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FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN PHILADELPHIA., '(1698 TO 1898), ERECTED 
 
 IN 1821, (WASHINGTON SQUARE). 
 
 REV. ALBERT BARNES, PASTOR, 1830 TO 1SV0. 
 
1698. 1898. 
 
 EXERCISES 
 
 BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 
 
 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 Sabbath Morning, November 13, to Friday Evening, 
 November 18, 1898, 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 PRESS OF HENRY B. ASHMEAD. 
 
 1900. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PACE 
 
 Prayer — Rev. Matthew P. Grier, D.D., 9 
 
 Prayer — Rev. J. M. Crowell, D.D., 10 
 
 The Pastor, 11 
 
 ►Sermon — " Presbyterian Doctrine," Rev. Francis L. Patton, 
 
 D.D., LL.D., 13 
 
 Prayer— The Pastor, 30 
 
 8abbath-School Celebration, 32 
 
 Prayer— The Pastor, 32 
 
 History of the Sabbath-School — Mr. George Griffiths, . 33 
 
 The Superintendent, 39 
 
 Address — Rev. Francis L. Patton, D.D., LL.D., ... 39 
 
 The Superintendent, 44 
 
 Address— Rev. Herrick Johnson, D.D., LL.D., .... 45 
 
 The Superintendent, 50 
 
 Invocation — The Pastor, 51 
 
 Prayer — Rev. Leonard W. Bacon, D.D., 51 
 
 The Pastor, 53 
 
 The Pastor, 54 
 
 Address — "The Presbyterian Bulwarks of Liberty and Law," 
 
 Rev. Herrick Johnson, D.D., LL.D., 54 
 
 Prayer by the Pastor, 78 
 
 The Pastor, 79 
 
 Prayer — Rev. Alfred H. Kellogg, D.D., 79 
 
 Historical Sketch — The Pastor, 81 
 
 Address — "The Pulpit of the First Church," Rev. George T. 
 
 Purves, D.D., LL.D., 92 
 
4 Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Prayer — Rev. William H. Roberts, D.D., LL.D., . . . .111 
 
 Rev. Herrick Johnson, D.D., LL.D., 113 
 
 Address— Rev. Wallace Radcliffe, P.D., 113 
 
 Rev. Herrick Johnson, D.D., LL.D., ; .lis 
 
 Rev. Herrick Johnson, D.D., LL.D., 119 
 
 Address — Rev. George W. Chalfant, D.D., 119 
 
 Rev. Herrick Johnson, D.D., LL.D., 124 
 
 Address— Rev. Stephen W. Dana, D.D., 124 
 
 Prayer — Rev. Wallace Radcliffe, D.D., 129 
 
 Prayer by the Pastor,, 131 
 
 Prayer — Rev. Edward B. Hodge, D.D., 131 
 
 The Pastor, 133 
 
 Address — "Greetings of the Protestant Episcopal Church," 
 
 The Right Rev. O. W. Whitaker, D.D., LL.D., . . . .133 
 
 The Pastor, . 138 
 
 Address — "Greetings of the University of Pennsylvania," 
 
 Charles C. Harrison, LL.D., 138 
 
 The Pastor, 142 
 
 The Pastor, 143 
 
 Address — "Greetings of the Methodist Episcopal Church," Rev. 
 
 Wallace MacMullen, D.D., . 143 
 
 The Pastor, 151 
 
 Prayer — Rev. J. Sparhawk Jones, D.D., 151 
 
 The Pastor, . . L~>3 
 
 Address — "Greetings of the Congregational Church," Rev. A. 
 
 J. F. Behrends, D.D., . 153 
 
 The Pastor, 163 
 
 A miress — "Greetings of the Baptist Church," Rev. Kerr Boyce 
 
 Tupper, D.D., LL.D., 1(54 
 
 The Pastor, 174 
 
THE PRESENT ORGANIZATION. 
 
 PASTOR. 
 GEORGE D. BAKER, D.D. 
 
 ELDERS. 
 SAMUEL C. PERKINS, LL.D., GEORGE GRIFFITHS, 
 
 NORRIS W. HARKNESS, GEORGE T. HARRIS, 
 
 RICHARD B. BRINTON, Jr. 
 
 DEACONS. 
 
 L. BREWER HALL, M.D., 
 FRANK M. BRASELMANN, 
 PHILIP H. WHITE, 
 
 JOHN M. IRWIN, 
 GEORGE C. PRINCE, 
 WILLIAM F. SCHOELL. 
 
 TRUSTEES. 
 
 GEORGE GRIFFITHS, 
 A. R. PERKINS, 
 RICHARD B. BRINTON, Jr., 
 JOHN S. MARTIN, 
 
 WILLIAM McLEAN, 
 S. M. LILLIE, 
 JOHN W. FAIRES, D.D., 
 GEORGE T. HARRIS, 
 
 GEORGE E. WEBB. 
 
 ORGANIST AND CHOIR MASTER. 
 
 SHEPARD K. KOLLOCK. 
 
PASTORS 
 
 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN" CHURCH 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 FROM TO 
 
 1701 JEDEDIAH ANDREWS. 1747 
 
 1739 ROBERT CROSS, A.M. 1766 
 
 1752 FRANCIS ALISON, D.D. 1779 
 
 Vice Provost, and 
 
 Professor of Moral Philosophy in the 
 
 College of Philadelphia. 
 
 1759 JOHN EWING, D.D. 1802 
 
 Provost, and 
 
 Professor of Natural Philosophy in the 
 
 University of Pennsylvania. 
 
 1801 JOHN BLAIR LINN, D.D. 1804 
 
 A young man 
 <>f genius and great promise. 
 
 1806 JAMES P. WILSON, D.D. 1830 
 
 For many years, a distinguished Jurist ; 
 
 Subsequently an able Divine. 
 
 A profound Scholar, and eminent Christian ; 
 
 faithful alike in the performance of 
 
 his public and social duties ; 
 
 of manners dignified and refined ; 
 
 Beloved by his people ; 
 
 Respected by all ; 
 
 An honor to his Country, to the Church, 
 
 and to the Age. 
 
 1830 ALBERT BARNES. 1870 
 
 1868 HERRICK JOHNSON, D.D. 1873 
 
 1874 LAWRENCE M. COLFELT. 1884 
 
 1885 GEORGE D. BAKER, D.D. 
 
BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 SABBATH MORNING, 
 
 NOVEMBER 13, 1898. 
 
 HYMN 80. — (Presbyterian Hymnal.) 
 PRAYER.— Rev. Matthew P. Grier, D.D. 
 
 Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations. 
 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst 
 formed the earth and the world, Thou art God, and hast been 
 God over all, blessed forever. In the midst of the years we re- 
 member Thee. We lift up our hearts to Thee, O Thou Eternal 
 Dweller in the heavens. We praise Thee for Thy goodness, for 
 Thy loving tenderness and mercy, which have been ever of old. 
 Hear us this day, O God of our fathers. Hear us as we praise 
 Thee, and magnify Thee, and glorify Thy great name for Thy 
 great goodness. Bless us, O Lord, with Thy favor and with 
 Thy love, and guide us through all the services of this day and 
 of this week, that Thy name may be glorified and the souls of 
 men benefited thereby. We ask these things in the name of 
 Him who has taught us to pray, saying, " Our Father," etc. 
 
 SCRIPTURAL READING.— Psaem XL VIII. 
 
 ANTHEM.—" The Magnificat."— Hopkins. 
 
 SCRIPTURAL READING.— Rev. Herrick Johnson, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 Gospel by John, first chapter. 
 
 9 
 
10 Bi-eentennial Celebration of the 
 
 PRAYER— Eev. J. M. Crowell, D.D. 
 
 O Lord God Almighty, Thou dwellest in the high and holy 
 places. We come to worship Thee in Thy holy court. We 
 bless Thee that Thou hast made Thyself known unto us. 
 Though Thou art exalted high upon Thy throne in glory, yet 
 Thou hast taken up Thy dwelling with Thy people on earth, 
 and in every humble and contrite heart. We come before Thee 
 to-day to bring Thee our thanksgiving and our praises. We 
 come before Thee with the voice of thankful song, as we call to 
 mind the days of the past, the years of ancient time, and com- 
 .memorate the goodness and the grace of God which has so 
 abundantly crowned the past history of this beloved church. 
 O Lord, our God, we bless Thee for the way in which Thou 
 hast dealt with Thy people of this church, for the way in which 
 Thou hast led them through these two hundred years which 
 have gone. We thank Thee for the noble record of godly, 
 faithful, able pastors, after Thine own heart, whom Thou didst 
 give to this people to feed them with knowledge and with under- 
 standing. We thank Thee for their blessed and prolific minis- 
 try, for their agency in establishing the church here upon a good 
 foundation, in building up Thy people in their holy faith, in 
 winning many souls to the Lamb of God. We render Thee 
 grateful praise for the goodly company of faithful officers of the 
 church whom Thou hast raised up during its history, to bless the 
 people by their faithful service, to sustain the hands of their 
 pastors and to set a godly example for those before whom they 
 lived; and we render Thee praise, O God, for the great host of 
 Thy redeemed saints whom Thou didst call and justify and 
 sanctify and glorify, who served Thee here on earth in connection 
 with this church, in their beautiful and consistent Christian life, 
 in their many ways of holy living and of generous giving and 
 of faithful service, until at last they entered in through the 
 gates into the city, and are now at rest and at home with God. 
 We thank Thee for all that has been accomplished through the 
 agency of this church in the different periods of its history, for 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 1 1 
 
 the streams of beneficence which it has sent out into the world 
 to purify and sanctify and save it, and for all the blessed influ- 
 ences which it has sent forth in this great city and community. 
 And now, as we stand at the end of this time of blessing, we 
 look forward into the future, and commit this church to Thy 
 gracious care and love for the days to come. Surely Thy people 
 can say, as one of old, " Thou hast been mindful of us. Thou 
 wilt bless us." This God, whom our fathers served and trusted, 
 will be our God forever and forever. Thou wilt be our guide 
 even unto death. O God, we beseech Thee that Thou wilt 
 watch over the interests of this church, and may it be enabled 
 to accomplish far more in the days to come than it has in the 
 days that have gone. Direct and bless and help them in all 
 their operations of Christian service, in all the different works 
 of beneficence in which they are engaged. Especially bless Thy 
 beloved servant, their present pastor. Grant unto him grace 
 and wisdom, that he may accomplish well the duty laid upon 
 him, that he may serve Thee faithfully. Give unto him the joy 
 of winning many souls for his Saviour. And we pray that Thou 
 wilt bless all that is done in this church for the advancement of 
 Thy kingdom and glory. So bless all the churches of Christ 
 in this great city, throughout the land and throughout the 
 world. We commit to Thee the interests of the church uni- 
 versal. We pray that Thou wilt comfort Zion, that Thou wilt 
 comfort all her waste places and make her wilderness like Eden 
 and her desert as the garden of the Lord, so that joy and glad- 
 ness may be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody. 
 And upon all that is undertaken in Thy name and through faith 
 in Thee by Thy Church on earth, let the beauty of the Lord 
 rest, and establish Thou the work of Thy people's hands — yea, 
 the work of their hands, establish Thou it ; and unto God Al- 
 mighty, the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, shall be 
 the glory everlasting. Amen. 
 
 THE PASTOR. 
 You have in your hands the order of services for the week, 
 
12 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 and this renders it unnecessary for me to give them in detail 
 and so take unnecessarily precious time. This afternoon we 
 shall have our Sabbath-school celebration, which I think will 
 be of unusual interest, with addresses by Drs. Patton and 
 Johnson ; and this evening Dr. Johnson, whom so many of you 
 know, a former pastor of this church, will preach. To-morrow 
 evening will be the historical evening ; but I will not enumerate 
 the services, as I have said, in detail. You will take this booklet 
 home with you, I trust be interested in it, and, led by it, come 
 yourselves to these services, and make them known to others, 
 that they may have the pleasure and profit which I believe are 
 to be derived from them. Our offering this morning, according 
 to the notice which you find upon the order of exercises, is for 
 the increasing of the endowment fund of the church, that \vu 
 may be better able to do the work in this neighborhood which 
 God has given us to do. Whatever offerings may be made 
 throughout the week will be thus applied. There may be some 
 who, when they know that we. have almost or quite $100,000 
 already in our endowment fuud, will ask, why do you need 
 more? Simply because our work is increasing more and more. 
 Simply because we are ambitious to do more than we are able to 
 do now with the money at our command. When we were 
 raising our present endowment fund, I had an interview with 
 Mr. Alexander Brown, who gave very liberally to it, and who 
 said to me, "You will not stop when the $100,000 mark is 
 reached ?" I said, " I don't know." He said, " You must 
 not. You will make a great mistake if you do. That is a 
 comparatively small sum for a church like yours, with the 
 work that it has to do. The income to be derived from it is not 
 large, and it will be smaller as the years go on. In order to 
 safely invest it, you must be willing to take small amounts com- 
 paratively of interest." I believe that God has a greater work 
 for this church to do. It is standing nobly, under trying cir- 
 cumstances, endeavoring to do its whole duty, and in my soul I 
 believe that whoever contributes to this endowment fund, and so 
 enables it to stand through the years to come and to stand as it 
 
Fh'.st Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 13 
 
 ought to stand,. fully equipped, will be rendering a service to 
 God beautiful and lasting. So the offering now will be made. 
 There are cards in the pews. If any here present should desire 
 to give more than they may have in their pocket-books at this 
 present time, they may place the amount upon the card, and pay 
 it at their own convenience, after a month, or six months, or a 
 year, as it may please them. The offering will be made. 
 
 OFFERTORY (for the Bi-Centennial Fund).— "The Lord is My 
 Shepherd." — Smart. 
 
 SERMON. — " Presbyterian Doctrine." 
 Rev. Francis L. Patton, D.D., LL.D., 
 
 President of Princeton University. 
 
 You will find the words of the text in the first chapter of the 
 Gospel of St. John, fourteenth verse : 
 
 " And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and 
 we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the 
 Father,) full of grace and truth." 
 
 There are certain doctrines that are peculiar to the Presbyter- 
 ian Church. There are other doctrines that we hold in common 
 with other churches in Christendom. The doctrines we hold 
 in common with other churches are far more important than 
 those that we hold as peculiar to ourselves. Nay, the doc- 
 trines that we hold as peculiar to ourselves derive their impor- 
 tance from these very doctrines that we hold in common with 
 other Christians. Therefore in speaking this morning, as I am 
 announced to speak, on the subject of Presbyterian Doctrine, I 
 make no apology for calling your attention to the great truth 
 that we hold in common with the Christian world, which in 
 fact serves to unify the Christian world. That doctrine not 
 only belongs to us in common with the rest, but it is the one 
 which constitutes the basis upon which all that is peculiarly dis- 
 tinctive of our denomination rests, 
 
14 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 I want to speak, then, this morning on the Incarnation of 
 our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. How do we get this doc- 
 trine ? It is not proven by this text or that text. It is not by 
 putting texts together that you get any doctrine. It is by a con- 
 silience of proofs, by an inductive process and in the terms of 
 inductive probability, that we establish, not only this, but all 
 the doctrines that constitute Christian faith, in fact, that consti- 
 tute the beliefs of the world on any subject, whether it be in 
 science or in philosophy. Our Lord gave us a hint as to the 
 place of probability in theological inquiry, in his own words : 
 " Ye can discern the face of the sky, and ye cannot discern the 
 signs of the times. In the evening ye say, ' It will be fine 
 weather to-morrow, for the sky is red ' ; and in the morning ye 
 say, ' It will be foul weather to-day, because the sky is red and 
 lowering.' " That was before the day of what we now call the 
 doctrine of probabilities in respect to the weather. It was be- 
 fore the day of the enunciation of Butler's great principle that 
 probability is the guide of life. 
 
 There was a division among the people in- the days of our 
 Lord because of him. That division grew out of a dispute 
 about facts, and it was a division that grew out of a dis- 
 pute about the proper inferences to be derived from facts. 
 Divisions among men at the present time about Christ grow out 
 of a dispute about facts, historically speaking, and grow out of a 
 dispute about the inferences to be derived from those facts, 
 philosophically speaking. So you come pretty close up to the 
 question of philosophy in its relation to the construction of 
 Christian belief, and in its relation particularly to the doctrine 
 of the incarnation. 
 
 Some people say now that philosophy must be left to the 
 philosophers and theology must be left to the theologians, and 
 that religion is the thing with which we Christians have par- 
 ticularly to do. Now, as a matter of fact, " If the light that is 
 in you be darkness, how great is that darkness." If the funda- 
 mental principles, upon which all reasoning proceeds, be denied, 
 how will you ever validate any reasoning? If the fundamental 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 15 
 
 postulates of belief, that condition our belief in history, be de- 
 nied, how can you have any history? It is in vain that we 
 undertake to build the superstructure of the temple of knowl- 
 edge, in vain that we build nave and transept according to the 
 demands of an exacting science of architecture, if, after all, we 
 are building upon a quicksand. " Other foundation can no man 
 lay than that which is laid, even Jesus Christ" — foundation 
 for doctrine, foundation for character, foundation for hope, 
 foundation for all expectation with respect to the eternal world. 
 But our knowledge of Christ and our belief in him itself de- 
 pends upon certain fundamental convictions which underlie in- 
 quiry on all subjects ; so that we are in the position to-day 
 as to the relation between history and philosophy, where we 
 must choose whether we shall let our philosophy make history 
 for us, or whether we shall let our history make philosophy for 
 us ; whether we will cast discredit on the fundamental verities 
 of the New Testament in the interest of certain foregone Pan- 
 theistic conclusions in philosophy, or whether we will repudiate 
 the conclusions of a Pantheistic philosophy by a reverent regard 
 for the irrefutable facts of gospel history. 
 
