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 PRINCETON, N; J. 
 
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 Presented by VY\ra .\i^ .VA"rY?AX:-Vo TA 
 
 BX 9225 .H37 07 1886 
 First Presbyterian Church ; 
 (New York, N. Y. ) j 
 
 Ordination and installation ; 
 
 i^ .- * 
 
 LIBRARY OF PRINCETON 
 
 MAR 2 3 20Uj 
 
 i 
 
 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
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ORDINATION AND INSTALLATION 
 SERVICES. 
 
First Presbyterian Church, Wall Street. 
 (Erected 1810.) 
 
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 Organized 1717. 
 
 Ordination and Inftallation Services 
 
 OF 
 
 i^ 
 
 REV. RICHARD D. HARLAN, 
 
 AS PASTOR OF 
 
 The Firji Prejhyterian Churchy 
 
 NEW YORK CITY, 
 
 Thursday Evening, April i, 1886. 
 
 LIBRARY OF PRINCETON 
 
 MAR 2 3 2005 
 
 -J 
 
 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH AND COMPANY, 
 
 38 West Twenty-Third Street. 
 
 1886. 
 
Return, we beseech Thee, O God of hosts: 
 look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this 
 vine; and the vineyard which Thy right hand hath 
 planted, and the branch that Thou madest strong 
 for Thyself. 
 
 Psalms Ixxx. 14, 15. 
 
ORDER OF SERVICE. 
 
First Presbyterian Church 
 
 NEW YORK CITY. 
 
 Ordination and Installation 
 
 OF 
 
 REV. RICHARD D. HARLAN, 
 
 AS PASTOR. 
 Thursday Evening, April i, at eight o'clock. 
 
 I. Invocation Rev. James Chambers, 
 
 A cting as Jlloderator of Presbytery of New York. 
 
 II. Hymn No. 1416. 
 
 1 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 ! 
 
 2 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. 
 
 3 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. 
 
 4 Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty ! 
 
 All Thy works shall praise Thy Name, in earth, and sky, and sea ; 
 Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty ! 
 God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity ! 
 
 III. Reading of the Scriptures . . Rev. R. R. Booth, D.D. 
 
 IV. Prayer Rev. J. M. Worrall, D.D. 
 
 V. Hymn No. 1115. 
 
 1 Jesus shall reign where'er the sun 
 Does his successive journeys run ; 
 
 His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, 
 Till moons shall wax and wane no more. 
 
 2 To Him shall endless prayer be made, 
 And praises throng to crown His head; 
 His Name, like sweet perfume, shall rise 
 With every morning sacrifice. 
 
 3 People and realms of every tongue 
 Dwell on His love with sweetest song ; 
 
 And infant voices shall proclaim 
 Their early blessings on His Name. 
 
 4 Blessings abound where'er He reigns ; 
 The prisoner leaps to loose his chains ; 
 The weary find eternal rest, 
 
 And all the sons of want are blest. 
 
 5 Let every creature rise and bring 
 Peculiar honors to our King ; 
 Angels descend with songs again, 
 And earth repeat the loud Amen. 
 
VI. Sermon Rev. Francis L. Patton, D.D. 
 
 VII. Ordination 
 
 By the Presbytery of New York. 
 
 VIII. Hymn No. 831. 
 
 I Glorious things of thee are spoken, 
 
 Zion, city of our God ! 
 He whose word cannot be broken, 
 
 Formed thee for His own abode ; 
 On the Rock of Ages founded, 
 
 What can shake thy sure repose? 
 With salvation's wall surrounded, 
 
 Thou mayest smile at all thy foes. 
 
 2 See, the streams of living waters. 
 
 Springing from eternal love, 
 Well supply thy sons and daughters, 
 
 And all fear of want remove. 
 Who can faint while such a river 
 
 Ever flows their thirst t' assuage ? 
 Grace which, like the Lord, the Giver, 
 
 Never fails from age to age. 
 
 Round each habitation hovering, 
 
 See the cloud and fire appear. 
 For a glory and a covering. 
 
 Showing that the Lord is near; 
 Thus deriving from their banner 
 
 Light by night, and shade by day, 
 Safe they feed upon the manna 
 
 Which He gives them when they pray. 
 
 IX. Charge to Pastor 
 
 Rev. W. M. Paxton, D.D. 
 
 X. Charge to People 
 
 Rev. Jno. R. Paxton, D.D. 
 
 XI. Prayer Rev. Geo. Alexander, D.D. 
 
 XII. Hymn No. 835. 
 
 1 I LOVE Thy kingdom, Lord, 
 
 The house of Thine abode, 
 The church our blest Redeemer saved 
 With His own precious blood. 
 
 2 I love Thy church, O God ; 
 
 Her walls before Thee stand, 
 Dear as the apple of Thine eye. 
 And graven on Thy hand. 
 
 3 For her my tears shall fall, 
 
 For her my prayers ascend ; 
 To her my cares and toils be given. 
 Till toils and cares shall end. 
 
 4 Beyond my highest joy 
 
 I prize her heavenly ways. 
 Her sweet communion, solemn vows, 
 Her hymns of love and praise. 
 
 5 Jesus, Thou Friend divine, 
 
 Our Saviour and our King, 
 Thy hand from every snare and foe 
 Shall great deliverance bring. 
 
 6 Sure as Thy truth shall last, 
 
 To Zion shall be given 
 The brightest glories earth can yield, 
 And brighter bliss of heaven. 
 
 XIII. Benediction By the Pastor. 
 

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 ^2-«:c_-^ 
 
ORDINATION AND INSTALLATION 
 SERVICES. 
 
 INVOCATION. 
 
 By the Rev. JAMES CHAMBERS. 
 
 /^ THOU who art King of Kings and Lord 
 of Lords, Thou who art the great Head of 
 the Church, God over all, blessed for evermore, 
 we draw nigh to Thee at this time, and we ask 
 Thee for Jesus' sake, that Thou wilt manifest 
 Thyself unto us and bless us abundantly as we 
 have come together in Thy House to worship 
 Thee. O Lord, we pray Thee that Thy Spirit 
 may be in our hearts, guiding and directing us 
 in all that we do and in all that we say ; may 
 He be with us in these solemn exercises ; and 
 may we have a due appreciation of their impor- 
 tance ; and do Thou grant, O our Father, that in 
 all things we may acknowledge Thee, that Thou 
 mayest direct our steps. We ask it for Jesus' 
 sake. Amen. 
 
 Hymn No. 1416. 
 
READING OF THE SCRIPTURES. 
 
 Ephesians iv. 1-16 ; Hebrews iv. 12-16. 
 By the Rev. R. R. BOOTH, D.D. 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 By the Rev. J. M. WORRALL, D.D. 
 
 A LMIGHTY GOD, our Heavenly Father, 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord we are 
 permitted to eome, and now waiting upon 
 Thee, we bow to render Thee thanksgiving and 
 praise, honor and worship, our ever blessed 
 God. O God, we thank Thee for the gift of 
 Thy Son, who came into our world, and who 
 suffered and died, was buried and rose again 
 and ascended on high; and Whose ascension 
 was for the sending forth of blessings upon His 
 people and His Church. We thank Thee for 
 the gift of the Holy Ghost, by Whose gracious 
 and precious influence the Church of God is 
 enlightened, men are led into the knowledge of 
 the Truth, and the power of the Word of God is 
 made efficacious in gathering all those that shall 
 
PRAYER. I I 
 
 constitute the Church of God, and in the con- 
 summation of the redemption of those that are 
 to be saved. O God, we thank Thee for that 
 special gift of the risen Saviour, the Ministry of 
 His Word, and for all those gifts that go to 
 constitute the means and agencies by which the 
 glorious Truth shall be preached, and the Word 
 of God proclaimed, and the gathering of the 
 nations into the bosom of the Church of God 
 be accomplished. We thank Thee, our Father, 
 and recognize Thy infinite wisdom and grace in 
 that our Lord Jesus Christ constituted for us the 
 Church, established at the very beginning for 
 the comfort and guidance of men to whom 
 Thou didst make promise of salvation ; for the 
 Church, in all its history revealing the divine 
 providence ; for the Church, the conservator of 
 the Word of God, and the teacher of the 
 world; for the Church, by which Thou art 
 making manifest to principalities and powers in 
 heavenly places and to all created intelligences 
 the glory of God in the salvation of men through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. Our Father, we thank 
 Thee especially for the gift of the Ministry ; for 
 the living teachers who preach the word of 
 truth and tell to all the story of salvation; for 
 the Ministry endowed by the Spirit of God for 
 
1 2 PRAYER. 
 
 so great a mission, called by the divine provi- 
 dence and grace to the work, and set apart by 
 the authorities of Thy house to do this work; 
 and entering upon it with special promise of the 
 aid of the Spirit of Grace in the building up 
 of the Church, by whose power they are to be 
 sustained in the great work of gathering the 
 children of God and enfolding them within the 
 shepherding care of the blessed Lord. We 
 thank Thee for this provision of grace, so well 
 calculated to train Thy people in religious liv- 
 ing, and to make strong the Church of God for 
 the great work to which it is called. Here, 
 to-night, our Father, Thy Church Is gathered, 
 recognizing the infinite mercy and love of God 
 in the glorious work of salvation through Jesus 
 Christ, and seeking the power of the Spirit of 
 all grace to enlighten and instruct, to set apart 
 one of Thy servants for the special business of 
 preaching the glorious Gospel of the blessed 
 God, and to serve as a shepherd over this part 
 of the flock purchased by the blood of Jesus 
 Christ. We pray Thee, first of all, that our own 
 hearts may be filled with a deep sense of the 
 importance, of the sublimity, of the vast reach, 
 and of the wonderful Influence of this glorious 
 work about which we are engaged. O God, fill 
 
PRAYER. 13 
 
 US with reverence, with deep gratitude, with 
 intelHgent understanding, and direct our every 
 thought and act, that we may perform the ser- 
 vice committed to this Presbytery, and in the 
 midst of this Church of God, according to the 
 divine direction, and with divine approval. We 
 ask that Thy Spirit may rest upon us as min- 
 isters, as a Church and as a Presbytery; and 
 upon him who is called to minister in Thy name 
 as a shepherd of this fold ; and that all his ser- 
 vice, under the guidance of Thy divine provi- 
 dence and grace, may be made influential and 
 efficacious for the salvation of souls and for the 
 glory of God. Direct Thy servant who shall 
 preach to us the Word at this time. Give him 
 grace, strength, and guidance to proclaim it 
 clearly, and with power; and may Thy Spirit 
 carry it to every heart. Bless each of those 
 called to take part in this solemn service ; in 
 addressing words of instruction to minister or 
 people ; or in engaging in any part of the ser- 
 vices which constitute the solemnities of this 
 hour. Guide and direct, accept and bless, and 
 we will ascribe all honor and glory to God the 
 Father, Son and Holy Spirit, our one, eternal, 
 and glorious God, evermore. Amen. 
 
