingly spoke of the influence exerted by Dr. Hoes, 
 not only as an exemplary and devoted minister of the 
 Gospel, but also as a bold, outspoken, and public- 
 spirited citizen. As an evidence of the esteem in which 
 Dr. Hoes was held in the community, this informal gath- 
 ering was especially pleasing. 
 
30 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 It is not the purpose of this sketch to give a full 
 or minute description of the mental or moral qualities 
 that formed the character of Dr. Hoes, nor to treat in 
 detail of the qualities that stamped their impress upon 
 him as a preacher and pastor, and as a laborious and 
 successful worker in the Christian Church. These 
 matters are presented more fully elsewhere in these 
 Memorials, and the limits of this biographical outline 
 require, what is indeed fitting in itself, as much brevity 
 as may consist with fairly depicting the character and 
 work of the honored servant of the Lord, now resting 
 from his labors. There are, however, prominent fea- 
 tures of his life and character which should here re- 
 ceive at least a passing notice. 
 
 It has often been remarked that Dr. Hoes possessed 
 the gift of prayer in a remarkable degree. He seemed 
 to traverse the whole plane of human experience, body- 
 ing forth, in fitting petitions, the hidden griefs and bur- 
 dens of hearts sighing for such relief and consolation. 
 Especially in times of sorrow, by the bedside of the 
 sick and dying, he most deeply touched the chords of 
 human sympathy. In February of 1882 he formed one 
 of the group that lingered about the bedside of his 
 only surviving brother, the late Peter S. Hoes, Esq., of 
 Kinderhook. At Dr. Hoes' suggestion, wife, sister, 
 brother, and friends knelt in prayer, and as their 
 united petitions arose, perfumed by faith and love, the 
 spirit accomplished its last struggle with the flesh, 
 and entered its heavenly abode, borne on the petitions 
 of him whose pathos of voice and tenderness of heart 
 
Biographical Sketch. 31 
 
 are best known to those to whom he has ministered in 
 scenes of sorrow and of joy. 
 
 Dr. Hoes was a gentleman of agreeable and courtly 
 manners. His manly form and commanding presence 
 will not soon be forgotten. Possessing fine conver- 
 sational powers, courteous in his bearing, considerate 
 and thoughtful in his attentions, he was a representa- 
 tive of that grand old type of Christian gentleman 
 who leave their lasting impress upon our memory and 
 hearts. " I looked with respect and admiration," wrote 
 one of his ministerial brethren, "upon his commanding 
 form and intelligent countenance. His speech was not 
 only elegant, but also with precision and force his 
 sentences came forth"; and a distinguished clergyman 
 of New York City expressed the conviction of many 
 besides himself, when, in referring to Dr. Hoes, he 
 wrote: " A more courtly and delightful Christian gen- 
 tleman I have not known." 
 
 Of what Dr. Hoes was in the intimate relations of 
 the home and the family circle, it is not for us to speak 
 at length. It requires, however, but a slight acquaint- 
 ance with either him, or those whom he loved best, to 
 see and feel that he was a most devoted and unselfish 
 husband and father. He craved no higher happiness 
 than that which he found in the bosom of his family, 
 and cared for no pleasures save those in which his 
 family could share. Ever thoughtful and considerate, 
 nothing in the concerns of every-day life was too 
 trivial to demand his kindly attention, and he ever 
 stood between his family and troubling care, as the 
 
32 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 walls of a fortress stand between its inmates and the 
 lashing of the sea. 
 
 The character of Dr. Hoes' preaching, which gave 
 such strength and stability to his ministry, and made 
 him such a moral power in the community, has been 
 justly portrayed in the addresses and discourses in an- 
 other part of these Memorials. It was, however, chiefly 
 through the duties attending the pastoral relation, that 
 he became so strongly intrenched in the affections of 
 his people. His record of pastoral calls was kept with 
 his usual methodical care, and is a rich memorial of 
 his untiring efforts for the spiritual good of his people. 
 Going from house to house, he zealously sought for 
 evidence that the word he had preached had not been 
 entirely in vain. He was, in every sense, a shepherd 
 to his people. He endeavored to lead them by his 
 teaching and his life, and he carried withal a shepherd's 
 sympathy within his breast. He rejoiced with those 
 who rejoiced, and wept with those who wept. He aimed 
 to assist his people in their spiritual conflicts and 
 difficulties, and, never in haste to offer advice unasked, 
 was ever ready to respond to the calls of those who 
 sought it. And the result was that his people often 
 brought to him the story of their troubles. When 
 his own power was of any avail, he led them out 
 into brighter paths, but when it failed, he fervently 
 commended them to the grace of Him who leadeth 
 his own "in pleasant pastures and beside the still 
 waters." And now that he has gone, they recall 
 his advice, his warnings, his sympathy, his devotion, 
 
Biographical Sketch. 33 
 
 and the associations of the past become even more 
 sacred than before. "As I look back over my early 
 years," wrote one of his most highly esteemed parish- 
 ioners, "it is strange to see how his memory is en- 
 twined with early recollection. Sermons he has 
 preached, kind words he has said, favorite hymns he 
 used to give out in prayer-meeting — they are just as 
 distinct in my mind as if I had heard them yesterday, 
 and whenever I saw him I was glad, because I remem- 
 bered how much I used to reverence him." 
 
 Dr. Hoes was a man whose moral courage was 
 largely inspired, under God, by the depth of his con- 
 victions — and he who tried to move him to speak or to 
 act, contrary to the dictates of his own conscience or 
 judgment, little realized, until the attempt was made, 
 the discouraging nature of his effort. A highly es- 
 teemed member of Classis happily expressed the truth, 
 when, in a letter written a few days after the death of 
 Dr. Hoes, he referred to him as "a man whose con- 
 victions were deeply seated by his clear mental vision 
 and sound judgment — so deeply seated that he would 
 defend them with the courage of a hero." Like all 
 such men he necessarily had opponents, some of them 
 so pronounced that for the time they might even be 
 called enemies ; but, as elsewhere said of him, he was 
 " more willing at any time to make an enemy than to 
 defend a wrong." Of an enemy he was never afraid, 
 but he was afraid to say or to do that which clashed 
 with his convictions of Right. " He was one of the 
 few men in the world," recently remarked one of his 
 
34 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 intimate clerical friends, "who could stand alone when 
 he felt he was in the right." And yet he was not a 
 bigot. He held, on the contrary, broad and liberal 
 views, and was always open to conviction, but until 
 convinced, he adhered to his own judgment with a 
 tenacity of purpose which self-respect and a conscious 
 integrity both of character and of purpose are so well 
 fitted to inspire. 
 
 It may here be briefly added that, as a citizen. Dr. 
 Hoes was known of all men as open and fearless in 
 his views, and fearless in his advocacy of all public 
 measures and moral reforms which, in his judgment, 
 affected the best interests of the community. He was a 
 man of strong convictions, tenacious in his defence of 
 the Right, as he understood it, and has stamped the 
 impress of his individuality upon all public and religious 
 movements with which he has been connected. Con- 
 servative in all his views, he was ever loyal to the prin- 
 ciples and true interests of his ancestral Church, a 
 staunch defender of its forms and doctrines, and, above 
 all things, faithful in his presentation of scriptural truth. 
 Few men have exerted a wider and more wholesome 
 influence in the community than Dr. Hoes — an influence 
 that will be as permanent as it has always been, in 
 every way, rich and good. 
 
 The surviving family of Dr. Hoes consists of a wife, 
 two daughters, and a son. He married, on Septem- 
 ber 15, 1836, Lucy Maria Randall, daughter of Gen- 
 eral Roswell Randall, of Cortland, N. Y., and sister 
 of the Hon. Henry S. Randall, Secretary of State in 
 
Biographical Sketch. 35 
 
 1852, and author of the "Life of Jefferson." The eldest 
 daughter, Harriet Stephens, is the wife of the Rev. O. 
 H. Seymour, pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Port 
 Byron, N. Y. The second daughter, Mary Swart, 
 resides with her mother in Kingston. The son, the 
 Rev. Roswell Randall . Hoes, is a chaplain in the 
 United States Navy, serving at present on the Ten- 
 nessee, the flagship of the North Atlantic Squadron. 
 
 The death of Dr. Hoes, which occurred February 
 9th, of the present year, was unexpected, and fell with 
 the suddenness of a shock upon the community. His 
 general health through the winter had been good, and 
 he was frequently heard to say, during the winter 
 months, that he was feeling in better physical condi- 
 tion than for several years. He was active, energetic, 
 and buoyant, mingled freely in society, was cheerful in 
 his intercourse with his friends, rendered public services 
 when requested, with apparently undiminished vigor, 
 and performed his daily duties with all his wonted 
 promptness, alertness, and regularity. There was no 
 sign manifested that the hour of his departure was so 
 nigh. Ten years before, in 1873, he had been seized 
 with a violent fever, which brought him to the verge of 
 the grave, and confined him a prisoner in his house 
 for six months. He then regarded the end of life as 
 being certainly at hand, as did his family and friends, 
 and made, with the utmost tranquillity and trust in God, 
 his final dispositions, with death standing at the door. 
 But the All-Wise Ruler ordered it otherwise, and after 
 wearisome weeks he arose from his sick couch, and 
 
36 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 very gradually won his way back to a full measure of 
 strength, so that his loved employments could be re- 
 sumed with pleasure once more. It was thought by 
 his physicians that this stubborn illness, though seem- 
 ingly conquered, had yet left behind it a disturbance of 
 the functions of the heart, which might, at any moment, 
 have a fatal development. Such was the explanation 
 when the sudden result came. Dr. Hoes was seized 
 on Wednesday evening, having been in his usual 
 health through the day, with a severe pain and stricture 
 in the chest, which lasted with but slight abatement for 
 two or three hours. Relieved from this, he passed the 
 night with a gradual diminution of the pain, and, while 
 finding himself very weak in the morning, was able to 
 sit up and visit with his famity both in the morning and 
 evening of the day. The following day, Friday, he 
 seemed still better, in the morning writing a letter to 
 his son (the last he ever wrote), and reading the daily 
 paper. Within the last hour of his life he sat up in 
 his room, conversing with his wife. Finding himself 
 slightly fatigued by this effort, he returned to his bed, 
 intimating, as he did so, a feeling of chilliness. A 
 moment or two later Mrs. Hoes asked him a question, 
 when he repHed, " I feel too tired to talk any more just 
 now." These were his last words. Soon after his 
 breathing became labored, and, with a few gasps, the 
 spirit passed away, the countenance wearing, and not 
 afterward losing, the calm, placid expression of a 
 person in sweetest slumber. No happier exemption 
 from the " fierce diseases waiting around" to harrow 
 
Biographical Sketch. 2>1 
 
 the closing hours of Hfe with torture, could friend ask 
 for departing- friend than this ; nor could the spirit, 
 sighing for release, find gentler transition from Its 
 "earthly house" of bondage to the "many mansions" 
 where endless freedom Is enjoyed, 
 
 " His dews drop mutely on the hill, 
 His cloud above, it saileth still. 
 Though on its slope men sow and reap ; 
 More softly than the dew is shed, 
 Or cloud is floated overhead, 
 ' He giveth His beloved sleep.' " 
 
 C. V. S. 
 
11. 
 FUNERAL ADDRESSES. 
 
OBSEQUIES OF REV. DR. HOES. 
 
 ADDRESSES BY MINISTERIAL BRETHREN 
 IN THE FIRST REFORMED CHURCH, 
 
 Monday, February, 12, 1883. 
 
 THE funeral of Dr. Hoes, took place on Monday of 
 the week following that in which he died. The 
 solemn services were held in the First Reformed 
 Church, whose pulpit he had occupied for so many 
 of the most active years of his life. Before proceed- 
 ing to the church, brief services were held at the late 
 residence of the deceased, an impressive prayer being 
 offered by the Rev. Dr. Chalker, of Rondout, one of 
 the older of the clergy present, and a friend of many 
 years of him whose remains were awaiting burial. 
 Thirty clergymen of the various denominations in the 
 city and from surrounding churches were present to 
 share in rendering the last tribute of respect to their 
 late brother and friend. Of these the Rev. Messrs. 
 Harris and Shaw, of the Reformed Church, the Rev. 
 Messrs. Magee and Reeves, of the Presbyterian Church, 
 the Rev. Mr. Camp, of the Episcopal Church, the Rev. 
 Messrs. Osbon and Coons, of the Methodist Church, 
 and the Rev. Mr. McKinney, of the Baptist Church, offi- 
 ciated as bearers, and tenderly conveyed the remains 
 of their departed brother to the church, where the cas- 
 ket was deposited at the head of the middle aisle, in 
 
42 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 front of the pulpit. The spacious church was filled in 
 every part, and as the remains were borne up the aisle 
 the congregation arose in silent respect for the memory 
 of one who had so long and faithfully ministered to 
 them. The pulpit was heavily draped in mourning, 
 which was not removed until the following Easter. 
 Many were present from abroad and from surrounding 
 churches in the county, all of whom had known the de- 
 ceased long and well, and testified by the deep interest 
 and feeling shown, the high estimate in which they held 
 his character, and the sorrow which his death had occa- 
 sioned. 
 
 The services opened by a dirge voluntary on the 
 organ, rendered with much tenderness and effect, fol- 
 lowed by the hymn, " Abide with Me," impressively 
 sung by Mrs. Le Fevre, after which the pastor of the 
 Church, the Rev. J. G. Van Slyke, D.D., read appro- 
 priate Scripture selections. The Rev. Sandford H. 
 Cobb, of Saugerties, a member of the Classis of Ulster, 
 then led the devotions of the large congregation in an 
 impressive prayer, after which the Rev. Dr. Van Sant- 
 voord, long an intimate friend of the deceased, delivered 
 the following 
 
 ADDRESS : 
 
 We come into these courts to-day with pensive 
 look and solemn tread. A shaft shot by the " insatiate 
 Archer " has suddenly stricken down before us an emi- 
 nent fellow-citizen, whose name has long been as famil- 
 iar to this community as a household word — whose 
 face we have known as well almost as those of the in- 
 mates of our own homes. That name as henceforth 
 spoken will not belong to the number of the living, and 
 the light of that face has gone out quickly, as if a bright 
 
Funeral Addresses. 43 
 
 lamp in a dark night were all at once extinguished. 
 Such are the changes to which this mortal state is 
 liable ! But startling as this transition is from life to 
 death, there is nothing about it after all so very mar- 
 vellous. What is human life ? "A vapor that appear- 
 eth for a little time and then vanisheth away." Man is 
 here to-day and far away to-morrow. This sudden de- 
 parture of our friend which has brought us together 
 has compensating things about it. The life journey 
 was not abruptly ended in the morning or at noonday, 
 but when the sun had declined far down toward the 
 horizon. The journey, in fact, had attained a fair 
 scriptural roundness, the days of its years having num- 
 bered more than three score years and ten — with the 
 fruits, the fit product of those years, well matured and 
 many of them garnered. But a swift sundering like 
 this from earthly loves and surroundings, even though 
 it come to him who has filled out the Psalmist's limit, 
 gives yet a rude shock to the living. They seem less 
 prepared for it than the dying one himself, who at his 
 Lord's command simply lays aside his mortal burdens, 
 finding joy in the release. To him who is waiting and 
 ready, sudden death is no calamity, as it is not surely a 
 loss. 
 
 I will not dwell on these reflections, but notice in 
 the little time allotted to me a few things in the life and 
 character of our departed brother that should impress 
 and instruct us as we gather around his grave. 
 
 He was a minister of the gospel, who devoted his 
 life half a century ago to one high end, the preaching 
 of the Cross to men, and continuing steadfast in this 
 purpose till his life 'ended. He was born in Middle- 
 burgh, N. Y., July 13, 1811. After passing through 
 Amherst College and Princeton Theological Seminary, 
 
44 John Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 he was settled in 1836 in Chittenango, N. Y., his first 
 pastoral charge, where he remained nearly two years. 
 He removed thence to Ithaca, N. Y., in 1837, becom- 
 ing the pastor of the Reformed Dutch Church there, 
 and remaining in this position till 1845, in November 
 of which year he was installed as pastor of the Re- 
 formed Church of Kingston, continuing this connection 
 until January, 1867, a period of twenty-one years, mak- 
 ing thirty-one years of continuous pastoral service since 
 his first installation. 
 
 In these several fields of ministerial labor he 
 showed himself an earnest and faithful steward of the 
 great trusts committed to him, preaching the Word with 
 directness, point, and power ; active, efficient, and sym- 
 pathetic as a pastor, who, knowing his people's needs 
 thoroughly, stood ever ready to bring them with God's 
 help such direction, comfort, succor, as the varied cir- 
 cumstances might require. He was "wise to win souls," 
 and was largely successful, as the records of all these 
 churches will show, in bringing the wandering into the 
 fold, in persuading men " in Christ's stead to be recon- 
 ciled to God." His preaching was plain, perspicuous, 
 direct, persuasive, and evangelical through and through. 
 It had about it nothing of " the enticing words of man's 
 wisdom ; " it was not tinctured with modern philoso- 
 phizing notions or speculations, nor did it bear the 
 marks of the moral essay style of smooth, pointless 
 talk, nor of the vapid humanitarianism that puts man 
 and his virtues in the foreground and God nowhere, 
 nor did it seek to startle by grotesque similes or pyro- 
 technic displays. 
 