 Now, Christianity is simply theism, or belief in God, plus the 
 incarnation. What is the relation between these two ideas? 
 It would be natural to say, " I believe in God first and believe 
 in the incarnation afterward." According to our Saviour's own 
 words, " Ye believe in God, believe also in me." It would 
 look as though belief in God were the postulate and prerequisite 
 of belief in Jesus Christ! How can you believe that God has 
 sent Christ, if you do not believe antecedently that there is a 
 God ? That looks as though it were perfectly logical ; and yet 
 truth does not move always in straight logical lines, or in what 
 we think to be such. It is perfectly proper to move along the 
 line of inference and causation, and the argument from design, 
 the argument from order, and establish your belief in God, and 
 then, having established your belief in God, to ask yourself the 
 further question whether God has spoken, and if he has spoken, 
 how, when and through whom, and whether Jesus Christ is the 
 
16 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 climax of those revelations. But may I not come straight up to 
 the question of the incarnation, and on the basis of the incarna- 
 tion work back to the belief in God ? I think I may. I think 
 that a man who at present has no faith in God in possession, 
 who as yet does not realize the full force of arguments in support 
 of the existence of God, may at least be confronted by the fun- 
 damental facts of Christianity. He may be forced by sheer 
 regard for the historicity of the New Testament to say that there 
 was something exceptional, marked, unique, so to speak mirac- 
 ulous, in the life and experiences of Jesus Christ that called for 
 explanation; and in his search for an adequate hypothesis in 
 explanation of the life and career of Jesus Christ, may feel him- 
 self shut up to belief in God. 
 
 Still, apart altogether from the question whether I believe in 
 God first and get the incarnation afterward, or believe in the 
 incarnation first and get the existence of God afterward, it is 
 quite clear that the incarnation is an advance upon mere theism. 
 Because, suppose I do believe in God ; suppose I do, as a matter 
 of philosophy and in my search for a theory of the universe, find 
 myself shut up to a necessity of believing in some great manu- 
 facturer of atoms, some maximum brain that is capable of grasp- 
 ing the totality of things in one great intuition, — that does not 
 satisfy me. The moment I have grasped that idea and taken 
 hold of the thought of this infinite, omnipotent will, my interest 
 is awakened, and I want to know what he is going to do with 
 me. I want to know whether he will harm me. I want to 
 know whether he has any future for me. I want to know what 
 my destiny will be ; and I get no complete answer to that ques- 
 tion until I find the attributes of God revealed in Jesus Christ, 
 aud realize that " God so loved the world, that he sent his only 
 begotten Son into the world, that whosoever believeth in him 
 should not perish, but have everlasting life." " Ye believe in 
 God, believe also in me." Ye believe in God, therefore you 
 may believe in me. But that is not all. You believe in God ; 
 you must believe in me. 
 
 Now a man might ask whether we are under such obligation 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 17 
 
 to the incarnation for this knowledge of the attributes of God. 
 Is it necessary that I should come to a knowledge of God in 
 Christ in order that I may know God loves me and is my 
 Father? Can I not trust my religious feelings? Are not my 
 religious instincts sufficient to give me this proof about the 
 way in which God regards me? Let us consider that question ; 
 and I am not so sure but that the raising of the question gives 
 us an opportunity to say a word with respect to the entire re- 
 lationship of these two thoughts, the subjective feeling that I 
 have about God and about my relations to him, and these object- 
 ive facts that are revealed to me in the New Testament. Again 
 I say truth does not always work in straight lines. Truth works 
 both ways ; and when you have two distinct lines of argument 
 you can say, " These being the facts, we can advance from this 
 given state of facts to that inference on the one hand," and then 
 say, " These, on the other hand, being another set of facts, we 
 can advance from this state of facts back again by way of de- 
 duction to the other conclusion, each position reinforcing the 
 other." So I can say, given a strong feeling or desire for the 
 incarnation, a longing for satisfaction that finds expression in 
 expiation, a longing for communion with God that finds expres- 
 sion in the doctrine of regeneration and sanctification, it is 
 natural that these instincts of our nature should be corroborated, 
 reinforced, satisfied, gratified, in these three great cardinal truths 
 of the Christian religion. And I can argue back again and say, 
 inasmuch as God, on the distinct historical testimony of Christ 
 and his apostles, has spokeu to us with respect to these three 
 great truths, these instincts of our nature are thereby re-affirmed. 
 The instincts confirm Scripture, and the Scriptures corroborate 
 the instincts. So that we can work both ways ; we can vin- 
 dicate these instincts that we are born with and that constitute 
 part of the capital with which we are set up in the business of 
 thinking as moral agents, and in so doing contribute a strong 
 argument in support of the inspiration of the Bible that speaks 
 about those instincts. And again, we can consider the specific 
 historical truths that go to accredit the Bible as a miraculously 
 2 
 
18 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 given revelation from God ; and in so far as we establish its his- 
 toricity and inspiration, to that extent do we contribute a strong 
 argument in support of that intuitive philosophy that defends 
 those instincts against the empiricism that would treat them as 
 processes of a naturalistic character. We defend the one by the 
 other. Each in its place is a good argument to the help of the 
 other. 
 
 Now, this bearing of the religious instincts that I refer to 
 upon the doctrine of the incarnation gets a little support I think 
 from the attitude of the irreligious thought of our own day. 
 The peddlers of the small wares of infidelity that are so com- 
 mon do not really represent the world of unbelief, because we 
 must do the serious men of the unbelieving world the credit 
 of recognizing that they are about serious business ; and if there 
 is anything that is characteristic of the better class of philo- 
 sophic men who do not believe in Christianity, it is that they are 
 not happy in it. There is a certain sadness of tone manifested 
 in what they write. They are perfectly honest in not being 
 able to accept Christianity ; but if they were to say what they 
 think, they would honestly say they wish they could accept it, 
 because they have no substitute for it, and they see the world's 
 despairing attitude once they give it up. As CliiFord said, he 
 sighed when he felt that the great companion, meaning God, was 
 dead. Nothing is more pathetic in literature than Romanes' 
 picture of despair when he found that he could no longer believe 
 in God. Thank God, he found him before he died, and his last 
 utterances were magnificent contributions to Christian faith. 
 These men that do not believe in God, and that have given up 
 Christianity, cannot give up everything. The heart is human, 
 though men belie its instincts. They would fain conserve 
 morality, although they must admit that the bottom drops 
 out of morality when they give up its intuitional principles. 
 They have done as the Jews did when they crucified the Sav- 
 iour. They are now casting lots for his raiment ; and it is a 
 fact that the only thing that will save the decency of moral life 
 is to be found in the wardrobe of Christianity. Men want to 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 19 
 
 believe in ideals. They cannot have a moral ideal when they 
 have discarded Christ. Men want to believe in the immortality 
 of perpetuated influence. There is no such thing as the immor- 
 tality of perpetuated influence when personal immortality is de- 
 nied. They wish to believe in an altruistic mode of living. 
 The highest type of altruism was illustrated in him who died, the 
 just for the unjust, that he might reconcile us to God ; and when 
 they give up Christ, they will make only a very ineffectual 
 stand for the utilitarianism that seeks the greatest happiness of 
 the greatest number. Oh, I do not wonder that men wish to 
 get back to Christ ! I do not wonder that men begin to feel that 
 we are at the place of the parting of the ways, that you must 
 either get back to Christ, with all that is supernatural in him, 
 or that you must go on to despair. I do not wonder that men 
 are asking the question whether life is worth living. It is 
 Christianity that says "Do thyself no harm" when one is 
 tempted to draw the sword and end the misery of existence by 
 suicide. I do not wonder that when . men have given up their 
 divinity of Christ and accepted a Hegelian philosophy which 
 is Pantheism, or a materialistic philosophy which is worse, and 
 feel that the outcome leaves them really no basis for moral- 
 ity, they resolve upon some sort of compromise between the 
 old-fashioned Nicene theology and Pantheism which makes 
 Christ simply a symbol, a name and nothing more. I admit 
 that these writers do, when they speak about Christ, talk about 
 his divinity as having a certain judgment value — that is, speak 
 of it as something which has been discarded by intellect, but 
 then picked up by feelings. I do not wonder that these people 
 take that doctrine as a sort of compromise, and yet, after all, 
 realize, as they must, that they are standing in unstable equilib- 
 rium. In considering their position, from an ecclesiastical or 
 theological point of view, whether we shall regard it as a move- 
 ment in descent to a doctrine still lower, or whether we shall 
 regard it as a reactionary movement, a good sign of the times, 
 an indication of a backward move towards Christ, is a question 
 about which there may be very well a difference of opinion, and 
 
20 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 the answer to that question will depend very largely upon the 
 individual's point of view ; but we are at the place unquestion- 
 ably where it must be seen by everybody that the heart of all 
 modern controversy on all questions is this question about Jesus 
 Christ, 
 
 Did he rise from the dead ? Arnold says he did not. 
 
 " But he is dead ; far hence he lies 
 In the lorn Syrian town, 
 And on his grave, with shining eyes, 
 The Syrian stars look down." 
 
 If he is, I do not wonder that there is that note of sadness in 
 all of Arnold's poetry. So we come back to that question, rec- 
 ognizing that this is the heart of the inquiry. The theme of 
 the world's debate is Jesus Christ. The battleground of the 
 world's controversy is Calvary. The arch controversy of all the 
 ages is that old inquiry which first fell from the lips of the 
 Master himself, " What think ye of Christ?" We come to see 
 that the incarnation may, therefore, be taken as the basis of the 
 world's apologetic at this present time, and so we may begin 
 our defence of the Christian religion right there. 
 
 It may not look as though we were reasoning as logically as 
 people would like. If we should say, in the first place, we are 
 indebted to the Bible for the doctrine of the incarnation, and, in 
 the second place, we defend the inspiration of the Bible by 
 means of the doctrine of the incarnation, certain very vigilant 
 critics might seek to trip us, and say, " You are reasoning in a 
 circle, proving the Bible by the incarnation and then proving 
 the incarnation by the Bible." Suppose we did. That is a 
 perfectly proper thing to do. From the purely dogmatical point 
 of view 7 , where everybody accepts the Bible as the inspired word 
 of God, we may proceed to see what the Bible has to say about 
 Jesus Christ, and build up the doctrine of the person of Christ, 
 and get our doctrine of the incarnation that way. But we do 
 not depend upon the doctrine of the inspiration of the Bible for 
 the doctrine of the incarnation ; and if you will concede to me 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 21 
 
 that the prophetic trend of the Old Testament reached its 
 climax in Jesus Christ, if you will concede to me on simply 
 historical ground the resurrection of Jesus Christ, if you will 
 concede to me the conversion of the apostle Paul, then upon 
 any three of these facts, and certainly upon all these facts put 
 together, we will agree to establish the fact that the person 
 of Jesus Christ is so unique and miraculous that its explanation 
 is possible only in the terms of what is called the doctrine of the 
 incarnation, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto 
 himself. 
 
 Now then, that being the case, Christ stands there !ft the very 
 climax of the body of literature that we call the Old Testament. 
 He stands there at the very beginning of the body of literature 
 that we call the New Testament. He stands there in such 
 marked, obvious relationship to all this literature that it is as 
 impossible for us to escape the argument of design in its appli- 
 cation to the person of Jesus Christ as it is for us to escape the 
 argument of design in its application to the world as related to a 
 creating God. The incarnation is not a patch that has been put 
 upon the garment of Christianity. It is so woven into all the 
 warp and woof of Christian literature that it is impossible for 
 you to eliminate it; and the question is. How do you account 
 for it? How do you explain the organic relation that Christ 
 sustains to Old and New Testament literature? You will have 
 to say it was either done by chance or done by choice. You 
 will have to explain it as a matter of blind chance, or on the 
 supposition that the prophet was the blind weaver of this web 
 of destiny, speaking things he did not wot of, but that behind 
 the prophet and speaking to the prophet was the spirit of the 
 prophet that shaped his vision, and whose word was on his 
 tongue. When we are in that position where, on the basis of 
 the incarnation, we have in a measure vindicated, I will not 
 say what kind of inspiration, I do not say what sort of inspi- 
 ration, but vindicated some sort of supernaturalism for this 
 totality of biblical literature that we call the word of God, and 
 in such way as to make it authoritative, we are in a position to 
 
22 Bi-eentennial Celebration of the 
 
 consider the incarnation in its relation to the doctrines of 
 grace. 
 
 If there is anything peculiar about the Old Testament, I im- 
 agine we will pretty generally agree that it is a marvellous dec- 
 laration on the part of God of his interest in humanity, of his 
 interest in the people of his choice. He led them, he fed them, 
 he worked miracles in revelation of himself and for them, in all 
 their afflictions he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence 
 saved them. Could he do anything more ? Yes, the Scriptures 
 tell us he could do more. He could carry theophany to the point 
 of actual identification with mankind. He could become man. 
 He could take upon himself our nature, and so we read " the 
 Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (and we beheld his 
 glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of 
 grace and truth." The New Testament is just the climax of 
 Old Testament teaching. The New Testament is just the ex- 
 plication of what was taught by implication in the Old Testa- 
 ment. What else is there taught in that Old Testament? Why, 
 if there was any other idea that was distinctive of the Old Tes- 
 tament, it was God's hatred of sin and God's love of the sinner ; 
 and we know how the Levitical institutions of the Old Testament 
 bear testimony to both. Could God do anything more? Yes; 
 he could be made in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin con- 
 demn sin in the flesh. He could be made sin for us who knew 
 no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 
 He could be the propitiation for our sin. He could taste death 
 for every man. He could go down to death and destroy him 
 who had the power of death, and deliver us who, through fear 
 of death, were all our lifetime subject to bondage. In other 
 words, the two ideas that struggle for reconciliation, and 
 that find their reconciliation in the gospel of Jesus Christ, are 
 love and law; and if we will give these two ideas their proper 
 value, and assign them their proper place in our thinking, I do 
 not think we will have much trouble about the atonement. I do 
 not think we will have much trouble about the future state. Yet 
 the heresies about the atonement and heresies on the subject of the 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 23 
 
 future state have generally grown out of a failure to appreciate 
 the relation of these two ideas of law and love as they emerge in 
 the person and work of Jesus Christ. Men take the doctrine of 
 the atonement and pass it through the prism of analysis, and 
 they find it distributes itself, just as light distributes itself into 
 various colors, through this analytical process. One man says 
 blue, orange or red is the light. It is not. One man says it is 
 the moral influence theory, or the vicarious theory, or the 
 governmental theory, or the representative theory, that is the 
 atonement. It is not. There is truth in all of them, but the 
 great doctrine of the atonement is bigger than any of them, 
 and it is the synthesis of the whole. In the same way with the 
 doctrine of retribution, when the heresy came into the church 
 that attacked the divinity of Christ, there grew up a correspond- 
 ing view of the atonement that did not need the services of a 
 divine Saviour, and you could imagine what that was. When 
 sentimentality took possession of the soul and ousted the word 
 of God, there came in opinions about the process of salvation 
 and the duration of punishment, and the two theories of retri- 
 bution that struggled for the mastery were these. On the one 
 hand it was said that God was too fond to punish people eternally, 
 if he punished them at all, and there was the doctrine that if you 
 were only sorry for what you had done you would go to heaven. 
 That was all you needed. That was the doctrine of love without 
 law. By and by men found that this theory would not work, and 
 did not satisfy the instincts of the heart or the conditions of a 
 correct exegesis. They gave it up. In place of it they said, 
 " It does not make any difference how much you repent or feel 
 sorry, or how long you feel sorry, there is no way to be happy 
 unless you are good. There is no way of salvation except by a 
 good character." That was the doctrine- of law without love. 
 The real doctrine of the Bible, as taught us through the incar- 
 nation, is neither the doctrine of love without law nor law with- 
 out love, but it is the union of the two, mercy and truth having 
 met together, righteousness and peace having kissed each other. 
 I am not sorry to have men raise the cry of " Back to Christ." 
 
24 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 I am not unwilling to have men say, " We have too much doc- 
 trine nowadays." I am willing to be accommodating in the 
 largest spirit of accommodation ; and if they say that in these 
 days it is hard to get men to believe anything, and it is best 
 to take what you can get, we are willing to have Christianity 
 reduced to its lowest terms, and expressed in its minimum quid. 
 What is it? Make jetsam and flotsam of the doctrines if you 
 want to. Throw overboard the Old Testament and the New 
 Testament if you want to. Give me something. Give me the 
 resurrection of Christ. Give me the conversion of Paul. Give 
 me his four undisputed Epistles. Give me at least the three 
 synoptic Gospels. Give me as little as this. Give me this 
 fundamental statement, to wit, that God was in Christ, reconcil- 
 ing the world unto himself. That is all I ask. That is the 
 mini in urn of Christianity. That, in other words, is the essence 
 of Christianity. 
 