 Hymn No. 1115. 
 
SERMON. 
 
 By the Rev. FRANCIS L. PATTON, D.D. 
 
 " And as ye go, preach." — Matt. x. 7. 
 
 T^T^E are here to-night under very interesting 
 ^ ^ circumstances. A beloved brother is to 
 be solemnly ordained to the gospel ministry, 
 and inducted into the pastoral charge of an old 
 and historic church. The thoughts naturally 
 suggested by the formation of this relationship 
 will be expressed more fittingly by those who 
 follow. It may not, however, be inappropriate 
 to the occasion if we say a few words suggested 
 by the passage that has been chosen for our 
 text. 
 
 The ministry is charged with a great many 
 duties ; and it is with no desire on our part to 
 disparage any which may not be mentioned that 
 we propose to lay special emphasis upon those 
 suggested by the text. 
 
 The minister is a pastor. He is to preach 
 publicly, but he is to preach also from house to 
 house. With his brethren of the Session he is 
 
SERMON. 15 
 
 appointed to the exercise of spiritual jurisdiction 
 over a single congregation, and with his brethren 
 in the Presbytery he must take Episcopal over- 
 sight of the churches constituting the Presbytery. 
 It has become so common for the Christian min- 
 ister to be regarded as the most appropriate 
 custodian of great public interests, that very 
 often not a little of his time is occupied in the 
 performance of corporate duties that take hold 
 of great philanthropic and religious motives. 
 But however important these and similar duties 
 may be, we lay special emphasis upon the one 
 suggested by the text. Pastor he must be; 
 bishop he must be ; but above all things he 
 must be a preacher. We lay special emphasis 
 upon preaching, for several reasons. 
 
 The first is found in the conception we have 
 of the ministry itself. If we held the expe- 
 diential view as to the origin of the ministry, it 
 would not be necessary to lay marked emphasis 
 upon the duties of the pulpit. Some say that the 
 Christian ministry results from the operation of - 
 the well-known law of the division of labor. 
 Just as in other professions time has proved it 
 to be far better that these professions should be 
 separate, and that men should be devoted to the 
 special charge of the functions appropriate to 
 
l6 SERMON. 
 
 each. Time was when everybody with ordinary 
 insight and a Httle experience supposed that he 
 could administer medicine. A change has come, 
 however, the result of which is that the physician 
 is introduced into a profession that calls for the 
 widest and the severest forms of intellectual cul- 
 ture. There was a time when men supposed 
 that everybody ought to know something about 
 the law. But time has changed all that; and 
 hence, alongside of schools of medicine and the 
 medical profession, we find schools of jurispru- 
 dence and the legal profession. And so it may 
 be that the ministry has emerged in obedience 
 to the same law of the division of labor, and 
 upon the principle that ahy society, if it is to 
 live and successfully perform its functions, must 
 be appropriately officered. It would be easy, 
 under these circumstances, to bring forward the 
 executive duties of the Christian minister, and 
 leave his preaching function in the background. 
 But we hold no such view. 
 
 Again, it would be possible for us to enter- 
 tain a different opinion regarding the pulpit if we 
 held the high-church view respecting the origin 
 of the Christian ministry; for we know some- 
 thing about that view. According to it we have, 
 " first, apostles." They ordained presbyters. 
 
SERMON. 17 
 
 Apostles were succeeded by men who also or- 
 dained presbyters. Out of deference to the 
 original twelve, successors of the apostles are 
 called bishops. A minister is a man ordained 
 by a bishop. A bishop is a successor of the 
 apostles. The unit of the church is the bishop. 
 Where there is a bishop there is a church. 
 Unite all Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, and 
 Congregational churches in one denomination ; 
 you have no church, but a sect, for you have no 
 bishop. Split the Episcopal Church into as 
 many organizations as there are dioceses, and 
 let each community crystallize around a bishop, 
 and you have not sects, but churches. Angli- 
 cans may not admit this, but they cannot well 
 refute it. It is the logic of Anglican separation 
 from Rome ; it is the logic of apostolic succes- 
 sion. Now it may be that there is no necessary 
 or logical connection between apostolic succes- 
 sion and sacerdotalism ; but it is certainly true 
 that where we find the one doctrine we are very 
 apt, at least, to find the other. 
 
 If now we held the sacerdotal theory of the 
 ministry, — if we held, for example, that the min- 
 ister, because of his ordination, and because of 
 the fact that tactual relationship between him 
 and a successor of the apostles is established 
 
 2 
 
1 8 SERMON. 
 
 in his ordination, exercises some peculiar pre- 
 rogative and discharges some specific function, 
 and in some official way holds the keys of 
 the kingdom of heaven, — then we can easily see 
 that his official functions in this respect as an 
 executive, and especially as the administrator 
 of the sacraments of the church, might be so 
 important that his office as a preacher might 
 be relatively disregarded. But we entertain no 
 such theory with respect to the Christian minis- 
 try. We put our theory of the Christian min- 
 istry upon distinctly different grounds; upon 
 grounds that come to us specifically from the 
 Word of God. Our idea of the ambassador of 
 Christ is different from that entertained by High 
 Churchmen ; and accordingly our churches have 
 been constructed differently. The genius of our 
 worship proceeds according to a very different 
 conception. The Jew had his Shekinah, which 
 he enshrined in a temple ; and the worship was 
 associated with an appropriate temple service, 
 symbolic in all its details. The Roman Catholic 
 has no Shekinah, but he has what comes next to 
 it, and is closely copied after it, -- he has the sac- 
 rifice of the Mass ; he has the visible presence 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ. Under these circum- 
 stances, and for this reason, he has associated 
 
SERMON. 19 
 
 with the church an elaborate and symbolical 
 ritual. We have no Mass ; we have no Sheki- 
 nah ; we have no altars. The pulpit is the lead- 
 ing feature of our churches; and our church 
 architecture conforms to the genius of Protes- 
 tantism. Protestantism finds its central theme 
 in the doctrine of justification by faith; and 
 justification by faith is a doctrine that gives 
 paramount importance to the pulpit. 
 
 Now, I say that preaching becomes important, 
 in our view of the case, because of the belief we 
 entertain with respect to what the ministry is ; 
 and in supporting this view we think we have 
 the most literal corroboration of the Word of 
 God itself 
 
 This is the second reason why we lay marked 
 emphasis upon preaching. It is because the 
 Bible gives it the first place that we are willing 
 to give it no second place. It was the specific 
 command of the Lord Jesus himself, when He 
 commissioned the disciples that they should go 
 and preach, saying, ''The kingdom of heaven 
 is at hand." Paul said, " Christ sent me not 
 to baptize, but to preach the gospel." It was 
 the specific glory of his ministry that unto 
 him that was less than the least of all saints 
 was this grace given, that he should preach 
 
20 SERMON. 
 
 among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches 
 of Christ. 
 
 If further argument be needed, it may be said 
 that preaching is given this primary place in the 
 work of the ministry by the very terms and con- 
 dition of salvation itself. What do we mean by 
 salvation? We mean certainly two things; and 
 when we fully understand what these two things 
 mean, we understand the whole problem of the 
 gospel. What is the gospel, but simply the 
 means whereby the legal liabilities of the sinner 
 may be removed, and the barriers to the outflow 
 of God's love taken away. What is salvation, 
 after that, but simply a constant and progressive 
 ethical change in character, by which a man be- 
 comes more and more a child of God, and more 
 and more like the Lord Jesus Christ. He be- 
 comes perfected in holiness and in the fear of 
 God ; adding to his faith, virtue, and to virtue 
 all the graces that adorn Christian living; until 
 at last, thanks to divine grace, and thanks to the 
 forces that have been working in him and upon 
 him, he rises to the full measure and stature of 
 the perfect man in Christ Jesus. That is sal- 
 vation. But how does salvation come? God 
 might have made salvation a matter of heredity; 
 but He did not. He might have saved men by 
 
SERMON. 21 
 
 sacraments, or, indeed, by magic; but He did 
 not. If the high sacramentarian theory were 
 true ; if the minister held in his hand the keys 
 of the kingdom of heaven, so that by sprink- 
 Hng baptismal water in the name of the Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost he could open heaven to 
 the child; if the simple performance of the 
 priestly function of giving the bread and wine — 
 typical of the body and blood of Christ — to 
 penitent believers would insure their salvation, — 
 then we can easily see that the minister's duties 
 might be simplified, and that the preaching of 
 the gospel would become a matter of relatively 
 minor importance. But God has promised us 
 salvation under different conditions. He appeals 
 tq^us as men. The very fact that He has made 
 salvation a thing dependent upon the exercise 
 of our faith implies that we should be addressed 
 in a way that shall lead us to be receptive of the 
 truth, and hospitable to it. So we read that 
 " faith comes by hearing ; " and the question is 
 asked, *' How can they believe on Him of whom 
 they have not heard? and how can they hear 
 without a preacher? " Now we do not overlook 
 the mystical element which enters into all true 
 Christian effort. We believe in the Holy Ghost ; 
 we believe in the sovereign power of the third 
 
22 SERMON. 
 
 person of the blessed and adorable Trinity to 
 work regeneration ; we believe in the concurrent 
 agency of the Holy Ghost in every stage of sanc- 
 tification. We are not looking at this matter 
 just now from the divine side of things : we are 
 looking at it rather from the human side ; and 
 looking at it from this side, we say God has ad- 
 dressed us as rational beings. He asks us sim- 
 ply to receive the gospel on its merits. He asks 
 us to believe it because it deserves to be believed. 
 He asks us to hear what it has to say, to see the 
 cogency of the reasons which go to establish its 
 claims, and to accept it as the very truth of God. 
 The terms of salvation are such that it would 
 be absurd and impossible for us to think of 
 giving the pulpit any second place. Paul con- 
 stantly recognized this rational aspect of the 
 gospel. He always addressed men along the 
 line of the motives that ordinarily operate upon 
 them. " Knowing the terror of the Lord," he 
 said, "we persuade men." 
 