 Our brother had nothing of this in the messasfe he 
 felt honored to proclaim. But he sought to move men 
 by pointing them to the Cross. He determined to 
 
Funeral Addresses. 45 
 
 know among men only " Christ crucified, to the Jews a 
 stumbUng-block, to the Greeks foolishness," but to 
 those who receive him, " Christ the power of God and 
 the wisdom of God." 
 
 It was the gospel as thus set forth during all the 
 years of his ministry that gave to his work the suc- 
 cesses which crowned it. The longer he lived the 
 more fully satisfied he became that this was the true 
 mode, honored of God in the past, and to be blessed in 
 the future. In his own experience he had tested and 
 seen the fitness and effect of thus preaching the gospel 
 — his pulpit utterances continuing to the very last to be 
 listened to with interest and profit by the various 
 churches of his own and other communions by whom 
 his services were frequently sought, after his retirement 
 several years ago from the pastoral office. 
 
 To preach the gospel was not only a delight to 
 Dr. Hoes, but he loved the Church, the ZIon of the 
 Lord, and all its Interests. He loved his own branch 
 of the Church warmly, but not in any narrow sectarian 
 spirit, for he was Catholic in his sympathies and broad 
 in his charity toward those of other communions. He 
 joyed to hold fellowship with ministerial brethren of 
 different names, holding a common faith. He took a 
 deep Interest In the Ministerial Association of this city, 
 attended Its meetings regularly, and participated In Its 
 fraternal discussions. I am sure the pastors present of 
 the different churches, who will sadly and tenderly con- 
 vey from this house the remains of their departed 
 brother and friend to his burial, will testify to the truth 
 of what I say, as they mourn that they shall see his 
 face no more in these wonted Monday gatherings. 
 
 And this kindly feeling toward churches of other 
 names was shown In his often officiating in their pulpits 
 
46 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 or sitting in their congregations as a worshipper. Of 
 his own Church he had a close and accurate knowledge, 
 extending not only to her clergy and laity, but to the 
 history of many of the individual churches, as well as 
 of this particular one, whose history he has chronicled, 
 and with whose growth, progress, and expansion his 
 name is permanently associated. Indeed, this comely 
 temple where we worship to-day is his monument, 
 owing its erection to his tact, enterprise, and earnest 
 efforts, seconded by the zeal, liberality, and progressive 
 spirit of the people " who had a mind to build." 
 
 No minister, probably, in the denomination he be- 
 longed to, was more familiar with the constitution and 
 laws of the Church, was better able to explain and ap- 
 ply them, or could defend them with more ability on 
 the floor of our Church courts. He was a man of strong 
 and positive convictions, and was wont to express his 
 sense of what was right or wrong in decided terms, 
 and some might regard him, and no doubt did, as some- 
 what too rigid and tenacious in maintaining his own 
 views, and as too little conciliatory toward those of his 
 opponents. But this arose in part from the very 
 strength of his convictions, and his wish to impress 
 other minds with what seemed so clear to his own. He 
 knew, however, how to yield gracefully when the 
 weight of argument was clearly against him. It is 
 pride of opinion that makes it often the hardest lesson 
 for any of us to learn, when it is that we have the worst 
 of an argument, or when to acknowledge ourselves van- 
 quished. It is a lesson some of us never learn. Our 
 departed friend was not only strong in debate and in- 
 fluential in church assemblies, but he was a man of 
 thorough business capacity and habits, so far as practi- 
 cal every-day life is concerned, forming an honorable 
 
Ftmeral Addresses. 47 
 
 exception in this respect to many of his order, who 
 seem never to know, or to be able to learn, how to 
 manage matters of this world with judgment and skill. 
 They seem to act as though common sense and dis- 
 cretion in practical affairs were antagonistic to true de- 
 votion or spirituality. But the apostle combines them 
 when he enjoins, "not slothful in business, fervent in 
 spirit, serving the Lord " — implying that heedlessness 
 or loose management in matters of practical life has no 
 fit connection with a fervent spirit, but rather the re- 
 verse, and that he serves God best who is wise, dili- 
 gent, and faithful as 'a steward in both temporal and 
 spiritual things. Our deceased brother loved~ order, 
 system, regularity, in all things. He had exact knowl- 
 edge of affairs in every ecclesiastical department and in 
 every social or public relation, in the household, in the 
 ■Church, and in the Classis in which for years he held a 
 responsible trust, which he administered with admirable 
 wisdom and fidelity. In all trusts committed to him, 
 in all positions he occupied, these habits of method, 
 order, and punctuality were manifest — the habit espe- 
 cially of doing at once, and doing well, what duty re- 
 quired, instead of putting it off for another day or a 
 fitter season. He was enabled in this way not only to 
 economize time, but his work of whatever kind was 
 facilitated, and by being promptly and properly done, 
 was done more thoroughly and effectively. 
 
 But I must hasten to close this imperfect survey, 
 pausing only to add that for those who knew our de- 
 ceased friend best, and shared his unreserved counsels 
 and intimacy, this bereavement has its sharpest pang. 
 I will not draw aside the veil which conceals the anguish 
 of the members of his little home circle who, reeling 
 under this shock, scarcely realize as yet the full dimen- 
 
48 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 sions of their loss. How vain are human consolations 
 in such an hour as this ! And the balm of mortal sym- 
 pathy — how little can it do toward staunching such a 
 wound ! Yet is there one Physician whose skill reaches 
 the worst hurt of every bleeding heart — and one refuge 
 where the stricken weary may rest "till calamities be 
 overpast." These sorrowing ones are under the faith- 
 ful guardianship of the widow's God, and the Father of 
 the fatherless, and the faith they have learned to cherish 
 will prompt them to look up and cling to " the Rock 
 that is higher than they,'' till in the Father's own good 
 time the promised boon shall come — " beauty for ashes, 
 the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for 
 the spirit of heaviness." 
 
 There is a larger circle who are tenderly moved as 
 they gather around these lifeless remains. They are 
 the many friends who have grown up and increased 
 around this servant of God during all the years since 
 his lot was first cast in this community, and who remain 
 alive, while other friends nearly as numerous have gone 
 before him to the silent land. How many are present 
 who have heard, and many times, from his lips, the 
 messages of mercy through Christ ; how many who 
 have been soothed by him in their sore sorrows ; how 
 many beside the couches of whose dear ones about to 
 die he has brought the ministry of prayer and solacing 
 words, and then, the spirit fled, committed the dust to 
 dust, cheering the survivors with the promises of Him 
 who is "the resurrection and the life!" How many are 
 there here whose hands were united by him as their 
 lips pronounced the irrevocable marriage vow, and how 
 many brows on which in infancy his hand impressed the 
 baptismal seal ! Ah! memories and associations such 
 as these clustering around the honored and revered 
 
Funeral Addresses. 49 
 
 form so soon to be buried out of sight forever, have a 
 strong power to touch the heart, and prompt its irre- 
 pressible utterances of gratitude and affection. We 
 honor these emotions as the tribute which the heart 
 loves to bring and consecrate to one who, having faith- 
 fully served his generation by the will of God, has at 
 length, full of years and of honors, gently fallen asleep. 
 Pastor, teacher, counsellor, guide, father, brother, 
 friend, we bid thee farewell. Thy arduous course is 
 finished, the peaceful rest has come. We remember 
 hearing thy lips repeat the words of James Montgomery, 
 so familiar, yet so expressive, over the remains of two 
 honored ministerial brethren of the Church within a few 
 years past. We take up these words and repeat them 
 now to express thus our sense of thy life work with its 
 fruits following, and to place them as thy own fitting 
 memorial : 
 
 " Servant of God, well done, 
 
 Rest from thy loved employ, 
 The battle fought, the vict'ry won. 
 Enter thy Master's joy." 
 
 The Rev. J. N. Voorhis, Stated Clerk of the Classis 
 of Ulster for many years, and long associated with the 
 deceased in official and fraternal relations, then spoke 
 as follows : 
 
 MR. VOORHIS' ADDRESS. 
 
 My Dear Friends and Brethren in the Ministry: 
 We have met on a solemn occasion. He who has long 
 been known to us, and whose name had become as famil- 
 iar to us as a household word, has laid down his armor ; 
 he rests from his labors, and his works do follow him. 
 4 
 
50 yohn Cantiite Farrell Hoes. 
 
 He has left these earthly scenes, and gone to occupy 
 "a house not made with hands, eternal in the- heavens." 
 Having finished his course, he has gone to join " the 
 general assembly and Church of the first-born who are 
 written in heaven." Wherefore we can say to these 
 weeping friends to-day, " Comfort one another with 
 these words." I know your hearts are sad ; they over- 
 flow with sorrow, because an affectionate husband, a 
 kind father, and a dear relative and friend, has been 
 stricken down so suddenly, so unexpectedly. But 
 while you are overwhelmed with grief, and feel that the 
 stroke is heavier than you can bear, remember that God 
 gives his people grace according to their day, and ac- 
 cording to their need. There is a refuge provided for 
 every season of trial and bereavement. "The name of 
 the Lord is a strong tower ; the righteous runneth into 
 it, and is safe." God grant that you may be reconciled 
 to the thought, that your loss is his eternal gain. 
 
 I feel that I can speak with some confidence with re- 
 gard to our deceased brother, since my first acquaintance 
 with him was formed nearly forty years ago. I still re- 
 member distinctly the Christian courtesy with which he 
 received me the first time I entered his dwelling, and from 
 that day till death sundered the friendly tie, ourrelations 
 and intimacy were of a most pleasant character. There 
 is perhaps not a minister in this county with whom Dr. 
 Hoes has spent more Sabbaths, during the last sixteen 
 years of his life, than he has with me and my family. 
 Consequently, he has on many occasions assisted me in 
 my pulpit duties while I was pastor of the Esopus 
 Church. And I know, and all my ministerial brethren 
 know, that his preaching was always of an evangelical 
 character. He was not carried away with the new- 
 fangled notions of modern times. He believed in the 
 
Fvineral Addresses. 51 
 
 good old way of Christ and his apostles, and both pub- 
 licly and privately he " earnestly contended for the faith 
 which was once delivered unto the saints." Jesus, 
 " the resurrection and the life," " Christ and him cru- 
 cified," were themes upon which he delighted to dwell. 
 In all his pulpit productions it was his aim, in the lan- 
 guage of Dr. Prime, in last week's Observer — a dear 
 friend and classmate of our deceased brother — to preach 
 "the simple Gospel of Christ, unmixed with doubts 
 or disputes, the same that of old time comforted our 
 fathers, and in whose faith our mothers died — going 
 up to glory on the wings of angels with songs and 
 everlasting joy on their heads." This is the Alpha and 
 Omega, the sum and substance, of the Gospel which 
 our deceased brother loved to preach — and the minister 
 who is not satisfied with this, might rather lay aside his 
 clerical robes and follow some other pursuit. 
 
 By nature, by culture, and by grace, our deceased 
 brother was fitted to move in any society, and this was 
 doubtless one reason why his presence was sought after 
 in social gatherings. His appearance commanded re- 
 spect in any assembly, and his manners and conversa- 
 tion were of a dignified character. His executive 
 abilities, too, were of a superior order, and gave him 
 prominence in all our ecclesiastical deliberations. 
 Brethren of the Classis of Ulster, we shall greatly miss 
 him in our meetings. He was always there, unless 
 necessarily detained. For many years he managed the 
 finances of the Classis with marked ability and entire 
 satisfaction. The last public service in which I engaged 
 with our deceased brother. Dr. Van Santvoord joining 
 us, was at the installation of the Rev. Mr. Wurts, at 
 Woodstock, on the 17th day of December last. ' This 
 was doubtless the last Classical act he performed. 
 
52 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 About a month ago I called to see our deceased 
 brother, and it proved to be the last interview I had 
 with him. I found him sitting in his back parlor with 
 a pile of letters and papers lying by his side on the 
 floor. After a few preliminary remarks which passed 
 between us, he said to me, " I am looking over my 
 old letters and papers. I feel that when a person 
 is approaching the age of seventy-two years, it is 
 time for him to see what he wants to preserve and 
 what he wishes to destroy." Little did either of us 
 think then that there was but a small space left be- 
 tween him and death. I cannot say why it is, but I 
 have had an impression in my mind that Dr. Hoes 
 would survive me, and I have borne that in my mind 
 for some years. And I thought if that were the case, 
 it was my desire that he should do for me, what I 
 am, in a small part, doing for him to-day. But the 
 Lord makes no mistakes, and he does all things well. 
 Others may not have felt so. I am willing to admit 
 that Dr. Hoes had his faults, but point me to one 
 who is without faults. I regarded him as a valued 
 friend and judicious counsellor. I have enjoyed many 
 pleasant seasons, in consequence of my intimacy with 
 him. He was a man of a clear and well-balanced 
 mind — a person upon whose judgment one might safely 
 rely. But his work is done, and we shall enjoy his 
 presence no longer in our midst. " And I heard a 
 voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed 
 are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth : 
 Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their 
 labors ; and their works do follow them." 
 
 Brethren in the ministry, and members of the 
 Classis of Ulster, when we look to the past and call 
 to mind how, without a moment's warning, the Rev. 
 
Funeral Addresses. 53 
 
 Martin L. Schenck, a genial companion, was suddenly 
 stricken down in the midst of his days and usefulness — - 
 the Rev. William B. Merritt, while the bloom of youth 
 was still resting upon him, after a brief sickness, was 
 told, " Enter thou into the joys oT thy Lord " — our be- 
 loved Blauvelt, while hastening through one of your own 
 streets to reach a train of cars, was suddenly arrested 
 by the angel of death, and in a few brief hours breathed 
 his last — and now again, by the unexpected departure 
 of our revered friend and brother, Dr. Hoes, we are 
 reminded of the brevity and uncertainty of human life. 
 While living, these brethren were all, for a longer or 
 shorter period, members of the Classis of Ulster. Nor 
 should we forget the amiable Talmage, whom we all 
 respected and loved, and who, though having passed 
 the years of threescore and ten, was still engaged 
 in active duty when the Saviour called him to come 
 up higher. These providential dispensations speak 
 with great emphasis to those who still remain, " There- 
 fore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think 
 not, the Son of man cometh." 
 
 The closing address was delivered by the Rev. 
 James Demarest, Jr., D.D., late pastor of the Second 
 Reformed Church of Kingston, who had, during the 
 whole period of his pastorate to the Second Church, 
 maintained a close intimacy with the deceased. 
 
 DR. DEMAREST'S ADDRESS. 
 
 I am here to-day as a friend of the later years of 
 the deceased, to share with you in the last tribute of 
 respect to his memory. Dr. Hoes was among the first 
 to give me a cordial welcome to Kingston, when I came 
 
54 yoJin Cmttine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 here between eight and nine years ago, and during 
 the last few years of my ministry in this city he was 
 frequently among my auditors at the sanctuary services. 
 Thrown thus with him into relations of close neighbor- 
 hood and religious intercourse, I came to know and 
 appreciate those qualities of character which made him 
 for so many years a man of mark, and attached to him 
 so closely the many friends who to-day mourn his loss. 
 It is from my personal experience of his friendship, 
 which I found sincere and constant, that I bear grateful 
 testimony to-day to the uniform courtesy, kindness, and 
 consideration with which he bore himself toward me. 
 I know of no instance in which he was lacking in fidel- 
 ity to the obligations which a recognized friendship 
 imposes. I do know, on the other hand, that in not a 
 few instances, without solicitation or knowledge on my 
 part, he performed for me the kind and unexpected ser- 
 vices of a generous friendship. 
 
 Dr. Hoes was a man of unusual force of character. 
 He possessed great strength of will and tenacity of 
 purpose, with varied resources for the accomplishment 
 of his plans. He was also capable of strong feeling, 
 and sometimes gave strong expression to his feelings 
 — a style of character in which grace not unfrequently 
 accomplishes much, with but slight credit. There was 
 nothing of the half-way sort about him. He was 
 positive and thorough in all characteristic qualities. 
 