 You know what a man means when he says, " That is the 
 essence of a thing." No one ever stated what the essence 
 of a thing was quite as prettily as Spinoza. The essence of a 
 thing is this : it is that without which the thing, and which 
 itself without the thing, can neither be nor be conceived. You 
 give me the incarnation, and you give me that without which 
 there is no Christianity, and that which, being given, you can- 
 not help having Christianity. All I want is there, and I will 
 not take less. Why? Christianity is a creed, a code and a 
 cult. It is something to believe, something to do, and something 
 to worship ; and you cannot get along without the element of 
 worship, because if you do, then, as somebody has very prettily 
 said, you will make of Christianity a scientific garden which 
 has a tree of knowledge without a tree of life. When you vacate 
 Christianity of the doctrine of the divinity of Christ, you take out 
 of it the element of belief. You have not anything distinctive 
 to believe then. When you take the divinity of Christ out of 
 Christianity, you take out of it the authority for what he says, 
 and it is a mere matter of choice and sympathy with me whether 
 I will accept him or not. Take the divinity of Christ out of 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 25 
 
 Christianity, and Christianity becomes mere intellectualism or 
 mere emotionalism ; and Christianity to-day, so far as its en- 
 emies are concerned, is in just that position, and it is a ques- 
 tion to-day whether those who do not accept the divinity of 
 Christ will go on to mere speculative philosophy on the one 
 hand or on to mere sentimental hero-worship on the other. 
 
 I say I am perfectly willing to have these men preach sermons 
 about Christ, and say "Get back to Christ"; but I want to ask 
 them one question. I want them to be very specific about this. 
 Is it what Christ says, or is it who Christ is, that they mean 
 when they talk about preaching Christ? Because I tell you 
 that the question as to what Christ says does not begin to be as 
 important as the question who Christ is, for all that Christ says 
 derives its value as authority from the answer to the antecedent 
 question as to who Christ is. And if you have settled it that he is 
 a mere man, and that therefore, to all intents and purposes, an 
 atheist could be a Christian, then you have vacated Christian- 
 ity of all that makes it what it is. When I say, therefore, that 
 the cry "Back to Christ" is a thing we sympathize with fully, 
 I mean that it is the divine Christ that constitutes the min- 
 imum of Christianity. I think it will be found that this doc- 
 trine involves by implication the maximum of Christianity too ; 
 for, having accepted the divinity of Christ, we cannot help hav- 
 ing other doctrines also in our creed. 
 
 So that, having disrobed yourself of all your doctrinal rai- 
 ment, and come down to the simple garment of the deity of 
 Jesus Christ, I hope you have not put the rest of the raiment 
 where you cannot find it, because you will need it ; for the mo- 
 ment you have accepted the divinity of Christ, you will begin 
 to rehabilitate your beliefs, and, in spite of yourself, you begin 
 to see that this divine Christ sustains relations to the Father and 
 Holy Spirit, and you will have some sort of a trinity; that this 
 divine Christ sustains relations to the doctrine of sin, and you 
 will have some sort of doctrine of sin ; that this divine Christ 
 sustains relations to the doctrine of atonement, and you will have 
 some sort of doctrine of atonement : that this divine Christ sus- 
 
26 Bi-eentennial Celebration of the 
 
 tains relations to the doctrine of justification, and of the future 
 state, and of the purpose of God, and that therefore you will 
 have some sort of doctrine of the purpose of God and of the 
 future state and of justification. It is not a question what 
 you are going to believe about these doctrines, but that you 
 must believe something about them. It is not a question 
 whether you will have any theology ; it is a question as to what 
 that theology shall be, once you have taken into your embrace 
 this doctrine of a divine Christ. Oh, don't you see where we 
 are ? Don't you see that the alternatives are these : you must 
 either give up your Christ, his supernaturalism, and, giving him 
 up, have no authority even for your morality, and be in a po- 
 sition where you cannot make a respectable stand even for the 
 ten commandments ; or, having accepted the divine Christ, you 
 must go on to complete your theology and formulate for your- 
 self, in some way or other, a large area of systematic theology ? 
 Those are the issues. Those are the choices. I tell you there 
 is no escape. It is out-and-out naturalism on the one hand, or 
 out-and-out supernaturalism on the other. 
 
 What are you going to do ? Yes, dear friends, Christ is the 
 minimum of Christianity, and the maximum of Christianity too, 
 as I have said. When we have accepted this doctrine of a di- 
 vine Christ we shall see that he sustains relationships to our 
 practical life. I know what people say. I know they say, We 
 are not so bad as that. We are not going to give up every- 
 thing. AVe like those beautiful statements in the Sermon on the 
 Mount about loving your neighbor, and all that sort of thing. 
 That is true, you like them. Suppose you did not like them. 
 Suppose somebody comes along who does not like them. That 
 is a mere difference of opinion between you. What are you 
 going to do ? When you ask me whether I do not recognize the 
 educational power of Christianity, why, certainly I recognize that 
 the Christian life in its practical aspects is one of the most im- 
 portant things with which you and I have to do. Christianity 
 is not only a warfare, Christianity is not only a ransom price ; 
 Christianity is an education, and, as in other processes of educa- 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 27 
 
 tion, it is a gradual thing, and Christ moreover is the great sub- 
 ject of study, Christ is the great theme in the curriculum. It 
 is in Christian life as it is in all life: we learn very slowly, we 
 learn gradually. Those bits of color that range themselves, as 
 if by magic, on the canvas according to the law of light and 
 shade and perspective, you know they are not accidents. Those 
 complex pieces of music that the skilled performer executes 
 without volition, automatically, as it seems to us, these are not 
 accidents. They are the outcome of incessant practice, repeated 
 mortifications and failures. Those words of the finished speaker 
 that drop so easily from his lips, they are not accidents. They 
 too are the result of time and industry, the product of the two. 
 So with Christian life. Paul says, ye have not so learned Christ. 
 Christ is an object of study. You may look on him as a rep- 
 resentative man, the enunciator of great ideas, — as the one who 
 peerlessly illustrates the power of a pure life. Yes, looking 
 upon Jesus as a subject of study, I can well understand how men 
 who do not believe in the divinity of Christ can say, "We can- 
 not get along without Christ." They cannot. They cannot. 
 Why do they not say, We cannot get along without a divine 
 Christ? Because, I tell you, when they say, We cannot get 
 along without Christ, meaning, we are going to get along with a 
 mere human Christ for the sake of these human ideals, and for 
 the sake of the educating processes of morality, they are trying 
 to do the impossible. They are having a Christ who has no 
 authority. That is the difference. Christianity is two things. 
 It is the incarnation ; it is also the incarnation for purposes of 
 atonement and blood shedding. If it were the atonement with- 
 out the incarnation, it would be a valuable idea without any 
 authority. If it were the incarnation without the atonement, it 
 would be an authoritative idea without any value. But the 
 glory of Christianity is that authority and value are wedded in 
 this doctrine. God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto 
 himself, not imputing to men their trespasses. 
 
 No, we yield to no man in our recognition of the imperial 
 Christ in his human aspect, and the educative power of Chris- 
 
28 Bi-ceniennial Celebration of the 
 
 tianity in its moral aspect; but we say, to keep that educative 
 moral power you must have a divine element in the incarnation, 
 and the practical question of atonement, the question of the 
 divinity of the incarnation, may well be made the central theme 
 of Christian preaching, because, among other things, it settles 
 for us man's place in the scale of being. I do not wonder that 
 in the presence of the world's splendor, that standing in the gaze 
 of the world's immensity, a man is tempted to turn materialist. 
 He can say to-day, with a thousand times more significance and 
 meaning than the Psalmist ever said it — and yet the Psalmist, 
 with his limited knowledge of the physical world, knew enough 
 to be able to say — " When I look up unto Thy heavens, and to 
 the moon and stars which Thou hast ordained, then say I, What 
 is man that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that 
 Thou visitest him ?" Materialism is very natural ; and when 
 man tries to fight his materialism, he is apt to fight it by say- 
 ing, " All that looks so solid and substantial is not real. The 
 only real thing in the world is mind ; and mind is God, and 
 there is but one mind. I create the light and I make the 
 darkness"; and in identifying himself with God he loses him- 
 self. Now, the hard thing for philosophy to do is what Chris- 
 tianity accomplishes. The hard thing to do is to conserve your 
 separate, finite, perdurable intelligence as mind, and yet keep it 
 distinct from God ; to conserve that infinite intelligence, God, 
 and yet not identify it with the world. Christianity is not the 
 identification, but it is the reconciliation, of God and man ; and 
 it is because of Christ's wedding the logos with a true body 
 and a reasonable soul, and lifting that body with him to glory, 
 that we do not sing the hymn about wanting to be an angel and 
 with the angels stand. We know better. We know that Christ 
 still has a human heart, and that a human hand is guiding the 
 sceptre of the universe ; and we know moreover that this event 
 that took place nearly nineteen hundred years ago settles for you 
 and for me our theory of history and our explanation of this 
 universe. 
 
 You need not talk in technical terms. You need not use the- 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 29 
 
 ological expressions. You need not say anything about Cal- 
 vinism or Arminianism ; but I say that the event that we are 
 speaking of could not have taken place until the clock struck 
 the hour that marked the fullness of the times. I say that, since 
 that incarnation took place, it was in the nature of things im- 
 possible but that there should be a great multitude out of every 
 kindred and tribe and tongue who should believe in Him, who 
 should be redeemed by Him, and who should reach heaven, 
 blood-washed, white-robed, sino-ino; the song- of Moses and the 
 Lamb. Now, why? In order that in the ages to come might 
 be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. In 
 other words, it w r as purposed. So this doctrine of the incar- 
 nation, this single doctrine, widens, widens, widens, until it com- 
 prehends every event that has taken place in the history of the 
 world. We do well to ponder this doctrine; we do well to 
 treasure it. The logos takes into union with Himself a true 
 body and a reasonable soul. So God becomes man. The Spirit 
 of God takes up His abode in a finite human spirit, and man 
 becomes a partaker of the divine nature. These are the two 
 great truths of Christian life. What do they betoken ? What 
 do these ideas indicate? They indicate the destiny, the glorious 
 immortality, that awaits the children of God. The perdurable 
 personality of the theanthropic Jesus is the prophecy of the 
 glorious future of every one that believes in Him. 
 
 Do you believe in immortality ? There is a great literature 
 growing up now about immortality. A professor in New York 
 told us, with a great deal of hesitation, as though he were still 
 unconvinced, and with a great deal of apparent apology for it, 
 that he was really getting into a frame of mind where he thought 
 it might not be impossible, though he had always thought it im- 
 possible before — might not be impossible for people to live after 
 they died, thanks to these modern discoveries of spiritualism. 
 Now are we indebted to Mr. Hyslop, Prof. James, Mr. Gurney 
 and Mr. Myers, to those people whose business it is to take 
 kodak photographs of ghosts, for the vindication of the Chris- 
 tian doctrine of immortality? or is there not higher ground on 
 
30 Bi-centemiial Celebration of the 
 
 which to stand, and where we can say with the apostle, " For 
 we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dis- 
 solved, we have a building of God, an house not made with 
 hands, eternal in the heavens"? No new doctrine this of im- 
 mortality to you and me ; no hypothesis to be vindicated by 
 ocular demonstration, photographs of ghosts, and seances of 
 spiritualists, but the revealed word of God, anchored in the 
 truth of the incarnate Christ. Nor need this personal interest 
 that you and I have in the doctrine of the incarnation blind us 
 to the fact, to the official interest we may have in it as those who 
 have been commissioned to preach the unsearchable riches of 
 Christ Let us not be discouraged. The enemy comes in like a 
 flood ; but, after all, the real apologetic is not made by men, but 
 by the Spirit of God, and our faith shall stand not in the wis- 
 dom of men, but in the power of God. " We are ambassadors 
 for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us : we pray you 
 in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. ' For He hath made 
 Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be 
 made the righteousness of God in Him." This is our message ; 
 this is our duty ; this is our official station as ministers of Jesus 
 Christ. To us is committed this high duty of acting as the 
 servants of God to sue for the hand of humanity, to go forth 
 and lead her back to the palace gates of heaven as the chosen 
 bride of Christ ; and in spite of all the coldness with which our 
 message may be received, in spite of all lack of responsive atten- 
 tion, we believe that the union between God and man that took 
 place nineteen hundred years ago was but the prophecy of that 
 good time coming when the bells of heaven shall ring in the 
 nuptials of the ransomed church and her royal Spouse. To this 
 consummation the world is tending ; for this consummation, O 
 thou Son of God, thy people wait. 
 
 PEAYEE.— The Pastor. 
 
 O God, we believe in Thee, Father Almighty, and in Jesus 
 Christ, Thine only Son, our Lord, who was conceived of the 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 31 
 
 Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, dead and 
 buried. The third day He rose from the grave, and ascended up 
 into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God, the Father 
 Almighty, from whence He shall come to judge the quick and 
 the dead. Great is this mystery of godliness; but we know 
 whom we have believed, and are persuaded that He is able to 
 keep that which we have committed unto Him. Keep Thy church 
 steadfast in this confidence, we beseech Thee. May she be in- 
 deed immovable in this her faith, that so she may be a true wit- 
 ness for God — that so she may win men unto Him. Fill with 
 Thy blessing, we beseech Thee, this service. Bring us together 
 again, that we may this afternoon and this evening, if it please 
 Thee, still be filled with these things of God ; and unto the 
 Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit shall be all the praise. 
 Amen. 
 
 HYMN 102. 
 BENEDICTION. 
 
SABBATH AFTERNOON, 
 
 NOVEMBER 13, 1898. 
 
 SABBATH-SCHOOL CELEBRATION. 
 
 ANTHEM.— "Te Deum Laudamus" (Festival).— Dudley Back. 
 
 RESPONSIVE READING.— Psalm 132. 
 
 PRAYER.— The Pastor. 
 
 O God, our heavenly Father, we thank Thee for this day. 
 We have waited for its coming, and now we rejoice in it. We do 
 bless Thee for this Sabbath-school, that Thou didst put it into the 
 hearts of godly men and women so long ago to begin it, and that 
 it has always had true and loyal friends to take care of it through 
 all the years. We thank Thee for all who have here superin- 
 tended, for all who have taught Thy word, and for all who have 
 gladly received Thy word into their hearts. We thank Thee 
 that so many have here learned in their hearts the story of Jesus, 
 and gone out to live it in their lives. For all who have been saved 
 through the instrumentality of this school, we thank Thee ; 
 for all still upon the earth, scattered here and there in so many 
 places, and for those who have gone to heaven, and there thank 
 Thee that they were brought up in this Sabbath-school and here 
 learned the way of life. And now we thank Thee that we are 
 members of it. For all the pleasure we find in it, we bless 
 Thee. We pray that we may always love it more and more, and 
 do everything in our power for its welfare, trying to iucrease its 
 numbers, trying to make it more efficient, trying to make it 
 more in very truth a school of Christ and for Christ. Grant 
 3 
 
34 Bi-centennkd Celebration of the 
 
 that we may this afternoon have an hour which shall be memor- 
 able to us, which we shall think of with great pleasure for a 
 long time to come. Bless those who shall speak to us. We 
 thank Thee for their coming. We thank Thee that they are 
 with us on this day of festivities, and we pray Thee that we 
 all who are now before Thee may be anew consecrated to Thy 
 service and give ourselves wholly up unto Thee, who hast loved 
 us and given Thyself for us. We ask it in our blessed Saviour's 
 name, who has taught when we pray to say, " Our Father," etc. 
 
 HISTOEY OF THE SABBATH-SCHOOL. 
 Mr. George Griffiths, Superintendent. 
 
 The First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia was organ- 
 ized in 1698, and the Sunday-school in connection with the 
 church was commenced in the winter of 1815, in the parlor of 
 Mr. Jonathan Smith, Walnut Street, above Eighth. The min- 
 utes of the church state that, October 17, 1815, an application 
 was received from S. Hall, on behalf of the young ladies of the 
 congregation, for permission to use the church as a school for 
 the instruction of poor children on the Sabbath, at such times 
 as should not interfere with divine service. The corporation 
 unanimously agreed to grant the request. 
 
 The school was held in the church, south side of Market 
 Street, corner of Bank, below Third. During public worship, 
 children and teachers occupied benches ranged against the walls. 
 The first superintendent was Mrs. John Conolly, the wife of an 
 elder, and meetings for consultation on the welfare of the school 
 were held at their house. 
 
