Sif(2 'Bf<»f« of ^^^^^^ ^»f« BX9517 .5.N5 M4C43 fiUv ptau of €]^mt]) Life 1^1 I " I', X o ^ ui D U T < o a O H r- W Q ^ [l1 -J J Q Q iftft^ gcarisJ of Cl)urcl) Life AN HISTORICAL DISCOURSE t Rev. TALBOT W. CHAMBERS, D.D., LL.D. ONE OF THB MINISTERS OP THE COLLEGIATE CHURCH ©ditacrcb ^^lunbap J!iaornin{j, /^ebruariP 20, 1887 MIDDLE DUTCH CHURCH LAFAYETTE PLACE NEW YORK IN VIEW OF %\^z asemotal of tl^at OBuiitiins PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE CONSISTORY GILLISS BROTHERS & TURNURE THE ART AGE PRESS 400 i"402 WEST 14TH STREET, N. AN unusually large audience was gathered to hear this discourse, not a few having come from a distance to worship once more in the old church. The order for the Morning Service at present pre- vailing in the Collegiate Churches was observed through- out the service, and it has been thought desirable to record the same in connection with the discourse. The last services in the church were held on Sun- day, February 27th. At the Morning Service on that day the Lord's Supper was administered to a large congregation. €)rtier of ^ertfce Anthem: "God is a Spirit," etc. The Invocation and Lord's Prayer The Salutation The Reading of the Law Response The Psalter: Psalm cxxxii. Gloria Patri Lesson from the Old Testament : L Kings, viii., i-ii Gloria in Excelsis Lesson from the New Testament: Rev., xxi., 23-27; xxii., 1-5 Hymn: No. i. " Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty" HOLY, Holy, Holy ! Lord God Almighty ! Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee : Holy, Holy, Holy, merciful and mighty ; God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity! Holy, Holy, Holy! all the Saints adore Thee, Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea, Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee, Which wert, and art, and evermore shalt be. Holy, Holy, Holy ! though the darkness hide Thee, Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see, Only Thou art Holy; there is none beside Thee Perfect in power, in love, and purity. Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty! All Thy works shall praise Thy name, in earth and sky and sea : Holy, Holy, Holy! merciful and mighty; God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity! Amen. Immediately after this hymn the Minister, following according to his custom an old usage of the church, delivered the Exordium Remotum as follows : < < T N the first year of my ministry, and before my ordination, X while staying at the house of one of the elders, I hap- pened to see a sermon lying on the table, which, upon examination, turned out to be a discourse delivered by the Rev. Dr. Knox at the dedication of this place of worship. My attention was at once arrested ; because I knew him personally, because he had been born in Pennsylvania in a county adjoining the one in which I first saw the light, and because a few months before I had heard him at the house of a friend speak of the solidity of this granite edifice. But the last thought to enter my mind then was that after the lapse of so many years I should be present here to pronounce the closing discourse, corresponding to the opening one which he pronounced in 1839. Yet so it has come to pass, and this is the purpose for which we have assembled this morning. In view of the theme, I trust that you will allow me to tax your time and attention somewhat longer than has been usual." Prayer Hymn: No. 559. ''I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord" I LOVE Thy kingdom. Lord, The house of Thine abode, The church our blest Redeemer saved With His own precious blood. I love Thy church, O God i Her walls before Thee stand, Dear as the apple of Thine eye. And graven on Thy hand. If e'er my heart forget Her welfare or her woe. Let every joy this heart forsake. And every grief o'erflow. For her my tears shall fall. For tfef my prayers ascend ; To her my cares and toils be given Till toils and cares shall end. Offerings Sermon Prayer doxology Benediction THE HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. Lord, I love the habitation of thy house, And the place where thy glory dwelleth. Ps. xxvi. 8. (Rev. Ver.) THE Psalm containing the text is peculiar as being not so much a confession of sin as a protestation of in- nocence. The singer asks and hopes not to be treated as the wicked because he is unlike them ; he has not chosen their fellowship nor frequented their companies, but on the contrary washes his hands in innocency and delights in the congregations of the Lord. Such claims, however, are not assertions of human merit but rather acknowledg- ments of the divine loving kindness which was ever before David's eyes. The New Testament counterpart of the utterance is found in the Apostle's solemn declaration (II. Cor. ii. 12), ''For our glorying is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God we behaved our- selves in the world." There are times when he who is but dust and ashes before God may, or even must, assert the general integrity of his life and the conscious uprightness of his heart. In the text the singer declares his attachment to the or- dinances of worship. The Revised Version brings out the full sense of the words, which is not only that he has loved, but that he still continues to love the Lord's house. It is an abiding characteristic. And the great reason of this affection for the place is that there the glory of Jehovah dwells. That glory, the visible manifestation of the divine presence, took up its abode on the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies, and the devout worshipper knew that when he 8 FIFTY YEARS OF CHURCH LIFE came to the temple, he had communion with the living God. The ordinary name for the sanctuary was the Tent OF Meeting, a name which indicates its peculiar use accord- ing to the promise, " There will I meet with the children of Israel, and t/ie Tent shall be sanctified by my glory." (Ex. xxix. 43). Hence the devout and earnest desire of God's people for the enjoyment of this privilege as we find it often expressed in the Psalter : I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go unto the house of the Lord, (cxxii., i.) How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts ! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord. (Ixxxiv., i.) The same experience was renewed under the Christian dispensation. It is true there was then no longer one cen- tral place of worship to which all the tribes should go up, as indeed there could not be when the Church had spread itself from the River to the ends of the earth. But pro- vision was made for this state of things. Isaiah declared (iv. 4), that in the latter days the Lord would create over the whole habitation of Mount Zion and over her assem- blies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flam- ing fire by night. No longer should these striking insignia of God's presence be confined to a single locality, but they should pervade the whole extent of the Church. The full substance of this blessed promise is given in the brief and simple words of our Saviour — " Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." His disciples have taken him at his word, and in every age have sought the fulfillment of this promise by joint worship, whether in small companies or large. The earliest heathen account of them (Pliny's letter to Trajan) tells of their regular meetings for worship on a