 As a minister Dr. Hoes was a man of positive con- 
 victions. He had no patience with a temporizing, 
 apologetic tone in the pulpit. He loved the old- 
 fashioned theology, in its old-fashioned form, and 
 preached it with clearness and emphasis. His trumpet 
 gave no uncertain sound. And in this respect we 
 shall do well, brethren of the ministry, of whom I see 
 
Funeral Addresses. 55 
 
 so many here to-day, to imitate his example. In this 
 age of skepticism, breathing as men do an atmosphere 
 surcharged with doubt, it is of the highest consequence 
 that those who assume to declare the eternal verities 
 of God's truth should speak with such manifest earnest- 
 ness of belief that there can be no mistake, and no 
 perversion of their teaching. If the pulpit do not 
 maintain the steadfast integrity of a confident adherence 
 to divine truth, where will the age find a bulwark 
 against the surging waves of unbelief? When Lot and 
 his family lingered in Sodom, under the impending 
 judgment, the angels laid hold on them and brought 
 them out. Even so must the preacher of God's gospel 
 of salvation lay hold of men by the earnestness of 
 assured conviction, and hasten their escape from the 
 judgment that hangs over the guilty. It was with 
 such earnestness that our departed friend declared his 
 message as God's minister. He doubted not its divine 
 verity, and deeply felt its transcendent importance, so 
 that when he stood up before men to speak to them 
 in God's name, his heart was in ever)?^ word. The 
 message which he declared was to him the undoubted 
 truth of God, and it could admit of no peradventure or 
 modification. His positiveness of conviction gave a 
 force to his preaching which otherwise it would not 
 have had, and which is in truth one of the highest 
 essentials of power in the pulpit. 
 
 Entertaining such clear and decided views of divine 
 truth, it was natural that he should take a deep in- 
 terest in the progress of Christ's kingdom. That he 
 did so was evident from his pastoral fidelity — of which 
 there is abundant testimony, and the traces of which I 
 have found in prosecuting my own ministry in this place 
 — and also from his ready helpfulness in all that per- 
 
56 jfohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 tained to the advancement of religion in the various 
 branches of the Lord's kingdom. In the prayer-meet- 
 ing he was ever ready with a word of exhortation, or 
 an offering of prayer. In the contributions of the 
 Church his own benefactions to the various objects ot 
 benevolence were gladly included. In seasons of special 
 interest he was wakeful and watchful for souls. In 
 the Sabbath services of my late Church his portly form 
 was often seen moving up the aisle, and when there 
 his evident interest and appreciation were a pleasur- 
 able stimulus. As a near neighbor and friend I found 
 him most cordial, sympathetic, and helpful. 
 
 I need scarcely speak of what Dr. Hoes was in his 
 family. Those who are most nearly concerned in the 
 loss which his departure entails, understand far better 
 than any one can express, how affectionate and devoted 
 he was in the relations of husband, father, and grand- 
 father. When, a few years ago, his daughter-in-law 
 suddenly passed away from earth, the sadness of the 
 bereavement seemed visibly marked upon his whole 
 appearance and bearing, affecting him only less than 
 the son who was called to bear the shock of so grievous 
 a calamity. The affectionate interest with which he 
 counselled and planned for the welfare of the several 
 members of his household is too well understood by 
 them, and probably by all, to require more than simple 
 mention. 
 
 There may be regrets to-day that, in some respects, 
 our departed friend had not realized the full fruition of 
 his hopes — that he did not live to see some things ac- 
 complished which he desired to realize. But who shall 
 say that his life was not complete according to God's plan 
 for him ? Doubtless death will find each one of us with 
 something left undone — some purpose unfulfilled, some 
 
Funeral Addresses. 57 
 
 cherished project unaccomplished. But death is a great 
 revealer — it is dark, indeed, on this side, but light on 
 the other. Death lets in the light upon the passing soul, 
 and discloses the relations of things in a way past our 
 mortal senses to discern, showing how disappointment 
 may turn to victory, and limitation to a larger liberty. 
 In this brighter light which death has brought to him, 
 we are content to leave our now translated brother, 
 who in God's Hght sees light, and understands, better 
 than was possible here below, the true meaning and 
 bearing of those providential events that made up the 
 life-plan which God ordained. 
 
 " It is not death to die — 
 To leave this weary road. 
 And, midst the brotherhood on high. 
 To be at home with God. 
 
 " It is not death to bear 
 The wrench that sets us free 
 From dungeon chain, to breath the air 
 Of boundless liberty. 
 
 " Jesus, thou Prince of Life, 
 Thy chosen cannot die : 
 Like thee they conquer in the strife, 
 To reign with thee on high." 
 
 The closing prayer was offered by the Rev. N. S. 
 Chapman, the oldest surviving member of the Classis 
 of Ulster, after which Dr. Muhlenberg's beautiful hymn 
 beginning, 
 
 " I would not live alway, I ask not to stay, 
 Where storm after storm rises dark o'er the way," 
 
58 yohn Cmttine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 was sung, and then the remains of the honored de- 
 ceased, the countenance wearing a most placid and 
 beautiful expression, were viewed by the pensive mul- 
 titude, who passed silently and solemnly by, many 
 being visibly and deeply affected as they gazed for the 
 last time on the face of one associated with the deepest 
 and tenderest experiences of their lives. The burial 
 took place at the WUtwyck Cemetery, in a lot belonging 
 to the family of the deceased, where, in the presence of 
 large numbers of those who had known, respected, and 
 loved him, he was laid tenderly to rest, in a grave 
 beside and within which loving hands had plentifully 
 strewn evergreens, emblematic of the ceaseless life 
 of the Immortal part, and the unfading crown which 
 adorns the brow of the ransomed. The services at the 
 grave were conducted by the Rev. Dr. Van Santvoord, 
 Dr. Demarest pronouncing the benediction. 
 
III. 
 PUBLIC TESTIMONIALS. 
 
PUBLIC TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 THE death of Dr. Hoes elicited testimonials of re- 
 spect not only from the First and Second Re- 
 formed Churches of Kingston, but from several bodies 
 — ecclesiastical, religious, and educational — with which 
 he had been connected for longer or shorter periods, and 
 with some of which he was connected when the release 
 from labor came. These varied tributes speak in uni- 
 form tones of the high estimation in which his character 
 and services in the cause of truth and man's welfare 
 were held by all with whom he had been associated in 
 religious and benevolent work. They refer to the 
 qualities which gave him a commanding position in 
 whatever society his presence, co-operation, and in- 
 fluence had been enjoyed, recount his usefulness in the 
 various official relations he had sustained, and speak 
 with deep feeling of the sense of loss occasioned by his 
 removal from the pleasant communion of other days. 
 As exhibiting the sentiments of those who had been 
 most closely associated with him in counsels and efforts 
 to promote the best interests of the Church and of 
 society, these testimonials have a special interest and 
 value. 
 
 THE FIRST REFORMED CHURCH OF KINGSTOxN. 
 
 The First Reformed Church of Kingston, in which 
 the largest part of Dr. Hoes' active ministry was passed, 
 took the following action on the day of his burial : 
 
62 yohn Cantme Favrell Hoes. 
 
 At a Meeting of the Consistory of the First Reformed 
 Church, held on Monday evening, February 12, 1883, a minute 
 was adopted of which the following is a copy : 
 
 Whereas, The body of the Rev. Dr. Hoes has been this 
 day laid in its final resting-place, it is but fitting that we put 
 upon record our sense of the solemnity of the event which 
 interrupts the associations by which he is linked to the history 
 of this Church, and that we tender to his bereaved household 
 our condolence and sincere Christian sympathies, and com- 
 mend them to the God of all consolation. 
 
 In addition to the minute previously adopted, offering condolence to the family 
 of the late Rev. Dr. Hoes, the Consistory of the First Reformed Church adopted 
 the following preamble and resolutions : 
 
 Whereas, The death of the Rev. J. C. F. Hoes, D.D., 
 formerly a pastor of this Church, removes from our midst one 
 who has long occupied a conspicuous and influential place in 
 this community, who has touched the lives of so many at the 
 sacred hours of baptism, bridal, and burial, and who has been 
 associated with the spiritual experiences of so many of God's 
 people ; therefore be it 
 
 Resolved, That we express our sense of the solemnity of 
 the hour, which brings to an end the testimony of an ambassa- 
 dor of God. We hear the echo in our souls of invitation and 
 entreaty, but the voice which uttered them is mute. We 
 recognize the faithfulness with which the message was given. 
 We honor that fidelity which was true to the simplicity of the 
 Gospel. Be it ours to bear witness in our lives to the earnest 
 ministry of him who once preached unto us the truth of 
 Christ. 
 
 Resolved, That we here put upon record our appreciation 
 of the value of the ministry of Dr. Hoes. To a strong and 
 vigorous personality he united the purpose of a consecrated 
 life. This purpose contemplated supremely the maintenance 
 of sound doctrine and the advancement of the interests of 
 the kingdom of Jesus Christ. No cause of vital religion was 
 ever consciously betrayed in his hands. However men might 
 differ from him in regard to methods, the supreme aim of his 
 life could not well be doubted, nor did his zeal lack the sane- 
 
Public Testimonials. 63 
 
 tion of the divine approval. His ministry was honored by 
 success and influence. 
 
 Resolved, That we renew to his bereaved family the 
 assurance of our sympathy, and commend them to the God of 
 all consolation, who is able to fill the darkest night of trial 
 with light serene. 
 
 Resolved, That as a token of respect to the memory of 
 the Rev. Dr. Hoes, the pulpit be draped for thirty days. 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted 
 to the family. 
 
 M. Westbrook Snyder, Secretary. 
 
 March 5, 1883. 
 
 THE SECOND REFORMED CHURCH OF KINGSTON. 
 
 The Second Reformed Church, organized in 1850, 
 and mainly from families set off, for the purpose, from 
 the First Reformed Church — families who had formed 
 for several years a part of Dr. Hoes' flock — paid the fol- 
 lowing tribute to their former pastor, who, during his 
 last years, had been a frequent worshipper with them, 
 and, from time to time, preached to them the Word so 
 often heard from his lips before separating from the 
 mother Church. 
 
 At a meeting of the Great Consistory of the Second Re- 
 formed Church of Kingston, N. Y., held Monday evening, 
 February 12, 1883, the following preamble and resolutions, 
 offered by Hon. Marius Schoonmaker, were unanimously 
 adopted : 
 
 The Rev. Dr. John C. F. Hoes, of this city, after more 
 than twoscore years of diligent, able, and effective service in 
 the cause of his Redeemer, has been suddenly called to his 
 heavenly, unending rest. It is fitting that we, the Consistory 
 of the Second Reformed Church of Kingston, who will here- 
 after miss his familiar face from his accustomed seat of late 
 
64 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 years in our sanctuary, should give an expression of our feel- 
 ings upon the mournful occasion ; therefore be it 
 
 Resolved, That the Rev. Dr. Hoes, during the many 
 years in which he has been a citizen of this locality, as well in 
 the capacity of pastor of the First Reformed Church of this 
 place, as in the walks of private life since his retirement from 
 active service, has ever shown himself to be a devoted follower 
 of his Lord and an earnest, able, and conscientious advocate 
 of the doctrines of Holy Writ. 
 
 Resolved, That we duly appreciate and bear witness to 
 his attachment and sympathy of late years, since his with- 
 drawal from the active duties of the pastorate, toward our 
 particular branch of the Christian Church, exhibited especially 
 by his uniting with us in partaking of the Lord's Supper, by 
 his frequent attendance and liberal contributions at the regular 
 services in our sanctuary, by his uniting his prayers with 
 those of our people at the weekly prayer-meetings, and by 
 his volunteering and rendering efficient aid and assistance in 
 the Sabbath-school attached to our Church. 
 
 Resolved, That we tender to the widow and family of the 
 deceased our sincere sympathy in this their great bereave- 
 ment. We point them for consolation in their sad trial to the 
 promises of the Gospel and to the Throne of Grace, in which 
 we know that they fully trust. 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the 
 family of the deceased. 
 
 By order of the Consistory, 
 
 Henry Abbey, Clerk. 
 
 THE CLASISS OF ULSTER. 
 
 The Classis of Ulster, w^ith which Dr. Hoes had 
 been connected nearly thirty-eight years, at its regular 
 Spring Session, April 17, 1883, adopted the following 
 minute : 
 
 The Committee appointed to prepare a minute expressive 
 of the sense of the Classis in regard to the recent death of one 
 of its members, would respectfully report the following : 
 
Public Testhnojiials. 65 
 
 Since the last meeting of the Classis the Rev. John C. F. 
 Hoes, D.D., has been removed from the Church on earth. 
 We feel sensibly to-day the absence of this venerated and be- 
 loved fellow-laborer, whose connection with this body had 
 continued for a period of thirty-eight years. His constant and 
 punctual attendance on its sessions, his deep interest in all 
 matters pertaining to the work and welfare of the Church, his 
 familiarity with its constitution and laws, and the forms and 
 usages of the denomination, his intelligence and sagacity in 
 the treatment of practical affairs, his readiness as a debater, 
 the earnestness and ability with which he presented his strong 
 convictions of truth and duty, together with the dignity and 
 urbanity of his intercourse with his brethren, impressed his 
 personality upon the Classis in a marked degree, making him 
 one of its most valuable members. The office of Queestor was 
 held by him nearly as long as his connection with the Classis 
 continued, and its duties were discharged from first to last with 
 the utmost exactness and fidelity. The death of one so long 
 a member of this body — so prominent in counsels and deliber- 
 ations, and so intimately and pleasantly associated with its 
 members — is felt as no ordinary bereavement. We bow. to 
 the will of the Infinite, who, in his own good time, has bidden 
 his servant to rest from his labors, and while reverting with 
 saddened hearts to the pleasant intercourse now broken off 
 and not to be resumed on earth, we are cheered as we remem- 
 ber that the pain of our loss is not worthy to be compared 
 with the joy of what is gained by him. While we bear testi- 
 mony to the uprightness and consistency of our deceased 
 brother's Christian life and character, his steadfast loyalty to 
 the Church and her Head, the fidelity of his life-long labors in 
 the Master's cause, we find assurance given that in his passing 
 from us into the silent land, it was only to become enrolled 
 in the bright company of those who, " faithful unto death," 
 wear, through the Lord's mercy, the " crown of glory that 
 fadeth not away." 
 
 C. Van Santvoord, 
 S 
 
 J. N. VOORHIS, ^ Committee. 
 
66 John Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 THE KINGSTON MINISTERIAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 At a meeting of the Kingston Ministerial Associa- 
 tion, held on Monday, February 26, 1883, the following 
 preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted, 
 and ordered to be published in the city papers, and 
 furnished to the family of the late Rev. John C. F. 
 Hoes, D.D. : 
 
 Whereas, It has pleased the Great Head of the Church to 
 remove from the midst of us our brother, John C. F. Hoes, 
 D.D., for many years the able and efficient Secretary of the 
 Kingston Ministerial Association, and desiring to place on 
 record a tribute to his memory, and our kindly regard for his 
 character as a man and Christian minister, therefore. 
 
 Resolved, That in the removal of our brother we have 
 lost an earnest and faithful member, v/hose counsel and un- 
 tiring zeal have contributed so largely to the continuance and 
 profit of our fraternal gatherings. No member will be more 
 missed than our venerable brother, whose friendly face and 
 stately form shall be seen by us no more until the coming of 
 the Lord. 
 
 Resolved, That we, as Christian ministers, gratefully re- 
 cognize and record our appreciation of his long and faithful 
 service in the ministry of our Lord, and those qualities of 
 mind and heart which have made such a deep impression upon 
 his times, especially upon this community in which he had 
 spent the best years of his life. 
 
 Resolved, That we hereby express our sense of the loss 
 sustained by the denomination of which he had been for so 
 many years a conspicuous preacher and leader ; and we tender 
 our cordial and Christian sympathy to the widow and children 
 of our departed brother, praying that " the Father of mercies 
 and God of all comfort" may comfort them with "the conso- 
 lation that abounds in Christ." 
 
Public Testimonials. 67 
 
 THE KINGSTON BOARD OF EDUCATION. 
 
 At a meeting of the Kingston Board of Education, 
 held on March 26, 1883, the Hon. F. L. Westbrook, a 
 member of the Board, spoke as follows : 
 
 Mr. President : In February last Rev. Dr. Hoes was 
 called to his final account. For many years he was a resident of 
 this place, the pastor of its oldest and foremost Church. Being 
 a man of strong intellect, thoroughly trained and cultured, and 
 of marked force of character, he was one of that class of clergy- 
 men whose influence extended beyond the confines of his own 
 congregation, and made a deep and lasting impress on the 
 community in general. I do not propose delivering a eulogy 
 on his life or character. That has been fittingly done at other 
 times and places. But I deem it proper, in view of the fact 
 that Dr. Hoes was for so many years one of the trustees of the 
 Kingston Academy, and its President for ten or more years, 
 and ever took a deep interest in its welfare, both before and 
 since it came under the control and management of this Board, 
 that we should make some expression of the feeling of loss that 
 the cause of education and this time-honored institution have 
 sustained by his death. I offer these resolutions : 
 
 Whereas, It has pleased the Sovereign Disposer to re- 
 move by death the Rev. John C. F. Hoes ; and 
 
 Whereas, During a residence in this community for 
 nearly forty years. Dr. Hoes was prominent as a warm friend 
 and earnest supporter of education, having been for many 
 years a trustee of the Kingston Academy, and President of 
 its Board of Trustees from 1854 to 1864, when the Academy 
 became merged into the system of graded schools ; and 
 
 Whereas, It is fitting that the services rendered and the 
 influence exerted by him in behalf of sound education in gen- 
 eral, as well as in this locality, should be recognized by this 
 Board; therefore, it is 
 
 Resolved, That in the death of Dr. Hoes the cause of 
 education has lost a friend who stood ever ready to advocate 
 
68 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 its interests, and whose influence, arising from his culture, his 
 position as a Christian minister, his strong and exemplary- 
 character, was earnestly and steadfastly exerted to promote the 
 high ends which it is the object of all true education to attain. 
 
