Tn flDcmotfam 
 
 IRev^ Cbatles Brown 
 0^X8. JEUsa H. Brown 
 
 BX ^^ 
 
 9225 
 
 .B7582 
 
 IS It Y\ 
 1896 '^^^ 
 
6.2.d.2.if, 
 
 LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 Presented by 
 
 BX 
 
 9225 
 
 .B7582 15 
 
 1896 
 
 
 In memoriam, 
 Brown, Mrs. 
 
 Rev. Char 
 Eliza A. 
 
 les 
 Brown 
 

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 ■^^u 
 
Ifn ilDemodam 
 
 REV. AND MRS. CHARLES BROWN 
 
 January 2, 1896 
 February 14, 1896 
 
 THESE beautiful lives were so long; united in life and so 
 briefly severed by death that, in preparing an In 
 Memoriam, it seems almost impossible to separate them. 
 They were married on November 24, 1835, at "Castle Hall," 
 the ancestral home of Wilham M. Hardcastle, Esq., the father 
 of the bride. Eor over sixty years they dwelt together in lov- 
 ing relationship, sharing each other's joys and sorrows, entering 
 into each other's hopes and plans, and earnestly working for 
 the Master, to whom they had consecrated their lives. Truly, 
 their children and all who knew them can " rise up and call 
 them blessed," for they never wearied in doing good to others. 
 When the dear wife was called from this world, on January 
 2, 1896, it at once became apparent that her devoted husband 
 could not long survive her, and it was pathetic to see how his 
 feebleness increased when the wife of his love had been taken 
 from him. On February 14, 1896, he passed from earth to 
 heaven, there to join the wife from whom he had been sepa- 
 rated but six weeks. Sixty years of happy married life ! Six 
 weeks of separation ! Then the glorious reunion for eternity, 
 never again to pass through the agony of parting ! 
 
REV. CHARLES BROWN 
 
 Born November 30, 1805 
 
 Entered into rest February 14, 1896 
 
 Rev. Charles Brown, though of Enghsh ancestry, was born 
 in Philadelphia, November 30, 1805. His father, Peter Brown, 
 was born in England, and on coming to America married Miss 
 Rebecca Hellings, also of English origin, on March 25, 1804. 
 His father died when Mr. Brown was about five years of age. 
 but his mother lived to be eighty-two years of age, retaining her 
 faculties to the last. As a child he was very studious and 
 thoughtfid, and at the early age of eight years would frequendy 
 leave his young companions and go aside alone for reading and 
 reflection. This taste for reading and meditation increased with 
 years, and even before he decided to enter upon the ministry 
 he had read much in theology, church history and Christian 
 experience. When, at the age of twenty-five years, he resolved 
 to study for the ministry, he had some thought of entering 
 Princeton Theological Seminary, as he had several friends there 
 who strongly urged it ; but on consideration he decided that 
 it was better for him to continue his studies in Philadelphia 
 under Rev. Thomas H. Skinner, D. D., and afterwards with Rev. 
 Ezra Stiles Ely, D. D. 
 
 Although so much of a student, he did not ignore the social 
 side of life, but had hosts of friends and was a general favorite. 
 He was constandy called on to fill important positions, both in 
 church and literary circles, and was looked up to as a leader, 
 not only by his young companions, but by older people, who had 
 respect for his opinion and judgment. This influence he pos- 
 sessed through his entire life, both in his family and among his 
 friends. His mind was so clear that he could grasp things at 
 
once, and his approval inspired confidence in any line of work. 
 Being- perfectly just and conscientious, every one felt that his 
 advice could be trusted. 
 
 His mind was for some time greatly exercised on the sub- 
 ject of religion, but it was not until July 14, 1826, when he was 
 twenty years of age, that he surrendered himself to Christ. In 
 the first volume of his diary, which he had kept for nearly seventy 
 years, he vi\idly describes the event, which, after a season of 
 prayer, took place at noon of that day : "I ielt my sins roll off 
 from me almost as sensibly as though they had been a garment 
 cast aside. Immediately I experienced that joy which the world 
 can never give." 
 
 He entered then upon active work for the Master. .. As 
 Mr. Benj. B. Comegys wrote of him, in 1876: '"•' '=' '=' Immediately 
 after his conversion he began to pray with, and tor, his young 
 companions, and used his influence to bring them to Christ. 
 Before the present system for the monthly distribution of tracts 
 was established in this city, his custom was to purchase tracts 
 and distribute them weekly among the poor living in lanes and 
 alleys. When not yet twenty one years old, he gathered a 
 Sabbath-school and established weekly prayer-meetings in the 
 northwestern suburbs of this city, from which beginnings arose 
 one of the most prosperous churches of that neighborhood. 
 That church has written its history and speaks of Mr. Brown's 
 labors as the becrinnine of its existence. 
 
 While yet a student, his attention was directed to the 
 religious condition of Manayunk, Roxborough and the Falls of 
 Schuylkill. In these places he was very useful in promoting 
 the spiritual interests of the people. His efforts contributed 
 largely to the organization of the Presbyterian Church of 
 Manayunk^ and the church at Roxborough was the immediate 
 
fruit of the popular meetings which he estabhshed and con- 
 ducted on Sabbath and Thursday evenings during- the winter 
 and part of the spring of 1833. 
 
 After his hcensure, he entered on pastoral life in Mary- 
 land, where his ministry was very successful. Several years 
 after, when contending parties were preparing for the division 
 of our denomination, Mr. Brown was called to a church in 
 Delaware, which was much disturbed by the spirit of disunion, 
 and was in danger of dissolution. But by his prudence and 
 firmness he was the means of saving that church ; for in less 
 than three months after he had taken charge of it, harmony 
 was restored and his relations to that people were among the 
 most happy of his life. He left them only because his health 
 failed. And now on that same field, which he so well cultivated 
 alone, more than thirty-five years ago, there are three substan- 
 tial Presbyterian churches, all of which highly respect Mr. Brown, 
 and one of which desired a renewal of his pastoral services when 
 he was nearly fifty-nine years of age. 
 
 After his return to Philadelphia, and when his health was 
 restored, his attention was called to the First Presbyterian 
 Church of Fairmount. Its condition was almost hopeless. It 
 was so reduced in numbers and influence as to render it doubtful 
 whether an effort should be made to revive it. Some members 
 of Presbytery, however, who knew something of Mr. Brown's 
 prudence and perseverance in desperate cases, and that he never 
 failed to accomplish any good work when he undertook it, pre- 
 vailed on him to take this church in hand, which he felt at the 
 time to be the severest act of self-denial he had ever been called 
 to perform. After much effort, success attended his labors, 
 and they resulted in his building the new church near Logan 
 Square. While this church was never in possession of much 
 
wealth, it was, for a long^ time, one of the most prosperous in 
 spiritual fruit. During twenty consecutive years the numbers 
 added to it on profession of faith, much exceeded the average 
 additions to the other churches of Presbytery, most of which 
 were among the largest in the city. 
 
 In the beginning of his labors at bairmount he preached 
 three times on the Sabbath for some months ; that is, he preached 
 morninof and evenino- in his church, and in the afternoon at 
 Mantua, which extra labor had an influence in the organization 
 of the First Presbyterian Church (Northminster) of Mantua. 
 Among the historical sermons to be preached in this Centennial 
 vear, eivinof histories of the churches, there will be found 
 acccounts of at least /bicr churches whose origin can be traced 
 to the early labors of Mr. Brown. 
 