stated day. And they persevered in this habit even when it was at the peril of liberty or life. The Catacombs of ancient Rome, the mountain valleys of Piedmont, the dense woods of the Netherlands, the scattered refuges of the Huguenot Church of the Desert, and the glens of Scotland echoed with prayer and praise while a sentinel was constantly on the watch to IN LAFAYETTE PLACE, NEW YdRK 9 sound an alarm if the enemy came in sight. In peaceful times the same tendency is apparent. Throughout the vast extent of our own country, the progress of population has always been accompanied by means and appliances for public worship. From every new settlement there arises a modest spire or belfry to indicate the place where men have erected a house for God, and propose to seek his face and behold his glory. Believers have learned by experience that the Lord never says to his people, Seek ye my face, in vain. Often amid surroundings as rude and desolate as the rocky plain where Jacob laid himself down to sleep, they have re- ceived such disclosures of the divine love and faithfulness as induced them to exclaim with the patriarch, " Surely this is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." Still more is this the case when men meet in a fitting and well-appointed temple, where for scores of years the voice of prayer and praise has been heard, and the very walls recall a thousand tender and sacred associations. One cannot but think of the holy men who in former days min- istered here ; of the sainted dead who nourished their relig- ious life, of the young whose feet were taught to tread the paths of wisdom and peace, of the recent converts whose first confession of Christ was made in this place, of the countless multitude whose earliest religious impressions date back to the time when they occupied these seats. The full results of the maintenance <3f a house of worship where the word and ordinances have been faithfully admin- istered, never can be known on earth or in time, but must await the disclosures of the great day. Still, what is known is of such a character as to awaken profound and lasting in- terest. And it is not possible to contemplate the abrupt sundering of these ties without sadness and regret, espe- cially when the edifice is to be removed, and the place that once knew it is to know it no more forever. Devout wor- shippers feel as if a part of themselves were taken away, and an immedicable wound inflicted upon their sensibilities. The house endeared to them by memories of past years, sometimes running back to childhood, where they have lO FIFTY YEARS OF CHURCH LIFE often been made to sit in heavenly places, where they have found comfort in sorrow and strength in weakness, where they have received many a mighty stimulus in the Christian life, is to pass away like the shifting scenes of a drama and leave not a trace behind. It is not in human nature to be conscious of this without feeling a shock and a pang. This is the present experience of many of you whom I address. This solid and stately edifice which for so many years has been, even when its doors were closed, a mute witness for the claims of God in the heart of our great metropolis, and which in its day has been so effective a factor in the church life of the city, is to be taken down and the ground it occupies to be given over to secular uses. For the reasons given and others that might be mentioned this circumstance is to you a very painful one. It could not be otherwise. Let us see, however, if there are not things that may mitigate the sense of bereavement. The case is not unprecedented. The holy and beautiful house which Solomon built on Moriah, which was rich beyond calcula- tion and was honored by the manifest indwelling of the Most High, and which therefore had a glory the like of which no earthly structure ever enjoyed, was utterly de- stroyed, after standing for centuries and accumulating through successive generations a store of sacred associa- tions. When the time came in the providence of God that its purpose was accomplished it ceased to exist. In like manner the second temple, which although at the beginning a feeble reflection of the first, was so enlarged and adorned by Herod that it rivalled in splendor the proudest fanes existing elsewhere, was in its turn razed to the ground. The Lord Jesus had walked in its porches, had twice cleansed its area, and often taught in its courts, yet none of these memories saved it from the hand of the destroyer. Even as He predicted, not one stone was left upon another. And the ground was still further desecrated by the erection of a pagan temple. Now both these destructions were necessary ; one to preserve a godly seed by transplanting it for seventy years, the other to signalize the change of dis- IN LAFAYETTE PLACE, NEW YORK II pensations and show that the Church was no longer national and local. Both were very painful measures, yet both ac- complished the objects aimed at. And they concur to show that any material structure, no matter how solemnly conse- crated to God, or how enriched with tokens of his presence and favor, may yet come into such a condition as that its removal may be no damage to the Kingdom of God, but rather the contrary. Appeal may be made in like manner to the history of our own city. The first place of worship on this island was erected in 1633, and since then scores and even hundreds of churches have been built, yet of all these now existing only one, St. Paul's Chapel, dates back to a period anterior to the Revolution. Indeed not a few have had their beginning and their end within the present century. Nor may we doubt that in all or nearly all these cases there was a great deal of reluctance in surrendering an old and honored tem- ple of worship. The trial was felt to be very sore. Yet the surrender was made. It was done, not wantonly, not capri- ciously, but simply because in the deliberate judgment of those who made it the best interests alike of the individual congregation and of Christ's cause in the city, required that the sacrifice should be made. The peculiar configuration of the island upon which New York is built, no doubt has largely contributed to this result. Yet the same thing has been seen in other cities otherwise situated. For example, a few months since in Cincinnati a new building was dedi- cated by a church which had so recently as 185 1 erected a " splendid edifice " a mile or two distant, in what at the time was deemed to be a very eligible location. Less than forty years had rendered the change from the heart of the town to one of the suburbs an absolute necessity. Similar was the state of things here. In the year 1769 the North Church was erected for English preaching. For the long period of sixty-eight years from that time, nothing was done in the way of providing new places of worship, al- though the subject had frequently been presented to the Consistory. At length in the year 1836 it was found that so 1,2 FIFTY YEARS OF CHURCH LIFE many of our congregations had removed their residence to a considerable distance from the existing churches, that it was deemed necessary to make provision for them, and accord- ingly on the 9th of November in that year, the corner- stone of this house was laid by Dr. John Knox, the Senior Minister. In his address on that occasion he remarked, " A new erection in this part of the city has been called for by the