 Resolved, That we express our hearty appreciation of the 
 valuable services rendered by Dr. Hoes, during his long con- 
 nection with Kingston Academy, as shown in wise counsel, 
 clear judgment, practical management, and broad and en- 
 lightened views, seeking ever to reach the best results by the 
 fittest means, and that we regard the present system of educa- 
 tion (an outgrowth of the former one), whose benefits are now 
 enjoyed by this community, as greatly indebted for its success 
 to his counsel, encouragement, and co-operation, and that his 
 efficient services to the interests of education will reach out in 
 their influence into the future, and prove an abiding benefit. 
 
 Resolved, That these resolutions be entered in the minutes 
 of this Board, and that a copy of them be sent to the family of 
 Dr. Hoes, to whom we tender our sympathy in their bereave- 
 ment, and also be sent to the city papers for insertion. 
 
 The resolutions were unanimously adopted. 
 
 THE KINGSTON YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIA- 
 TION. 
 
 Whereas, It has pleased our All-Wise Heavenly Father to 
 remove from this community our venerable and esteemed 
 brother. Rev. John C. F. Hoes, D.D., who has been identified 
 with our Association from its birth, and who, by his words of 
 counsel and practical aid, has contributed largely to its exist- 
 ance and growth ; therefore. 
 
 Resolved, That at this our first regular quarterly meeting 
 since his decease, we, the Young Men's Christian Association 
 of Kingston, N. Y., express our regret at the loss sustained 
 by the community at large, and by our Association. 
 
 Resolved, That we tender our earnest sympathy to the 
 family of our deceased friend and brother, and earnestly pray 
 that the God of all grace may sustain them in this the hour 
 of their affliction. 
 
Public Testimonials. 69 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the 
 bereaved family ; that a copy be published in the daily papers 
 of our city ; and also that they be entered on the minutes of 
 the Association. 
 
 George B. Merritt, President. 
 Benj. S. Myer, Secretary. 
 
 THE HUDSON RIVER MINISTERIAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 In view of the death of the Rev. Dr. J. C. F. Hoes, 
 the Hudson River Ministerial Association ordered put 
 upon its records, and directed to be transmitted to the 
 family of the deceased, and to be published in The 
 Christian Intelligencer the following minute : 
 
 There has been no presence more familiar in the gather- 
 ings of this Association than that of Dr. Hoes, and no counsel 
 or criticism more valued than those he offered. Of wide intel- 
 ligence, active mind, great keenness of observation and acute- 
 ness of reasoning, together with intense devotion to the forms 
 and symbols of our Reformed faith, he ever exercised a marked 
 influence in all circles of his activity. His long service in the 
 Church, his prominence in matters of Church polity, and his 
 great adaptiveness to the management of affairs, made him a 
 valued and influential member of any body to which he be- 
 longed. A member of this Association, from the first j'ear of 
 its existence, he has always been an interested participator in 
 its meetings, commending himself alike to our respect and 
 affection. At this meeting it is a loss to note his absence, 
 and a far greater loss to know that he will be with us no more 
 on earth. The recollection of his presence, his friendly inter- 
 course, and his wise counsels, will ever abide a pleasant mem- 
 ory with us all. We would thus express the sense of our own 
 loss, and extend our sympathies to his bereaved family. 
 
 Adopted at Poughkeepsie, April 4, 1883. 
 
yo yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 THE REFORMED CHURCH OF AVOODSTOCK, N. Y. 
 
 The Reformed Church of Woodstock, N. Y., to 
 which Dr. Hoes ministered as stated supply for two 
 years^ — 1870-72, took the following action through its 
 Consistory : 
 
 The Consistory of the Reformed Church of Woodstock 
 having heard, with deep sorrow, of the death of the Rev. J. C. 
 F. Hoes, D.D., desire to put on record their testimony to his 
 great worth, and also their sense of a personal loss; therefore. 
 
 Resolved, That we feel that a master in Israel has fallen, 
 one who was thoroughly furnished as a good and valiant de- 
 fender of the Cross, and who was strong in all efforts for the 
 glorifying of the Lord. 
 
 Resolved, That we, as an individual Church, realize that 
 we have lost a true friend — one who, while supplying our 
 pulpit for two years, endeared himself to the families of the 
 church, and to both the old and the young, by his uniform 
 Christian kindness and courtesy — and one whose wise counsels 
 and aid, in both the material and spiritual affairs of the Church, 
 contributed much to the strength and prosperity of our Church. 
 
 Resolved, That we will always cherish his memory, and 
 that these resolutions be put upon our records. 
 By order of Consistory, 
 
 William A. Wurts, 
 President of Consistory. 
 
 FROM MINUTES OF PARTICULAR SYNOD OF ALBANY. 
 
 The following biographical notice of Dr. Hoes 
 formed a portion of the report of the Necrological Com- 
 mittee made to the Particular Synod of Albany, at its 
 session held at Schoharie, N. Y., in May, 1883, and 
 was published in the proceedings of that body : 
 
Public Testimonials. 7 1 
 
 The Rev. John C. F. Hoes, D.D., died at Kingston, N. Y., 
 on theQthof February last, in the seventy-second year of his age. 
 He had long occupied a prominent place as a minister of the 
 Reformed Churt;h, in which he was born and passed his whole 
 ministerial life. Though he had lived beyond threescore years 
 and ten, when unexpectedly called to his rest, his apparent 
 health and mental freshness and vigor were such that several 
 years of active and useful Hfe might have seemed still open 
 before him. 
 
 He graduated from Amherst College in 1832, finished his 
 theological course in Princeton Seminary in 1835, and was 
 called the same year to become the pastor of the Reformed 
 Dutch Church of Chittenango, N. Y. In 1837 he assumed the 
 pastorate of the Reformed Dutch Church of Ithaca, N. Y., con- 
 tinuing in this position till the fall of 1845, when he was in- 
 stalled as pastor of the Reformed Dutch Church of Kingston, 
 N. Y., retaining his office till 1867, a period of more than 
 twenty-one years. After he retired from the pastorate of this 
 Church, Dr. Hoes entered upon no regular pastoral charge, 
 though his services were often sought by neighboring churches, 
 to one of which, the Reformed Church of Woodstock, he 
 ministered statedly for two years. 
 
 He was a well-furnished, intelligent, faithful, and efficient 
 minister of the Word, thoroughly evangelical in doctrine and 
 in his preaching, in which he sought to present "the whole 
 counsel of God," and to bring the great truths of God's 
 wisdom and redeeming love, through Jesus Christ, home to 
 the heart, the understanding, and conscience of man. His 
 "trumpet gave no uncertain sound," and the message he felt 
 honored to bring was never vague or misty, so that the hearer 
 not comprehending it, might easily evade its force. It was 
 perspicuous, direct, and pointed, so that every one listening 
 must needs feel the significance and bearing of it as a matter 
 of personal concern, and as impressing personal responsibility. 
 
 This preaching bore its appropriate fruits, as shown in a 
 people well instructed, earnest in Christian effort, and ready at 
 the call of Christ to do cheerfully whatever good work their 
 hand found to do. He was, moreover, a laborious and adapted 
 
72 yohn Can tine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 pastor, carefully watching over all the members of his charge, 
 and suffering the interests of none to be jeoparded by a lack 
 of proper attention and care. His love of order and system 
 was very marked. All his affairs, private as well as official, 
 were subjected to the most systematic arrangement and con- 
 trol. His knowledge, which was full and accurate, extended 
 to the minutest details of things important for him to know in 
 order to make his administration effective. His ministry was 
 successful wherever it was exercised. Many souls were given 
 him by the Master as the fruits of his earnest and devoted ser- 
 vice, and in his last and longest pastorate, there were material 
 as well as spiritual evidences of growth and prosperity which 
 will serve to make his ministry there marked and memorable. 
 
 Dr. Hoes was a prominent and influential member of our 
 Church courts, he was a ready and able debater, had inde- 
 pendent views of things, and was strong and fearless in ex- 
 pressing his convictions. He was thoroughly familiar with the 
 constitution, rules of order, and' usages of the Reformed 
 Church, and this gave him additional influence in deliberative 
 bodies, where he united the courtesy of the Christian gentle- 
 man to the knowledge and ability with which he supported his 
 opinions. The Church will miss him in her public assemblies, 
 and especially the Classis to which he had belonged nearly 
 forty years, and in which he had held a responsible office 
 nearly as long, his loss will occasion a vacuum which it will 
 seem hard indeed to fill. 
 
 In the community where the most of his years were passed, 
 his loss will be long and seriously felt. He was exemplary in 
 his domestic and social relations, was a loyal and true friend 
 of the Church, a warm supporter of education, a good citizen, 
 a kind neighbor, a man of pure life and undoubted piety, 
 ready to befriend and help forward every good cause, and 
 possessed of a charity that could cordially fraternize and co- 
 operate with Christians of other names, regarding and treating 
 them as brethren beloved. With some imperfections by which 
 the best of us are also marked, and without which he had been 
 more or less than human, his life and work have been those of 
 an upright, sincere, and devoted Christian minister and man. 
 
Public Testimonials. 73 
 
 The good influences he has been enabled to exert during his 
 long ministry will outlast his mortal career, and while greeting 
 in the great final day the ransomed children whom the Lord 
 has given him, he will himself rejoice in the gracious greeting : 
 " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these 
 my brethren, ye have done it unto me." 
 
 SPRING MEETING OF THE CLASSIS OF ULSTER. 
 
 At the Spring Meeting of the Classis of Ulster, held 
 in the Reformed Church of Caatsban, April 17, 1883, 
 the President of the Classis, the Rev. William A. Shaw, 
 closed his sermon before the body with the following 
 tribute to the memory of Dr. Hoes. The text of the 
 sermon was in Isaiah xl. 6-8 : " The voice said, Cry. 
 And he said, What shall I cry ? All flesh is grass, and 
 all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. 
 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the 
 word of our God shall stand forever." 
 
 My brethren, one of our number, to whom the pro- 
 clamation of this abiding word of salvation was committed by 
 the Master, has been summoned to the great and decisive 
 meeting and revelation. Nothing but the assurance that God's 
 eternal Word gives of a double satisfaction for all our sins, 
 could enable any to appear there without utter terror. But 
 now we know that he has gone to see the King in his beauty. 
 He loved to preach His Gospel, and was honored in a very 
 eminent degree in preaching it. At our last meeting he occu- 
 pied the position of retiring Moderator, and preached the ser- 
 mon, which embodied some of his most striking and character- 
 istic excellencies in matter, as well as in style and manner. 
 We remember with what evident emotion he alluded, at the 
 close, to the probability of its being the last time he should, in 
 such an official relation, address the Classis, and how grateful, 
 yet sad, were the memories which he called up, as he reviewed 
 his own relations to the Classis of Ulster, from the time of his 
 
74 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 first coming to this county. He spoke of the many changes 
 that had taken place, his delightful association with those who 
 were then the venerated fathers in the ministry, before the 
 division of the Classis — of Ostrander, and Van Dyke, and 
 others, who had been called away — so that he seemed to him- 
 self almost the only surviving one of a great and honored band, 
 who had finished their work before him, and been called to 
 their reward. There were some who then heard him to whom 
 the thought came, that our brother himself was looking back 
 with so tender a retrospect because the vision before was so 
 near to him, that he already spake from a heart conscious that 
 the Jordan was not far in the distance, and sadly luminous, if 
 we may so say, with some gleams from the coming chariot of 
 flame and horses of fire, which should sign the end, too, of his 
 toil, and the transition to his reward. 
 
 Dr. Hoes was a man of such force of character as would 
 have made his influence decided in any vocation or sphere he 
 might have chosen. How conspicuously he has honored his 
 chosen vocation in the ministry, even to the last, is familiar to 
 you all. I cannot now allude, in any extended way, to his 
 devotion and love for this vocation, to his excellence as a 
 preacher, to his zeal as a pastor, to the high place of influence 
 which, through a long pastorate, he maintained in the im- 
 mediate sphere of his work, and throughout the churches of 
 the Classis. These have already had, and will have, fitting 
 mention. He brought great ability, clear, practical judgment, 
 energetic promptness, ready tact, and the facility which large 
 experience gives, to every work which he took in hand in the 
 peculiar duties of his calling. And let it be said that he 
 adorned his work not only by a self-possession and dignity and 
 natural urbanity, to which peculiarly prepossessing advantages 
 of person gave peculiar attractiveness and power, but by a 
 piety which, especially in these later years, shone more brightly 
 through a nature constitutionally intrenched under not a few 
 asperities — a piety which manifested toward the close greatly 
 augmenting force of control over all the sharp antagonisms to 
 which grace, in every Christian, must oppose itself. 
 
 It is not a wonder, therefore, that the sudden removal of one 
 
Public Testimonials. 75 
 
 whom the community had been accustomed to associate so 
 prominently in all its ordinary life and in every special exi- 
 gency of its interests, should awaken the profoundest sensa- 
 tions of surprise and regret. There was no remark more uni- 
 versal, as citizen commimicated to citizen, and friend to friend, 
 the sad intelligence of his decease, than this : " He will be 
 missed ! " " He will be greatly missed ! " This expression, so 
 universal, is the verdict of his own people and community to 
 the essential moral worth of his character, and to the essential 
 excellence of that infiuence which he exerted in the Church 
 and upon the life of the community. It is the sincere convic- 
 tion of an enlightened judgment pressing its way to utterance 
 above all the transient prejudices (and they were not a few, 
 for our brother was a man most decided and outspoken in his 
 convictions), pressing its way above these transient prejudices, 
 and these suspended and hesitating judgments, originating in 
 partial views and conflicting and clashing interests. People in- 
 stinctively feel that the excellence of a life, spent far above the 
 contagion of worldly excess, and sustained by an atmosphere 
 charged with divinely purifying and invigorating elements, is 
 not so frequent and common as not to demand, when such a 
 life has been lived, the honest verdict that it drew its inspira- 
 tion from above, and that its permanent effect is one most 
 salutary, constraining to abhorrence of all that is vile, and in- 
 citing to imitation and love of all that is morally pure and 
 ennobling. 
 
 While we mourn our loss, let us be glad for him, that the 
 warfare is ended, and that his feet tread the eternal shores, 
 where no struggle with evil or sin shall ever be experienced 
 more. 
 
 We, brethren, shall miss the form of our brother, grown ven- 
 erable and beloved. We shall learn by our lack how great his 
 service among us. We shall be impressed anew with his per- 
 fect familiarity with ecclesiastical usages. We shall come to 
 realize how greatly his active sense of the propriety ordinarily 
 of the observance of these, according to prescribed methods — 
 while sometimes perhaps rising to what might appear an inju- 
 dicious or even uncharitable extreme — nevertheless was, on 
 
76 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 the whole, buttressed by sincere devotion to the good of the 
 Church, and contributed, no doubt, to promote and deepen 
 among us a sense of the authority and dignity of Classis, as 
 officially representing the churches, and a judicatory of the 
 Church of Christ. 
 
 And so one by one the laborers fall from their places ; but 
 the Church, founded on the living and abiding Word of God, 
 founded on him whose coming and work authenticated that 
 Word as eternally living and abiding,- founded on him who is 
 the Resurrection and the Life, and who says to all his follow- 
 ers, "Because I live, ye shall live also" — this Church moves on 
 to her high work and destiny. 
 
IV. 
 INDIVIDUAL TRIBUTES. 
 
INDIVIDUAL TRIBUTES. 
 
 THE New York Observer, The Evangelist, The 
 Christian Intelligencer, and other religious pa- 
 pers of New York and elsewhere, as well as the vari- 
 ous papers of this city, contained lengthy obituary no- 
 tices of Dr. Hoes, portraying the life and character of 
 the man and the minister in terms worthy of his position 
 in the Church at large, and in the community in which 
 he lived. While omitting others, it is deemed fitting to 
 insert the following from the pen of the Rev. C. W. 
 Camp, Rector of Trinity Church, Kingston, which ap- 
 peared in the Kingston Leader on the morning of the 
 day succeeding Dr. Hoes' death, and also a single para- 
 graph from an extended obituary notice in the Kingston 
 Argus, prepared by its editor, H. G. Crouch, Esq., an 
 esteemed friend of Dr. Hoes. 
 