 Men are asking whether we have not had too 
 much preaching ; whether, indeed, preaching has 
 not had its day. They are beginning to ask 
 whether the people, in order to be reached at 
 all, must not be reached through some other 
 agency than that of preaching. I can well un- 
 
SERMON. 23 
 
 derstand the need of making special effort to 
 reach men. Of course you cannot preach if 
 you do not have Hsteners. You cannot make 
 preaching effective if you do not have hearers. 
 Whatever may be said with respect to some of 
 the devices that men resort to, to attract and 
 secure audiences, we appreciate the motives 
 that lead to them. If the people will only come 
 together, let us not criticise too severely the 
 means of bringing them together. But when 
 they come asking for bread, do not give them 
 a stone. When they come expecting a sermon, 
 do not give them a song or a concert. 
 
 It is pretty clear, I think, that the pulpit must 
 continue to occupy a very important place in 
 the church. What, then, is to be the message of 
 the pulpit? You put the minister into the pul- 
 pit ; you clothe him with great responsibilities ; 
 you invest him with great dignity ; you require 
 of him hard work; you exact of him enor- 
 mous labor — more than you think — when you 
 tell him that twice fifty- two times in a year, 
 whether it rain or shine, whether the congrega- 
 tion be large or small, he must preach. What 
 shall he preach? "Preach the Word." That 
 is one answer. " Preach Christ." That is an- 
 other answer. We are perfectly willing to be 
 
24 SERMON. 
 
 guided by those two rubrics, — " preach Christ" 
 and " preach the Word." But it does not often 
 occur to those who would wish to draw the Hne 
 of restriction respecting pulpit themes that 
 these two rules help to interpret each other; 
 for if we preach the Word, and if we have a 
 warrant to go through all that Word, and to dis- 
 cuss the topics dealt with there, there may be a 
 great deal of legitimate preaching which is not 
 specifically about Christ. And, therefore, be- 
 cause we do not believe that there is any in- 
 congruity between the two statements, and 
 because we are perfectly willing that the minis- 
 ter's function should be defined by each of 
 these directions, we think it is his duty to 
 preach Christ, and that it is also his duty to 
 preach the Word. 
 
 In order that we may see what we mean 
 when we say '* preach Christ " and " preach the 
 Word," let us see what we do not mean. Let 
 us, in the first place, remember that this in- 
 junction is not to be understood as indicating 
 any limitation with respect to the minister's 
 theme, though it undoubtedly indicates a limita- 
 tion respecting his treatment of the theme. He 
 is to preach Jesus Christ. Let us consider for 
 a moment what preaching Jesus Christ means. 
 
SERMON. 25 
 
 It means that we shall do all we can to bring 
 men into such relationship with the gospel that 
 they will give their full and hearty consent to 
 the truth as it is in Jesus. Therefore I take it 
 that, among other things, we should do all in 
 our power to remove every barrier that stands 
 in the way of the acceptance of Jesus Christ on 
 the part of those to whom we preach. A great 
 many barriers may stand in their way. I tell a 
 man to believe in Jesus; but he may be so 
 related to a great many objects of thought and 
 to a great many questions of interest, that, until 
 he be put right with respect to these questions 
 and interests, it may be impossible for him to 
 give an unhesitating assent to divine truth. 
 Preaching Christ may therefore require us to 
 stand related, in a very close and in a very 
 practical way, to fundamental questions of phil- 
 osophy. It is quite possible for a man to enter- 
 tain a philosophical belief that not only stands 
 in the way of his acceptance of Christ, but also 
 makes it logically certain that he will reject 
 Christ. And if it is impossible for him to 
 believe in Christ and hold his philosophy at 
 the same time, he must be brought to that point 
 where he will give up his philosophy. The 
 question is whether the Christian minister has 
 
26 SERMON. 
 
 not some responsibility in this connection. I 
 think he has ; and I beheve, moreover, that, 
 without ostentation, without pretending to be 
 a speciaHst, without claiming to speak with the 
 authority of one who has devoted his whole 
 Hfe to the subject, it is still possible for him 
 to address men along the line of these specu- 
 lative difficulties, this philosophical unrest, these 
 scepticisms of various kinds, so as to pave 
 the way for their acceptance of Christ. Some 
 are prevented from accepting Christ by histori- 
 cal difficulties. Christ is revealed to us in a 
 series of literary documents, the historical value 
 of which is called in question at the present 
 time. If, now, there is anybody who has a 
 right to deal with this issue ; anybody who 
 has a right to vindicate the veracity of the 
 four Gospels ; anybody whose function it is 
 to dissipate the clouds of ignorance that over- 
 spread the sky of a great many people's faith ; 
 anybody whose specific function it is to vin- 
 dicate the historical character of Christianity 
 and the supreme divinity of Christ, — it is the 
 minister who is specially called and set apart 
 to this work, and whose labor and learning are 
 supposed to be devoted, among other things, to 
 the achievement of this end. 
 
SERMON. 27 
 
 Here, then, is another field in which it is quite 
 possible that the minister may be called upon 
 to labor; and laboring in this field he may 
 still be preaching Christ. Christ sustains re- 
 lations, moreover, to a great dogmatic system of 
 theology. The doctrines that enter into our faith 
 are such that if you hold one, you must hold 
 another ; and if you deny some, you will proba- 
 bly deny others. It is so singular, so strange, 
 that there is such an absolute lack of conse- 
 quential reasoning on the part of men who tell us 
 in one breath that we must preach Christ, and in 
 the next tell us that we have too much dogma. 
 What is it to preach Christ, what is it to believe 
 in Christ, but to give the fullest and heartiest 
 assent to the greatest of all dogmas? How can 
 I preach Christ effectively if I know nothing 
 of His relationship to God the Father, nothing 
 about the moral crisis that brought Him into 
 the world, and nothing of God's great purpose 
 in the plan of salvation? To believe in Christ 
 is, of necessity, to know something about the 
 whole circle of dogmatic truth; and to preach 
 Christ, therefore, is to a very great extent to 
 preach dogmas. There are many men at the 
 present time who tell us to preach Christ ; 
 but if we speak about the divinity of Christ, 
 
28 SERMON. 
 
 or about the second coming of Christ, they 
 say that they want to hear of what Christ said, 
 not of what Christ did. They say, ' Tell us 
 more about the Sermon on the Mount.' No 
 concession should be made to this demand 
 for morals without dogma ; though we are far 
 from saying that morality has no proper place 
 in the pulpit. What is impHed, however, in 
 preaching morality? When you preach about 
 what Christ said, when you follow the Lord 
 Jesus into the great rubrics where He lays down 
 the rule for human conduct, what are you doing? 
 You are dealing with the science of ethics, you 
 are laying open the fundamental questions with 
 respect to moral obligation; and not only so, 
 but you are discussing the much-mooted ques- 
 tions with respect to what is right and what is 
 wrong in the practical details of daily life. To 
 preach Christ may make it necessary for a man 
 to deal with both the theoretical and the prac- 
 tical side of moral philosophy. To preach 
 Christ to men, it may be necessary to know 
 men in the relations of daily life, so as to be 
 able to lead them to a real discernment of right 
 and wrong and to a conscientious exercise of 
 will with reference to the practical questions of 
 every-day experience. 
 
SERMON. 29 
 
 Again, it is not meant, when we are told 
 to preach Christ, that we shall limit ourselves 
 simply to declaration. Men sometimes say 
 this ; and while there is a sense in which it is 
 true, there is another sense in which it is by no 
 means true. They say, ' Tell men to believe in 
 Jesus Christ ; tell them that Christ is divine ; 
 tell them that we are justified by faith; let your 
 work begin and end in declaration.' But that is 
 not following the apostolic example ; — that is 
 not to be the limit of our preaching. Paul 
 said, regarding his preaching, ** I persuade men, 
 and am made manifest in their consciences." 
 And that is what we are to do under similar 
 circumstances. When, having enunciated the 
 truth, we find ourselves confronted with scep- 
 ticism, are we only to say things? can we not 
 show things? Can we not demonstrate to men 
 their error? May we not enforce what we say by 
 showing men that there can be no doubt about 
 it? May we not still further say that this has 
 been the testimony of all ages ; this is what 
 good men all over the world believe ? May we 
 not say that it is in harmony with our deepest 
 and truest instincts? May we not say it is in 
 accordance with the conscience of mankind? 
 May we not say it is in accordance with the 
 
30 SERMON. 
 
 analogies of the physical world ? Oh, but when 
 we say that, we go far beyond the area of dec- 
 laration ; we are attempting to justify the ways 
 of God to man, to make men see what is the 
 length, and breadth, and height, and depth, 
 and to know the love of Christ that passeth 
 knowledge. 
 
 But the injunction to preach Christ does not 
 limit me to the statement of apostolic reasons 
 for the necessity of believing on Him. Sup- 
 pose I tell a man that the Bible affirms the 
 divinity of Christ, and that he ought therefore 
 to worship Him ; and the man replies, ' I grant, 
 if your premises are true, your conclusion is 
 right ; but I dispute your premises. My trouble 
 is that I do not beHeve the Bible to be inspired, 
 and do not therefore accept it as the best, or the 
 exclusive, authority.' Then I ask, whether in 
 the discharge of my functions as a Christian min- 
 ister it is not both my prerogative and my boun- 
 den duty, not only to say that this is what the 
 Scripture teaches, but to show, moreover, that 
 the Scriptures are true? They tell us some- 
 times that there is no room for apologetics in 
 the pulpit. They tell me that I must take cer- 
 tain facts for granted, and that I have no right 
 to debate the question. I repudiate the idea of 
 
SERMON. 31 
 
 putting my faith upon the back of the elephant 
 called the Church, and the Church on the back 
 of the tortoise called the Bible, and then refus- 
 ing to answer the inquirer who wishes to know 
 what supports the tortoise. I reject this Orien- 
 tal cosmogony, and am unwilling that it shall 
 find shelter in the Church under the plea of 
 reverence for the Bible. The Christian religion, 
 if it be worth anything, will bear the light of day. 
 It asks for scrutiny. It simply wants a patient 
 hearing, a fair trial, and an impartial jury. We 
 believe in a religion that stands upon testimony 
 that may be judged according to the canons of 
 certitude employed in other matters. 
 