convenience of many of our own people, thrust out of their former abodes by the ever-encroaching spirit of commerce. * * * The ploughshare of commerce has broken up the foundations of their former dwellings in the older parts of the city, and indeed has already invaded places greatly hallowed in our associations. It has been called for by the state of this particular church, if she will continue to sustain her wonted numbers, and vigor and effi ciency — called for by the duty which we owe to the denomi- nation of which we form a part." These words are true and weighty. They justify the erection then, and at the same time explain the removal now. The house was built to meet the wants of a definite class of people then living in the neighborhood, but that class has now almost disap- peared. Of the families that occupied the pews when the doors were opened, not one remains. Their successors have in a great measure followed them. And the regular congre- gation now is not larger that was that of the old Middle Church in Nassau street, or that of the North in William street when they were closed. It may then with reason be said, that the people for whom the structure was reared having as a body removed, the structure itself may take the same course. To this the objection is sometimes made that the existing congregation although small is very harmo- nious, spirited and active ; that in proportion to its numbers and means it compares favorably with the others of our Communion ; that its Sunday-school and Industrial school are carried on with as much efficiency and success as at any former period of our history, and that therefore it would be unwise to break up so useful an organization. The answer is that no such dissolution is intended, but that accommoda- IN LAFAYETTE PLACE, NEW YORK 13 tions have been provided across the street,* whither the whole plant of the enterprise will be transferred at once and without a break. It is true that the missionary workf carried on here during the last four or five years, has not accomplished the end aimed at so far as respects any con- siderable increase of the morning congregation. But there can be no doubt that a great deal of good has been done, that many young people have been brought into full com- munion, and that a restraining and elevating influence has been exerted upon the children belonging to a large number of families. And at the same time the putting forth of these efforts has been a great blessing to all of those, old or young, who have taken part in this excellent form of Christian work. In watering others they have been watered themselves. But it is hoped and believed that all this can be continued after the transfer. The place will be new and limited, but the work and the workers, the spirit and the aim, will be just what they have been for years. But let us return to the past. The occasion invites us to the review of a half-century — just that period having elapsed since our standard was planted here. Fifty years of church life ! The period is small compared with the roll of the ages, yet how much is involved in it ! The building itself is a creditable monument of the taste of a former gen- eration. It was designed to be a simple, solid structure that would endure for ages. Its exterior, a granite of a light grayish color, and its octastyld^portico of monolith columns, are as staunch to-day as when first set up. The Ionic front resembling that of the temple of Erectheus, a part of which still stands on the summit of the Athenian * No. 14 Lafayette Place. t The origin of this work is as follows : In May 1882, the Consistory appointed a committee " to seek for a suitable person to conduct special services in the Middle Church, and to perform such duties as may from time to time be required of him." This was intended to operate upon the contiguous population of non-church-going persons. In November the same year, the Rev. Henry de Vries commenced serv- ices under the direction of this Committee, and continued for about eighteen months when he was succeeded by the Rev. Livingston L. Taylor, who still acts as the missionarj' of the church. He officiates regularly on the evening of the Lord's day and on Friday evening, and also renders much other useful service. 14 FIFTY YEARS OF CHURCH LIFE Acropolis, is an admirable expression of classic purity and beauty. Unfortunately after this plan had been adopted, there were those who could not endure the thought of a Christian temple without a steeple, and accordingly one was erected admirably fashioned after ancient models and termi- nating in a lofty and well-proportioned spire, yet so incon- gruous with the style of the building and so' repugnant to correct principles of architecture, that it was felt to be a great relief when after some years the timbers were found to be so decayed that it had to be removed. The interior of the edifice well corresponds with the severe simplicity of the outer walls. The roof is a single span sustained without the aid of columns, and the ceiling curved and enriched with appropriate panelings which radiate from a central star en- closed in a triangle. The pews are arranged in a circular form so as to bring every occupant in full view of the speaker, and the acoustics of the building are such that no one has difificulty in hearing what is said from the pulpit. Indeed the audience-room is one that in point of conven- ience for Protestant worship has not been, I might say can- not be, surpassed. The pulpit of white statuary marble, de- signed with simple beauty, is a fair outward expression of the purity of the doctrine which they who use it are ex- pected to set forth. As the church was built at a time when men did not feel that the Creator had made the earth large enough to spare the necessity of living underground, a base- ment extends under the whole building, intended for Sun- day-school and other purposes. It has on three sides a deep and wide area so as to secure ventilation, as well as a sub- cellar eleven feet in depth, and yet it was always objection- able on the score of health and comfort, although hand- somely fitted up and commodiously arranged for church uses. The church was dedicated on the 9th of May, i839,*Dr. Knox preaching the sermon * and the Rev. Dr. Milledoler, * This discourse was printed and a notice of it in the Commercial Advertiser said that it sustains the reputation its author has so long enjoyed for sound theological learning and enlightened and elevated piety, and that it shows the catholicity which has always distinguished the Reformed Dutch Church. o < J X ^ 'J u r- h < IN LAFAYETTE PLACE, NEW YOkK 1 5 one of the former ministers, offering the dedicatory prayer. It was very soon filled with worshippers, and so continued for many years. Indeed the pressure for seats became so great that in 1855 an alteration was made, removing two stately pillars which stood on either side of the main entrance supporting a portion of the steeple, and two simi- lar columns on either side of the pulpit sustaining the inte- rior entablature, and thus a number of additional sittings were secured. At this time the church stood in about the centre of the church-going population of the city, and it was in great demand not only for its own people, but also for union meetings and the anniversaries of various religious and charitable societies. Nine ministers have ofificiated in this