 For eight years he was Secretary of the Philadelphia Educa- 
 tion Society, and for six years Secretary of the Ministerial 
 Relief Fund. In both of these offices he was very successful 
 in obtaining all the means that were needed to carry forward 
 efficiently the enterprises which he represented. He accepted 
 the office of Secretary only because of medical advice to with- 
 draw from pastoral life for a season, in order to improve 
 his health. Mr. Brown has had twenty-five years experience 
 of pastoral life, and in all that period he held the affections 
 of his people, and never had discord, either in the congregation 
 or in the church session. His reputation as a pastor was such, 
 that while in charge of the Logan Square Church, he was invited 
 to ten or eleven other churches, all of which invitations he 
 quietly declined," 
 
 It will be seen by this letter of Mr. Comegys, written 
 twenty years ago, that Mr. Brown was very successful in the 
 organization of churches, and also as a peacemaker, being 
 
called on very frequently to act as moderator of the session in 
 churches which were divided and in danger of dissolution. 
 Other articles in this memoir will tell of his different pastorates 
 and the various offices he held until he was eighty years of age, 
 when he felt that the time had come for him to retire from active 
 
 service. 
 
 An interesting incident occurred in connection with his 
 early missionary labors. "At a meeting of Synod, held in 1858, 
 he was called upon to give a history of his work in starting the 
 Green Hill Presbyterian Sunday-school. When he closed his 
 remarks, a gentleman in the congregation arose, and said that 
 he had especial reason to remember the school of thirty years 
 ago. He and a company of lads were accustomed on the 
 Sabbath to play at ball on the commons that abounded in what 
 was then the outskirts of the city. One Sunday a young man 
 passed while they were at play, and courteously reproved them 
 for breaking the commands of God. They made light of it. and 
 attempted to turn his reproof to ridicule ; but arrows were left 
 in the hearts of three of the boys which rankled there concealed, 
 without either knowing the thought of the other. They 
 renounced their Sunday sport ; the party was broken up. 
 The three contined to be seriously concerned for the 
 salvation of their souls, until they obtained evidence that they 
 were Christians. One of them is a useful Episcopal minister 
 of the Gospel at the West ; another is a pious lawyer at the 
 South ; the third, the speaker, a Superintendent of a Sunday- 
 school in this city; 'and,' he added, 'the young man who 
 addressed us on that day was the speaker who has just taken 
 his seat, now the Rev. Charles Brown.' This will illustrate 
 the fruitfulness of seed sown by the wayside y 
 
 [From the American Presbyterian of Oct. 28, 1858.] 
 
It is a remarkable fact that the last pulpit discourse 
 delivered by Mr. Brown was at the anniversary of the Green 
 Hill Sunday-school which he had organized just sixty years 
 before. He had been earnestly solicited by the superintendent 
 and other officers to make an address on that occasion. 
 
 Mr. Brown was elected Stated Clerk of the Fourth Pres- 
 bytery of Philadelphia on April i8, 1848, which office he held 
 for eight years, when he resigned the clerkship, April 8, 1856. 
 He was sent as commissioner to the General Assembly (in 
 session at Buffalo) by the Fourth Presbytery of Philadelphia, in 
 May, 1853, and by the Third Presbytery in May, 1863, and 
 by the Third Presbytery again in May, 1870, that is, to the 
 General Assembly of the Re-united Church. 
 
 Thus his whole life, from the time he was twenty years of 
 age, was spent in earnest work for the Master. Although for 
 the past ten years retired from active labor, he never lost an 
 opportunity of exhorting his friends, especially the young, to 
 seek the Lord, and earnestly urged them to work for the 
 Master. In the bodily weakness and feebleness of the last two 
 years he resembled the Apostle John, who, though too old and 
 infirm to any longer preach the Gospel, could in his failing 
 strength point the way to the Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 His mental faculties were perfect to the last. He passed from 
 this world just as his dear wife had gone, and as he longed to do, 
 he fell asleep — yes, "fell asleep in Jesus." Prequently during 
 the closing weeks of his life would he repeat the last verse of 
 a poem which he composed in 1882, entitled " Philadelphia." 
 
 There is a city of celestial build, 
 
 Whose peerless splendor far outshines the sun ; 
 
 May that sweet home, with love and gladness filled, 
 Receive us all when this life's work is done. 
 
Truly, when he went up yonder, did he receive the welcome 
 " Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy 
 of thy Lord." As a minister of the Gospel, he was true to his 
 trust, fearlessly proclaiming the truth, earnestly working for the 
 salvation of souls, and tenderly ministering to the sorrowing, 
 sick and dying. As an officer in various Boards, he was con- 
 scientious, upright and faithful in the discharge of duty. As a 
 friend, true and constant, steadfast to the end. As a husband, 
 loving and devoted, frequently saying that his wife was faultless 
 in his eyes. As a father, kind, unselfish and self-sacrificing, 
 rejoicing in the welfare of the children who were so dear to 
 him, and who are bowed with sorrow that he has been taken 
 from their midst. His character was marked by purity, modesty 
 and uprightness. 
 
 Pure and upright was his life, 
 Free from bitterness and strife, 
 Faithful, conscientious, true 
 In all that he was called to do. 
 
 Loved and honored by his friends, 
 His influence far and wide extends ; 
 And through his preaching of the Word 
 Many hearts have turned to God. 
 
 Dear father, from our loneliness 
 We rise up now to praise and bless 
 The loving care and counsel wise 
 With which you did enrich our lives. 
 
 United now in heaven above 
 
 With those whom you so dearly love, 
 
 Fond parents whom we sadly mi.ss, 
 
 You're resting now in perfect bliss. L. W. B. 
 
jFuneval Services 
 
 At his residence, 4013 Spruce Street 
 February 17, 1896 
 
 HYMN 
 •' Jesus, Lover of my soul " 
 
 READING OF THE SCRIPTURES 
 By Rev. Stephen W. Dana, D. D. 
 
 PRAYER 
 By Rev. H. Clay Trumbull, T). 1). 
 
 ADDRESS 
 By Rev. Stephen W. Dana, D. D. 
 
 One passage of Scripture has been constantly in my mind 
 since the death which calls us tocrether at this hour. It is 
 2 Samuel, i : 23 : " Saul and Jonathan were lovely in their lives, 
 and in their death they were not divided." Such is our feeling 
 toward this husband and wife whose happy marriage had been 
 so exceptional in its length and who in death are not divided. 
 Six weeks ago we met to pay our last tribute of respect to the 
 beloved wife and mother. Only six weeks before that funeral, 
 this aged couple had celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of their 
 marriage. It is not surprising that our departed brother, with 
 this devoted companion of years removed, weakened by former 
 sickness, should have longed to 00. Earth for him had lew 
 attractions ; heaven was bright with anticipation. 
 
 One is seldom permitted to live to be ninety years of age. 
 
When our friend was a child, the traditions of Washington and of 
 other illustrious heroes in the War of Independence were fresh 
 in mind. We are now nearly thirty-one years from the 
 close of our Civil War. Thirty-one years after the War of Inde- 
 pendence, Mr. Brown was a boy of nine. When seven, the 
 War of 1812 occurred, so that by tradition and actual experience 
 and observation he was personally familiar with the one hundred 
 and twenty years of our national life. At an early age he 
 became a Christian and entered upon the ministry, having been 
 born in this city, and was ordained by the Second Presbytery of 
 Philadelphia in 1833, so that he has been in this sacred office 
 nearly sixty-three years. 
 