 Now, if to preach Christ does not mean 
 any of these things, I ask, What does it mean? 
 It means that the message of the pulpit is to 
 be found in the Bible. The gospel is not man's 
 speculation ; and we have no right to present 
 speculation for truth. It is not man's wisdom ; 
 and we have no right to substitute that for the 
 Word of God. We are to declare the truth, and 
 ask men to believe it, because it comes in the 
 name and with the authority of God. If men 
 do not believe that this is God's Word, then it 
 is our duty to show them that it is ; and if there 
 are any barriers in their way, it is our duty to 
 
32 SERMON. 
 
 remove them ; if there are any obstacles to the 
 full acceptance of the inspiration of the Scrip- 
 ture, it is our duty to help to overcome them. 
 Whose duty is it, if not ours, to show them that 
 there is good reason for believing in the plenary 
 inspiration of the Word of God? 
 
 Acknowledging the Bible as the Word of God, 
 the next thing is to see that the hero of this 
 book is Jesus Christ ; that all lines of argument 
 lead to Christ; that the answer to every ques- 
 tion is found in Christ; that He is the sum of 
 all w^isdom and the solution of all problems. 
 When we see that, we shall not wonder at the 
 Apostle Paul when he said that he preached 
 nothing else but Jesus Christ. Make your cir- 
 cle as large as you please, take in the utmost 
 limits of the universe, if you choose ; and what- 
 ever be the question you touch, it will lead 
 you back by straight radiating lines to Christ. 
 We can understand then what the apostle means 
 when he tells us that he rejoiced not save in 
 the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the 
 world was crucified unto him, and he unto the 
 world. 
 
 We have considered simply one side of the 
 preaching function of the Christian minister. 
 We have considered merely the objective side. 
 
SERMON. 33 
 
 I want to say a few words upon the subjective 
 side. The minister is not to preach himself: 
 he is not to preach his philosophy, but God's 
 Word ; he is not to preach for his own ends, but 
 for God's glory. Like other good ideas, this 
 has been abused ; hence there has been a ten- 
 dency in some quarters to suppress everything 
 Hke individuality in the speaker. Accordingly 
 they robe him in a religious dress, require 
 him to conform to a symbolic ritual, suppress 
 his personality, and even train his voice to 
 speak in unnatural accents. If they carry this 
 much further, they will add a Book of Com- 
 mon Sermons to the Book of Common Prayer ; 
 and then the minister will simply stand up 
 and echo what other people think. If God 
 meant the personality of men to be suppressed 
 in that way, I do not think He would have 
 embodied so much of it in the doctrine of in- 
 spiration. And yet those who are most anx- 
 ious to trammel the minister by conventionality 
 and the restraints of King Nomos will defend 
 the doctrine of inspiration by showing that it is 
 not incompatible with the free expression on 
 the part of the sacred writers of their individual 
 peculiarities. That is exactly God's plan. In 
 that plan God has typified the way of preaching. 
 
 3 
 
34 SERMON. 
 
 You cannot sever man from his individuality. 
 God wants a man to preach with his own ideas ; 
 He wants him to bring his whole manhood with 
 him into the pulpit. He wants the story of the 
 Cross to go into every fibre of his life, to tingle 
 at his finger-tips, to express itself in his eye 
 and in his voice, so that his words will at least 
 produce the impression that he believes what 
 he says and speaks what he knows. 
 
 We can, therefore, be very charitable toward 
 those who difTer with us ; we can have a very 
 appreciative estimate of men who do not preach 
 as we do ; we can, moreover, see that it is im- 
 possible in the very nature of things for a man 
 to empty himself of the attributes of his person- 
 ality. Whenever a man reads a text, if he is 
 a full-grown man, if he has outgrown his baby- 
 hood and has learned to look at things with his 
 own eyes, he sees in that text what nobody else 
 sees in it ; he sees in it what nobody else, under 
 the same circumstances, is likely ever to see in it; 
 because it is not alone the text-in-itself which he 
 sees, but it is the text-in-itself in relation to the 
 man-in-himself. And it is under these circum- 
 stances, — when he brings to its consideration all 
 his powers and skill, when he gets his soul full of 
 the meaning which the words suggest to him, — 
 
SERMON. 35 
 
 that the sermon becomes an arrow shot from 
 the tense bow-string of conviction, and hits the 
 mark every time. A sermon is simply the river 
 of a man's h'fe; into it, along the valleys and 
 from the remotest hill-tops, flow the streams of 
 his daily conscious experience, that give it color 
 and character. Subjective the sermon must be ; 
 egotistic it ought never to be. That being the 
 case, we see the moral element that is involved 
 in the statement sometimes made to us, when we 
 are told to be ourselves. ' Be yourself,' they tell 
 us. The moral element that enters into it is the 
 fact that we are responsible to a very large 
 extent for the kind of training that we bring to 
 our work. Who is sufficient for these things? 
 How are we adequately to discharge the duty of 
 preaching Christ? It is not that we shall simply 
 be careful about our living, in order that those 
 watchful people who are ever looking out for 
 error and for discrepancy between preaching 
 and practice, may not be gratified ; it is not that 
 we are to be careful that there shall be a corre- 
 spondence between what we say and what we do : 
 but we ought to seek after higher spiritual cul- 
 ture ; we ought to aim for higher and larger 
 Christian experience, in order that we may come 
 with a larger personality to the preaching of the 
 
36 SERMON. 
 
 unsearchable riches of Christ. For, after all, the 
 great qualification for effective preaching is in 
 the sphere of personal experience. And when 
 I speak of experience, I mean a very different 
 thing from what some people term experience. 
 I do not mean observation. I do not mean the 
 knowledge of other people's experience. I mean 
 the real, deep, personal experience which a man 
 has of the truth as it is in Jesus Christ. It is 
 when a man has lived long in communion with 
 Jesus, it is when he has brooded long over his 
 own conscious guilt, that he will hold his audi- 
 ence while he tells the old, old story of Jesus 
 and His love. It is when he knows the ins and 
 outs of his own conscious life, when he appre- 
 ciates the power of Christ's salvation, and the 
 relation of his own soul to that salvation, — it is 
 then, and only then, — that his logic is incisive 
 and his words are hot; then it is that he will 
 arrest and hold attention. It is one thing to 
 know men, and another thing to know Man. 
 We may become acquainted with men by obser- 
 vation ; but if the minister wishes to know Man, 
 let him study the contents of his consciousness ; 
 let him draw from the deep well of his own 
 experience, — for the water in that bucket is a 
 fair sample of all the rest. 
 
SERMON. 2)1 
 
 But the question is whether, when you have 
 made your amplest preparation, men will hear. 
 
 It is said that the declarations of the gospel 
 are behind the times. We do not believe this 
 allegation ; although it may be that some local 
 circumstances may give the coloring of plausi- 
 bility to the suggestion. It is true that in some 
 places it is very hard to support churches ; that 
 congregations seem to be dwindling; that the 
 second service is not well attended ; and that 
 in view of this state of things men are asking, — 
 and may well ask, — What shall we do? Some 
 say one thing; some say another. Some say 
 that the first thing to do is to bring the people 
 together. Men cannot preach to people who are 
 not there. And so, at any price, and by any de- 
 vice, — even at the cost of conventionality, cus- 
 tom, and historic association, — they say the 
 people must be induced to come. Another an- 
 swer is, Let us meet the people half-way ; let us 
 recognize the facts ; let us not undertake to go 
 contrary to the spirit of the age. If the people 
 want only one service a day, let us have but one 
 service. If they want a praise service in the 
 evening let us have it. If they are tired of old 
 methods of presenting the gospel, let us aban- 
 don them. 
 
38 SERMON. 
 
 It is said, again, Let us recognize the fact that 
 society is demanding, and the spirit of the age 
 is asking for less preaching. Another class 
 of men — pessimistic, with no enthusiasm, dis- 
 heartened and discouraged — say that the most 
 that we can do is to take our warrant as we find 
 it in the New Testament, and preach the whole 
 counsel of God, whether men shall hear or 
 whether they shall forbear ; that Paul may 
 preach and Apollos may water, but God must 
 give the increase ; that therefore it is our duty 
 to preach, and leave results with God. 
 
 This is the way men are looking at these 
 practical questions at the present time. We 
 believe, nevertheless, that men are still willing 
 to listen to the gospel ; that there never was a 
 time when the questions in which men are inter- 
 ested — the secular questions in which they are 
 interested — came so close to the Christian ques- 
 tions, or pressed so much upon the very border- 
 land of Christian life ; that there never was a 
 time when so many were asking, 'What shall 
 we do to obtain delivery from our unrest?' and 
 that there never was a time when the gospel 
 more fully met the exigencies of life, more fully 
 satisfied the legitimate demands of mankind, 
 more fully showed itself equal to the work of 
 
SERMON. 39 
 
 adequately answering all the irrepressible ques- 
 tions of human life. At the same time we must 
 remember that the gospel, in the very nature of 
 things, must needs be urged upon men, and 
 that there are elements about it that men do 
 not like. But let us also remember, that though 
 men may not like them (for the carnal mind 
 is at enmity against God), it is these very ele- 
 ments that attract their notice and hold their 
 attention. 
 
 It may seem paradoxical, it may seem like a 
 contradiction, but at the same time it is unde- 
 niably true, that the very dogmatic statements 
 that men oppose — these verities of the eternal 
 world, of divine grace, and of a state of retri- 
 bution — are the very things they hold to. And 
 so, if you would keep your people, if you would 
 hold your congregations by an effort to make 
 your preaching popular, do not seek to fill your 
 church by giving up God and preaching mo- 
 rality. It is not morality that has revolutionized 
 society and reformed manners: it is dogma; 
 it is the doctrine of a divine Christ and atoning 
 blood. 
 
 Let us maintain this faith as we seek to preach 
 the Word of God, and bear the responsibilities 
 that rest upon us. For if it be true that the 
 
40 SERMON. 
 
 influence of preaching is declining, and that 
 congregations are falling off, no small share of 
 responsibility for this rests upon ministers them- 
 selves. Let us remember that the gospel of 
 Christ is the only system that embodies the 
 great ideas of salvation ; the only effective 
 scheme of moral renovation ; and the only 
 agency which, while protesting in authoritative 
 terms against abounding sin and discarding all 
 considerations of expediency in its estimates of 
 right and wrong,' is at the same time able to 
 furnish the ideal of a perfect hfe and provide for 
 its realization in a better world. 
 
 May the time never come when a Sabbath- 
 breaking, God-forgetting multitude shall look 
 into our empty churches and our deserted pul- 
 pits, and see, in the buildings that we have 
 reared for the worship of Jehovah, the monu- 
 mental witnesses of a golden age, when men 
 believed in God and had hope of the eternal 
 world. 
 
THE ORDINATION. 
 