house — Drs. Knox, Brownlee, De Witt, Vermilye, Duryea, Ludlow, Ormiston and Coe, with the present speaker. The three first named have finished their course, the rest still remain, two of them, however (Drs. Duryea and Ludlow), having transferred their relation to other ecclesiastical bodies. The preaching, although varied in consequence of varying personal gifts and training, has always been sound in doctrine and evangelical in spirit. Of the three departed worthies I may say that the hearers of the first, Dr. Knox, sat under him as a man whose practical wisdom and perfect equipoise of character, made men of all classes in need of counsel instinctively resort to him as the best human source of direction ; that Dr. Brownlee's glowing rhetoric and argu- mentative force, especially in all phas^ of the controversy with Rome, made him always a power in the pulpit ; and that Dr. De Witt by his union of fervent piety with an un- studied but soaring eloquence captivated old and young, and ofttimes transported his hearers to the third heaven. All three of these venerated men were buried from this church, and the numbers that were gathered to the solemn service testified to the esteem in which they were held. This was particularly the case with Dr. Knox, who had grown up with the city from his youth in 18 16, was very widely known in various relations, and* was suddenly cut off in the fullness of bodily health and the maturity of his l6 FIFTY YEARS OF CHURCH LIFE powers. The outpouring of all classes of the population on the occasion was something wholly unprecedented and is not likely to occur again, for the city is too large for any one man in private station now to be identified with all its social circles. It is an interesting fact that the last time that Dr. Brownlee officiated in public, was in the pulpit where I now stand. His text was the brief utterance in Revelation xx, 7: " Behold, I come quickly." He closed an impressive and searching discourse with the words, "And who will be called next, you or I?" They seem to have been pro- phetic, for on the next day or the day after that he went to Newburgh to fulfill a pulpit engagement, and while he was on his way to the church suddenly sank down with paralysis and became unconscious. He afterwards recovered and his life was prolonged for many years, but he never was able to resume his place in the pulpit. The Sunday-school has always been one of the most efifi- cient factors in the church's life. It began under the superintendence of James C. Meeks, at that time the New York agent of the American S. S. Union, a man of rare dis- cernment, tact and sympathy, who gave himself wholly to the work and attained wonderful success. He was aided by a body of teachers embracing such men as the late Chancel- lor Frelinghuysen, and Judge Foote, afterwards of Geneva. In the course of years there was a constant though gradual change of officers and teachers, but rarely did the personnel fall below the high standard set at the beginning. The School was conducted on the old-fashioned plan of relying for success upon Biblical teaching and the personal influence of devoted teachers. Every scholar was made familiar with the Bible and taught how to use it, and the only premium ever offered was a pocket copy of the Book of books. Among the ladies engaged in the work there are two whose pre-eminence in character and devotion was such as to re- quire specific mention. These were Mrs. Charlotte Peck Amerman and Miss Esther Sophia Hyde. For a long period the scholars were all children of the congregation (save a large class of colored people, who enjoyed unusually faith- IN LAFAYETTE PLACE, NEW YORK I7 ful instruction), but now for twenty years they have all been drawn from families not connected with any Christian congregation. A large infant class having been successfully maintained, its members as they grew in years were from time to time transferred to the main school and helped to keep its ranks full. In the earlier period the active persons of the congregation not only manned their own school, but also cared for an English department of the German Evan- gelical Mission School, in Houston street, there being at that time a number of young persons there who preferred English teaching. The late Mr. Calhoun was, while his residence remained in the lower part of the town, very active in forwarding the Houston street enterprise. It only remains to say that the Sunday-school taught in this place is as efficient as at any former period, if not more so, although the constant diminution of the congregation dur- ing the last fifteen years has materially curtailed the funds required to carry it on. Indeed the spirit and enterprise of the officers and teachers leave scarce anything to desire, there being a thorough system, entire harmony and an un- sparing consecration of time and energy to the needs of the work. In the year 1861 there was established, mainly through the efforts of Julia Plummer De Witt, the youngest daughter of the late Dr. T. De Witt (aided by Miss Cor- nelia L. Brower, afterwards Mrs. C. H. McCreery), an Industrial School which has enjoyed &n exceptional success through more than a quarter of a century. Every year more than two hundred girls were here taught to sew and at the same time put under decided religious instruction. The ladies who in its early years held the position of First Directress were wonderfully well qualified for the work, and they established habits of order, regularity and fidelity, which were continued without any interruption and which have made the school a model one of the kind. In later years the diminished size of the congregation rendered it difficult to procure enough voluntary teachers, but the lib- erality of some friends of the cause enabled the managers l8 FIFTY YEARS OF CHURCH LIFE to employ paid help. Yet even with this aid there are every year from fifty to a hundred applicants denied admission, simply because the teaching force is inadequate. Great thoroughness characterizes all the methods pursued in the school, and those who attend it receive a training in habits of neatness, system, industry and order which cannot fail to affect their entire subsequent life. Repeated testimonies to this effect have been given by the children themselves and by their parents, and indeed every casual visitor has been surprised at the evident tokens of success which met them on every hand. Some thirty years ago when the success of the Young Men's Christian Association of this city led to the forma- tion of similar associations in individual churches, a society of this kind was instituted here, as I am kindly reminded by Mr. A. A. Raven, of Brooklyn, who at that time was one of our people. This association provided the means for employing a missionary to visit in the neighborhood of the church and gather in scholars from the non-church-going part of the community. And they gave personal supervis- ion to that work. They performed a still more useful and lasting service when they took up the case of young Mr. Merritt, a worshipper in the North Church who was seeking to enter upon studies for the ministry but was hindered by the lack of the requisite means. These were obtained by the Association, and they had the pleasure of seeing him carried through a regular course after which he prosecuted for many years a very zealous and influential ministry. This building