 He was successively pastor of the churches of Greens- 
 borough, Mispillion, Drawyers, and Port Penn. He was after- 
 ward Secretary of the Philadelphia Tract Society, and from 
 1842 to 1855 pastor of the Logan Square Presbyterian Church, 
 of Philadelphia. For eight years he was Corresponding Secre- 
 tary of the Philadelphia Education Society, and from 1864 until 
 1870 Secretary of the Ministerial Relief Fund in connection 
 with the New School Presbyterian Church. At the reunion of 
 the two branches of the Presbyterian Church he was elected 
 Treasurer of this Ministerial Fund, which office he retained 
 until he was compelled to resiofn, owinp- to failing health and 
 advancing years. For thirty-five years he was also the Secretary 
 of the Presbyterian Ministerial Association, faithful and accurate 
 in all his duties, greatly respected and beloved by his brethren. 
 
 When I first came to this parish, in 1868, his family were 
 members of the Walnut vStreet Presbyterian Church, and he 
 was a constant attendant, when not preaching. For many years, 
 while carrying on his duties as Secretary, he supplied the pulpit 
 of the Presbyterian Church in Darby. The other ministers of 
 
 12 
 
this parish at the time of my installation were Albert Barnes, 
 Rev. Dr. John W. Dulles, and Rev. Samuel W. Crittenden. 
 
 It is the rather general opinion that ministers who have 
 been pastors and leaders themselves do not make the most 
 comfortable parishioners when called upon to accept the spiritual 
 leadership of another. I am happy to say that this has not 
 been my experience, and I wish to take this public opportunity 
 of testifying to the uniform kindness which I have received from 
 the ministers who first welcomed me to this parish; from other 
 ministers who have come and trone since that time, and from 
 those who still remain. 
 
 Mr. Brown was a man of unusually high honor. He had 
 no little jealousies toward his brethren. He was not a retailer 
 of ministerial or ecclesiastical gossip. His mind was of unsul- 
 lied purity. Personally, Mr. Brown could not have been kinder 
 had I been a son, and his warm friendship was most highly 
 prized. His voice was often heard at our mid-week services. 
 Though having long experience as a pastor, he was not forward 
 in pressing his own views as to the best methods of adminis- 
 tering a parish, though very kind to impart his counsel when 
 sought. 
 
 He was a most affectionate husband and father, a kind 
 neighbor, an unselfish and devoted friend, a sincere Christian. 
 His memory will ever be a precious one to us all, and his influ- 
 ence for good will continually abide. We are grateful for his 
 long and honored life, for his fidelity as a Christian minister, 
 for all that he was to us, and to so many others, during the 
 years which nearly span a century. 
 
 13 
 
ADDRESS 
 By Rev. William C. Cattell, D.D. 
 
 A long-, useful and honored life is closed by the death of 
 our venerated father. Few men, indeed, reach the advanced 
 age that God allotted to him, and among these there are but 
 few whose lives have been ennobled by such continuous faithful 
 service as he rendered to God and to his fellow-men. In the 
 successive pastorates which he filled, and in his subsequent 
 official positions in the Church, he showed the same spirit of 
 rare consecration. He was prompt, faithful, painstaking and 
 laborious in the performance of his duties. In his personal 
 relations he was always kind, gentle, thoughtful for others, and 
 singularly unostentatious, so that he won the affection as well 
 as the respect of those with whom he came in contact. No 
 wonder that his old age was so peaceful and happy. 
 
 Though I have been acquainted with Father Brown for 
 many years, it was not until he retired from the active and 
 public service of the Church that I came to know him well. For 
 a little while I was associated with him in the Board of 
 Ministerial Relief — for he was still the Treasurer of the Board 
 when I entered upon my duties as its Secretary, in 1884. He 
 was then in his eightieth year, and in the brief time we were 
 together I saw, in his daily life, enough to enable me to speak 
 from my own knowledge of that fidelity and conscientious per- 
 formance of his work, to which I have referred. 
 
 As is well known, he was the executive ofticer of the 
 Relief Fund, in the New School branch of our Church, from the 
 organization of that fund, in 1864, until the reunion of the two 
 branches, in 1870. To this office he brought many special 
 qualifications, not the least among which was his previous 
 service as the Corresponding Secretary of the Philadelphia 
 
 14 
 
Education Society, desioned to help young- men to enter the 
 ministry of the Presbyterian Church. 
 
 These two Ministerial Boards, one aiding- young men 
 entering the ministry, and the other aiding such as reach a 
 dependent, helpless old age, are obviously knit together by a 
 sacred bond. At the reunion of the two branches of the 
 Church, in 1870, this Relief Fund was united with that of the 
 Old School, which was the earlier organized, and had for some 
 years been served with singular devotion and fidelity by that 
 truly blessed man of God, Dr. Hale. It was agreed by all, 
 that the services of both men should be retained for the impor- 
 tant work committed by the united Church to the new Board. 
 It was left to them to decide which office each should assume. 
 And here Father Brown gave proof of that unselfishness and 
 thoughtful consideration for others which always characterized 
 him. Knowing that Dr. Hale, who was the Secretary of the 
 older society, was anxious to occupy the executive office, he 
 chose for himself the position of Treasurer, though at a less 
 salary than the secretaryship and involving more of laborious 
 details. This was at three-score years and ten, a time of life 
 when most men lay down the burden of official and public 
 life, to seek in retirement the repose which old age craves. 
 
 For ten years he wrought in his new position with the same 
 diligence and fidelity which he had always given to everything 
 he took in hand. He then retired, saying in his letter to the 
 Board: " As I have now entered upon my eightieth year, pru- 
 dence would suggest that the labors and anxieties incidental to 
 the duties of a Treasurer should devolve upon one with more 
 vigor of body and mind than I now possess." "'' '■' * In this 
 letter, after referring to his " daily labor for more than twenty 
 years for the advancement of the Ministerial Relief cause," he 
 
 . IS 
 
continues : "It is needless to say that my sympathies have 
 entered deeply into the work which has long occupied my time. 
 It has been my frequent prayer for many years that God would 
 send into our treasury all the means necessary for the success- 
 ful prosecution of our work ; that He would give to the Board 
 wisdom for the right administration of the Fund, and that He 
 would greatly bless the brethren who, in their poverty and 
 affliction, were receiving aid from the Fund." And the Board, 
 in taking official action upon his retirement, bore testimony 
 that he had " discharged the trusts committed to him with 
 singular fidelity, accuracy and delicate consideration towards 
 those for whose welfare the Relief Fund has been established ;" 
 and they added, " Our personal associations with Brother Brown 
 have been of the most agrreeable nature, and such as to establish 
 in us the deep conviction of his integrity, purity, and excellent 
 Christian character. We shall ever cherish toward him fraternal 
 desires that peace, comfort and the approving smile of Heaven 
 may gild the decline of his earthly life until that life shall be 
 merged into the Heavenly glory." 
 
