TUAW ULL St Sei Library of ) Horace B. HMitchelll, Harrisburg, Pa. Be de UUULL DUKE UNIVERSITY DIVINITY SCHOOL. LIBRARY AAA THE JOSEPH GILL BROWN COLLECTION SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 1851-1902 M ers | | Digitized by the rite b in 2022 with fund Duke University Librari Al ge https://archive.org/details/onehundredyea r Que Hundred Years of Ristory a 18021902 Second Presbyterian Church Baltimore, Maryland BY Chomas Holmes Walker Pastor Second Presbyterian Zhurch ae Baltimore, Id. Nov. 9, 19 92 =i Aa} a a TABLE OF CONTENTS. MOR ETIACO TRIM ED, coo Soe oe ace ints cia aoiniel icie ee a Sesta eer teers 7 Early Days of Presbyterianism. CORSA DERG IMS aim ofa faih. 3 as forse tar ate misono cr tievore) a siels\ erase cyelaeieecertiauecn ea 20 Organization of the Second Church. COVELL TET SIS 2 1 UL RRS OAT ot eae Sr Cho Re 50 In the Days of Dr. Glendy. RBEHAERE RN DV oan yjcici te nieve rere bide bhava eee st acide: cue a Mas atthaede a 68 Choosing a Colleague. CRED ATETITSES ARI pk i ena Aa Se SN Re one Pe aH ea TS A 80 The Pastorate of John Breckinridge, D. D. (Cie AERIALS cen Steals esearch ee MR ene hohe en aR an A O4 The Call of Robert J. Breckinridge, D. D. POET EDEN BV Vs 7 Sop carota ce al cpe sini 5 Susye ms alenel et ee mele: Ocaib wate Si viee 115 A Period of Colonization. RGEPA PERV ETS Sates tapi gee save moc terale s Stecelavetias « melee 129 Dr. Breckinridge Closes His Pastorate MOAIPTER UNC Se core icsseleiavatels) Se ad R NM tad em) 143 The Pastorate of Lewis W. Green, D. D (CHEW UEIITS lags uae Oe ee oath ee aus OO TSM a> BI ee RRO ID 150 The Times of Joseph T. Smith, D. D. ROEMATSR ERS ON Meet Stet eit por eis wats OS Spjalbads She dente aati 166 Our “War Pastor,’ George P. Hays. TAP TERIOR Mins Seve eusiirers Set ae Avalos Saree cievel asia eoaaets 175 The Call of Jonathan Edwards, D. D. (C Taurens O11 | gre preset Scie Rare DCCC OO ee ates a Aree elie 180 Another Man from Pennsylvania, Robert H. Fulton. MORER AE TER MRE Vie ais ravers Siova sah opine archseh abe re: hee eats eysteverny tee 193 An Effort Toward Union. NOTA TERDOOKGN tS so hare ise sete ap ahi Saha Beieualale srocteals aletatararelene 205 An Era of Organization, Alex. Proudfit, D. D. Dedication 2 This book is affectionately dedicated to the mem- bers of the Congregation of the Second Presbyterian Church, worthy inheritors of the precious attain- ments in the Master’s kingdom of those whose names may be found enrolled herein, and of those unnum- bered and unsung, a vast multitude forgotten of men, whose names are enrolled in the Lamb’s Book of Life; and to the members of the Session, upon whose shoulders has fallen the mantle of the fathers, and who are blessed with a double portion of that spirit of service and devotion to the Master and His church so characteristic of the Presbyterian elder. Preface a The Second Presbyterian Church of Baltimore celebrates its one hundredth anniversary. It would seem to be a fitting time to stop and enjoy the vision back along the way by which we have come to this point in our progress through the years. It would also seem to be fitting that we record that which we see, that, when we pass on, we may have a permanent record of the facts indelibly set in the history of the past, and shall also be able to recall from time to time and at a glance the impressions which this centennial anniversary must now produce on every thoughtful and devout member of our beloved church. Very humbly we place in this permanent form the deeds of our fathers, and point at the same time to our own doings—we who are the children of such fathers, for we have not whereof to boast, since the joy and hope and strength of our people have ever been a realizing sense of and entire dependence on the inworking presence and outworking power of the Holy Spirit. Yet we may not be accused of boasting when we say that we are proud of the long line of illustrious men who, from pulpit and pew, have been the willing instruments of the spirit of God and have borne faithful testimony to the ever- lasting truth down to the present day. BALTIMORE, Nov. 9, 1902. One Hundred Years of History Second Presbyterian @bhurch 2 2 2 By Rev. Thomas Holmes Walker, Pastor 2 2 2 The struggles of the makers of America was the inevitable warfare of an awakened manhood. Few and pitifully feeble in physical resources, they daunt- lessly and successfully attempt the greatest political and social problems. The result is still the wonder of the world. The unchained word of God which made the Reformation possible throughout Europe, made possible also the birth of this Republic, founded in the great doctrines of the sovereignty of God and the right of each individual to his equal chance in “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” It was at once a regeneration and a reformation—for no reformation can be real that is not vital. And the vitality of any reformation of character lies in the quickening into life of the spiritual man. The root- ings of early American character lie, for by far the greater and the dominant part of her pioneer citizen- ship, deeply bedded in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Convictions followed conversions, and actions were 8 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY regulated by convictions. Men knew they were responsible to God before they were answerable to man; that they must have a reason approved of God for every opinion formed and position assumed. Fire and sword were alike ineffectual in the at- tempt to steal from them their birthright in the Gospel of the Son of God. The bitter and relentless persecutions of the Fatherland made America’s wil- derness, with its unknown perils and unattempted problems, appear to be a peaceful habitation. Such manhood was the basis of this national edi- fice, at this day somewhat of an experiment among the nations of the world, so far as its imposing super- structure is concerned, but presenting everywhere, in all departments of her building, political, social, in- dustrial and religious, the splendid, solid proportions of sterling Christian character. The progress of the race, intellectually, morally, spiritually, is the progress of Christianity. The fountain opened upon Calvary for sin and for uncleanness still pours through its widening rift the healing waters for the race. Is it to be wondered at that these men, who had religious convictions before they had political predi- lections, who held their heavenly citizenship before civil preferment, should, when they had the drafting of a “Magna Charta,” stamp their fearless character upon it? Is it any wonder that they sent the red aes ae blood of such a manhood through all the arteries and veins of our national fe? We do well to study this by no means ancient history, “lest we forget.” The Som of Mam made ample provision for the nourishment and development of sterlimg Christian character m the Christiam church, “the pillar and ground of the truth” There it is protected and entreated and thrust forth “to will and to do of God's good pleasure,” from the first mfantile assertions of 2 heaver-borm authority over the purely sensual and selfish, to its perfection of domimant sovereignty over ail the affairs of Itfe. Tt is m the Christian church, too, that character, expressed im the contests for supremacy waged m the limited sphere of 2 single Ife. finds its aggregate wealth of power and authority tremendously m begins to understand the Scriptures, “One shall chase a thousand and two put tem thousand to flight.” Every one of the great evangelical denommations which m those early, struggimg years found 2 haven on our shores, was 2 most important factor m determining the trend of our American history m things civil and religious. That we are peculiarly terested im the history of our own branch of this evangelical body, the Presby- Ie ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY. It is not within the scope of this little volume, however, to attempt so broad a field, but to limit our investigations to simply one congregation, and that we may say with pardonable pride will be found to be in character and activity, though one of many, yet among the foremost. It is true that the Second Presbyterian Church of Baltimore, Md., did not begin to be until the nine- teenth century was two years old, yet its charter members were of the bone and sinew of our first con- gregation, which played its part in the times in which our Republic came to the birth. The history of Pres- byterianism since those early days in Baltimore city, has been commensurate with the growth of the city. For, previous to the year 1730, there was but little promise of the city’s present magnificent propor- tions, except that prophecy which its fine inland har- bor made of what is to us a daily vision—a forest of masts, the token of world-wide commercial relations. The beginning of our city may have been small, but it lies a long way back. In 1662 Charles Gor- such took up and patented the first land within the present city limits. He called it Whetstone Point. Fort McHenry is built upon it. He found but few to favor the location. Some twenty years after Charles Carroll, agent of the lord proprietary and the ancestor of Charles Car- roll of Carrollton, became a land owner for the pur- SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. II pose of founding a town. In 1726, however, there were only a mill, two dwellings and some tobacco warehouses upon the present site of the city and the land was not half cleared. No wonder it was not as yet dignified by aname. The rough character of the ground was not in its favor as a site for a growing city and prospective settlers looked with more favor on the more level land around, but were by legisla- tive enactment in 1729, through protest of owners, prevented from occupying this and were compelled to seek a site on the northwestern branch of the Patapsco, in Baltimore county, consisting of sixty acres of land. “In or about the place where John Fleming now lives” is the reading of the enactment. The site of John Fleming’s house was on what is now Charles street, east side, near Baltimore street. This John Fleming had rented his farm from Charles Carroll. The price paid by the projectors of Baltimore town for this farm was 40 shillings per acre. There does not seem to have been any pro- digious growth up to the year 1761, when the citi- zens numbered less than three hundred and the houses fifty. Yet, one writing of it after the Revolutionary war, says: “It was a pleasure to see this little Baltimore town just at the close of the War of Independence, so conceited, so bustling and debonair, growing up like . a saucy, chubby boy, with his dimpling cheeks and IZ ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY. short, grinning face, fat and mischievous, and burst- ing incontinently out of his clothes in spite of all the allowance of tucks and broad selvages. Market street (Baltimore) had shot like a Nuremburg snake out of its box, as far as Congress Hall, with its line of low browed, hipped-roof houses in disorderly array standing forward and back after the manner of a regiment of militia.” What caused this progressive spirit? Was it be- cause that during the Revolution the capitol centered in Baltimore or was it not rather because a stream of immigration had set in after 1730, bringing many strong Christian men into the little city. These men were merchants and mechanics, but above all were Christians. Of these the Presbyterians were neither last nor least. In Baltimore county there had been a Presbyterian Church prior to the year 1715, to which Rev. Hugh Conn ministered. Its location cannot be determined. The minutes of the Presby- tery of Philadelphia, with which Maryland was at that time connected, show that Mr. Conn came to this country with Mr. Orme from the Presbyterian Church of England, with which church a correspon- dence was carried on through a Mr. Reynolds. A committee was appointed to examine him as to his ministerial abilities, and upon being satisfied, were to solemnly ordain him to the work of the ministry SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. BS among the people of Baltimore county, Maryland, upon the third Thursday of October, 1715. In the year following the Presbytery of Philadel- phia divided into four separate judicatories, and Mr. Conn’s name was enrolled in Newcastle Presbytery, to which Maryland was attached. This pioneer Minister of Christ died while preaching in the pulpit of the Bladensburg Church in 1773. It is known also that he was pastor of our own Slate Ridge Church, preceding a Mr. Whittlesey, whose work is mentioned in a report on the state of religion in Maryland, written by Rev. Samuel Davies to Dr. Bellamy, of New England, in which, in the same connection, he speaks of the revival of religion in Maryland. Dr. Patrick Allison also ministered to a church in the county about the year 1768 in connec- tion with his church in Baltimore. This church was called “Soldiers’ Delight,’ now Mount Paran, and was formed in 1766 by some families from Pennsyl- vania. They built a log church, in which they wor- shipped for some time. This was five years subse- quent to the coming into Baltimore of a strong band of Presbyterians from Pennsylvania and Maryland. These men are worthy a place on the church’s roll of honor. Driven by thickening troubles, through the foolhardiness of the Proprietary Government, to seek another home, the brothers Smith, John and William, William Buchanan, partner with John 14 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY Smith in the firm of Smith & Buchanan, James Ster- rett, Mark Alexander, John Brown, Benjamin Grif- fith, Robert Purviance, William Spear, Drs. John and Henry Stevenson, from Ireland, and Jonathan Plowman, from England, came to Baltimore. These, with others, soon formed a Presbyterian congregation, meeting from house to house, until their unpretentious log building was erected. It stood just to the rear of where Christ Episcopal Church now stands, corner of Gay and Fayette streets. They soon proved their strength in both church and state, and were largely instrumental in bringing to Baltimore its present supremacy over earlier settlements on the Chesapeake. For, in the race for honors anywhere, sturdy character counts for more than any other quality. To these men and their immediate successors, whose names are to be found upon the register of our oldest Presbyterian churches, not alone Presbyterianism but Evangelical religion owes a debt we can never hope to pay, except we lay our posterity under similar obligation by fidelity in our lot. There was preaching for them in this log church the Rev. Hector Allison, whom they besought to be their pastor, but the arrange- ment was never consummated, for the committee of the Presbytery, sent to examine the field and prose- cute the call, did not deem the proposals satisfactory. In a short time, however, 1763, they engaged a SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 15 licentiate of Philadelphia Presbytery, Mr. Patrick Allison, of whom they had heard through some young men of Baltimore attending an academy at Newark, where he was acting as tutor, to serve them for a period of one year, as stated supply. His salary was to be £100. Mr. Allison was a young Pennsylvanian, born but 23 years before in fertile Lancaster county. His education was attained in the College of Philadelphia. It soon became apparent that to avoid the many inconveniences arising from a lack of authori- tative management in congregational matters, mak- ing necessary a calling together of the entire society for their consideration, they must choose some goy- erning body. They therefore selected a committee, the minister to preside, whose business it would be “to direct and transact public affairs in the name of the society,’ before whom their proceedings were to be laid as required. No new regulations could be framed nor alterations made in any existing without their oversight and consent. This committee was formed by the society, convened in their log church on the 6th day of February, 1764. The committee unanimously chosen consisted of John Stevenson, John Smith, William Lyon, William Buchanan, William Smith, James Sterrett, William Spear and Jonathan Plowman. 16 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY At a subsequent meeting of the committee, Rev. Patrick Allison presiding, Mr. James Kelso was elected clerk, and at a meeting on the roth instant, at his house, Mr. John Smith was chosen treasurer and Messrs. William Buchanan and James Sterrett collectors for the ensuing year. It was not to be expected that the little log church would long suffice the growing needs of this pro- gressive people, and we are prepared to learn that this committee found almost the first item of busi- ness the erection of a new church edifice. The build- ing as erected was 35x45 feet, leaving in the rear a burial ground. In 1772 the church was enlarged. In 1785 the congregation decided to purchase two acres of ground outside the city limits for a burying ground and that they erect a new church on the site of the old one. All these improvements resulted in 1792, in the possession by the congregation of the famous two-towered church with its wide portico and steep ascent, standing on the bluff overhanging Jones’ Falls, now the northwest corner of Fayette and North streets. The weather vanes upon these steeples must have been the subject of town jokes, for Scharf, in his “Chronicles of Baltimore,” says: “The chief particularity about the latter (steeples) being, that the weather cocks upon them never point in the same direction unless, perhaps, during the equinoxial gales.” It was at that time one of the D D FIRST PASTOR ’ JOHN GLENDY 1802-1829 SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 17 most elegant churches in America. While the church was building, Dr. Allison preached in the old courthouse, which stood on the site of the present Battle Monument. The prosperous condition of Presbyterians may be assumed from the committee’s address to the congre- gation upon the completion of the new building in 1791, in which they state that since the formation of the congregation, a period of little more than 28 years, three church edifices had been erected, lots bought, one burial ground purchased, two enclosed, salaries collected with unusual accuracy and inferior expenses defrayed. “Your temporalities,” they add, “are now in a flourishing state.” During the erection of this building, formal appli- cation was made in the Presbytery for the formation of a Second Presbyterian Church, the result of the labors of Dr. Allison, who had given part of his time to preaching on the Point. Since the growth of the First Church he found it necessary to discontinue this preaching, which led to the desire for the forma- tion of another Presbyterian congregation. It would seem from the records of the Second Church as though even previous to 1790 such an organization was contemplated, for the Board of Trustees of the Second Church in meeting November 6, 1804, did appoint a committee, Messrs. Hollins, McElderry and Payson, “to investigate the circumstances of a. 18 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY parcel of land given to certain persons for a Second Presbyterian Church by Col. John E. Howard in 1785 and to obtain a title if possible.” The report of this committee cannot now be found. The pro- ject slumbered, gathering strength. Dr. Backus in the footnotes to a printed copy of a sermon he preached at the dedication of the Westminster Church, 1852, says: “In 1801 Dr. Allison’s health declined, making necessary the securing of an assistant,” but in manuscript memoirs in an old record book of the Second Church the chronicler of those early events, writing in the times of Rev. R. J. Breckinridge, certainly not later than the early 30’s, says: “Dr. Allison died at a very advanced age, much regretted by his people and by the citizens gen- erally. Soon after this event, which it is believed was in 1801, three candidates offered for the vacant pulpit, viz: the Rev. Dr. Alexander, the Rev. Dr. Inglis and the Rev. Dr. Glendy.” The following notice of Dr. Patrick Allison’s death and funeral, appeared in the Gazette and Ad- vertizer of the 21st of August, 1802. “The members of the Presbyterian Church and such other citizens of Baltimore as are disposed to testify their respect to the memory of the late Rev. Dr. Patrick Allison, are requested to attend his funeral tomorrow afternoon at 5 o'clock, from his late dwelling. August 21st.” SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. ime) In the same paper for the 23rd of August appear- ed a short account of his life. At the first election the Rev. Dr. Alexander was chosen by a large majority, but it having been com- municated to him that the minority would not join in the call, he declined its acceptance and was after- wards chosen pastor of the Third Presbyterian con- gregation of Philadelphia and then professor in the Theological Seminary at Princeton.” At the second election the Rev. Dr. Inglis was chosen by a small majority over Dr. Glendy. CHAPTER II. ORGANIZATION OF THE SECOND CHURCH, The friends of Dr. Glendy, dissatisfied with the conduction of the election, withdrew and formed the Second Presbyterian Church. This colony was large and respectable, for they immediately opened up a correspondence with Dr. Glendy, who at the time was pastor of two small congregations near Staunton, Va. He agreed to remove to Baltimore if they would build him a church. Dr. Glendy came to Baltimore warmly recommended by Thomas Jef- ferson, with whom he had become acquainted, and through whom he had visited Washington, where he was heard so favorably that the fame thereof reached Baltimore and resulted in his having so enthusiastic a following, that they immediately took steps to receive him in Baltimore and to build him a suitable church. Pending the building of the church Dr. Glendy frequently preached in the pulpits of the Evangelical churches of the city, but the regular services of the congregation were held in the First Presbyterian Church building, as would appear from an extract from the minutes of “the Committee of the Presby- terian Church in the city of Baltimore.” SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 21 “The following letter was laid before the com- mittee : BALTIMORE, December 4, 1802. GENTLEMEN: The committee appointed to re- ceive subscriptions for the purpose of erecting a new building to be distinguished by the name of “The Second Presbyterian Church in the city of Balti- more,” take the liberty of informing you that the subscription has equalled the most sanguine expecta- tions. They also take the liberty of communicating to you that the pastor’s (contemplated by such sub- scription) engagements with his present parishoners expires with the last day of this month and that it is the wish of the committee to give him an invitation immediately on the expiration of his time. The object of thus addressing you is to know if he could have the use of the present Presbyterian Church to officiate in occasionally, until the new church could be occupied with safety, which we flatter ourselves from the intended early arrangements for the going on with the building will not exceed the month of August next. With due respect, we are, gentlemen, John McKim, Jr., N. Andrews, Joseph Spear, James Armstrong, N. Thompson, Kennedy Long, Hugh McCurdy, Thomas McElderry, James Hutton, James Biays, James Sloan, and Joel M. Munson. Abraham Van Bibber, 22 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY Whereupon, it was resolved, That the president answer the same by signifying our willingness to accommodate them with the use of the church occa- sionally, and the president, together with Messrs. Robb and Buchanan, are appointed a special com- mittee to meet a deputation from the applicants, to make the necessary arrangements for that purpose.” The subscribers to the new building of the in- tended Second Presbyterian Church were called to- gether by the subscription committee through an advertisement in the Morning Advertiser of Decem- ber 27, 1802, NOTICE. “The committee appointed to receive subscriptions for the intended Second Presbyterian Church, in the city of Baltimore, respectfully solicit a meeting of the subscribers at the Columbia Inn, corner of How- and and Market streets, on Wednesday evening, the 29th inst., at 5 o’clock.” They met on the 29th of that month and consid- ered the proposals and plans of the committee for the church. January 6th, 1803, proposals were advertised for in the daily print for bricks and lime for intended Second Presbyterian Church, cinensias of which are to be 60x8o. By order of the committee, James Hutton, Ch. SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 23 It will be seen from the foregoing that not much time was lost by the committee in beginning the church building. The reader, who may be unacquainted with this portion of our church’s history may be inquiring as to the meaning of certain titles used and the absence of others which today are of the “warp and woof” of our church affairs. Let us glance at the history. Owing to the imper- fect organization of the times and the very loose method pursued in the preservation of facts con- nected with the formation of our church, we are able to lay before our readers but a meagre portion of that most important period in the history of Presbyter- ianism in Baltimore. The attention of Presbytery was directed toward this condition of the churches and moved toward their more perfect organization, adopting a pastoral letter setting forth the necessity for a regularly ordained session of ruling elders. Previous to this the representatives of the church sent to Presbytery had been unordained men acting in the capacity of trustees. It was, then, simply an unorganized con- gregation, which proposed to Dr. Glendy his settling among them as their pastor. Nor was it until October 29, 1804, at a congrega- tional meeting, regularly called for that purpose, that articles for regulating and managing their con- 24 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY gregational or temporal concerns were adopted and a committee of thirteen members elected as their first trustees or “committee” to carry into effect said articles in accordance with the mode prescribed by the act of the General Assembly of Maryland for the incorporation of certain persons in every Christian Church, etc., passed in 1798, supplement 1802. This act of incorporation was recorded November 4, 1804. The corporate title therefore became “The Commit- tee of the Second Presbyterian Church in the City of Baltimore.” The members of this first committee were as follows: James Biays, James Sloan, Thomas McElderry, Joseph Spear, Thomas Dickson, Henry Payson, John McKim, Jr., Kennedy Long, James Arm- strong, John Campbell White, John Hollins, Hugh McCurdy and James Hutton. Provision was made for their succession by con- vening in the place of public worship the members of the congregation over 21 years of age holding a pew and not being in arrears more than six months for same, on the 4th Monday of October or any other Monday of same month (changed to 3d Wednesday of December in October, 1864), then and there to elect by ballot or proxy 13 members of the congrega- tion, each pew to have but one vote, no matter how many might have sittings in it. All the property was vested in this corporate body, which was given SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 25 full authority to bargain, sell, lease or convey. At all meetings the minister was to be the presiding offi- cer and was to appoint three judges of election a reasonable time before each election and sign all doc- uments. Though we may not lay before our readers an ac- curate roll of those first members, we can very nearly approximate them from a list of the contributors to the erection of the church. This list bears date 1803 and is as follows: Aitkin, Andrew, Armstrong, James, Abricks, Harmanus, Andrews, Nathaniel, Armour, David, Aikin, George, Biays, James, Bland, Theodorick, Buchanan, James A., Borland, John Boyd, James P., Barklie, Thomas, Boyd, Andrew, Beatty, James, Biscoe, James, Bryden, James, Brown, Capt. David, Brown, Dr. George, Calhoun, James W., Carruthers, John, Carruthers, James, Cochran, Wm. and Bro., Crewy, Hans, Cotton, Solomon, Colhoon, Benjamin C., Clopper, Andrew, Cross, Andrew, Cunningham, John, Crawford, Andrew, Crook, Walter, Clopper, Edward N., Downie, John, Dickson, John, Thomas and William, Dobbin, Thos. and Geo., Dugan, Cumberland, 26 Dunwoody, Robert, Dorsey, John G., Dinsmore, Patrick, Deagen, Patrick, Dewit, Thomas, Dorsey, Joshua, Eichelberger, M., Etting, Solomon, Eichelberger, M., Etting, Reuben, Fraser, Thomas, Forman, William Lee, Fulton, Alex and James, Fulton, David, Furguson, Robert, Fisher, John, Finley, Ebenezer, Frick, John, Fulton, William, Gilmor, Robert and sons, Gun, James, Gordon, John and Wm., Gallagher, Alex, Greer, George, George, Archibald, Graham, David, Greer, Thomas, Hollins, John, ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY Hutton, James, Hughes, Christopher, Hillen, John, Hamilton, James, Hollingsworth, Levi, Herbert, Joseph, Hoffman, Jacob, Jones, Talbot, Johnson, Edward, Jembs, John, ~ Jenkins, E., Kennedy, John, Keeports, George P., Kelso, George and John, Keys, Richard, Kirkpatrick, Jeremiah, Kerr & King, Lyon, Samuel, Long, Kennedy, Long, James, Liggett, George, Lorman & Fulfords, Munson, Joel M., McKim, John, Jr., McElderry, Thomas, McCurdy, Hugh, Matthews, William, Moore, Robert, SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. McKean, Samuel, McKim, Isaac, McDonald, Wilkar, Mosher, James, McDonald, Alex, McBlair, Michael, McQuin & Barron, McEvers, Daniel, Moore, Thomas, McIntire, John, McConkey, William. McCreery, William, MacDowell, George, McFadon, William, Mactier, Alex, McClure, John, McKane, John, McElwee, John, McCalister, John, Mickle, Robert, Maris, Mr., McKim, Samuel, Martin, James, Neilson, Hugh, Neilson, James C., Norris, Nicholas, Norris, William, Neale, Abner, Owings, James, 27 Oliver, Robert and John, Patterson, William, Pechin, William, Priestly, James, Purviance, James, Purviance, Robert, Purviance, John, Payson, Henry, Peirce, Humphrey, Parks, Andrew, Phillips, Isaac, Prentice, Alex, Parks, John, Paxton, Ruth, Robb, William, Ross, William, Roy, John, Robinson, A., Randall, John, Richardson, A., Sloan, James, Smith, William, Salmon, George, Smith, Samuel, Somervell, James, Sweeting, Thomas, Stirling, James, 28 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY, Spear, Joseph, Thompson, William, Steene, Matthew, Taylor, Lemuel, Stricker, John, Thompson, Hugh, Smith, Samuel R., Thompson, James, Smith, Robert, Van Bibber, Abraham, Stewart, Archibald, Van Wyck, William, Shedden, John, Williams, Benjamin, Stewart, Robert, White, J. C. & Sons, Stirling, William, Wales, Ebenezer, Sterret, Samuel, Williams, Samuel, Stewart, William, West, James, Suman & Lamb, Wilson, Robert, Shryer, Louis, Williamson, David, Smith, Ralph, Winchester, William, Smith, James and John Woods, William, R. Caldwell, Wilson, James, Sprole, William, Wood, William H., Stiles, George, . Wray, John, Taylor, William, Youer, Samuel, Tagart & Caldwell, Young, Joseph, Thompson, Nathaniel, The amount of money subscribed by these two hundred and nine men and one woman was $10,489, a goodly sum for the times, showing how well sup- plied in this world’s goods the infant project was. In the treasurer’s account for the building of the church we find expenditures of upwards of $35,000 SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 29 paid out to masons and carpenters and dealers in the materials used in its construction. On a little print of this building in possession of the Peabody Library we are informed that the cost was $34,000 and that George Milleman, the archi- tect of the old city courthouse, supervised its con- struction. It was a substantial structure, plain but very com- modious, capable of seating 1,100 persons. It fronted 80 feet on Baltimore street and 70 feet on Lloyd street. There were no steeples and no bell to call the congregation together, a remarkable omis- sion in those days. It had wide galleries, to which access was had by winding stairways at either end of the church. The church was not completed until the time for Dr. Glendy’s installation, March, 1805. The sub-committee appointed to superintend the building of the church consisted of James Biays, Thomas McElderry and John McKim, Jr. This committee was continued by act of “The Committee’ November 6, 1804, and doubtless served until its completion. There is before me as I write a statement prepared by R. S. Hollins (whose father, J. Hollins, was first treasurer) about 1824, setting forth the several sources of receipts and the expenditures of same from the beginning of the congregation up to the year 1809, and showing that in addition to raising 3c ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY. money by direct subscription, by which over $10,000 was pledged, as we have shown, and by the sale of pews, something over $13,000 and rentals of pews over $9,000, amazing fact, yet true, they raised $7,411 by a public lottery. The advertisement of this lottery appeared in the American and Commercial Advertiser for March 11, 1805, and appeared daily for some time. Imagine, if you can, the present members of the Second Pres- byterian Church reading over their morning coffee the following : Second Presbyterian Church Lottery. Authorized by the General Assembly of the State of Maryland and the corporation of the City of Baltimore. Scheme. E prazqotes 66 sak ae 2 8 $5,000 L.prizecof ) . .isdas sins ine is 0s CC 2,000 I ptize Gb)0.4 cen ae cies a .. «6S 3 prizes, $500 each. ....4...-. 0 cee 1,500 8 prizes, $200 each... 26 ...85.. 20 en ee 1,600 20 prizes, $100 each.........-.... ae 2,000 40 prizes, $50 eaclt. 2)... 0.6554 ee ee 2,000 80 prizes, $25 each... 242.44. 50. see 2,000 200 prizes, $10 each... 12sec ce ceconas 2,000 3,350 prizes, $1 each... .ece.ssa wed naan 3,350 The above lottery is intended to raise a sum of money, in addition to the liberal subscription hereto- SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 31 fore obtained, for the building of the Second Pres- byterian Church in this city. The laudable purpose to which this money is to be applied, together with the advantages in a pecuniary view, which must ap- pear obvious to adventurers, cannot fail to produce a ready sale of the tickets. It is expected the drawing will commence the first week in September, or sooner, if a sufficient number of tickets are disposed of. All prizes in this lottery will be paid, without deduction, in sixty days after the drawings are completed. Prizes not demanded twelve months after the drawing is finished will be considered as generously relinquished for the benefit of the church. Tickets, at $5 each, to be had of the managers. Thomas McElderry. James Biays. James Armstrong. James Sloan. Hugh McCurdy. John McKim, Jr. Thomas Dickson. Kennedy Long. On April 13, 1805, the lottery is still further ad- vertised as follows: The managers of the Second Presbyterian Church Lottery will commence drawing on the first Monday in May next. In the meantime tickets may be had 32 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY. at the original price, and prizes in the Cathedral Church Lottery will be received in payment. (Signed) (as before). This advertisement was the result of a resolution passed by the committee March 11, 1805, viz: “That the drawing of the lottery be commenced in May next.” In the Telegram and Daily Advertiser, of May 21, 1805, appeared this notice of the first drawing of the lottery : “The managers of the Second Presbyterian Church lottery, met agreeably to notice yesterday at Mr. Myer’s tavern, and commenced drawing said lottery. “Owing to some returns not being in from the country, they drew only 25 tickets, and adjourned "till Saturday, next, at 3 o'clock. “The following numbers drew prizes of six dol- lars each: “1434, 29049, 3421, 3761, 4325, 8817, 9608, 10428. Gain of the wheel $77.” This is but a sample announcement from many reported in the columns of the daily papers of that period. No wonder Treasurer Hollins, of a later genera- tion, double-marked this item in his ancestor's ac- count book. In a foot note in pencil he remarks: “When I called Dr. R. J. Breckinridge’s attention to JOHN BRECKINRIDGE, D. D. SECOND PASTOR ASSOCIATE PASTOR 1826-1829 IN FULL CHARGE 1829-1831 SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 33 this item, he told me he regretted it, but it was lost in the good God had done to the church.”’ Can we say to that generation, as Peter did to the generation which crucified the Messiah, “I wot that through ignorance ye did it.” We wonder at the patience and forbearance of God and can only comment upon His subsequently so greatly blessing the gospel ministrations of our church, by remembering what Paul says to the Athenians concerning their ancestry: “The times of this ignorance God winked at, but now, com- mandeth all men everywhere to repent.’’ We hope and pray this sin has been confessed and forgiven. The ground for the Second Presbyterian Church was secured March 11, 1803, by John McKim, Jr., and Henry Payson from James Stirling for the sum of $4,000. This parcel of ground is described as follows: “All that piece or parcel of ground lying and being on the east side of Jones’ Falls. Beginning for the same on the south side of York street (Baltimore) at the distance of 284 feet east- erly from the southeasterly corner of intersection of York and Exeter streets, and running thence east- erly bounding on York street to Lloyd street, thence southerly, bounding on Lloyd street to Salisbury street, thence westerly bounding on Salisbury street until it intersects a line drawn southerly from the place of beginning and parallel with Lloyd street, 34 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY and thence bounding on said line to the beginning on York street.” They agreed in the deed of sale recorded March 25, 1803, to convey and assure the same to the per- sons to be styled the “trustees of the Second Presby- terian congregation in the city of Baltimore,” as soon as the said persons shall be duly elected to office by the said congregation. From the minutes of the Presbytery of Baltimore, volume I, page 141, it appears that it was not until the 9th of August, 1803, that Dr. Glendy was received into the fellowship of the Presbytery and the existence of the Second Congregation formally acknowledged. The extract reads: “Papers rela- tive to a society calling themselves the Second Pres- byterian Church of the City of Baltimore were read and considered and the Presbytery recognized the existence of a distinct worshipping society in the City of Baltimore under the name and style afore- said and received them under their care.” (Signed) Davip Witey, Moderator. JAMEs Inatis, Clerk. Dr. Glendy had not been in Baltimore very long until he was called upon to mourn the departure of his beloved wife, the sharer of his persecutions in Ireland and of the perils of the deep, and hoping, no doubt, to be his inspiration and joy for many years in his new and promising field of labor. Mrs. Eliza- SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 35 beth Glendy passed away June 13, 1804, and was buried with becoming ceremonies in the Presby- terian burying ground on the 15th of the same month. Presbytery seems to have moved very leisurely in the matter of the “induction” of Dr. Glendy as that event did not take place until the first Saturday in April, 1805. In the Baltimore American for April 15, 1805, there appeared an account of this event: “On Saturday morning, April 6, the settlement of the Rev. Mr. Glendy as pastor of the Second Pres- byterian Congregation was solemnized in their church. The Rev. Mr. Balch began the service with prayer and singing, as usual, after which he ad- dressed the audience from Dan. 12:3, “They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.” “Ministers,” he said, “having been made wise by Divine grace, are qualified to turn others to right- eousness and they are instrumental in effecting this purpose ; 1. By their own example. 