 The teachers were encouraged by increasing numbers and 
 other indications of success. But the tide of business was mov- 
 ing westward and carrying with it many private residences. It 
 was necessary to move the church, and the present site was se- 
 lected in 1820. After the sale of the old church, the school 
 found temporary accommodations in the lecture room of the 
 Second Presbyterian Church, Cherry Street, west of Fifth. 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 35 
 
 In the spring of 1821 the new church was opened, and the 
 Sunday-school held its sessions in the rooms on each side of the 
 vestibule of the church, now the pastor's study and the church 
 parlor. 
 
 The school appears to have needed enlarged accommodations, 
 for, in November of the same year, " the teachers applied for the 
 use of the prayer room and for two or three pews in the gallery." 
 Both requests were granted, and two pews on each side of the 
 choir were allotted to the school. 
 
 The first mention of the boys' school in connection with the 
 First Church is seven years after the establishment of the girls' 
 school. December 2, 1822, we find the following minute: 
 
 " Resolved, That the application of the young men for the use of the western 
 room in the new church for a Sunday-school for boys be granted." 
 
 Two months later the following minute appears : 
 
 "That the schoolrooms adjoining the vestibule be closed and locked as soon 
 as worship commences in the church." 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Eckard, formerly missionary to India, after- 
 ward professor in Lafayette College, gives some interesting 
 information in a letter dated 1868. He says : 
 
 " The boys' school, I always understood, was commenced by 
 Lemuel Wilson, son of the pastor, Dr. James P. Wilson. 
 Lemuel soon died, and the school dragged along a half-dead and 
 half-alive existence. William B. Davidson was the one who 
 kept up the little life there was in it. One Sunday morning, I 
 think in 1828, Mr. Davidson asked me if I could not help him 
 get up a better Sunday-school for boys. He did not make the 
 request on the ground of religious duty — neither of us made 
 any religious profession — but he spoke of it as a sort of duty to 
 the community to teach religion to bad and ignorant boys. To 
 the objection that I had no religion myself, and, of course, could 
 give no instruction in it, he replied that I could get a commen- 
 
36 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 tary on the Bible and tell them what was said in it. I mention 
 this as a fair idea of the spirit in which the school was then taught. 
 
 " Next Sunday I went to the room which was for so long a 
 time occupied by Albert Barnes as his study. It was scantily 
 furnished with a few benches and chairs, and a desk, nominally 
 for the superintendent. Mr. Davidson held that office, but he 
 had so little to look after that he acted also as a teacher. No 
 one connected with the school had then made a profession of re- 
 ligion. There was no prayer offered in the school, nor, so far as 
 I know, for the school. When the hour came, we took seats 
 and gave such ideas of the way to salvation and the meaning of 
 the Bible as might be expected of such teachers. We had a 
 small library, having learned that a library was a fit adjunct of 
 the Sunday-school. 
 
 " I offered the first prayer ever made in the school on the day 
 when I made a profession of religion. Mr. Davidson told me, 
 when I proposed it, that there could be no objection ; indeed, he 
 thought it would be a good thing. Soon afterwards I was 
 elected superintendent, merely to have the school opened with 
 prayer. Thus we groped on as well as we could, gradually en- 
 larging in our ideas, but never getting very high up. 
 
 "Mr. Joseph H. Dulles left the Arch Street Church — Dr. 
 Skinner's — and came to the First Church. I resigned that he 
 might be elected superintendent. But we had made some prog- 
 ress and our numbers had increased. This was aided by fitting 
 up rooms in the basement — two rows of arches on the west side 
 for girls and one on the east side for boys (1831?). Another 
 aid was the formation of a sort of confederation with the ladies, 
 whose school was at first quite separate, and who had got far 
 ahead of us, both in intelligence and in action. The whole ex- 
 pense, about one thousand dollars, was contributed by the con- 
 gregation with great promptitude and liberality. A great im- 
 pulse was given to the school by these superior accommodations. 
 After awhile, many thought these basement rooms damp and 
 unhealthy, and this led to the erection of the building northeast 
 corner of Seventh and Spruce Streets. 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 37 
 
 " Before Albert Barnes came to the church, we felt the need 
 of mutual instruction in the lessons and other matters. This 
 led to a meeting of all the teachers, and we came to understand 
 our lessons and duties better than by a course of solitary stud}'. 
 As the school increased, piety was manifested by several of the 
 teachers. A more potent influence for good than the improved 
 accommodations was the loving care and strong interest mani- 
 fested by the new pastor, Albert Barnes. Large Bible classes 
 were formed, an infant school was established, and a teachers' 
 prayer meeting was held at the close of the afternoon service. 
 In 1831 a class for catechism was commenced on Saturday after- 
 noons. On the second Sabbath of every month instructive 
 services were held under the direction of the pastor, which left 
 a pleasant impression on many minds. 
 
 "In the extensive revival of 1840, thirty-four of the school 
 stood up boldly for Jesus, and devoted their lives to his service. 
 
 "For years the good work continued. While the older mem- 
 bers of the church formed an association to attend to its secular 
 affairs, the younger ones went out to labor in different portions 
 of the Master's vineyard. At one period the schools connected 
 with the church numbered fifteen hundred members." 
 
 Dr. Eckard also sent the Register of the Boys' School, com- 
 mencing December 29, 1829. It is probably the oldest Sunday- 
 school Register in the city. 
 
 In 1848 the property northeast corner Seventh and Spruce 
 was purchased, and the building erected and occupied until 
 March, 1896, when the erection of the present building was 
 commenced. 
 
 Beginning with 1856 monthly services were held for the chil- 
 dren in the lecture room. Mr. Barnes gave the Catechism ques- 
 tions, the children answering in classes. 
 
 In Octojber, 1856, Rev. Dr. Malin addressed the school on 
 behalf of the missionary ship, Morning Star ; $102.51 were col- 
 lected. Many distinguished missionaries have visited the school ; 
 Dr. John Scudder, over forty years in India; Dr. Perkins, 
 twenty-seven years among the Nestoriaus ; Mr. Gleason, thirty- 
 
38 
 
 Bl-centennicd Celebration of the 
 
 ^ix years among the Choctaws ; Mr. Wiley, missionary to the 
 Cherokees ; Mrs. Wilder, Miss Brittan, Messrs Briggs, Baxter, 
 Chldlaw and others. 
 
 In 1857 Mr. William G. Crowell was elected superintend- 
 ent. 
 
 Morning: and afternoon sessions of the school were held until 
 J 870, when it was decided to hold one session at 2.30 p.m. 
 
 In October, 1880, the school was addressed by members of 
 the Pan Presbyterian Council. 
 
 January 5, 1881, the Sunday-school was called to mourn the 
 loss of its beloved superintendent, Mr. William G. Crowell, 
 who was called from the labors and cares of the church militant 
 to the rest and peace of the church triumphant. 
 
 Mr. Crowell was connected with the school for forty-five 
 years as scholar, teacher, and from the year 1857 to the day of 
 his death as its faithful and efficient superintendent. 
 
 By voluntary contributions of teachers and scholars, a marble 
 tablet was placed in the Sabbath-school, with this inscription : 
 " In Memoriam, Our Superintendent twenty-four years ; con- 
 nected with the school forty-five years. William G. Crowell, 
 ' Asleep in Christ/ January 5, 1881. A tribute from teachers 
 and scholars. He loved the children." 
 
 Since the organization of the school the following named per- 
 sons have occupied the superintendency : 
 
 LEMUEL WILSON, 
 
 WILLIAM B. DAVIDSON, 
 
 JAMES R. ECKARD, 
 
 JOSEPH H. DULLES, 
 
 CHARLES M. McINTYRE, 
 
 MATTHIAS W. BALDWIN, 
 
 ISAAC DUNTON, 
 
 HENRY DAVIS, 
 
 WILLIAM PC RYES, 
 
 JOHN SPARHAWK, 
 
 HIRAM WARD, 
 
 E. D. ASHTON, 
 
 WILLIAM G. CROWELL, 
 
 GEORGE GRIFFITHS, since Jan. 1881. 
 
 And of the Girls' School: 
 
 MRS. JOHN CONOLLY, 
 
 MISS JANE HAYS, 
 
 MISS E. PETTIT, 
 
 MISS KEPPELE, 
 
 MISS MATILDA WALLACE, 
 
 MISS AMELIA DAVIDSON, 
 
 MRS. LAWRENCE, 
 
 MISS ELIZA AUSTIN, 
 
 MRS. ELIZABETH P. WILSON, 
 
 MISS M. N. PAUL. 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 39 
 
 Blessed roll of honor through many years of faithful toil ! 
 And what a list of godly ministers, who have labored at home 
 and abroad, lawyers, physicians, business men and earnest 
 workers in all walks of life, have passed from faithful teachers 
 through these eighty-three years ! 
 
 And what a large amouut of money has found its way into 
 the Lord's treasury through the offerings of the school and mis- 
 sion bands ! 
 
 For several years there was a feeling among many in our con- 
 gregation that, to accomplish the work that ought to be done by 
 the First Presbyterian Church in this part of our city, a build- 
 ing more suitable than the one erected in 1848 should be pro- 
 vided, and so the purchase of adjoining properties was made. 
 Plans and estimates were obtained and the work of rebuilding 
 commenced March 2, 189G. 
 
 The laying of the corner-stone took place May 23d, and dedi- 
 cation services were held December 13, 1896. 
 
 The Albert Barnes Memorial was erected in loving remem- 
 brance of one who, for forty years, faithfully labored among this 
 people, and whose pen was ever busy in making plain to all who 
 read his commentaries, God's holy word. 
 
 This building is the home of the Sabbath-school, mission 
 bands, mothers' meetings, sewing school, reading room, boys' 
 guild, literary union, library and gymnasium, and a rallying 
 centre for a great deal of work that is helpful to very many 
 persons. 
 
 The Chinese have a character which means, " Hall of Happi- 
 ness and Glad Tidings " — being applied to places for their 
 amusement. May this building ever be in the purest and high- 
 est sense a place of true happiness and glad tidings to very 
 many. 
 
 With gratitude to God for what has already been accom- 
 plished, and with renewed hope for greater usefulness and success 
 in the work of building up the kingdom of our Lord and Sav- 
 iour, Jesus Christ, let us first of all present ourselves wholly 
 unto our King and loving Heavenly Father, who delights in 
 
40 Bir-centmnial Celebration of the 
 
 his children's affections, and then pray that this edifice may ever 
 be used for that which will glorify God and save men unto eter- 
 nal life, through Jesus Christ, our dear Lord and Redeemer, be- 
 ing thus led by the power of the Holy Ghost, Amen. 
 
 HYMN.—" Praise Him, Every Voice."— (The Primary Department.) 
 
 THE SUPERINTENDENT. 
 
 In 1882 we were privileged as a church in having as Stated 
 Supply one whom we all honor and who has been, during six 
 years at Princeton, New Jersey, influencing many young men in 
 their lives, who have gone forth in various walks of life, in the 
 ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, impressed by words spoken 
 from one who shall talk to us to-day — Dr. Patton, president 
 of Princeton University. 
 
 ADDRESS.— Rev. Francis L. Patton, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 My dear Christian friends, I begged off when I was asked 
 to make this speech this afternoon, and I do not think I should 
 have spoken if it had not been that I could not very well say 
 no, as Mr. Perkins and Mr. Griffiths wrote me that I must say 
 something. So I have come to say something, not much, but 
 something. I recall very pleasantly these relations that Mr. 
 Griffiths has so kindly referred to. I recall very well an occa- 
 sion similar to the present, when I stood on this platform and ad- 
 dressed the Sunday-school. Indeed, the only argument that 
 seemed to prevail with me, when I said I could not talk to the 
 Sunday-school, was that he said I could; I had done it, he re- 
 membered it. I could not go back on that statement, I knew 
 I had done it. I remember the occasion. I remember my friend 
 Judge Pierce was here that day. I remember his speech. I do 
 not remember anything of my own. Of course, having con- 
 sented to come, the next question was what I should say. I did 
 not know what to say. I wanted a text. I had not any text. 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 41 
 
 I am so much in the habit of preaching from the pulpit that I 
 cannot very well make a speech even to the Sunday-school with- 
 out a text. But I got a text. I did not get in town until very 
 late last night. Mr. Perkins had almost given me up, I expect, 
 but I could not come any sooner. I would have come sooner, 
 but I had to stay and see the game. My ! but that was a great 
 game. I stood up on the top of the grand stand. I was on my 
 feet for two blessed hours— two hours and a half. You know it 
 is a great deal of a strain to stand up all that time and watch, 
 and not see as well as most people do, have to strain your eyes 
 to see, and be so tremendously interested in seeing everything. 
 But I saw it, and am very glad I did. That is my text. I have 
 not anything better to bring to you to-day than an account of 
 that foot-ball game. I know there may be some people here 
 that do not like foot-ball. It was pretty rough, a rough game, 
 but it was a good-natured game, played in good spirit, and we 
 won. That is what pleased me, and it pleased me all the bet- 
 ter because we had to fight so hard, play so hard I mean, to win. 
 That is everything I want to say, because it seems to me that 
 game has a religious side. I would not come here and speak 
 unless it were on a religious subject. There is a religious side 
 to life in everything if you only stop and look for it. There 
 were two kinds of people at that game— those that played the 
 game and those that only looked on. Of course that would be 
 a division into the players and those who were not. I am not 
 going to make that division further than to say the players 
 would not have done as good work if it had not been for the 
 spectators. The 16,000 people watching the Princeton and 
 Yale men put a lot of nerve into the Yale and Princeton men. 
 They played for all they were worth because there were these 
 16,000 people looking on and cheering them. Now Yale cheered 
 this side, then Princeton cheered the other side. I began to 
 think of that part of the Bible where the apostle says, " Seeing 
 we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, 
 let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily 
 beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before 
 
42 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 us," and so on. What I mean is that there is a great fight going 
 on. I am a little mixed up, I admit, as I shall go through, be- 
 cause the real thing I am talking about, the real illustration that 
 there is of materiality to talk about, is the game. I do not want 
 you to think foot-ball is a fight, yet I do not want you to think 
 life is a game. Life is serious. Life is earnest. Life is a 
 battle, but foot-ball is a game, and plenty of fun in it, too. 
 What I want you to understand is that the people that look 
 on, that watch, that watch with interest, have a great deal 
 to do in the results that are accomplished by the men who are 
 really doing work, carrying burdens and doing the fighting, 
 wherever it may be, whether it be in the battlefield at Santiago 
 or whether it be in the battlefield of reform in the city — the 
 fight against corruption. That is one thing. 
 
 Another thing I want to say is this, that I noticed that pretty 
 much everybody on that grand stand took sides, and I do not 
 believe they could be very much interested in the game if they 
 would not. You see, now one side would gain a yard, now the 
 other side would gain a yard. If a man stood up there and said 
 " I don't know that I care which one wins," I do not think he 
 could have felt very much interest. The interest in the thing 
 consisted to a very large extent in that you wanted one side or 
 the other to win. I know exactly, if my friend Mr. Perkins 
 had been there, how he would have felt. He would not have 
 felt as I did. He would have been just about as much interested 
 as I. I do not know what his views are on the general question 
 of foot-ball. I know what his views would have been if he had 
 been on the grand stand alongside of me. I know he would 
 have wanted Yale to win, and would have come away with a 
 very different sort of elation from what I came away with. He 
 would have wanted Yale to win about as much as I wanted 
 Princeton to win. I have not much use for people who have 
 not enthusiasm enough to feel interested, who have not enthusiasm 
 enough about the great fight going on against sin and corruption 
 in high places and low places to feel interested and want the 
 right to win. That is what we must do. I think if a boy or 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 43 
 
 girl gets started with that sort of feeling that " I want the right 
 to win," he has made a very good start in life. Now a man 
 might have that sort of feeling and yet not say much about it. 
 A man might say " Of course I am on the right side " when the 
 call comes " Who is on the Lord's side ?" because there is a right 
 side and a wrong side, there is a Lord's side and a devil's side, 
 and the question is, who is on the Lord's side? A man might 
 say " Of course I am on the Lord's side. I don't care to say 
 much about it. I don't care to talk much about it. I am very 
 modest in the way I feel about this thing." I tell you they 
 were not modest yesterday. You knew which side a man was 
 on. You knew if he had a yellow chrysanthemum in his button- 
 hole which side he was on. You knew if he had a Yale flag 
 waving which side he was on. There is a great parable taught 
 by that game to me yesterday. I tell you these are times when 
 a man ought to show his colors, when a man ought to let people 
 know which side he is on, and if he is on the right side, say he 
 is on the right side, or what he thinks the right side. I do not 
 like to press that figure too much, because I suppose both sides 
 thought they were right, and much more I want to impress you 
 with this idea, that of course we went in to win, and ihey went 
 in to win, and we won, and the principal thing was to win, and 
 in the game of foot- ball I suppose that is the main thing, but 
 in the great battle of life, in the great fight for what you call 
 success, in the great achievements, as men call them, in the way 
 of overcoming obstacles, there is something else besides winning. 
 It is not a question whether you win. It is the question of 
 what you win. It is the question of how you win it. I recall 
 that passage in the Bible where it says that if a man strive for 
 mastery, yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully. I 
 never saw anything like it — run, run, run, and when Pole made 
 that touch-down you ought to have seen the enthusiasm. You 
 ought to have seen how the Princeton people got up on the 
 grand stand and waved flags and shouted. By and by, in the 
 next part of the game, another one ran just as fast and got just 
 as far ahead. Everybody was shouting the same way. The 
 
44 Bi-centennied Celebration of the 
 
 first thing Ave knew the ball was put back in its place. He was 
 not crowned that time. It was a mistake, and that is one thing 
 about this game, it teaches you you have to play the game 
 straight ; but in the world's fight it does not make any difference 
 so you get ahead, so you make money, so you get the advantage, 
 but the glorious thing about foot-ball is that when you win a 
 victory there you are not crowned unless you strive lawfully. 
 I wish that commercial men, the men of Wall Street, the men 
 that run railroads, the men that put stock on the market, the 
 men that water stock, the men that float bonds that ought to 
 sink and will sink them if they do not get rid of them — I wish 
 they could learn something from foot-ball. I wish they could 
 learn that the only victory that counts, the only thing that tells 
 on character and makes men, is not winning the victory, but win- 
 ning it in an honest way. 
 