 Those of us, his neighbors and friends, who have been 
 privileged to know Father Brown in his home during these 
 declining years of his life, can testify that they were years of 
 " peace and comfort." His mind was unimpaired to the last, 
 and his bodily health was good, save only for the weakness that 
 came with his patriarchal age. 
 
 Here, in this home, where almost to the very close of his 
 long life he enjoyed the companionship of the beloved one with 
 whom for sixty years he had lived a married life of rare happi- 
 ness ; here, where his devoted children vied with each other in 
 loving and tender ministrations to their aged parents ; here, in 
 this home of refinement and peace, the smile of Heaven did " gild 
 
 i6 
 
the decline of his earthly life ; " and we, recallinor this darkened 
 house of mourning, to which we came only six weeks ago, when 
 the patriarch's head was bowed beside the dear mother in Israel, 
 robed for her burial, are sure that his life, like hers, has merged 
 into the Heavenly glory. So soon have they met to be sepa- 
 rated no more forever. 
 
 ADDRESS 
 By Rev. Francis L. Robbins, D. D. 
 
 I am asked to add a few words to what has been said. This 
 man of God, whose span of life was so unusually prolonged, 
 whose abundant and useful labors are now consummated and 
 crowned by death, was a man who ever seemed to be living 
 near to the heart of God — a man of profound spiritual-minded- 
 ness — a man who walked with God. He made upon me, as 
 doubtless upon others, the impression that Jesus Christ was to 
 him a sweet and powerful personality ; that he saw the radiant 
 light wh'ch shone in His eyes, and that because of the sense of 
 this Divine Presence, he was set round by a wall of celestial 
 defence, kept and sustained amid life's thick perils. In all men 
 whose ideals are hi^h, whose lives are true and pood, character 
 is greatest — greater than the most shining gifts, accomplish- 
 ments, deeds. 
 
 Measured by dignity, elevation, purity, worth of character, 
 Charles Brown was second to none. In that character were 
 blended the highest and the tenderest qualities ; unswerving 
 fidelity to truth and duty and goodness, with self-forgetfulness, 
 gentleness, modesty, steadfast affection. The spirit of the gospel 
 of love and all charitableness dwelt in his bosom. Hence he 
 commanded moral esteem. Sincerity always does this. Wide 
 in his sympathies, warm and true in his attachments, he made 
 friends and retained them. 
 
 17 
 
During the many years of our acquaintance, I hav^e never 
 known him, by act or speech, to lower his high standard, com- 
 promise truth of character, wound the sensitiveness of Christian 
 courtesy or betray the obhgations of comradeship. It was my 
 privilege to pray with him and commune with him in respect to 
 our common Christian hope and heritage a few weeks since. It 
 was in vivid evidence that he was leaninof his frail, failino- 
 humanity on the support of his mighty Saviour, and resting 
 calmly in the Everlasting Arms. He assured me of his firm 
 conviction that the best in human experience and human destiny 
 was before him, not behind him. I felt then, and affirm now, 
 that the life and labors and trium}jhant confidence in the front 
 of swift advancing dissolution is a final and decisive answer to 
 the question : " Is life worth living ?" 
 
 Alas, and alas ! but how sadly true it is, doubters and 
 deniers are about us, to whom life is a doubtful boon, without 
 certainties, vacant of supreme moral interests and issues. 
 Invoke their opinions and ask, Do human intelligences, facul- 
 ties, affections, powers of personality and life outlast the ruin of 
 the body and find exercise and hope in another economy of 
 conscious existence ? They answer : We do not know. We 
 neither affirm nor deny. It is beyond the power of men to 
 determine. The centuries have never been able to answer the 
 momentous question asked by the patriarch of an elder time, 
 "If a man die shall he live agrain ? " Is it so ? Then is life on 
 this earth tragic and desolate, and human destiny an outcome of 
 darkness and despair. Then what shadows we are, and what 
 shadows we pursue. Moral beliefs underlying those religious 
 hopes and fears which, more than any other influence, deter- 
 mine our moral conditions, and even our intellectual life, are 
 instantly vacated of solemnity and significance. Man lives 
 
under bewildering cross lights and disastrous conditions. 
 Humanity is the highest object of reverence, self-approval 
 the stronorest motive to virtue, and, as all action must be in its 
 own sphere, man is, of course, powerless for his own deliver- 
 ance and uplifting. What, then, becomes of high aspirations ? 
 Where shall we bestow the treasures of the heart? What shall 
 we do with those capacities of love and tenderness, those ener- 
 gies of adoration and worship which overHowand sweep beyond 
 all human relations, and which only a God of infinite goodness 
 can elicit and hold in unimpeded exercise ? 
 
 Are we, then, made in vain? Is darkness our starting 
 place and darkness our goal ? Perish the thought ! Such a 
 life as this we are contemplating, such a character as this we are 
 holding up to the light for honorable recognition, forbid the 
 dreary suggestion. 
 
 Charles Brown was not mistaken. He knew "whom 
 he believed," He had the credentials within. He felt 
 that God is, and that He is our friend, and that a 
 moral God could not possibly disappoint expectations 
 which He had himself authorized and Invited. Was he 
 not justified in this brave confidence, and in his convic- 
 tion that the best is not behind, but before the child of God — 
 ever before him ? vSurely we are not called into life, and 
 invested with unquenchable aspirations for the attainment of 
 imperishable excellence, and with powers susceptible of endless 
 growth and improvement, and then thrust down into darkness 
 and nothingness. 
 
 Has God no pity — no tears? Is He less humane, tender, 
 just, honest, honorable than man ? He knoweth our frame. 
 He hath made us mortal, and yet hath set eternity in our hearts. 
 He cannot disappoint our religious instincts. Our eyes have 
 
 19 
 
seen and our hands have handled die Word of Hfe, and he that 
 hath the Son hath Hfe, andean never die ; and where the Christ 
 of the Cross of the Resurrection is, there we shall be in due 
 time. I expect to meet this man whom God hath taken to 
 Himself, and hidden from us for a season, again. I expect to be 
 filled again with the society of loved ones who have passed on 
 (dearer because dead), who are now before the Throne. I expect 
 to see the King in His beauty, and dwell in the house with many 
 mansions forever. 
 
 The best is always, and will always be before us. O ! my 
 friends, God is sjood. 
 
 PRAYER 
 By Rev. S. W. Dana, D. D. 
 
 HYMN 
 " Father, whate'er of earthly bliss." 
 
 BENEDICTION 
 By Rev. J. Sluart Dickson 
 
 INTERMENT AT SOUTH LAUREL HILL 
 Services at the grave by Rev. John De Witt, D. D. 
 
 The following personal friends were selected as honorary 
 pall-bearers : 
 
 Rf.v. W. C. Cattell, D. D., Rev. H. A. Nelson, D. D., 
 
 Rev. F. L. Robbins, D. D., Rev. H. Ci-ay Trumbull, D. D., 
 
 Rev. John De Wrrr, D. D., Rev. W. W. Heberton, 
 
 Mr. Ben I. B. Co.megvs. 
 