has never been the scene of sensational preaching or tumultuous excitement. Yet there have been times when the Holy Spirit was present in an unusual degree, as was manifested by the increase of the number of those who sought to enter into the full communion of the church. Such periods were 1841-2, 1858-9, 1865-6. But in general the work carried on has been the gradual develop- ment of Christian character, the promotion of personal and household religion, the training of the youth of the congre- gation, and, especially in later years, the ingathering of IN LAFAYETTE PLACE, NEW YORK I9 those previously neglectful of the ordinances of worship. The church has been regarded not simply as a converting agency after which its function was exhausted, but as a training school in which character is formed, and men and women are led into a deeper knowledge of divine truth so as to grow in consistency, stability and symmetry of life, and thus become more efficient in the Master's service. The contributions of the congregation to the Christian ministry have not been many, yet one may claim that the defect in quantity is made up in quality. I mention them as nearly as may be in the order of time. i. The Rev. jAMES H. M. Knox, D.D., LL.D., a son of the revered senior minister, who, after serving acceptably in several pastoral charges, is now the President of La Fayette College, Pa., an institution of great and growing importance in the edu- cational system of the country. 2. The Rev. ASHBEL Green Vermilye, a son of the present senior minister. He was pastor at Little Falls, Newburyport, Utica and Schenectady, and for a short time chaplain at Antwerp, but has of late years ceased from regular ministration as a pastor, still, however, rendering valuable service in the Board of Direction of our church and in ecclesiastical as- semblies. 3. The Rev. Hervey D. Ganse, who, after prosecuting a most useful ministry in New Jersey and after- ward in this city and in St. Louis, is now the secretary of the Presbyterian Committee, charged with the care of their younger and struggling collegiate institutions in all parts of the West, an enterprise whose value is determined by the fact that it is the educated men who are to control this country, and that the way in which they exercise this control depends greatly upon the degree and kind of Chris- tian influence put forth where they receive their education. One cannot well conceive of a work so well calculated as this to make an impression for good that shall be felt by generations yet unborn. 4. The Rev. NATHAN W. JONES. He ministered at Cleveland, Clove, Middleport and Ding- man's Ferry, and afterwards, being without pastoral charge, gave much attention to the Indian languages of our country. 20 FIFTY YEARS OF CHURCH LIFE He died about 1873. 5. The Rev. Francis N. Zabriskie, D.D. He was settled in New York, Coxsackie, Ithaca and Claverack, and afterwards for some years in two of the New England States ; and when laid aside from regular service by impaired health, continued and enlarged his influence by the pen, infusing into journalism in various directions, not only Attic salt, but the salt of divine grace. 6. The Rev. J. Ferguson Harris. He has been settled at Cold Spring, Pompton Plains, Hurley and N. Marbletown, and now has charge of a flourishing church at Cherry Hill, N. J. 7. The Rev. Andrew M. Arcularius, of New Baltimore, N. Y. Born in another communion, he came in early years into connection with the Sunday-school of this church, and after- ward entered into full communion. He prosecuted a regular course of study at New Brunswick, and was ad- mitted to orders in 1866. For twenty years he has been in the active and successful discharge of ministerial duties, and is now pastor of an interesting charge in a village on the upper Hudson. 8. The Rev. Matthew C. Julien. Al- though reared among our people, he has from the beginning prosecuted his ministry in the Congregational Church, having been for a number of years the acceptable pastor of the Trinitarian Church at New Bedford, Mass. 9. I think that there may be properly appended to this list the name of WiLLIAM B. Merritt. He indeed was never a regular worshipper here, yet he sustained a close connection with the congregation. In his youth he attended the North Church and there confessed Christ. He was led to form the purpose to enter the ministry. His means being limited, the Young Men's Christian Association of this church, as has already been stated, undertook to supply what was wanting, and by their aid he was carried through his entire course of study. After being licensed by the Classis of New York, in 1865, he became pastor of the church at Flatbush, Ulster County, where he labored for eight years, and then was settled over the Union Reformed Church of this city. Here he prosecuted an earnest and successful ministry until his death, in 1879. Few men have wrought so good a work IN LAFAYETTE PLACE. NEW YORK 21 in SO short a time. He was the bemi ideal of an energetic pastor and was respected and beloved not only by his own people, but by all who knew him, and especially by his brethren in the ministry. It is hardly possible to look back over the course of the last half-century without at least a glance at the changes that period has wrought in the face of the globe. In Great Britain it coincides with the reign of her present most gracious Majesty, during which the principles of the great Reform Bill enacted in 1832 have been carried out almost to their extreme limit, and the situation of Ireland has been so far improved that there needs only another step to give all the liberty that has been contended for. A correspond- ing development has taken place in art, literature and every branch of physics ; and it is not too much to say that here- after the Victorian period will be as famous in British an- nals as the Elizabethan or the Age of Queen Anne. And as to the colonies, the several provinces of British America have been made into the one Dominion of Canada, and the huge island or rather continent in the Pacific, once known only as Botany Bay, a mere settlement for criminals, has been transformed into the five rich provinces of North, West and South Australia, Queensland and New South Wales. France, after passing through a prolonged period of per- sonal government under Napoleon III., has settled down into a republic that becomes stronger and more settled day by day. Germany and Italy are no longer geographical ex- pressions, but the states of the former are confederated into an empire stronger than was seen in the days of Charles V., or Barbarossa ; while the latter from the Alps to the sea is united under a real constitutional monarch. The tem- poral sovereignty of the Pope has faded away, but the re- sults are very far from what his friends feared and his foes expected. To all appearance the spiritual control of the Papacy is as thorough and absolute as ever. Austria has been humbled and liberalized, and the oppressed Protestants of the continent have nearly everywhere regained freedom of worship. The rule of the Ottoman Turks has been con- 22 FIFTY YEARS OF CHURCH LIFE tracted till only a shadow of its former extent remains, and one of its despised provinces (Bulgaria) has been shown to be its superior in all that constitutes the force of a state. Europe is still cursed with standing armies and some rem- nants of feudal