 From the Kingston Daily Leader, February io, 1883. 
 
 Last Friday, in the afternoon, at five o'clock, the spirit of 
 this prominent and well-l<nown citizen suddenly and most un- 
 expectedly took its flight to a better world. 
 
 Just well over the mark of threescore years and ten, Dr. 
 Hoes bid fair, so far as the eyes of his friends could judge, as 
 as they saw his manly, upright, and dignified frame daily on 
 our streets, to reach triumphantly to fourscore years at least, 
 before his strength should give place to labor and sorrow. The 
 sad news of his death must come to the whole city with the 
 shock and suddenness of an event wholly unexpected. 
 
8o yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 Dr. Hoes was born at Middleburgh, Schoharie County, N. 
 Y., July 13, 181 1. He entered Amherst College in 1829, and 
 graduated from that institution in 1832. He has been a resi- 
 dent of Kingston since 1845, having previously been pastor for 
 eight years in Ithaca, and for two years in Chittenango — his 
 first pastorate. He came here to a small village — he has left 
 a large city. And among all the changes that have come over 
 the community he was sure to be a factor, and prominent on 
 the side of virtue and godliness, as he understood it, for he was 
 one of the few men who are perfectly persuaded that the way 
 to have things go right is to take hold and make them right. 
 
 For twenty-one full years and more, Dr. Hoes was pastor 
 of the First Reformed Dutch Church of this city, and as a 
 natural consequence, his death will be mourned by the many 
 whose social rejoicings hold his memory dear, since it was he 
 that united them in marriage, baptized their children, and 
 blessed their feasts, — as well as by the many who have listened 
 in sobbing silence to his words of tender consolation when 
 death entered his flock, and whose voice committed their re- 
 mains to the bosom of mother earth with words of hope. So 
 firmly bound to this city and people by length of loving service, 
 that he could not leave when he resigned his pastorate in 1867, 
 the good doctor remained a citizen of Kingston, and continued 
 to enjoy the respect and love of his large circle of friends, 
 ministering to vacant churches in the neighborhood as he was 
 desired, and foremost in all efforts at moral reform. He was 
 always to be found on the platform at temperance meetings, 
 and was frequently called upon at the briefest notice to make 
 addresses on the subject, and was never called upon in vain. 
 The Young Men's Christian Association was also very near to 
 his heart, and every day he might be seen in the Association 
 rooms uptown. He did what he could. He worked until the 
 night came for him, in which no man can work. 
 
 Dr. Hoes will be missed in upper Kingston as almost no 
 other man would be missed. Not only in a social way, though 
 very many will feel to-day that they have lost a friend they 
 valued more than they knew, but the churches will all acknowl- 
 edge that a valiant soldier of the Cross has been called to rest. 
 
Individtial Tributes. 8i 
 
 and to the commendation of the Great Captain of our salva- 
 tion. 
 
 To the surviving family of this good man the sympathy of 
 the entire community is offered. May the comfort he has so 
 often brought to those whose heart-strings were riven by simi- 
 lar anguish, return in soothing sweetness to the wife and 
 daughter, who are all that are left with us, the more so that his 
 only son. Rev. R. Randall Hoes, Chaplain in the navy, is absent 
 on a cruise in the West Indies. 
 
 Thus, one by one, those pass away to whom we have looked 
 as examples of all that is manly and good, and we wonder who 
 will take up the dropped work and fill the vacant place. But 
 He who has this world in the hollow of his hand will, we doubt 
 not, order all things aright in the future as in the past, and in 
 that faith we are comforted. 
 
 May His righteous will be done ! 
 
 From the Kingston Argus of February 14, 1883. 
 
 Of the not unfrequent sudden deaths in this community, 
 that of Rev. Dr. John C. F. Hoes, on Friday afternoon last, 
 was perhaps the least expected and most regretted of any of 
 recent years. For a period of thirty-seven years he has been 
 a conspicuous figure in the religious, educational, and social 
 life of Kingston, with a marked influence in the ecclesiastical 
 concerns of the denomination with which he had been identi- 
 fied during his long and eminent religious life. His individu- 
 ality was strong, leaving its impress wherever it was directed, 
 and always for an elevated end. Clear and well-balanced in 
 intellect, trained to close and methodical reflection, his judg- 
 ment was so sure as to make the positive assertion of his con- 
 victions inevitable, and his tenacious adherence to them assume 
 the form of a powerful will. His broad culture, and large ex- 
 perience rendered him tolerant and liberal toward the views of 
 others with whom he associated or co-operated, as he was ever 
 prompt to do in all works of a religious, social, or educational 
 nature. He exalted and exemplified the ministerial office by 
 preaching "the Word" in its simplicity and truth, believing 
 that, and only that, to be the duty of whoever assumed to be a 
 6 
 
82 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 preacher of the Gospel. Like all men of his type he was a 
 strong, helpful, and faithful friend, as those very well know 
 who gained his confidence and understood that behind a dig- 
 nified and impressive presence there was a warm heart, a wise 
 head, and a strong voice, when needed, to help those who had 
 a right to claim his friendship 
 
 Of the many letters of condolence and sympathy 
 received by the family of Dr. Hoes, the following is from 
 the Rev. Sanford H. Cobb, who, for twelve years, had 
 been closely associated with the deceased as a member 
 of the same Classis, and by hearty and confidential per- 
 sonal relations : 
 
 My Dear Mrs. Hoes : 
 
 It will not, I believe, be unacceptable to you and to your 
 children, for me not only to convey to you the sentiments of 
 sympathy for you all in your grievous loss, but also to claim 
 for myself, in a certain most definite and personal way, a share 
 in the same sad affliction. Indeed it is no exaggeration of 
 friendship that moves me to so speak, for I know not that the 
 death of a brother minister has ever brought to me so poignant 
 a sorrow. The news of his sudden departure came to me with 
 a severe shock. I returned from the sad services of the funeral, 
 yesterday, feeling desolate beyond my power to describe. Will 
 you think it strange if I say that I found no little comfort from 
 the very sight of that beautiful face and noble brow, as my 
 friend lay sleeping in his casket ! It was a sight to remember, 
 for the hand of death surely never wrought more exquisite 
 work. It reminded me of the spiritual beauty and glory to 
 which the immortal part of my dear friend had come, and so 
 comforted me concerning him. 
 
 But for myself I have felt the loss to be well-nigh irrepar- 
 able. I can never expect to form again, under similar circum 
 stances, the bonds of such a friendship as existed for twelve 
 years between your husband and myself, which, though pos- 
 sessing no unwonted force of affection, yet had in it peculiar 
 features, growing out of our mutual relations — relations scarcely 
 
Individual Tributes. 83 
 
 to be repeated in one's experience. Despite the difference in 
 years, and the width of professional experience, there was ever 
 between us such mutual regard — on his part such urbanity and 
 kindness, such considerateness and readiness to help, such gen- 
 tleness, and at the same time such wisdom of speech — as I 
 shall never cease to remember with gratefulness and pleasure. 
 As the years went by, they bound me to him very closely. 
 
 I shall never forget the first time I met Dr. Hoes. It was 
 in my parsonage at Schoharie, where, while on a little pleasure 
 trip, he gave himself the trouble, and me the honor, of seeking 
 out the young dominie who had just taken up the burden of 
 his first charge. The elegant courtesy of his manner made 
 upon me then a profound impression — an impression not re- 
 moved, when, in after years, my ministry brought me into 
 the same Classis with him, and gave me the opportunities of 
 frequent association. Indeed this courtesy of manner — a gen- 
 tlemanliness " of the old school," as the saying is, a practical ex- 
 emplification of the apostolic " Be courteous " — was in my eyes 
 one of the distinguishing features of his personality, exercising 
 upon me, and I doubt not upon others also, a peculiar fascina- 
 tion. To the stranger and chance acquaintance it was marked, 
 and to the freedom of familiar intercourse it added a special 
 grace. Some might say that this was merely superficial, but 
 to me it always spoke the native kindliness of his heart. The 
 only departures which I have witnessed from this almost in- 
 variable gentleness were in the ardor of debate, when the 
 strength of his conviction, or the earnestness of his reproof for 
 what was wrong in morals, or mistaken in policy, sometimes 
 argued a severity of feeling to which in reality he was a stranger. 
 
 No one who knew your husband could fail of admiration 
 for his qualities of mind. He was singularly clear and keen, 
 so that I often wondered at the beautiful precision of his 
 thought, and the sharpness of his insight. I doubt if we have 
 in the Church his superior in knowledge of ecclesiastical law, 
 or in readiness of application of the principles of that law to 
 any given case. I am not sure even that in these respects the 
 Church possesses his equal. His acquaintance with precedents, 
 and the endless detail of the minutiae of Church history, and 
 
84 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 past policy and methods, was something marvellous. It is a 
 fact well known to you, that his advice in all matters pertain- 
 ing to Church polity was widely sought and highly esteemed. 
 To myself that advice, drawn from superior knowledge, both 
 of men and measures, I found to be, on more than one occasion, 
 simply invaluable. 
 
 You will permit me to speak, even at risk of wearying you, 
 of another quality of your husband, which has made upon me 
 a no less distinct impression than the things already spoken of 
 This is the tenacity of his moral purpose. I think he had a 
 deep-seated hatred of wrong, and a rare persistence in opposing 
 what he deemed a wrong, whether a wrong to himself, a wrong 
 in doctrine, or in morals, and even a wrong conclusion as to 
 measures and policy. He was one of the few men who can 
 stand alone in the consciousness of being right. This is not 
 to say that he always was right in his conclusions. I have 
 crossed swords with him too often in Classical debate to permit 
 my saying that, though I am willing enough to allow that where 
 we differed, he was more likely to be right than I. But 
 whether differing or agreeing, or yet again observing his atti- 
 tude in matters with which I myself had nothing to do, I never 
 ceased to admire the firm, resolute adherence to his convictions, 
 which could not be loosened save by an argument more cogent 
 than* his own — an argument, by the way, not often made. 
 And I do not think that this persistence was of the narrow, 
 personal kind which makes some men obstinate. He was not 
 obstinate. He was ever willing to yield to demonstration. 
 But his very soul hated a wrong thing, or a mean thing, and 
 would urge him much further than most men would be willing 
 to follow in resisting it. 
 
 I might add other things which my recollection of my friend 
 suggests to me ; but these had made the most distinct figure of 
 him in my mind, and I cannot deny myself the pleasure of 
 speaking of them to you, believing that my so doing will be to 
 you neither intrusive nor distasteful. 
 
 With kindest regards and sympathy, 
 
 Sanford H. Cobb. 
 
 Saugerties, N. Y., February 13, 1883. 
 
Individual Tributes. 85 
 
 The following is from the pen of the Hon. Augus- 
 tus Schoonmaker, of Kingston, N. Y., late Attorney- 
 General of this State, between whom and Dr. Hoes 
 there has existed for many years mutual sentiments of 
 confidence and esteem. 
 
 Kingston, N. Y., February 19, 1883. 
 
 My Dear Mrs. Hoes : 
 
 The decease of your late husband, Rev. John C. F. Hoes, 
 D.D., is an event of too much importance to pass unnoticed 
 by those who were his friends in Hfe, and who revere his 
 memory. His death is a bereavement to a wider circle than 
 his immediate family. The community in which he lived, and 
 the Church of which he was so faithful a minister, share the 
 bereavement with those who were united to him by the closer 
 ties of kindred. As one of the number who enjoyed his friend- 
 ship, who saw much of him in his later years, and who appre- 
 ciated his high, strong character, I beg to tender to you, and 
 to all the members of his family, my sincere condolence, and 
 to offer a humble tribute at his grave. 
 
 Dr. Hoes has left a name and record which those who sur- 
 vive him can gratefully cherish. He was not an ordinary man. 
 He was endowed with characteristics which gave him distinc- 
 tiveness and individuality. His tall, erect, and manly figure 
 was not more striking than the moral and intellectual propor- 
 tions of his nature. 
 
 One of his marked characteristics was his unswerving Fidel- 
 ity. This was exhibited in every sphere and relation of his 
 life. In an age of inconstancy and mutation among men called 
 scholars and philosophers, he was grandly faithful to every 
 cause he espoused and to every obligation he assumed. His 
 fidelity was conspicuous in his devotion to his Church and all 
 that pertained to it — its doctrinal standards, its polity, its 
 usages, and its name — and was equally so in his devotion to his 
 family and his friends. Fidelity with him was a principle, and 
 not a matter of expediency. Only a man of earnest convic- 
 tions can be a thoroughly true man, and Dr. Hoes was strong 
 enough to make his life an illustration of this principle. 
 
86 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 Another characteristic was Reverence for Authority and 
 established Order. He was not a revolutionist or schismatic, 
 and agitators under the guise of reformers received no counte- 
 nance from him. His settled faith in Deity as the Creator and 
 Governor of all things embraced its logical sequence of a Di- 
 vine order in the affairs of mankind. The Church, the insti- 
 tutions of government, the institutions of society, were to him 
 all parts of the divine order, deriving their sanction from the 
 same divine authority, and to be sustained and revered for 
 that reason, and because essential to the welfare of the race. 
 Whoever raised a hand against this divine order, or presumed 
 to question its foundations, was culpable in his sight. Such a 
 man not merely opposed the plans of men, but he resisted the 
 Authority represented by all human institutions, and was 
 therefore in rebellion against Deity. He regarded innova- 
 tions and changes as dangerous, because they interfered with 
 the established order of things which to him was sacred. The 
 Holy Scriptures he accepted as the unerring revelation of the 
 Divine will, and the trustworthy record of the divine dealings 
 with the human race, and he considered them in no other as- 
 pect. They were to be guarded alike against the assaults of 
 skepticism and the expurgations and improvements of pro- 
 fessed scholarship. The doctrines which Apostles taught, for 
 which martyrs suffered, and which has vitalized the Church 
 for centuries, he tenaciously maintained in all their integrity. 
 The old paths were to him the paths of safety, because they 
 were the paths of obedience. 
 
 Another characteristic was his Conscientiousness. This was 
 exhibited not merely in its moral aspects of right teaching and 
 right doing, and the negative forms of avoidance of known er- 
 ror and repugnance to novel innovations, but in painstaking 
 accuracy in whatever he undertook. He was patient and un- 
 tiring in the search of truth, and was satisfied with nothing less 
 than absolute accuracy in his facts, in his statements, and in 
 his opinions of men and things. He was never careless or in 
 haste, but whatever was worth doing, he regarded as worth 
 doing well. Every act of importance was considered in re- 
 spect to its own nature, and its bearings and consequences. I 
 
Individtial Tributes. 87 
 
 had occasion to see much of him in matters of business. As 
 Treasurer for a time of a business corporation, he was charged 
 with large responsibilities, and the discharge of his duties in 
 that position gave opportunities for the display of many of his 
 characteristics. He would take nothing for granted. Before 
 acting he had to be satisfied that the act was both right in it- 
 self, and lawful and proper to be done. His conduct in this 
 respect was a novelty in corporate management. In the prepa- 
 ration of his last will and testament, his habit of careful accu- 
 racy was shown. He first wrote out minutely the dispositions 
 he desired to make of his property, then submitted his draft to 
 a legal friend, so that there might be no mistake in phraseol- 
 ogy or form, and then carefully engrossed it all with his own 
 hand, again visiting his legal friend to have the instrument 
 properly executed. His rare judgment, the fruit of accurate 
 information, discriminating observation, and sound deductions, 
 was shown in his judicious investments in matters of property. 
 He made no mistakes, and suffered no losses — an experience 
 probably uncommon among clergymen. 
 
 But his most distinctive characteristic was his Consecration. 
 His life was a consecration to his work as a Christian minister. 
 He never forgot his Divine office, and never lowered the stand- 
 ard of his high calling. He was always the dignified, exem- 
 plary, and loyal ambassador of the Cross. No man had clearer 
 conceptions of the ideal of the priestly office than he, and no 
 one was truer to that ideal. Dignity was tempered by urban- 
 ity, and circumspection was blended with zeal to exalt and 
 promote the cause in which he was commissioned. In his 
 ministerial life there was a singleness of purpose that was al- 
 ways conspicuous. All other things were subordinated to the 
 transcendant object of glorifying the Church, and fulfilling its 
 appointed mission. His consecration was illustrated in a pre- 
 eminent manner by the blameless purity of his life. Not a 
 taint of immorality, not even a breath of suspicion, ever 
 touched his robes. His long and active career, among all vari- 
 eties of persons and under circumstances that test human na- 
 ture and moral principle, was not marred by a single moral 
 flaw. Precept and practice did not antagonize each other, but 
 
88 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 were in strict accord. He led no one astray by word or act. 
 The voice that told others of the better way was enforced by 
 example in the same direction. Heterodoxy of doctrine was 
 not more repugnant to him than impropriety of conduct. He 
 was the foe of whatever deflected from orthodoxy in faith, or 
 from the purest morality in practice. 
 