 20 
 
ITvibutes 
 
 Rev. Charles Brown was born in Philadelphia, Pa., in 
 November, 1805, educated in the same city, and was licensed 
 and ordained by the Second Presbytery of Philadelphia in 1833. 
 For the first six years he ministered, successively, to the 
 churches of Greensborough, Mispillion, Drawyers and Port 
 Penn. He was Secretary of the Philadelphia Tract Society in 
 1 84 1, and pastor of the Logan Square Presbyterian Church, 
 Philadelphia from 1842 until 1855, when he became City Agent 
 ot the Pennsylvania Colonization Society, and held the office 
 for three years. He was Corresponding Secretary of the Phila- 
 delphia Education Society from 1858 until 1864, and Secretary 
 of the Relief Fund for Disabled Ministers (N. S.) from 1864 
 until 1870, when, on the reunion of the two branches of the 
 Presbyterian Church, he was elected Treasurer of the united 
 fund. P'or nearly seven years Mr. Brown preached regularly 
 to the First Church of Darby, in addition to his labors as Cor- 
 responding Secretary, and for thirty-five years the Philadelphia 
 Presbyterian Ministerial Association was favored with his weekly 
 services as its Recording Secretary. 
 
 Mr. Brown's life was one of steady. Christian consistency 
 and of diligent activity and marked usefulness in the Master's 
 service. In all the congregations of which he was pastor he 
 held the affections of his people, prosecuted his work without 
 any discord among them, and his labors were attended with the 
 Divine blessing. The origin of at least four churches can be 
 traced to his early and earnest labors. He filled all the offices 
 to which the Church called him with great fidelity and satisfac- 
 tion, and deservedly enjoyed the confidence and affection of his 
 
 Dretnren. From the Presbyterian Encyclopcvdia. 
 
The Rev. Charles Brown, the senior member of the Presby- 
 tery of Philadelphia, died at his home, in West Philadelphia, on 
 Friday, February 14 He was born in Philadelphia in the year 
 1805. and was therefore in the ninety-first year of his age. A 
 few months agfo he and his venerable wife celebrated the sixtieth 
 anniversary of their marriage, and last month Mrs. Brown was 
 borne to the grave. They are now reunited in the presence of 
 Christ. Mr. Brown began his ministry in the State of Mary- 
 land, and afterwards became pastor of the Logan Square Church, 
 Philadelphia. His chief service of the Church was as the Treas- 
 urer of the Fund for Disabled Ministers, to which he was elected 
 in the year 1870. While performing the duties of this office he 
 was constantly preaching the gospel, as opportunity offered, 
 and for a number of years supplied the pulpit of the First Church 
 of Darby. He was a man greatly beloved, a devout servant of 
 Christy a conscientious and faithful pastor, and an earnest 
 preacher of the gospel. His old age was beautiful and saintly, 
 and he descended slowly into the grave, rejoicing in the hope 
 of a blessed immortality in the presence of the Redeemer, whom 
 
 he loved and had long preached. From The Presbyterian (Phila.) 
 
 Rev. Charles Brown, the oldest Presbyterian clergyman in 
 Philadelphia, Pa., died February 14th, in his ninety-first year. 
 He was a native of Philadelphia, and was ordained in 1833. For 
 thirty-five years he was secretary of the Presbyterian Ministerial 
 Association of his native city. 
 
 From The Anurican Res^ister, London, England, March 7, 1896. 
 
 Obituary notices appearetl also in The Presbyterian Journal, 
 The Public Ledger, Press and other Philadelphia papers ; in The 
 New York Evangelist and Neiv York Herald, and in The Herald 
 a?td Presbyter of Cincinnati. 
 
 22 
 
In September, 1826, a few yoiino; men connected with the 
 Presbyterian Church commenced systematic efforts to promote 
 religion by means of Sabbath-school instruction and prayer- 
 meetinors, in the village of Francisville, then cpiite remote from 
 the limits of the city. 
 
 About this time Charles Brown (now Rev. Charles Brown, 
 of Philadelphia), a young man not yet of age, from the centre 
 of the city, visited the village for the purpose of Christian labor. 
 He found a few children ready to receive his instructions, and 
 obtaining the assistance of another youth, younger than him- 
 self, named John Summers, the two carried on the school for 
 about three years. A few others joined them in their labors as 
 the number of scholars increased. The field they attempted 
 thus to cultivate extended from Broad Street to the River 
 Schuylkill, and from Callowhill Street to what is now called 
 Girard Avenue. Occasionally, children were gathered into the 
 school who resided even beyond the limits just named. Some 
 came from Bush Hill. Fairmount and other remote places. 
 Over this broad space the houses were thinly scattered, but 
 none were left unvisited by these youthful pioneers. Wherever 
 there was a prospect of finding a child, thither they bent their 
 way. During the first year of their labors, as many as one 
 hundred and seventy-two children were enrolled upon their list 
 of scholars. 
 
 But the efforts of Mr. Brown and his companions were not 
 confined to the Sabbath-school alone. Prayer-meetings were 
 soon established by them. These meetings were held once and 
 sometimes twice a week ; occasionally in the little brick church 
 held by the Episcopalians, but oftener in private houses, ten or 
 twelve of which had been opened for the purpose. 
 
 These meetings grew in character and influence until the 
 
 23 
 
whole village was affected by them. They, as well as the Sab- 
 bath-school, encountered much opposition. Men, infidel in 
 sentiment and wicked in practice, did all in their power to 
 counteract the infiuence now so widely prevailing, and for a 
 while they seemed to be successful. But, as opposition arose, 
 friends gathered around the devoted band. '=' '•' '=' The 
 labors of Mr. Brown and his companions in sustaining the prayer- 
 meetings were untiring. They went from the city through all 
 kinds of weather, oftentimes when the rain was pouring in 
 torrents and when it was so dark that they could not see their 
 own length on the road before them. But nothing deterred them, 
 neither heat, nor cold, nor rain, nor darkness, nor, what was still 
 worse, the determined hatred and opposition of their foes. But 
 they had their reward. They remembered that their Bible said 
 they should reap in due season if they fainted not, and God 
 kept alive their faith and zeal. Of the teachers who labored in 
 this school between September, 1826, and August, 1829, five 
 afterwards entered the Gospel ministry, namely, Charles Brown, 
 John Summers, fames Clarke, Robert Clarke and J. Hunterson. 
 In 1829, Charles Brown retired from the school he had so 
 successfully sustained, and the management of it devolved upon 
 different persons, whose services extended through a term of 
 seventeen years, until the present church was organized from it. 
 
 From the " History of the Green Hill Presbyterian Church," published in 1859. 
 
 24 
 
RESOLUTIONS OF SYMPATHY AND RESPECT 
 
 Report of the Committee of the Ministerial Association on the death of 
 Rev. Charles Brown, on February 14, 1896 
 
 The Presbyterian Ministerial Association fondly remember 
 the Rev. Charles Brown, who departed this life on Friday, Feb- 
 ruary 14, 1896, in the ninety-first year of his age. For a period 
 of thirty-five years he was the Secretary of our Association, 
 which position he relinquished some years ago because of his 
 advancing age. His courtesy and close attention to the duties 
 of the position placed us under great obligation to him, and 
 after twenty years of service our Association presented him a 
 slight token of our esteem, being an easy arm-chair. At the 
 time of his 'resignation, in 1883, he was unanimously elected 
 Secretary Emeritus of the Association, and the ministers 
 thought it proper that a picture of Mr. Brown should hang in 
 the room where he had officiated for so many years. Much to 
 his surprise a life-size crayon appeared, and his modesty forbade 
 that it should be hunor during- his lifetime. 
 