bondage, but the past fifty years have been years of progress. The same is true of the other continents of the Eastern Hemisphere. In Asia the immense Indian Peninsula has passed from a company's control and become a fief of the crown whose authority, by the complete suppression of the Mutiny of 1857, l^as been established for an indefinite period. China and Japan have been freed from their seclu- sion, and brought into the family of nations under the acknowledged control of internation law. Northwestern Asia, by the successful aggression of Russia, alike in war and in peace, has been semi-civilized. Africa has undergone yet greater changes. English dominion at the Cape of Good Hope has expanded to ten times its original size. Egypt has become substantially independent. The Suez Canal has revolutionized the routes of commerce to the East, and above all, the vast interior has been explored in nearly every direction, and the erection of the Congo Free State indicates a permanent gain of this wide region for civilization. No half century, no century, in all previous times, has shown such vast and far-reaching changes as the last fifty years. One of the most marked features of this is seen in Christian missions to the heathen. Men now living well remember when the greater portion of the world was inac- cessible. A single man was toiling outside the only port of China. Not even one had access to Japan. Northern India and Siam were unoccupied. Persia and Turkey and South America had just been entered. Nothing was doing in Egypt, and a few scattered stations were established along the western and southern coasts of Africa. Now almost the whole realm of heathenism lies open to the Gospel, Explorations in the interest of missions have illumined the Dark Continent from end to end. Even Mohammedan- IN LAFAYETTE PLACE, NEW YORK 2$ ism, which is harder to reach, because it is always allied with the State, begins to show signs of yielding. And the Church has gone on as Providence opened the way. Fifty years ago there were in all Christendom only twenty-five foreign missionary societies ; now there arc more than a hun- dred, without including Bible Societies and Tract Societies and Women's Missions and independent organizations. And an income, which was little more than half a million, has grown to twelve millions annually. Corresponding has been the success. Henry Martyn once said : " If I ever see a Hindu Brahman converted to Jesus Christ, I shall see something more nearly approaching the resurrection of a dead body than anything I have ever yet seen." In 1837 the first Brahman convert was ordained, and since then the " resurrection " has occurred often. Besides the great work accomplished in the translation of the Bible, the issue of a Christian literature, the establishment of schools, seminaries and colleges, there has been a large advance in the number of heathen who have confessed Christ. In 1837 these num- bered fifty thousand ; now a sober estimate puts them at three millions. Foreign missions are no longer an experi- ment, still less a romantic dream as some say. Every evangelical body in Christendom has put its hand to the work, and all with one consent rally under the motto of the old Latin hymn of the sixth century, vexilla regis prodcimt. Forward the royal standards go. Yes, forward, ever for- ward, and not backward. Here It seems to me that mention may be made of the Revised Version of the English Bible as a great step in advance. Such a thing had often been mooted, and indeed attempted, but never by a catholic movement, originating from competent authority and carried out under appropriate regulations. Now it has been accomplished, and the results of the dis- coveries, explorations, toils and criticism of more than two centuries have been rendered accessible to the common English reader. The work is not perfect and may even be said to have serious drawbacks, but that it is of the greatest usefulness to those for whom it was intended is questioned 24 FIFTY YEARS OF CHURCH LIFE by no competent authority. Even if it never supplants the authorized version it will still serve the purpose of a cheap portable commentary to millions on millions. The highest earthly honor ever conferred upon me was that of being permitted to take a small part of this work as a member of the American Company engaged on the Old Testament. Nor is our own city or country any exception to the pre- vailing spirit of progress. The great Civil War marks for us an epoch as significant as Waterloo or Sedan was for Europe. Every day shows that the precious treasure and still more precious blood expended in that conflict were a cheap price to pay for the beneficent results secured. There has been a steady advance in population, in wealth, in agriculture, in manufactures, in literature, in the fine arts and in science, theoretical and applied. Take one instance touching the matter of material resources. A dozen years after this church was dedicated a statesman in his place in the Senate of the United States said that he thought that a careful but fair administration of the government would not involve an annual expenditure of more than thirteen millions. Now that sum is only one-quarter of what is required for the post-ofiice alone. The twenty-seven States of 1840 have become thirty-eight, the territory has been enlarged by at least one-fourth and the population has spread from one ocean to the other. And nowhere on the face of the earth can be found fifty-five millions of people so richly endowed with all that ministers to human peace, comfort and progress. The metropolis, the third most important city in the civilized world, has shared largely in this prosperity. The population has increased from three to over thirteen hundred thousand. Residences which when this church was begun had hardly reached Fourth street have now gone miles and miles beyond it, and a considerable portion of Westchester County has been included in the corporate lim- its of the city. The wretched huts which covered the hills in the centre of the island have given place to the Central Park, with its lakes and statues and museum. The Cooper Union trains a thousand pupils in science and art every IN LAFAYETTE PLACE, NEW YORK 2$ year. The Croton water has been introduced into every house. The Astor Library offers its treasures to every vis- itor. The public schools cover the city with a system reaching from the primary class to the baccalaureate, and Columbia College has expanded into an university. The telegraph and telephone, the express companies and the multiplication of railways and steamships have made this city in 1887 altogether another thing from what it was in 1837. Then two-thirds of the inhabitants owned the houses they lived in ; now scarcely one-third does. Then immigration was a computable element ; now it engrosses whole sections of the city. Then it was a rare thing for a church to be built of other than brick or ordinary stone ; now the rarity is to build of other than marble or brown stone. Then the millionaires could be counted upon the fingers of one hand ; now they amount to hundreds, while in individual cases there are colossal fortunes, the possibility of which to a former generation would have seemed utterly incredible. When the corner-stone of this house was laid Dr. Knox, who officiated, remarked that " The position, the wealth, the extended