 The characteristics to which I have referred were so promi- 
 nent that no discerning person could fail to observe them, and 
 the solidity they imparted to his character inspired a degree 
 of respect and confidence seldom enjoyed. 
 
 I have not overlooked other elements in his character which 
 contributed to its completeness, of which I have not spoken. 
 The characteristics I have mentioned, however, bore a close 
 relation to each other, and rounded out a character of singular 
 elevation and equipoise. 
 
 Popularity and excellence do not always coexist. The 
 one is transient, the other eternal. The one is the applause 
 of the present, which may be unmerited, and is soon forgotten ; 
 the other is the imperishable treasure in the Celestial Mansions 
 which secures the unfading crown. Those who can calmly 
 choose the paths of excellence, and patiently wait for the re- 
 compense reserved for the pure in heart and holy in life, are 
 the truly wise and great of the world. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 Augustus Schoonmaker. 
 
 The Class of 1832 of Amherst College celebrated its 
 fiftieth anniversary, before referred to, in the summer 
 of 1882, seven of the thirteen survivors, including Dr. 
 Hoes, being present. The interesting event afforded 
 the liveliest pleasure to all who were so fortunate as to 
 share in it. Dr. Hoes found this reunion a season full 
 of delight, and to the day of his death loved to speak 
 of the incidents connected with this gathering of well- 
 remembered classmates, the most of whom he had not 
 seen since they parted in the flush of youth fifty years 
 
Individual Tributes. 89 
 
 before. Two who were present at this reunion — Judge 
 Morris, of Springfield, Mass., and Judge Watkins, of 
 Farmville, Va. — express the sentiments with which the 
 unexpected death of their classmate impressed them, in 
 the letters which follow : 
 
 Springfield, Mass., February ig, 1883. 
 
 Dear Mrs. Hoes: 
 
 The first intelligence that reached me of the death of your 
 beloved husband, my lamented classmate and friend, was a 
 brief notice in a New York paper. It was more impressive 
 from the fact that after so long a separation we had so recently 
 met at Amherst, and afterward at Longmeadow, and in my 
 own home, and I had so agreeably renewed with him the 
 friendship of our college life. It is difficult for me to realize 
 that one retaining so much of the vigor of earlier years, so 
 ready to enjoy the society of his friends, and to impart to them 
 of his own cheerfulness and joy, should so suddenly have 
 passed away. 
 
 The various incidents of the two days of our meeting at 
 Amherst, in June — our gathering in the evening at the home 
 of our deceased classmate Montague — our visit the next morn- 
 ing to his grave — our attendance together on the public ex- 
 ercises of the Commencement — the Alumni dinner, at which 
 your husband, in response to the call of the presiding officer, 
 fervently invoked the divine blessing — all these are vividly 
 impressed upon my memory, and come up before me as I 
 write. And then our meeting briefly at Longmeadow, and 
 later and more at length at my own house, and the services of 
 the sanctuary, where he preached an excellent discourse, and 
 afterward assisted in the administration of the ordinances at 
 the communion — how little I realized then that he would so 
 soon pass away, and that I should see his face no more this 
 side of heaven. 
 
 I feel that my own loss in his departure is great. How 
 much greater must be yours and your children's ! But what 
 is our loss compared with his gain ? 
 
90 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 I need not say to you, dear Mrs. Hoes, that you and your 
 family have the warmest sympathies of myself and my family. 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Henry Morris. 
 
 Farmville, Va., February 15, 1883. 
 
 To THE Family of the Rev. Dr. Hoes: 
 
 My dear Friends — You will, I am sure, pardon this free- 
 dom of a stranger in sending you this note. A letter from my 
 friend. Judge Morris, tells me of the death of my dear brother, 
 the Rev. Dr. J. C. F. Hoes ! I have seldom read a letter which 
 affected me so much. In June last Dr. Hoes and myself met, 
 after fifty years' absence from Amherst College. We gradu- 
 ated there in 1832. Though time and distance had widely 
 separated us, we "renewed our youth" in June, and it was 
 one of the happiest meetings of my life ! It so happened that 
 he and I remained together for a day or two, and had some 
 remarkable and delightful hours. We had kept up an occa- 
 sional exchange of letters. I know we loved each other. I 
 shall never forget his prayer at our recent college class-meet- 
 ing. And now he is gone ! Alas, it looks like a dream to 
 me, and to-day I've been living in the past ! 
 
 And what can I say, my afflicted friends, but what your 
 own hearts anticipate ! May I join my sympathies with those 
 of his and your many friends ? He has passed away — but, 
 really, when I remember his noble life, and know that he was 
 ready for the great event, I just feel like saying : " I congratu- 
 late you, my brother. You know no more of sorrow and 
 parting." 
 
 God send you the Blessed Comforter, my dear friends, to 
 abide with you, and may you realize that 
 
 " Earth hath no sorrow that 
 Heaven cannot heal." 
 
 Some of you will soon join him again. May each of his 
 descendants so live as to be united with him in another 
 world ! 
 
Individual Tributes 91 
 
 " What saith the happy dead ? 
 They bid us bear our load ; 
 With silent steps proceed, 
 And follow them to God." 
 
 Will some one of you give me the particulars of liis death ? 
 I am almost seventy years old, and will, I trust, through 
 grace by our precious Saviour, join him whom I now mourn, 
 and to whom I pay the sincere tribute of love. 
 
 Fraternally, 
 
 F. N. Watkins. 
 
 William H. Romeyn, Esq., for forty years editor of 
 the Kingston yournal, and thoroughly familiar with 
 Dr. Hoes' sentiments and course in relation to the late 
 civil war, pays the following tribute to his memory : 
 
 Kingston, N. Y., February 20, 1883. 
 
 My Dear Mrs. Hoes : 
 
 I tender you my sympathies in your sudden affliction. 
 Nay more, I claim the distinction of sharing your greatest 
 sorrow — for your husband, who has left us for a grander mis- 
 sion, it may be hoped, in a better world, was my friend and 
 trusted counsellor in emergencies. 
 
 It was my good fortune to know Dr. Hoes intimately. To 
 know him thoroughly was to respect and love him ; and, while 
 life to me lasts, it will be my privilege and pleasure to recall 
 the memory of his keen intellect, his intuitive sagacity, his 
 polished manners, his courtly bearing — above all, his walk and 
 conversation without spot or blemish. These characteristics, 
 these accomplishments, these graces, adorned not only his 
 personal intercourse, — they illustrated his conspicuous and 
 eventful ministrations to the Church in this community of 
 which he was so long the pastor. 
 
 As for me, my dear madam, I desire to bear testimony 
 first, foremost, and chiefly, to the exalted patriotism of your 
 husband. Associated as he was closely with Van Buren, and 
 Wright, and Marcy, and Dix, and Flagg — the great leaders of 
 the Democracy, who did so much to enthrone the party and 
 
92 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 maintain its predominance in the State and nation — his predi- 
 lections were in accord with the sentiments of his distinguished 
 contemporaries. But when those trusty leaders were retired, 
 and when, subsequently, the grand old Democratic Party, 
 through connivance and betrayal, was wrenched from its moor- 
 ings, and drifted incontinently into the vortex of rebellion, 
 Dr. Hoes stood up for the Union with a will and determina- 
 tion which knew no waver and brooked no compromise. From 
 the beginning to the end of the great struggle he was for the 
 country, " one and inseparable." His fidelity was signalled on 
 all occasions, and in every way — by pen, from the pulpit, on 
 the rostrum, and by personal effort. I believe in my heart 
 that Dr. Hoes voted as he prayed. I will say further — and my 
 remark is based upon personal knowledge — that from the time 
 rebel guns were levelled at Fort Sumter, Dr. Hoes never 
 swerved from his affiliations with the party which sought faith- 
 fully — perhaps not always wisely — to maintain the integrity of 
 the Union, and save to us a government of and for the 
 people. 
 
 In other times brass and marble may have been deemed 
 essential to perpetuate the memory of patriots and benefac- 
 tors. Your husband will enjoy a greater distinction. He will 
 live in the history of the Church which he so well served, and 
 in the annals of a rescued and restored Union — nay, more than 
 all, he will live in the remembrance of loving hearts. 
 
 Please accept, my dear madam, these few lines of condo- 
 lence in the spirit of kindness and sympathy in which they have 
 originated, and believe me, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 William H. Romeyn. 
 
 The following letter was written shortly after Dr. 
 Hoes' death to his only son, Rev. Roswell Randall Hoes, 
 Chaplain of the United States Navy, and on duty, when 
 his father died, on the flag-ship Tennessee, then many 
 hundreds of miles from home. The writer is Rev. O. 
 H. Seymour, the son-in-law of Dr. Hoes. The letter 
 
Individual Tributes. 93 
 
 presents Dr. Hoes in his domestic relations — a point 
 not much dwelt on in these Memorials, and sketches 
 other features in his character so aptly and feelingly 
 that the propriety of presenting it will readily appear. 
 
 Rev. Roswell Randall Hoes : 
 
 My Dear Brother — I cannot refrain from expressing my 
 deep sympathy with you in your far-away home upon the sea, 
 and this when we are called upon to wade through such deep 
 waters of affliction at home. When dear ones are to bid us a 
 final adieu, how natural for us to wish to be close beside them. 
 The sad, sad intelligence that our dear father is no more among 
 us has reached you and wrung your heart ere this ; but still we 
 must talk with each other about what is to us especially a great 
 calamity. A prince, indeed, has fallen, and yet in the world 
 of work, in the sphere of actual accomplishment, he was far 
 more than a prince — he was a king. If any of the world's 
 workers should be crowned as king — surely our dear father 
 should be. What could he not accomplish ? What did he not 
 accomplish in the domain of grand work ? To meditate, to 
 plan, resolve, and perform, were as sure and constant with him 
 as to exist at all. To remove what were mountains with the 
 mass of men was an easy task with him. His truly was 
 
 " A spirit yet unquell'd and high. 
 That claims and seeks ascendancy." 
 
 He was no reed shaken with the wind, but the oak that only 
 the allotted threescore years and ten could uproot, and even 
 then lies grand along the earth. His high and firm resolve 
 was that of virtue and reason. He could not blush at being 
 thought sincere. 
 
 For the nearly twenty years that it has been my privilege, 
 as a member of the family, to know him, I have lived in con- 
 stant surprise at a character at once so broad, so rounded, so 
 poised, so constant, so unswerving, so appreciative, so in- 
 cessant, so lofty in bearing, so unyielding in industry, so almost 
 complete. It is said that "familiarity breeds contempt." 
 Not so here, but directly the reverse. The closer my intimacy 
 
94 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 with him, the more his matchless abiHty, moved by a large 
 heart, beautified by an unselfish benevolence, and crowned by 
 a tenacious and tender love, continued to impress me. 
 
 " His look composed, and steady eye, 
 Bespoke a matchless constancy." 
 
 He wanted not the dignity and charm which come only from 
 an " imperative spiritual impulse." 
 
 Capability was a prime feature of his character. He could 
 do things, and do them well. But with all his physical ability 
 and mental energy, his tireless force, and his sleepless vigilance 
 over everything, either committed to his care or assumed by 
 himself, whether it were affairs ecclesiastical, or civil, or 
 financial, or those about home, — yet to us, dearest of all, was 
 what I may term his undercurrent of deep love and devotion 
 toward those whom he loved, especially the members of his 
 family. I never experienced from him a frown nor the shadow 
 of an unkind word. Like the sky, he too could cloud up and 
 give signs of storm ; but the sky is tender and so was he. 
 When he announced his coming among us, or appeared sud- 
 denly at our door unannounced, it was always a day of jubilee, 
 and our hearts cried welcome, thrice welcome. And when I 
 have laid at death's door, his coming was more than medicine 
 to me, and his appointments and his devotion were those of a 
 mother. Did trouble come, he came, and with him came suc- 
 cor. His resources every way were those of a king. 
 
 I write from love, for I learned not only to admire and rev- 
 erence him, but also to love him most sincerely ; and when 
 my own father died the depths of my heart were no more stir- 
 red than when he whom we both termed Father, went forth 
 from the Master's work below to the Divine Master himself 
 above. When the wires bore us the message that suddenly he 
 had laid down and slept his last sleep, a cyclone of sorrow 
 overwhelmed us. It seemed a false intelligence. It is not 
 true, we were feign to say. It cannot be, and it must not be ! 
 And when we came together about him, there indeed was the 
 marble face, moulded into grace and beauty by seventy years 
 of thought and toil incessant, and love like that of woman ; but 
 
Individual Tributes. 95 
 
 no voice, no motion, no welcome, but that of solemnity and 
 silence. Then we fully realized the sorrowful truth that indeed 
 our dear father was dead, and yet in the language of Scripture 
 " he is not dead, but sleepeth "■ — sleepeth, for do we not wait 
 and watch about his evergreen bed made so soft and beautiful 
 by the loving thoughtfulness of our mother and sister ; and we 
 all wait as if yet his untiring spirit would burst all bonds, and 
 speak to us again ? I can hardly get over looking daily for 
 some token of his constant remembrance of us. 
 
 But grand as he was by nature, how grand he became in the 
 pursuit of his life's work, preaching the grace of God. Here 
 was his forte, here was his field. How he manned the one and 
 worked the other ! To us at least 
 
 " His life was gentle, and the elements 
 So mixed in him, that nature might stand up 
 And say to all the world — This is a man." 
 
 Too fondly we cannot cherish his memory, nor too precious 
 can his ashes be to us. Let monument, tablet, memorial, 
 reverence, love, be some feeble tribute of affection on our 
 part to one who for us devoted his life. 
 
 Upon you, dear brother, falls his mantle. Wear it as be- 
 cometh the son of a prophet. In it there lies hidden power, 
 and he received it from God. 
 
 Affectionately, your brother, 
 
 O. H. Seymour. 
 
 Port Byron, N. Y., March i, 18S3. 
 
V. 
 
 SERMON OF DR. HOES BEFORE 
 CLASSIS. 
 
SERMON OF THE REV. DR. HOES. 
 
 AT the regular fall meeting of the Classis of Ulster, 
 held on October 3, 1882, in the Reformed Church 
 of Plattekill, the opening sermon was preached by Dr. 
 Hoes, who had been President of the last Classis, and 
 was now retiring from the office. The sermon was 
 a clear, earnest, and instructive presentation of a most 
 important subject. The closing remarks, which referred 
 to his long connection with the Classis, and the inroads 
 which, in the interval, death had made in its member- 
 ship, being particularly impressive. Though his frame 
 was still erect, his voice as sonorous and perfectly dis- 
 tinct in its articulations as in other days, when every 
 hearer, even the partially deaf, was sure to catch each 
 syllable he uttered, there was a pensive tone perceptible 
 in his discourse, especially the closing part of it, as if he 
 had a presentiment that he was addressing his brethren 
 beloved in the ministry for the last time. So indeed it 
 proved to be, though none who were present could 
 have ventured to predict that the lips then speaking 
 would, in four months thereafter, be closed in death. 
 The circumstances under which the sermon was de- 
 livered, the character of the sermon itself, which in 
 its clear arrangement, close and forcible reasoning, 
 its richness of scriptural citation, its direct and pointed 
 application, with its reverent and unreserved reliance 
 upon God's " law and testimony," as man's only rule of 
 life, and refuge for the soul, aptly illustrate what has 
 
loo yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 been described in the foregoing- pages as forming his 
 strong points as a preacher. It is fitting, for these rea- 
 sons, to give the entire sermon, which, apart from the 
 interest of the subject treated, and the tenderness of its 
 closing reminiscences and admonitions, will give the 
 reader some insight into the character of those pulpit 
 addresses which made Dr. Hoes, for so many years, 
 and to the close of his life, such an acceptable and ef- 
 fective minister of the Word. The discourse will afford 
 his many friends pleasure to read, and will form an ap- 
 propriate close to these Memorials. 
 
 CHRIST AS A MODEL PREACHER. 
 
 A Sermon Preached before the Classis of Ulster, Octo- 
 ber 3, 1882. 
 
 "And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and 
 when he was set, his disciples came unto him : and he opened his 
 mouth, and taught them." — Matthew v. i, 2. 
 
 The Evangelist here records an incident which oc- 
 curred very early in the public ministry of our Saviour. 
 He had but a short time before received baptism at the 
 hands of John. He had encountered the temptations 
 of Satan in the wilderness. He had gone abroad into 
 Galilee, working miracles. By the first of these events 
 he had signified his formal entrance upon his appointed 
 work ; b)y the second, that no opposition, however 
 mighty, would be able to turn him aside from its per- 
 formance ; by the third, he gave to the people the evi- 
 dence of his qualifications, both to begin and to finish 
 the mission he had undertaken among them. 
 