 His active and useful life was filled in his occupancy of 
 many other relations in connection with our denomination, such 
 as his pastorates in a number of churches in this city and con- 
 tiguous places ; in his labors in originating new congregations, 
 and in some instances in soliciting the means for the erection 
 of edifices, and in secretaryships of various societies, especially 
 as Secretary of the Ministerial Education Society, as Secretary 
 and then for a number of years Treasurer of the Board of 
 Relief for Disabled Ministers and their families. His faithful- 
 ness in all these relations is matter of record, and he is well 
 remembered by a large number of ministers in our city and 
 vicinity who were associated with him in his labors and who 
 
 25 
 
now desire to express their appreciation of him ; and who also 
 extend their sympathy to his surviving family circle. It is also to 
 us matter of gratitude and praise to our Heavenly Father and 
 Redeemer, that our brother was so favored with clearness of 
 mind and bodily strength and Christian patience during the 
 latter days of his advanced age, and for the assurance we have 
 that, though he is now absent from the body, he is present with 
 our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Signed by A. CULVER, 
 
 THOMAS MURPHY, 
 WM. HUTTON, 
 Philadelphia, Feb. 24, 1896. Conwiittee. 
 
 [This minute was adopted by the Association, Monday morning. February 24, 
 1896, and transmitted to the family by request of the Association.] 
 
 WM. HUTTON, 
 
 Secretary. 
 
 MINUTE OF THE PRESBYTERY OF PHILADELPHIA RELATIVE TO 
 THE DEATH OF THE REVEREND CHARLES BROWN 
 
 The Rev. Charles Brown, the oldest member of the Presby- 
 tery of Philadelphia, passed peacefully away on February 14, 
 1896. His death occurred just six weeks after the death of his 
 beloved wife, to whom he had been married a little more than 
 sixty years. Mr. Brown was in the ninety-first year of his age, 
 having been born in Philadelphia in No /ember, 1805. He was 
 ordained by the Second Presbytery of Philadelphia in 1833, and 
 had thus been in this sacred office nearly sixty-three years. He 
 was successively pastor of the churches of Greensborough, Mis- 
 pillion, Drawyersand Port Penn. He was afterwards Secretary 
 of the Philadelphia Tract Society, and from 1842 to 1855 pastor 
 of the Logan Square Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia. For 
 
 26 
 
eight years he was Corresponding Secretary of the Philadelphia 
 Education Society, and from 1864 until 1870 Secretary of the 
 Ministerial Relief Fund in connection with the New School Pres- 
 byterian Church. At the reunion of the two branches of the 
 Presbyterian Church he was elected Treasurer of this Ministerial 
 Fund, which office he retained until he was compelled to resign, 
 owing to failing health and advancing years. For several years, 
 while Secretary of the Ministerial Relief Fund, he supplied the 
 pulpit in the Presbyterian Church at Darby. For a long term 
 of years he was also the Secretary of the Presbyterian Minis- 
 terial Association, faithful and accurate in all his duties, greatly 
 respected and beloved by his brethren. 
 
 He was a man of unusually high honor, with a mind of 
 unsullied purity, always manifesting true Christian courtesy in 
 his intercourse with others. His long life was one of great 
 usefulness, industry and consecration. In his home life he was 
 peculiarly tender and affectionate as husband and father, and 
 greatly beloved by all who were so closely akin to him. 
 
 The Presbytery would place upon its minutes its deep 
 sense of loss in the departure of this brother, and would tender 
 to his afflicted family its heartfelt sympathy. 
 
 Attest: W. M. RICE, 
 
 Stated Clerk. 
 
 [A true extract from the Minutes of the Presbytery of Philadelphia] 
 
 27 
 
MRS. ELIZA A. BROWN 
 
 Born April i, 1808 
 
 Entered into rest January 2, 1896 
 
 Mrs. Brown was of English ancestry. She was the daughter 
 of WilHam M. and Anne Colston Hardcastle, and was born at 
 the homestead, " Castle Hall," in Caroline County, Maryland, 
 on April i, 1808. Her father was very prominent in Maryland, 
 having represented his State in the legislature for twenty-two 
 years. His hospitable mansion was known far and wide, and 
 has been beautifully described in a poem entitled " Casde Hall," 
 written by his son-in-law. Rev. Charles Brown, in i860, and 
 dedicated to Mr. and Mrs. Wm. M. Hardcastle. Mr. Hardcastle 
 lived to the advanced age of nearly ninety-six years, retaining 
 his faculties to the end, his wife having passed away nine years 
 before at the age of seventy-seven, in full possession of a clear 
 and bright mind. They would have celebrated the sixtieth 
 anniversary of their marriage, if Mrs. Hardcastle had lived four 
 months longer. 
 
 Mrs. Brown was the eldest daughter in a large family, and 
 was always looked up to and greatly beloved by her brothers 
 and sisters. She and her sisters were educated at the Mora- 
 vian Seminary at Litiz, Pennsylvania, and her children still have 
 the valedictory address which she delivered in 1824. Her loving, 
 gende disposition made her a favorite with all, and she early 
 developed that trait which was so noticeable in her character — 
 the desire to render loving service to her fellow beings. To the 
 slaves on her father's estate she was always kind, and anxious 
 to instruct them, especially in the Bible. 
 
 On March 31, 1828, she married Mr. Nathan Baynard, of 
 Centreville, Maryland, but this happy married life was of short 
 
 29 
 
duration, for Mr. Baynard died of pulmonary trouble at the 
 early aoe of twenty-one, December 24, 1828, at Nice, Italy, 
 whither he had gone in search of health. In January her little 
 daughter Nataline was born, who was so well known and loved 
 first, as Nataline Baynard, and then as Mrs. Nataline Baynard 
 Dulles, second wife of the late Rev. John \V. Dulles, D. D. 
 On November 24, 1835, Mrs. Baynard became the wife of Rev. 
 Charles Brown, who was then pastor of the Presbyterian 
 Church in Greensborough, JNIaryland. What she was as the 
 wife of a pastor can only be fully known to those to whom she 
 ministered in tender love and sympathy. She visited the poor 
 and sick, comforted the sorrowing, and helped her husband in 
 every way to spread and exemplify the Gospel of Christ. When 
 they removed to Philadelphia, she became interested in various 
 philanthropic works. She was a manager of the Union Benevo- 
 lent Association, the Northern and Union Temporary Homes 
 for Friendless Children, being Secretary of the latter for a 
 number of years, and also interested in the Foster Home. She 
 earnestly engaged in visiting the poor and in distributing tracts, 
 and was a teacher in the Sabbath-school until March of 1876, 
 when the shock and grief of her daughter's death rendered her 
 unable to continue in that work. But she never lost her inter- 
 est in the Sabbath-school, for she was a regular attend- 
 ant as long as her strength would permit at the Bible 
 Class of the Walnut Street Church, of which Rev. H. 
 Clay Trumbull, D. D., is the teacher. She was the first 
 Secretary of the Women's Missionary Society of the Wal- 
 nut Street Church, which was organized in November, 
 1870. She was in the truest sense a friend, and how that 
 friendship was prized has been testified by the many beautiful 
 tributes of love and respect to her memory. Her death, which 
 
 30 
 
took place on January 2, 1896, was a painful surprise to her 
 large circle of friends, who greatly mourn her loss. Endowed 
 with a loving-, gentle disposition, her sweet, attractive manner 
 won the affection of all who knew her. Possessed with a remark- 
 ably clear mind, good judgment and great strength of character, 
 her opinion was always valued by those seeking guidance. 
 