 One thing more I want to say. I do not know how many 
 of our friends know what it costs to win one of these victories. 
 Men do not consider how much is meant by this co-ordination 
 of the faculties. An old philosopher once said in one of the 
 shortest sentences he ever wrote, but you can afford to read it 
 even to-day in spite of all advances that have been made in 
 philosophy, " Thought is quick." My goodness, it is quick as 
 lightning. Just think how quick it is! A man thinks, and 
 instantly his muscles respond. The training you get in foot-ball 
 and base-ball is that training of the eye, the hand and all the 
 muscles of the body, so that the will shall be in complete com- 
 mand of every muscle, and it shall fly in immediate response to 
 that mandate. A man has not time to think much, to think 
 long, to deliberate. He has to think, resolve and act — all in 
 something less than the hundredth part of a second. To do that 
 means training, means practice, and the man has to keep his 
 body under. He cannot indulge in appetites, whether it be eat- 
 ing or drinking. He has to be temperate in all things. That 
 is one of the things that a man learns. He learns to keep his 
 body under, and I tell you in this great fight that we have to 
 maintain character, to be moral and put appetite under foot, to 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 45 
 
 rise superior to base practices, to control ourselves and learn this 
 power, so that we shall have our faculties always at command, it 
 means eternal vigilance. Now, these fellows do it just for what ? 
 Just for the applause of that crowd. Just for the glory of their 
 college. Just for a temporary and evanescent sort of reputation 
 and fame they do it. As the apostle says, for a corruptible 
 crown— for a wreath that will be faded in less than a week. 
 But we ? Why, we are doing the same thing. We are doing 
 it for an incorruptible crown. Think of the motive that we are 
 under. Think of the inspiration that ought to actuate us. 
 Think how we ought to live, control our appetites and master 
 our baser nature, in order that we may rise to the full dignity 
 of the great manhood that is our destiny if we are only true to 
 what is before us. 
 
 THE SUPERINTENDENT. 
 
 President Patton wrote, "If I accept your invitation and 
 speak, you will regret that I have spoken upon an occasion of 
 this kind." I am sure all of us have no such regret, but we are 
 exceedingly glad President Patton accepted the invitation for 
 the second time. Sixteen years ago, and then again to-day, he 
 has talked to the Sabbath-school of the First Church. All of 
 us who will try to remember his earnest words and carry them 
 out in our lives — this doing right — just raise the hand to thank 
 him for talking to us this afternoon. A vote of thanks, Pres- 
 ident Patton, for your words to us. 
 
 ANTHEM.— "Praise Ye the Lord."— Gounod. 
 
 THE SUPERINTENDENT. 
 
 In 1868, long before most of us here to-day were born, 
 there came to this church a man, to succeed Mr. Barnes in the 
 active pastorate, selected by Mr. Barnes himself, followed by 
 that of the congregation, and for two years and a half, as a son 
 
46 Bi-centennial Celebration oj the 
 
 to Mr. Barnes, and Mr. Barnes as a father to him, I shall never 
 forget how beautifully they seemed to walk and work together 
 in this old church. Then Mr. Barnes was called home to his 
 rest in heaven. For three years and a half following this same 
 man continued — oh, with what earnestness and enthusiasm — a 
 helper to so many ! Then, failing in health, he was compelled 
 to resign and go from us; but, oh, the impress made in those six 
 years upon many lives will never be forgotten as long as they 
 live upon this earth; and in the life to come, oh, how many will 
 meet with Dr. Herrick Johnson and thank him for the words 
 of -encouragement and the help he gave to them during those 
 six years ! And it is a great joy and pleasure to us w T ho knew him 
 that he came all the way from Chicago with Mrs. Johnson to 
 spend these days with us, to preach to us this evening and to 
 talk to us this afternoon. We all welcome him a thousand 
 times and pray that God's blessings may ever be upon him. 
 
 ADDRESS.— Kev. Herrick Johnson, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 Dr. Patton has brought you a text which seemed to have a 
 good deal of inspiration in it. I have not a base-ball or foot-ball 
 game behind me, and I cannot get my inspiration from such a 
 source as that ; but very tender are the memories and very pre- 
 cious are the associations connected with this hallowed spot to 
 me, for six of the best years of my life were spent in a loving 
 ministry with a people whose match I believe could hardly be 
 found on the face of the earth, and especially the association of 
 those early days in that ministry with the beloved Albert Barnes, 
 and throughout the entire ministry with the beloved William G. 
 Crowell, the superintendent of the Sabbath-school during all 
 those years. I thank God for the association and the memories 
 to-day, and bless Him that He permitted me to put something 
 of my life, my heart, my wish and will down into this beloved 
 church. I have been thinking what I should talk to you about 
 to-day, and it has suggested itself to my mind that the two hun- 
 dred years of this church's life is a good thing — suggestive, 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 47 
 
 bringing some things to mind and heart that perhaps it would 
 be well for us all to remember. 
 
 This church is two hundred years old. How old are you ? 
 Well, that question was asked by Pharaoh, you know, a good 
 many years ago of Jacob when he was an old man. It has been 
 asked often since. Some regard it as a piece of impertinence to 
 ask a question like that. Some hesitate to answer. Some refuse 
 to answer. Some lie in the answer. But there is a sense, I 
 think, in which the question may be appropriately asked of all 
 of us, suggested by the life of this church. Two hundred years ! 
 That is a long time. That is longer than any of us will live. At 
 the best, we will not get much beyond our three score years and 
 ten, and then we will pass away, and very likely will be largely 
 forgotten. How does it come to pass that this church is two hun- 
 dred years old? Because it is an institution. Men die; institu- 
 tions live. My point is suggested by the associations of the hour. 
 Get yourselves, as soon as possible, into something that will last. 
 The men that put themselves into this church have made some- 
 thing that lives much beyond their own years. Take that list out 
 there on the tablet in the vestibule, and over against each name 
 is the date of what? Of his death. This church has lived on 
 through the years. These men have died. They are immortal 
 in part, just as they put themselves into this church. I say to 
 you, boys and girls, as soon as possible get yourselves into some- 
 thing that will last, for we all do fade as leaves, and we are going 
 out of this world pretty soon, at the longest, and if we want to 
 be immortal in this world, let us try and get ourselves into an 
 institution, into the church, into an asylum, into a library, into 
 a college — into something that is built for the future, and so per- 
 petuate ourselves, and be careless, like the leaves, about the 
 monument that is placed where we die; but build while we live 
 and where we live. That is it, boys. Build while you live and 
 where you live. Put something of yourselves into an institution 
 of some sort that is going to last when you die. What do the 
 leaves do? They build where they live, in the trees. The tree 
 is their monument. There they lived, there they wrought, there 
 
48 Bi-centenn'ml Celebration of the 
 
 they worked, and what cared they when they fluttered away from 
 the tree where they landed finally and passed again to their kin- 
 dred dust? It did not make any difference where they died. 
 Their monument w T as where they lived. 
 
 Some men are very ambitious to have a monument where they 
 die. Boys, that don't amount to anything. A monument built 
 by a man who has achieved a fortune, and with that has built 
 his monument — a monument of that sort tells a story, but it is 
 not a very good one. It is a reminder of something; but it is 
 not a reminder of anything any man ought to be wishing that he 
 might perpetuate. A monument in a cemetery is the most per- 
 pendicular thing I know. It stands erect, but it can lie like 
 everything; and so they reveal sombre fiction — at least I know 
 of that being written over a cemetery at one place, perhaps by 
 way of reflection, not because it belonged there: "Here lie the 
 dead, and here the living lie." The epitaphs over a good many 
 of our tombs are epitaphs that cannot stand the investigation of 
 scientific research. They do not tell the story. If the truth were 
 told concerning a man who had achieved a fortune and then left 
 it— $50,000 or $100,000— to build a monument over his grave, 
 what would that monument say? It would say something like 
 this: "This is sacred to the memory of a man who achieved a 
 fortune without character. He left $50,000 to build this monu- 
 ment, and this monument is just as useless as he was. It per- 
 petuates nothing worth remembering; neither did he." That is 
 about the truth concerning such a monument. Build your monu- 
 ment where you live, and be careless about the monument that is 
 placed over your grave. A library, an institution of learning, 
 an asylum, a church lasts. Build there as soon as possible. Put 
 yourself into some good thing that is going to be permanent. 
 Here is a Sabbath-school superintendent, who is putting a good 
 deal of the best of his heart and brain and body into this Sab- 
 bath-school. William G. Crowell poured out his heart here in 
 this school, and here is his treasure; and I reckon that when he 
 went up to heaven to receive a reward for his fidelity he found 
 that the best work he ever did in this world was the work he did 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 49 
 
 in connection with this Sabbath-school — praying, toiling, labor- 
 ing, caring for the children. Get yourselves into this school, 
 get yourselves into this church, with your money, with your 
 prayers, with your tears, with your toil, with self-consecration. 
 Be sure you are looking out for the future, and that something 
 will last after you are taken away. 
 
 Yet if I left this matter here, I do not think I would have 
 said all that should be said. After all, what is the most ever- 
 lasting thing in this world? It is personality. The person 
 lives and the institutions die. That is the other side of it. The 
 person lives; the institution dies. There is nothing in this 
 world so big, there is nothing in this world so everlasting, save 
 God's truth, as your personality. God is person ; that distin- 
 guishes him from everything else in the universe. When he 
 made man, what did he do? He lifted him to a distinguished 
 place in creation by making him a person. He endowed him 
 with personality. " I will make man in my own image," and 
 he made every man and every woman a person like himself— 
 the biggest thing in the universe, the everlasting thing. A man 
 says, " I have not been a success in life. I am going to kill my- 
 self." Can he kill himself? He can kill the body, but after 
 that there is no more that he can do. His personality goes on 
 and on and on. Why, then, of course the best thing to build is 
 the everlasting thing. Boys and girls, begin building right 
 away here your character. What is the foundation stone? 
 Jesus Christ. Get him into your life and heart first of all. 
 Lay that chief corner-stone, for no other building work will 
 amount to much. It may last, but it will last with pain and 
 sorrow to you. The time will come when you will wish you 
 could die and you cannot die. You have got to live on. That 
 personality is indestructible. Begin building in such a way 
 that it will be a perpetual and everlasting joy to you. Build by 
 putting Christ there as the corner-stone, then build on that. 
 What? Why, everything that is pure, everything that is 
 lovely, everything that is honest, everything that is of good 
 report. Think on these things. Get these into character, for 
 
 4 
 
50 Bi-centennial Celebration. 
 
 they are Christ-like, and build up there on that corner-stone a 
 character that shall at last be holy like the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and then you have done the everlasting best thing that any per- 
 son can do in this world. You have made a soul, originally 
 made in the divine image, but that image marred and defaced 
 by sin ; you have built it back again, with Christ as a founda- 
 tion, into the beauty of holiness, and that will last and be a joy 
 forever. May God help you to such a building work, and may 
 you begin with this hour. 
 
 The list of names of scholars entitled to rewards was read. 
 
 THE SUPERINTENDENT. 
 
 My prayer and hope is that this service of our Sabbath-school, 
 in connection with the Bi-Centennial, may be an inspiration to 
 go forward to even the very youngest child, as the little one re- 
 tains this order of services, growing older and recalling, it may 
 be, a few words of what you heard from Dr. Patton or Dr. 
 Johnson; and also to the oldest of us as we look forward to 
 the better things that await us further on — the better things in 
 the kingdom on high God has for all His dear children. Let 
 us press forward, and His blessing will ever be upon us. 
 
 HYMN 300. 
 
 BENEDICTION. 
 
SABBATH EVENING, 
 
 NOVEMBER 13, 1898. 
 
 ORGAN PRELUDE.—" Pastorale— Messiah."— Handel. 
 DOXOLOGY. 
 
 INVOCATION.— The Pastor. 
 
 Unto Thee do we lift up our eyes, O Thou that dwellest in 
 the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the 
 hand of their master, and as the eyes of a maiden to the hand 
 of her mistress, so do we look unto Thee. Grant us Thy bless- 
 ing. Grant that we may rejoice in Thee, O Lord, to-night, and 
 be glad in the God of our salvation. We ask it in the name of 
 Jesus Christ, who hath taught us, when we pray, to say " Our 
 Father," etc. 
 
 ANTHEM.— " Te Deum Laudamtjs" (Festival).— Gounod. 
 
 SCRIPTURE READING.— Psalm 122. 
 
 CHANT.— "Gloria in Excelsis." 
 
 SCRIPTURE READING.— Rev. J. S. Macintosh,' D. D. (Parts of the 
 Second and Fourth Chapters of 2 Timothy.) 
 
 HYMN 151. 
 
 PRAYER. — Rev. Leonard Bacon, D.D., of Norwich, Connecticut. 
 
 O Almighty and Eternal God, who art the refuge and 
 dwelling place of Thy people in all generations, in Thee our 
 
 51 
 
•52 Bi-eentennial Celebration of the 
 
 fathers trusted. They trusted and. Thou didst deliver them, and 
 in Thee will we put our trust. O Lord, let Thy mercy light 
 upon us according as our trust is in Thee. O Lord, in Thee 
 have we trusted. Let us never be put to confusion, world with- 
 out end. We bless Thee at the remembrance of Thy benefits, of 
 Thy faithfulness and love to all Thy flock. We thank Thee 
 for what Thou hast done for this land. Thou, who didst bring 
 hither the shoots of that true vine, and plant them and attend 
 them that the wild boar from the woods should waste them not, 
 who didst care for them until they grew here to be a goodly vine, 
 whose branches reached far to the sea and to the river. We bless 
 Thee, O Lord, for all that Thou hast wrought here — for faith- 
 ful men here who have testified of the grace of God, for the good- 
 ness that hath watched over this church in times when the fire 
 seemed to be consuming, and yet consumed not. We have turned 
 ourselves aside to look upon this great sight, and we bow before 
 Thee and adore. We bless Thee for all that has been wrought 
 here — for the blessing of this people, that here streams of happy 
 influence have flowed forth like the rivers that make glad the 
 City of God; that here souls have been won from sinfulness 
 to the obedience of the just; that here saintly lives have been 
 lived to Thee, and here, . dying, Thy people have testified to 
 Thine unfailing grace; that here children have grown up, taught 
 from their childhood to bless and trust the holy name, and that 
 thus Thy name hath been honored and glorified by them that 
 have borne it. For all these things we bless Thee — for holy in- 
 fluences, felt not here alone, but far away in the ends of the earth, 
 where are those that give thanks because of this people; and now, 
 looking back with thankfulness, Ave look forward with hope and 
 trust 10 Thee. God, who hast been with our fathers, be Thou 
 with our children after us. Here be TI13- Word preached, Thine 
 ordinances administered, Thy law fulfilled in saintly lives, and 
 here may the name that is above every name be glorified and 
 honored until the Lord shall come again. Grant, we pray Thee, 
 that thus, day by day, new blessings may flow hence. Grant 
 that so the works of this church may be abundant — that here, 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 53 
 
 amid the swarming multitudes of this great city, where Thou 
 hast multiplied the people and hast increased the joy, sower and 
 reaper may rejoice together with the joy of the harvest, and as 
 with the joy of them that divide the spoil. So may many be 
 glad because of this people, and may they that pass by say, "We 
 bless thee in the name of the Lord." Hear our prayer for this 
 church, and for the congregations of Thy one holy Church 
 throughout this great city, with all their ministers. God be with 
 us and bless us, that Thy way may be known upon earth, Thy 
 saving health to all nations. Hear our prayer which we offer 
 Thee, we the unworthy, in the name of Jesus Christ, Thy Son, 
 our Saviour, to whom, with Thee, O Father, and the Holy 
 Ghost, be glory in the Church throughout all ages, world without 
 end. Amen. 
 
 THE PASTOR. 
 