2. By reproving the wicked when they meet with them. 3. By visiting and catechizing the individuals and families of their flock. 36 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY 4. By preaching the word of God. 5. By the administration of the sacraments and a judicious application of the censures of the church. Those who turn others to righteousness shall shine with great splendor in the next world. Those ministers who do not their duty shall be as wander- ing stars for whom is reserved the blackness of dark- ness.” Dr. Muir, who presided as moderator, then deliy- ered a short address on the nature of the Christian Church, asked the usual questions, received the re- plies from the minister and the people, and made a few remarks upon the mutual duties of a pastor and his charge, reading selected parts of Paul’s Epistles to Timothy. But the doctor spoke so exceedingly low that it was impossible to understand him. In the general wish we heartily join, that the Union may be pro- ductive of the most beneficial consequences both to the pastor, the congregation and the city.” The history of John Glendy, to be so interwoven with the beginnings of Presbyterianism in Baltimore, was already an interesting and inspiring one. He came to America from the little village of Maghera, County Derry, Ireland, where he was pastor of a Presbyterian Church. This little village has had a very long history, dating back to the Golden Age of Irish civilization, when it was a place of some impor- SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 37 tance. From the Sixth to the Twelfth centuries it was the seat of a bishopric. In the year 1722 there was a Protestant population in and around Maghera, partly Presbyterian, most of them from Scotland. There is good ground for believing, however, that the First Presbyterian Congregation was formed in Maghera about the year 1655. The congregation passed through two severe persecutions—the first in 1660 under Charles, and the second in 1798, for which, however, severe the loss to the Presbyterian cause in and around Maghera the Presbyterians of Baltimore in general and the Second Presbyterian Church in particular, are indebted for their first pas- tor, Rev. John Glendy. Here let me quote from the sketch of his early his- tory, prepared for this volume by the present pastor of Maghera Presbyterian Church, Rev. Robert Mac- Gill, M. A., Ph. D., who, upon our solicitation, has kindly made the necessary investigation among the available resources of information at his hand. John Glendy was born near the city of Derry on the 24th of June, 1755. He was educated in the University of Glasgow, licensed to preach in 1777, and ordained minister of Maghera on December 26, 1778. His wife was a Miss Cresswell, of Derry. They lived in a house a short distance from the vil- lage, to which was attached a farm of some ten or twelve acres. The farm is occupied at present by a 38 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY respectable Roman Catholic family called Shivers. From the congregation he received £50 of stipend. In addition to that he got the Regium Donum, which may have amounted to anything between £30 and £40 per annum. All told, his income as minister at Maghera was less than £80 a year. This sum seems small, but on the other hand it should be remembered that the buying power of money was greater then than now, and that of the 183 Presbyterians congre- gations in Ulster in the year 1799 almost 100 paid less than £50 of stipend. The first important work done by Mr. Glendy in Maghera was the building of a new church. The old one on Fair Hill was in a dilapidated condition, and in 1785 he obtained a new site, and erected a new building. His church was ruined in ’98, but the site chosen by him is that on which the present church stands. Of the work of Mr. Glendy as a pastor there is little information available. The Sabbath services were longer then than now. He began at 11 o'clock and finished at 3, with a short interval at 1. Sermons then were both long and strong. The local tradition is that as a preacher, Mr. Glendy was eloquent and forcible. His de- livery, it is said, was rather fast, but his voice was pleasing, his manner energetic, and his matter good. His preaching attracted large audiences and excited the jealousy of the rector (of the established church) SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 39 a fact not without consequences in the troubled year of ’98. After the building of the new church Mr. Glendy took a keen interest in the social and political move- ments of the times. To make clear this part of my story, something must be said about the general con- dition of Ireland in his youth and this again requires a brief sketch of the Irish policy pursued by English statesmen for generations. The vast majority of the people of Ireland were Roman Catholics and the remainder were divided between the Protestant established church and the Protestant non-conformity churches. It had long been one of the great ideas of English statesmen to compel all the people of Ireland to enter the estab- lished church. For this purpose penal laws were passed against the Roman Catholics, and a series of acts—uniformity, test and schism acts—were framed against the Presbyterians. Although these laws were not always put into operation in all the rigor of their letter, they yet created a state of things in Ireland that is almost incredible. The members of the established church were only about one-eighth of the total population of Ireland, yet they alone could vote at elections, they alone were eligible for office, civil or military, they alone could enter Parlia- ment, they dominated education, monopolized the liberal professions and formed the landed gentry. 49 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY Time after time Presbyterian churches and schools were closed. Presbyterian marriages were illegal. Presbyterians could not act as teachers and such was the stress of persecution that multitudes of them emigrated to America. The Roman Catholics were in a still worse plight. Parish priests were per- mitted to exercise their spiritual functions, but no high dignitary of the church, no cardinal, archbishop or bishop was allowed to remain in Ireland. Monks and nuns, too, were prohibited. When a parish priest died no successor could lawfully continue his work. A Roman Catholic could hold no office in the country. He could not enter Parliament or any of the liberal professions, or sit on a jury, or act asa sheriff, a teacher or game keeper. Catholic parents were forbidden to send their children to Catholic teachers, either at home or abroad, nor dare they apprentice their sons to lawyers or the cutlery trade. They could not acquire freehold land, they could not buy or sell property at will. They could not keep arms or a horse that was worth more than £5. Laws were passed to turn the children against the parents. The eldest son, for example, could secure his father’s wealth by becoming a member, however insincere, of the established church. It might be thought that an Irish Parliament so safeguarded could be entrusted to govern Ireland with due regard to the interests of the Predominant SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 41 Partner, but such was not the opinion of English statesmen. No bill could be brought before the Trish Parliament until it was approved of under the great seal of England. Besides by a pension scheme many of the members of the Irish Parliament were held in dependence, so that in both these ways Eng- land ruled the Irish administration. Nor must the commercial policy of English statesmen with regard to Ireland be forgotten. By a series of acts they completely ruined Irish agriculture, industry and commerce. English markets were closed to Irish cattle in 1663. The taxes for the established church came solely from the tillers of the soil, and the main- tenance of roads, bridges, etc., was levied in work and tax upon the same class. The wretched farmers had a further burden to carry, due to the fact that many of the landlords were absentees and let their estates to rack-renting middlemen. In 1663 Ireland was deprived of the advantages of trade with the colonies, as the English feared com- petition. For the same reason the export of Irish wool was so regulated that the English buyer could have it at his own price, and a heavy duty was put upon Irish linen stuffs. It is little wonder that the result of this policy was that capital left Ireland, manufacturers emigrated and enterprise was par- alyzed. A famine broke out in 1739 that killed, it is said, one-third of the population, and it only 42 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY needed the embargo on Irish ports in 1776, forbid- ding the export of provisions, to complete the finan- cial ruin of the country. It is not surprising that there was widespread dissatisfaction in Ireland and that a strong agitation sprang up calling for reform. Under pressure of that agitation from within and double from without, England began to make con- cessions. But these came only piecemeal and after keen struggle. Meantime the American colonies fought for and won their independence, the French Revolution had triumphed and the not unnatural consequence in Ireland was the rise of a party—the United Irishmen—that demanded the equality of all creeds in matters political, the extension of the fran- chise, the freedom of trade, the reform of Parlia- ment and a large measure of national autonomy. That the United Irishmen sought national separa- tion from England from the first is not true, though that eventually became the policy of their extreme leaders. At first, too, they proceeded along consti- tutional lines, and so long as they kept to constitu- tional methods they were supported by many mem- bers of the Protestant established church, and by the great body of non-conformists, both lay and clerical. On the adoption of more violent methods they lost much of this support. In ’g1 the first branch was formed in Belfast and from that year their organ- ization grew with remarkable rapidity. SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 43 Fortunate, there is documentary evidence of Mr. Glendy’s attitude to the new party. In the “North- ern Star,” the Belfast organ of the United Irishmen, there appeared a notice of a sermon preached by Mr. Glendy in his own church at Maghera in December, *92. According to this notice Mr. Glendy exhibited on this great occasion distinguished abilities in a manly, disinterested and public-spirited manner, having displayed, with peculiar energy, the signal interposition of Heaven on behalf of the French nation.” This notice speaks for itself and sufficiently indicates that Mr. Glendy was in full sympathy with the principles of the United Irishmen as at first for- mulated. In Maghera a corps of United Irishmen was formed called the “Maghera National Guards,” in which Catholics and Episcopalians and Presbyter- ians alike enrolled themselves. There is no evidence to show that Mr. Glendy was either an organizer, an officer or a member of that corps, while there is abundant testimony that he took no part in the actual rising. He was undoubtedly in sympathy with the movement in its beginning, but he did not proceed to any act of actual rebellion, probably on the principle that rebellion is only justifiable when it is likely to be successful. In ’98 the rising took place, but it was doomed to failure from the first.. There was a lack of arms and 44 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY ammunition, of organization, of discipline, and of leadership and a few days were sufficient to stamp it out. The Maghera Corps, about 5,000 strong, as- sembled on the 7th of June, 1798. Only about 500 had firearms—the remainder carried pikes, pitch- forks and spades. They held the town that night and marched next morning to Crewe Hill, about a mile from the village. On the first appearance of the soldiers they disbanded, some of them turned loyalist, but most of them went quietly home. Two of their leaders, William McKeiver and William Harper, escaped to America; the other, Walter Gra- ham, was foully betrayed and executed. As stated, Mr. Glendy took no part in the actual rising. His sympathies, however, were well known and he wasa marked man. Mrs. Glendy fled to her friends in Derry and he himself went into hiding. His house was burnt, his property destroyed and search was made for him. , Not far from his house was a place called “The Groves.” It was deeply wooded and covered with brush and one part of it lay low. It belonged to a Mr. Wilson, who had been a Presbyterian and a member of Mr. Glendy’s congregation, but becoming dissatisfied with Mr. Glendy’s political tendencies, had entered the established church, and had thus the advantage of being certified as a loyalist by the rec- tor. In this low-lying and swampy place, safe from SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 45 inspection of the military because owned by an ac- knowledged loyalist and opponent of Mr. Glendy’s, the minister of Maghera found security for about a fortnight. It is greatly to the credit of Mr. Wilson’s memory that he did not betray the pastor with whom he had quarrelled and that he helped to supply him with eat- ables during his retreat. In his lair the present Mr. Wilson, a good Presbyterian, found some years ago two guineas when felling the trees and removing the brush. At the end of about a fortnight Mr. Glendy decided to attempt an escape. From a woman, called Sarah McQuirken, he obtained a petticoat, cloak, bonnet and a pair of Martens (stockings with- out feet.) He donned these garments, dressed his long hair in female fashion and crept from his lair. He was discovered and almost captured at the very beginning. Two men observed him and one of them cried out, “By Heaven that is Glendy!” and prepared to give chase. The other, however, was a good Presbyterian. He seized his companion, who was a magistrate, an Episcopalian, and a bigoted Tory, and said: “Well, if it is Glendy you and I will have no part in putting the rope around his neck.” He held him until Mr. Glendy disappeared. Making towards Tobermore, Mr. Glendy met a lady whom he knew he could trust and the lady walked to Tobermore, almost two miles, with him. They 46 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY went by the public road and they met a company of soldiers. The lady’s presence, however, saved Mr. Glendy, and he made his way without much diffi- culty to Derry, and from Derry to America. When saying farewell to the lady, he told her that if he reached America in safety he would send her a silver spoon. He kept his promise, and the silver spoon is at present in possession of one of the lady’s grand- daughters. He also sent Sarah McQuirken a sum of money with which to buy clothes in place of those he had taken. She did not, however, have this pleasure, for she remarked somewhat plaintively to a neighbor, “My mither bought a coo with it.” Dr. Glendy is not the only distinguished son of Maghera, though they were not all :so pitilessly thrust out as he had been. Hundreds of the best of the Presbyterian congregation have come to the United States, to the British Colonies and to the larger towns oi Great Britain and Ireland. Of very few oi these has failure been registered. The Pres- byterians of South Derry possess the best qualities oi the Ulster Scot, shrewdness, sobriety, thrift, dog- ged perseverance and indomitable courage, and they have distinguished themselves wherever they went. In Maghera have grown up some of the ablest min- isters of our church—men like Revs. Jackson Gra- ham, W. McCullagh, Joseph Barkley, Thomas Lytle, John MacMillan and Robert G. Milling. Rev. Wil- ———_ i - SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 47 liam Patterson, the distinguished minister of Beth- any Church, Philadelphia, is a Maghera man, and the great Dr. Cooke was baptized in Maghera by Rey. John Glendy.” All honor to the little town. Our Lord did not despise a little town in the day of his birth, and he seems ever since with peculiar providence to bring forward the little fellows of the little towns, that He may make of them the mighty ones of earth and through them build up the great enterprises of men. Today Maghera congregation, stronger than when Mr. Glendy left it so distracted and disrupted more than one hundred years ago, sends the greeting of her 1,100 souls across the Atlantic to the congrega- tion he did so much to organize upon his coming to Baltimore, today full of vitality and zeal. But though the Maghera of today may be much the same as the Maghera of the days of Dr. Glendy, the Balti- more of today is vastly different from the little struggling city which greeted him upon his arrival. Maghera may well be proud of him; America is glad she did not keep him. At Derry, being joined by his faithful wife, he was compelled to embark on an old, unseaworthy vessel, crowded with immigrants as eager as him- self to escape the rigorous persecution of a narrow- minded statesmanship. Soon after putting to sea, the passengers and crew were forced to man the 48 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY pumps to keep the old hulk afloat. It was with the greatest difficulty they made harbor at Norfolk, Va., sometime in the year 1799. The poor emigrants were in such a wretched condition that the captain of the vessel, taking pity upon them, requested Dr. Glendy to preach for their benefit in the courthouse of the town, for there was no Presbyterian Church in the place. The sermon must have been one of marked power, for several distinguished lawyers were thereby influenced to make inquiry into Dr. Glendy’s previous history, and upon ascertaining, extended to both Dr. Glendy and his worthy wife, who had shared all his perils and labors with loyal devotion, a most cordial welcome, while all the good people of the town vied to do them honor. Dr, Glendy soon found that he was not robust enough to stand the climate of Norfolk, and upon the advice of a physician, went to Staunton, Va. He had not been there very long until he was called to assume the pastoral care of two churches—Staunton and Bethel—both in Augusta county, Va. These con- gregations he supplied for two years. While preaching in these obscure places he became acquainted with Thomas Jefferson, then President of the United States, who greatly admired him and invited him to Washington for a visit. His sermon preached in Washington attracted much attention, which, together with Jefferson’s fondness for him, ROBERT JEFFERSON BRECKINRIDGE, D. D. THIRD PASTOR 1832-1845 SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 49 soon noised abroad his fame and made him prom- inent in the minds of the Presbyterians of Baltimore as a worthy successor of the great Dr. Patrick Allison. CHAPTER Tie IN THE DAYS OF DR. GLENDY. The story of the minority in the election which followed the death of Dr. Allison and their with- drawal from the membership of the First Church to form the Second Presbyterian Congregation and their calling Dr. John Glendy has already been told in these pages. It will be readily seen from the foregoing that the Second Presbyterian Church had no struggling beginning, but at once stepped out upon the field of action, strong and vigorous, well equipped in means, in brain, in religious conviction and courage, with a leader of tried character and known ability and ripened experience as pastor and preacher. Of the congregations which crowded the church in those days, an early writer says: “As the church was built expressly for him, it was crowded for many years and great harmony prevailed. It is to be hoped that much good was done, as there were many who took pews who had never attached themselves to any church before.” When the new church was ready for the congrega- tion there was found to be an applicant for nearly every pew. The list of those purchasing or renting SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 51 pews, for that was the invariable system pursued in those days, made out the 2d of July, 1804, is as fol- lows, together with number of the pew bought or rented : PURCHASERS. Pew Pew No. No. I Jno.,Thos. and Wm. 18 Thomas Dobbin. Dixon. Ig James Beaman. 2 Alex. Mitchell. 3 David Stodder and David Brown. 4 Wales and Clopper. 5 Abm. Van Bibber. 6 Joseph Spear. '7 John Gooding and Thos. Hutchins. 8 David Burke. 9 Alex. Gallagher. 10 James Ramsey. 11 Captain John Cun- ningham. 12 Thomas Greer and Dr. McKenzie. 13 Dr. Smull. 14 Samuel McKim. 15 S. Vickery. 16 Dr. Coulter. 17 Joseph Kidder. 20 John Lee and Dr. Moore. 21 P. Clopper. 22 James Hambleton. 23 Talbot Jones. 24 John Henderson. 25 John and William Gordon. 26 Benj. C. Calhoun. 27 Wm. Thompson. 28 John Spedden. 29 Wm. Lee Forman. 30 Captain Carr. 31 Ralph Smith. 32 Captain Chase. 33 James Calwell. 34 Nath’l. Thompson. 35 Thomas Colwell. 36 Samuel Williams. 37 George Stiles. 52 61 Thos. McElderry. ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY PURCHASERS. No. ne 38 James Biays. 62 James Sloan. 39 John Hollins. 63 Samuel Smith. 40 James Hutton. 64 Hugh McCurdy. 41 Hugh Neilson. 65 John McKim, Jr. 42 James Purviance. 66 John Kennedy. 43 Andrew Parks. 67 Kennedy Long. 44 William Pechin. 68 Wm. Patterson, Jr. 45 H. Alricks. 69 M. McBlair. 46 Wm.McDonald and 70 John Borland. D. Armour. 71 David Cochran and 47 John Barron and R. Moore. McQuin. 72 Theodk. Bland. 48 James Fulton. 73 Snyman and Lamb. 49 John Riddell. 74 James Gunn. 50 G. Gordon. 75 John McKane and 51 Hugh Hazleton. N. G. Bryson. 52 Robert Dunwoody. 76 Patk. Dinsmore and 53 Lyon & Sweeting. A. George. 54 James Beatty. 77 Wm. Southward: 55 William Vance. 78 Hans Crewy. 56 Cumberland Dugan. 79 Robert Lawson and 57 Dr. Aitkin. W. Camp. 58 William Norris. 80 Nathaniel Andrews. 59 Henry Payson. 81 Wm. Wilson. 60 James Armstrong. 82 Matthew Steen. Ed. N. Clopper. Pew No. 84 Mrs. Galbraith. 85 Andrew Cross. 86 H. Buckler. 87 Wm. Hazlett. 88 John McIntyre. 89 James Martin. 90 Joseph Smith. o1 Dr. J. C. White. 92 Thomas Moore and D. Fulton. 93 John Parks. 94 Joel M. Munson. 95 William Barney. 96 Alexander Brown. 97 Warner & Hanna. 98 Rev. Dr. Glendy. 99 John Haslip and John McKinnell 100 Daniel Peters and John James. 101 102 103 104 James Thompson. 105 Wm. McConkey. 106 Wm. McCormick. SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 53 109g 110 Thomas Dewitt. 111 John Neilson and William Fulton. 112 William McCleary. 113 Jeremiah Kilpatrick and Jos. Bryan. 114 Dr. Shanley. II5 116 117 118 Thomas Leaman. 119 Thomas Sinclear. 120 peo Lowry. Occupied by : 123 / the choir. | 129 James Long. 54 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY PURCHASERS. Pew Pew No. No. 130 Geo. Milleman (ar- 140 J. Kennedy and J. chitect of church.) Baillie. 131 Robert Spencer. 141 John Henry. 132 Wm. Neilson and 142 James Craig. John Duncan. 143 Robert Herring and 133 John Morrow. 134 William Stirling. 144 Robert Graham. 135 P. Caughey and 145 Daniel Davidson. John Monteith. 146 Henry Starr. 136 Christian Stemner. 147 137 John Bryson. 148 138 Anthony Law. 149 Henry Long. 139 Lawson Newman. 150 Dr. Crawford. In 1805 Dr. Glendy was appointed chaplain of the House of Representatives and ten years later, 1815, by resolution of the Senate and the acquiescence of his session, served the Senate in the same capacity. Will it startle the Second Presbyterian Congrega- tion of today when they learn that their first pastor wore a gown? And that the same committee ap- pointed to purchase the first communion set for the congregation, March 11, 1805, was also to purchase the gown? This pulpit costume must certainly have presented a striking contrast to his everyday attire, which, as Boulden says, “was like that of the fine old reverend gentlemen—short breeches and knee SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 55 buckles, hair powdered and queued.” In May, 1805, Dr. Glendy’s name appears upon the roll of the Gen- eral Assembly as a delegate from Baltimore Pres- bytery. It soon became apparent to the congrega- tion that they must take steps to secure a burial ground for the proper care of their sacred dead. Investigation was begun of available ground which resulted in a definite report to the committee in ses- sion May 13, 1806, which report and action is re- corded in the following language: “The committee was informed by one of its members that General S. Smith had generously offered to accommodate the congregation with two acres of land for a burying ground, situated on the road to Belair, near where it intersects the road leading to Fell’s Point, and on the same terms that he obtained it at auction, which is $— per acre and interest thereon from the of day Whereupon, resolved that the president be re- quested to convey to General Smith the thanks of the committee in behalf of the congregation for his gen- erosity and liberality, in this instance so conspicu- ously manifested. That Messrs. Thomas McElderry and Thomas Dickson proceed to have the said lots surveyed, fenced with posts and rails, and laid out in suitable lots for a burying ground. 56 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY It will readily be seen that these two men had no small task assigned them, but as if to suggest its lit- tleness in their eyes the committee at the same meet- ing appointed a committee of three to procure a cur- tain for the pulpit and a carpet for the stairs. In this same year the congregation leased from John McKim a piece of ground on the west end of the church having a frontage of eight feet on York street at an annual rental of $4 per front foot. This lease was executed September 22, 1806, and recorded January 28, 1807. The purchase of a burial ground from General Smith seems to have been abandoned for some rea- son, for the committee bought December 24, 1807, a piece of ground for that purpose. The deed was recorded February 28, 1808. This piece of ground contained about two acres, so the deed states, and cost at auction $1,051, “good and lawful money.” It was considered at that time to be an immense distance from the city, being situ- ated in what was known as Cole’s Addition, on the northwest side of the Belair Road (now Gay street), fronting 170 feet on this road and containing about two acres. This came to be known as the Glendy burying ground, situated when Boulden wrote, at the head of Broadway, fronting on Gay street. This burial ground was enclosed by a substantial brick wall. In the course of a very short time there was SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 57 built within this ‘“God’s acre’ those massive stone mausoleums which still defy time’s fiercest assaults. It is not too high a tribute to pay to the farsighted- ness of the guiding spirits of the Second Church to say that while other churches were content with a burying ground around their church building, these men, by thus purchasing a burial ground far from the centre of the city, indicated a wisdom prophetic of the city’s future prosperity and expansiveness, quite remarkable for those days. They were the business and professional men of the city in their day and did much to shape its commercial policy and were in themselves the assurance of its ultimate success and growth. This burying ground has had a most interesting history and one which, recalling the names of the loyal dead entombed there, will be found to occupy no insignificant place as a ““Mecca’’ for sturdy Presbyte- rians seeking an inspiration in the hallowed names of “long ago,” and for citizens seeking to pay tribute to the worth of men who helped to make our city great. We must defer, however attractive the theme, the consideration of those sacred names until the proper time for recording its passing out of the hands of the trustees of the Second Presbyterian Church into the custody of the Presbyterian Associa- tion. There occurred no event worthy of record until the year 1811, a momentous one for the con- 58 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY gregation, for then they elected and ordained their first Session. The record reads: “On the last Lord’s day in April, 1811, in strict conformity with the principle and discipline of the Presbyterian Church, the undernamed members of this congregation were ordained elders by their stated pastor with the unani- mous approbation of said worshipping society, viz: Alexander Brown, James Sloan, James Beatty, Wil- liam Vance, Robert Steuart, William McDonald, William McConkey, William Camp and John Craw- ford. At the first meeting of the session James Beatty was elected Session Clerk. The Committee still continued to transact the temporal affairs of the congregation, leaving the conduct of the spiritual entirely in the hands of the Session. There was pur- chased in this year by the Committee for the use of the congregation a bier and pall, the pall to be of “cotton velvet with fringe and tassels.” This was done at a cost of $90. The picture of the old church, which is in posses- sion of the Peabody Library of this city, presents the church building with neither wall nor railing sur- rounding it, but there is before us in the records of this committee that the old wall, the front wall of the church yard, was ordered torn down and to be rebuilt with two gates for entrance. This order resulted, perhaps, in the wall surmounted by an iron fence, which is shown about the church, in an old SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 59 picture in the possession of Mr. Frank R. Haynes, now of our Session. Dr. Joseph T. Smith, in his excellent history of the Second Church contained in his book entitled “Eighty Years,” says: “In 1814 we find the first notice of offering for the extension of the kingdom, etc.,”” this should be corrected, for we find that Dr. Glendy, who had been appointed a delegate of the Presbytery to attend the General Assembly in 1811, was authorized to contribute for the congregation $60 to the missionary fund. One of the first duties to which the session directed its attention, February 10, 1812, was the matter of regular attendance upon the afternoon ser- vice (now it is the evening service, a very old problem, you will perceive), and it was resolved unanimously that each member of the Session shall, as far as counsel and example can influence, begin- ning with his own family, urge and entreat a more reverential attention to the public duties of the Christian Sabbath.” That was a wise and righteous beginning. They leave us wondering what the result may have been. The Session this year began to hold its meetings quarterly. There must have been in the Session an elder who believed in the apostolic character of the Presbyterian Church, for in 1813 we find them discussing the question of the duty and advisability 60 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY of increasing their number to the number of the Apostles. Strange duties, too, were laid upon Dr. Glendy, who was ordered by the committee to see that the sexton “have all the pews and the wooden work of the church completely washed out (hardly) with pearl ashes and water and that afterwards he shall keep the house well swept out so as to keep it free from dust and that the house should be well aired every Saturday.” Agreeable to the rules of the General Assembly a report presented by the pastor to the Session Jan- uary 27, 1814, states that up to November 21, 1812, he had baptized 2 adults and 93 infants, and that 52 communicants were added to the church and that the year ending November 21, 1813, he had baptized 5 adults and 89 infants and that 51 com- municants had been added to the church. Upon reading this record one feels torn between a desire to sing with the psalmist, “Blessed is the man who hath his quiver filled with those,” and to quote the record in the acts, “believers were the more added to the Lord.” The custom seems to have originated in this year of appointing elders at each communion to provide the elements for the Sacrament. Thomas Sheppard was elected and ordained an elder and another contribution made to the mission- ary fund of the General Assembly, this time amount- SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 61 ing to $50, while a like sum was paid to the Presby- tery towards finishing the education of a student of theology. The commissioners to the General Assembly that year were also instructed to pledge the congregation ‘“‘at as early a day as possible, to make a public collection for the support of a Theo- logical Seminary. For some time prior to the year 1817 a grave con- troversy had arisen in the church as to the propriety of admitting into membership persons holding Arian or Socinian doctrines, which culminated in the Pres- bytery of Baltimore sending down to the churches the following order, to be read from the pulpit: Resolved unanimously that it be the duty of pastors and Sessions in admitting persons to sealing ordin- ances, whether on examination or certificate, to en- quire particularly into their profession of the doc- trines above mentioned and of their views of the character of our Saviour, and to exclude from these ordinances all persons professing Arian or Socinian doctrines, or denying the essential divinity of Christ ; or, if admitted, to exclude from these ordinances after proper and Christian endeavor to reclaim them from their errors.” After the deliberations of two sessional meetings, the matter was indefinitely post- poned. Weare constrained to believe from reasons of a politic character, as Dr. John Breckinridge shows in his introductory statement to the roll of the 62 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY congregation as compiled by him: “I never received any list of former members from the senior pastor, and on being applied to at the time of leaving us, he declined to give one. Many persons who had once communed with the church withdrew from its com- munion in the winter of 1826-27 (the time of Dr. Breckinridge’s coming to the Second Church) on a discovery of the fact, that they had mistaken entirely the nature of a Christian profession. Some have been readmitted on a profession of faith in Christ and obedience to Him; some have never been known to me and many of this character are now in the con- gregation, but from the peculiar circumstances of the church they have been permitted to withdraw with- out any act of discipline.” - That question, which has arisen like “Banquo’s ghost,” to trouble the deliberations of so many Pres- byteries, as to the presence in court, as Presbyters, of those lacking a pastoral charge, seems to be of long standing, if we are to judge from the attitude of the session of the Second Church on the subject Novem- ber 18, 1819. This resolution was passed: “That our representatives to the next stated meeting of Presbytery, be instructed to remonstrate against pay- ing the expenses of members attending the Presby- tery, except such as have charges to represent.” In 1821 they decided to pay the expenses of only their own representatives. SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 63 The office of collector of pew rents was evidently no sinecure in those days, for it carried with it a salary, and frequently necessitated upon the part of the Board of Trustees a resolution such as the fol- lowing of November 29, 1819: “Resolved, That an advertisement be inserted in two of the newspapers of this city for a collector and a sexton.” He must also give bond in the sum of $2,000 for the faithful performance of the trust imposed upon him. There are two items of importance decided upon during the year 1820. During that year the Sab- bath school was organized with thirteen pupils, all females, as Dr. Smith informs us. For their in- struction teachers were assigned to the number of twenty-three, who taught in rotation. The session also appointed a committee to select a site and make an estimate for building “‘a Sabbath day school and Session house for the use of the congregation.” There does not appear upon our church records any account of the founding of this school, except one little item in the minutes of 1824, but we have a record of the organization of “The Second Presby- terian Church Male Sabbath School Society,” at a meeting of a number of the male members of the church, held March 5, 1821. They adopted a con- stitution, in which they stated their object to be “to promote the religious instruction of male children by teaching them to read the scriptures.” It was their 64 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY purpose to reach the children of non-church goers, in which they met with a fair measure of success, for in the annual report of the secretary for 1823, he com- plains of some subscribers to the society who refused to become subscribers for another year and adds: “The very evident effect of such institutions (Sab- bath schools) in moralizing youths who have been disgraces to society and annoyances to the quietness and peacefulness of the Sabbath is too well known to be particularly noticed here. We ourselves can vouch for the beneficial results of Sabbath school teaching. Boys of the most profane and unruly habits manifest a sorrow for their past conduct and have become regardful of that day, which served only to them as a holiday for the commission of mis- chief and vice. This proves that their depravity is owing to the neglect of their parents and shows that they can be directed successfully into the paths of virtue. The report shows the attendance to have been “from 18 to 20 regular scholars during the spring, summer and fall. There are from 30 to 35 on the receiving book.’”’ Not a very large school, but the beginning of the splendid results of today. More of this anon. The first officers of this society were Gen. William McDonald, president; George G. Hobson, secretary and treasurer ; Mr. John Wilson, Col. William Stew- art and Mr. Adam Kyle, managers; Mr. W. H. Faceman, superintendent. LEWIS WARNER GREEN, D. D. FOURTH PASTOR 1847-1848 SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 65 Dr. Glendy was accustomed to attend the school and open the session with prayer, but in 1823 asked to be relieved, pleading that duty would not permit him to come. He asked if the society approved of the attendance of Mr. B. T. Walsh, superintendent of a school on the Point, who had kindly volunteered his services. What strong pleas for support that noble band of men who officered the school sent out in their annual reports! We wish we could reproduce them in toto here. Who could better express the object of a Sabbath school? “It is not merely,” they say, “to teach the children to read. No, that is but a small part of the business. The great object of a Sabbath school is to form religious habits among the children—to point out God as their Heavenly Father and Christ their only Saviour.”’ Sadly they complain of their lack of ability to teach or to show forth those qualities, spoken of as so necessary, and then under the sense of their great responsibility and the crying need of the children, they burst out, “Come lend us your heart and hands to lead these little ones up to the Throne of Grace. Everyone of them has an im- mortal spirit. Everyone of them has an eternity before him—a heaven to enjoy; a hell to escape or endure. We speak not in our own name nor in the name of our cause. We speak in the name and cause of Our Master.” 66 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY Under such a spiritual management there was rapid growth. The children studied and recited por- tions of scripture, hymns and the catechism. Ex- aminations were held once a quarter in the presence of the parents to whom also a suitable address was to be made. A visiting committee was appointed at the annual meeting in 1824 who were to visit the scholars in their homes and so secure their more reg- ular attendance. The committee consisted of twelve men, each one to serve a month in the year. In 1826 Mr. T. S. Anderson became the superin- tendent of the school, which was every year render- ing flattering reports of progress in numbers and efficiency. Each year they elected five delegates to attend the Maryland Sunday School Union, which must have been formed but a short time previously. In 1827 Mr. Wallace Kincaid became the superinten- dent of the school. The importance of keeping a faithful and accurate record of the transactions of a congregation requires no demonstration here, though we may be pardoned this litle criticism on the worthy James Beatty, first clerk of the Session, since we find spread upon his minute book the following items in a bill of excep- tions by Presbytery’s examining committee: 3. That several persons are recommended as elders and afterwards act as such without any min- ute being made of their election and ordination. SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 67 4. That no mention is made of the examination or admission of persons to the communion. This stricture was productive of beneficial results, for at the next meeting of the Session, November 21, 1821, the pastor reported “that eleven members were added to the church at the last communion after min- isterial instruction and examination.” The question of the terms of the call to Dr. Glendy and the amount of salary stipulated was evidently a matter of discussion this year, for at a meeting of the committee, December 10, 1821, after hearing the statement of Dr. Glendy and upon his retiring the Board took the subject into “serious consideration” and resolved unanimously that Dr. Glendy’s salary should be $2,100 in full for house rent and salary. To this Dr. Glendy agreed. In 1822 the church was first lighted with lamps, the necessary committee being appointed to procure and install them. CHAPTER IV. CHOOSING A COLLEAGUE. Owing to the enfeebled condition of their pastor, the congregation was very desirous of securing for him a colleague or assistant, but knowing how averse to such an arrangement the Doctor was, were very reluctant about suggesting it to him. They decided to take the Presbytery into their confidence and act upon their advice. The Presbytery appointed the Rev. Elias Harrison, D. D., a very close friend of Dr. Glendy’s, to perform the delicate mission. Dr. Harrison found the aged minister seated in his chair, the very picture of woe, he being at that time in the midst of one of his periodical spells of depression. Though the day was very warm, the doors and win- dows were all tightly closed, while to insure no possi- ble ill results from any possible draughts, the Doctor had on a hat stuffed with cotton or wool, and wrapped about him a heavy winter cloak. He looked to be in the very last stages of decline. But the instant a cautious word or two made known the object of his brother’s visit, he was all animation and energy. He was evidently very angry, though showing no impoliteness (he never could) to the visiting brother SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 69 and proved his anger both by look and word. His anger was directed against the Presbytery, which, he said, had transcended the limits of its allotted functions. He also expressed great surprise that his young and greatly esteemed brother, generally so very judicious, had consented to have any agency in so smalla concern. He then proposed a walk, which was evidently good medicine, for upon his return he said he felt better and promised to give the matter consideration, which was proof enough that he was better. Soon after this interview with Dr. Harrison and as a result of this “consideration,” he sent the fol- lowing letter to the Session, meeting November 22, 1825, bearing date of November 21, 1825. The letter reads as follows: “Dr. Glendy presents his affectionate compliments to the members of Session and Committee and Con- gregation of the Second Presbyterian Church, earn- estly and anxiously requesting to know what portion of ministerial duties will be expected or required of him, after that you have elected his colleague. When his health and the state of the weather will permit he shall be ever ready and willing to render any min- isterial duties in his power. Heaven only knows, but in all human possibility in the common course of events he cannot long survive to be a tax on your generosity. 70 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY “Tf it shall please the Most High to prolong his days until the 17th of February next, he will have been 50 years (half a century) a preacher of the everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord. On the 24th day of June last he closed the seventieth year of his age. Pray, is the record of your book a sufficient guarantee for the new contract about to be made between the committee, the legal representa- tives of the congregation, and the stated pastor? Be pleased to instruct him how soon and on what terms and for what length of time he shall invite a min- ister on trial. / “Suffer him to counsel you; do not let it be for less time than four or six weeks. There are too many uneducated youths licensed to preach the Gos- pel in the United States, especially among the —. An ignorant minister is a disgrace to Presbyterian- ism and Christianity. ‘If the blind lead the blind,’ said our Blessed Lord, ‘both shall fall into the ditch.’ You shall have a trial, if God spare me, of the first talents and literary attainments and unaffected elocu- tion within the bounds of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. Do not, I pray you, be too hasty in your choice. Your minister feels deeply interested on the occasion. ‘To the grace of God and His holy keeping, I recommend you all. Amen.” Dr. Glendy was requested by the Session to aid the Session clerk with a form of application to be SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. wfa addressed to several clergymen. The following was sent to Dr. Greene, of Princeton Seminary, and is worth reproducing as presenting the Doctor’s ideas of the essential qualifications of a minister of Jesus Christ and a fit associate in the pastorate of the Sec- ond Presbyterian Church: BaALtTimMoreE, November 24, 1825. Dr. GREENE. Dear Sir: The Rev. Dr. Glendy, stated pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in this city, hav- ing communicated to the congregation his deter- mined resolution to have a colleague, conscientiously advised the Session to apply to you, sir, whose talents and principles and high standing in the Presbyterian Church they duly appreciate. They do, therefore, earnestly desire that you would have the goodness to recommend a candidate for said ministerial office. That he may be successful the following qualifica- tions are required: He must be sound in the faith; his religion without guile. His gravity must not be a mysterious carriage of the body, to conceal the defects of the mind, but a medium, equi-distant from levity and monkish austerity. He ought to possess rich talents, the gift of Heaven, burnished by a lib- eral education. He ought to be a polished scholar and complete gentleman. He ought to be constitu- tionally eloquent, superior to the studied oratory of the pulpit. He ought to have the command of lan- 72 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY guage and felicity of address; above all the glory of God and the salvation of mankind. He ought not to read his sermons from the pulpit. Nothing less than four Lord’s days will be admitted as the time of trial to any candidate.” The congregation had already decided November 6, 1825, to call a colleague and took the necessary steps, fixing the amount of salary and appointing a committee to confer with Dr. Glendy as to a relin- quishment of a portion of his salary. On the 17th of November the Committee of the congregation, after hearing the report of the com- mittee appointed to confer with Dr. Glendy, and after having the provisions of the call to Dr. Glendy read, agreed to pay to the Rev. Dr. Glendy during his life the sum of $1,200 per annum, to commence on the second day of January, 1826. The Committee’s action was agreed to by the con- gregation at its meeting November 21, 1825, when it was also stated that the venerable pastor had ex- pressed his cheerful acquiescence in what had been decided upon. On the 23rd of March following (1826) the congregation met to elect a colleague to Dr. Glendy. An appropriate discourse was preached by the Moderator, the Rev. Dr. Nevins. Three names were placed before the congregation—Rev. James W. Alexander, Rev. John Brackenridge (as it is spelled in the report of the meeting and as we SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. f3 find it also in the report of the General Assembly) and the Rev. William Ashmead. Mr. Alexander was elected by a large majority on the first ballot. Mr. Alexander declined the call and arrangements were soon completed for the calling of Rev. John Brackenridge, which was consummated by the con- gregation at a meeting held the roth of July, 1826, Mr. Brackenridge receiving every vote of those pres- ent. He was allowed a compensation of $300 for expenses incident to moving his household to Balti- more and because he had a family, Jaws Deo, they in- creased his salary the first year by $200. On September 1, 1829, the congregation, after much distressing controversy, largely arising out of the failure of the church to secure an efficient treas- urer, and partly because Dr. Glendy had kept an ac- counting with the church on loose scraps of paper, which made it almost impossible to determine with accuracy the amount of salary due, made a final set- tlement with Dr. Glendy, paying to him the amount awarded by a board of arbitration, viz: $4,130, cur- rent money. Presbytery met on the 6th of November, 1829, and after hearing the resolutions and applications of the Second Presbyterian Congregation for the disso- lution of the Pastoral relation subsisting between them and the Rev. John Glendy and that the Rev. John Breckinridge be declared sole Pastor, cited Dr. 74 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY Glendy to appear before Presbytery at their next meeting on the 11th of November to show cause, if there be any, why this application of the congrega- tion should not be granted. In obedience to this citation, Dr. Glendy appeared and stated that he considered the pastoral relation between him and the second Congregation dissolved in fact though not in form on 31st of August when the terms of agreement between him and the Com- mittee representing the Congregation, were complied with; that he had scrupulously abstained from per- forming any pastoral services for the congregation and that he now acquiesced in the dissolution of the pastoral relation by the Presbytery. Whereupon, it was on motion Resolved, that the pastoral relation heretofore subsisting between Dr. Glendy and the Second Presbyterian Church be and the same is here- by dissolved and the Rev. John Breckinridge is rec- ognized by the Presbytery as the sole pastor of the church. Dr. Glendy, soon after this removed to Phila- delphia, where he passed the remainder of his days, dying, after a protracted and painful illness, October 4, 1832, being 72 years of age. His remains were brought to Baltimore and interred by the side of those of his wife and child, near the centre of the church burying ground, which was called by his name. SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 75 The congregation had been apprised of the death of their former pastor and of the time at which the remains might be expected from Philadelphia. The ladies of the congregation tastefully draped the pul- pit of the church, where the funeral obsequies were to be held, in black. It was the afternoon of the Sab- bath when the vessel was expected, and very early an immense throng of people (the congregation ad- journing for the purpose) gathered on the wharf, solemnly and patiently waiting hour after hour until the belated vessel in the dusk of the evening made fast to her dock. The church, too, was filled with those who had heard him so intently in times past, gathered to pay the last token of esteem to his mem- ory. Even the enclosure outside was a dense mass of people. When the funeral cortege approached the people respectfully made a way, standing on either side with bowed heads, like living walls. A Mr. Gibson made an appropriate address from the pulpit and a Mr. Williams an “excellent” prayer. The long, solemn procession was formed to convey the remains to the cemetery. At the side of the tomb there were impressive exercises, closing with prayer by Rev. Mr. Phelps. In the procession, walking the long, dusty way in the moonlight to the cemetery might have been seen little girls and boys and even women with children in their arms, bearing cheerful testimony to their love and respect for the memory of the man of God. 76 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY Of his personal appearance we have very good authority in one who, knowing him, writes thus: “He was singularly neat, even elegant in his dress. His hair was thrown into artificial curls and pow- dered as white as the snows of Mont Blanc. His complexion was pale, his eye intensely blue, his ges- ticulation animated and graceful, but somewhat pro- fuse. He read the hymns with an eye glass, but the Scriptures with spectacles, and in due time dashed off into his discourse with a rapidity of utterance which would have distanced the King of Pylos or John C. Calhoun. The sermon was a perfect torrent of Irish elo- quence. His voice as sweet as the harp of David, but as unlike as possible to the horns that demolished the walls of Jericho. The whole impression pro- duced by his preaching was at the time perfectly de- lightful, though I cannot say it was very enduring. Privately, he was fond of saying agreeable things and never lost the opportunity of saying so up to the full measure of a good conscience. He was very regular in attendance upon Presby- tery. Once being obliged to be absent he sent a note saying he was in a state of “suspended animation.” Dr. Glendy was very popular, for he was a natural orator of lively imagination, and though he spoke rapidly, it was with clearest enunciation, and his voice was such that he could be heard great dis- tances, even in the open air. SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 77 During his prime, or until age began to enfeeble his powers, he filled the old church, large as it was, with “the most attentive and respectable congrega- tions.” The people whom he gathered under his ministry were of the active and enterprizing citizens of Bal- timore, those who helped to lay the foundations of its commercial prosperity, and its various institu- tions of benevolence, learning and religion. These have all, with the good old Doctor, passed through “the valley of the shadow ,” yet leaving behind the indelible impress of their sterling virtues and posi- tive energies. Dr. Glendy’s manner of giving notices from the pulpit was productive of many surprises to the con- gregation. When a minister for whose ability in some manner he had conceived a very poor opinion was to preach, he announced, in his presence, that a “Dhackwoodsman’”’ was to preach to them. The congregation was very much surprised at the Doctor’s pointed reference, but still more surprised when the “backwoodsman”’ delivered an impressive, lucid and solemn discourse. Dr. Glendy, more sur- prised than anyone, made his amends by announcing that “the same eloquent and greatly beloved brother would preach again at night.” It was Dr. Glendy’s custom to preach when the op- portunity offered to the inmates of the penitentiary. 78 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY One Sabbath morning in announcing the service of the afternoon, he is said to have remarked, that his audience in the afternoon would be fit only for the penitentiary. The startled congregation did not re- cover from the shock for sometime and for days af- terward the Doctor was kept busy explaining just what he meant. One Sabbath, toward the close of his ministry, when the pulpit was frequently supplied by other ministers, two clergymen were present to preach, the one to preach in the morning being considered heret~ ical by his brother minister who was to officiate in the afternoon. The morning sermon was therefore a great trial, so much so that he must needs write a note to Dr. Glendy, begging to be excused from preaching in the afternoon because the morning ser- mon had seriously deranged his mind and incapaci- tated him for the duty. Dr. Glendy very solemnly announced to his aston- ished people that the minister to whom they had ex- pected to listen had become mentally deranged and thus was physically incapacitated. This came to the ears of the brother and upon ex- pressing his angry surprise at the announcement made, was shown his own note in justification, and had nothing to say. Dr. Glendy was rather short of stature, and for want of a footstool behind the pulpit, when preach- SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 79 ing away from home, took the great pulpit Bible down and placing it on the floor, stood upon it and preached his sermon. Being called to account for this seeming disrespect to the Word of God by his brethren of the Presby- tery, his defense delivered in an unusually grave and solemn manner was that he did not intend to show irreverence to the Word of God; he had stood upon the Bible from his earliest years, almost from his cradle; that it was the basis of all his hopes and that thus standing upon the Apostles and Prophets in the higher sense, it was not very likely he intended to insult them by standing on them in a different sense. CHAPTER V. THE PASTORATE OF JOHN BRECKINRIDGE, D. D. The joint pastorate of Revs. Dr. Glendy and Rev. John Breckinridge was entered upon in 1826, Mr. Breckinridge having been elected the colleague of Dr. Glendy, the roth of July. John Breckinridge was the son of Hon. John Breckinridge, of Kentucky, United States Attorney- General under Thomas Jefferson. He was born at Cabell’s Dale, near Lexington, Ky., July 4th, 1797. His mother, Mary Cabell, of Virginia, died when he was but nine years of age. He prepared for col- lege in Kentucky and entered Princeton in the fall of 1814, and graduated with high honors in 1818, when he was but 21 years of age. John Breckinridge was designed for the legal pro- fession, but during his course in college he was found of Christ and resolved to devote his life to the ministry. At that time he was the only professing Christian in his family. During the years 1820-1, he acted as a tutor in Princeton College and at the same time pursued his studies in the Theological Seminary. He was licensed to preach the Gospel by the Pres- bytery of New Brunswick, in 1822. During 1823 JOSEPH T. SMITH, D. D., LL. D. FIFTH PASTOR 1849-1860 SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 81 he was chaplain of the United States House of Rep- resentatives. He was married January 20, 1823, to Miss Mar- garet Miller, daughter of Rev. Samuel Miller, D. D., of Princeton, N. J. The young couple, in entire con- secration had intended to devote their lives to the work of Foreign Missions, but circumstances chang- ed their anticipations, and in the spring of 1823, Mr. Breckinridge accepted a call to the McChord Presby- terian Church, of Lexington, Ky. May 22, 1823, he became a member of the West Lexington Presby- tery and on September 1oth of the same year, was ordained and installed the pastor of the congrega- tion whose call he had accepted. For three years he labored in this pastorate, greatly beloved and re- spected by all the people. At his installation, in Baltimore, October 13, 1826, as the colleague of Dr. Glendy, his father-in- law, Rev. Samuel Miller, D. D., Professor of Eccle- siastical History and Church Government in Prince- ton, preached the sermon, from the text, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.” 2 Cor., 10; 4. The congregation, during Dr. Glendy’s extended period of enforced inactivity through advancing years, had become somewhat demoralized. There were no meetings for prayer and, in consequence the tide of its spiritual life was at a very low ebb. 82 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY This distressing condition was no doubt largely brought about, too, by the controversy with Dr. Glendy, of which mention has already been made. To the Pauline task of correcting these abuses which had crept in, and of stirring up their minds by way of timely admonition and manifesting a holy passion for the truth and the Gospel, Mr. Breckin- ridge gave himself body and soul. He had not been very long in the city, until in company with Dr. Nevins, he established a Bible- class, to which, by his genius and enthusiasm he at- tracted a large number of young men of both con- gregations, who, coming under the sway of the Holy Spirit through the Word, became the ready subjects of that great revival of the year 1827, the result of which was not confined to the Second Church, for the whole city was stirred and in our own two churches alone more than two hundred confessed Christ and were added to the church. Of this crucial period in the history of our church and of Mr. Breckinridge’s masterly leadership, a member of the congregation writes: “The Reverend Mr. Breckinridge being now sole pastor of the church, devoted himself most assiduously to the laborious duties of his station, endeavoring with untiring zeal to raise the standard of piety and pro- mote the cause of pure religion in the congregation and throughout the city, and many an awakened sin- SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 83 ner will have cause throughout eternity to bless the day that a kind Providence sent him to labor in our vineyard.” The question of the practicability of burning coal in the centre stove of the church was the consuming one during the winter of 1827-28, and as if to show the members of the Second Presbyterian Church, in these “piping times of peace,” how to appreciate our blessings, the committee must needs spread upon their minutes the sense of sadness with which they viewed the declining condition of the choir. A com- mittee, good and strong, was appointed to find the cause and remedy the evil, if possible. Their report is full of wisdom. Ist. They advise the formation of a school or schools in the congre- gation for studying the rudiments of sacred music. 2nd. A musical society to be formed under direction of the clerk (leader) to practice the church music during the week. They affirm that if something like this is not done, either the clerk must lead the con- gregation from the desk below or “the present state of things become perpetual.”’ There is one essential requirement in every church choir, insuring at once the peace of the congregation and the acceptableness of the praise service to God, namely, that some member of the choir, as a true dis- ciple of Jesus Christ, shall be a consecrated singer. 84 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY We hear nothing more from this choir for some time and we suppose the spirit of the new pastor was felt there as elsewhere throughout the church. We are led to wonder upon what Dr. Glendy sat, when in the pulpit, or did he sit down at all, for the two pastors and John Wilson were appointed a com- mittee “‘ to have the pulpit so altered as to admit a settee and a cushion to be made in the rear of it.” The church now began to assume a tone and a power entirely different from that which character- ized it when Mr. Breckinridge came. From Novem- ber, 1826, to May, 1828, one hundred and three souls had been placed upon the church rolls and every one of the activities of the church presented a healthy and vigorous aspect. The Sabbath school, male and female, now proposed a branch school in Market Space, and at a meeting of the joint commit- tees of the two schools this mission work was at- tempted, a superintendent and two teachers were taken from the Home School and provisions made for procuring the scholars and a place of meeting. This was in December, 1827. In 1828, the consti- tution was revised, conferring upon the superintend- ents and teachers of the schools the authority to elect teachers and to make by-laws for regulation of their own proceedings. Teachers, then as now, were the crying need, and though a committee searched for them they met with oS ay SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 85 but little success. By suggestion of Dr. John Breck- inridge, the system of rewards was introduced to en- courage attendance, etc. After the dissolution of the pastoral relation sub- sisting between Dr. Glendy and the congregation, Mr. Breckinridge was declared to be full pastor, Au- gust 31st, 1829. Three years later the incessant and arduous labors began to tell upon the young minister. The rupture of a blood vessel led the congregation for a time to apprehend fatal conséquences. He at length, how- ever, recovered, but his physician advised a situation in which he would have more exercise and less men- tal exertion. Nothing but a peremptory sense of duty, such as the foregoing advice laid upon him, could have tempted him to leave a people to whom he had become so endeared. One member wrote, when the mews of the possible dissolution of the pastoral relation was imparted, “Never was a congregation more deeply affected, for never was a congregation more ardently attached, and the idea of parting with their beloved pastor was like rending asunder the most sacred tie on earth.” On the 26th of June, 1831, Mr. Breckinridge offi- cially communicated to the congregation, the offer which had been tendered to him of Corresponding Secretary to the Assembly’s Board of Education, 86 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY and painful as it was, upon reference of the whole matter to Presbytery, with Mr. Breckinridge’s reas- ons for going from the Second Church and the reas- ons of representatives of our church arguing that he should stay, the pastoral relation was dissolved and the congregation was, for the first time, without a pastor, sorrowing as they viewed this new situation, but not as one of the elders remarked, “‘like the elders at Ephesus, sorrowing most of all that they should see his face no more.” The congregation was permitted on many subsequent occasions “to see his face restored to health and to hear his voice pro- claiming to us the unsearchable riches of Christ.’ Mr. Breckinridge removed to Philadelphia and en- tered upon his labors. The cause of education was at a very low ebb. So wisely and with such zeal and eloquence did he labor and so conspicuously did God bless his efforts, that in the first year he in- creased the number of beneficiaries under the Board from about sixty to over six hundred, raising at the same time the amount of contributions from about $10 to over $40,000, and placing the Board on a footing of permanent prosperity. In the year 1835, he was elected to the chair of Pastoral Theology in Princeton Seminary, by the General Assembly. He accepted the appointment, after due consideration, and immediately set out as an agent of the institution to solicit funds for its SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 87 support throughout the church, in which he was more than ordinarily successful. He was inaugurated a Professor of the Seminary at a meeting of the Board of Directors, May 5th, 1836. His services to the Seminary were attended with evident success. In 1838, the General Assembly for the second time invited him to become the Financial Agent of the Board of Foreign Missions, which had been formed but two years before. It is thought that the death of his wife, which occurred June 16, 1838, materially helped him to decide to leave Princeton upon this second call. In his capacity as the agent of the Foreign Mis- sion Board, he visited every part of the church, sow- ing the seed of a foreign missionary enthusiasm — throughout the church which gave the Foreign Board for many years a much needed impetus and popularity. Nor has this enthusiasm ever waned. He was called in 1839 to the pastorate of the Ist Presbyterian Church of New Orleans. Though he declined the call, he preached for the congregation as supply during the following winter. In 1840, he came North again, and was married to Miss Mary A. Babcock, of Stonington, Conn. Retiring to New Orleans he again supplied the pulpit of the 1st Church during the two winters of 1840 and 1841. && ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY His health breaking down, he left New Orleans in May, 1841, and was just able to reach his birth- place, Cabell’s Dale, Ky. There amid the scenes of his childhood, and sur- rounded by every comfort which the loving and thoughtful ministries of his wife could devise, he gradually succumbed to the disease, bronchial con- sumption, and passed away August 4th, 1841. He was a great man, but he was better; he was a good man, and as the sequel of such a combination, was eminently useful. Pleasing in his manners, in all his intercourse he was the perfect gentleman. His pulpit work was pe- culiarly delightful and interesting, so that he soon became in Baltimore its most acceptable and popu- lar preacher. The Presbyterian Church has seldom had in her ministry a man more consecrated to her service asi John Breckinridge. With the boundless ardor of his youth and a burn- ing zeal and energy, he came to Baltimore, than whom no man was more sorely needed. There was life, sprightliness, point in his every public utterance. To every cause which enlisted his sympathies he gave the same zeal. The Bible, tract, Sabbath school, temperance, mission and coloniza- tion schemes, received of his very best. Though having many calls from other cities, and having had SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 89 success in all his labors elsewhere, he looked upon his work in Baltimore as his greatest, and God blessed him in the complete rehabilitation of the congrega- tion and its revitalizing; and not only so, but there was diffused throughout all the evangelical churches of the city, a spiritual power they had not known before. As an agent for the collection of funds for the legitimate and sacred purposes of the Kingdom, he had no equal. Everywhere he was spoken of and everywhere the people crowded to hear him. The late James W. Alexander, D. D., an inti- mate friend, thus speaks of him: “The writer of these lines knew him longer and better than any man living ; and if we ever knew a man of whom we could say, his faults were few and his virtues transcendent, this was one.” He was endowed by nature with a degree of in- trepidity of character, perhaps more properly speak- ing, of hardihood of spirit, which made him all his days insensible to fear, and we suppose that at any moment during his life, this quality alone would have enabled him to die with perfect composure. At one time being with persons, whom he sup- posed to be in sympathy with him and finding them, as he thought, disposed to injure another on his ac- count, he interposed, “Gentlemen, I beg you to for- bear. I feel no ill-will toward those persons and have go ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY no wrongs to be revenged. I am a Kentuckian, in- deed, but I am a Christian, too.’”’ He was soon unde- ceived and discovered that he himself was the sub- ject of their remarks, and like a flash he rejoined, “Gentlemen, I beg you to beware. It is true ] ama Christian, but you must remember that I am also a Kentuckian.” At another time when he had arisen to address an immense colonization meeting in New York city, there was great excitement and confusion in the au- dience and considerable hissing. Mr. Breckinridge straightening himself, looked quietly around, his cheeks flushed with suppressed feeling, and said, with a smile, “I am not to be put down by hisses or threats; I was cradled where the Indian’s war whoop yet mingled with the infant’s lullaby and I was trained by a mother whose earliest lessons taught me, next to the fear of God, never to be afraid of anybody. I was born a free man and by the grace of God I mean to die a free man.” The audience was hushed to silence for a moment and then broke out in tumultuous applause. Dr. Breckinridge had, besides, in the highest de- gree possible, that sense of propriety, and that per- ception of what is becoming, which constitute the highest charm of the behavior of a gentleman, in all circumstances. This ruling characteristic was so strong to the very last, that some hours before his departure, he a SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. gti put his thin hand in ours and with a voice nearly inaudible, but perfectly steady, said: “Do not permit me in moments like these to do anything unbecom- ing.” To say that such a man meets the King of Terrors with all the dignity that could illustrate the names of heroes or philosophers, is to say nothing. And yet there was no insensibility to the solemnity of the occasion or to the overwhelming importance of the event. For the same morning when asked about his spiritual consolation he replied, “I have no fear, but I have not that rapture of which many have spoken. I never had much rapture in religion. My views of the depth of sin and the awfulness of eternity have been such.” The principal seat of the disease was in the throat and for some months before death that eloquent voice which had filled so many hearts and thrilled so many spirits with all high and tender emotions, was hushed to the lowest whisper. At the same time his frame was reduced to the last degree of emaciation (though he daily rose and dressed himself to the last), and his nervous and vital energy so prostrated, that he could not endure the least excitement, physical or mental. While these circumstances render his great and enduring self-possession and composure the more re- markable, they explain also how it was that the last months of his life, were essentially months of soli- 92 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY tude and silence. It was a continued season for Di- vine meditation, inward prayer and secret commu- nion with God. On one occasion, the day perhaps before his death, he called his only son, a youth of thirteen years, to his bedside and with the tenderest admonitions and the most fervent blessings, besought him to remem- ber, that he had consecrated him from the womb to the service of God, as a minister of His Son Jesus Christ ; and that unless his whole heart and soul were in this great work, it would be an abomination in the sight of God, if he would intrude into it. An hour before his death he became apparently, entirely free from pain and his poor, frail body sank into a posture of rest and quiet. He was as he had always been in the full exercise of all his senses and faculties, and calling his two brothers, Revs. Robert J. and Wm. L., to his side, taking each by the hand he said: “I am dying; remain with me.” After a few moments he said, “Nothing is impossible with God.” And a little later, “God is with me.’ These were his last words, and so he fell asleep. At the time of his death he was Pastor-elect of the Presbyterian Church of New Orleans and President- elect of Oglethorpe University of Georgia. One of his characteristic utterances spoken but a short time before death, was, “I am a poor sinner who has worked hard and had constantly before my mind one great object, the conversion of the world.” SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 93 His people of the Second Church mourned for him as for their father, for he had come into their lives like a burst of sunshine from skies overcast with storm-swept clouds. Even the little children counted upon his coming as they would anticipate a jubilee. And what better can be said of any man, than that the little children love him and rejoice in his pres- sence. Dr. John Breckinridge left three children, who with their father had mourned the death of their mother but three years before. There was Margaret, devoting herself to the sick and wounded during the war, which resulted in her death, and Polly, who married Col. P. B. Porter, of Black Rock, N. Y., who commanded for a season at Fort McHenry. He afterwards fell mortally wound- ed at the battle of Cold Harbor. And Samuel M., a judge in St. Louis, one of the commissioners in that notable conference between the Northern and Southern Presbyterian churches in Baltimore in 1873, representing the Northern church. CHAPTERLME THE CALL OF ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE, D. D. It was some eighteen months after the resignation and departure of John Breckinridge before the con- gregation again enjoyed the regular administration of the ordinances under the leadership of their own pastor. But the congregation had been left in a con- dition of spiritual zeal and unity which safely bridged the gap and even made possible some decided gains in progressive church work, the most noteworthy of which was the rapid growth of a branch or mission Sabbath school on Fell’s Point, almost at the foot of Bond street. This school became a branch school under the care of the Second Presbyterian Church Sabbath School Society in Feb- ruary, 1830. It became later the nucleus of the pres- ent Broadway Presbyterian Church. This happy condition of the congregation is grate- fully remembered in a letter addressed to the mem- bers when they were convened for the purpose of electing a pastor June 21, 1832, from which we make this excerpt: ‘When we consider the length of time our pulpit has been vacant, the regular supplies we have had and the fidelity with which we have adhered together as a flock, we feel that we would be ungrate- ful were we to withhold our warmest expressions of thankfulness to the Great Head of the church, for the SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 95 manifestation of His fatherly goodness to us in our widowed state. The apprehensions of friends and the predictions of foes, that we would soon be scat- tered without a head have equally proved groundless, and from the present harmony and good feeling which pervades our congregation we have reason to hope, if we make a wise choice of a pastor, that we - will soon see the cause of pure and undefiled religion flourish once more amongst us.” Then follows this suggestion, rooted in the love of Christ and certain to bear its fruit of the Holy Spirit: “We would indulge a hope that no discussion will be had respect- ing the relative merits of the different candidates. They have all labored honestly for our edification, they have left their reputation, which is a minister’s all, in our hands, and it would be unkind, unjust, unchristian to indulge in any remarks to the injury of any one of them.” They recommended the whole list of eighteen ministers who had preached before the congregation. Rey. Dr. William Nevins, pastor of the First Church, moderated the meeting. The method pur- sued was to call out the number of the pew, when the occupant would respond, designating his choice. Rev. Robert J. Breckinridge was chosen by a large majority on the first ballot. The call was made unanimous. So 96 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY It need be no secret that shortly after the depart- ure of Dr. John Breckinridge the session made over- tures to another brother, Rev. William L., and twice besought him to listen to their wooing, but he felt it to be his duty to accept the call to the Chair of Lan- guages in Centre College, Ky. However,the Breck- inridge family had yet another son, a likely “David,” who was sent for, though he had but scarcely entered upon his studies at the seminary, and upon his head the “anointing oil” descended. Robert Jefferson Breckinridge, the third pastor of our church, was born just two years before the for- mation of our congregation, on March 8, 1800, in Cabell’s Dale, Ky. He graduated from Union Col- lege, New York, in 1819 and began at once to study for the bar. He was married the 8th of March, 1823, to Miss Sophonisba Preston, of Abingdon, Va., sister of Col. W. C. and John Preston, of South Carolina and Georgia. He was admitted to the bar in Lexington in 1824. While practising law he also contributed to the press and served in the legislature oi Kentucky three successive terms, where he proved to be one of its ablest members. In 1828 he became a member of the McChord Presbyterian Church, of which his brother had been pastor but a few years before, just prior to his coming to Baltimore. There can be no doubt that we owe the Christian character of our third pastor largely if not entirely GEORGE P. HAYS, D. D. SIXTH PASTOR 1861-1868 to the instrumentality of his brother John, our sec- ond pastor. Soon after uniting with the church he was elected am elder and im 1831, that year which begam the tre- mendous struggle in the Presbyteriam Church, which resulted in the division of 1838, Mr. Breckmridge was elected a delegate to the General Assembly, to meet in Philadelphia. Durimg the discussion of the case of Rev. Albert Barnes a question of soundness im the faith, which had proved very perplexing and by many was thought to endanger the peace of the church, if mot her very life the Assembly, after prayer and consideration, was m grave doubt as to what course to pursue. Mr. Breckimridge, just come from a sick bed, rose and began to address the house. He had spoken but 2 few words when, with rapt attention the members listened. As he proceeded with his plea, tears of hopefulness for their beloved church began to flow down the cheeks of many of the fathers who had had the gravest fears of the out- come of the trial His speech was am eloquent, pathetic plea for the peace of Zion and mapped out the course afterward followed by the assembly. It stamped Mr. Breckmridge as a ready speaker of marked abilities. He followed im the footsteps of his brother Johm im favoring the scheme for the colonization of the “Dlacks” and agamst slavery. At a great meeting 98 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY of the Colonization Society held in Frankfort, Ky., January 6, 1831, he made an address, which stands today one of the ablest defenses of anti-slavery ever published. He was at the same time an ardent advocate of temperance and devoted to every Chris- tian work, to which he gave his whole time, having retired from public life. He was urged by his many friends to enter the ministry, his own conception of duty also pleading the Master’s cause, but it was not until in a great out- door meeting in the woods on his own farm that the wrestlings with the Holy Spirit ceased and, every barrier swept away, he gave himself unreservedly to the ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the spring of 1832 he applied to the Presbytery of West Lexington to be taken under their care as a licentiate and was by them licensed to preach the Gospel April 5, 1832. He at once removed to Princeton that he might attend the theological lec- tures at the Seminary. He had been but a few months in attendance upon the Semonary, when the Master’s hand was laid upon him again, as when that second call came to Saul of Tarsus, for definite service, and the pulpit of the Second Presbyterian Church of Baltimore invited him, while at the same time the mantle of his brother as its faithful former occupant slipped about his shoulders. It was stipu- lated in a letter answering the call, that an accept- ance was not to take effect until the Fall. SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 99 During the months of July, August and Septem- ber, the Session held no meetings owing to the fact that most of the members were out of the city to escape the ravages of cholera, which decimating dis- ease the Session clerk calls “that awful scourge of God upon a wicked (he might have added ‘filthy’) world.” Mr. Breckinridge preached his first sermon in the Second Church on the first Sabbath of November, 1832, and was ordained and installed pastor by the Presbytery of Baltimore on the evening of the 26th following. The Rev. William Nevins presided and offered the prayer of ordination. His brother, Rev. John Breckinridge, preached the sermon from the text: “That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” 1 Tim. 3rd chap. and 15th v. The charge to the pastor was delivered by the Rev. George Mus- grave and the charge to the people by the Rev. Wil- liam Nevins. Extract from “ Private Journal’ R. J. B. “On the 26th day of November, 1832, I was or- dained to the work of the ministry, and instalied as the Pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, of Baltimore, by the Baltimore Presbytery. From the time of my license I have labored as I could for Christ ; but those labors related peculiarly to no one 100 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY but myself, and were therefore, not worthy to be recorded. Now it is otherwise. My station makes my labors of more consequence, and the date at which I commence recording them is the same as my taking charge of the church of which I am pastor, that is, the second day of Nov, 1832. Oh! that I may be owned and blessed of the Lord Jesus.” Sabbath, November 4, (morning )—Preached in Second Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, from 119th Psalm and 185th verse: ‘Salvation is far from the wicked.” (Evening). Preached to the people of the Second Church from Rev. 22: 17: “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Thursday, 22d to Monday, 26th; had protracted services in my congregation, connected with my ordi- nation and installation, which took place the evening of the 26th. My brother, John Breckinridge, and the Rev. Samuel Winchester and the Rev. Messrs. Musgrave, Phelps, Hamner, and Nevins and Stephen Williams, a licentiate, aided at this meeting. ‘The services were a prayer meeting daily at 9 A. M.; sermon daily at 11 A. M.; exhortations daily at half three P. M., and a sermon daily at 7 P. M. Profes- sors of religion met separately, twice, viz., Saturday afternoon and Monday afternoon. The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was admin- istered on Sabbath afternoon. SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. IOI The Sacrament of Baptism was administered to two adults on Sabbath and to my infant child on Monday morning, all by my brother John. I have been sick during most of the time. I read before - Presbytery a trial sermon on Monday, the 22d from Numbers 16: 21: “But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.” I also spoke to the people on Monday afternoon, the 26th, by way of exhortation from II Cor. 5: 11-15: “Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.” This protracted meeting seems to have been blessed of God to the stirring up of the hearts of this people and the awakening of a number of sinners. Oh! for His truth to shine into my soul, and for His power to strengthen my weak hands.” There follows in this diary a story of “labors abundant” out of which we place before you this rel- evant portion; “16 (Sabbath morning).---Preached in my church from Hebrews 12: 11: “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, etc.” A very large and attentive congregation. After service, Stephen Wil- liams, a licentiate of our Presbytery and preacher in the Bethel Chapel at the Point, spoke to the people. before taking up a collection in aid of that cause. The attendance at the church on Sabbath morning is large, but at night it is small, and at my meetings through the week, (lectures included), still thinner. 102 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY I took occasion this morning to say to the people, that although I was willing to admit that the reason why people did not attend on the ordinances of relig- ion might be rather the fault of their preacher’s power to interest them, than of their want of interest in the subject, yet even in this case I thought a man might well doubt whether God had called him to a people whom he could not interest, and whether he could honestly eat their bread, if they hindered him from earning it; and, on the whole, that, for my own part, I had settled the question after much consider- ation, that my duty was to preach the Gospel to people and not to empty seats, and, to that end, I was ready to flee from city to city, till I could find those who would hear my report. The issue is with God.” “Tn one short month see how God wrought upon the people toward a change of heart in respect to the ordinances of His house. January 20th, 1833, lect- ured in my Session room upon Ephesians i: 13-14; ‘In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the Word of Truth, etc.” Room full and the people at- tentive and solemn. The attendance on my labors has been increasing from the time I came here, es- pecially on my services through the week; and the people seem gladly to hear the word, and are often deeply moved, so that many weep. God enables me to speak with great plainness to them. My constant prayer having been from the first, that I might be SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 103 enabled to preach Christ, simply, clearly, plainly and with unction from Him. Oh! that the Word preach- ed may, through His spirit, be made powerful to sal- vation in them that hear.” The strong yet wise and loving hand of this excep- tional man was soon felt throughout the congrega- tion, while with tireless energy night after night he proclaimed the love of God until there was “a sound of going in the tops of the mulberry trees,” and the congregation moved forward as did the army of David against the Philistines, assured that the Lord was leading them against all the enemies of His church. That year the Lord added unto the church, by his Holy Spirit’s reviving, ninety-three souls upon the profession of their faith in Jesus Christ. Of this wonderful year of blessing good old George Carson, the clerk of session, writes, spread- ing upon the minute book with a pen dipped in the love of God for the souls of men, his “Praise the Lord for His goodness.” Let me present one ex- cerpt: “We bless our God for the manifestations of His presence in our late meetings. Solemnity and much prayer is evident, creating the hope that He designs a blessing for us as a church, although so undeserving and unworthy we be. Oh, that we may be enabled to wrestle in faith, laying low at the foot of the cross, for still further displays of His mercy and love to us as a people, to the glory of our 104 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY Heavenly Father, and to His only and well beloved son Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and to the Holy Ghost the applier and sanctifier of all mercies, Amen.” With what a rush of passionate feeling he chroni- cles the result of this season of prayer and effort: “We bless and adore a covenant keeping God of love for the rich manifestations of His faithfulness and mercy. In time of need He sent two of His devoted servants, the Rev. Dr. Nelson and the Rev. Mr. Gallaher, to assist our now exhausted pastor, to direct and instruct a throng of awakened and inquir- ing sinners. It pleased the Lord to greatly bless their untiring labors amongst us to the calling out from the ranks of the enemy seventy-six immortal souls who have joined the army of the living God, covenanting to serve Him in time and eternity. We have seen a people made willing, we have felt it as a day of God’s power. Oh, for grace to strengthen us to walk firm and aright under the weight of such high privileges. Amen.” The latter part of February Mr. Breckinridge was laid aside from active work by sickness, through which he was brought to the very borders of the grave. This sickness good George Carson speaks of as a “thorn in the flesh for us, the recipients of such high privileges, to preserve us from being exalted above measure. Our beloved pastor must suffer tC SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 105 that we might retain a proper sense of our depend- ence upon the source from which our help must come.” Weekly meetings for prayer from house to house were the source of very great blessing to the congregation and during the sickness of the pastor fervent petitions ascended from anxious hearts gath- ered in these places of prayer. The fragrance of “this ointment poured forth” filled the House of God, and an increasingly happy people gathered from Sabbath to Sabbath to hear the Word of God. Dissension and strife were unknown and it was recorded of them “that the Lord withered every apparent root of bitterness e’er it has growth to mar the friendly, peaceful relations that exist between us.” There had been for some time what was called “social meetings” held in the Session room, where those inclined came together for prayer and the fel- lowship of the Gospel. These meetings had no doubt been begun under Dr. John Breckinridge, for they are spoken of as being “kept alive” by the members of the congregation during the time the pulpit was vacant. In the same connection reference is made to the Friday evening lecture, which no doubt would be delivered by the minister supplying the pulpit. Ever since that time this social meeting for prayer, though passing through some changes, has been a blessed source of strength to the church. Mr. Breck- 106 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY inridge baptized that same year twenty-seven adults, fifteen of whom were “colored,” the “colored’’ people being allowed to worship with the congregation by occupying seats in the gallery. At the same time the congregation raised $650 for missionary purposes and $2,000 for educational pur- poses, besides paying in full their regular obliga- tions. There was upon the roll of the church on April 23, 1834, three hundred and sixty-eight mem- bers, the high water mark up to that time. On the oth of January, 1833, the congregation having been regularly called together, decided, upon the recommendation of the Session, to elect a Board of Deacons. Dr. Breckinridge set forth in a clear manner the principles of the Presbyterian Church © and from Scripture showed the correctness of the views expressed in those Standards, “upon the dis- tinctness of the offices of elder and deacon.” The congregation then, by ballot, elected the first Board of Deacons of the Second Presbyterian Church, namely: Alexander Kerr, Richard J. Cross, J. Harman Brown, James Spillman, A. George, Jr. and James Wilkenson. “On Sabbath evening, January 20, 1833, at the close of the sermon, in the presence of the congrega- tion, the Session met and having constituted with prayer, they set apart these men elected by prayer and the laying on of hands, to the office of Deacon.” SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 107 1833.---He organized the Sixth Presbyterian Church, a congregation of colored people. This church was never very strong and was dissolved by act of Presbytery in 1842. At a*meeting of Session, June 4, 1833, it was unanimously resolved that “a collection be taken up hereafter every Sabbath morning, the proceeds to be applied as follows: On the first Sabbath in the month and on the fifth, when it occurs, to the con- tingent expenses of the church. On the second Sab- bath in the month, to the deacons’ fund for the poor ; on the third Sabbath in the month, for the use of our Sunday-schools; on the fourth Sabbath in the month, for the aid of the Female Tract Society of our church.” The first annual report of this Society, made July I, 1834, shows that its organization must have been June 17, 1833, or about the time the above contribu- tion was set apart for their benefit. That was a very encouraging report, for it showed the distribution during the year of 6,500 tracts and 30 Bibles. The members were also instrumental “in bringing many scholars into the Sabbath school and many adults under the means of grace by a regular attendance on the public worship of God on the Sabbath, who never before were in the habit of entering His sanctuary, some heretofore indifferent have expressed great concern for the state of their souls and two hopeful 108 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY cases of conversion are reported.” So thoroughly awakened had the congregation become that every part of the church’s activities invited the best atten- tion of the members, and of course the praise service did not escape, nor should it. Contrary, however, to the previous order of complaint, the shaft of crit- icism is directed against the congregation and not against the choir. Backwardness in joining, in what should be a delightful service, was the crying sin and Session took measures to effectually remedy the evil. Mr. Breckinridge early in his Christian life held advanced ground upon temperance and kindred moral questions and being a man of strong convic- tions, was like a soldier on the firing line, always on the alert to press the charge of battle against this enemy of purity and righteousness. He was not slow to discover that among the membership of the Second Church were not only some who partook of, but also some who were engaged in the manufacture of intoxicating liquors. The attitude of Mr. Breck- inridge toward this evil was well known before he became the pastor of the church, yet when in his usually fearless manner he preached a sermon entitled, “The Immorality of the Traffic, Manufac- ture and Use of Ardent Spirits as a Drink, and the Duty of Christians with Reference to the Temper- ance Cause,” he was bitterly arraigned thereafter by ‘a prominent member who was engaged in the manu- - e tom SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 109g facture of liquor. Instead of hushing the voice which had so angered him, this enraged member only served a righteous God in welding together the temperance sentiment of the congregation, now at white heat, and ready for the hammer of oppor- tunity. This opportunity was not long in coming. The intrepid pastor called a special meeting of the contributors and communicants of the congregation for the following Tuesday, the toth of June, 1834. Gen. William McDonald was called into the chair and a letter from the pastor was read, setting forth in vigorous and candid, yet kindly language, the reasons for calling the meeting. He told them of his temper- ance sentiments, of his convictions of duty in press- ing the matter upon their attention, of the attempted subversion of the pulpit and intimidation of the pas- tor at the close of the last Sabbath’s sermon by one of the members of the church, and then called upon them to know whether it was the mind of the con- gregation that the use or manufacture or sale of in- toxicating liquors was innocent or not, and that if he was to be silent in the pulpit on this question he must separate from them. Without hesitation and without one dissenting vote the congregation of the Second Presbyterian Church placed itself thus early in the contest with intemperance among its most implacable foes, draft- ing and agreeing upon the following resolutions: IIo ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY “Resolved, That the congregation approve of the principles and views of their pastor in sustaining the cause of temperance, and feel that it is not only the right, but the solemn duty of every preacher of the Gospel in discussing both doctrines and morals, to follow the dictates of conscience in interpretating the Word of God. Resolved, That we will co-operate with him and the friends of temperance in promoting this cause with the hope that the time is not distant when the traffic in and use of ardent spirits as a drink will be banished from this community and from the world.” Extensive improvements were completed this year in the church building at a cost of over $3,000. Two towers were built on the outside of the church to accommodate the stairs leading to the gallery and the additional space thus provided on the ground floor was filled with pews. The doors upon the east and west sides of the church were made into win- dows and the wood work of church and pews given a thorough overhauling. Gas was introduced for the first time at a cost, after arbitration, of $430 and the old sperm oil lamps were relegated to the junk shop, and we might incidentally remark, the congregation began to have those series of troubles with the gas bills which have been the “bone of con- tention’? between producer and consumer ever since. This year also saw the “passing” of the old pulpit, SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. IIt with its sounding board, and the erection in its place of a platform and desk. A Sinking Fund was also created in 1834, to pro- vide means for the liquidation of the debts resting upon the church. This Sinking Fund had a varied history, but on the whole did good service. It was only one of several plans operated for the same pur- pose, another of which was the issuing of shares of stock in the Second Presbyterian Corporation paying a certain dividend. This plan was to obviate the necessity of borrowing money from banks or other institutions. One such share of stock is before me as I write. It is headed, ‘Five per cent stock of the Second Presbyterian Church.” It is for $1,000 and certifies that the “corporation of the Second Presby- terian Church” is indebted to Gen. William Mc- Donald in that sum. This stock was surrendered, marked “cancelled” by his son, the executor of the estate of General Mc- Donald, according to the terms of his father’s will. The rule restricting the sale of lots in the grave- yard to pew owners or renters was partially re- scinded so that others might be able to secure them and thus provide a further source of revenue to the church. November 27, 1834, Mr. Breckinridge laid before the Session and congregation the question of his ac- cepting the appointment of the General Assembly as II2 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY their delegate to attend the congregational union of England and Wales. Though the congregation ac- quiesced in the attendance of their pastor, it was with reluctance, in view of the great needs of the church for his presence. He was not able to go, however, until the year 1836. It would appear as if there were some members of the church conscientiously of the opinion that the Lord’s Supper should be observed at a table, for up to this year it had been the custom to spread such a table for those desiring it in the middle aisle. Its discontinuance led to complaints which were at once silenced by Mr. Breckinridge ordering the tables to be used again. At a meeting of the congregation held January 5, 1835, it was agreed that the congregation should take the necessary steps to build a parsonage and that in the meantime the pastor’s salary should be raised to $2,000 per annum and the rent of his house. A missionary for the Sunday-school was also em- ployed who was to give his whole time to building up the school through visiting the old and seeking out new scholars. A new tin roof was put upon the church at a cost of over $700. This sum was entirely raised by sub- scription after a morning service by handing cards to the members on which to place the amount they desired to pledge. SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 18038-1851 SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. Ii3 In September, 1835, the commissioners of the American Board of Foreign Missions held their meetings in our church and owing to the sickness of Rey. Dr. Nevins, the only resident member of the board, Mr. Breckinridge was asked to act with the committee of arrangements in perfecting the plans for their meeting. This year also Mr. Breckinridge was the delegate of Baltimore Presbytery to the General Assembly, where but a few years before he had electrified the assembly in his maiden speech as an elder-delegate from Kentucky. After a sacrament Sabbath and special services held incident to his departure, Mr. Breckinridge left Baltimore in March, 1836, to take passage for Eur- ope, as he says, “scarcely realizing that at last he had left Baltimore behind and was fairly on the way.” Mr. Breckinridge, after being in Europe for more than a year, where he traveled very extensively, upon his return immediately proceeded to take his place in the thick of a contest which had been gathering ever since he was first a delegate to the General Assembly. His own Presbytery perceiving in him the champion to defend her opinions, chose him as her delegate to the assembly. Before the male members of his con- gregation, called together by the Session for the pur- pose, he laid the question, “Adhere to the old Stand- ards or follow the new?’ With unanimity and 114 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY heartiness they followed their pastor in his deter- mined fidelity to “the Standards of the Presbyterian Church in the spirit and intent thereof.” The Presbyterian Church was broken in two. This was the end of a strife which had hindered the church in her progress for years. Before the ad- journment of this General Assembly a Standing Committee on Missions was appointed to act throughout the year. This committee was the basis of our present Boards of Missions. And so to hap- pier work the various ministers returned from the scene of battle. CHAPTER VII. A PERIOD OF COLONIZATION. The intrepid leader of the Second Church, like a man refreshed after labor, entered with zeal upon his various plans for the extension of the Master’s king- dom. The whole Presbytery like a captive set free “rejoiced as a strong man to run a race.” There had been for some little time a mission school under the independent care of Mr. Cary, for the religious education of colored children. This school was taken under the care of Session July 4, 1837, and given its share of support from the monthly collections taken up for Sabbath school pur- poses. It might be supposed by anyone reading the minute books of our church officers that the entire congregation was composed of men. While “the names upon a sign’”’ may lead us to presuppose that there are no other members of the firm, experience teaches that there is such a “power behind the throne,” as a “silent partner.” Once in a while the curtain lifts and the busy women of the congrega- tion are disclosed, without whose effective agency we venture to say the Second Presbyterian Church would have found many of her best laid plans “gang aft aglie.” 116 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY While man may forget to record, “this that she hath done,” is not forgotten of the Master, whose praise it is better to have than the laudations of princes. As we intimate in the foregoing, there was a little lifting of the curtain, when upon the minute book of the committee we find the following item: “The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was celebrated on Sabbath the 8th in this church, on which occasion we had the pleasure of having the Rev. Henry R. Wilson, present with us, who is about to embark for India, as a missionary on behalf of the Ladies’ Society of this church, who took part in the solemn services of the day, preached in the evening and took an affectionate farewell.” This is but one evidence of the existence in the hearts of the members of a sincere desire for the ex- tension of the Master’s Kingdom. They were pre- pared to sacrifice in another direction. Money they had given and large effort, they were now to enter upon a course of church extension in which, the pas- tor, quickened by what he had seen of great need abroad, to the necessities of our own country, became the moving spirit, and largely by his influence laid the foundation for that church expansion which is our “slogan” today in this city. On his motion the Presbytery appointed a committee to go through the bounds of the Presbytery, to visit and stimulate and strengthen the weak churches and wherever they SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. E17 found places destitute of the Gospel, they were by preaching to gather the people together and prepare the way for the organization of Presbyterian churches. It would seem as though the Eastern Shore felt this influence most and, like a wayward boy recog- nizing the voice of his mother, that portion of our state “first born” in the family of American Pres- byterians, was reclaimed and welcomed home. Con- gregations which had “dried up” were revitalized, new churches sprung up where none had been in nearly twenty different localities. The greatest and the most imperative call, however, then as now, was from within our own rapidly growing city. The church needed only to be reminded that she was not keeping stride with the “hurrying” town, to quicken her pace. “Colonization’’ was the cry which brought our congregation to the determination to act. This same spirit had also permeated the First Church and the two congregations, that the enter- prise might not fail, determined to work together in planting Presbyterianism in a rapidly growing sec- tion of the city called “Old Town,” in the neighbor- hood of Gay and Monument streets. Into this sec- tion of the city the Second Church had already sent a young licentiate, Mr. Roger Owen, agreeing to raise for his support $400. They had also secured a lot of ground corner of Aisquith and George streets, 118 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY to be held in trust by the Board of Trustees of the Second Church for the purpose of erecting a church building when the time arrived. Therefore when a joint meeting of the elders and deacons of the First and Second churches was called, the way had been cleared for immediate action. The meeting con- vened in the home of Rev. J. C. Backus, who had become the pastor of the First Church during the absence of Mr. Breckinridge in Europe. He was at that time, as afterwards, foremost in advancing the cause of Presbyterianism in our Presbyterial bounds and heartily co-operated with Mr. Breckinridge in this movement. Mr. Breckinridge presided. Mr. Backus stated the object of the meeting. Mr. Breck- inridge pledged the payment of annual ground rent on the lot, if both churches would agree to raise jointly the sum of $3,000 or $5,000 for the building of achurch uponit. It was unanimously decided to raise the money. A joint building committee was appointed and a subscription list opened at once. This building was completed in 1844. The congre- gation was organized January 9, 1844, with forty- seven members. By resolution of the Session of our church the moderator was authorized to give one general letter of dismissal to those who might wish to go into the new congregation. Twenty-nine members of the Second Church thus became original members of the Aisquith street church. On June SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 1Ii9 30, 1845, every obligation against the new church having been met, our Board of Trustees made over to the Aisquith street congregation the deed for the lot of ground. The attention of our people had for some years been directed toward Fell’s Point, where we had already established a mission school at the foot of Bond street, and where there was a growing demand for a church building. Accordingly an association of the young men of the church was formed in 1843 to further the project. April 2, 1844, the Session appointed a committee to consider the expediency of erecting a church at Fell’s Point. A lot of ground was secured soon after at the corner of Broadway and Gough streets and the new building erected. This building was completed in January, 1846, and the new congregation organized March, 1846, with seventeen members from the Second Church. The financial condition of the church had been steadily growing more involved since the indebted- ness incurred through the settlement affected with Dr. Glendy and called for wise and determined action. Accordingly a joint meeting of the Session and the Committee of the church, October 12, 1837, appointed a sub-committee to review the whole situ- ation and report some plan for relief. This com- mittee, in November of that same year brought in an exhaustive report reviewing the whole financial 120 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY history of the congregation and showing the un- avoidable causes leading up to their present situa- tion. The indebtedness of the church was discoy- ered to be $3,400. The committee proposed three things, the first two of which are undoubtedly in con- gregational affairs financial axioms: 1. To come to a full stop in the contracting of new debts. 2. To have the whole subject laid before the con- gregation. 3. To reorganize the sinking fund. The committee adds: “These facts embracing a sketch of the past proceedings and present state of the church, exhibit our expenses as greater than our income, but we see no reason on that account for despondency. On the contrary we have every rea- son, both from what our predecessors and from what we ourselves have done to take courage, and to rea- son thus: That if they, through the blessing of God on their exertions, were enabled at an expendi- ture of more than $44,000 to erect the church; and if we, in the course of the last nine years, in addition to the current expenses of the congregation, and in addition to the great increase of our contributions to benevolent operations, have been enabled to expend upwards of $13,000 for temporal purposes without missing it, will not the same kind Providence, by proper exertions on our part, enable us to surmount SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. I21 our present difficulties? The Second Presbyterian Church, with a few exceptions, is not so wealthy as some of our sister churches, but our people have ever been found willing on all proper occasions to do what they could, and these sacrifices are not to be estimated by the amount given, but by the ability of the party giving.” For two blessings, the committee, in concluding their report, make due and thankful mention: “We have a ‘holy and a beautiful house’ in which to wor- ship, and above all a pure Gospel preached to us while so many churches are torn with divisions and distracted with heresies. May these considerations fill our hearts with gratitude to God, with humility in regard to ourselves, and love to one another. And may the Great Head of the church inspire us with wisdom from on high, so to fulfill the duties of our trust, that His holy name may be glorified, the cause of pure religion promoted and the prosperity of our church secured and promoted.” In the body of this report attention was called to the large number of persons in the congregation who were not able financially either to buy or rent a pew and suggested that they be requested to give as much as they were able toward defraying the expenses of the church. This suggestion was adopted and was the “root” out of which has grown our present en- velope system. I22 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY Placing the report of this committee before the congregation resulted in increased confidence in the officers of the church on the part of the members, so that the report of “1838” congratulates the members on “the prosperity of our financial concerns.” At an election of the Committee held October 22, 1838, the elders who were members of the Committee “expressed a wish to retire from the Committee in a body, assigning as a reason that they did not con- sider it compatible with the spirit of Presbyterianism to hold two offices; the one spiritual, the other tem- poral.” The Committee, though evidently agreeing in the view expressed, did not think it advisable for the entire number to resign at that meeting. Pending the repairs upon the church building in 1839 the vestry of Christ Episcopal Church unani- mously agreed “that Breckinridge’s congregation shall have the use of old Christ Church until the repairs of their own church are completed.” This very cordial response to our request fully merited the following resolution of the Session, under date of February 4, 1840: “The grateful thanks of Session are justly due to the rector and vestry of Christ Church for the use of their church near Baltimore street bridge, during the time the Second Presbyter- ian Church was undergoing repairs, and that the obligation was greatly enhanced by the very kind and courteous manner in which it was granted.” SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 123 Dr. Breckinridge, in 1839, was appointed by the Foreign Mission Board to become their missionary in France, to be stationed in Paris. Letters from the secretary of the Board, Mr. Walter Lowrie, were laid before Session. The Session and congregation were decidedly of the opinion that their pastor ought not to accept the appointment, in which he after- wards concurred. A committee was appointed Feb- ruary 27, 1839, for the purpose of erecting some suitable memento of Dr. Glendy in the church. We cannot ascertain the result of their work, but it would seem to be a commendable thing to do. The parsonage was completed this year at a total expense of nearly $10,000. In the Religious and Literary Magazine, of which Dr. Breckinridge was the senior editor, an article appeared in November, 1839, charging that an aged German Catholic who desired to become a Christian was confined in a cell of the almshouse. For this article civil suit.was entered against Dr. Breckin- ridge by a man by the name of Maguire, who, after repeated endeavors, succeeded in inducing “the grand jury on ex-parte investigation” to make a pre- sentment. A warrant was issued against Dr. Breck- inridge as in the case of a common felon, of which he says: “I do not complain either of the injustice or the indignity; I barely recount them.’ Ina letter to the congregation he asks concurrence in a deter- 124 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY mination not to perform the duties of pastor until the charge was removed. In commenting on this proposed action he adds: “That such a necessity should exist would under all possible circumstances fill my heart with profound anguish. But that it should exist in the present con- juncture of our affairs full of such deep and such tender interest, on so many and such impressive accounts, renders it one of the greatest trials of my life. My earnest request is that all your efforts and exercises, and especially your proposed thank-offer- ing to God on next Sabbath day, in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the General Assembly of our church, and the special meetings of persons newly awakened to the importance of divine things, may proceed as if nothing had occurred. When the Under Shepherd is removed, the Great Bishop of our souls becomes only more immediately the Shepherd of the Flock.” Then follows a calm and “soldier-like” look at possible eventualities, pressing from his heart these words, which snatch the victory from all the foes of the children of God however successful they may seem to be, words of faith, strong, abiding faith in God and his brethren, “And now, my very dear friends and brethren in Christ Jesus our Lord, let us meet this extraordinary and afflicting stroke with the faith, patience, humility and prayerfulness which SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 125 becomes our profession. And let us expect the result, whatever it may be, with the temper of heart appertaining to those who ‘know that all things work together for good to those that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.’ ” A congregational meeting was called which refused to agree in this position taken by their pas- tor. When the venerable moderator, General Wil- liam McDonald, called for those who did not favor the views of Session, namely, that Mr. Breckinridge should continue to act as their pastor during the trial, to rise, not one arose. “Thank God!” he ex- claimed, “there is not one. The people, old and young, male and female, are as unanimous as their Session in desiring their beloved pastor’s return.” In commenting on this action in an article pub- lished in a subsequent issue of the magazine, Dr. Breckinridge expresses his thankful appreciation of the moral support thus given to him by his people. Of the Session of that day he adds this testimony: “These are men of the first influence and rank amongst us in all that makes either influence or rank valuable to generous and virtuous minds. They are amongst the fathers of our city, most of them rem- nants of a past and glorious age; men who through a period longer than the life of him over whose head they throw the shield of their spotless names, have built up in the face of countless vicissitudes 126 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY characters which defy malignity and challenge confi- dence and love. Oppression itself is sweet when such tokens follow in its train. And what shall we say to that other and more affecting manifestation. Alas! Alas! Who is worthy of such regards? Who is not overwhelmed by them? In the midst of trials and persecutions, here is the unanimous testimony of a thousand hearts and voices, not only bearing a testimony more noble in them who give than honor- able to any who may receive it, but so doing it as by its very tenderness to break our hearts. There are the fathers and mothers of our Zion by the side of whose tottering steps we have walked with filial rev- erence, not to give but to get instruction; there are the children of God brought from darkness into His marvellous light, by His blessing on our poor labors; there are our friends, our companions and fellow- workmen, who, for long years, have seen our daily walk, partaken of our daily trials, helped our daily weaknesses; there are the children whom we have baptized into Christ’s visible kingdom; there are the families we have united in sacred wedlock; there the bereaved and broken-hearted, with whom we have sat us down to weep; there the favored of the Lord, in whose blessings we have rejoiced. Here be they all, and here their testimony. Precious token of the smiles of Heaven; sacred lesson to the ministers of Christ. We are sensible and we deem it proper to SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 127 make the remark here and under present circum- stances, that our humble and sincere efforts to be faithful in our lot, have secured to us alike the per- secution of our enemies and the affectionate com- mendation of our friends.” When the case came to trial, the whole attention of the court was given to it for more than eight days. Great crowds attended who patiently listened through the whole proceed- ings. When the case was given to the jury they failed to agree upon a verdict. Dr. Breckinridge was the uncompromising foe of “Papism” as he termed Catholicism, and this was but one of many attempts to overthrow his influence or silence his tongue. After the trial the committee of the con- gregation passed a series of resolutions expressive of their sincere gratitude and of the whole congrega- tion, “to Almighty God, for His great deliverance wrought for our esteemed pastor in the late fiery trial for an alleged libel,’ expressive also of their sin- cere thanks to the eminent and learned counsel, who conducted the defense for the zeal, ability and elo- quence exhibited by them on the occasion, and ex- pressive of their approbation of the Session of this church in giving the congregation an opportunity at a trying moment of testifying to the world their unshaken confidence in and undiminished attachment to their beloved pastor. 128 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY Nor did the appreciation of the splendid services of counsel stop with resolutions. The congregation determined that each one of the counsel should have some token of esteem. To Mr. J. J. Crittenden was presented a silver pitcher and two waiters inscribed : To J. J. Crittenden from The Second Presbyterian Church of Baltimore. A token of gratitude for professional services ren- dered their pastor, R. J. Breckinridge. March, 1840. To Mr. William Schley a silver bowl, waiter and two spoons was presented similarly inscribed. This silver plate was made at a cost of $375. An extract from Mr. Schley’s letter of acknowl- edgement will show the spirit in which these men must have entered upon their advocacy of the case: “T accept this present of plate from the congregation with pleasure and with thanks. They have done me great honor; an honor which any advocate, however exalted in reputation, might justly value as such; an honor, heightened in its bestowal by the age and standing of those through whose agency it has been conferred.” JONATHAN EDWARDS SEVENTH PASTOR 1869-1871 CHAPTER. VET. DR. BRECKINRIDGE CLOSES HIS PASTORATE. 1841.---Dr. Breckinridge was elected Moderator of the General Assembly. The 14th day of May, 1841, was observed by the congregation as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer, recommended by President Tyler. The Session in the following resolution adopting the rec- ommendation. “It having pleased Almighty God to remove by death William H. Harrison, the late Pres- ident of the United States, and the Vice-President on coming to the Presidency having recommended that Friday, the 14th day of May, be observed as a day of national humiliation with reference to that afflictive stroke of Divine Providence, and “the Pres- bytery of Baltimore having recommended the solemn observance of the day, thus appointed, as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer, together with public services in all our churches,’ now in obedience to these appointments and recommendations this con- gregation will observe the said day by keeping it as appointed and by uniting in such public services as the pastor shall appoint.” It was a far sadder congregation to which came in August, 1841, the news of the departure from 130 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY earthly scenes of their former pastor, Rev. John Breckinridge, D. D., of whose death in his old home we have already spoken. The congregation was deeply affected and literally went into mourning, the church being heavily draped in black. To the be- reaved wife and the orphaned children they sent their consolations. There was spread upon the records of Session these resolutions: Resolved. 1. That we have heard with unfeigned regret of the death of the Rev. Dr. John Breckin- ridge, one of the former pastors of this church. 2. That whilst we recognize in this event an over- ruling and wise Providence, yet we cannot but mourn the loss which the church at large has sus- tained, and we cannot but feel that the Presbyterian Church has lost one of her ablest and most fearless supporters, and her ministry one of its brightest ornaments. 3. That we remember with gratitude to the Great Head of the church, the unparalleled success with which he crowned the labors of his faithful servant during the space of five years, the time that we en- joyed his pastoral care. 4. That we would thus publicly recognize this Providence as peculiarly addressed to us, in view of the relations which we sustained to the deceased. 5. That we record our deep sympathy for our pas- tor, Rev. Robert J. Breckinridge, D. D., and fer- SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. T31 vently implore for him the rich consolations of the Gospel. 6. That we tender our affectionate sympathies to the aged surviving parent of the deceased, to his afflicted widow and orphaned children, and to the family of the Rev. Dr. Miller, his honored father-in- law. 7. That as a suitable expression of our feelings we direct that the church be put in mourning. 8. That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded to the venerable mother and afflicted widow of the deceased in Lexington, Ky., and to the Rev. Dr. Miller in Princeton, N. J.,” Let us now set the 7th of December, 1841, in the history of the Presbyterian Church, over against March 11, 1805. Then a lottery was not only per- mitted, but projected and fostered by the building committee of the church, and now, so radical had been the change of opinion and so sure the convic- tions on this matter that we find Session citing a member of the church to appear before them to answer to the charge of having purchased lottery tickets. The accused acknowledged his having done as charged, but stated he was not in the habit of doing so, nor did he know it was against the rules of our church; that he had done the same under sudden temptation and in the future he would entirely refrain from dealing inthe same. These statements 132 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY were deemed satisfactory and the case dismissed. A ground rent was created this year—1841—of $5,000 upon the church property to pay off certain loans contracted. The congregation was to have the privilege of paying off this ground rent at the expiration of twenty years. Early in the year 1842 Session divided the congregation into three geo- graphical districts and assigned a committee of elders to the charge of each district. They were to hold from house to house, if practicable, meetings for prayer and exhortation, and were to visit as often as possible the homes of the members. There can be no question of the practical and bene- ficial effects of such meetings. In December, 1842, a marble column and baptis- mal bowl were presented to the congregation by Cap- tain Purviance and others, for which the Session duly thanked him. The third attempt to take from the pastorate of the Second Church, Dr. Breckinridge was successful. In January, 1845, he was offered the Presidency of Jefferson College and the pastorate of the McChord Presbyterian Church of Lexington, Ky., where he had formerly been an elder. He gave no definite answer to these calls until he had laid the matter before Session, stating at the same time that in con- sequence of the state of his health he was strongly of the impression that he ought not to continue his SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 133 pastoral relations, as the amount of labor he was called upon to perform was beyond his strength. The whole mater was freely discussed by Session and they decided to make every sacrifice to retain the pastoral services of Dr. Breckinridge. They considered that as he had lost his health in their ser- vice, it was their duty to afford him such relaxation as would tend to its restoration. The congregation was called together and took action heartily second- ing the Session in every effort they might make to retain their pastor. It seemed best to him, however, to accept the Pres- idency of Jefferson College, then situated at Can- onsburg, Pa., and the pastoral tie was severed by the Presbytery. The following is an extract from the minutes of Presbytery: Thursday, 17th April, 1845. Presbytery met in First Presbyterian Church of Alexandria. Dr. R. J. Breckinridge having signi- fied his willingness to accept the call from the church and college in Canonsburg, Pa. It was on motion, Resolved, That the pastoral relation between Rev. R. J. Breckinridge and the Second Presbyterian Church of Baltimore be dissolved from the 1st Sabbath of May next. Dr. Laurie was appointed to preach in said church on the 1st Sabbath of May, and an- nounce to the congregation the act of dissolution. The following letter was addressed to the Rev. Dr. Breckinridge by the Session April 27, 1845: 134 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY “Respected and Dear Sir: The undersigned mem- bers of the Session having listened to your farewell address with feelings of admiration, which they are altogether unable to describe, beg leave most affec- tionately in behalf of themselves and the congrega- tion they represent to reciprocate most cordially the kind and friendly feelings which you were pleased to manifest towards them in that address and to assure you that, whilst they are deeply afflicted at losing you as their pastor, they are greatly consoled at your parting from them in such a spirit of Christian love. So long as the question of your going away was an open one, they did all they could to oppose, but now that it has been settled by the proper tribunals, it is their duty to bow to the decision and to rejoice that, aithough the pastoral relation has been dissolved, the equally tender ties of affection have been strength- ened. And they cherish the fond hope that they will - often have the pleasure of seeing your face and hear- ing your voice again. “The proceedings in the Second Presbyterian Church on Sabbath last were regarded by all as not only unusually affecting, but also deeply interesting, and the tears which ran down every cheek in that crowded audience, while they manifested the deep sympathy that responded in every bosom to your own struggling emotions, evinced at the same time the high estimation in which you are held by this community. SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 135 “The undersigned regard it as a subject of un- feigned thanksgiving that, as a separation was to take place it has been effected in a spirit so honorable to Christianity. You have kindly asked your people to remember you in their prayers. “Dear Sir: They cannot forget the happy seasons they have enjoyed with you. They will remember you and yours and they will ever esteem it as a priv- ilege, though far apart, in all their several meetings, to meet you at a Throne of Grace, knowing assuredly that you will not forget them. The members of the Session could not, without doing violence to their feelings, deny themselves the pleasure of thus ad- dressing you at parting. They have not been able, except in a very imperfect manner, to do justice to their feelings, but they can safely assure you that you carry with you to your new field of labor the best wishes of the best people of this city and also the still more endearing regards of your own congrega- tion, to whom you have been so faithful a pastor. And now, dear sir and dear friend, allow the Session to bear testimony of your fidelity. You have not tailed to declare the whole counsel of God, and are ‘pure from the blood of all men.’ They ‘commend you to God, and to the word of His Grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.’ Amen.” 136 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY While President of Jefferson College he also preached in the Presbyterian Church in the village of Canonsburg. After serving as President of Jefferson College two years, he was called to the pastorate of the First Presbyterian Church of Lex- ington, Ky., and became also superintendent of pub- lic instruction in Kentucky. From there, by ap- pointment of the General Assembly in 1853, he went to the seminary at Danville as Professor of Exegetic, Didactic and Polemic Theology, where he remained until 1856. His health almost completely failing him in that year, he took but little part in public life and passed the remainder of his earthly pilgrimage in quietness. He departed this life in Danville, Ky.. December 27, 1871. His was a national fame, both as a debater and a writer. His knowledge of law, civil and ecclesias- tical, was often the dismay of his opponents. While in the home his knowledge of human nature and his native kindliness and wit made him a choice one for companionship. He will be especially remembered, however, for his bold and fearless utterances against the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, his earnest advocacy of the use of the Bible in the public schools and his championship of a very unpopular catise—the cause of temperance. His writings proclaim him to have been a man sk great versatility, for there is no more enjoyable nor SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 137 interesting volume of travels written than those in which he covers his tour of Europe, nor on the other hand, has any controversialist produced a stronger defense of any system of theology than this soldier of the Cross, presented in his “The Knowledge of God Objectively Considered,” which was published while he was professor at Danville, and went through two editions. While in Baltimore he was one of the editors of the Baltimore Religious and Literary Magazine. His sermon “Fidelity in Our Lot,” preached by appointment of the General Assembly of the Presby- terian Church, at their meeting in Nashville, Tenn., in May, 1856, and first published by order of the Board of Domestic Missions, found a place also in a volume of sermons entitled “Pulpit Eloquence of the Nineteenth Century,” as an example of the eloquence of the American pulpit. Few men have taken a livelier interest in the sub- ject of education than Robert J. Breckinridge. It is chiefly to him that the state of Kentucky is in- debted for her school system, and but for him at one time the seminary at Danville could not have existed. He was largely instrumental in removing all person- alities from the great controversy which divided the Presbyterian Church and of placing the decision of the whole matter upon fundamental principles. He was chosen moderator of the General Assembly 138 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY in 1841, when he had been in the ministry but eight years and a half. Though carefully avoiding ex- treme opinion on either side of the slavery question, he labored both as a minister and as a citizen zeal- ously and effectively for the amelioration of the con- dition of the black race. In Baltimore, so distinguished had been his ser- vices in behalf of the “free blacks’’ that more than a thousand of them united in presenting him with a valuable piece of gold plate as a token of their appre- ciation of his services in their behalf. His manner as a speaker was highly nervous, simple and direct. He always had a purpose in speaking and everything ke said served that purpose. His every auditor went away from his presence impressed by what he had heard. There had been spared to the congregation from its very organization that patriot soldier, that emi- nent citizen, that loyal Presbyterian and sincere Christian, Gen. William McDonald. His value as a member of Session can never be estimated, his pres- ence as leader in all that was good in the history of the church was “worth ten thousand men.” Ever foremost, there was no committee appointed to which important business was intrusted, from the building of the first church edifice and the call of Dr. Glendy, to the stirring times of trial through which he championed for the congregation the fame and SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 139 good name of their pastor, Rev. R. J. Breckinridge, that he was not the Chairman. He was the first member of “The Committee of the Second Presby- terian Church” and continued so to be until the time of his death. Is it a subscription for a new church building, for repairs, for a parsonage, for a Sabbath school room, for the poor? “Lo! William Mc- Donald’s name led all the rest.’ These are simple facts and true, gathered in handfuls through the pages which record the deeds of those who promise and perform the same. He was a “ways and means” committee, always solicitous for the welfare of the church and during his life contributing very largely. Nor did he forget her needs when face to face with the approaching end. It was his desire, which was faithfully ex- ecuted by his son, Samuel McDonald, that the cer- tificate of stock of the corporation he held be can- celled and that the sum of $5,000 be given to pay off the ground rent recently created upon the church property. To the Sabbath school he left the sum of $300. The Board of Trustees thus record their appreciation of his character: ‘Whereas it has pleased the All Wise Disposer of events to remove by death our well beloved brother Gen. William Mc- Donald, the oldest member of this board, and an elder in this church from its first organization, the surviving members of this board deem it to be their 140 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY duty and consider it to be both suitable and proper to spread on the records of this church some testi- monial, however feeble, expressive of their regret for the loss of so valuable a member, of their sincere sympathy with his bereaved family, and of the pro- found respect in which they hold his character as a man and a Christian. General McDonald filled a large space in the pub- lic eye. He held many important offices, the duties of which he discharged with punctuality and fidelity. Active, industrious and enterprising, he acquired, by means the most honorable, an independent fortune, and by his public spirit contributed to advance the growth and prosperity of this his adopted city. Instead of allowing himself to be puffed up by his wealth, he was one of the meekest and humblest of men, and while in the discussion of ordinary ques- tions, he was yielding and obliging to all, yet wher- ever principle was involved, he was firm and inflexi- ble in the highest degree. To all the religious socie- ties, to all the benevolent operations and to all the charities of the day, General McDonald was among the most generous contributors, ever dispensing around to those who suffer in this vale of tears, the comforts to which prosperity gives birth. In all the meetings of this Board he was ever amongst the most punctual and regular in his attend- ance. The members looked up to him as to a father SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. I4!I and ever found in his wisdom and experience a safe guide in all times of doubt and perplexity. He was ever keenly alive to the honor and interests of this congregation and thought no sacrifices too great to promote both its temporal and spiritual prosperity, and the members will long call to mind with feelings of tender regret those happy social meetings, over which this venerable man presided with so much modesty, simplicity and dignity. But it was in the last solemn act of his life that he gave the most un- equivocal proof of his strong attachment to his, beloved church. He remembered she was in debt,. and in his last will and testament bequeathed her the large sum of $6,000 to help her out of it, besides leaving the sum of $300 to the Sunday school attached to the same. As a merchant he was distinguished for his un- blemished integrity. As a soldier of two wars for his undaunted bravery, his pure patriotism and un- bending fidelity. As a Christian for his meekness, humility and zeal to promote the glory of God and the salvation of lost men. During his last illness, which was both long and painful, he bore his intense sufferings with the truest fortitude, patience and resignation, testifying to all around him the power of divine grace through faith in a crucified Redeemer, to overcome the last enemy and to enable him to exclaim with the great apostle, “Oh, death! where is 142 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY thy sting, Oh, grave! where is thy victory. Thanks ~ be to God who giveth us the victory ili. our Lord Jesus Christ.” There in the midst of kind and devoted friends and in the bosom of his affectionate family did this aged Christian patriot, this dying elder, full of hope and full of peace, fall asleep on the bosom of Jesus on Monday, the 18th of August, 1845, in the 87th year of his age. The long and solemn funeral procession, civil and military, which followed his remains to the grave, as well as the impressive religious services rendered cn the occasion, were strong attestations of the high estimation in which General McDonald was held by all classes of his fellow citizens. CHAPTER IX. THE PASTORATE OF LEWIS W. GREEN, D. D. At a meeting of the congregation held February 2, 1845, Rev. J. H. Thornwell, of Charleston, was elected pastor without one dissenting vote, but after giving the call long consideration, the institution with which he was connected refusing to release him from his engagement, he declined the call. At a subsequent meeting of the congregation held June 24, 1846, for the purpose, Rev. D. M. Palmer was chosen pastor, but declined. The congregation was by no means discouraged at these repeated declinations, but in a spirit of submissiveness and of humble inquiry, met, at the suggestion of some of the ladies of the congregation and by appointment of the Session, on a day set apart, Wednesday, Septem- ber 2, 1846, a day of solemn humiliation, fasting and prayer to Almighty God, that they might “beseech Hiim wherefore He hath this controversy with us; that He would spare His people and not give His heritage over to reproach; that He would not utterly forsake us nor cast us off forever; that He would enable us all to repent of our sins and turn to Him with the whole heart; that He would graciously turn unto us and lift upon us the light of His reconciled 144 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY countenance, and send us an Under-shepherd, whose labors He will own and bless, that the salvation of our people may again go forth as brightness and her righteousness as a lamp that burneth.” One month later this same congregation, led of God in their an- swer to their prayer, elected at a meeting called for the purpose on October 14, 1846, the Rev. Dr. L. W. Green, to be their pastor. Dr. Green was at the time a professor in the Western Theological Seminary at Alleghany, Pa. Lewis Warner Green was the son of Willis and Sarah Reed-Green, and was born in Boyle county, Ky., January 28, 1806. He was a graduate of Center College, Danville, Ky. Intending to study law, because of a hesitancy of speech, he soon turned his attention to medicine. This study proved very distasteful to him, and he determined to overcome his physical defect, which, being accomplished, he entered Princeton Theological Seminary and gradu- ated in 1832. He was licensed to preach the Gospel of the Son of God by the Presbytery of Transsylva- nia. For two years following he taught in Center Col- lege, Kentucky. He then went abroad where he stud- ied for several years. Upon his return to America he was ordained to the ministry and became associ- ate pastor of the Danville Presbyterian Church. From Danville, Professor Green went to Hanover, Indiana, to a professorship in the New Albany The- ROBERT Hi FULTON EIGHTH PASTOR 1872-1883 SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 145 ological Seminary. He was scarcely “at home’ in New Albany Seminary until the General Assembly appointed him Professor of Hebrew and Oriental languages in the Western Theological Seminary at Allegheny, Pa. It was after he had been seven years at Allegheny, that the attention of our church was turned toward him and a most earnest call was tend- ered him, which he accepted. “Dr. L. W. Green was installed by the Presbytery 3rd of March, 1847.” He was now engaged in his desired work of a min- ister of Jesus Christ, for he had ever cherished the hope that he would one day become a pastor. His whole heart entered into his duties, his soul rejoiced at the prospect before him, and he called upon all his finely trained powers to come to his aid. The dream of a lifetime seemed securely in his grasp. Large audiences began to gather to hear him, and his fame soon spread throughout the city, so that he was counted “the foremost preacher of his day,” yet his beautiful dream of pastoral work and of preaching the Gospel of Jesus soon faded away, when he began to realize after he had been preaching but a year that his health was seriously impaired under the strain of his unsparing efforts. In August, 1848, he communicated to the Session, his call to become the President of Hamden-Sydney College, Va., but suggested that no definite action 146 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY be taken until his return from a visit to that section of country. In which suggestion the Session heartily concurred. On August 28, Dr. Green asked Session to join him in a request to Presbytery for the dissolu- tion of the pastoral relation, because the state of his health would not permit him to retain his pastoral charge. With great reluctance, Session and the con- gregation agreed. The congregation, expressive of their sorrow at the dissolution, passed the following resolution: “It is with feelings of the deepest regret that this congregation looks forward to its separa- tion from a pastor so beloved, so able and so faithful; a pastor whose labors amongst us have been so owned and blessed of the great head of the church; a pastor by whose conciliating efforts, peace and har- mony have been happily restored to this congrega- tion, which was greatly agitated when he took charge of it, by repeated disappointments from hav- ing been so long without a stated minister. Resolved, That this congregation deeply lament the affliction with which its beloved pastor has been visited and while it offers him its kindest sympathy and condolence, would at the same time respectfully assure him that its members, in their humble prayers, will not fail to implore Almighty God that He would in His infinite mercy and goodness be. graciously pleased to restore him to his wonted health and use- fulness and that he would greatly bless and prosper him in his new field of labor. SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 147 Resolved, That this congregation heard with pro- found satisfaction the declaration made by Dr. Green at the close of the morning service of last Sunday, namely : that there was no other cause which had in- duced him to ask for a dissolution and that the rela- tions between himself and the members of the con- gregation, were of the most amicable nature. This declaration will greatly tend to alleviate the pain of separation.” Dr. Green was an impassioned preacher, vivid, original, attractive. One who knew him intimately in Baltimore, said of him to a visitor who was anx- ious to hear him, “He talks Homer and the old Greek and Roman poets and philosophers and everything else here in Baltimore, and he mixes it all up with re- ligion and makes people listen to him. But he is not a revival preacher. He makes flights in the clouds and you will wonder how he is ever goimg to get down. But I reckon you will be delighted to hear him.” The reader is bound to hesitate at this, and wonder just what sort of preacher this man was and whether his gospel was not “another gospel.” The man who “makes fights into the ote ” did doubtless quote the classics and soar to heaven on his Pegasus, now and then, but these were only like the flourish of the trumpet which announces some im- portant arrival or like the sweep which your pen will 148 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY almost unconsciously make when it has written a good word for Jesus Christ and the sons of men. The man of whom the following lines were written could not have been “flighty” nor merely “classical.” They were sent to him by a member of his congrega- tion signed “Miriam.” “Ambassador of Christ! how fearlessly Thou liftest up the voice to publish forth The tidings of salvation to the lost And ruined sons of men; how earnestly Dost thou entreat the thirsty soul to come And drink of that fair river which makes glad The city of our God. O! with what love Dost thou beseech the weary, sin-sick soul To accept the invitation Jesus gave ‘Come unto me, ye heavy laden, come, And I will give you rest.’ With what-a voice Of thunder dost thou set the terrors forth Of God’s Almighty law, and seek to rouse The slumbering sinner from his deadly dream Of false security. How gently, too, Dost thou encourage those who tremblingly Are following after God, whose faith is weak, Yet by the pure word strengthened, will grow up Unto the Christian’s perfect stature. One There is, less than the least of all who love The Blessed Saviour, who will long rejoice, In having heard those glorious Gospel truths, SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 149 By thee set forth, and in the faith built up, And strengthened by Almighty Grace, will run With greater zeal along the Heavenly road. May God be with thee, champion of the Cross! And crown thy labors with immortal souls, And when thou hast thy hallowed work fulfilled On earth, and gone to thy reward above, Then mays’t thou shine in glory as the sun, And as the brightness of the firmament Forever and forever; then shall praise, High, holy, pure, be given to Him who sits Upon the Throne, and to the lamb who died And lives again. Glory forevermore.” Dr. Green was president of Hamden-Sydney Col- lege after leaving the pastorate of the Second Church, some eight years, and left Hamden-Sydney to become President of the Kentucky State Normal School. In August, 1857, he became President of Center College, Kentucky. He passed away from earth, May 26, 1863. GHAPTER 2G THE TIMES OF JOSEPH T. SMITH, D. D. In 1847, the congregation reported to Presbytery 404 communicant members. The following year only 241. In the meantime the congregation had had a vigorous “house-cleaning,”’ by which 80 mem- bers, who had ‘‘a name to live, but were dead,” were stricken from the roll and an error discovered in the old roll which made a difference of 81 more. This would appear to be serious business and it is, but it would be more serious not to suffer the process. This disease of “formalism” or “indifferentism’” spreads rapidly in a congregation, beginning at the outer most branches, it would in time bring down the par- ent trunk. December 20th 1848, at a congregational meeting called for the purpose, Rev. Jos. T. Smith was unan- imously elected pastor. Joseph T. Smith was born in Mercer county, Pa., November the 6th, 1818, of Scotch-Irish. parentage. His father’s name being Joseph, his mother’s, Elizabeth Donald. While a student at Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pa., he united with the church. He was characterized among his fellow students for his gentleness of character, his genial, kindly, winning manners. The boy was SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. I51 “father of the man.” Upon graduating from col- lege in 1837, he began the study of Theology under the Rev. Samuel Tate, and after completing his course was licensed to preach the Gospel by the Pres- bytery of Erie, in April, 1841. As a licentiate, he preached throughout the oil regions of Northwestern Pennsylvania, then but little better than a wilderness. He had the honor of being selected by his “home church,” the First Presbyterian of Mercer, Pa., to be its pastor, and having accepted, was ordained and installed April, 1842. Some seven years later as the Rector of Christ Church, Baltimore, with which congregation, the Second Church had been upon the most friendly terms, was detained at Mercer, while enroute North. There being no Episcopal Church in the town, he went to the Presbyterian church and heard Dr. Smith preach. Upon his return, he strongly recommended Dr. Smith for the vacant pulpit of the Second Church. When the congregation heard him for themselves, they said, ‘““The half has not been told” us, and immediately made out their formal call upon his services. The commissioners of the congregation appointed to prosecute the call before Erie Presbytery, reported at a congregational meeting, March 13th, 1849, that, “acting under an impression produced by corres- pondence with Mr. Smith, that a written communi- 152 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY cation would accomplish the object so unanimously desired by the congregation, your commissioners adopted that course, and did not in person attend the meeting of the Presbytery of Erie. The Rev. Mr. Smith, (unexpectedly to us) determined to abstain from any expression of opinion and leave the whole matter to his Presbytery. The Presbytery after due consideration decided not to place the call in his hands. We have no doubt, had Mr. Smith expressed the opinion that his path of duty and usefulness, led to Baltimore, the result would have been otherwise, and we are inclined now to believe, had your commis- sioners been on the spot, the doubt that surrounded Mr. Smith as to duty would have been removed. Secondly. The congregation is happily and per- fectly united in believing that Mr. Smith will suit us. Thirdly. There is good reason to hope from what has already been stated, that a call made out and prosecuted by commissioners will be successful. We, therefore, in view of all the circumstances, would recommend a renewal of the call by the con- - gregation and the appointment of commissioners to prosecute the call in person, at the next meeting of the Erie Presbytery.” Rev. Jos. T. Smith was then elected for the second time by a viva voce vote. SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 153 This call was fortified by a letter urging accept- ance by Dr. Johns. Mr. Smith accepted and was in- stalled pastor of the Second Church in April, 1849. The minutes of Presbytery read: “Rey. Joseph T. Smith was received from the Presbytery of Erie, 17th June, 1849, and accepted the call to the Second Church. The following com- mittee was appointed to install him on Friday, the 23d of June; Rev. Mr. Peck to preside and preach the sermon. Rev. Dr. Plummer to give the charge to the pastor; Rev. Mr. Cross, the charge to the peo- ple.” During the interim, the committee on supplies had found great difficulty in securing ministers for the pulpit and were frequently compelled to seek the ser- vices of their Methodist brethren. In acknowledge- ment of uniform kindness and heartiness in respond- ing to these sudden calls, the session passed the fol- ing resolutions, April 30th, 1849: “Whereas, on the resignation of the Rev. Dr. Green, the committee of supply had frequently to de- pend upon the services of Methodist ministers and on all occasions their applications were responded to with promptitude and Christian liberality ; but espec- ially is this congregation, indebted to the Rev. E. Y. Reese, for the repeated and very acceptable services, rendered by him in her time of need, and for the spirit of cordiality in which those services were ren- 154 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY dered; therefore, Resolved, That this congregation will ever cherish a grateful remembrance of the obli- gations which it is under to the Methodist clergy of this city, and an ardent desire to cultivate the kindest intercourse and the most friendly relations with their Methodist brethren generally.” Monthly concerts of prayer for the conversion of the world were held upon the afternoon of the Ist Sabbath of each month. The offering for Foreign Missions being lifted in the evening of the same day. Soon after the settlement of Dr. Smith, the ques- tion of repairing and remodeling the church building came under consideration. It was found, however, that the necessary changes would involve an expen- diture of from $6,000 to $7,000. This contemplated making the main entrance on Lloyd street so as to place the pulpit at the west end of the church, removing the galleries, except that at the eastern, or Lloyd street end, and making other alterations incident to the foregoing changes. It was found that by a slight increase of expenditure an entirely new building could be erected, embracing modern improvements and affording greater con- venience to both pastor and people. The proposed new building was to be 82% ft. in length and 52 ft. iis breadth, with the principal front on Baltimore street, the estimated cost to be $16,000. The com- mittee proposed to raise this money in three ways: SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 155 By subscription, $6,000; by sale of a part of the west- ern end of the church lot, $6,000, and by the sale of pews in the church, $4,000. The arguments of the Board of Trustees were convincing, namely, that the present building was antiquated and hard to preach in; that any repairs which might be made would, at the best, only result in a patchwork job, and the cost would closely ap- proximate that of a new building; that as at present there was so high a price put upon pews, the Board feund it difficult to rent them, while in the new church there would be an increased number of pews, for which a lower rental could be asked, and hence, a greater number rented, increasing the revenue of the church. The subscriptions received for the new building amounted to $7,500, and the work was begun under a Committee of the Board of Trustees, consisting ot R. Howard, Chairman; S. Fenby, H. Abbott, W. Crichton and Alex. L. Boggs. This committee was invested with full power, January 31st, 1850, to make the necesssary contracts, after review by the full Board. They were empowered to sell the pews in the new church, and if the sum realized was not sufficient to meet the contracts, were to sell a lot of ground on the western end of church lot, fronting on Baltimore street. 