 Although nearly eighty-eight years of age, she was con- 
 stantly adding to her store of knowledge by reading and writing. 
 But it was in her home that she was pre-eminently lovely and 
 useful. Although during her husband's pastorates she was so 
 active in church and philanthropic work and in social life, she 
 was ever the light of her home, a devoted wife and mother, 
 loving, unselfish and sympathetic, aiding her husband, guiding 
 her children, and "looking well to the ways of her household." 
 When she was taken from their midst, her aged husband and 
 sorrowing children were stricken with grief at their loss. But 
 her " going home " was just as she wished it. She fell " asleep 
 in Jesus." As her pastor said, " It was a beautiful ending of a 
 
 beautiful life." 
 
 The beautiful life is ended, 
 
 The life so full of love, 
 And our precious, darling mother 
 Has gone to her home above. 
 
 But our hearts are full of anguish 
 
 At parting from one so dear, 
 And life is oh ! so desolate 
 
 To those of us lingering here. 
 
 Her sweet and pure example 
 
 Sheds a radiance almost Divine ; 
 She earnestly worked for the Master 
 
 And wisely used her time. 
 
 Fond wife and loving mother, 
 
 True counsellor and friend, 
 "Your influence will not leave us, 
 
 We'll prize it to the end. 
 
 31 L. W. B. 
 
jfuneral Sevpices 
 
 At her residence, 4013 Spruce Street 
 January 6, 1896 
 
 READING OF THE SCRIPTURES 
 By Rev. Stephen W. Dana, D. D. 
 
 ADDRESS 
 By Rev. Stephen W. Dana, D. D. 
 
 Met in this home of sorrow, there is much of joy and thanks- 
 giving mingled with our sadness. We are grateful for this long 
 and honored life, so beautiful, so true. What love has centered 
 in this home, and gone from it during all these years ! What a 
 wife and mother she has been ; what a true helpmate to her 
 husband during the years of his active ministry ! What a 
 sympathetic companion during these later years of his old age 
 and weakness ! Their married life has been an unusually long 
 and happy one ; for more than sixty years they have lived 
 together in peace and joy in this highest and most sacred of all 
 earthly relations. Recently they celebrated the sixtieth anni- 
 versary of their marriage. This celebration was of a very quiet 
 character, owing to the recent bereavement that had come upon 
 them in the loss of a beloved granddaughter. 
 
 Though our departed friend had lived long beyond the 
 allotted period of man's life, she was so well-preserved that we 
 did not associate her with old age and death. She kept young 
 in spirit, in touch with modern thought, in sympathy with young 
 life. I wish to take this opportunity of paying a personal tribute to 
 her memory, and in speaking in this way of all that she has been 
 to me. I shall never forget the hearty and cordial manner in 
 
 33 
 
which she and her husband welcomed me as a young man when 
 I came to assume the pastorate of this church. From that day 
 until this they have treated me as a son. During- all these years 
 our friendship has been unstrained. I felt sure of her prayers, 
 her sympathy, her constant aid and co-operation. Her acts of 
 kindness were numerous and unfailine. How much that was 
 wrought by her hands, and wrought in love, has come to me 
 and mine as tokens of her affection. 
 
 Every pastor knows what ojie such person is to him in the 
 study, in the pulpit and in the parish. I am glad that I had the 
 privilege of saying this to her in person and in expressing to 
 her my appreciation and affection before her ears were closed 
 in death. Having been absent from the city for several days, I 
 did not hear of her sickness until New Year's mornino- I came 
 to her bedside that afternoon, found her mind entirely clear, her 
 faith strong and undimmed. I saw that she felt that this was 
 her last sickness, although I little anticipated that the end was 
 so near. I did take occasion to thank her for all that she had 
 been to me and the church over which I have ministered, and 
 then, kneelinu-, I commended her and hers to the God of orace 
 and salvation. That interview will ever remain as a precious 
 memory. Her Christian influence in the home, in the church, 
 in her wide circle of friends, among the needy and the suffer- 
 ing, among the rejoicing and the sorrowing will ever abide. 
 Being dead she yet speaks to us, and will ever speak of Chris- 
 tian faith, hope and love. There was a poem of Mr. Whittier's 
 of which she and her husband were very fond, and having com- 
 mitted it to memory, she often repeated it. There was also a 
 prayer written by the Rev. Dr. Archibald Alexander, which was 
 likewise very dear to her, and which she frequently offered as 
 her own. 
 
AT LAST 
 
 " When, on my day of life, the night is falling, 
 
 And, in the winds from unsunned spaces blown, 
 I hear far voices out of darkness calling 
 My feet to paths unknown. 
 
 " Thou who hast made my home of life so pleasant 
 Leave not its tenant when its walls decay ; 
 
 Love divine, O Helper ever present, 
 Be Thou my strength and stay. 
 
 " Be near me when all else is from me drifting — 
 
 Earth, sky, home's picture, days of shade and shine, 
 And kindly faces to my own uplifting 
 The love which answers mine. 
 
 " I have but Thee, O Father ! Let Thy spirit 
 Be with me then to comfort and uphold ; 
 No gate of pearl, no branch of i)alm, I merit. 
 Nor street of shining gold. 
 
 " Suffice it if, my good and ill unreckoned, 
 
 And both forgiven through Thy abounding grace, 
 
 1 find myself by hands familiar beckoned 
 
 Unto my fitting place. 
 
 " Some humble door among Thy many mansions, 
 
 Some sheltering shade, where sin and striving cease. 
 And flows forever through heaven's green expansions 
 The river of Thy peace. 
 
 " There from the music round about me stealing, 
 I fain would learn the new and holy song. 
 And find at last beneath Thy trees of healing 
 The life for which I long," 
 
 J'o/i/i Grcenleaf Whitticr. 
 
 35 
 
A prayer written by Dr. Archibald Alexander, "God's 
 Veterans." 
 
 " Oh, most merciful God, cast me not off in the time of old age ; forsake 
 me not when my strength faileth. May my hoary head be found in righteous- 
 ness. Preserve my mind from dotage and imbecility, and my body from pro- 
 tracted disease and excruciating pain. Deliver me from despondency in my 
 declining years, and enable me to bear with patience whatever may be Thy 
 holy will. I humbly ask that my reason may be continued to the last ; and 
 that I may be comforted and supported ; that I may leave my testimony in 
 proof of the reality of religion and of Thy faithfulness in fulfilling Thy gracious 
 promises. And when my spirit leaves this clay tenement, Lord Jesus, receive it. 
 Send some of the blessed angels to convey my inexperienced soul to the man- 
 sions which Thy love has prepared ; and oh, may I have an abundant entrance 
 ministered unto me into the kingdom of our Tord and Saviour Jesus Christ." 
 
 This prayer, in verse by Mr. Whittier, and in prose by Dr. 
 Alexander, was answered in the protection and support which 
 she received in her old age and in her dying hours. Her mind 
 was preserved clear ; her faith, her patience and her submission 
 failed not. It was a beautiful ending to a beautiful life. 
 
 HYMN 
 " Jesus, Lover of my Soul." 
 