 As you may have noticed upon the order of services, all the 
 offerings that are made throughout this commemorative week 
 will be applied to the Endowment Fund of this church, in order 
 that we may yet more vigorously, by the help of God, prosecute 
 the w T ork which is given us to do. We hope much from this 
 week of festivity, and we do not propose simply to look back, 
 but we propose to look forward and to get inspiration for better 
 and more earnest service in the days to come. As I said to you 
 last Sabbath evening, we thank God that this church has stood 
 through all these years in this part of the city where it at first 
 was planted. By His blessing it shall continue to stand here ; 
 but we need the sympathy, we need the prayers and we need the 
 money of those whom God has entrusted with it, that we may 
 accomplish our mission — that we may enlarge our activities. 
 Something was said this afternoon by Dr. Johnson about build- 
 ing ourselves into institutions. I believe every man and every 
 woman that, in the name of Christ, gives to this Endowment 
 Fund, and thus builds himself or herself into this church, will 
 
o4 Bi-eentennkd Celebration of the 
 
 have reason, not only in this life, but in the life hereafter, to be 
 thankful. The offering will be taken. 
 
 OFFERTORY.— " O Lamb of God " (Quartette).— Gounod. 
 
 THE PASTOR. 
 
 We shall now have the pleasure of hearing Dr. Herrick John- 
 son, Professor in the McCormick Theological Seminary of 
 Chicago, and who for six years was the honored and beloved 
 pastor of this church. 
 
 ADDRESS. — "The Presbyterian Bulwarks of Liberty and Law." 
 Rev. Herrick Johnson, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 Two hundred years ago, in the summer of 1698, a young man 
 came to this town to look after some Presbyterians who were 
 known to be residents here, and who were without church organ- 
 ization, or pastoral care. His name was Jedediah Andrews. 
 The Church-of-England minister then residing here, Thomas 
 Clayton, wrote to the Governor of Pennsylvania, November 29, 
 1698 : " I have often talked with the Presbyterian minister and 
 find him such as I could wish. They tell me, that have heard 
 him, that he makes a great noise, but this did not amaze me, 
 considering the bulk and emptiness of the thing — but he is so 
 far from growing upon us that he threatens to go home in the 
 spring." But he grew upon somebody, and he did not go home 
 in the spring. Whether he kept on making a great noise or not, 
 I do not know. But he kept on preaching the Gospel here for 
 nearly fifty years. In the letter book of the Society for the 
 Propagation of the Gospel is another letter from Philadelphia, 
 written in February, 1702, saying, "They have here a Presby- 
 terian meeting and minister, one called Andrews, but they are 
 not like to increase here." Another unfulfilled prophecy. And 
 Talbot writes in September, 17CKJ, to the secretary of this same 
 society, "The Presbyterians have come a great way to lay hands 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 55 
 
 one on another ; but, after all, I think they had as good stay at 
 home for the good they do." 
 
 These writers evidently had not taken the true measure of 
 Presbyterian grace and grit. When this church was organized, 
 it was the day of small things for American Presbyterianism. 
 The 18th century opened with only one Presbyterian minister in 
 the entire Colony of Pennsylvania. But the mere handful of 
 corn that represented Presbyterian planting in those early days, 
 grew and grew, until "the fruit thereof" has "shaken like 
 Lebanon." In 1706 the first American Classical Presbytery was 
 organized — The Presbytery of Philadelphia. By 1716 the Pres- 
 bytery had grown so large, and covered so wide an area, that it 
 was divided into three Presbyteries, forming a Synod, which first 
 met the next year. Toward the close of the last century the 
 American Presbyterian Church had reached such proportions, 
 that it was impossible for even a majority of the ministers to 
 come together in the annual Synod. Some kind of representa- 
 tion was rendered necessary. This led, in 1788, to the organ- 
 ization of the General Assembly, with four Synods and sixteen 
 Presbyteries, and the first General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
 Church of the United States of America met in this city in 1789. 
 
 Thus the American Presbyterian Church came to its full or- 
 ganic form, commensurate at last with the needs of a continent, 
 and with all the possibilities of development and enlargement of 
 the new nation that had just been born in the fires of Revolution. 
 
 In 1786 the Synod ordered the preparation of " a book of dis- 
 cipline and government . . . accommodated to the state of the 
 Presbyterian Church in America." This was placed in the 
 hands of a committee, of which Dr. Witherspoon was chairman. 
 It is a striking and memorable coincidence that while in this 
 very city the Synod of the Presbyterian Church, in 1787, was 
 discussing and amending the report of Witherspoon and his as- 
 sociates, and seeking the best possible embodiment of Presby- 
 terianism as an organized, representative and constitutional gov- 
 ernment, the Constitutional Convention was also at. the same 
 time, in this same city, debating and determining the best form 
 
56 Bi-centennkd Celebration of the 
 
 of government for the new nation. Through those preceding 
 revolutionary years discussion had been at white heat. It was 
 Monarch and Prelate against Puritan and Presbyter. While the 
 Joshuas came across the sea for liberty of conscience, intolerance, 
 as a kind of demoniac possession or devil incarnate, came also. 
 Makemie was arrested and imprisoned unlawfully on the charge 
 of preaching without a license. Dissent was accounted as ob- 
 noxious here as in England. Men became exiles from their 
 native land because of persecution and oppression, only to find 
 the yoke of intolerance fastened to their necks this side of the 
 sea. The Westminster divines, one hundred and fifty years be- 
 fore, were set to the long task of determining what God's word 
 authorized as doctrine and government for Christ's kingdom on 
 earth. The issues of that historic assembly made it forever clear 
 that the Presbyterian Church was to stand for a certain system 
 of doctrine and a certain form of government. And in that 
 Assembly, made up of Presbyterians, Independents and Eras- 
 tians, one of the battles of the giants, that raged the longest and 
 that was fought the most vehemently, was on the Form of Gov- 
 ernment that Christ the King had given his Church. They de- 
 clared for a government by elders, as representatives of the 
 people. They found it facing them on almost every page of 
 New Testament history. Indeed, they lifted it up to such con- 
 spicuity, and so interlaced and interlocked it in a system of 
 graded courts, that some of their enemies charged that " Presby- 
 ter" was only " Priest writ large." But not a shred of Prelacy 
 or Papacy can be found in the garments these Presbyterian weav- 
 ers wove. Their doctrine of the universal priesthood of believ- 
 ers left no room for Pope or Prelate. 
 
 But intrepid and lion-hearted as those Westminsters were, 
 they still stood in the shadow of Caesar. And though defending 
 the crown rights of their King, they did not come to the full in- 
 heritance of Christ's freemen. For they suffered an appeal from 
 the courts of Christ to Ca?sar, and thus recognized, in matters 
 that were, purely ecclesiastical and spiritual, the power of the 
 civil magistrate. 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 57 
 
 When, however, our American Presbyterian Fathers, a hun- 
 dred and fifty years after, met to form " a government accommo- 
 dated to the state of the Presbyterian Church in America," they 
 had been utterly cured of this plague of Csesarism. Led by 
 Witherspoon, whose blood still tingled with the thrill of the 
 hour when he signed the Declaration of Independence, they took 
 the Confession of Faith in hand, here in this city, in 1787, and 
 without any scrupulosities of reverence for it as a venerable sym- 
 bol, and in absolute indifference to possibilities of patchwork, 
 stripped it of every vestige of Erastianism, and ordered a thou- 
 sand copies of the plan, as thus amended, printed for distribution 
 among the Presbyteries, " for their consideration, and the consid- 
 eration of the churches under their care." In the next Synod, 
 1788, after further amendment and full discussion, the whole 
 plan was finally adopted as " The Constitution of the Presby- 
 terian Church in the United States of America." 
 
 Thus the government of the Presbyterian Church was made 
 consistent in its entire and absolute separation of Church and 
 State. The completed work became a bulwark of Christian 
 liberty, and it stands to-day four square to all the winds of 
 Csesarism and the Papacy. 
 
 But these Presbyterian Fathers did more than this. They 
 made a luminous and comprehensive statement of "the general 
 principles" by which they had been governed in the formation 
 of the plan. These principles are basilar and structural ; they 
 enter vitally into our form of government and discipline. They 
 are at once its foundation and its vindication. For the clearness 
 and comprehensiveness of this declaration of principles, for its 
 balance and poise, for its grasp of fundamentals, for its truths 
 whose very statement, when once understood, makes them seem 
 almost axiomatic, for its safe-guarding of sacred rights, for its 
 just limitations put about liberty to keep liberty from license, 
 and for its equally just limitations put about power to keep 
 power from tyranny, — for all this, and also for the lofty spirit- 
 ual tone and the calm judicial temper pervading it, I know 
 nothing to match it, of its kind and within the same compass, in 
 
58 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 all literature. It has been too much hidden under a bushel. 
 In a ministry of forty years I have never once heard it publicly 
 referred to. In the histories I have consulted it is passed by 
 with the barest mention. It is my desire on this signal anni- 
 versary occasion, in the time still left me, to make it as a city 
 set on a hill, that it may give light to those who are yet in dark- 
 ness as to Presbyterian government and discipline, and that it 
 may more wisely do what its authors hoped it would when they 
 gave it to the world — viz., " prevent those rash misconceptions 
 and uncandid reflections which usually proceed from an imper- 
 fect view of any subject." 
 
 These fathers of American Presbyterianism were " unan- 
 imously of opinion " — 
 
 First. " That God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath 
 left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which 
 are in anything contrary to his word, or beside it in matters 
 of faith or worship." 
 
 This supreme assertion of freedom of conscience is taken from 
 the bosom of the Confession of Faith, where it had been placed 
 by the Westminster divines when they wrought out the doc- 
 trinal standards in the famous Assembly of 1643. Our Amer- 
 ican Presbyterian fathers copied it from the Confession and lifted 
 it to the foremost place in the Form of Government, where it 
 leads the brilliant galaxy of principles for which many have 
 died and millions more have been willing to die. It is our im- 
 mortal Presbyterian Declaration of Independence. It matches 
 and surpasses Thomas Jefferson's world-famous manifesto, that 
 "all men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator 
 with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, 
 and the pursuit of happiness." Let me repeat this first prin- 
 ciple of Presbyterian government : " God alone is Lord of the 
 conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and com- 
 mandments of men which are in anything contrary to his word, 
 or beside it in matters of faith or worship." To this the fathers 
 added in this same first section the following irresistible sequitur : 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 59 
 
 "Therefore they consider the rights of private judgment in all 
 matters that respect religion as universal and inalienable. They 
 do not ever wish to see any religious constitution aided by the 
 civil power further than may be necessary for protection and 
 security, and at the same time be equal and common to all 
 others." 
 
 True to this declaration, they swept everything out of the 
 Confession that looked at all like union of Church and State. 
 And they made clean work of it. Not a vestige of the union 
 of Christ and Caesar was left. No king but Christ. No vicar 
 of Christ, usurping lordship. A conscience free from all com- 
 mandments of men that are not commandments of God. The 
 right of private judgment in matters of religion inalienable ; 
 nay, more : no alliance with the State whatsoever ; no aid to any 
 religious constitution by the civil power, save in the protection 
 of rights common to all ; that is to say, no public money for 
 sectarian use. 
 
 These are the ringing words by which the Presbyterian 
 Church irrevocably commits herself to the crown rights of her 
 Lord and King. The principle is held by other evangelical 
 faiths. But it has been given a rare historical setting by Pres- 
 byterians ; notably when the Free Church of Scotland, in 1843, 
 left her earthly all rather than bow to the behest of civil magis- 
 tracy, and her four hundred ministers turned their backs upon 
 manses and glebes and benefices, and boldly walked forth to be 
 God's freemen ; and notably again when the American Presby- 
 terian Church placed this principle first and chief of all in the 
 charter of her God-given rights — set it as the crown jewel in her 
 diadem of Christian loyalty and liberty. 
 
 I need hardly say to you that there are portents of a coming 
 time when we and other faiths of God's free hosts may be 
 obliged to stand for this principle as with faces of steel and 
 consciences incarnate against a wily, grasping ecclesiasticism 
 whose history js black with the record of her usurpation of 
 powers that belong to our Lord and King alone. 
 
 I pass now to a consideration of the second principle affirmed 
 
60 Bi-eentenniaJ Celebration of the 
 
 by the fathers in the first chapter of our Form of Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 They are unanimously of opinion — 
 
 Second. "That, in perfect consistency with the above principle 
 of common right, every Christian church or union or association 
 of particular churches is entitled to declare the terms of admis- 
 sion into its communion and the qualifications of its ministers 
 and members." 
 
 This statement seems almost axiomatic. It is the common 
 law of organization. Safeguarded interests are impossible with- 
 out it. The bride of Christ must keep her robe unsoiled. She 
 has a God-given stewardship. Shall anybody be admitted to 
 her communion ? Shall she put her imprimatur on every veriest 
 tramp that claims to be commissioned of heaven to preach the 
 Gospel ? How could she keep her peace, or care for that which 
 Christ had committed to her, if she flung her gates and her pulpit 
 wide open and let the whole motley world in to her communion 
 and her ambassadorship without condition and without limita- 
 tion ? If terms of church and ministerial fellowship are to be 
 made at all, who shall make them and determine their nature 
 and spirit if not the Church herself, in the light and under the 
 law of that Word which Christ has given her ? It is true that, 
 in the exercise of this right, any particular church or association 
 of churches may err "in making the terms of communion either 
 too lax or too narrow." But even in this ease, said these Pres- 
 byterian fathers, " they do not infringe upon the liberty or rights 
 of others, but only make an improper use of their own." 
 
 Now what are the terms of communion imposed by the Pres- 
 byterian Church? Looking into the New Testament record of 
 the early church, she found only one condition of church mem- 
 bership, viz., belief in the Lord Jesus Christ as a Saviour ; and 
 that, and that only, she has placed at the door of her com- 
 munion. She demands no assent to an extended creed. She 
 presses no question about a system of doctrine. She seeks to 
 know simply whether the applicant for admission to her fold is 
 a Christian — a loving, obedient disciple of Jesus Christ. If he 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 61 
 
 be that, he is welcome to all the privileges of her church mem- 
 bership. Any true child of God, of whatever name or creed, 
 may come knocking at the door of the Presbyterian Church ask- 
 ing " What doth hinder me to be baptized ?" and the swift 
 answer shall be, " If thou believest with all thy heart, thou 
 mayest." He may have imperfect views of Christ ; he may 
 stumble at the Trinity ; he may have doubts about the mode of 
 baptism; he maybe an Arminian as to the decree, or a Pela- 
 gian as to the human will, or a Lutheran as to the Lord's 
 Supper, or a Sabellian, a Swedenborgian, a Congregationalist, 
 a Prelatist. No matter. Has he the spirit of Christ, and does 
 he believe there is none other name given under heaven among 
 men whereby he can be saved ? Then the Presbyterian Church 
 says his place is within Christ's visible fold, and without a ques- 
 tion as to his orthodoxy in any other regard she opens wide her 
 door to welcome him. And her ground and warrant for this is 
 that, according to the Scriptures, there should be no conditions 
 of church membership which are not conditions of salvation. 
 Surely the Church should receive to her fold anybody that she 
 has reason to believe Christ would receive to his. What pos- 
 sible right have we to make it harder to get into the Church 
 than it is to get into heaven '? 
 
 This is no new, no individual opinion — outside judgment to 
 the contrary notwithstanding. It is the historic position of the 
 American Presbyterian Church. In the Adopting Act of 1729 
 — more than one hundred and fifty years ago — when the ques- 
 tion of subscription to the doctrinal standards was up for settle- 
 ment, while the Synod claimed the right and avowed the neces- 
 sity of demanding of its ministers an assent to all the essential 
 and necessary articles of the Confession of Faith, it made this 
 distinct avowal concerning all applicants for admission to church 
 membership, viz. : " We are willing to admit to fellow ship in sacred 
 ordinances all such as we have ground to believe Christ will at last 
 admit to the kingdom of heaven." 
 
 Thus we build no wall about our communion that Christ hath 
 not built. Our banner is inscribed with " Whosoever believeth, 
 
62 Bi-eentennial Celebration of the 
 
 let him come." We bar out no Christian because of his intel- 
 lectual doctrinal conviction. Instead, therefore, of our being; 
 bigoted and narrow, as is often charged, binding a rigid creed 
 on the brow of every believer as a condition of church member- 
 ship, there is scarcely so broad and free a communion in all the 
 ranks of evangelical Christendom. 
 
 But still further did the Presbyterian fathers lay down the 
 principles of church government. 
 
 They are unanimously of opinion — 
 
 Third. "That our blessed Saviour, for the edification of the 
 visible Church, which is his body, hath appointed officers not 
 only to preach the Gospel and administer the sacraments, but 
 also to exercise discipline for the preservation both of truth and 
 duty." 
 
 They agree with the Westminster divines of a century and a 
 half before them that " The Lord Jesus, as King and Head of 
 his Church, hath herein appointed a government in the hand of 
 church officers distinct from the civil magistrate." 
 
 On the ground of antecedent probability they would reach 
 this conclusion. The government of God's Church would seem 
 to be too vital a thing — of too vast concern and covering too 
 many interests — to be left to the varying caprice and prejudice 
 of even regenerated Christian men. Christ came to establish a 
 kingdom ; but a kingdom implies government, and a govern- 
 ment without a form of government is impossible. Christ 
 surely did not set up a kingdom only to leave it with no regu- 
 lative principles and no offices of rule, without order and with- 
 out law. This would be to leave it a mob. 
 