 The result of these three occurrences — his baptism, 
 his temptations, and his miracles — had been to fix upon 
 
Sermon of Dr. Hoes before Classis. loi 
 
 him the general notice of his countrymen, and to draw 
 after him a crowd of followers. "And his fame went 
 throughout all Syria : and they brought unto him all 
 sick people that were taken with divers diseases and 
 torments, and those which were possessed with devils, 
 and those which were lunatic, and those that had the 
 palsy ; and he healed them. And there followed him 
 great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from De- 
 capolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from 
 beyond Jordan." 
 
 All this afforded the opportunity which the Lord 
 Jesus desired for entering more fully upon that part of 
 his mission which consisted in the instruction of the 
 people in its design and nature. It had been pre- 
 dicted of the Messiah that he should be not only a 
 prince, but a prophet or preacher. " The Lord hath 
 anointed me," Isaiah said of him, "to preach good 
 tidings unto the meek : he hath sent me to bind up the 
 broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and 
 the opening of the prison to them that are bound ; to 
 proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day 
 of vengeance of our God ; and to comfort all that 
 mourn." By no other act of his ministry did our Sav- 
 iour give more complete fulfilment of this prediction 
 than by what is usually termed his " Sermon on the 
 Mount," the substance of which we have recorded in 
 the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of the Gospel by 
 Matthew. The words of the text present Christ to us 
 as he is about to begin his discourse. He saw the mul- 
 titudes about him waiting on his ministry, and after 
 choosing a position where he might more conveniently 
 address them, he opened his mouth for their instruction. 
 There was never any assemblage of circumstances 
 better calculated to give interest to any discourse than 
 
I02 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 those which originated this " Sermon on the Mount." 
 Such an audience, such a place, such subjects, and more 
 than all, such a preacher! On such an occasion, from 
 such a speaker, it is impossible that a sentence should 
 have been uttered unworthy of the most attentive hear- 
 ing of that assembled multitude, and the earnest study 
 of all who should afterward peruse the pages on which 
 this discourse is recorded. 
 
 In the use of our text I propose to consider our 
 Lord's character and manner as a preacher, not only as 
 he appears to us in this discourse, but in his teaching 
 and preaching generally. It v/ill be profitable both for 
 minister and people to have before their minds the 
 right model of a gospel preacher. It is important for the 
 minister, that he may be induced to strive after the high- 
 est kind of excellence in his sacred office ; and for the 
 people, that they may not be disposed to discourage 
 him in his efforts through lack on their part of a proper 
 idea of what true excellence in preaching implies. If 
 they know how Christ preached, they will have before 
 their minds the highest model — a model which no minis- 
 ter of Christ, worthy of the name, will wish to exchange 
 for another, and which no Christian people will venture 
 to blame him for copying. 
 
 I. We are naturally led to notice the adaptation al- 
 ways manifested in what Christ said, to the capacity 
 and wants of the people. 
 
 In this respect our Lord differed from many phi- 
 losophers and teachers who preceded him, and whose 
 names are illustrious in the annals of classic history. 
 It was the practice of these sages of heathen antiquity, 
 to gather only a limited number of disciples around 
 them. They deemed the people in general incom- 
 petent to receive their instructions. They were willing 
 
Sermon of Dr. Hoes before Classis. 103 
 
 to leave them in their ignorance to those narrow and 
 false notions on moral subjects which seemed to be 
 their necessary inheritance. If, at any time, these phi- 
 losophers undertook to hold communion with the 
 masses, it was not in the hope of instructing them in the 
 truth as they themselves' held it. They had, confess- 
 edly, one set of doctrines for their disciples, another for 
 the people at large. They had not the boldness, nor 
 did they deem it of sufficient consequence, to contradict 
 the popular errors of the day. When they mingled 
 with the people they professed to acquiesce in the com- 
 mon opinions on moral and religious subjects, though 
 in the company of their immediate disciples they op- 
 posed and ridiculed them. 
 
 Very different was Christ's manner toward the peo- 
 ple. It had been their fate in all ages, and in every 
 land — if we except certain periods of the Jewish history 
 — to be passed by as of little account ; to have their in- 
 tellectual and moral, and even secular welfare treated 
 as if it were scarcely worthy of consideration. But not 
 so did Christ view the matter. From the moment he 
 began his public career, he mingled freely with the 
 people, as though he were one of them. He showed 
 himself to be their friend, at the hazard of losing the 
 friendship of the great men of the nation, who said to 
 his disciples, " Why eateth your master with pub- 
 licans and sinners ? " His only reply to such insinua- 
 tions was, " I am not come to call the righteous, but sin- 
 ners to repentance." So far from casting them off as 
 unfit for his association and instruction, he cherished 
 toward them the most kind and hopeful spirit. He 
 spoke always as if he had greater expectation of suc- 
 cess among ihem, than among the leaders of the na- 
 tion ; as if, instead of their being incompetent to receive 
 
I04 yohn Cantine Far yell Hoes. 
 
 his instructions, there were a peculiar state of prepara- 
 tion, on their part, for these instructions. From this 
 class he chose his twelve apostles, passing by the re- 
 fined and more influential classes, that he might train 
 them to proclaim, after him, the same great truths to all 
 the people. 
 
 In speaking of Christ's character in this respect, it 
 is proper to observe the simplicity and plainness which 
 ever marked his instructions. 
 
 Christ chose his language, manifestly with a view 
 to the capacities of the humblest of his hearers. He 
 did not employ learned expressions and terms bor- 
 rowed from science and art. There is nothing merely 
 rhetorical in his style, as if he were ambitious of the 
 reputation of an orator. His style was the familiar one 
 that belonged rather to ordinary conversation than to 
 the declamation of the schools and the orations of the 
 forum. First of all, he aimed to be understood. All 
 his illustrations and imagery were adapted to this end. 
 They were borrowed, not from those studies which are 
 confined to the learned few, but from the most familiar 
 appearances and productions of nature which lie open 
 and common to every observer. At Jacob's Well he 
 drew his metaphors from the qualities of the water — in 
 the open air he explained his meaning by the operations 
 of husbandry — at seed-time he derived his images from 
 the sower — at harvest, from the reaper — at other times 
 from the fowls of the air, the blooming flowers, and 
 opening foliage. And all this, not for the mere sake of 
 decorating his style, but for the more important use of 
 enlightening and impressing the minds of his hearers. 
 He was, in this respect, a worthy model to all preach- 
 ers. There are some persons in almost every congre- 
 gation who would fain have every sermon constructed 
 
Sermon of Dr. Hoes before Classis. 105 
 
 like an oration — with an elaborate, ornate style, classic 
 allusions, elegant metaphors, and the whole discourse 
 smooth, flowing, and majestic. Such a style a preacher 
 may cultivate who regards mainly the entertainment of 
 his audience, or seeks to produce the pleasantest im- 
 pressions during the brief time assigned for his dis- 
 course. But it is not the style that the true preacher 
 of the Word should most desire, whose great object is, 
 not the entertainment, but the instruction, of his hear- 
 ers, in " the truth as it is in Jesus," and the persuading 
 them to " seek first the kingdom of God and his righ- 
 teousness." He treats of subjects which concern the 
 dearest interests of his congregation ; and he ought to 
 handle them, if possible, so as to compass the para- 
 mount end to be secured. First of all, he should make 
 himself understood by his congregation — not by a few 
 of them, but by all. He ought to have his eye upon 
 the humblest class of his hearers, and be determined 
 that every word that he sjoeaks shall, if possible, be 
 level to their comprehension. This he surely will do, 
 if the spirit be in him that was in his Lord and Master 
 — if, like him, his heart be steadfastly set upon the sal- 
 vation of his hearers more than it is upon his own repu- 
 tation — if, like the blessed Saviour, he looks beyond 
 the outward appearance of those who hear him, to the 
 hidden soul that resides within — if he reflect that that 
 soul, no matter in whose bosom it is lodged, is immor- 
 tal, with immortal interests to be provided for — that it 
 is to stand with him hereafter at the bar of God, and 
 rise thence through his faithfulness, it may be, to shine 
 like a star in the firmament, or, through his unfaithful- 
 ness, to fall irrecoverably into the depths of hell. 
 Surely, if the preacher himself understands this fact, he 
 will act upon it. He will labor to make his hearers 
 
io6 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 understand it. He will not be content until he has 
 brought home the great truths of the Gospel to every 
 man's mind and conscience, and convinced them that he 
 
 " Deems it gain, upon the whole. 
 To mar a sentence and to save a soul." 
 
 II. A second characteristic of Christ's preaching 
 worthy of remark is that it was concerned chiefly with 
 moral and religious subjects. 
 
 There are some persons, mostly of a skeptical or in- 
 fidel disposition, who think they have reason to com- 
 plain of the pulpit for confining itself so much to one 
 class of topics. They place their plea against us on 
 the ground of a professed regard to the good of the 
 community. How much valuable information, they say, 
 might be imparted if, instead of two or three discourses 
 every Sabbath on mere doctrine, the people were per- 
 mitted to hear a course of lectures on subjects connected 
 with the every-day concerns of life, or on matters of 
 scientific interest. If they might, by this means, be 
 instructed in physiology and the laws of health — in 
 chemistry, so far at least as this science is available to 
 ordinary practical purposes — in natural philosophy, in 
 geology, astronomy, history, or political economy, how 
 much information might be disseminated. 
 
 Now, it would not be hazarding much to contest 
 this objection of the infidel, on the ground simply of 
 the comparative merits and importance of these last- 
 mentioned subjects with those with which the discourses 
 of the pulpit are actually concerned. Our defence 
 would not be a weak one, if we should demonstrate the 
 influence upon the present happiness of the race that 
 has gone out from the teachings of the sanctuary. But 
 better still than this is the argument furnished in the 
 
Sermon of Dr. Hoes before Classis. 107 
 
 practice of the greatest of all preachers in his own dis- 
 courses. If ever there was a time when the plea in be- 
 half of the infidel's suggestion had peculiar force it was 
 when Christ himself was the preacher. What vast 
 stores of knowledge on all conceivable subjects were 
 treasured up in his mind ! How quickly, had he pleased, 
 could he have enlarged the boundaries of human science 
 and cast a flood of noonday light upon the darkness of 
 the times in which he lived ! But what a lesson upon 
 the comparative insignificance of all such subjects is 
 given us in the fact that he never in any of his dis- 
 courses so much as alluded to them ; that, turning away 
 from them all, as if of no account in the comparison, he 
 devoted himself to subjects of a moral and religious na- 
 ture — to the relations and duties of man toward God, 
 and of man toward his fellow-man. Our Saviour knew 
 well that these were the subjects which most of all 
 others concerned man's highest interests in this world, 
 and the only ones which pertained to his everlasting 
 good in the world to come. We dare not do other- 
 wise than follow his example. We dare not do other- 
 wise than obey that command which corresponds with 
 his example — " Go ye, . . . preach the Gospel to 
 every creature ; " " and, as ye go, preach, saying. The 
 kingdom of heaven is at hand." 
 
 III. Our Saviour was also distinguished for great 
 boldness and impartiahty in his preaching. 
 
 Among the doctrines which he was to announce 
 were some which he knew beforehand would not be ac- 
 ceptable to the world. They would be accounted as 
 " hard sayings." They were opposed to opinions that 
 had been long current among men, and which antiquity 
 had consecrated and made venerable. They were in 
 direct antagonism to the passions and prejudices of 
 
io8 yohn Can fine Farrell Hoes.. 
 
 men, and calculated therefore to stir up the hatred of 
 the heart against them. Full well did the Saviour un- 
 derstand, as he himself declared, that the preaching of 
 these truths would produce, not peace but division ; 
 that the effect of them would be to array one man 
 against another, and the whole nation against him who 
 preached them. He knew that there were some per- 
 sons among his hearers, men, too, of influence, who 
 would regard portions of his discourses as aimed parti- 
 cularly at them, because directed against their wicked 
 practices, and who would be very sure to repay him 
 with bitter resentment. Some would call him a fool, 
 others a madman or fanatic, and others still would even 
 say he had a devil. Others would raise a tumult 
 against him, and drive him out of the community, as 
 if he were a wretch not fit to live. But all this made 
 no difference with the Divine Preacher. When he 
 opened his mouth to speak he uttered that which he 
 purposed to say, asking permission of none, but pour- 
 ing forth the truth within him with all the directness, 
 point, and energy which the great message demanded. 
 No matter who were his hearers— great men, learned 
 men, rich men, proud-spirited Pharisees, sensuous Sad- 
 ducees, or lowly publicans — those who came out of cu- 
 riosity or those who followed him for the loaves and 
 fishes — he kept back nothing of all that was in his 
 heart to utter, but in a spirit of independence that up- 
 lifted him above all desire for their praise, and all fear 
 of their wrath, he swept around the whole circle of 
 doctrines and duties, giving to every man "his portion 
 in due season." 
 
 There are some texts which require not a little cour- 
 age still to preach upon, and which, if a minister does 
 treat as he ought, will be pretty sure to subject him to 
 
Sermon of Dr. Hoes before Classis. 109 
 
 the imputation of indelicacy, or weakness, or fanaticism, 
 or as having the design of personality toward some in 
 the congregation. But in sober verity, those truths 
 which it was proper for Christ to utter, it is proper for 
 his ministers to utter after him. Be it so, that they give 
 offence to those who hear them ; the important question 
 respecting these teachings is, Are they truths and not 
 fictions ? Do they liave to do with the welfare of the 
 soul ? Will they stand approved before God in the 
 great day of his appearing, as the things he sent his 
 Son to preach in the ears of a sinful world ? This 
 question settled, and the duty of those who preach the 
 Gospel is clear. Christ has made it clear in his solemn 
 injunction : " Be not afraid of them that kill the body, 
 and after that have no more that they can do. But I 
 will forewarn you whom ye shall fear : Fear him who, 
 after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell ; yea, 
 I say unto you, Fear him." 
 
 IV. It is fitting to remark the mingling of tender- 
 ness and of terror that marks the presentation of our 
 Saviour's discourses. 
 
 This was predicted by the prophet Isaiah as one of 
 the characteristics of the Messiah. " The Lord hath 
 anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek : he 
 hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim 
 liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to 
 them that are bound ; to proclaim the acceptable year of 
 the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God. . . ." 
 Some of the most tender and gentle words ever spoken 
 were those which fell from the lips of the Lord Je- 
 sus. Witness some of the opening sentences of his 
 "Sermon on the Mount": "Blessed are the poor in 
 spirit : for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed 
 are they that mourn : for they shall be comforted." 
 
no yohn Can fine Farr ell Hoes. 
 
 " Blessed are the meek ; " " Blessed are they that hun- 
 ger and thirst after righteousness ; " " Blessed are the 
 merciful;" "Blessed are the pure in heart;" "But I 
 say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse 
 you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them 
 which despitefully use you and persecute you ; that ye 
 may be the children of your Father who is in heaven : 
 for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the 
 good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." 
 And so on through a large part of this divinely tender 
 and loving discourse adapted to the heart of humanity. 
 It would seem as if Christ's hearers must have been 
 melted under such words as these, and that they alone 
 would have been sufficient to win all hearts unto him- 
 self. It would hardly appear possible that lips used to 
 such affectionate and tender appeals would have uttered 
 a word that approached to harshness and denunciation. 
 Yet such was not the case. There were some that 
 could not be moved by these affecting and persuasive 
 arguments, and upon them the Saviour would fain try 
 a more effective and tremendous style. Luke tells us 
 that after the Lord had pronounced his catalogue of 
 blessings, he followed them with a succession of denun- 
 ciations, saying : " Woe unto you that are rich ! for ye 
 have received your consolation. Woe unto you that 
 are full ! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that 
 laugh now ! for ye shall mourn and weep. Woe unto 
 you when all men shall speak well of you ! for so did 
 their fathers to the false prophets." Like to this was 
 his language to the cities where his mighty works were 
 done : " Woe unto thee, Chorazin ! woe unto thee, 
 Bethsaida ! for if the mighty works which were done in 
 you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have 
 repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes." Still more 
 
Sermon of Dr. Hoes before Classis. 1 1 1 
 
 awful and withering was his address to the chief men 
 of the Jewish nation : " Woe unto you, Scribes and 
 Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye shut up the kingdom of 
 heaven against men : for ye neither go in yourselves, 
 neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Woe 
 unto you. Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye de- 
 vour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long 
 prayers : therefore ye shall receive the greater damna- 
 tion. Woe unto yoU; Scribes and Pharisees, hypo- 
 crites ! for ye compass sea and land to make ^one pros- 
 elyte ; and when he is made, ye make him twofold more 
 the child of hell than yourselves. . . . Woe unto 
 you. Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye are like 
 unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beauti- 
 ful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, 
 and of all uncleanness. Even so, ye also outwardly ap- 
 pear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypo- 
 crisy and iniquity. . . . Ye serpents, ye gener- 
 ation of vipers ! how can ye escape the damnation of 
 hell ? " 
 
 I know not that more terrible words ever fell on the 
 ears of men than these. I am sure none more terrible 
 are found in the pages of God's inspired book. The 
 Apostles, it is true, sometimes used language similar 
 to this, but none that had such tremendous emphasis 
 of woe, and sharp-piercing terror. Paul often besought 
 men by the love of Christ, but again he said, " Know- 
 ing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men." 
 Such specimens of our Lord's discourses are conclu- 
 sive, that solemn and alarming appeals may spring 
 from a tender and loving heart. They may be the 
 very fruit of a zeal bent on men's highest good, even 
 their eternal salvation. In no other spirit should they 
 be employed, but in that spirit of the Master which 
 
1 1 2 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 breathes tenderness even amid reproofs and the tones 
 of alarm. The king's arrows may be sharp with which 
 the enmity of the carnal mind is slain, but they come 
 from a heaven-directed benevolence that slays to make 
 alive. Let the preacher of the Cross use words of 
 kindness and gentleness and love, but let him not fear 
 nor shun, sometimes, to speak with tones of fitting 
 severity, saying, "Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill 
 with him ; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings." 
 While he seeks to win men by the argument there is 
 in the love of a dying Saviour, let him not hesitate to 
 repeat in the ears of those who will not thus be won, 
 the piercing inquiry, " How shall ye escape if ye 
 neglect so great salvation ? " " Behold, ye despised, 
 and wonder, and perish ; for I work a work in your 
 days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though 
 a man declare it unto you." 
 