 THE Rev. Mr. Chambers : It now becomes my 
 duty, acting as moderator of the Presbytery of 
 New York, in the absence of Dr. White, to state that, 
 at a regular meeting of the Presbytery, after a very 
 creditable and highly satisfactory examination as to his 
 views of Christian truth, and his desires in seeking the 
 Christian ministry, Mr. Richard D. Harlan was re- 
 ceived, and this time and place appointed for his ordi- 
 nation to the gospel ministry, and his installation into 
 the office of minister to this people. In pursuance of 
 the Presbytery's order, the candidate will now present 
 himself in front of the pulpit, and give his assent to 
 the following questions : — 
 
 Do you believe the Scriptures of the Old and New 
 Testaments to be the Word of God, the only infallible 
 rule of faith and practice ? 
 
 Mr. Harlan : I do. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Chambers : Do you sincerely receive 
 and adopt the Confession of Faith of this church as 
 containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy 
 Scriptures ? 
 
 Mr. Harlan : I do. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Chambers : Do you approve of the 
 government and discipline of the Presbyterian Church 
 in these United States? 
 
42 ORDINATION. 
 
 Mr. Harlan : I do. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Chambers : Do you promise subjec- 
 tion to your brethren in the Lord ? 
 
 Mr. Harlan : I do. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Chambers : Have you been induced, 
 as far as you know your own heart, to seek the office 
 of the holy ministry from love to God, and a sincere 
 desire to promote His glory in the Gospel of His 
 Son? 
 
 Mr. Harlan : I have. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Chambers : Do you promise to be 
 zealous and faithful in maintaining the truths of the 
 Gospel, and the purity and peace of the church, what- 
 ever persecution or opposition may arise unto you on 
 that account? 
 
 Mr. Harlan : I do. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Chambers : Do you engage to be 
 faithful and diligent in the exercise of all private and 
 personal duties which become you as a Christian and a 
 minister of the Gospel, as well as in all relative duties, 
 and the public duties of your office ; endeavoring to 
 adorn the profession of the Gospel by your conversa- 
 tion, and walking with exemplary piety before the flock 
 over which God shall make you overseer? 
 
 Mr. Harlan : I do. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Chambers : Are you now willing to 
 take the charge of this congregation, agreeably to your 
 declaration at accepting their call ; and do you prom- 
 ise to discharge the duties of a pastor to them, as God 
 shall give you strength ? 
 
 Mr. Harlan : Yes. 
 
ORDINATION. 43 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Chambers : The members of this 
 congregation will now signify their assent to the follow- 
 ing questions in the usual manner, by raising the right 
 hand. 
 
 Do you, the people of this congregation, continue to 
 profess your readiness to receive Mr. Richard D. Har- 
 lan, whom you have called to be your minister? 
 
 Do you promise to receive the word of truth from 
 his mouth with meekness and love, and to submit to 
 him in the due exercise of discipline? 
 
 Do you promise to encourage him in his arduous 
 labor, and to assist his endeavors for your instruction 
 and spiritual edification? 
 
 Do you engage to continue to him while he is your 
 pastor that competent worldly maintenance which you 
 have promised, and whatever else you may see needful 
 for the honor of religion and his comfort among you ? 
 
 The Moderator : The members of the Presbytery 
 will now gather in front of the pulpit, and we will pro- 
 ceed to ordain the candidate. 
 
ORDINATION PRAYER. 
 
 By the moderator, the Rev. JAMES CHAMBERS. 
 (The Candidate kneeling in the circle of the Presbj'ters.) 
 
 /^^ THOU who art our Father; Thou who 
 art the author of the Christian ministry ; 
 Thou who hast called and commissioned those 
 who are to proclaim the unsearchable riches of 
 Christ, we beseech Thee now that Thou wilt 
 solemnize our minds as we proceed to set apart 
 to the Gospel ministry this our brother whom 
 we believe Thou hast called to take part in this 
 work with us. We ask of Thee, our Heavenly 
 Father, that Thou wilt ratify in heaven that 
 which we Thy servants perform upon earth. 
 Grant, O our God, that as Thy servant is thus 
 consecrated to the Gospel ministry he may real- 
 ize the importance of the office, he may under- 
 stand that it is the " high calling of God in 
 Christ Jesus ; " he may feel that Jesus Christ is 
 his God and his strength ; and he may have it 
 as his whole desire to know nothing among 
 these people save Jesus Christ and Him cruci- 
 
ORDINATION PRAYER. 45 
 
 fied. O Lord, we ask Thee that Thou wilt 
 manifest Thyself to these people through this 
 Thy servant. May he be Thy minister indeed. 
 May he have Thy help in his daily walk and 
 conversation. And when he stands before the 
 people to proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ, do 
 Thou stand by him ; be Thou in him ; be Thou 
 a power through him. O Lord, we ask of Thee 
 that Thou wilt make him a power for Christian 
 truth in this community. O Lord, we pray Thee 
 that Thou wilt attend him throughout his whole 
 life; and we ask that when his ministry shall 
 have been completed upon the earth, when he 
 shall be called higher, we pray that Thou wilt 
 give him an abundant entrance into the kingdom 
 above ; and may there be gathered many, many 
 souls whom he shall have been instrumental in 
 bringing to the blessed knowledge of the truth. 
 We ask it for Jesus' sake. Amen. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. CHAMBERS : And now, as the 
 
 Moderator of the Presbytery of New York, I 
 
 declare this relation a fact. The Rev. Richard 
 
 D. Harlan is the Pastor of this people, — the 
 
 First Presbyterian Church of ^New York ; and 
 
 may the abundant blessing of God abide upon 
 
 this union. 
 
 Hymn No. 831. 
 
CHARGE TO THE PASTOR. 
 
 By the Rev. W. M. PAXTON, D.D. 
 
 ly/TY DEAR Brother, you are now a Minister 
 of the gospel and the Pastor of a church. 
 You have this evening reached the point at 
 which you have been aiming through long years 
 of patient and laborious study. This short ser- 
 vice has changed the whole aspect of your life. 
 You are not now what you were one short hour 
 ago. Up to this time you have been simply a 
 member of the church. Now you are a Minis- 
 ter and a Pastor. You sustain a new relation 
 to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the souls of 
 men, and to that great and divine, institution, 
 the Church, which embosoms the destinies of 
 the world. You are invested with an office 
 which opens to you high privileges, but which 
 at the same time involves the most solemn re- 
 sponsibilities and the most arduous labors. You 
 are surrounded by a congregation of people 
 whose souls are committed to your care. You 
 have voluntarily assumed to yourself, and you 
 

 VY vX/L o Ci/H^c^^^ 
 
CHARGE TO THE PASTOR. 47 
 
 are charged before God with the responsibiUty 
 of the salvation of these souls. This sense of 
 responsibility upon your part cannot be evaded 
 or lightened by thinking of your people in the 
 mass, as a congregation, or as a community. 
 It is a responsibility that is personal and indi- 
 vidual. You are not sent here simply to take 
 measures to benefit a mass of people, or to deliver 
 a message to a community; but you are com- 
 missioned to carry this gospel to every individ- 
 ual soul. It is for you, therefore, to single out 
 every man, woman, and child, and to set them 
 before your own conscience as a trust which 
 God has committed to you, and for which you 
 must give an account at the Great Day. I 
 charge you, therefore, my Brother, to fulfil your 
 ministry here under this solemn sense of your 
 personal relation to souls, and under the remem- 
 brance of the account which you must give of 
 your stewardship. 
 
 With this single thought as to the responsibil- 
 ities of your ministry, permit me now to pass to 
 other themes. Speaking as one of your teachers, 
 I might be permitted to assume that upon all 
 the questions relating to the nature and the 
 duties of the ministry, and upon all the dif- 
 ferent aspects of your pastoral work, you have 
 
48 CHARGE TO THE PASTOR. 
 
 been sufficiently instructed. Indeed, it is upon 
 this special point that I have been charging you 
 for the last three years. But turning from this, 
 it seems to me that it will be eminently appro- 
 priate to-night to speak to you as your pre- 
 decessor in this pastorate, and to point your 
 attention to duties and to difficulties which be- 
 long to the somewhat peculiar position which 
 you are now to occupy. 
 
 Let me say to you, then, in the first place, 
 that you are the Pastor of an ancient and his- 
 toric Church, whose organization dates back to 
 the year 171 7. The memories of a century 
 and three-quarters gather around this venerable 
 church organization. It is literally the Mother 
 Church. Historically, it is the First Presbyterian 
 Church in the city of New York. No one can 
 study the history of this church without being 
 impressed and amazed at the streams of benefi- 
 cent influence that have gone out from this 
 source, and at the manner in which this church 
 has been intimately connected with all those 
 great moral, religious, benevolent, philanthropic, 
 and patriotic agencies which from the very 
 earliest times controlled the formative influ- 
 ences in the growth and development of this 
 wonderful city. Nor were these influences 
 
CHARGE TO THE PASTOR. 49 
 
 merely local, but wide-spread, through this 
 land and other lands. How many beneficent 
 organizations have looked to this church as 
 their foster-mother ! How many churches have 
 been organized and supported by her liberality ! 
 How many schools, colleges, seminaries of learn- 
 ing, hospitals and asylums, and other institu- 
 tions of benevolence and philanthropy, have 
 received either, in the first place, their endow- 
 ment, or afterwards their support, through that 
 intelligent and discriminating principle of Chris- 
 tian giving which has been for so many years 
 characteristic of this church ! To the great 
 Boards of our General Assembly this church 
 has been literally a '' fountain of living water." 
 Nor is this influence confined to our own coun- 
 try. Other lands were partakers of these bless- 
 ings. Dr. Chalmers's great schemes for the 
 Church of Scotland received their first encour- 
 agement here, and afterwards material assistance 
 for many years. The Waldensian Church owes 
 much of its present prosperity to the assistance 
 here received. Their Missions were succored 
 and supported ; and their Theological Semi- 
 nary at Florence was the gift of this church. 
 Time would fail us to enumerate the mission- 
 aries and mission schools which throughout 
 
50 CHARGE TO THE PASTOR. 
 
 the whole world have reason to call this church 
 blessed. 
 
 My dear Brother, I make mention of these 
 things to-night because they throw light upon 
 your position and upon your work. You are 
 the Pastor of a church which has a character, a 
 historical character, to sustain. You are sur- 
 rounded by a people who take an honest pride 
 in their past record, and who have been edu- 
 cated in sympathy with this expansive spirit of 
 beneficence. You will feel it, therefore, to be 
 your duty to cherish a hearty sympathy with all 
 these great beneficent and religious agencies, to 
 exert all your influence as Pastor to keep alive 
 this spirit of generous giving, and to preserve 
 this church as a fountain of living waters to all 
 the Boards of the General Assembly in all their 
 various enterprises. 
 