 But these men were not content to rest so important a matter 
 on the mere warrant of antecedent probability, so they searched 
 the New Testament Scriptures to ascertain the kind of govern- 
 ment Christ left his Church. They found clear record of the 
 following facts : That there were authorized rulers in the early 
 Church ; that these rulers were elders ; that elders and bishops 
 were identical, the titles being used interchangeably ; and that 
 there was a plurality of these elders or bishops in every church. 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 63 
 
 And they came with overwhelming and unanimous conviction 
 to the conclusion that the government of the New Testament church 
 was a government by elders. 
 
 The record is unmistakable. He who runs may read. The 
 persons we meet oftenest in the inspired account of early church 
 organization and activity are the elders. They come into view 
 everywhere. There were elders in the church at Jerusalem 
 (Acts 15 : 11); elders in the church at Ephesus (Acts 20 : 1); 
 elders in the church of the Dispersion (1 Peter 5:1); Paul and 
 Barnabas, on returning from their first missionary tour, " ap- 
 pointed elders in every church" (Acts 14 : 23) ; Titus, in Crete, 
 "appointed elders in every city." What were the duties of 
 these elders? Just what they are now in the Presbyterian 
 Church. They were rulers — officers of government. Paul, in 
 his letter to Timothy, charged that the elders that rule well be 
 counted worthy of double honor. (1 Timothy 5 : 17.) In his 
 letter to the church at Rome, while speaking of different gifts 
 in the church, he says : " He that ruleth " let him rule " with 
 diligence." (Rom. 12:8.) In his letter to the Thessalonian 
 church he speaks of those that were "set over them in the 
 Lord." (Thes. 5 : 12.) In his talk with the elders of the 
 church at Ephesus he says : " Take heed to all the flock, in 
 the which the Holy Ghost hath made ' you bishops." (Acts 
 20 : 28.) In the letter to the Hebrews, Christians are bidden 
 to "remember," and "obey" and "submit to" those in the 
 church who "had the rule over them." (Heb. 13 : 7-17.) But 
 ruling was not all. They were to " watch in behalf of souls." 
 (Heb. 7:17.) They were to " speak the word of God." (Heb. 
 7 : 17.) Paul bids the elders of Ephesus "feed the church of 
 God." (Acts 20 : 28.) Peter exhorts the elders to " tend the 
 flock of God, exercising the office of a bishop." James tells the 
 Christians of the dispersion, " Is any sick among you, let him 
 send for the elders of the church." And Paul, in his letter to 
 Timothy, commends especially those of the elders who " labor 
 in the Word and in teaching." 
 
 This is the New Testament doctrine of the eldership. These 
 
64 Bi-centennkd Celebration of the 
 
 following things lie on the very surface of Scripture, viz. : There 
 was a plurality of elders in every church, even in the small mis- 
 sion churches; these elders all ruled; they were officers of gov- 
 ernment; they watched over the flock of God ; they exercised 
 the functions of a bishop ; and some of them, at least, not only 
 ruled but preached the Gospel — " labored in the Word and in 
 teaching." Surely our Presbyterian fathers had a right to say 
 " The Lord Jesus, as King and Head of his Church, hath 
 therein appointed a government in the hands of church officers." 
 And for naming these officers " elders " they had a " thus saith 
 the Lord." 
 
 But still further, in laying down the fundamental principles 
 of church government these Presbyterian fathers are unani- 
 mously of opinion — 
 
 Fourth. "That truth is in order to goodness, and the great 
 touchstone of truth its tendency to promote holiness, accord- 
 ing to our Saviour's rule, ' by their fruits ye shall know 
 them.' And that no opinion can be either more pernicious or 
 more absurd than that which brings truth and falsehood upon 
 a level and represents it as of no consequence what a man's 
 opinions are. On the contrary, they are persuaded that there 
 is an inseparable connection between faith and practice, truth 
 and duty. Otherwise it would be of no consequence either to 
 discover truth or to embrace it." 
 
 This admirable principle never had better expression. The 
 Church of God is put in trust of God's truth. But what profit 
 is it that we keep his truth if it is of no consequence what a 
 man's opinions are, and there be no inseparable connection be- 
 tween faith and life? Paul's terrific arraignment of men was 
 that they had " exchanged the truth of God for a lie." The 
 consequence of that exchange was that they became " vain in 
 their reasonings," and their senseless heart was darkened. Of 
 course all truth is not in order to goodness. The truth of the 
 Copernican theory of the universe, or of the circulation of the 
 blood, or of the correlation and conservation of force, or of a 
 
THE BARBADOES STORE, IN WHICH THE FIRST 
 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH FIRST MET, 1698. 
 
 >^.^^«w-:^r 
 
 ""'**» 
 
 OLD BUTTONW00O 
 
 ERECTED IN 1704 ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF MARKET STREET, 
 
 CORNER OF WHITE HORSE ALLEY, NOW BANK 
 
 STREET. IT WAS REBUILT IN 1794. 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 65 
 
 problem in mathematics, may be accepted or denied without 
 making a man the better or the worse. But this is not the 
 kind of truth these men of God 'were talking about when they 
 were laying down the fundamental principles of church govern- 
 ment. They meant the truth of revelation ; the truth of God's 
 word ; the truth that vitally touches life, and harnesses itself to 
 the human will and goes down into character. It was with this 
 clear limitation that they said " Truth is in order to goodness, 
 and the great touchstone of truth its tendency to promote holi- 
 ness." 
 
 The principle needs no proof. Its statement is its demonstra- 
 tion. Under the conviction of this principle they are unani- 
 mously of opinion — 
 
 Fifth. " That it is necessary to make effectual provision that 
 all ivho are admitted as teachers be sound in the faith" 
 
 Here we see a marked and important difference between terms 
 of admission to the Church and terms of admission to office in 
 the Church. Ready as our Presbyterian fathers were to receive 
 into church membership any and all whom they had reason to 
 believe Christ would admit to heaven, they nevertheless thought 
 it necessary to make effectual provision that the officers of the 
 Church, to whom is intrusted the teaching and preaching of the 
 Word, be sound in the faith. The reason for this necessity is 
 not far to seek. The Presbyterian Church stands for a certain 
 system of doctrine and a certain form of government. She be- 
 lieves God's word teaches that system of doctrine and authorizes 
 that form of government ; she believes that these are nearer the 
 mind of God as revealed in the Word than are the systems of 
 doctrine and governmental forms of other evangelical faiths; 
 and she believes the differences are so important, and affect 
 Christian character and church efficiency so vitally, as not only 
 to justify her separate and continued existence as a branch of the 
 Church of Christ, but also to bring her to the maintenance of her 
 faith with a mighty constraint of conscience. 
 
 This is her reason for being — the only ground of her separate 
 
66 Bi-eentennial Celebration of the 
 
 existence. If she has nothing distinctive in faith and govern- 
 ment which she thinks her Lord has put her in trust of, she is 
 guilty of schism, of dividing Christ's body without cause, and 
 she ought not to maintain her separate organization — no ! not 
 for an hour. 
 
 But her martyrs have not died for nothing. She has not 
 fought with the wild beasts of tyranny and intolerance with no 
 stay and courage from her great truths. She has not grown 
 oaks without congenial soil. She has gone through two and a 
 half centuries thinking, in her heart of hearts, she saw in Holy 
 Scripture some doctrines of sin and grace and some principles of 
 government that needed to be embodied in a system if all God's 
 truth were to be told and used in making Christ's kingdom 
 come. So she wrought out her Confession of Faith and her 
 Form of Government and published them to the world. Who 
 shall question her right to do this? Nay, who shall challenge 
 her duty to do it? And, conceding her right to confess her 
 faith, who shall challenge her right to guard and keep it? And 
 by what better way can she keep it than by " making effectual 
 provision that all who are admitted as teachers must be sound 
 in that faith " ? 
 
 Clearly wolves must not be given the liberty of -the flocks of 
 God. Pulpits must not be open to false teachers, privily bring- 
 ing in sects of perdition, denying even the Lord that bought 
 them. This goes without saying. But more goes with it that 
 needs to be said, and said with emphasis. When men come to 
 the Presbyterian Church seeking the solemn sanction of ordina- 
 tion to her offices or of admission to her ministry, she surely has 
 a right to know their attitude towards her doctrine and govern- 
 ment. Her doctrine is embodied in her published Confession 
 of Faith. 
 
 So one of the questions to be asked of all men before they can 
 be enrolled as office-bearers in the Presbyterian Church, and 
 accredited as her duly authorized official teachers and preachers, 
 is this : 
 
 " Do you sincerely receive and adopt the Confession of Faith 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 67 
 
 of this church as containing the system of doctrine taught in the 
 Scriptures?" 
 
 The Confession of Faith is the doctrine of the word of God as 
 interpreted by the Presbyterian Church. She has embodied it 
 in a system. She believes this system is taught in the Holy 
 Scripture. She asks for no ipsissima verba subscription. Many 
 specific detailed statements might be doubted, or denied, without 
 affecting the integrity of the system. But three historic phases 
 of belief are unchallengeably included in this Presbyterian Con- 
 fession of Faith. First, the evangelical system, common to all 
 evangelical churches of whatsoever name and embracing the 
 doctrines essential to salvation. The extremest advocate of liberty 
 of subscription would not for one moment contend that any true 
 church of Jesus Christ could demand less than this. Neither 
 the Presbyterian Church, nor any other Christian church, could 
 ordain to her ministry an atheist or an infidel without denying 
 the Lord that bought her. 
 
 But the system of doctrine in the Presbyterian Confession em- 
 braces also the Protestant system as opposed to the Roman 
 Catholic. And neither here can there be any doubt as to the 
 right of the Presbyterian, or any other Protestant church, to de- 
 mand as a condition of entering her ministry an acceptance and 
 adoption of the Protestant system as contained in her Confession 
 of Faith. Not without treachery to the one sole Head of the 
 Church could she ordain a man to her ministry who leaned to 
 altars and crucifixes and the worship of the Virgin, and the 
 real presence, aud the infallibility of the sovereign Pontiff. 
 
 But still another system of doctrine is in the Presbyterian Con- 
 fession of Faith. It is commonly known as the Reformed or Cal- 
 vinistic system. This system, first of all, exalts God, places him on 
 his eternal throne, in active, undivided, unconditioned sovereign- 
 ty. It humbles man as a sinner and smites him with a sense of 
 spiritual impotence. But it glorifies him in Christ as a believer, 
 to which glory it declares him chosen of God in Christ Jesus be- 
 fore the foundation of the world, and effectually called in the 
 fullness of time, and the eternal realization of which has been 
 
68 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 made forever sure to him; so that, once in Christ, he is always in 
 Christ, and can never perish. 
 
 It is this system, as well as the common evangelical system 
 and the common Protestant system, Presbyterianism has em- 
 bodied in her Confession of Faith; and it is this, as well as the 
 other two, which she, in her exercise of government, demands 
 assent to, and adoption of, before any one can enter her ministry. 
 Has she a right to place this condition at the door of entrance to 
 her official stewardship of the mysteries of God ? 
 
 We might better ask, Has she a right to do otherwise ? Can 
 she do otherwise without betraying her trust '? This Calvinistic 
 system of doctrine is her peculiar testimony. This and her Form 
 of Government are the justification of her existence. To witness 
 to this strong doctrine of God and sin and salvation . she was 
 especially set. She believes that the system, in all its essential 
 and necessary parts, is in Holy Scriptures, a sacred and import- 
 ant part of the trust of truth God has committed to his Church. 
 Belief in it has helped her make two and a half centuries of no 
 mean history. In this soil of doctrine and in this air of liberty 
 she has grown her oaks. It is no wonder she loves and keeps 
 her faith. 
 
 Suppose now an applicant appears for admission to her minis- 
 try, who is manifestly a true believer, accepting the Scriptures as 
 the word of God, and bowing in joyful obedience to Jesus Christ 
 as his Saviour and Lord. He is asked the usual question : "Do 
 you receive and adopt the Confession of Faith of this church as 
 containing the system of doctrine taught in the Scriptures?" 
 
 He answers, " I receive and adopt the Confession as containing 
 the evangelical and the Protestant system of doctrine, but I can- 
 not adopt its Calvinistic system, for I do not find it in the Scrip- 
 tures." 
 
 Clearly this is no case of a man challenging the crown rights 
 of Christ. Instead, he joyfully crowns him Lord of all. This 
 is no case of a false teacher, bringing in damnable heresies and 
 denying the Lord that bought him. He will preach no word 
 that will drown men in destruction and perdition ; for he be- 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 69 
 
 lieves with his whole heart in all the doctrines of the Gospel 
 essential to salvation. But he does not believe in the Calvinistic 
 system of theology. In other words, he is not a Presbyterian ;, 
 for the Presbyterian Olmrch does believe in the Calvinistic sys- 
 tem. It has the indorsement of her scholarship, her conscience 
 and her heart, as God's own truth to which she owes much of 
 her iron nerve and rootedness, preferring- rather, in the strength 
 of her high thought of God, "to be ground to powder like flint 
 than to bend before violence." Yet she is to receive this man, 
 though he does not and will not receive the truth she holds as 
 her peculiar heritage. She is to enroll him in her ministerial 
 ranks, and he is henceforth to. preach in her pulpits, be installed 
 over her churches, minister at her altars, and feed her lambs. In 
 God's name, she cannot do this inconsistent thing. It would be 
 a label that told a lie, a house divided against itself, a suicide 
 by self-contradiction. 
 
 But in thus taking care that her faith be kept, she is doing 
 neither the one nor the other of two things with which she is 
 often charged in this matter of safe-guarding her ministry. She 
 thereby imposes no faith on other men's consciences. She simply 
 stands for her own Confession. And she thereby casts no reflection 
 on the applicant she declines to receive. She simply recognizes 
 the fact, as our Presbyterian lathers declare in this same section 
 of fundamental principles, that "there are truths and forms with 
 respect to which men of good characters and principles may 
 differ." Thus she blends a broad Christian charity with tena- 
 cious doctrinal conviction. She knows that a great proportion 
 of Christendom, endowed with learning, and rich with men of 
 keen intellects and consecrated hearts, whose reverent study of 
 God's word, and whose enthusiastic devotion to Christ, it would 
 be folly to question, do not find the Calvinistic system in the 
 word of God, and do not believe it is the word of God. In other 
 words, perhaps the majority of those who love Christ, obey his 
 will, fight his battles, and hope for heaven only through his 
 cross, do not believe as we do, who stand for Presbyterian gov- 
 ernment and Presbyterian doctrine. This should make us, not 
 
70 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 less inflexibly loyal to our faith, but charitable in judgment, and 
 not swift to deny that those whose walk with God we dare not 
 question, yet who do not look out of our theological eyes, may 
 have as much of heaven's light on their Bibles as falls on ours. 
 
 But I must pass to speak of another principle set in this first 
 chapter of our Form of Government by the Presbyterian fathers. 
 They are unanimously of opinion — 
 
 Sixth. "That though the character, qualifications and authority 
 of church officers are laid down in the Holy Scriptures, yet the 
 election of the persons to the exercise of this authority, in any 
 particular society, is in that society.'''' 
 
 They thus declare for the right of suffrage, assert the autonomy 
 of each individual church, and make the government of the 
 church representative. And thus a cardinal feature of Presby- 
 terian church government gets its complete expression — viz., a 
 government under a written constitution and administered by 
 elders as representatives of the people. It is neither autocracy nor 
 democracy. It has neither hierarchy nor oligarchy. Its elders 
 are taken from among the people, are chosen by the people, and 
 they rule in the interest of the people. It is therefore, in the 
 highest and best sense, a government "of the people, by the peo- 
 ple and for the people." 
 
 Presbyterians believe that all power in the church is vested in 
 the people. They hold that the people have a right to a substan- 
 tive part in the determination of all questions of doctrine, dis- 
 cipline, order and worship. Christ, the King and Head of his 
 Church, has vested power of government in his Church. Who 
 are his church? Bishops, Prelates, Elders? No. The univer- 
 sal priesthood of believers — the whole body of believers in Christ 
 Jesus. These are the Church. Hence, power is vested in them. 
 The Holy Spirit is the source of all power. And the Holy 
 Spirit is given, not to the apostles alone, not to their so-called 
 successors alone, nor to any church officers alone, but to the en- 
 tire Church. The Presbyterian Church, therefore, stands for 
 (•lection of officers by the people, and her suffrage is as wide as 
 her communion. Whoever has a right to the Lord's table, man, 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 71 
 
 woman or child, has a voice in the government of the church. 
 Woman suffrage and minor suffrage, as well as manhood suffrage, 
 are her usage and her law. Hence there is no government on 
 earth, of Church or State, more fully and completely representa- 
 tive. 
 