 ADDRESS 
 By Rev. H. Clay Trumbull, D. D. 
 
 The apostle reminds us that though we have ten thou- 
 sand instructors in Christ, we have not many fathers ; that 
 thougfh we have learned lessons of croodness and of Christian 
 truth from a host of those about us and above us, it is rarely 
 that we can look up to one as a child looks to a parent, in loving 
 confidence and in reverent admiration. It is equally true that 
 
 36 
 
though we know many a godly woman, we do not, in our whole 
 life-time, know many a Christian mother, who exhibits toward 
 all who know her a mother's love, a mother's tenderness, a 
 mother's sympathy, and wins from us a child's love and confi- 
 dence and reverent admiration. 
 
 I am sure that I speak the feelings of many in this gather- 
 ing-, as well as my own feelings, when I say that dear Mrs. Brown 
 was a mother beloved to us, that she stood pre-eminent in this 
 community as a " Mother in Israel," and as such is mourned 
 and honored by many of her children beyond those in her closer 
 home circle, because of her illustration of those traits of mother- 
 liness that cause us all to feel that 
 
 " A mother is a mother still, 
 The holiest thing alive." 
 
 The inrtuence of this dear mother in Christ over us all was 
 very real and very positive ; not assertive, but pervasive. It 
 was the influence of a strone gentleness, and of a wise grood- 
 ness, more effective than any loud speech or excited manner 
 could ever be ; as the quiet, calm flow of oil on the tempest- 
 tossed waves soothes into rest and peace what the winds and 
 the sea have roused into lashing turbulence. 
 
 Child-like as is all Christ-likeness, she was to the last a lov- 
 ing learner at the feet of her Saviour, It was my privilege to 
 be for fifteen years the leader of a Bible-class which she attended, 
 and in which she showed a uniform and deep interest. Always 
 alert and intent as a listener and as a Bible student, she was 
 prompt in the expression of her personal testimony ; and I felt 
 the inspiration of her presence and co-operation there, and am 
 grateful for her example and influence. God granted to her a 
 beautifully completed life. It was not in any sense cut short. 
 
 37 
 
Her sun descended in a dear, shining light to its very horizon, 
 and its full orb beamed on us even to the hour when it disap- 
 peared from our sight to shine on in another sphere in unbroken 
 and eternal day, 
 
 " Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His 
 saints," not merely their life, but their death. Precious in the 
 sight of the Lord, but a cause of tears to our eyes. We cannot 
 but sorrow when those dear to us are taken from our sight by 
 death. Nor is it wrong for us to miss and mourn them. Surely 
 if Jesus himself wept at the grave of Lazarus which he 
 was about to open and bring back the dead, He will not 
 wonder that we weep at graves which are not to open until the 
 Resurrection morning. 
 
 Our hearts are sad at the absence of this dear mother in 
 Israel whom we loved, even while our hearts are glad that her 
 life was so lovely and so full of blessing to so many. 
 
 HYMN 
 
 ' ' Abide with me ' ' 
 
 PRAYER AND BENEDICTION 
 By Rev. Stephen W. Dana, D. D. 
 
 INTERMENT AT SOUTH LAUREL HILL 
 Services at the grave by Rev. Stephen W. Dana, D. D. 
 
 38 
 
RESOLUTIONS OF RESPECT AND SYMPATHY 
 
 At the regular meeting of the Woman's Missionary Society 
 of he Walnut Street Church, Monday, January 6th, the 
 announcement was made of the decease of Mrs. Charles Brown, 
 one of the original members of the Society, its first secretary, 
 and one to whose labors and prayers much of its growth and 
 prosperity are due. 
 
 With one accord, it was resolved that we tender our deepest 
 sympathy to the family of our departed friend, mingling our 
 tears with theirs, at the loss sustained in the departure of this 
 Mother in Israel. 
 
 We remember her labors of love in the years that are past, 
 and her presence at our meetings so long as health and strength 
 were spared to her, and we know that her thoughts and prayers 
 were unceasing in behalf of our work, when physical infirmities 
 prevented her from meeting with us. 
 
 God has called her home, and we shall miss her pleasant 
 smile and her loving greeting ; but in the richness ol our 
 Father's love He has eiven us the sweet assurance that the 
 beautiful life so enjoyed and treasured by the dear ones in her 
 home, and so beneficent in its influence on all who came within 
 its reach, has now opened into the fulness of joy and blessed- 
 ness, that is "forever with the Lord." Thus, while we mourn 
 our loss, we rejoice in the exceeding gain of our beloved friend. 
 
 May the God of all grace make His consolations to abound 
 in your hearts, and the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ abide 
 in your souls, for, with the precious memories of the loved one 
 gone before, you may link the joyful anticipation of eternal 
 
 39 
 
re-union in the land where she has already beheld " the King 
 in His beauty." 
 
 By order of Woman's Missionary Society, 
 
 Jan. 8, 1896. JULIA A. BOGARDUS, President. 
 
 To Rev. Charles Brown and Family. 
 
 Woman's Christian Temperance Union. 
 
 Philadelphia, March 12, 1896. 
 My Dear Friends : 
 
 At the last regular meeting of the West Philadelphia 
 Woman's Christian Temperance Union, a Minute was adopted 
 expressing the worth of your excellent mother, and the loss our 
 Union sustained by so w^arm an advocate of temperance having 
 been called up higher; and I was directed, as a personal friend 
 of the family, to convey to you the warm sympathy of the Union 
 in your great bereavement. This Minute was followed by testi- 
 monies of the value and high Christian character of your 
 beloved mother. 
 
 With warm love, I am yours sincerely, 
 
 CORNELIA E. MOORHEAD. 
 
 We extend our heartfelt sympathies to Rev. Charles 
 Brown, D. D., of Philadelphia, in the recent loss by death of 
 his beloved wife. Dr. Brown is now, we believe, the oldest 
 member of the Presbytery of Philadelphia. He has been a 
 faithful servant of the church. 
 
 From The Pn-sbyferian Journal. 
 
 Philadelphia, January 9, 1896. 
 
 40 
 
Philadelphia, Pa., January 6, 1896. 
 
 Rev. Charles Brown, 
 
 4013 Spruce Street, 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 My Dear Brother Brown : 
 
 The Presbytery of Philadelphia, in session January 6, 1896, 
 unanimously adopted the following Minute : 
 
 " The Presbytery of Philadelphia extends to the Reverend 
 Charles Brown its sincere sympathy in the loss of his unselfish 
 and devoted wife — the companion of more than sixty years." 
 
 Permit me, in communicating this action of Presbytery, 
 to express my own personal sympathy with you in this severe 
 and afflictive bereavement. 
 
 Very sincerely and affectionately, 
 
 W. M. RICE, 
 Stated Clerk of Presbytery. 
 
 A few weeks ago, the Rev. Charles Brown, a well-known 
 member of the Presbytery of Philadelphia, celebrated, with his 
 wife, then living, the sixtieth anniversary of their marriage, 
 receiving the congratulations of many friends. Last week the 
 honored and beloved wife passed into the immediate presence 
 of the Saviour, whom she had served for so many years on earth. 
 Mr. Brown, now in his ninety-first year, remains in his home, 
 and to him we tender our sincerest sympathy in the great sor- 
 row which has come to his household. 
 
 From The Presbyterian. 
 
 Philadelphia, January 8, 1896. 
 
 41