156 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY On the 1st of March the congregation rented Temperance Hall, on Gay street, at an annual rental . of $300, and worshipped there while the new build- ing was being erected. It was with genuine grief many of the old mem- bers saw the destruction of the building which to them was almost an object of veneration, for around it clustered all the hallowed associations of the early history of the church, and there still lingered for them within her historic walls the fragrance of the presence and the harmonies of the voices of her great and eloquent preachers. In spite of some little opposition of this kind and the almost insurmount- able obstacle of the great cost, the new building was undertaken and completed, the congregation being permitted to occupy it in 1852 at a cost of upwards of $23,000. The following advertisements of the services in connection with the dedication of the New Church building was inserted in the Baltimore American for January roth, 1852: “The New Church of the Second Presbyterian congregation will be opened for Divine service on Sunday, the 11th inst. “Service in the morning by the pastor; in the af- ternoon at half-past 3 o’clock by Rev. Dr. Backus; and in the evening at half-past 7 o’clock by the Rev. Dr. Plummer. The pews will be offered for sale at SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 157 public auction on Tuesday evening the 13th instant, in the church, commencing at 7 o’clock.” In the issue for the 12th of January appeared this account of the dedicatory services: “Dedication of the Second Presbyterian Church. This elegant church edifice, located at the corner of Baltimore and Lloyd streets, was on Sunday last, solemnly dedicated to the service of the Almighty in interesting and befitting services. In the morning the pastor of the church, Rev. Mr. Smith, preached an eloquent sermon from a portion of the 41st verse of the 6th chapter of 2d Chronicles; ‘Now, therefore arise, etc.’ The discourse was of a highly interest- ing character and elicited the deepest interest of the large assemblage present. In the afternoon the church was again crowded to listen to the Rev. Dr. Backus and likewise in the evening to Dr. Plum- mer.” Large accessions within the next few years amply justified the congregation in their undertaking the work, while to this day we have a beautiful and commodious house of worship. In the midst of all these struggles a mission school was founded, in 1851, near the Penitentiary by some members of the church, chiefly sustained by the labors of Mr. D. F. Haynes, and after every encouragement by the Ses- sion, Breckinridge Chapel was built. This mission was very successfully conducted for a long time until 15 8 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY merged, through the purchase of the property as a site for the new Penitentiary, into Hope Mission, now Reid Memorial, in October, 1892, when some forty scholars were turned over to that mission. The ladies of the congregation determining that the new church tower should have a bell, raised by piivate subscription the sum of $300 toward that ob- ject. The bell was put in place in the tower of the church under the supervision of the Building Com- mittee, and under a resolution of the Board at their meeting, February Ist, 1853, the ladies were thanked not only for this gift to the church, but also for their unwearied exertions in behalf of the church in the matter of the sinking fund. Early in this year a difference of opinion exist- ing between the Session and the Board of Trustees as to the ordering of collections on the Sabbath, and the appointment of salaried persons, a committee from the Board visited the Session by arrangement and made statement of their views upon the matter, which resulted in the following deliverance by the Session: That on the schedule of benevolent contri- butions passed among the members for their signa- tures, a column would be included for the church debt; that Session would assist in every way in its power toward the liquidation of that debt; that while it was the custom and express statute of the Presbyterian Church making it the duty of the Ses- SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 159 sion to appoint the chorister, yet, as he is to be paid his salary by the Trustees, it is just and equitable that the salary should not be fixed without the knowledge and consent of the Board. At a Congregational Meeting held November 15th, 1854, active measures were taken to reduce. and, if possible, to pay off the floating debt of the church, amounting to $12,000. Large subscriptions _ were made by those present and preparations begun for an active canvass of the congregation. On April 18th, 1855, by these efforts the debt had been reduced to a little over $8,000. This amount was almost entirely liquidated by a bequest from the late Samuel McDonald, son of General William McDonald, who left provisions in his will for the payment to the church of $5,000 in cash, the release of the mort- gage held by him upon the church property, amount- ing to $3,000, and the further sum of $500 to be invested for the benefit of the Sabbath School of the church. Mr. McDonald had passed away on the 11th of July, 1855, aged 67 years. He was at the time of his death the senior member of the Board of Trustees, and, although debarred, from long and severe ill- ness, from meeting with his associates on the Board, he offered them valuable counsel in their difficult task, and gave liberally of his means, and, in “imi- tation of his benevolent sire, bequeathed to the 160 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY church the magnificent legacy referred to.” This be- quest enabled the Treasurer in his next report, De- cember 27th, 1855, to say that the state of the church’s finances were in a condition equal to many of our sister churches in this city; that the subscrip- ticns and bequest of Mr. McDonald had reduced the debt to about $2,000, and that against that we had $1,000 of subscriptions yet unpaid ; that the time had come of carrying into effect a long cherished de- sire to increase the pastor’s salary. This was agreed t> by the Board in the following resolutions : “WuereEas, Much of the prosperity of our church and the increase of our congregation is, under God. owing to the zeal, popularity and good works of our Pastor ; therefore, “Resolved, That the salary of Doctor Smith be increased to $2,000 per annum from the Ist of Janu- ary, 1856.” The debt was still further reduced by private subscriptions of over $1,300, raised at a congrega- tional meeting, held December 24th, 1856. Up to the year 1858 the Elders had been accus- tumed to “‘lift’’ the collections in the church, but that year this service was taken over by the Board of. Deacons, assisted by the Trustees, as more properly their function. In the year 1859 the foundation was laid for a Pastor’s Library for the Second Church by a legacy HENRY C. MINTON, D. D. PASTOR-ELECT SEPTEMBER 1883-AUGUST 1884 y SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 161 of $250, left by Ira B. Wheeler. Dr. Smith, the Treasurer Horace Abbott, and William Crichton, were appointed a Committee to invest the amount of the bequest. This year the congregation employed a colpor- teur, with what result we cannot ascertain. The Sabbath School requested Session, March 6th, 1860, through George Dugdale and Mr. How- ell, to be allowed to introduce a melodeon into the school to assist in the singing. After some discus- sion and several postponements, the request was granted. June 5th, 1860, Dr. Smith announced to the Ses- sion his election by the General Assembly to be Pro- fessor of Church Government in Danville Seminary, Kentucky. After thoughtful consideration, it was the unanimous opinion of the Session that Dr. Smith could be most useful in promoting the interests of our beloved Zion by remaining in Baltimore, and that if not contrary to his own wishes in the prem- ises, he remain with us, he having the entire confi- dence and love of the whole congregation. Shortly after this meeting of Session and before any decision was arrived at Dr. Smith sailed for Eu- rope. Upon his return, at a meeting November 6th, 1260, Dr. Smith informed Session that the call to Danville Seminary would be submitted to Presby- tery at its approaching meeting. Dr. Smith also in- 162 .ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY formed Session that there was a movement on foot toward calling him to the Third Church of Balti- more, a new church in the Northwestern portion of the city, and that that day he had received a call from the Central Church of Cincinnati, Ohio. The claims of the church upon Dr. Smith’s pasto- ral services were fully presented in Presbytery, the congregation raising a strong protest against the separation, saying that, “in the opinion of the con- gregation, a serious and lasting injury would be done to the cause of Christ and His Church by the removal at this time of Dr. Smith from his pres- ent position. His commanding talents, his persuasive eloquence, his kind and gentle manners and his faith- fulness and devotion to his Master’s service, have won for him the regard, esteem and confidence of this entire community, and have enabled him by the blessing of God to gather around him in this place a faithful, active and growing church, one alive to all the duties of its position, and carrying on all the great benevolent operations of our church. “When we compare the condition of our church eleven years ago with what it is today, we acknowl- edge our debt of gratitude to the Great Head of the Church for sending us in our low estate such a Teacher and Pastor, whose labors have been so blessed among us. Appreciating as we do the faith- ful labors of Dr. Smith for the past eleven years in SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 163 this congregation, if it was the wish of his heart to change the field of his future labors, on the convic- tion of his judgment that God clearly indicated to him that the path of duty led to this change, we would with sorrow acquiesce and give up to the ser- vice of the General Church another beloved pastor to follow in the steps of the lamented John Breckin- ridge.” Presbytery met on the 13th, 14th and 15th of November, but it was not until the last day that, after Dr. Smith had stated he had come to the de- cision it was his duty to go to Danville, Presbytery dissolved the pastoral relation. The Session spread upon the minute book their estimate of Dr. Smith in the following language: “Whereas, The General Assembly of our Church, at its annual session in May last, appointed our late pastor, the Rev. Dr. Smith, a professor in the Theo- logical Seminary at Danville, Ky., which appoint- ment has recently been accepted by him, and the pas- toral relations between him and our congregation ~ having been dissolved by the Presbytery of Balti- more; we, the Elders of the Second Presbyterian Church, on this, our first meeting as a Session since the departure of Dr. Smith, record this minute as an expression of our high opinion of him as a Pas- tor and a Minister of God; and of our gratitude for his long and faithful labors with us as our pastor. 164 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY While our entire community recognizes his claims to their confidence and affection, and men of all de- nominations deeply regret his departure from our city, we who have been so intimately associated with him in the Session of the Church, feel that we have suffered no ordinary loss, and we shall ever bear in grateful remembrance his great kindness, gentleness and wisdom, as the Moderator of our Session, and the many sweet and, we hope, profitable hours we have passed together as Pastor and Elders. And with gratitude to the great Head of the Church, for permitting us for so many years to be thus inti- mately associated with so gifted and devoted a serv- ant and minister of the Lord Jesus, we tender to him the assurance of our unchanging affection, and our warmest wishes for his success and usefulness in his new field of labor to which he has been called by the united voice of the Church; and we feel assured that, although separated, we and the Church of which we are officers, will often be remembered by our late beloved pastor at the Throne of the Heav- enly Grace.” The Board of Trustees similarly expressed their sorrow at the separation and their high sense of the character and attainments of Dr Smith, both as a Pastor and Preacher. The congregation during the ministry of Dr. Smith had made a net gain of 102, making the mem- bership upon his departure 343. SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 165 Professor Smith had not been long in his new field when the war broke out and closed the Semi- nary. Upon a consolidation of the remnants of the extinct Third and Fifth Churches, together with a number of families of the Second Church, largely through the influence of Dr. J. C. Backus, pastor of the First Church, Dr. Smith was called to the pas- torate of the Central Church, and upon acceptance of the call, was installed pastor on the 16th of March, 1862. In this field, with the abundant blessings of God, he labored until seventy-five years of age, re- signing the pastorate in 1893. The congregation elected him Pastor Emeritus, glad to remember his long and honorable and efficient labors in its behalf. Dr. Smith still walks among the churches of Balti- more Presbytery, like a Prophet Samuel among the Sons of the Prophets. His gray hairs are a crown of glory and his presence as the “dew unto Israel ;” his voice a benediction. May he long be spared to kindle our hearts with the enthusiasm of the past in the memory of the church’s great and noble leaders, who laid the foundations of the Presbyterian Church of today. Dr. Smith was Moderator of the General Assem- bly of 1887, received the degree of Doctor of Divin- ity from Hampden-Sydney College in 1852, and of Doctor of Laws from Jefferson College in 1887. CHAPTER XI. OUR “WAR-PASTOR,” GEORGE P. HAYS, D. D. Shortly after Dr. Smith left the pastorate of the Second Church the nation was plunged into the aw- tulness of the fratricidal war. Those were dark days for the Presbyterian Church in Baltimore. Sympathizers with both sides in the bloody contest were to be found in each congregation. The for- ward movement of the church was arrested and each congregation found itself in the “deadlock” of mu- tual suspicion and alienation and strife of the mem- -bers. It was just before the war broke out and this condition fully obtained that the congregation called Rev. George P. Hays, at a meeting held January 23d, 1861, who received the vote of every mem- ber present, one hundred and thirty-six. The call was accepted and Mr. Hays installed pastor in March, 1861. On August 11th, 1861, a large congregation was delighted to hear their old pastor, Rev. Robert J. Breckinridge, who being upon a visit to the city, was invited to address his former charge. It is impossible for us to imagine the conditions affecting church life in Baltimore for the next five or six years. And that the pastor of the Second SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 167 Church was an exceptional man is easily proved by a glance at the statistical reports of the church. Nor could it be said of him, as of many, that he had no opinion upon the questions which were rending our country. He was a man of strong convictions and of tried ability in defending them, but with such gra- ciousness and conciliation did he preach and labor that it was one long season of growth in grace to many. So noteworthy was the condition of the church in 1863 that the Session set forth the facts in a paper prepared to be read to the Presbytery, in which they say: “The Session in reviewing the goodness of God to them as a church for the past year have great cause for gratitude and thankful- ness in His keeping them and preserving them from dangers seen and unseen, from divisions and distrac- tions, for the forbearance and kindness that has been exercised one towards another in many things, in that charity which suffereth long and is kind.” Twenty-one were added to the church upon profes- sion of faith and thirteen upon certificates. During the winter Dr. Hays preached in the Maryland In- stitute in the afternoon of the Sabbath in lieu of the evening service in the church building, it being the hope that many non-churchgoers would thereby be reached. The success was not very marked. The number of scholars in the Sabbath Schools were re- ported to be four hundred and teachers forty. In 168 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY addition, there were two large sewing schools for lit- tle girls maintained, the number of pupils being three hundred. One of the most notable achievements of this year was the release, June 27th, 1863, of the ground rent, which was purchased for $11,000, of which sum $10,000 was raised by subscriptions. This project, so happily consummated, originated in a meeting of Deacons after a church service one Sabbath the March previous. After earnest consultation with all the official members of the church, the Board of Trustees had printed a statement to the congregation setting forth the desirability of purchasing the ground rent and their prospects for doing so, with amount of pledges already made, and calling upon the congregation to assist, with the splendid result above noted. The morning the address was placed before the members of the congregation the Pastor preached a sermon from the text, “Go up to the mountain and bring wood and build the house and I will take pleas- ure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. Ye looked for much, and lo! it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of Hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.” Haggai, 1: 8-9. SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 169 For one week and a half Dr. Hays canvassed the congregation to find at the expiration of that time they were $1,400 short of the $10,000 necessary. It was decided to lay the whole matter again before the congregation after the sermon. Here let me quote the report: “In accordance with this determination, the Pastor stated the position the effort had then reached after the sermon of that morning, when to the glory of God, be it said, the whole amount was finally secured. The good earnest of the congrega- tion was remarkably manifested on that occasion, for by far the greater part remained until the sub- scription was counted up, determined that if there had not been enough subscribed they would finish it before they left. When the fact was announced that all was guaranteed the Pastor led in a prayer of thanksgiving for the liberal hearts He had given His people.” The report adds: ‘Our success in this undertak- ing is due mainly to two things. The first is that very many of our people made it a special subject of prayer that God would pour out a spirit of liberality in our midst and enable us to give to this great cause. We believe it is a manifest answer to prayer. In the second place Dr. Backus, of the First Church, gave us one thousand dollars, which was not only valuable for the money, but also for its encourage- ment of the belief that success was possible.”’ 170 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY In the year 1864 the question of installing an or- gan in the church was mooted in Session, and after provoking considerable discussion, was voted down. At a meeting of the congregation, held soon after, the Session was requested to reconsider their action, which they refused to do, and sent a long letter to the congregation in support of their position, with many arguments against the use of instrumental music in the public worship of God. However, great men sometimes change their opinions and church- courts, like our civil legislative bodies, reverse today what was done so decisively yesterday, so that Ses- sion, some two years later, October 8, 1866, ap- proved of “the project of putting an organ into the church,” for which we find the Board of Trustees arranging the payment June 17, 1867. The organ cost about $2,800. In the spring of the year 1865 the congregation enjoyed a reviving time from the presence of the Lord, so that extra services were held and an extra communion proposed. Twenty-five united with the church upon profession of their faith at one time. Neighborhood prayer-meetings were revived during the winter of 1866, with splendid results. April 13, 1867, Dr. Hays laid before his Session his call to be Financial Agent of Washington and Jefferson College, and his desire that a congrega- tional meeting be called to prosecute their desires in SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 171 the matter before Presbytery. The congregation set forth their disapproval of the proposed resignation of Dr. Hays, saying that all the members of the congregation were harmonious in the desire that Dr. Hays should remain, believing his continuance as - their pastor to be of vital importance to the welfare of the church; that there is seldom an instance where there are stronger and more urgent reasons for the continuance of the pastoral relations; that they be- lieved the church and community offered an exten- sive field for usefulness, which imperiously demands his attention, and where, with the blessing of God, his labors may be crowned with a harvest of im- mortal souls.”’ The following resolution was also passed: “That in view of the great reluctance of the congregation to part with him, the interest manifested in his continu- ance with us by Christians of other denominations and the undesirableness of further agitations, this meeting express the earnest desire that Mr. Hays will decide to comply with our wishes without fur- ther consultation with Presbytery.” Dr. Hays must have decided to agree to this, for if was not until the fall of 1868 that his request for the dissolution of the pastoral relation was pressed before Presbytery, at which time the congre- gation, while fully appreciating the zeal and fidel- ity with which he had devoted himself to the 172 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY spiritual welfare of the congregation, as also his re- markably successful efforts in relieving the formerly embarrassed financial situation of the church, and, while regretting the severance of so pleasant and fruitful a pastorate, had no desire to restrict his sphere of usefulness, if he should believe one to be open to him in which he could accomplish more in the dissemination of evangelical truth and where his efforts would result in increased prosperity to the Church of Christ.” In this spirit of acquiescense to what was believed to be the leading of the Holy Spirit, the congrega- tion parted from their pastor, who had led them in their troubled passage through perilous times, as Moses led Israel of old. The pastoral relation was then dissolved by the Presbytery. George Price Hays came from that sturdy Scotch-Irish stock which made Western Pennsylva- nia the stronghold of liberty, civil and ecclesiastical, and which has given so many sons to the ministry. He was born February 2d, 1838, near Canonsburg, Pa., in which the recent pastor of our church, Rev. R. Howard Taylor, has been settled over the Presby- terian Church. His parents’ names were John and Orpha. He graduated at Jefferson College and im- mediately entered the Western Theological Semi- nary, and upon completing his course in that institu- tion, was licensed to preach the Gospel by Pittsburg SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 173 Presbytery, in April, 1859. He was chosen assist- ant pastor to the Rev. Dr. Painter, of Kittanning, Pa., and from there came to Baltimore as pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church. Dr. Hays became President of Washington and Jefferson College soon after leaving Baltimore. In nis new field of work that boundless enthusiasm for which he was so noted as a preacher and pastor, made him a most popular and aggressive college president, and did much to place the institution upon its present secure and honorable foundation. Too high a tribute cannot be paid to this “war pastor” of the Second Church. His was the mind to con- ceive and his the dauntless will to execute. No work was too hard, no sacrifice too great to check that great spirit. Faith there was, and hope and love— these three in him abounding, but the greatest of all was love—and pastor and people were knit together for one of the very best periods in the history of the Second Church during one of the very worst and most distracting periods in the history of our coun- try. This prophet of the Most High was called to his reward in the year 1897. In the year 1868 the church received a new , shine gle roof and was frescoed at an expense of $1,700. The roof remains unto this day, another monument to the thoroughness with which our fathers per- formed their tasks. 174 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY On application from the Board of School Com- missioners the Board of Trustees rented “the lec- ture room of the church (basement) for the use of the school now being held in the Eastern Female High School (which was about to be rebuilt) “at an annual rental of $600 for a term of two years, more ur less.” The congregation was called together December 23d, 1868, for the purpose of calling a pastor to suc- ceed Dr. Hays. The election resulted in the unani- mous choice of Rev. Samuel A. Mutchmore, of Phil- adelphia, at an annual salary of $2,500. Dr. Mutch- more requested the congregation not to prosecute the call before the Philadelphia Presbytery, as he did not see clearly that it was his duty to leave his congrega- tion at that time as they were in the midst of an in- teresting revival. To this request the congregation agreed. CHAPTER XII. THE CALL OF JONATHAN EDWARDS, D. D. March 2nd the congregation met to again elect a pastor, this time the choice falling upon the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Edwards, a relative and namesake of the distinguished Jonathan Edwards, of Massachu- setts. Dr. Edwards accepted the call at a salary of $2,500, and the parsonage. The installation service was held June 8th, 1869. The membership of the church when-Dr. Edwards assumed the pastorate was 279 and the number of Sabbath School scholars was 450. The year previous the congregation had raised for all purposes $6,969. - The Session and Board of Deacons revived this year the plan of systematic benevolence, formerly in successful operation, but of late allowed to become iaoperative. This resulted in the following action by the congregation at their meeting in June, 1870: “Each subscriber to the plan of raising funds for church and benevolent purposes agrees to make weekly contributions, and all funds so raised to pass into the hands of the Treasurer of this Board (the Board of Trustees), with the understanding that after the current expenses of the church have been paid and a sufficient amount reserved for repairs, the 176 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY residue shall be turned over to the Elders and Dea- cons, to be devoted to charitable purposes.” April 4th, 1870, the Board of Trustees adopted a code of by-laws for the government of their deliber- ations. For some time the Board of Trustees had had under contemplation the probable opening of Broad- way through the Glendy burying ground and also the feasibility of leasing the remaining ground for the purpose of erecting thereon a Presbyterian Church. A committee to search the records to dis- cover the legal right of the Board to make such lease reported to the Board July 7th, 1870, that their title to the graveyard property differed in no respect from the titles to other church property. The Board then adopted the following resolutions: 1st, that the Committee on Property be authorized to confer with the Presbytery of Baltimore, or other parties, in reference to leasing the graveyard, for the pur- pose of erecting a Presbyterian Church thereon. “Resolved, 2nd, That the same committee be au- thorized to confer with the City Council of Balti- more in regard to the condemnation of so much of the graveyard as may be necessary to straighten Chase street.” The committee was also authorized to a counsel, if necessary. ALEXANDER PROUDFIT, D. D. NINTH PASTOR 1885-1894 SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 177 According to this authorization the committee in- serted the following advertisement in the Baltimore American : For Lease. The Trustees of the Second Presbyterian Church will lease their BURYING GROUND, Corner of Broadway and Gay Sireet, To a Protestant Society to build a church thereon, te be forever kept and used as a church and burying lot only. There is sufficient surplus stone on the lot to build the walls of a large church, and about one- half of the lots are unoccupied. Application may be made to either of the undersigned, Committee on Church Property. E_ A. Apsott, Chatrman. Joun S. Gam an. R. THOMPSON. The following plan for union meetings for prayer was laid before Session, December 5th, 1870, by the pastor, Dr. Edwards, sayimg that the pastors of Ais- quith Street and Broadway had agreed with him to recommend it to their respective Sessions: Ist. That a joint monthly concert of prayer be held in the churches alternately. 2d. That a joint communion of these churches be held once in each year. 178 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY 3d. That the Ruling Elders be recommended to meet once a month for prayer and conference.” It is impossible to learn whether this plan was ever put into operation, or, if it was, what result at- tended it. There can be no doubt as to the great pleasure and profit which would attend such meet- ings and we cannot refrain from expressing the wish that such practical measures for our greater spiritual unity and fraternity were more frequently carried into effect. A new Communion Service was purchased this year at a cost of $121.85. As the sale of the goblets and baskets of the old service had realized $136.71, the committee had a balance in hand. July 1st, 1871, Dr. Edwards communicated to Session his intention of asking leave of Presbytery to resign from the pastorate of the Second Church. The congregation was cited to appear before Pres- bytery to show cause why this request should not be granted. The congregation met August 31, 1871, agreeably to the call for the meeting, and commis- sioners were appointed to attend the meeting of Presbytery. The next day Presbytery met and dis- solved the pastoral relation. Dr. Edwards was soon afterward called to the pastorate of the First Pres- byterian Church of Peoria, Illinois, where he passed the remainder of his life. Having been President of Washington and Jefferson College before coming to SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 179 Baltimore, he had already attained to some promi- nence as a thinker and educator. His pulpit dis- courses were above the average in originality and profundity. CHAPTER XIII. ANOTHER MAN FROM PENNSYLVANIA, ROBERT H. FULTON. February 5th, 1872, the congregation met and elected unanimously Rev. Robert H. Fulton to be their pastor. This call was accepted and Mr. Fulton, being received by the Presbytery, began his pastoral work. Born in Monongahela City, Mr. Fulton had the same birthright that gave the promise of a fine char- acter and consistent Christian conduct, which had matured so perfectly in Rev. Dr. Hays. Nor was the congregation disappointed. Mr. Fulton was a mem- ber of the first class to graduate from the combined Colleges of Washington and Jefferson. This was in 1866. He entered the Western Theological Semi- nary as a student the following fall. He was li- censed to preach the Gospel in 1871, so that he came to our congregation very early in his ministry. May Ist, 1872, Mr. Fulton began his ministerial labors, which were abundantly blessed of the Lord to the spiritual edification of the people. As the church building was now twenty years old, it was found necessary to make repairs aggregating $2,500, which included our present stained-glass SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 181 windows, replacing the “white-frosted panes,” which a writer said, “produced a beautiful effect.” For the purpose of raising the necessary funds for the church and more perfectly to organize the en- velope system, the congregation, June 19th, 1872, elected a Finance Committee, representative of the various interests of the congregation, upon which also were a number of ladies. This committee did excellent service, The question of the selling of the Breckinridge Mission property was introduced October, 1872, at a meeting of the Board of Trustees, on the score of the cost of maintenance, which some of the Board felt unwilling to bear. The sale was strenuously op- posed by the friends of the school, who agreed to pay the ground rent to save it from being closed. In July, 1873, a sub-lease on part of the ground was made on order of the Board, the revenue from which left only about ten dollars for the school to pay. This arrangement saved the life of the school for another twenty years, at which time, July 14th, 1892, it was reported to the Board that Mr. Robert H. Smith, acting as their attorney by appointment, had sold the property to the state for $3,250, the state desiring to erect the new Penitentiary upon the site, As the Breckinridge Mission had now no home, the project was abandoned, the scholars, as already 182 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY stated, were turned over to Hope Institute, and the receipts from the sale of the property were held by the Board as a fund upon which to draw from time to time, for permanent improvements to the church property. In the year 1873 our present method of emphasiz- ing the benevolent objects for which contributions are asked of the congregation was introduced. Pre- vious to that time the offering was received without stating the object for which it was intended, nor how the amount was to be divided. Another interesting question came before the con- gregation March, of this year, namely, whether to elect the elders for a term of years or for life. The arguments of the conservative members prevailed. No doubt this matter was agitated at this time be- cause it had received some attention from the prev- ious General Assembly. The fiscal year was changed at this same meeting so as to begin on the 1st of April, instead of the Ist of July, as heretofore. This change was made that our fiscal year might correspond with that of the different boards of the church. Much attention had already been exacted of the Board of Trustees and constant and irritating ex- penses incurred by the Glendy burying ground, which at one time was the finest in the city, but which had by the development of other and more SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 183 public cemeteries, become practically abandoned so far as its original purpose was concerned. There was no income; there was, on the other hand, a con- stant outlay. To aggravate this situation the cemetery became the rendezvous of the criminal and maraud- ing classes of that section of the city, who openly broke into vaults and robbed the very coffins of the dead, and this sacred spot was given over to utter desolation and wanton destruction. This condition of affairs was owing to the fact that the cemetery was just upon the outskirts of the city, which was rapidly pushing beyond it. There was not the protection necessary from the mischievous boys and men which there should have been. The vandalism was some- what stopped by the rebuilding of the eastern wall, which had partially fallen down. The question of opening Broadway, which had been improved up to the southern wall of the ceme- tery, was one of time only. This avenue would cut off more than one-third of the ground; Chase street extended would obliterate a small part, while Biddle street run through would make in all nearly one-half the ground pre-empted. As the balance would be too small for cemetery purposes, and was, as well, inside the growing city, the Board of Trustees de- termined upon some course which would be at once an improvement to that section of the city, and at the same time provide a place of worship for the resi- 184 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY dents, while permanently preserving the resting places of illustrious dead from demolition. A canvass of the lot-holders and of the residents in the vicinity of the cemetery revealed a unanimity of sentiment in favor of building a church upon such portion of the property as would not be taken for the contemplated city improvements. This movement on the part of the Board was publicly and strenu- ously opposed by a small minority of the lot-holders, who held a meeting to devise a way, if possible, of dispossessing the Trustees of the Second Church from their trust, charging them with dereliction of duty and mercenary motives and intentions. Suit was entered to dispossess the Board, that the prop- erty might be turned over to the complainants. It appears from the vigorous and sufficient answer which was made to this “minority meeting” that the Board of Trustees had agreed to lease to some “properly organized and legally chartered company, ali that portion of the ground lying west of the westernmost line of Broadway, for the purpose of building a church thereon, and burying the dead only—the company obligating themselves to keep the wall or fence in good order, paying for the lease ten dollars per annum for ninety-nine years, renewable, the Trustees reserving the vacant lots in which to deposit the dead now lying in the bed of Broadway. SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 185 “Broadway must soon be opened and the Trustees are desirous that everything in relation to the sub- ject should be done in a reputable and business-like manner. The Presbytery has moved in the matter so far as to appoint a committee to investigate the whole subject with a view to accept the offer of the Trustees, with the Rev. George Morrison as their Chairman, from whom any information may be ob- tained in regard to the proceedings of his commit- tee or the Trustees.” In the fall of 1874, City Councils condemned the ground for the opening of Broadway, but upon the next day rescinded this action upon the complaint of certain lot-holders holding lots in fee-simple, being established prior to the preparation of Poppleton’s map of the city. The city then condemned the ground to the north of the cemetery and proceeded to open Broadway from that point, leaving the ceme- tery as it was. Early in the year 1875 the negotia- tions with the Presbyterian Association were brought to a successful issue and the Board of Trus- tees vacated their trust in the Glendy burying ground to “the Presbyterian Association of Baltimore” upon their guarantee that such sum of money as should be awarded as damages for the opening of Broadway and Biddle street, and the cutting off of the project- ing corner of Chase street, should be appropriated to the transfer of the bodies lying in ground thus 186 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY condemned. Any excess of money to be applied to the erection of a church building upon the premises. The Church Property Committee who had had the burden of this negotiation and had borne not a little abuse from disappointed lot-holders, announced to the next meeting of the Board, July 6th, 1875, the settlement of the business, and expressed their thankfulness. All the matters of trust in the original deed hav- ing been satisfied and the reservations no longer be- ing of any value, upon application, the Board of Trustees authorized the execution of a deed, convey- ing to the Presbyterian Association of the City of Baltimore, an absolute fee-simple estate, free from all trust reservations and conditions, in and for the property which is fully described in the deed bearing date June roth, 1875, and duly recorded. This quit-claim deed was executed in the interest of Faith Presbyterian Church, which was the result of the determination of the Trustees to preserve the old historic ground for the purpose. Its fine edi- fice, its growing congregation and efficient service for Christ in the spread of the Gospel in that com- munity, amply justifies the action taken. There is preserved also so much of the burial ground and its former “glory” as to remind us con- tinually of the time when equally with Westminster burying ground, the city’s illustrious dead were car- ried thither for burial. SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 187 First in the long roll must be Dr. John Glendy, first pastor of our church, who was buried beside his wife amid the mourning of a vast concourse of peo- ple. Then next, that illustrious patriot soldier, Gen- eral William McDonald, who, with his but little less eminent son, Samuel, lies in the family vault just to the left of the main entrance. In times of peace as successful as in times of war, he amassed a large for- tune in the establishment of a line of packets to ports on the Chesapeake, afterwards a steamboat line, and then absorbed and operated by the Philadelphia, Wil- mington and Baltimore Railroad Company. Not far from the McDonald vault lay the remains of Alexander Brown, founder of the banking firm of A. Brown & Sons. The body was subsequently removed to Greenmount cemetery. The old coun- try seat of the Brown’s lay just north of the ceme- tery, the mansion standing upon what is now the bed of Broadway. William Crawford and Robert Moore, merchants of renown in their day; James Beatty, the powder manufacturer ; Henry Anderson, who had come over in the vessel with Glendy; John Hollins, father of ex-Mayor Hollins; James Law, father of ex-Maybor Colonel James O. Law; George Stiles, Mayor of Baltimore in 1817; Dr. John Camp- bell Whyte, grandfather of William Pinkney Whyte, and Judge Campbell Whyte Pinkney, are all buried there. Of the “Old Defenders” not a few are rest- 188 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY ing in.