 V. Finally, it was a characteristic of our Saviour's 
 preaching that he spoke with authority. 
 
 The multitude who heard his Sermon on the 
 Mount, were struck with this in particular. Of the 
 crowds that heard him it is said they were " astonished 
 at his doctrine, for he taught them as one having 
 authority, and not as the scribes.'' The scribes con- 
 tinually referred to tradition. They merely repeated, 
 parrot-like, what others had said before them. The 
 Lord Jesus made no reference to their traditions, ex- 
 cept to denounce them for having made void the com- 
 mandments of God. What he delivered came fresh 
 from the fountains of his own understanding. It was 
 not, "The Rabbis have so judged," but, "Verily, 
 verily, / say unto you." Or again, " Ye have heard 
 that it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth 
 for a tooth, but / say unto you, that ye resist not evil, 
 
Sermon of Dr. Hoes before Classis. 113 
 
 but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn 
 to him the other also." 
 
 The instructions of the Saviour were not delivered 
 as mere opinions, which it was a matter of liberty for 
 man to receive or reject, but as solemn and binding 
 precepts which it was at their peril to disregard. There 
 was a power in such address as far removed as possible 
 from the tame and feeble style of the Jewish teachers. 
 They made a way for themselves directly to the heart, 
 and carried conviction home to the understanding. It 
 was difificult for men to sit inattentive and unimpressed 
 under the preaching of Christ. There was an earnest- 
 ness and authority in his manner which commanded 
 their regard. There was in what he said, such an 
 awful adaptedness to the case of his hearers, such a 
 singling out of every man, as if he were the person 
 intended — as if the words heard would meet him again 
 hereafter, and judge him at the last day — that it was im- 
 possible to hear them unmoved. Some words produce 
 the effect either to attract or repel, either to soften or 
 enrage, either to win over to the truth or excite to 
 bitter opposition against it. Some such effect they 
 would necessarily have. They pierced like a sharp 
 sword through the shrinking flesh, they fell like the 
 hammer upon the rock, they revealed the inward 
 thoughts, they tried the character, they foreshadowed 
 and determined the destiny of those who heard. 
 
 And such authority and power there still is in the 
 Gospel that is preached. It is not now proclaimed by 
 the Saviour in person, but it is set forth in his blessed 
 name by those who have been commissioned by him 
 to do so. " Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, 
 as though God did beseech you by us ; we pray you 
 in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." The 
 
114 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 words preached by Christ's ministers are living words. 
 They have the same freshness as when they fell from 
 the Hps of the Great Preacher. They have an author- 
 ity in them as if God were speaking in a voice of thun- 
 der from the clouds. They have a power in them 
 which men are sometimes no more able to resist than 
 they are able to roll back the surging sea, or the 
 driving tempest. Like the trees of the wood before 
 such a tempest, whole congregations have bowed 
 before the mighty Gospel of the Son of God, preached 
 by lips of clay, accompanied by the Holy Ghost. Ah . 
 the hidden power of this Word, which we are com- 
 missioned to proclaim to our fellow men — its power to 
 break into contrition the impenitent soul, and to make 
 the diseased heart whole again — its power to slay, and 
 its power to make alive him that is slain — its power to 
 sustain under burdens, and to give us victory over 
 death and hell ! Oh, for such a preacher as our Lord, 
 to stand among our churches and repeat these words of 
 life and death in the ears of dying men ! Oh, for the 
 spirit and power of Jesus in the hearts of those of us 
 who preach his blessed word ! When the heavens and 
 earth pass away, these words shall not pass away. Do 
 they seem to you like feeble words ? Nay, even these 
 very words we speak shall judge everyone to whom 
 they are preached in the last day. For hath not the 
 Holy Ghost said of us who preach, " We are unto God 
 a sweet savor of Christ, in them that are saved, and in 
 them that perish : to the one we are the savor of death 
 unto death, and to the other the savor of life unto life." 
 In closing my remarks, suffer me to present a few 
 personal and classical reminiscences, which will, I trust, 
 be regarded as appropriate to this occasion, and to the 
 subject of the present discourse. 
 
Sermon of Dr. Hoes before Classis. 115 
 
 It is just thirty-seven years ago, at this meeting of 
 the Classis of Ulster, that I was received and enrolled 
 as one of its members. At that time, the churches 
 now composing the Classis of Kingston were connected 
 with this Classis. The body then consisted of seven- 
 teen churches and fifteen ministers. Ten years later 
 (1855), the number of churches had increased to 
 twenty-four, when, at the request of the Classis, the 
 Particular Synod set off twelve churches and their 
 pastors to constitute the Classis of Kingston. Thus 
 the number of our churches was diminished one-half. 
 As to her ministry, what is the record ? Where are 
 those fifteen faithful and devoted men of God who seven- 
 and-thirty years ago served these churches of which 
 you are now the pastors ? Ah ! " Your fathers, where 
 are they, and the prophets, do they live forever ? " They 
 have all, save three, finished their work and gone to 
 their rest and reward. Only one of their number is 
 still among us to participate in our counsels and efforts 
 to extend the kingdom and glory of Christ, My own 
 name, which was then recorded at the foot of the roll, 
 now, in consequence of these changes, stands at the 
 head. At that time I was in the prime and vigor of my 
 early manhood. Now, I have not only passed the 
 meridian of life, but have seen more than three score 
 and ten years. • 
 
 The lesson which these changes teach us is one of 
 increased devotion and fidelity in the service of our 
 Lord and Master. They impressively enforce the scrip- 
 tural injunction that we should " work the works of Him 
 that sent us while it is day, for the night cometh when 
 no man can work." As for myself, I realize that I have 
 many warnings that my days are fast being numbered, 
 that my work as a minister of Christ for nearly half a 
 
ii6 yohn Caiitine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 century is almost finished, and the time of my departure 
 is near at hand. 
 
 It is almost needless for me to say that I deem it a 
 privilege once more to address you on an occasion like 
 the present. It is not probable that I shall have an- 
 other opportunity to preach before you in the ofificial 
 capacity of President of the Classis. As I have already 
 intimated, my name stands at the head of the roll, and 
 I have passed beyond the ordinary limit of man's 
 earthly existence. 
 
 I can bear testimony, brethren, that life assumes a 
 far different aspect when we have reached the farther 
 end of it from what it does at its commencement. And 
 so do life's duties and responsibilities appear very dif- 
 ferent when we approach its end from what they do at 
 the beginning. We then take more sober, real, and 
 practical views of the momentous ends and purposes of 
 life. Life then appears more like a reality than ever 
 before. Our experience teaches us how we should live, 
 and how we should work for the Master. It teaches us 
 practically how we should fulfil the great commission, 
 " Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to 
 every creature." Could those saintly brethren, who 
 thirty-seven years ago were the pastors of these 
 churches which you now serve, and who now, more 
 than ever before, know and realize the nature, duties, 
 and responsibilities, of the ministerial office, descend 
 from their thrones in glory and speak to us from this 
 pulpit — what think you would be the message they 
 would bring ? Would they not re-echo the sentiments 
 we have expressed in this discourse .'' Would they not 
 hold up Christ as the true model of a Gospel Preacher, 
 and tell us to preach what Christ preached, and as he 
 preached? Would they not tell us to preach the pure 
 
Sermon of Dr. Hoes before Classis. 117 
 
 Gospel of Christ in simplicity, sincerity, and fidelity ? 
 Would they not enjoin it upon us to render obedience 
 to the apostolic injunction, given to the youthful 
 preacher Timothy, " I charge thee therefore before 
 God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the 
 quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom ; 
 preach the word' be instant in season, out of season ; 
 reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and doc- 
 trine." And then, when our work shall ' be finished, 
 each of us shall hear the welcome plaudit : 
 
 " Servant of God, well done. 
 
 Rest from thy loved employ ; 
 The battle fought, the vict'ry won, 
 Enter thy Master's joy." 
 
VI. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 DR. HOES was invited, in 1879, to attend the celebration of 
 the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Reformed 
 Church of Chittenango, in which the first two years of his ministry 
 were passed. Being unable to attend personally, he addressed the 
 following letter, by request, to the Rev. J. H. Enders, then pastor of 
 the Church, and in the course of his communication reviews circum- 
 stances and incidents in the history of the Church, and his connection 
 with it, which had specially impressed themselves on his memory. 
 As a brief record of his early ministry, and the experiences connected 
 with it, the paper is thought to have sufficient relevance to what is 
 found in the foregoing pages, to warrant its introduction in this place. 
 
 Kingston, N. Y., November 25, 1879. 
 Rev. J. H. Enders : 
 
 My Dear Brother — Your esteemed favor has been received, and 
 found me in the midst of preparations to leave home for a few days. 
 I can only, therefore, throw together a few hasty thoughts such as im- 
 mediately occur to me respecting my brief ministry of a little less 
 than two years at Chittenango. • 
 
 I was called to be its pastor on August 29, 1835, ordained to the 
 ministry by the Classis of Cayuga, and installed pastor of the Church, 
 April 22, 1836. The Rev. Dr. William H. Campbell, at present 
 President of Rutgers College, then Principal of the Erasmus Hall, at 
 Flatbush, L. I., and the first pastor of the Church of Chittenango, by 
 special request, preached the sermon. 
 
 My call was signed by Hezekiah Beecher, Job Wells, and Charles 
 Huntington, as elders. They were men of decided religious convic- 
 tions, and of marked, though diverse, characteristics. Elder Hunt- 
 ington was an "Israelite indeed, in whom there was no guile" — a 
 genuine specunen of an old-fashioned New England Puritan, and 
 the father of Professor Huntington, of Auburn Theological Seminary. 
 
 The deacons were William Williams, Peter Van Valkenburgh, and 
 
122 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 Nathan Cobb, young men of activity and zeal in their Master's work. 
 These have all gone to their eternal rest except INTr. Cobb. The 
 call was moderated by the Rev. Dr. Andrew Yates, the father of the 
 Church, and its second pastor, and through whose instrumentality, 
 aided by the liberality of his brother, John B. Yates, and others, the 
 church edifice was erected. Dr. Yates was possessed of a strong 
 mind, large experience, great sagacity in influencing and controlling 
 the actions of men, profound liberality and theological attainments, 
 and warm-hearted piety. He too has entered upon his reward ; and 
 it is worthy of note that all of the ex-pastors of the Church, except Dr. 
 Campbell and myself, have gone to give an account of their steward- 
 ship. The last was the meek and spiritual-minded Dr. Talmage, who, 
 at a ripe age, as pastor of one of the churches of this city, so re- 
 cently died, lamented and beloved by all who knew him. 
 
 I was induced to accept the call through the influence of the late 
 Hon. John B. Yates, who was intimately acquainted with my parents 
 in their early wedded life, and who visited both them and myself at 
 their residence, in Kinderhook, New York. He presented to us the 
 condition and circumstances of the Church, and his contemplated en- 
 dowment of a literary institution of a polytechnic character, with which 
 it was his purpose that the pastor of the Church at Chittenango should 
 be connected. In one of my first conversations with the Rev. Dr. 
 Andrew Yates, after entering on my labors at Chittenango, he re- 
 marked that it had been his experience, and it would also probably be 
 mine, that I would love the first Church of which I was pastor with a 
 peculiar affection which would cling to me through life. I have 
 found this to be true. The Church of Chittenango was ecclesias- 
 tically my " first love." There 1 was ordained, and there the I^ord 
 first made me instrumental in the conversion of sinners, and there- 
 fore I have loved that Church not only with a peculiar love, but with a 
 love much stronger, considering the time I was its pastor, than either of 
 the other churches in which I have been called to serve the Master. 
 
 Permit me to refer to some of the more prominent incidents of 
 my ministry. About the time I went to Chittenango, a small build- 
 ing, located in the centre of the village, had just been purchased for 
 the use of the Church. This was soon comfortably fitted up — the 
 lower story being used for a school, and the upper for the Sabbath- 
 school and the social religious meetings of the church. Many of 
 your people will recollect it by the name being painted on its front in 
 large letters, "Youths' Bethel." 
 
 In the early part of the winter of 1835 a special degree of religious 
 
Appendix. 1 23 
 
 interest was manifested in the Church, and extra services were held 
 during the week in " the Bethel," with precious results. While the 
 number of conversions was not large, the Church itself was revived and 
 awakened to new zeal and activity. The first among the converts, 
 and the first to make a profession of faith in Christ, was Miss JVIary 
 E. Walrath, concerning whom nothing need be said at Chittenango, 
 or to any who knew her. Her religious experience was of the clear- 
 est and most decided and intelligent character, and in consequence 
 of her ardent piety and superior intelligence she was a fit companion 
 for one of the Lord's ministering servants, and well qualified for the 
 service of the Master. She became the wife of the late Rev. John 
 Nettleton Powell, and labored with him as a domestic missionary on 
 the Western prairies. Her varied and trying experience, which she 
 bore with the patience of a martyr, is affectingly portrayed in a little 
 volume entitled " The Prairie Missionary," which ought to be repub- 
 lished and placed in all our Sunday-school libraries. If my ministry 
 at Chittenango had been productive of no other result than that of 
 the conversion of Mary E. Walrath I should feel that the Lord had 
 most liberally rewarded his youthful servant, and that this single con- 
 version would be one of his brightest jewels "in the crown of his re- 
 joicing." But the Lord gave other seals to my ministry. There were 
 Albro Hall and his estimable wife, who is still, I believe, a colaborer 
 with you. There were also Miss Janette Sage, and Miss Anna A., 
 daughter of Dr. Andrew Yates, who possessed many of the character- 
 istics of her venerable father, and who was therefore most strongly 
 endeared to all who knew her. 
 
 It is not probable that after the lapse of more than forty years 
 many persons are left at Chittenango who have a very distinct recol- 
 lection of either myself or of those who were contemporary with me 
 in my ministry. But while I remember and love those excellent men 
 and women who labored with me in the gospel, most of whom are gone 
 to their rest, I often call to mind the few survivors. I still love the 
 Church of Chittenango, although personally acquainted with but few 
 of its members, and shall never cease to pray for its prosperity, and 
 also that your ministry may be greatly successful in the ingathering of 
 souls into God's Everlasting Kingdom. 
 
 t should be doing injustice to myself were I to omit to state that 
 next to my conversion the happiest event of my life occurred while I 
 was living at Chittenango, and that was my marriage, which occurred 
 September 15, 1836. The companion of my youth, and indeed of the 
 greater part of my life, is still spared to me to sweeten my declining 
 
124 yohn Cantine Farrell Hoes. 
 
 years, as she was the jo)' of my youth, while we now are rapidly 
 approaching our three score and ten years. 
 
 Extend to all, my Christian salutations and congratulations on this 
 semi-centennial anniversary in their history. May a new impulse 
 thereby be given to the Church in all its interests, and in the day of 
 final account, when the Saviour shall gather up His jewels, may all 
 who have been pastors of this Church, and the people whom they re- 
 spectively served, be gathered into the General Assembly and Church 
 of the First-Born in Heaven, there to renew their intercourse and 
 consummate their affections. 
 
 I am ashamed that I have been betrayed into such a long, per- 
 sonal, and crude letter, but I have given licence to my pen, and 
 written in great haste whatever' has first come to my mind, without 
 much reference to order or literary execution. I know you will 
 excuse all imperfections. 
 
 With fraternal regards to yourself, and love to all at Chittenango 
 who love our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 
 I remain, etc., 
 
 JOHN C. F. HOES.