 Perhaps I have said enough upon this sub- 
 ject; but, my brother, it occurs to me that your 
 position as Pastor of this ancient church is 
 perhaps more peculiar than you are yet aware. 
 You have grown very rapidly in age during the 
 last hour. You have changed from a youth to a 
 patriarch in the short space of a single evening. 
 By the statute law of the state of New York you 
 are now the oldest Presbyterian minister in this 
 
CHARGE TO THE PASTOR. 51 
 
 city. Let me explain. That wise philanthropist, 
 Captain Randall, who endowed the Sailors' Snug 
 Harbor, named in his will as one of the ex-officio 
 trustees, " the oldest Presbyterian minister in 
 the city of New York." It soon began to be a 
 question of discussion who was indicated by this 
 language. The Legislature was appealed to, and 
 it was solemnly enacted that the pastor of the 
 First Presbyterian Church, according to the in- 
 tent of that will, is the oldest Presbyterian minis- 
 ter in this city. My dear brother, you are now 
 that venerable Patriarch. I held that enviable 
 prominence for eighteen years, but I now resign 
 it to you. As this is the Mother church, you are 
 now the ecclesiastical Father of all these Pres- 
 byters ; and I charge you to watch over them 
 with paternal solicitude, and train them, as I 
 did, in a pure orthodoxy and in a true Presby- 
 terianism. 
 
 What I have already said leads me to mention 
 another peculiar feature of your position, arising 
 from the age and the location of this church. 
 This is what is called a ** down-town church." 
 There is a general impression that " down- 
 town churches" cannot be maintained in their 
 vigor. What I want is, in this public way and 
 in the presence of these people, to guard you 
 
52 CHARGE TO THE PASTOR. 
 
 against the discouragement of a mistaken idea 
 which will be rung in your ears by a whole 
 chorus of " croakers " outside of your own con- 
 gregation. Popular impressions are often false. 
 Experience teaches us, when we hear that such 
 and such things are the common sentiment, to 
 stop and think whether that is true. There is 
 doubtless a common impression abroad that old 
 churches, like old houses, have in them necessa- 
 rily the elements of decay; and that old con- 
 gregations cannot maintain a life fresh enough 
 for vigorous, aggressive work. But all this 
 overlooks entirely the fact that the life of the 
 church is spiritual, and therefore not subject to 
 this law of outward decay. Where the Holy 
 Ghost dwells, the life is ever new. God's 
 promise is, " I will never leave thee ; " and 
 He does not abandon churches in which He 
 has been accustomed to dwell for well-nigh two 
 centuries. 
 
 Some will say to you that the course of events 
 here is against you, that the tide of population is 
 turning towards the upper part of the city, and 
 that it will leave this church stranded upon the 
 shallows. The premises are partly true, but we 
 cannot admit the conclusion. The tide of fash- 
 ion is towards the Park; but it is not fashion that 
 
CHARGE TO THE PASTOR. 53 
 
 we want in a church. The tide of wealth is in 
 the same direction ; but it is not wealth that 
 makes an aggressive church. Let those tides 
 roll on ; you will still have a deep sea of people 
 all around you. Take your stand in front of 
 that church door and look around you. You 
 will see that it is surrounded by fine edifices, by 
 a crowded population, and you will see that a 
 thronging multitude is going up and down these 
 streets and passing your church door in every 
 direction. Now where there are people, there 
 may be a church ; and where there is a crowded 
 population, a flourishing church is possible. 
 
 There are persons also who will tell you 
 that the population of the city of New York is 
 more heterogeneous than that of any other city, 
 and that in this mixture of nationalities there 
 are some who have no care for religion what- 
 ever, and others who have no sympathy with 
 the mode of worship of the Presbyterian Church. 
 To these we answer that this mixture is not 
 as great in this particular locality as in some 
 others. I have been treading these streets for 
 eighteen years, and I am fully satisfied that 
 there is a very large multitude of people who 
 by simple, natural affinities can be brought 
 into the Presbyterian Church. Subtract this 
 
54 CHARGE TO THE PASTOR. 
 
 mixture of nationalities, and you still have abun- 
 dant material left. 
 
 There are others who will say to you that in 
 this particular district around this church there 
 have been more churches of the Presbyterian 
 family as compared with the element that would 
 naturally become Presbyterian, than in any other 
 part of this city. That is true; but it is not 
 true to such an extent as to make it a dis- 
 couragement. It is true just so far as to show 
 you that your success will depend upon vigor- 
 ous exertion. There is no doubt that there is 
 a large number of Presbyterian churches here ; 
 but there are far more people than are sufficient 
 to fill all these churches ; and in all this, as 
 in everything else, my experience is that the 
 '* hand of the diligent maketh rich." 
 
 Others will tell you that the middle class in 
 society constitutes the strength of every con- 
 gregation, and that this middle class of people 
 has been eliminated to a very large extent 
 from the population of New York. They have 
 moved out into the adjoining cities and vil- 
 lages, where the cost of living is cheaper. 
 Hence our city churches are weakened, and 
 are composed largely of the rich and the 
 poor, with very few of the intermediate class 
 
CHARGE TO THE PASTOR. 55 
 
 to soften the distinction between them. This 
 is a very serious truth. But in this matter 
 you will not be burdened with a difficulty which 
 is not common to all your brethren in the min- 
 istry. There is not a minister in this city of 
 any denomination who does not feel weakened 
 in this way, — by the elimination of the middle 
 class from the population of the city. But 
 your difficulty in this respect will not be as 
 great as that of many others. The middle 
 classes that still remain in the city of New York 
 do not follow the tide of wealth and fashion to 
 the upper part of the city, but they, are all 
 around you ; and you, my brother, have the 
 same opportunity with all other ministers to 
 gather them into your fold. 
 
 I have referred to some of the difficulties 
 which may lie in your pathway ; and in looking 
 at them we see that, like everything else that is 
 seen through a fog, they are greatly exagger- 
 ated. When we come to look them squarely 
 in the face, they are not discouragements at 
 all; but only incentives to diligent and coura- 
 geous work. Keeping in mind this view of the 
 situation, you will be able to adapt your means 
 and instrumentalities to the exact aspects of 
 your work. Much will depend upon earnest 
 
56 CHARGE TO THE PASTOR. 
 
 and faithful pastoral visitation and upon the use 
 of your Sabbath schools, as the means of in- 
 troducing you to the people outside of your 
 own congregation. Never miss an opportunity 
 to get acquainted with new people. Accept 
 invitations to attend funerals and to visit the 
 sick and the dying. Encourage your people to 
 employ one or two or more missionaries to go 
 forth into all this surrounding region carrying 
 the gospel from house to house, and from per- 
 son to person, inviting the people to the church, 
 and gathering the children into your Sabbath 
 school. With this and other modes which will 
 be readily suggested to your own mind, together 
 with the simple and affectionate preaching of 
 the gospel (and with the help of an organ, 
 which has become an imperative necessity in 
 this church), I have but little doubt you will 
 achieve a success which will make your own 
 heart glad. 
 
 It might be pleasant and profitable to dwell 
 upon other points, but time will not permit. 
 Let me say in conclusion, that in all the details 
 of your work you should be free to adopt your 
 own plans and to pursue your own methods, 
 and your hands should not be in any way tied 
 by old customs or by established precedents. 
 
CHARGE TO THE PASTOR. 57 
 
 Let me say to you in the presence of your 
 people, that you must not in any way be tram- 
 melled by the customs and methods of your 
 predecessors, any further than they coincide 
 with your own judgment, or are approved by 
 your own taste. Take your stand here in this 
 pastorate with a manly independence ; and by 
 the blessing of God I feel sure that you will 
 find it one of the great happinesses of your life 
 to testify of the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst 
 of these crowded thoroughfares, and to a people 
 who will love and appreciate the gospel of 
 God's dear Son. 
 
 My dear Brother, I leave you now in the 
 hands of a people who will love and encourage 
 you. And when I remember all their uniform 
 kindness and forbearance to me, it gives me the 
 greatest encouragement to believe that you will 
 find in their midst a happy home and a success- 
 ful ministry. 
 
 My dear Brother, may the richest blessings of 
 God rest upon you ! 
 
CHARGE TO THE PEOPLE. 
 
 By the Rev. JOHN R. PAXTON, D.D. 
 
 TT is odd how this word '' charge," which is 
 associated with bayonets and blood, should 
 have come into use for such a peaceful, pastoral, 
 and right-hand-of-fellowship service as we are 
 now engaged in. But however menacing and 
 military the word is, it has no terrors for us on 
 this occasion. We are not here to do anything 
 by argument or force. There is no enemy to 
 be attacked, no opposition to be disarmed or 
 conciliated. We are brethren here, and we are 
 come to give the right hand of fellowship and a 
 cordial " God bless you " to our brother, your 
 Pastor, and to you, the people of this church ; 
 we are come to pray with you and for you, 
 that the relation now consummated may con- 
 tinue through many years, and be increasingly 
 blessed of God in its reciprocal duties and in its 
 promised mutual rewards. 
 