““Old Glendy ;’ George W. Miller, who served under Major Armstead during the bombardment of Fort McHenry; John Jephenson, wounded at the Battle of North Point; Captain John Kennedy, who commanded the Twenty-seventh Regiment of Mary- land Militiaat North Point; Oliver H. Nelson, whose monument was erected bythe Independent Volunteers to “their estimable commander, as a testimony of their regard to his virtues;’ John Cross, a soldier of the Revolutionary War, and who gave three sons to the service of his country in the war of 1812. Of “old sea captains” the list is long, from which we select; Captain Thorndyke Chase, who owned Chase’s Wharf; Captain Arch. Kerr, owner of Kerr’s Wharf; Captain Baptist Messick, owner of Messick’s Wharf; Captain James Gibson, owner of Gibson’s Wharf; Captains Thomas Cole, Russell Kilbourne, George Hobson, T. Gardner, George F. de Laroche, David Burke, William Conkling. Drs. William H. and Alexander Clendenin, John Coulter, J. B. Stansbury, Andrew Aitken, Captain Herman Perry, father of Herman and Albert Perry, connected with A. Brown & Sons; George Dobbin, one of the founders of newspaper journalism in Bal- timore. Here, then, were buried the men who had risked their all in the future of our city. They had in- vested their capital and upon necessity were willing SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 189 to sacrifice their lives. And whether they walked Olif streets as merchants, or looked into the mouths of frowning guns from behind our city’s defenses, or trod the deck of those fast vessels which made the “Baltimore clipper” famous the world over, or in municipal or state affairs, exercised authority, these men were princes among men, and theit names were household words in their day. Who, when the mourners stood about the open graves of these prec- ious dead, could have prophesied or devised across the intervening years a more fitting sequel to the in- evitable encroachments of the city, than that there should stand, guardian of their dust, the splendid place of worship where now the living generation praises God. Life reigns, not death. The Son of God hath abolished death by His own death upon the cross. Better, nor more fitting monument to the liv- ing memories of these men, could not be conceived. The year 1874 resulted in large effort for the spiritual reviving of the congregation. A catecheti- €al class was started by the pastor among the children of the congregation, meeting once a month on Sab- bath afternoon, in which Mr. Fulton had the assist- ance of members of the Session. The attendance upon public worship increased and the contributions were materially enlarged, while many were turned to seek the Savior. The total number of communicants were 259, the contributions to Home Missions $949 190 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY and to Foreign Missions $1,081. The total resources and expenditures for the year footing up $10,390. In recognition of his successful labors, the congrega- tion increased their pastor’s salary $500. November 8th, 1875, the pastor reported to Ses- sion that he had organized a Sabbath School Teach- ers’ Class for the study of the Sabbath School lesson, under his personal instruction. The chapel, which at that time adjoined the church, was refitted and thereafter used for the prayer-meetings, being first occupied by the congregation morning and evening during the week of prayer, beginning January 3d, 1876. The meetings following the week of prayer proved to be of such unusual interest that they were continued a considerable time. A circular letter was prepared by the pastor by order of the Session, and distributed to the members of the congregation. This letter reviewed the facts about the Sabbath contributions and laid down the Scriptural principles relative thereto. The “envelope system” is thus presented. “It has stood a trial among _ us of six years, and we are convinced that it is alto- gether the most satisfactory method with which we are acquainted. Its merits are obvious. In it the poor and the rich can meet together. It works in quiet. It offers no temptation to ostentatious giv- ing. It affords the treasury a regular and constant supply. By distributing the burden into equal Sab- SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. Ig! bath portions, it is at no time oppressive, and it has resulted always in large aggregate collections.” Then followed a comparative table, “proving,” as the letter adds, “that what we need is not less of our present system, but more of it. Our whole people should give this way.” November, 1878, marked another of those deter- mined, enthusiastic and successful efforts to free the church from the burden of debt. The congregation carried unanimously and with a rising vote the mo- tion to take steps to pay off the debt. The questions ot “how” and “‘when” were answered in the forma- tion of the following subscription paper: “We, the undersigned, uniting in a congregational effort to pay off the debt of the Second Presbyterian Church of Baltimore, agree to take the number of shares set opposite our names, respectively (the amount of the debt had been divided into 8,000 shares at 50 cents each), with the understanding that our subscription shall not be demanded before the whole amount of said debt shall have been provided for, the money to be paid before the 1st day of January, 1879.” That very night over 5,000 shares were taken and 2 goodly sum in cash handed in. The year 1879 was marked by the accession of 58 members on profession of their faith in Jesus Christ, making the total number of communicants that year 347. There were in the Sabbath School 559 scholars. 192 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY The year 1881 saw the passing of the old pulpit, inconvenient and obsolete, and the erection of our present platform and pulpit, which we still admire. On the 26th of September, 1881, the congregation united with the Aisquith Street Church and engaged in solemn services in commemoration of our assassi- nated President, General James A. Garfield. ROBERT HOWARD TAYLOR TENTH PASTOR 1894-1901 CHAPTER XIV. AN EFFORT TOWARD UNION. There was inaugurated this same year a movement which was the beginning of negotiations having far- reaching effects upon the congregation’s future. We refer to the planning to erect a new Sabbath School building. At the congregational meeting of Janu- ary 12, 1881, the following named gentlemen, Messrs. Peter Thompson, D. D. Mallory, F. L. Shep- herd, Robert H. Smith and J. B. Small were ap- pointed a committee to collect funds for the building of a Sabbath School. It was then proposed to build ii upon the vacant lot and embrace the lecture room. It was argued that cheerfulness and brightness and comfort would tend to greatly increase the numbers of the school. On April 4th following, Mr. Small reported to the Board a subscription list toward this object of $5,500, ‘“‘with others to hear from.” The Board immediately appointed a Committee con- sisting of Messrs. Mallory, Thompson and Small, of the Board of Trustees, and Messrs. Smith and Yeisley, of the congregation and Sabbath School, to have plans prepared and receive specifications and obtain estimates for the building of a Sabbath School room and parsonage. Very early in these negotia- 194 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY tions the feasibility of a change of location for the Second Church came to be discussed. It was thought by many that our present location was unfavorable for future growth, owing to the rapid change in the character of the surrounding community, and that if a change was to be made it would be much better to make it before the expenditure of such a sum of money as was contemplated in the proposed improve- ments. Accordingly, at its meeting on April 1oth, 1882, the Board decided ‘that it is the sense of the Board of Trustees that they are prepared to sell the present church property.” The Moderator was in- structed to call a congregational meeting to take ac- tion. ss When the congregation convened, April 19th fol- lowing, the Moderator stated the object of the meet- ing to be “to see if our congregation was ready to make a change of location or not.” It was decided that two-thirds of all votes cast would be necessary te decide. The following resolution was then submitted : ‘\WHEREAS, The matter of a removal of this church to a location eastward of its present site has been submitted to this congregation; “Resolved, That this congregation approve of the change proposed, and that the Board of Trustees be and is hereby authorized whenever in its judg- ment it may appear expedient, to dispose of the pres- SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 195 ent church property, and to apply the proceeds to the erection of a new church building in a favorable lo- cation eastward.” The ballots when counted read: For the Resolution........ 58 votes Against the Resolution. ...48 votes So that the resolution was lost. It was felt, how- ever, by the friends of the movement, that the voice of the entire congregation had not been heard. But not until January 3rd of the following year was the matter presented again. At this meeting the Mod- erator, Mr. Fulton, after stating the object of the meeting, gave “a fair and plain statement of the rea- sons, for and against the change, also a statement of the result of the trial ballots sent out by the Joint Committee of the Session and Trustees,” showing a two-thirds majority of the votes favoring the re- moval, and that this was why the meeting was called. A majority of the votes cast was to decide. The result showed: In favor of removal, 68; against re- moval, 36. The vote to change location was then made unanimous. When it became known to the congregation that the Broadway Presbyterian Church was at the same time contemplating a change of location, which would, if the Second Church should build further East, bring the two churches into very close prox- 196 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY imity, the Session and Board of Trustees in joint session prepared and adopted the following paper, January 30th, 1883: “WHEREAS, The congregation of the Second Presbyterian Church, after careful deliberation, has authorized the Board of Trustees to sell the prop- erty corner Baltimore and Lloyd streets, with a view to a new building in a more eligible location; and, “WHEREAS, This action was prompted by a desire to promote Presbyterianism, present and future, and with no desire whatever of injuring or interfering with the property of any other church of Christ; and, “WHEREAS, It has been reported to us that the Broadway Presbyterian Church, corner South Broadway and Gough streets, has been looking to- ward a removal to the neighborhood in which our congregation is desirous of building; and, “WHEREAS, The erection of two churches of the same faith in one and the same field might not result in the success of both and in the greatest good to the general cause; therefore, “Resolved, (1) That the following Committee, consisting of Elders Jacob Yeisley and Thomas G. Doyle; Trustees, Peter Thompson, D. D. Mallory and John W. Bay be appointed to confer with the Session and Trustees of the Broadway Presbyterian Church, in the hope of reconciling conflicting inter- ests; SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 197 “Resolved, (2) That said Committee is hereby au- thorized to assure said officers of the Broadway Church of our fraternal regard, of our aim to pro- mote the common cause, and, if to that end it should be thought good for the Broadway and the Second Presbyterian Churches to unite in one organiza- tion and erect one new building in the neighborhood contemplated, to encourage any basis of union which might appear equitable and feasible.” On February 20th, 1883, the following communi- cation was received from the Session of Broadway Presbyterian Church: “To the Session and Trustees of the Second Pres- byterian Church of Baltimore: DEAR BRETHREN.—The resolutions passed at your meeting of January 30th were duly laid before us, the Session and Trustees of the Broadway Pres- byterian Church. We heartily reciprocate your de- sire to reconcile conflicting interests between our congregations: ; “After maturely considering your communication, we respectfully reply, that, inasmuch as your action and proposals involve the interests of our denomina- tions in a large and important part of our city, and may imperil advantages that have been the growth of about eighty years in the case of the Second Church and almost half as long in the Broadway Church, we are unwilling to assume any responsi- bility in relation to the proposed movement. 198 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY “We, therefore, most respectfully propose for counsel and advice, to refer the whole matter to the Presbytery, to which body, in our view, pertains the right to unite or divide congregations, at the re- quest of the people, or to form or receive new con- gregations, and in general to order whatever pertains to the spiritual welfare of the churches under their care. (Form of Gov. X.: viii.) “We can answer no further until after the whole matter has been submitted to Presbytery at its next stated meeting in order that we may be advised of proper action in the case.” The following reply was then adopted by our Ses- sion and the Trustees, and forwarded, February 2oth, 1883: To the Session and Trustees of the Broadway Pres- byterian Church of Baltimore: “DEAR BRETHREN.—Your communication of the 6th inst., having been considered, we respectfully an- swer: “That the paper adopted at our meeting of the 3oth of January has fully acquainted you with our desires. Our people consenting (See Form of Gov. X., viii.), we should be happy to unite with you and your people in a request to have our respective congregations consolidated. “Tn the absence, however, of an expressed desire for union on the part of both the congregations in- SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. I99 terested, we are not aware of any business which re- quires joint action to bring before Presbytery.” This answer was forwarded to the Session and Trustees of the Broadway Church. In the meantime active measures were taken in the negotiations for the sale of the old property and the securing an option upon an available site for a new building. The subscriptions toward the new church now amounted to $7,000, with a prospect of its shortly amounting to $10,000. September, 1882, the Session decided to introduce the singing of the Long Meter Doxology at the be- ginning of the service, if the pastor so desired. May 3d, 1883, the pastor announced to the Session his having received a call to become the pastor of the Northminster Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, and “that there were such providential circumstances as made him believe he ought to accept it.’ He asked that a congregational meeting be called to con- sider the matter. The congregation convened May 16th, 1883, Rev. J. C. Backus, Moderated the meet- ing, and stated its object, after which Mr. Fulton gave his reasons for desiring the congregation to ac- quiesce in the request to the Presbytery asking for a dissolution of the pastoral relation. After remarks by a number expressive of the warm affection of the members for Mr. Fulton, it was moved: 200 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY “That the congregation consent to the dissolu- tion of the pastoral relation.” Suitable resolutions were drawn up by a commit- tee appointed by the meeting, in which in the heart- iest terms, the esteem in which Mr. Fulton was held by every member of the church, was set forth. June 3rd, 1883, Mr. Fulton preached his farewell sermon and declared the pulpit vacant. Robert H. Fulton was a uniformly successful pas- tor, whom everybody loved. He aimed to teach his people rather than preach at them. His sermons, while not lacking in oratorical ability, yet never made that an end in itself. The opening up of Scripture and the incitement of his hearers to lay hold of and appropriate the truth was the end sought. He was most faithful as a pastor, and expended liberally his bodily and mental powers in the behalf of his people. The congregation enjoyed an almost uninterrupted reviving under his ministry, and gained steadily in numbers and Christian zeal. Mr. Fulton died while still the pastor of North- minster Church, Philadelphia, in the year 1897. The following September the congregation elected unanimously the Rev. Henry C. Minton to be their pastor, at a salary of $2,400 per annum. Mr. Min- ton began pastoral work Sabbath, the 9th of De- cember, and his installation was arranged for the evening of April 24th following. Much to the dis- SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 201 may of the congregation, the installation services were, owing to the ill-health of the pastor-elect, nec- essarily postponed. At the meeting of Session, May 8th, 1884, Mr. Minton stated that his physician had recommended him to desist from study and active pastoral work for some months to come. The Ses- sion immediately made arrangements for supplying the pulpit until Mr. Minton should recover his health. The following July the Session was infor- mally called together after the Sabbath morning ser- vice and informed by Mr. Minton that his health was still such as to prevent his doing the pastoral work needed, and, therefore, he would withdraw from the position of pastor-elect. It was then agreed that his services should terminate with the Ist of August following. After leaving Baltimore Mr. Minton sought health and found it upon the Pacific Coast, where his strong personality and finely cul- tured mind soon won him a large place in the affairs of a rapidly growing church and state. Being a pro- fessor in the Theological Seminary at Berkeley, Cali- fornia, and pastor of a large Presbyterian congre- gation, made him, in 1901, the most logical and the strongest candidate from the great West for the highest honors of the Church, the Moderatorship of the General Assembly. With good judgment, that never failed; with courtesy, that never faltered, and with devotion to duty that never flagged, Dr. 202 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY Minton served the Church in the Moderator’s chair. Since then he has served as Chairman of the Assem- bly’s Committee on the Revision of the Confession of Faith. Dr. Minton has but recently removed from Cali- fornia to assume the pastorate of the First Presby- terian Church of Trenton, N. J. When Mr. Minton was elected pastor of the Sec- ond Church, it seemed certain that the congregation would remove from their present location, and his acceptance of the Call was with that understanding; to this end also negotiations had gone so far as to secure an option on a fine piece of property situated on Broadway just north of Baltimore street. It soon developed, according to resolutions passed in Session April 11th, 1884, that a satisfactory price could not be secured for the old property, and that there was a fear that the erection of a new building would involve the congregation deeply in debt. Ac- cordingly, the Board of Trustees decided not to sell the old property, but to erect the new Sabbath School building formerly contemplated, and to repair the church building thoroughly. This decision was the more easily arrived at because Mr. Minton had him- self regarded as hopeful the present feelings of har- mony and enthusiasm respecting the work upon the old ground; and, not desiring to endanger the inter- ests of the church by reconsidering and declining a SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 203 the call to its pastorate, early in the spring had sub- mitted the question of his installation to the de- cision of the Session. The new Sabbath School building was then erected, occupying the site of the parsonage, which had stood for so many years, and also of the old chapel. Messrs. F. L. Shepherd, George L. Krebs and Jacob Oster were appointed a Building Commit- tee, with full power to act in the carrying out of the plans of the Board of Trustees. The contract was for $8,000. The committee also had charge of need- ed repairs to the main church building. The new Sabbath School building was completed and occu- pied about the beginning of the New Year, and the Building Committee at the meeting of the Board, February 3rd, 1885, was discharged, with the thanks of the Board, “for their excellent service.” The total cost of building and repairs was upward of $10,000. The church was now in possession of a splendid equipment for her work and a thoroughly united and harmonious congregation, with renewed zeal and energy, appreciating its opportunity, cheer- fully assuming responsibility for the spread of the Gospel in the old community, has steadily increased in efficiency until this day. A beautiful set of pulpit furniture was presented to the church by Mrs. J. C. Luddington in memory of her husband, Jesse C. Luddington, who had been 204 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY elected to the eldership in the Second Church, but though accepting the office, had passed away to his eternal rest before the ordination. Soon after entering the new school building the time of holding the Session was changed from the afternoon to the morning. The report of the School Committee showed the school to be in a flourishing condition. CHAPTER XV. AN ERA OF ORGANIZATION ; ALEX. PROUDFIT, D. D. The congregation ever since the resignation of Mr. Minton had been taking active steps toward the securing of a pastor, and on April Ist, 1885, met and elected unanimously Rev. Alexander Proudfit to be their pastor at an annual salary of $2,400. Mr. Proudfit, preaching in the church April 12th, an- nounced to the congregation his acceptance of the call. He was installed pastor by the Presbytery the following May. Rev. Alexander Proudfit was born in New York City April 15th, 1839. His father was Rev. John Wm. Proudfit, D. D. After graduating from Rutgers College, he entered the Seminary con- nected ‘with that institution to study theology. He completed his theological course at Princeton Semi- nary and was ordained an Evangelist by the Pres- bytery of New York in September, 1862. Mr. Proudfit proceeded immediately for the seat of war and was at first engaged in the work of the Sanitary Commission, afterwards receiving from President Lincoln an appointment as chaplain in the hospital service of the regular army, in which he served till the close of the war. A letter written to a classmate, 206 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY Rev. Francis B. Hodge, gives some interesting facts of his early history: LovELL GENERAL Hospirat, U. S. A. Portsmouth Grove, R. I. March 22d, 1865. DeAR CLASSMATE.—Your circular did not reach me till the second week in March, but hoping that it is not now too late, I comply with your request. On leaving the Seminary in 1862, I went immediately into the Hospital Transport Service under the Sani- tary Commission. On the 7th of June following I was sent to Newport News, Va., as Volunteer Chap- lain, with the expectation of a government appoint- ment. I labored there till the end of July, when I was taken severely ill and forced to come to the North. I was ordained by the First Presbytery of New York City early in September and was commis- sioned Hospital Chaplain in the United States Army September 15th, and ordered to this hospital for duty. The Lord has most graciously owned my unwor- thy labors in His vineyard by granting me to see the result in the conversion of many souls to Him- self, the upbuilding of His people and the reclama- tion of many, who had wandered from the fold.” After leaving the army at the close of the war, Mr. Proudfit made a tour of Europe. Upon his re- turn he was invited to preach in the Presbyterian SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 207 Church of Clayton, N. J., a small congregation struggling for existence. He was installed the first pastor of this little church November Ist, 1866. For twelve years, with unwearying labors, he min- istered to this congregation, and when called, in 1878, to the Hackettstown Church, left them strong and vigorous. He remained in Hackettstown for seven years, where the same unremitting labors weakened his magnificent constitution, and he was compelled to take a rest. It was upon the resump- tion of active work that he received his call to the Second Presbyterian Church, and he began his labors here. In 1885 the Finance Committee of the Board of Trustees prepared a circular to the congregation setting forth the amount of money needed to meet the running expenses of the congregation and the probable revenue, and urging each member to a more liberal contribution systematically given, that there might be no deficit at the close of the year. A card was enclosed to be signed by the contribu- tor, upon which was to be placed also the amount pledged. The congregation responded nobly to this plea of the Board. February 19th, 1886, Session decided that in fu- ture only unfermented wine should be used upon - Sacramental occasions. 208 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY In their voluminous narrative to Presbytery for this year, Session reports a spirit of revival in the congregation, as a result of which thirty-six were added to the membership upon profession of their faith in Christ. This was not the result of special services, but of faithful preaching and pastoral work. During this year a Committee of Session canvass- ed the growing neighborhood to the Northeast with a view of beginning mission work, but for some rea- son the project was abandoned. In 1888, Dr. Proudfit printed a small pamphlet en- titled “Gathering Up the Fragments,” a study of three years’ work—May, 1885, to May, 1888—from which we cull much information concerning the work of the church in those first years of his pastorate. One of the organizations of the church which had its beginning within this time was the Young Peo- ple’s Society of Christian Endeavor. On the second Sabbath after his installation Dr. Proudfit preached on the subject of “Finding and Bringing” (Jno. 1: 41, 43), and invited the young people to meet him in the chapel at the close of the service. Fifty-two per- sons responded and resolved to organize a Christian Endeavor Society. The organization was effected the following Wednesday evening, May 2oth, 1885, by the adoption of a constitution and the election of officers. Forty-one names were enrolled at the or- . THOMAS HOLMES WALKER PRESENT PASTOR INSTALLED OCTOBER 4TH, 1901 SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 209 ganization. Over one hundred and forty were en- rolled during the first three years. Numbers were brought into the church through the influence of the society and a splendid work was done. Church ser- vices were better attended, the study of God’s Word was stimulated and Christians were built up in faith and knowledge. This was the first Christian Endeavor Society or- ganized in the State of Maryland, and still with vigor occupies a prominent place in the activities of the Church. The Pastors’ Aid Society is another organization which began its existence in 1886. The first meet- ing was called and the society organized April 2nd, 1886. The object of this society was to aid the pastor in his work in those ways in which woman is the most efficient helper. To combine and unify in one organization the various woman’s agencies of work, missionary, charitable, etc., etc., so that there may be economy and harmony of working. Some forty ladies co-operated. A large “Visiting Com- mittee’ made social calls in the congregation, look- ing up and reporting to the pastor such matters as required his pastoral care. The “Dorcas Committee’ maintained a flourish- ing sewing school on Saturday afternoons, the schol- ars numbering one hundred and twenty. The “Com- mittee on the Care of the Church Property” keeps a 210 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY watchful eye on the church property and co-operates with the Board of Trustees in any way necessary. When the Evangelical Alliance conducted its “house-to-house”’ visitation, this society united with the High Street M. E. Church in canvassing the dis- trict bounded by Baltimore street on the North, Cen- tral avenue on the East, Jones Falls on the West and the harbor on the South. Great good is said to have resulted, numbers of children being brought into the Sabbath School, increased attendance upon the church services, while some persons were found who thought the church had forgotten them. In this year the “Willing Hearts,” a missionary circle, was organized among some young ladies of the congregation by Mrs. Proudfit. They collected a missionary library and monthly meetings were held for prayer and conference. They met in the homes of the members to engage in sewing, the proceeds of which were donated to Home and Foreign Mis- sions. “This circle is doing a great work in many ways.” In the fall of 1886 some children (under 12) catch- ing this spirit of organization, of their own accord formed a mission band and honored their pastor by calling themselves the “Alexander Proudfit Mission Band.” The Band had fourteen members, met monthly for the study of missionary literature and work and prayer. SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 211 “One of the most encouraging developments of the last three years.” Of the finances of the church much might be said of an encouraging nature. When the new Sabbath School was built and the repairs upon the church completed the congregation found itself, in the spring of 1885, $7,000 in debt, $6,000 of which was a mortgage upon the church property. The Trus- tees in 1886 took active measures to extinguish this indebtedness; and, as invariably they had done be- fore, the members responded. The following plan was devised and proceeded upon: The people were invited to give a specified number of cents per day, payable in monthly instal- ments ; subscriptions were received from one cent to one hundred cents per day, so that in February, 1888, together with the amount realized from two legacies, the entire sum needed was obtained. During this time the benevolences of the congre- gation had steadily increased from $1,026, given in 1885, to $3,836, given in 1888. In the same period of time the amount of money subscribed for congre- gational purposes almost doubled. “Gathering up the fragments,’ Dr. Proudfit de- clared, was the principle upon which the congrega- tion was working and which had yielded such splen- did results. Such a record showed the presence of ability, material and spiritual, which only needed de- 212 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY velopment to yield splendid results. No Communion season passed in all those years without some addi- tions to the church. Ninety-three in all had become members, and there had been a decided growth in the spirituality and working power of the church. How true we find this statement from Dr. Proudfit’s pen: “Our church occupies a peculiar and very important field. Its work can be done by no other Presbyterian Church. Its past record is noble, but it has a still higher mission to perform.” At a meeting of the congregation, held May 2d, 1888, the General Assembly’s plan of systematic be- neficence was adopted, and the Session, May 15th, presented the following plan: PLAN OF SYSTEMATIC BENEFICENCE. General Principles. We recognize these general principles as taught by God’s Word. 1. All should give toward the support of God’s house. 2. All should give toward the spreading of the Gospel. Our present plan of church support, in addition to pew rents, embraces a system of weekly offerings, handed in every Sabbath, in white envelopes. It is not intended that these contributions should be in any SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 213 way interfered with. It has, therefore, been thought best to arrange the offerings for benevolence in monthly payments, for which brown envelopes will be furnished to each member of the congregation. Each package of envelopes will be accompanied with the “Private Pledge,’ recommended by the General Assembly, which members are earnestly requested to fill out and sign, not for the inspection of others, but as a record of their purpose in the sight of God. En- velopes containing these “Offerings for Benevo- lence’ should be placed upon the collection plate on the first Sabbath of each month. The money received through these envelopes, after first setting aside $10.00 monthly as a fund to be distributed monthly by the Session among objects not specified, shall be distributed as follows: To the Board of Foreign Missions....38 per cent. To the Board of Home Missions..... 30 per cent. To the Board of Church Erection..... 6 per cent. To the Board of Missions for Freed- Ree Sal Rei. ee, SHS Lathe errant: te the Beard of Education. 50.2222 4 per cent. To the Board of Aid for Colleges..... 2 per cent. To the Board of Ministerial Relief.... 6 per cent. To the Board of Publication and Sun- day Schools Work); 20. 2008. 2250004 4 per cent. To the Board of Sustentation........ 