intercourse, the power, physical and moral, of New York give her a most commanding attitude. Nor is there another spot on our vast continent, if there is upon the face of the globe, whose influence is felt more widely and deeply. I do not exaggerate when I say that probably millions of immortal beings every year carry with them through the land and throughout the world impres- sions of good or of evil received here." These significant words, true when they were uttered, are still more true now. As it was said of old every road leads to Rome, so now every important interest in the land gravitates to this im- perial centre. What now is to be said as we turn the leaf of this con- cluded chapter in our church's history? I call it concluded, for while as has been said the services so long maintained here will be continued elsewhere, yet it will be in new re- lations and with a more distinctly marked mission character. That is, the aim will not be so much to edify and develope 26 FIFTY YEARS OF CHURCH LIFE the existing members of the communion and draw in others of the hke character and surroundings as to intensify the ag- gressive aspect of the enterprise, to carry on the schools with yet more vigor, and to maintain at the highest point all the different services, societies and agencies, which now act so happily upon the contiguous population. This will render prominent what hitherto has been subordinate, and make the life of the concern consist in an aggressive move- ment upon the immigrant and non-church-going residents of the district. The aim will be not merely to minister to the wants of an established congregation, but rather to gather a new one out of such materials as may be found at hand. One may then justly speak of the past fifty years as a finished work. This building was put here, as Dr. Knox said in the address already referred to, " to meet the wants of the community and the obligations under which we lie to do our share in purifying and preserving this great city, and sending hence a healthful influence all abroad." Has this object been accomplished ? Has the elegant and costly structure fulfilled the expectations of those who erected it? What is there to show for these fifty years of church life ? A partial answer might be gotten from a list of the persons here admitted to full communion from time to time. Yet, this would be very inadequate. It would not indicate the effect wrought upon existing believers in confirming their faith, ripening their graces and extending their activities. It would not show the effect of a preached gospel, in edu- cating conscience and forming character, even among those who never openly confess Christ. It would not reveal the half of what comes from the teachings and influence of a well- conducted Sunday-school or an Industrial School. It would not set forth the restraining power exerted by the Word and ordinances wherever faithfully ministered. It would not give any information as to the spirit of benevolence and the deeds of self-denial and liberality to which it prompts. Oh no, the full results of a single congregation's existence and activity are to be seen only in the great day when the books are opened and every man's account is to be reckoned. IN LAFAYETTE PLACE, NEW YORK 2/ But \ve do know even now that this church has been a nursery in which the young of all classes have been tenderly and carefully nurtured ; a school in which the beginners of the Christian life have been taught and trained for the Mas- ter's use ; a vineyard in which the inexperienced have been fitted to labor as God's fellow-workers ; a home where the ties of Christian affection have been cemented more and more firmly ; a house where many a vessel unto honor has been chosen and sanctified and prepared unto every good work. Here many a laden conscience has been relieved, many an aching heart comforted, many a mourner's tears wiped away, and many an erring wanderer reclaimed. Besides, there have been seasons of great excitement, social, finan- cial, political, ecclesiastical and religious, which of course displayed their full force in a city like ours. In the midst of these the congregation stood as firm and immovable as the granite walls of the material edifice. When the question of slavery convulsed the nation no place was allowed to agitators on either side, but pastors and people rested upon the ground taken by the fathers, until the tocsin of civil war was sounded, and then the whole body rallied around the flag to a man, and there was no abatement of zeal and effort in the pulpit or the pew until the final surrender at Appomattox. The year in which the cor- ner-stone was laid was signalized by a disruption in the Presbyterian Church, which was not healed for a generation, and which was attended by much bitter controversy. But the church here, while all its sympathies were with sound- ness of doctrine and the maintenance of a proper polity, re- fused to swing from its moorings or meddle in a strife not belonging to it, believing, as the result showed, that, in ecclesiastical as in household broils, the parties themselves can effect a reconciliation better than any outsiders. So in periods of awakening, memorably the one which occurred just thirty years ago, the reliance was always upon the stated means of grace, which at that time meant three services on the Lord's day, and a lecture and also a prayer- meeting during the week. (Afterwards the two latter were 28 FIFTY YEARS OF CHURCH LIFE combined into one, as was done by nearly all the evangelical churches, on the ground that so many other meetings of a religious or charitable nature were held that the claims of an individual congregation must give way in part to those of the general cause of Christ.) The only exceptions I can remember were when prayer-meetings were appointed at a convenient hour in the afternoon, sometimes for our own people alone, at others in connection with neighboring congregations. Here opportunity was afforded for such counsel and direction as was needed, and at the same time no occasion given for factitious or unwholesome excite- ment; for while the Church is undoubtedly an evangelistic agency, this is very far from being its only, or even its chief function. Every minister is indeed a herald, but the aim of his office is as the apostle declares, " for the perfecting of the saints, unto the building up of the body of Christ." It is that all the body, according to the working in due measure of each several part, may make increase unto the building up of itself in love. The development of the church, its growth in knowledge, in grace and in con- sistency, its completeness as an organism, its steadiness as a moral and spiritual force, its efficiency toward its own members, as well as toward them that are without ; these are the aims proper to a congregation of the faithful. And looking back over the half century, one can truly say that these have been largely attained, alike in the beginning, in the days of prosperity, and in the years of decline in num- bers and resources. During the greater part of the fifty years the services here were conducted by all the pastors in turn — a system which Dr. Knox, in his dedicatory discourse, spoke of as " calculated to secure a greater variety of pulpit talent, and in various ways a moral power and a stability greater than can easily attach to a separate charge." My own judgment