 To charge a people means to give some good 
 counsel to a congregation concerning the duties 
 
CHARGE TO THE PEOPLE. 59 
 
 of the people to the Pastor. Now, to give ad- 
 vice is ahvays delicate, and sometimes intrusive. 
 It strikes me in this case it is much like the 
 little moral lecture that many ministers add to 
 a marriage ceremony, — telling the bride and 
 groom to be good and they will be happy, 
 after having already taken one another for better 
 or for worse. Well, this is a marriage to-night, 
 in a true sense ; a solemn and critical step and 
 act. You take your minister, my dear brethren, 
 for better or for worse, as men take wives. You 
 should regard the bond uniting you as final, 
 and for life; and whatever happens, not to be 
 easily dissolved, or its obligations carelessly 
 treated. The first year in any new relationship 
 involving the consent and harmony, the contact 
 and communion, of two souls, or two lives, or 
 of a new pulpit and a strange people, is always 
 the hardest, and usually the most unsatisfactory. 
 You know it takes time to get acquainted, to 
 avoid the friction of two wills, to learn to bear 
 and to forbear, and to take as well as give. Our 
 faults usually lie on the surface, and are easily 
 discovered. Our faults, unfortunately, sometimes 
 are obtrusive, like vulgarity or vice ; whereas 
 virtues are like God, — you have to search for 
 them sometimes; or they are like violets, — 
 
6o CHARGE TO THE PEOPLE, 
 
 more often discovered by their fragrance than by 
 their faces. When we meet a stranger, the out- 
 ward man first attracts our attention ; we notice 
 his stature, his manners, his Httle idiosyncrasies ; 
 we remark his accent, his tones, and his way of 
 saying a thing, more than what he says. But 
 with a famihar friend we are seldom conscious 
 of his clothes, or of his accent, or of his manner. 
 What the man is, and what he says and does, 
 interests us most. Now, when a new Pastor goes 
 into a pulpit, the people, for a good long time, 
 see the man,~h\s gestures, his mannerisms. 
 They mentally compare him with the familiar 
 and endeared figures of predecessors who stood 
 for long years in that pulpit. They say to 
 one another, he does not do this or that in 
 the manner of the former Pastor. My dear 
 friends, give your Pastor full liberty for his 
 own personality. Do not expect him to be like 
 any one else. Do not give him, I pray you, 
 too many suggestions, or too much good ad- 
 vice. Just accept him, in the main, as God has 
 made him. Be patient, tolerant, and kind ; and 
 before a year has passed you will have grown 
 used to his way of doing things ; so much so, 
 that you will scarcely think of the man in the 
 pulpit at all, but only of his message, his Mas- 
 
CHARGE TO THE PEOPLE. 6 1 
 
 ter, his word of exhortation, his argument for 
 truth, his enforcement of duty. You will see 
 not the ambassador, with his credentials and his 
 terms, but you will see the King behind him, 
 who sent him, and whose will and word he is in 
 this pulpit to declare unto you. Please remem- 
 ber, then, that the first year is always the hardest, 
 either in setting up a home or in installing a 
 pastor. It requires time to become acquainted. 
 Therefore be little critical at first, never censo- 
 rious, and always kind. We are pliable to kind- 
 ness ; we harden under harshness. We men in 
 the pulpit (somebody tells us there are three 
 sexes, you know) are like the women in your 
 homes : we yield much to your love, but little 
 to your compulsion or your censure. You get 
 the best out of us by confidence and kindness. 
 Before criticism and indifference we stiffen into 
 antagonism, and grow ugly; or else we wilt into 
 despondency and timidity, and become feeble 
 and apologetic. Truly, brethren, sympathy, con- 
 fidence, and a little judicious praise now and 
 then get more out of us, are ** better spurs to 
 the sides of our intent," than fault-finding and 
 blame. 
 
 Here is a grand old historic church ; a church 
 of whose glory fame has taken charge in all 
 
62 CHARGE TO THE PEOPLE. 
 
 the land ; a church renowned for royal benefi- 
 cence, and no less renowned for sturdy adher- 
 ence to Presbyterian standards. I take it that 
 a church a hundred and seventy years old has 
 a right to be a little set in its ways, — if it 
 chooses to be set. It is too old, possibly, to 
 learn new fashions in religion easily. This is 
 right. Youth must not presume to dictate radi- 
 cal changes to age. The stripling Greeks in the 
 camp must not argue with the venerable Nes- 
 tor when he speaks ; or a young Levite fresh 
 from the school of the prophets must not tell 
 the hoary Elisha how to build the temple of 
 God, or sweeten the waters of a spring. All 
 churches, all Protestant churches, have features, 
 as people have physiognomies. Th^ Roman 
 Catholic churches are featureless, largely be- 
 cause they are like inns, which entertain all 
 comers on equal terms : the same infallible 
 word, the same inflexible forms, the same pray- 
 ers, the same conditions. But in our Protestant 
 churches one finds features, physiognomies ; no 
 two are alike. The minister who would suc- 
 ceed in one would fail absolutely in another. 
 St. Paul himself was weak before some congre- 
 gations where ApoUos was strong ; and ApoUos, 
 with his tropical heat and luxurious imagination 
 
CHARGE TO THE PEOPLE. 63 
 
 and rhetoric, was ineffective before the souls of 
 men whose heads came before their hearts ; who 
 were more interested in the logic of God's deal- 
 ings with men than in the emotions of sentimen- 
 tal piety. It is so now. We ministers have our 
 particular uses and gifts, and our appropriate 
 fields of labor. All of us are not equally profit- 
 able in all pulpits. In a great city such as this 
 is, we are not compelled to be shown the way to 
 heaven by men who are not accented on the 
 same syllable as we are, or who are not of our 
 mood of mind. We can choose, — the people of 
 a little town cannot ; but here you can go where 
 you are best edified. 
 
 Now the point of all this I will tell you. 
 Churches, like the planets, carry their own at- 
 mosphere along with them. You have an atmos- 
 phere. You have called a new, young Pastor. 
 Please give him time to get acclimated in your 
 air, so to speak. Give him time to learn how to 
 breathe through your lungs. After a while, 
 comprehending your needs, he will be able to 
 set up the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ 
 before you at the particular angle at which this 
 good one hundred and seventy years old church 
 needs to see it in order to be interested and 
 moved. You will do this, I am sure ; not ex- 
 
64 CHARGE TO THE PEOPLE. 
 
 pecting too much at first; cordially commending 
 his best efforts, and generously refusing to see 
 occasional slips or errors or faults in a sermon. 
 Let me tell you, confidentially, that we men 
 of the pulpit preach a good many very poor 
 sermons. No man is always equal to his best 
 self. We have this treasure in earthen vessels. 
 We are not always upon Pisgah, in intimate 
 communion with God, and in full view of the 
 Promised Land. Alas, no ! for we are men ; 
 and we often know what it is to be in the Slough 
 of Despond, as well as upon the Delectable 
 Mountain of transfiguring light and love with 
 Jesus Christ, at times. Therefore bear with and 
 pray for us, and your Pastor, often and much. 
 Be Aaron to this Moses, to hold up his hands 
 in your church. This is an old illustration, but 
 it is always good, and is never out of place. 
 Pray for him, and hold up his hands, — that 
 Aaronic illustration is still apt, and fit, and 
 profitable. And I will tell you why. Anybody 
 or anything we pray for cannot long remain 
 indifferent to us. If you pray for anything or 
 any one, it will certainly enlist and excite and 
 strengthen your interest and effort in that per- 
 son or cause. So much so, that we will strive 
 to make good in conduct and in deed ; strive 
 
CHARGE TO THE PEOPLE. 65 
 
 to bring about the blessings we have begged 
 from God. A Christian who never prays for 
 the heathen, — well, what he will give to foreign 
 missions will not enrich any collection-plate. 
 The Christian who does not strengthen his heart 
 and fortify his soul by secret and frequent 
 prayer for any good cause, or new Pastor, will 
 soon grow weary in all well-doing, and lose in- 
 terest in the welfare of both church and Pastor. 
 Verily we die to the affections of those from 
 whom we are long separated ; we become in- 
 different and dead to persons we do not often 
 think about, or warm in our hearts or remember 
 in our prayers. So please, for your own sakes 
 as well as for his, pray often for your Pastor. 
 "More things are wrought by prayer" — ySu 
 know the rest of it. Why? Because the person 
 we carry to God, on our knees, will certainly 
 become dear to us. To sow a prayer is to reap 
 an act. If you pray God to relieve the poor, 
 and deny a just appeal on your alms, you di- 
 vorce say-well from do-well, which was abhorred 
 and denounced by Christ. All good, steadfast 
 labor is the fruit of secret prayer. Pray for 
 your Pastor. If you do, you will want to help 
 him, and cheer him, and sustain him. F'or 
 whom we pray, in them we are interested, and 
 
 5 
 
66 CHARGE TO THE PEOPLE. 
 
 for them we are active; to them we communi- 
 cate strength and courage, — not despondency 
 or doubt. For whom we pray, we labor. The 
 cause we Hft up to heaven is the cause we will 
 fight for, give to, sacrifice time and money, use 
 talents and loyalty and love to maintain, ad- 
 vance, and its triumph secure. So pray for your 
 Pastor; and never doubt he will know it. He 
 will ; and I will tell you how he will know it. 
 He will feel your prayers in the grasp of your 
 hand ; he will see them in your sympathetic 
 faces ; he will realize them in your loyalty and 
 devotion; and he will be upheld, strengthened, 
 and inspired to do his best work and to live his 
 noblest life in the presence and ministry of a 
 church which often carries his welfare and work 
 to a throne of the heavenly grace. 
 
 Again, dear friends, it requires t\vo objects 
 to produce consciousness ; or two, as we say, 
 to make a bargain. In any church, a true, or 
 genuine, or solid success must depend mainly, 
 not on the pulpit, but on the attitude of the 
 pews toward the pulpit. Chrysostom's golden 
 mouth would have spoken in stammering and 
 discordant accents, ** like sweet bells jangled, 
 out of tune," beforp a church broken in factions 
 or rent by dissensions, or cold and unresponsive 
 
CHARGE TO THE PEOPLE. 67 
 
 to the Word. I know that you are all of one 
 mind to-night, cordially united, warmly confi- 
 dent, and hopeful of the future. For your 
 Pastor's sake, and for the church's sake, con- 
 tinue so, and great and glorious will be the 
 result. 
 
 A few precepts in your memories. 
 