2 per cent. 214 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY Should any person desire to contribute especially to any one of these Boards or to other benevolent objects, they can do so by placing such contributions in an envelope bearing their request. Such individ- ual preferences will be always respected. On the 1st Sabbath of each month from October to May, inclusive, the pastor will direct special atten- tion to the needs of some one of these Boards of the Church; and the plate collection, not contained in envelopes, taken on such occasions, shall be devoted to the work of the particular board then presented. Contributions for the Deacons’ Fund will be made on Communion Sabbath, as heretofore. The Session retains the right to bring to the atten- tion of the congregation any special object not herein designated, by giving one week’s notice. The earnest and prayerful co-operation of each of the congregation is desired. Session of Second Presbyterian Church, May, 1888. The statistical report for this year to Presbytery showed a total of $3,836—given to all benevolences —which included $1,028 to Home Missions and $1,185 to Foreign Missions; the grand total for the year to all purposes being $11,456; the whole num- ber of communicants being 279, which would mean an average of $41.00 per member per year. SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 215 In the narrative for 1889 the Session reports the Sabbath School never to have been in a more flour- ishing condition ; 636 scholars in the home school, of whom during the year a goodly number confessed Christ. Of the new plan of systematic benevolence, they say: “It has worked remarkably well thus far, and we hope for still better results in the future.” A state of revival for some two months was reported, during which time eighteen confessed Christ, mak- ing twenty-six in all for the year. What splendid years these were which witnessed such additions on Confession of Faith and such con- tributions to the Lord’s work. In the first seven years of Dr. Proudfit’s pastorate one hundred and seventy souls were added to the church upon con- fession of their faith, and a grand total of $22,602 contributed to the benevolence of the church through her boards. The year 1892 saw financial stress throughout the country, and the church naturally felt the stringency in her diminished resources, yet these extraordinary expenses were incurred: The organ was brought down from the gallery and given a place in the southeast corner of the church, which cost $502, and by the widening of Baltimore street the church was compelled to expend $366 more. Yet, in spite of all these things, the church could show a clean 216 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY balance sheet at the end of the year and a small sur- plus in the Treasury. : Dr. Proudfit offered in the financial stress, when it seemed as though there would be a deficit at the end of the year, to allow his salary to be reduced by two hundred dollars, but the Board firmly declined to accept the offer. In 1893, however, the Board found itself under the necessity of accepting this self- sacrifice on the part of Dr. Proudfit, however reluc- tant they were to do it. In 1892 it was decided to enlarge and improve the Infant Class Room, and plans were submitted to the Board by a special com- mittee, of which Dr. J. E. Dwinelle was chairman. These plans were approved by the Committee, to- gether with plans for the proper ventilation of the main Sabbath School room, the whole expense not to be over $1,500. The Building Committee, consisting of Messrs. Haynes, Thompson, Yeisley, Smith, Abercrombie and Dr. Dwinelle, was given authority to proceed with the work. On January 4th, 1893, the Junior C. E. Society was organized, with four members; but before the end of the year had thirty-three enrolled. The report to Presbytery showed a total addition of thirty-three persons to the membership, making the number of communicants two hundred and ninety-eight, “the largest in many years.” SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 217 November 28th of this year, the pastor placed the following letter in the hands of Session (upon which Dr. Proudfit retired) for their consideration and ac- tion: To the Session of the Second Presbyterian Church: Dear BRETHREN.—At the meeting of the Session, on the Ist inst., I called your attention to the in- tended resignation of the pastoral charge of Broad- way Presbyterian Church of the Rev. George E. Jones, and the possible bearing it might have upon the future of our beloved church in the matter of consolidation of the two churches. I told you I would not stand in the way. In the American of last Saturday the notice of Dr. Jones’ actual resignation was published, together with the statement that the Presbytery of Baltimore would be asked at its meeting on December 4th and 6th, to dissolve the relation. Without delay I have called you together to consider what should be done in the premises, and to carry out what I intimated te you on November Ist, I would do, viz.: ‘Stand aside, so that the two congregations might consider the question of consolidation without any embarras- ment which might arise from the Second Church having a pastor while the Broadway Church had none. I, therefore, ask you to call a meeting of the con- gregation of the Second Church on next Sabbath, 218 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY December 3d, for the purpose of uniting with me in a request to the Presbytery of Baltimore, at its meet- ing next week, to dissolve the pastoral relations sub- sisting between the Second Church and myself, said dissolution to take effect on the first day of Janu- ary, 1894. In taking this step I am fully aware of the gravity of its possible consequences. This is no sudden and ill-considered act upon my part, as is shown by my intimation to you on November Ist, one month ago, which intimation was also the result of long and prayerful deliberation. For months I have been con- sidering the matter in all its bearings and waiting upon God for light and guidance. I think He has given it. Last Friday I received the direct offer of an important work in a distant part of the country, and in a climate in which I feel that it would be a great benefit to me to, pass the winter. For several winters past I have had severe colds, and I find increasing difficulty in shaking them off in the dampness, especially at night, which charac- terizes this climate in winter. * * * Gratefully ac- knowledging the goodness of God in granting us perfect harmony during these eight and a half years, and thanking you, brethren of the Session, for the active co-operation which you have given me, your pastor, in my efforts to win souls and to edify the church, I remain, with assurance of my sincere affec- SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 219 tion for each one of you and my continued prayers to the God of All Grace for His blessing upon you and “the whole flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, “Yours in the Lord, “ALEXANDER PROUDFIT.” Baltimore, Md., November 28, ’93. The congregation was plunged into grief when this announcement was made to them and would scarcely listen to Dr. Proudfit’s reasons, until seeing that his decision was unalterable, they reluctantly ac- quiesced. After stating the facts in the case, the congrega- tion sets forth its testimonial of the worth and char- acter of Dr. Proudfit in no uncertain terms. “We do at the same time,” they add, “desire to say-that the suggestion of the severance of the rela- tion of pastor and people, which has existed between us for eight and a half years, came from Dr. Proud- fit, and has been a source of heartfelt grief to the congregation. While we concur in his request, it is done solely because we wish to be governed by his judgment as to what is best. “Considering the interests of our denomination, and especially of our own church in the field where we are located and working, we do also bear witness to his faithfulness in preaching a pure Gospel, to 220 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY his unfailing attention and tender sympathy in times of sickness and sorrow, and to his loving care and watchfulness over the flock, of which he has been the Under Shepherd. “In him the rich and poor have always found a friend, so that it has been truly said of him, “he did not know the difference between a rich person and a poor person.’ He has been well called ‘the Model Pastor.’ “We desire to place on record our appreciation of the faithful work he has done in our midst, which has resulted in an increase of the membership, and leaves the congregation at this time in good working condition. “Furthermore, we point with somewhat of pride to the valuable service he has rendered our denomi- nation in Baltimore and vicinity by giving much time, labor, money and counsel in helping to estab- lish, foster and strengthen other churches. “Finally, we beg to assure Dr. Proudfit that in leaving us he enjoys our confidence and affection; that our prayers go with him wheresoever he may be called to serve our common Master; that we will always be deeply interested in his welfare and happi- ness, and that in our homes he will always be made a welcome guest.” Dr. Proudfit did not rest very long until called to become pastor of the First Presbyterian Church SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 221 of Springfield, Ill. About two years later, on Sab- bath, March 28th, 1897, having already preached twice in his own church, he made arrangements to preach in the evening in Oakland Chapel, connected with it. Feeling sickness coming on toward evening he said nothing about it, for he was very loathe to give up the service. The extra exertion was too much for his already overstrained heart, and he suc- cumbed April 2d, 1897, falling to sleep “as gently shuts the eye of day.” The news came as a great shock to the congrega- tion of the Second Church, among whom the name of Dr. Proudfit was still a household word. The Ses- sion met and forwarded the following testimonial to his bereaved family: “We have heard with sorrow of the death of our former pastor, Rev. Alexander Proudfit, D. D., which occurred at Springfield, Ohio, on the 2nd of April, 1897, after an illness of but a few days. In view of the fact that he was pastor of the Second Church for over eight years, we desire to place on record this expression of our estimate of the life and work of Dr. Proudfit, and of the great loss his death has caused. “We bear most affectionate testimony to the genu- ineness of his religion, the consistency of his life, and point to him as a most conscientious ambassador of Christ, one who faithfully exemplified his preach- ing in his living. 222 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY “We record with loving recollection the faithful- ness with which he preached the Gospel of our Lord and the simplicity of purpose and earnestness which characterized his preaching. “We remember with gratitude his faithful pasto- ral work and the helpfulness and comfort he brought to so many homes that were in trouble. “We join with the great company to whom he has ministered and who have felt the influence of his life and the power of his preaching, in the feeling that his death has brought a great loss to our church. We wish to assure his family of our deep sympathy for them in this their time of great sorrow, and to commend them to that loving Heavenly Father to whom their dear one during his life commended so many, and to whom he would so confidingly con- duct them.” In his memorial sermon, preached in the Presby- terian Church of Clayton, N. J., April 25th, 1897, the pastor, Rev. G. W. Tomson, said: “He was not old ; he was not incapacitated by infirmity. He seem- ed to be in the very prime of his consecrated man- hood, better equipped than ever by his ripened pow- ers and years of wide and rich experience to do the Master’s work. It has been said of him, ‘at no time during his whole ministry has God been more mani- festly with him, and in the course of two short years he seemed to win the affection and esteem not only of his own church, but of the whole community.’ ” SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 223 Alexander Proudfit was well equipped for his chosen work. He sprang from a family of preach- ers. His father was a preacher, also his grandfather and his great-grandfather, being Rev. James Proud- fit, who came from Scotland in 1754 as a missionary to the Indians. This is the true Apostolic succession which we would have been glad to see continued unto the glorious appearing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He often said that from early childhood he never thought of being anything else than a preacher of the Gospel. This was the spirit of the coming man of God and this his environment. Is it any wonder our Second Church saw under his ministrations the splendid foundations laid of a spiritually-minded and Scripturally-inclined people, who build upon that foundation unto this day? Dr. Proudfit was of fine presence, strong physique, and affable, courteous speech and manner. Because of this he was a great favorite with all classes in his congregation. His heart was singularly tender and he was easily affected by his presentation of the truth or the vision he saw of the distress about him in the world. Yet he was a brave pastor, as well as kind, speaking the truth in love and by a strong and sweet gentleness bearing his public or private testimony before all. He was a manly man, close in the fellow- ship of Jesus Christ. The love of Christ constrained him. 224 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY In the furtherance of the desire of Dr. Proudfit for the consolidation of the Second and Broadway Presbyterian Churches, a congregational meeting was called for Wednesday evening, December 27th, 1893, at which meeting the congregation unani- mously adopted these resolutions, that the members of the Second Presbyterian Church cordially invite the congregation of the Broadway Presbyterian Church to unite with them. It was also decided at a subsequent meeting that it would be unwise to abandon the locality in which the Second Church then was, and the following were appointed a com- mittee to convey these resolutions to the Broadway Church: Messrs. Smith, Thompson and McAllister. This movement for the consolidation of these two churches was also fruitless, and on March 7th, 1894, the congregation met to elect a pastor. Their choice fell upon Robert Howard Taylor, who was just completing his course in Princeton Thelogical Seminary. Mr. Taylor accepted the call and entered upon his work the first Sabbath of June, 1894. He was ordained to the work of the Gospel ministry and installed pastor of the church by the Presbytery of Baltimore June 8th, 1894. A memorable event in the history of the Sabbath School this year was the celebration, in September, of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Superintendent Mr. Robert H. Smith. It was no ordinary occasion SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 225 in the life of the School, for those twenty-five years bore ample proof of the skilful and loving leader, whom the School that day delighted to honor. Nor was it an ordinary day in the life of Mr. Smith, for his was a School to be proud of, responding to his guiding hand as a loving child seeks the caresses of his father. And best of all, to this day, the same School, but larger and more prosperous in every way, and many of the old scholars, larger and wiser and better grown, greet the same affectionate coun- sellor and friend of the by-gone days. To whom shall greater task be given than to lead the lambs of the flock as the gentle Shepherd Himself; not as Peter the Hermit, who led the vast army of children to suffering and death; but like Peter the Apostle, who obeyed the Master’s command: “Feed my lambs,” “For of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.” A beautiful picture unfolds before our eyes of a gen- tle shepherd toward the close of day wending his weary way up the hill toward the sheep-fold. Be- hind him the flock he has so tenderly shepherded all the day. As we watch, the evening shadows fall around and hide them from our eyes. *Tis only for a little space, and then the whole hillside is aglow with celestial light, and “in the midst” one like unto the Son of Man. He bids the shepherd draw near to His side and gently lifts to His bosom the lambs so carefully guarded for Him. While with a look of 226 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY unutterable love, He thus addresses the shepherd: “Well done, good and faithful shepherd; I gave thee these lambs to tend for Me and thou dost faithfully and lovingly bring Me back Mine own; enter, thou, into the joy of thy Lord.’’ And when we turned to look, everywhere the children, with glad faces, ran to his side, and together their voices blended in “The Song of the Lamb.” ’Twas earth removed and Heaven begun. In the narrative to the Presbytery for the year ending March 31st, 1895, mention is particularly made of a deepening spiritual interest. At the March Communion twenty-seven persons were added to the church, the total membership being three hundred and twelve. The year was closed without debt, “owing no man anything save the Gospel.” ; A Young Men’s League was formed, with a mem- bership of fifty, and a Boys’ Choir drafted from the Sabbath School to assist in the service Sabbath evening. July 11th, 1895, it was decided that the greatest need of the church was a new organ, and a commit- tee was appointed to take the matter in hand. The result was the present very fine instrument, which was erected at a total expense of nearly $3,000—all of which was subscribed and paid for by brs, pledges. SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 227 In October, 1895, the Session adopted the new Hymnal of the Presbyterian Church, recommended by the General Assembly, and the congregation be- gan to use it in public worship the first Sabbath of January, 1896. The congregation was delighted to look into the face of a Maghera man in February, 1897, for the pastor had invited Rev. William Hall, A. M., to oc- cupy the pulpit for two Sabbaths in that month. It was a far look back to Glendy, and there were none present who could take it. In October the Responsive Reading of the Psalms as a part of Public Worship was adopted by Ses- sion. Systematic visitation was also undertaken, Session employing Miss Christy Stewart, through whom the entire neighborhood was thoroughly canvassed. It was sought to enlist the boys in the work of the church through the formation of a Boys’ Brig- ade, and for several years the plan was measurably successful, but was finally abandoned. The special services held during the spring of 1899 were of unusual interest, and resulted, through the Holy Spirit’s presence and blessing, in twenty-one souls being added to the number of the Lord’s peo- ple. It rarely happens that the Session of one con- gregation feels called upon to urge the pastor of an- other congregation to remain with his charge, 228 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY though the two congregations may be members of the same Presbytery. When Dr. Maltbie D. Babcock received so hearty a call to become the pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church of New York City, it seemed as though he were more than the pastor of Brown Memorial Church; every church claimed him, for all admired him, and recognized his influence in their midst. He was the pastor of the city; and the Session of the Second Presbyterian Church but voiced the senti- ments of every true-hearted, Christ-loving citizen when they said to Dr. Babcock, November 12th, 1899: “This Session feels called upon to urge Rev. Dr. Maltbie D. Babcock, pastor of Brown Memorial Church, to decline the call to the pulpit of the Brick Church, New York City, because, in our opinion, the interests of our denomination in this city are so largely dependent upon the work of Dr. Babcock, that his leaving Baltimore would work an injury so serious that it cannot be estimated; and, further, because, as the result of Dr. Babcock’s pulpit work, he has gained a hold and influence upon so large a number of persons, and has changed so many lives, that we are convinced his present field and position has greater claims upon him than any new field.” Upon Dr. Babcock’s removal to New York the news of his increasing popularity and blessed influ- ence over large numbers, who crowded to hear him, ROBERT H. SMITH SUPERINTENDENT OF SABBATH SCHOOL SINCE 1869 SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 229 was received as a matter of course among his old friends as but the beginning of a widening and deep- ening influence for Jesus Christ. How shocking the news flashed across the ocean, ‘“Dr. Babcock is dead.” But after the heart had time to regain its poise came back the influence of that man’s own buoyant, confident hope, and his own sweet words: “This is the death of Death, to breathe away a breath, And know the end of strife, and taste the deathless life, And joy without a fear, and smile without a tear; And work, nor care to rest, and find the last the best.” After a pastorate of full seven years, Mr. Taylor tendered his resignation to the congregation, setting forth his reasons. In pursuance of the order of Ses- sion, the congregation was called together January 23d, 1901, to take action, preparatory to coming before Presbytery. After Mr. Taylor had read a paper, which set forth his reasons for the step, the congregation acquiesced in his desire for the dissolu- tion of the pastoral relation, not to take effect, how- ever, until the 17th day of March, 1901. A com- mittee was appointed to express in suitable terms the sense of loss felt by the congregation over the departure of their pastor. 230 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY Mr. Taylor has been called and settled pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Canonsburg, Pa., during this present year. This is the congregation to which Robert J. Breckinridge ministered while President of Jefferson College, of which college Drs. Joseph T. Smith and George P. Hays were graduates, and Drs. Robert J. Breckinridge and Jonathan Edwards were Presidents. After the consolidation of Jeffer- son with Washington forming Washington and Jefferson College, both Drs. Henry C. Minton and Robert H. Fulton were graduates and Dr. George P. Hays was a President. Shortly after the resignation of Mr. Taylor the question of the consolidation of the Second and Broadway Churches was again revived. It was felt by many of the members of both churches that much more effective work might be accomplished by one large congregation than by two situated so close together. At a joint meeting of representatives of the two congregations, and after much discussion, it was decided to place the matter before the two con- gregations. The Second congregation accordingly held its meeting May 22nd, 1901, to which it was reported that the Broadway Church had held a sim- ilar meeting and had decided that they were in favor of a union with the Second Church, whereupon the following resolutions were unanimously adopted: SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 231 Resolved, That the members of the Second Pres- byterian Church have heard of the proposal and action of the Broadway Presbyterian Church look- ing towards a union of the two churches with great pleasure and favor ; Resolved, That in view of this action on the part of the Broadway Church, three commissioners be chosen from the Second Church to confer with like commissioners from the Broadway Church and to arrange a plan for such union; Resolved, That so important a step calls for special guidance and grace to be given the commissioners of the two churches, and that the members of our church be requested to make this matter a subject of prayer, especially seeking the Holy Spirit’s pres- ence and help in the conference between said com- missioners.” The commissioners from the two congregations met, pursuant to notice, and drafted the following plan of union: 1. The name of the Second Church shall be con- tinued. 2. The Elders of the Broadway Church shall be elected members of the Session of the Second Church. 3. The deacons of the Broadway Church shall be elected Deacons in the Second Church. 232 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY 4. The members of the Broadway Church shall be given representation on the Board of Trustees of the Second Church at the next annual election. 5. The Sabbath school of the Broadway Church shall be continued in the present church building until it shall be sold, and after such sale provision shall be made for its continuance in East Baltimore. 6. The Broadway Church property shall be con- veyed to the Second Church and, when sold, the pro- ceeds of such sale shall be used as follows, viz: A sum not exceeding four thousand dollars shall be used for the purchase of a parsonage and the balance shall be held in trust for the purpose of establishing and supporting a work in East Baltimore. This plan of union agreed upon by the commis- sioners of both churches, the congregation of Broad- way failed to ratify and for the third time the effort at consolidation was relinquished. The committee appointed by the congregation to secure for them a pastor, proposed the name of Thomas Holmes Walker at a meeting of the congre- gation held June 12th, 1901, and a unanimous call was made out for him in due form. Mr. Walker accepted this call and entered upon his labors the Second Sabbath of July, 1901. The installation ser- vices were held October 4th, 1901, the Rev. John L. Allison, moderator of Presbytery, presiding; Rev. Donald Guthrie, D. D., pastor of the First Church, SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 233 preached the sermon; Rev. J. Wynne Jones offered the Prayer of Installation; Rev. John Timothy Stone pastor of Brown Memorial Church, delivered the charge to the pastor and the venerable Rev. Joseph T. Smith, D. D., the charge to the congregation. Thomas Holmes Walker is a native of the city of Philadelphia, and received his early education in the public schools of that city. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and studied Theology in the Seminary of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Allegheny, Pa. He ministered for some years to the congregation of that denomination in this city, leaving it to become pastor of the Broadway Presby- terian Church December, 1899, which pastorate he resigned June, 1901, to accept the call from the Sec- ond Church. An event of unusual interest to the con- gregation was the annual congregational meeting and supper held October 31, 1901, when, after a bountiful feast, provision was made for the work of the new fiscal year. In appropriate speeches the pastor and his wife were welcomed, and pastor and people hap- pily established in harmonious union for the progres- sive movements which the opportunities of the year might present. Throughout the winter a quiet spiritual work was attested to by increased interest in the salvation of souls manifested throughout the congregation, par- ticularly in the Sabbath school. A teachers’ class 234 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY was formed, to meet every Friday evening for the study of the Sabbath school lesson. This class was largely attended. The pastor also gathered together into a catechetical class those who were desirous of ' preparing themselves for uniting with the church. These classes meet once a week at some suitable time for six weeks or more prior to each communion. These meetings, together with faithful teaching and training on the part of our Sabbath school teachers, made the special services held in the Spring of this year, more than usually influential, and “the Lord added unto the church of such as are being saved,” twenty-six souls. The Session was called upon early in the spring to note the severe accident which had laid aside tem- porarily the clerk of Session, Mr. John Abercrombie. It is but just that we pay here our meed of praise to this faithful servant of the Second Presbyterian Church, who, as Secretary of the Board of Trustees, prior to this accident, never missed a meeting of the Board in more than thirty years, and as a member of and the Clerk of Session, since his being ordained. has shown the same commendable zeal and fidelity. May the Lord bless him in his office bearing in our church and make him a chosen vessel to bear His comfort and His salvation to many. Early in the fall of 1901 a reorganization of some of our mission bands was effected, by which the old SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 235 members of the Earnest Workers and Robert H. Smith Mission Bands united with other male mem- bers of the congregation to form a Men’s Associa- tion, while new members were secured for these organizations. The Men’s Association being div- ided into three sections—Missionary, Religious Work and Social—seeks, as these names would imply, to enlist all the men of the congregation in the work of the church in general, as well as of our own church in particular, and with it all to cultivate those social qualities which make our service here the more enjoyable. During the summer of 1902 the church building was given a complete renovation, being beautifully frescoed and painted, the entire cost of these im- provements being upwards of $3,000. In all our preparations to celebrate in a fitting manner the completion of one hundred years of his- tory, there is a hearty desire to learn of the past, not for the sake of the past, nor for the sake of the pres- ent, but of the future. We recognize that our con- gregation has a life and a character, with all the functions and powers of an organism, that we by our faithfulness or unfaithfulness today shall usher this life, weak or strong, into the opportunities of tomorrow. Hence we live not for ourselves in our congrega- tional life, but for the generations to come, for those 236 ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY who need us and for Christ “who loved us and gave Himself for us.” We have ever been and must ever be ready to give of our best in the establishment of Christ’s Kingdom. Propagation is the law of the kingdom. Selfism kills. History may be only his- tory or it may be more. If “our story” of the already long life of our congregation is ““His-story” then it is prophecy and promise. The Son of Man who walked with our fathers shall to the generations to come declare His mercy and His grace, and He will use us in doing it, “Blessed be His glorious name, forever and forever.” Amid all the changes which have taken place in the environment of the church, necessarily affecting the personnel of the congregation, the member- ship today shows unmistakably every phase of substantial progress which has been made in Chris- tian character and work during the past Century. The children are taking, according to God’s promise, the places of the fathers. If their burden was heavy so is ours today. If they found strength to bear theirs triumphantly, we shall find, in no whit dim- inished, the sovereign grace of the Omnipotent God, ready to furnish us unto every good work. Here on earth in the church of God our names are written. May they be written as certainly in the Lamb’s Book of Life. SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 237 Present membership of the Second Presbyterian Church: Abercrombie, John. Abercrombie, Mrs. E. S. Abercrombie, David T. Abercrombie, Harry N. Abercrombie, Mrs. M. B. Abercrombie, Maud M. Abercrombie, Ronald T. Abercrombie, Mary T. Abercrombie, Robert F. ‘Alvather, Mrs. Letitia. Alvather, Maggie. Alvather, Emily J. Alvather, Wm. Thomas. Ballauf, Cora Villette. Bangert, Mrs. J. W. Bates, Mrs. J. Atkinson. Bauers, John. Bauers, Mrs. Elizabeth. Bauers, Mary. Bay, Mrs. Emily W. Bell, Jessie S. Bell, Irene. Bell, Stella. Bell, Martha Elizabeth. Bell, Minnie. Bell, Sarah. Bennett, William T. Bernhardt, Marguerite. Beigel, Frederick Chas. Boyd, Emma E. Bramble, Mrs. Alma E. Brentine, Mrs. Mary. Brown, Mrs. Frances A. Brown, Miss Frances A. Bristor, Charles Morris. Breuner, Harry W. Bryson, Alice. Brusstar, Minnie. Brill, Marie. Buck, Helen R. Burch, Eva S. Burnett, James. Busick, Mrs. M. Cath. Busick, James Henry. Burker, Albert. Burker, Mrs. Lucille A. Burlingame, Claude. Buchsbaum, Amelia P. Carter, Mrs. Maria W. Carter, Edwin. Carlin, Mrs. Emily Jane. Carlin, Florence Irene. Caulk, Howard. Caulk, Mrs. Laura A. Carback, Jennie Reed. Carback, Annie Mary. Carrington, Mrs. Ethel C. Christie, Mrs. Eliza. Christie, James R. Christie, Nettie Ken. Christie, Belle McKenzie. Christie, Laura. 238 Clohan, Agnes. Coyle, Harry H. Coyle, Mrs. Anna Isab. Coyle, Peter Thompson. Collins, Mrs. Martha. Corckran, Mrs. Annie G. Corckran, James Gamble. Commons, Susie L. Cougle, Mrs. Sarah E. Cosh, Harry Moreland. Conn, Margarette Emma. Cox, Kathryn Holdefer. Cruett, May Irene. Culver, Mrs. Jane. Davids, Mrs. Katie G. Davies, John O., M. D. Davies, Mrs. Kath. L. Davies, Amy Elizabeth. Davies, August. Davies, Ruth. Dwinelle, Mrs. Susan E. Englehaupt, Frederick. Evans, Harry G. Evans, Mrs. Julia H. L. Fanning, Mrs. Emma P. Fanning, Mrs. Bessie S. Faust, Ella Waidner. Feuchter, John. Feuchter, Margaret A. Feuchter, Louis John. Feuchter, Alice. Flaharty, Katie. Flaharty, Eleanore Isa. ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY Flowers, Mrs. Susie M. Flowers, William R. Flowers, Ida Virginia. Flowers, Bessie May. Flowers, John Melvin. Fleischman, William. Fossett, Henry Clay. Fossett, Mrs. M. V. Fossett, Grace. Fort, John Bancroft. Ford, George. Frederick, Henry C. Fuld, Viola. Fuld, Etta. Gable, Clara. Gambrill, Mrs. Minnie S. Geblein, Florence May. Gettman, Cora F. Germershausen, E. L. Gosweiler, Mrs. Laura J. Graham, Mrs. Emma. Graham, Blanche A. Green, Olivia D. Green, Mamie C. Green, Emma F. Green, Sarah A. Greaver, Charlotte H. Greaver, Virginia E. Greaver, Eleanor L. Groshaus, Mrs. A. K. Haman, Mrs. Eliza. Haman, James Reed. Haman, Sarah Campbell. SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. Hall, Mrs. Melville A. Hall, Melville A. Hall, Anna Eliza. Hall, Amy Frances. Haynes, Frank R. Haynes, Mrs. Ethel Foss. Haynes, Alice Louise. Hamel, Lillie E. Hartung, Bertha. Hartung, Pauline. Henderson, Helen L. Hill, Nannie. Hildwein, Mrs. Bertha. Hildwein, Amelia. Holdefer, William. Holdefer, Helen Marie. Holloway, Henry C. Hopkins, Estelle May. Ilgenfritz, Mrs. Nellie K. Janney, Mrs. W. W. Janney, Mary Caroline. Janney, Elizabeth W. Janney, Marion Dean. Janney, Maggie Norris. Janney, John W. Jenkins, Mrs. Mary F. Jenkins, Barzilia Cole. Johnstone, Mrs. Jesse. Johnstone, Mary Jane. Johnstone, William Jas. Johnstone, Isabelle M. Johnstone, John Arthur. Jones, Margaret Roberta. 239 Jones, Harry B. Jones, Mrs. Hannah J. Kansler, Fannie M. Kane, Robert J. Kane, Mrs. Victoria R. Kane, Samuel Rankin. Kellogg, Harriet E. Kellogg, Mary Louise. Kettenbach, Chas. H. F. King, Charles Howard. Kirkness, Edward F. Kimpel, Lillian May. Kreitman, Carroll. Krause, Emil Paul. Lapsley, Frank Sloane. Lapsley, Henry. Lantz, Mrs. Emma M. Lang, Rosa Margaret. Lewis, Mrs. R. J. List, Mamie. Link, George Alden. Link, Margaret Ann. Link, Louis Nicholas. Link, Margaret A. C. Lindenburger, Katie. Loiselle, Eva E. Loane, Emma Frances. Ludwig, Sigmund. Mackey, Samuel W. Mackey, Mrs. Sara I. Mackey, Florence I. Mackey, Sarah Margaret. Marshall, Samuel. 240 Marshall, Mrs. Samuel. Marshall, Susan W. Marshall, Sophia. Mailey, Mrs. Mary J. Mansfield, A. D., M. D. Manly, William L. Mann, Catherine. Meyer, Charles E. Miller, Lottie. Miller, Mrs. Rosa. Michael, Grace E. Michael, May G. Michael, Jeannette. Mitchell, Mrs. Mary B. Moore, Bessie S. Morrill, Mrs. Edna F. Mullikin, Mary C. McAllister, Mrs. Jane. McGlenn, John. McKenzie, John. McKenzie, Mrs. John. McKenzie, Robert K. McKenzie, John Stuart. McNulty, Mrs. Isabella. Nicholson, Mrs. E. R. Nicholson, Mrs. C. H. Nicklas, Andrew. Nicklas, Mrs. Mary C. North, Mrs. E. S. O’Leary, Margaret. Oster, John Walter. Oster, Mrs. Laura K. McGinity, Mrs. Mary R. ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY Otto, Mrs. Lydia R. Overbeck, Mrs. A. C. Overbeck, August H. Overbeck, Alma Cath. Overbeck, Edward Geo. ° Overcash, Thos. N. Overcash, Mrs. John N. Overcash, Torrance D. Phillips, Wm. B. Pilkey, Mrs. Mollie. Plitt, Wm. Frederick. Popp, John Edward. Popp, Mary Alice. Pohler, Wm. Robert. Proudfit, John W. Prussing, Mrs. Caro. C. Rahter, Mrs. Annie L. Relleker, Geo. L., Jr. Relleker, Rose. Relleker, Harry C. Reuner, Harry. Riehl, Katinka K. Roth, Wm. Jacob. Roth, Mary Emelia. Roth, Annie C. Roth, Emma Victoria. Roth, Henry. Roth, Mrs. Katharine. Robinson, John H., M. D. Robinson, Mrs. J. H. Robinson, Esther H. Roberts, Cora M. L. Roberts, Martin. SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. Roberts, Rosa. Roberts, David. Rosendorn, Phillip H. Rosendorn, W. Cath. Rosendorn, Emma. Rogers, Grace. Rowe, A. T. Rusk, Mrs. Mary E. Rusk, Glanville Y. Rusk, Elizabeth E. Rusk, Anna Y. Rusk, Catherine G. Rusk, Merle DeH. Rusk, Emma. Schaeffer, Caroline H. Scherf, Frederick. Schmick, Margaret C. Schmick, Walter P. Schell, Minnie. Schloegel, Eleonora. Schloegel, Anna C. Schaake, Mrs. Sophia. Schaake, Bertha Lottie. Schreiner, Clara Louise. Sippel, John F. Sippel, Mrs. John F. Sippel, William F. Smith, Robert H. Smith, Mrs. Robert H. Smith, Mrs. J. Charles. Smith, Helen Alford. Smith, Emily E. Smullen, Mrs. Sallie. 241 Stahn, Mrs. Justice. Stahn, Louise C. Stahn, Adaline Janie. Stahn, Justus Matthew. Staudt, Edw. Fred. Stewart, Mary Jane. Staetzer, Lota Marie. Staetzer, Angust Henry. Stoner, Sallie. Stoner, Mollie J. Spengerman, Ida E. Spengerman, Amanda M. Spengerman, Clara A. Spengerman, Virginia P. Stromenger, Mrs. Mary. Stromenger, Mary E. Stromenger, Bettie. Stromenger, Miriam. Stromenger, Walter N. Swann, Mrs. Emma. Swann, Mary Catherine. Strohmeyer, J. Henry. Strohmeyer, George O. Taylor, Mrs. Laura P. Taylor, Mrs. Charles. Thomas, Mrs. Mary F. Thomas, Annie Eliza. Thomas, Wm. John R. Thomas, Richmond Earl. Thompson, Annie J. Thompson, Mary Belle. Trotton, Clara Ellen. Utermohle, George L. 242 Utermohle, Anne E. Utermohle, Caroline A. Utermohle, Georgie B. Utermohle, Catharin V. Utermohle, Geo. Albert. Utermohle, Annie Eliza. Utermohle, Mary Kath. Utermohle, Chas. Edw. Verner, Mrs. Belle Bay. Waters, F. Barrierre. Waters, Charles F. P. Warnsman, Adolph. Warnsman, Mrs. C. Warnsman, Frederick. Warnsman, Margaret A. Warnsman, Leona A. Warnsman, Adolph C. Warnsman, Grace L. Wagner, Minnie L. Wagner, Mrs. Alice L. Wagner, Lawrence E. Walker, Mrs. T. H. Weitzell, Mollie. ONE HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY Weigel, Charles. Weigel, Mrs. Rosa. Wells, Gertrude R. Wheeler, Charlotte L. Whittemore, Dana P. Wilkins, Geo. L., M. D. Wilkinson, Mrs. Mary S. Wilkinson, George. Williams, Mrs. Ida E. Wiley, John Kilgore. Wiley, Mrs. Laura E. Wilson, Anna Victoria. Winslow, Clara Allen. Wright, Charles A. Wooders, Mrs. John. Wooders, Mary M. Wooders, John. ‘Worthington, Cora S. Worthington, Ella M. Yarnell, James I. Yeisley, Mrs. Eliza. L. Yeisley, Emma A. Zimmerman, Mrs. J. A. SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 243 OFFICERS OF THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. THOMAS HOLMES WALKER, PASTOR. MEMBERS OF SESSION. Robert H. Smith. John McKenzie. John Abercrombie. Harry G. Evans. Robert J. Kane. Frank R. Haynes. BOARD OF DEACONS. Chas. FP. Waters. Charles E. Meyer. John W. Janney. William J. Roth. Harry N. Abercrombie. Fred. Scherf. Dana P. Whittemore. BOARD OF TRUSTEES. John Abercrombie. W. W. Janney. *George L. Krebs. JAW. Oster: ie G.. Fossett. John F. Sippel. Harry G. Evans. Justice Stahn. J. H. Robinson, M. D. W. H. Rowe. Ee J. Kane. *J. H. Dwinelle, M. D. Martin A. Roberts. * Deceased. One of the most interesting spectacles in all his- tory, because of intensely heroic and Christlike endu- rance of sufferings, was the martyrdom of Polycarp, who, it was said, knew the Apostle John, who had known our Lord in the flesh. Thus the living links stretched back through the years. In our congrega- tion today, though we have none who can remember Dr. John Glendy, there is one who was baptized by him, and who therefore, can remember very many interesting anecdotes related of him by her parents. We are glad of this living link with such an ancient past, and pray that Miss Mary Steuart may be long spared to our congregation. > Date Due EC 3 D Demco 38-297 HTT HHT