confirms this opinion. There was a loss in abandoning the organization which had come down from the seventeenth century, and though it doubtless is impossible to restore it, it is not improper now that all personal feeling has long IN LAFAYETTE PLACE, NEW YORK 29 since abated, and one can view the matter in the dry light of reason, to express a regret that this house of worship did not continue to have, even to the end, the varied minis- trations which it enjoyed during the first thirty years of its existence. All change is not progress, and sometimes people think they are advancing when they are only mark- ing time. The same thing may be said of another alter- ation, which, however, was made in the face of a protest from our Consistory, viz. : the dropping of the word Dutch from our denominational name. One of the objections made to this change was that it would prepare the way for the absorption of our Church into other bodies. This was vehemently denied. Yet within ten years this very thing was attempted and vigorously urged, but by God's blessing thwarted. At this moment there is talk of another union,* which, however, if consummated, would still leave us our standards, our polity, even our ecclesiastical nomenclature unaltered. Meanwhile the Consistory still stands, and, I think, will continue to stand, under the name by which it obtained its charter from William III., the oldest existing ecclesiastical charter on this continent — the Reformed Prot- estant Dutch Church in the city of New York. Others may deride or disparage the national portion of this title, the word DuTCH. But to us it is precious, as representing one of the brightest pages in human history, sacred or secular ; as a symbol of heroism, constancy and self-sacrifice that have never been surpassed. Holland is a very small country on the map of Europe. So is Attica, not much larger than one of our river counties. But their fame has no bounds, and will have no end. Indeed we may say of Holland's repute, that it constantly increases. Every new historian of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries brings a fresh tribute to the patriots and martyrs of the Low Countries, who for four score years withstood the Emperor * This is with the Reformed (German) Church in the United States. Whereas the absorption into the Presbyterian Church, which some advocate, would in the writer's deliberate judgment be an unmitigated calamity, and a serious injury to the general cause of Christ. 30 FIFTY YEARS OF CHURCH LIFE and the Inquisition, and after achieving freedom for them- selves, made their land an asylum for the oppressed of all countries and every name. On the coming Lord's day, if spared, we shall sit down for the last time at the table of the Lord in this sacred place. There is something touching in this to us all, how- ever recent our interest here may have been ; but it is es- pecially so to such as have had no other church home than this, or have been for years identified with the work carried on here. But we may get profit from the sadness if we turn from it with a quickened appreciation of the blessing to that higher home to which no change ever comes, the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. This is an inher- itance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. One temple after another on the earth may pass away amid tears and heart-burnings, but the golden streets and jasper walls and pearly gates of the heavenly Jerusalem, are like their Maker for ever and ever. That holy and beautiful house can never be moved, nor can they who once enter in, ever be taken out of it. IN LAFAYETTE PLACE, NEW YORK 3! APPENDIX. I. — Letters of Reminiscence from the — 1. Rev. James H. M. Knox. 2. Rev. ASHBEL Green Vermilye. 3. Rev. Hervey D, Ganse. 4. Rev. Francis N. Zabriskie. 5. Rev. Andrew M. Arcularius. 6. Rev. J. Ferguson Harris. 11. — Ofifilcers of the Schools. III. — The Organists and Sextons. IV. — The Corporation in 1837. V. — The Corporation in 18&7. 32 FIFTY YEARS OF CHURCH LIFE I. Letters of Reminiscence. I. The Rev. A. G. Vermilye, D.D. MY knowledge of the Fourth Street Church began in 1839, when my father became a collegiate pastor and I a Senior in the New York University. I united with that church on profession, but after the first year as a theological student was only an occasional hearer. Still, I remember well its unique white marble pulpit, which in that day excited much attention ; and I remember well the men who in turn stood behind it. At that time a short " exordium remotum " was customary, the " remotum " giving all needed latitude of remark, after which the pastor would say, " To a subject connected with this your attention will be directed this morning." Then followed the prayer, and then (after sing- ing) the sermon. It might be Dr. Knox, the gray-haired Senior, plain and practical in discourse, without a particle of oratory, but whose long pastorate and character, his kindly nature and admirable judgment, gave him influence everywhere ; or Dr. Brownlee, with his black wig, large- eyed gold spectacles, his perceptible Scotch brogue and rotund form, who seldom failed to give due notice of the end by saying, " but, my hour is up " — his hour being the measure not of his power of (always extempore) utterance, but as he judged it, of a people's capacity profitably to re- ceive truth — a capacity that has since dwindled to minutes. It was always pleasant to hear something of what he had been reading about during the week, and to see his graceful use of a handsome hand. Graceful and courteous always, when he went through the streets on Sunday (as the ministers then did) in gown and bands ; if he passed a Roman Catholic church he would bow right and left, with hat off, and the people would say, " There he is ; there he is," he being to them the very arch adversary of Romanism. Or the minister might be Dr. De Witt, piling adjective on adjective, each with its own shade of meaning and sometimes (as I have heard him) losing the end of his sentence ; boring away, with his finger as the symbol of mental action, not for thoughts, but expression ; of a dark day rubbing his hands, talking low and doing his best, and perhaps finishing his last sentence at the sofa ; in manner indescribable it was all his own, but in matter experimental. IN LAFAYETTE PLACE. NEW YORK 33 practical, with a halo about it of imagination and poetry. My father, now in the closing days of his eighty-fourth year, was then the black- haired Junior, with a style and manner of his own, different from all. These four, rotating in turn, gave to the service a wholesome variety, each in something supplementing the other; but they did more besides giving unity to the Collegiate churches by their joint action, influence, reputation and abilities — they made their church a power in the com- munity. When I knew it, the Fourth Street Church had a large congregation, and one of the best in the city, stable, intelligent, attentive. I remember among the elders in the front side pew Chancellor Frelinghuysen, and can still see him rub his face up and down whenever a child was baptized ; Theodore Frelinghuysen, Alderman Mandeville (for a man might then — /. ; PAMPHLET BINDER Manufactuttd hu GAYLORD BROS. Ire. Syracuse, N. Y. Stockton, Cali(. BX9517.5 .N5IV16C43 Fifty years of the church life : an Princeton Theological Semmary-Speer Library 1 1012 00043 2361