 I. Hold your minister up to a high standard 
 of pulpit achievement. Demand of him his 
 very best. Men do best when most is expected 
 of them. We rise to our responsibilities. It is 
 unfortunate for some of us preachers in your 
 pulpits that our congregations are too easily sat- 
 isfied. Don't commend us too much for some 
 extempore, touching little talk ; for it will be a 
 strong temptation to us to abridge the hours of 
 study and to trust to the inspiration of the 
 moment. And that will prove fatal ; for there is 
 no blessing from God Almighty on sloth ; there 
 is no sure success not based on singleness of 
 purpose and sturdy toil. When study ceases, 
 inspiration fails. It is fair, then, to keep your 
 Pastor up to a high standard of work ; but do 
 not be too exacting. Remember that preachers 
 are fractions, not whole numbers, not multitudi- 
 nous men like Jesus Christ, who had the piece 
 that every man had lost. We have our special 
 
68 CHARGE TO THE PEOPLE. 
 
 faculties and gifts. Some churches are so unrea- 
 sonable. They expect all the cardinal virtues, 
 all the heavenly gifts, in one man. They forget 
 that God gave some apostles, and some prophets, 
 and some evangelists, that He gave some other 
 churches pastors, and some teachers. But the 
 modern church often demands that one minister 
 shall represent all these different gifts in his own 
 person, and sometimes you expect us to excel in 
 all departments. You insist that we shall "be 
 clear-eyed as an apostle, full-hearted as a pastor, 
 swift-footed as an evangelist, ready-tongued as 
 a teacher, and as infallible in our utterances as 
 a prophet." And now look at it: ''All these 
 magnificent qualifications, all these combinations 
 of rare and diverse gifts, all these pieties, graces, 
 eloquence, and virtues, the modern church 
 thinks ought to be furnished in the ecclesiastical 
 market for the average salary of one thousand 
 dollars a year." Why, it is ridiculous ! It is 
 cruel. It is unjust. God gave some apostles; 
 God gave some others evangelists ; God gave 
 some people prophets : you cannot have all of 
 them in one man. Please permit me to say 
 that the church wants too much for too little. 
 " The church is the shrewdest buyer that tramps 
 through the world's exchanges;" and the clergy 
 
CHARGE TO THE PEOPLE. 69 
 
 of all churches are the poorest paid men who 
 do good work for this world. It seems to be 
 the popular opinion — and some very good 
 people hold it — that if God Almighty will 
 only keep a preacher humble, the people will 
 see to it that he is kept poor. It is not right. 
 There is no class of men who make so good 
 use of money, who have so little of it. A good 
 man does not preach the gospel for money, 
 truly; and a man who enters into the ministry 
 to amass money must start out with an imbecile 
 mind. Still, we are worth all that we can do 
 and can accomplish. A church that can pay, 
 ought to pay. As revenues increase, the salary 
 should be increased. As the pastor of a people, 
 your minister deserves increasing compensation, 
 for the extra toil that new-comers in the church 
 imposes upon him. It is pitiful, it is a reproach 
 to the church, that so many sensitive and highly 
 educated and noble men, whose health has 
 failed, or on whom the infirmities of years have 
 fallen, when they have been thrust aside, from 
 active labor, have often to earn a precarious 
 livelihood as book-agents, or be remanded for 
 a beggarly pittance to the Board for Condemned 
 Preachers. If I grow warm on this subject, 
 please charge it not to any personal feeling, 
 
70 CHARGE TO THE PEOPLE. 
 
 but to my professional pride, and to my desire 
 to see the clergy of this country compensated 
 as they ought to be for their best efforts for 
 the perpetuation of good government, as well as 
 for the salvation of the souls .of men. In this 
 troubled day of unrest and strikes, when all la- 
 bor as well as capital is organizing and combin- 
 ing and centralizing, it appears to me that some 
 of us ministers should do something to advance 
 the salaries of other men, eveji by striking. 
 Pardon me for calling attention to this matter 
 in a church so distinguished for liberality as well 
 as for wealth. But it is set down in the Book 
 as one of the things to be mentioned in a charge 
 to the people. You are to give him a compe- 
 tent, worldly maintenance. Start with that. 
 And as the pews fill, and the revenues increase, 
 do not forget to advance it. Increase it as pros- 
 perity flows in upon you. You will share your 
 prosperity with your Pastor, I am sure, as well 
 as your troubles and misfortunes. You will be 
 generous as well as just, in all your relations 
 with him. 
 
 2. A preacher's power is in ratio to his knowl- 
 edge of human nature. Not to know men is 
 not to know how to save them. The more man 
 a minister has in him, the more attention he 
 
CHARGE TO THE PEOPLE. 71 
 
 will command. The broader his sympathies are, 
 the broader will be his influence in any commu- 
 nity. Granted. But God gave some churches 
 preachers, some pastors, some apostles ; and 
 you should not expect the highest and best 
 from the preacher, and perfection in the pas- 
 tor. In this struggling and competing city, 
 where there is rivalry even in churches, you 
 cannot have the best of both in one person. 
 Strong, solid, well-proportioned sermons are 
 to be got only by hard study and long hours 
 of toil. Time is limited. There are only twelve 
 hours of work in a day. In this city the pulpit 
 must come first, preaching up to one's best 
 is necessary. The pastoral work is largely op- 
 tional, and ought to be. The old-time proverb 
 about a house-going preacher making a church- 
 going people ought to be more honored in the 
 breach than in the observance; and it must 
 be. People are too intelligent, too well read, 
 too exacting, to accept long pastoral visits as 
 compensation for thin and poor sermons. The 
 talking man comes first; the shepherding man 
 second : and do not look for perfection in both 
 ofifices in one man. 
 
 And now, dear brethren in God, I commend 
 unto you, to your prayers, to your sympathy, to 
 
72 CHARGE TO THE PEOPLE. 
 
 your loyalty, and to your love, my dear friend 
 and former parishioner, your new, young, and 
 already beloved Pastor. May this day be the 
 auspicious beginning of a new era of usefulness, 
 of prosperity, and of growth for this venerable 
 and historic church ! We pray for him and 
 for you, that here in this pulpit he may make 
 visible to you the glory of God as it shines in 
 the face of Jesus Christ ; we pray for him and 
 for you, that here may be felt and witnessed 
 the power of God, which working through Jesus 
 Christ turns bad men into good men, makes 
 good men better, transforms law into gospel, 
 glorifies virtue into holiness and duty into love ; 
 we pray for him and for you, that here, for 
 years to come, this strong and thoroughly 
 equipped preacher may bring to bear upon your 
 intellectual, your emotional, your social, your 
 spiritual life, the person, the principles, and the 
 practices of that Son of Mary whom we still 
 worship as the Son of God. 
 
 May the Paraclete, the Near-Bringer of the 
 Christ, strengthen him to preach, and open your 
 ears to hear, of Jesus Christ, — not as a dogma, 
 but as a real person, a living Helper, a certain 
 Saviour, a risen Lord, a future Judge, and the 
 exceeding great reward in that Paradise of God 
 
CHARGE TO THE PEOPLE. 73 
 
 where our joy shall be like a sea whose shores 
 no man can find. 
 
 Blessed work to help bewildered men and 
 women find their way back home to God, 
 through this dark and difficult world. And 
 blessed, thrice-blessed music, sweeter than all 
 the songs of love, is that dear old gospel, of 
 the Son of God, which is still and forever the 
 power and the wisdom of God unto salvation ; 
 which still lifts whatever it touches, still hallows 
 whatever it finds, and is still able, out of a 
 ruined and decrepit rebel, to make a robed and 
 crowned saint. 
 
 Oh, old historic walls, long may you stand 
 with wide open doors to echo the sweetness of 
 Christ's saving name, and to reverberate with 
 the accents and songs of the redeeming love ! 
 
 Fall on us. Holy Ghost, to-night, — a Pente- 
 cost to warm our hearts with the immortal fire, 
 before the battle is joined, the campaign begun, 
 the duties grappled with, by my brother, your 
 Pastor, and by you, his people, for the glory of 
 God and the salvation of human souls. 
 
PRAYER. 
 
 By the Rev. GEORGE ALEXANDER, D.D. 
 
 A LMIGHTY GOD, our Heavenly Father, 
 ■^ ^ whose we are, and whom we serve, we 
 humbly ask Thy blessing upon the relation now 
 consummated. Bless the pastor, and bless the 
 flock. Let Thy Holy Spirit descend upon Thy 
 servant, filling him with grace and with power 
 from on high. Let the Word of God dwell 
 richly in his heart, that he may minister unto 
 the flock over which Thou hast made him over- 
 seer. Inspire him with love for his Master, and 
 with love for the people to whom that Master 
 sends him. Make him strong to bear the bur- 
 dens which will rest upon him. Be with him in 
 the proclamation of Thy Gospel, that he may 
 proclaim it without fear and without favor. Be 
 with him as he kneels at the bedside of the sick 
 and suffering. Be with him when he stands be- 
 tween the mourners and their dead. 
 
 Grant unto him, we pray Thee, largeness of 
 mind, and largeness of heart. Fill him with a 
 
PRAYER. 75 
 
 sense of his responsibility to Thee, and with 
 deepest sympathy for the needs and sufferings, 
 and aspirations of sinful, dying men. Let Thy 
 blessing, we beseech Thee, rest upon this an- 
 cient church. May Thy presence ever be mani- 
 fested here. Let the power of the Holy Ghost 
 descend upon all its officers and members. May 
 no root of bitterness spring up to trouble or de- 
 file. Unite the hearts of the people in love to 
 the Master and in love to him whom Thou hast 
 set over them in the Lord. Make this the birth- 
 place of many souls. May the Name of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ be here magnified. Let Thy 
 kingdom come and Thy will be done here, even 
 as in Heaven. We ask all in the name and for 
 the sake of our blessed Lord and Redeemer. 
 Amen. 
 
 Hymn No. 835. 
 
BENEDICTION. 
 
 By the pastor. 
 
 \ ND now, may the God of peace that brought 
 -^"^ again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the 
 blood of the everlasting covenant make us per- 
 fect in every good work to do His will, working 
 in us that which is well pleasing in His sight, 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with 
 the Father and the Holy Ghost, one God, be 
 present and never-ending praise. Amen. 
 
The Lord our God be with us, as He was 
 with our fathers : let Him not leave us, nor 
 forsake us : that He may incline our hearts unto 
 Him, to walk in all His ways, and to keep His 
 commandments. — i KiNGS viii. 57, 58. 
 
 O Lord, we beseech Thee, send now pros- 
 perity. — Psalms cxviii. 25. 
 
First Presbyterian Church, Fifth Avenue. 
 (Erected 1846.) 
 
LIST OF OFFICE-BEARERS. 
 
 1886. 
 
Office-Bearers 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 
 
 NEW YORK CITY, 
 April i, 1886. 
 
 SESS/OJV. 
 RICHARD D. HARLAN, Minister. 
 
 RULING ELDERS. 
 
 SAMUEL FROST. EUGENE McJIMSEY. 
 
 RICHARD H. BULL. SAMUEL C. BRUSH. 
 
 HEZEKIAH KING, Clerk. 
 
 GEO. B. MERSEREAU, Deacon. 
 
 TRUSTEES. 
 
 J. D. T. HERSEY. WILLIAM MOIR. 
 
 J. D. HARDENBURGH. EDWARD J. DENNING. 
 
 GEO. W. McLANAHAN. ROBERT FERGUSON. 
 
 JOHN E. JOHNSON. ALGERNON S. SULLIVAN. 
 
 Dr. THOS. E. SATTERTHWAITE. 
 6 
 
I 
 

 Date Due 
 
 
 
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 i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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