 Church power relates to three things : First, to matters of doc- 
 trine. The Church must interpret God's law and frame her 
 creed as based on that law. Second, to matters of government. 
 She must determine, in the light of God's Word, her own form 
 of government. Third, to matters of worship. She must de- 
 termine, subject to the written Word, the rules for the ordering 
 of worship. Now, if church power covers this wide field, and 
 all power vests in the people, then back to the people at last 
 must come every question of doctrine and government and wor- 
 ship. So the Presbyterian Church believes. Every member of 
 her communion votes. These votes elect the elders; these elders 
 rule. We freely move in the grooves of law, for we make the 
 grooves. If we do not like them, we need not break them ; we 
 can change them. Process is provided for every desired change 
 in doctrine, discipline or order. The process is slow and long 
 and guarded, as it ought to be. Changes in any constitution, 
 but especially in the constitution of the Church of God, should 
 not be made in a spasm. But they can be had, and by the 
 people, if the people will. 
 
 I pass now to the seventh and last of the underlying prin- 
 ciples framed by the fathers and set in this marvellous first 
 chapter of our Form of Government. 
 
 They are unanimously of opinion — 
 
 Seventh. "That all church power, whether exercised by the 
 body in general or . . . by delegated authority, is only minis- 
 terial and declarative; that is to say that the Holy Scriptures 
 are the only rule of faith and manners ; that no church judica- 
 tory ought to pretend to make laws to bind the conscience, in 
 virtue of their own authority ; and that all their decisions should 
 be founded upon the revealed will of God." 
 
72 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 Thus we are reminded that, in the last resolve, the constitu- 
 tion of the Presbyterian Church is the inspired and infallible 
 Word of God. The final question with every Presbyterian con- 
 science is, What saith the Scriptures? "Synods and Councils 
 may err," frankly say these men of God. Human standards, 
 even as interpretations of Holy Scriptures, are fallible. The 
 Presbyterian Church does not claim that she has any authori- 
 tative court of Christ, of which it can be said " When it speaks, 
 God speaks." We call the standards of doctrine and govern- 
 ment and worship the Constitution of our Church. And so 
 they are, but only in a modified sense. They are the subordi- 
 nate standards. The court of final appeal is the Word of God. 
 " The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for 
 his own glory and man's salvation, faith and life is either ex- 
 pressly set down in Scripture or by good and necessary conse- 
 quence may be deduced from Scripture ; unto which nothing at 
 any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the 
 Spirit or tradition of men." 
 
 We reach now the last section of this matchless chapter. It 
 is the beautiful, magnificent and irresistible corollary from the 
 seven preceding scriptural and rational principles. 
 
 The Presbyterian Church in the United States of America are 
 unanimously of the opinion — 
 
 Eighth. " That if the preceding scriptural and rational prin- 
 ciples be steadfastly adhered to, the vigor and strictness of its 
 discipline will contribute to the glory and happiness of any 
 church," 
 
 And here follows the closing sentence, that should be written 
 in letters of golden light over the door of every judicatory of our 
 beloved Zion : 
 
 " Since ecclesiastical discipline must be purely moral or spir- 
 itual in its object, and not attended with any civil effects, it can 
 derive no force whatever but from its own justice, the approbation 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 73 
 
 of an impartial public, and the countenance and blessing of the 
 great Head of the Church universal." 
 
 Bare majorities would never have passed extreme measures in 
 our Church, the knife of discipline would never have cut clean 
 through the whole quivering body of our Church, and the bit- 
 terness of strife would often have been drowned in a deluge of 
 patience and good will, if the spirit breathed in these words had 
 always dominated in our Presbyteries and Synods and General 
 Assemblies. 
 
 And this does not mean a boneless, pulpy, flabby theology. 
 Much less does it mean a peace purchased at the price of any 
 truth of God. It means a spirit that can keep the balance 
 amidst the profoundest agitation of great debate ; that will at 
 any cost hear the other side, and all of it; that will believe the 
 positive statements and frank disclaimers of a brother in Christ 
 rather than even its own fallible inferences ; that has learned 
 something from the old battles with which the bride of Christ 
 has been torn and rent, the issues of those fierce strifes often 
 having proved that they were mainly wars of words. Would 
 to God that across our seven-jeweled crown of church govern- 
 ment — placed here by the fathers over the very threshold of our 
 palace of law — would that across this seven-jeweled crown of 
 government might be set in immortal brilliants, to be known 
 and read of all the Presbyterian host, this ever-memorable truth : 
 " Ecclesiastical discipline can derive no force tvhatever but from 
 its own justice, the approbation of an impartial public, and the 
 countenance and blessing of the great Head of the Church uni- 
 verscd. ,, 
 
 I have thus passed in review the seven great principles that 
 enter vitally into the structure of Presbyterian polity. I have 
 called them the seven jewels in our crown of government. They 
 might well be named our seven great bulwarks — bulwarks alike 
 of liberty and of law. 
 
 With these we face the foe, and in the name of the omnipo- 
 tent Jehovah fling down our challenge to the world, the flesh 
 
74 Bi-eentennial Celebration of the 
 
 and the devil. We blaze their names upon our battle-scarred 
 banner and joyfully bear them aloft before our bannered host : 
 Christ's lordship of conscience ; wide-open communion ; heaven- 
 ordained officers ; inseparableness of truth and duty ; guardian- 
 ship of truth ; universal suffrage; and Holy Scriptures the last 
 appeal. These are indeed bulwarks of liberty and bulwarks of law. 
 
 How they stand for liberty : They declare for the inalienable 
 rights of private judgment, and enthrone the conscience as free 
 from the doctrine and commandments of men and to be bound 
 by no man-made laws that are not also the laws of God. They 
 swing wide open the door of church communion, and, like 
 heaven's door, whosoever believeth may go in thereat. They 
 unchurch no Christian. They shut no one out of God's ban- 
 queting house who loves Jesus Christ. They put a ballot in 
 every hand that takes the bread and wine of communion, and 
 the ballot may be cast by man, woman or child in the fear of 
 God for the government of the Church. 
 
 But this large liberty is no license. See how these bulwarks 
 stand for law. They declare for officers of rule and instruction 
 authorized by Christ, the King, " for the preservation in both 
 of truth and duty," to preach his word, administer his sacra- 
 ments, and shield his flock. 
 
 They brand as pernicious and absurd the opinion that de- 
 grades truth to a level with falsehood by making it of no conse- 
 quence what a man's opinions are. 
 
 And giving truth its regnant, transcendent place in God's 
 kingdom, they safeguard truth by providing that all teachers of 
 truth shall be sound in the faith. 
 
 And, above all, they enthrone Christ not only as the Lord of 
 the conscience, but King of his Church and Lord of all ; upon 
 whose shoulder government is ; whose name is the mighty God, 
 the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, of the increase of 
 whose government and peace there shall be no end ; King of 
 Kings and Lord of Lords, who is far above all principality and 
 power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, 
 not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 75 
 
 Prophet, Priest and King, Saviour and Head of his Church, 
 containing in himself by way of eminency all the offices of 
 his Church. How could there be lawless license under such 
 acknowledged Kingship, with the Word of God as infallible rule 
 and officers of Christ bound by ordination vows to keep and 
 guard the published faith as containing the system of doctrine 
 taught in Holy Scripture? 
 
 Law and liberty, therefore, hold their balanced and co-ordinate 
 place in the government of our Church. We have " superiority 
 without tyranny," " parity without confusion," " subjection with- 
 out slavery." We voice the unity of the Church in our graded 
 assemblies of elders, but neither in Session nor Presbytery, nor 
 Synod nor General Assembly, does any officer come to pre- 
 eminence of power or jurisdiction. 
 
 Such a Church must needs have stood for civil, as well as 
 religious, liberty. Who that reads can doubt it? History is 
 ablaze with the record of Presbyterian fidelities in the battles 
 against oppression. Look at the little republic of Geneva, a 
 town that shot more light of civil liberty into surrounding dark- 
 ness than all other municipalities of the world combined. Call 
 the roll of Huguenots, Covenanters, Puritans, Pilgrims. Where 
 stood our Presbyterian fathers who founded and adopted the 
 principles we have been discussing here to-day? Almost to a 
 man they were for independence. Witherspoon would rather go 
 to the grave by the hand of the executioner than desert at that 
 hour the sacred cause of his country. The Scotch-Irish Presby- 
 terians of Mecklenburg, in convention assembled, on May 20, 
 1775, a full year before Jefferson voiced the unborn nation's 
 throes and throbs of liberty, " Resolved, That we hereby absolve 
 ourselves from all allegiance to the British Crown, and declare 
 ourselves a free and independent people, . . a sovereign and 
 self-governing association, under the control of no power other 
 than that of our God and the general- government of Congress, 
 to the maintenance of which we solemnly pledge to each other 
 our mutual co-operation and our lives, our fortunes and our 
 most sacred honor." 
 
76 Bi-certfeuniat Celebration of the 
 
 And the Synod of 1783 in their pastoral letter to the churches 
 say, " We cannot help congratulating you on the general and 
 almost universal attachment of the Presbyterian body to the 
 
 cause of liberty and the rights of mankind Our 
 
 burnt and wasted churches, and our plundered dwellings, in 
 such places as fell under the power of our adversaries, are but 
 an earnest of what we must have suffered had they finally pre- 
 vailed." 
 
 So it has ever been. Her kingship of Christ and liberty of 
 conscience and election by the people, commit the Presbyterian 
 Church to civil liberty as naturally and inevitably as the sun 
 commits the day to light and cheer. 
 
 So, too, is she forepledged to education by the very logic of 
 her systems both of government and doctrine. By the law of 
 Christ her King, power rests in the people. Popular election 
 cf church officers necessitates intelligence. A blind ballot is a 
 deadly weapon. A sufficient number of them means possible 
 revolution any hour in Church or State. Hence Presbyterians 
 have always been, by preference and conviction, patrons of the 
 school. Students flocked to Geneva and Calvin. Bancroft says, 
 " Calvin was the father of popular education and the inventor 
 of the system of free schools." 
 
 Here I submit the case. I have thought it well on this two 
 hundredth anniversary of this beloved old church that we mark 
 well the bulwarks of our Presbyterian Zion. They are the 
 principles imbedded in this first chapter of our Form of Govern- 
 ment. They have stood us in good stead. They have made us 
 reverers of law and lovers of liberty. They enthrone Christ 
 over conscience, and allow no other king. They throw our 
 gates as wide open as heaven's. They establish a scripturally 
 authorized office of rule. They exalt truth, and bind it insep- 
 arably to life. They guard truth by testing and proving the 
 teachers of it. They put a sovereignty in the bosom of the 
 Church, believing it vests there by Christ. And they bind no 
 conscience with a man-made law. If under these principles we 
 have ever been intolerant, or hedged God's free communion 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 77 
 
 about with extended and rigid creed, or betrayed truth by laxity 
 in ordination, or usurped powers vested of Christ in the people, 
 or substituted our fallible Confession for God's infallible Word, 
 or disciplined where the discipline got no force, either from its 
 own justice or from the approbation of an impartial public, or 
 from the countenance and blessing of the great Head of the 
 Church, it is because we have been false to our far-flung battle 
 cry. 
 
 " If, drunk with power, we loose 
 
 Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe — 
 Such boasting as the Gentiles use, 
 
 Or lesser breeds without the Law — 
 Lord God of hosts, be with us yet. 
 Lest we forget, lest we forget." 
 
 But the times are not ripe yet simply for Gospel lullabys. We 
 still are confronted with illusion and mendacity. Men are still 
 preaching doctrines of devils. Intolerance no longer builds 
 bonfires to burn dissent; but it lurks still in high places, wear- 
 ing sheep's clothing. 
 
 The battle is not over. We shall long be in need of intellects 
 that can "pierce to the roots where truth and lies part company." 
 We shall still have abundant service for men of the Shadrach, 
 Meshach and Abednego sort ; men who can walk into the fire, 
 and though their flesh quiver, their hearts will not ; men who 
 though they are crushed down will rise again, whom, though 
 they may be splintered and torn, no power on earth can bend or 
 melt — stalwart, strong oaks. And the centuries show that there 
 is a soil and an atmosphere congenial to this fixed conviction 
 and deathless courage. It is the soil of Presbyterian doctrine, 
 and the air of freedom that sweeps through all our structure of 
 Presbyterian government, where liberty and law lock hands, and 
 ever walk together in a goodly and godly fellowship. 
 
 In our loyalty to these historic and heaven-honored symbols 
 of Presbyterian doctrine and government, let us praise God and 
 shame the devil. They are red with the blood of martyrdom; 
 
Bi-centen n ial Celebration . 
 
 they chronicle multiplied victories of conscience. In all their 
 essentials they are truth of God. 
 
 " Shame to stand in God's creation, 
 And doubt truth's sufficiency." 
 
 Let us be swift to recognize the honored hosts of other faiths 
 who make Christ King, and crown him Lord of all. Let us 
 give them cheer as they fight and pray, and let us thank God for 
 their victories ; but with a dear and deathless regard, let us stand 
 by the beloved old Church whose name we wear, and whose 
 doctrine and government we this day honor. And here at these 
 altars let us take oath again that we will give to her through all 
 the years our prayers and tears and toils. 
 
 RESPONSE.— Sancttjs — " Messe Solennelle." — Gounod. 
 (Tenor and Chorus.) 
 
 PRAYER BY THE PASTOR. 
 
 O Lord, wilt Thou add Thy blessing to the services of this 
 day in this house. Build us up in our most holy faith, and help 
 us — oh, help us ! — to show our faith by our works, and unto the 
 Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit shall be the praise. 
 Amen. 
 
 HYMN 297. 
 
 BENEDICTION. 
 
 ORGAN POSTLUDE.— " Chorus— Messiah."— Handel. 
 
MONDAY EVENING, 
 
 NOVEMBER 14, 1898. 
 
 THE PASTOR 
 
 Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we beseech Thee to grant 
 us Thy presence and Thy blessing in this hour of service. May 
 everything be according to Thy will and to Thy glory. We ask 
 it for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. 
 
 ANTHEM.— "Praise Waiteth for Thee."— Sudds. 
 
 PRAYER.— Kev. Alfred H. Kellogg, D.D. 
 
 O Holy Father, gathered around Thy feet to-night in this 
 service of remembrance, we would be deeply impressed with the 
 tli< tught of the divine constancy, the constancy of Thy providence, 
 the constancy of Thy care, the constancy of Thy grace, that can 
 make such a record as this church presents possible. Thou didst 
 plant this church as a beacon light of liberty and of law in this 
 city of ours, and Thou hast upheld it throughout all these decades 
 of years by Thine almighty arm, hast preserved it from harm 
 amid every peril. Thou hast smiled upon the undertaking from 
 the very start until now. Thou hast greatly prospered, so that 
 from being a little vine Thou hast made it a plant of renown. 
 And especially at this hour we would recognize the constancy of 
 Thy gifts to this church in bestowing upon it a succession of godly 
 men and true men as leaders, able ministers of the New Testa- 
 ment, courageous and faithful. We recognize the unusual gifts 
 with which Thou didst endow so many of them, influential in the 
 
 79 
 
80 Bicentennial Celebration of the 
 
 university and in civic affairs, as well as in the church and in 
 society. It is Thou, Thou God, Head of the church, that hast 
 given to it pastors and teachers as well as helpers and governors. 
 Thou didst call men and equip them for their vocation, and bless 
 their messages, and make them servants and helpers to the peo- 
 ple and the world ; and as we look back over what God hath 
 wrought here for two hundred years, we are again and again im- 
 pressed with the constancy of God's presence and help. So has it 
 been always. And now, rejoicing over the rich heritage that has 
 come to us out of the past, we pray, Holy Father, for present 
 grace, for Thy presence still in the years ahead. Bl'ess Thy be- 
 loved servant who stands here to-day. May he feel a fresh in- 
 spiration coming into his life as he recalls this divine constancy 
 so illustriously exemplified in the pastors who have gone before 
 him ; and may he to-night hear the word of comfort whispered 
 to his inmost soul, "Fear not, I am with thee. As I was with 
 thy predecessors, so will I be with thee." And do Thou make 
 Thv servants here yet more diligent in cultivating the field Thou 
 hast given them to fill. Bless them in their visits to the 
 haunts of the poor ; and as they venture with Thy Gospel into 
 even the haunts of vice, make every dark spot light with the 
 light of Life, and may this whole neighborhood become as the 
 very garden of the Lord. Make Thy church still a fruitful vine. 
 Thou hast called one and another from the homes of Thy people 
 here to serve Thee at Thine altar, and to become standard-bear- 
 ers in Zion. God bless them each one in the sphere in which 
 they are now working for Thee, and continue in this way to 
 honor Thy church here by making it not only a busy hive for all 
 departments of Christian work, but also a training school for the 
 church's leaders at home and abroad ; and may there come to this 
 church during this week of rejoicing a refreshing from the pres- 
 ence of the Lord, a renewal of covenant vows, a reviving anew 
 of the ties of Christian fellowship, a spirit of consecration, a pro- 
 founder appreciation of the church's responsibilities and oppor- 
 tunities. And we pray, Holy Father, that amid the joys of these 
 auspicious days, some who have been long hearers of the word 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 81 
 
 here, but have as yet withheld their hearts from Thee, may be led 
 by Thy spirit to offer themselves to the Lord, and be heard say- 
 ing, " I will go with you. Thy people shall be my people, and 
 thy God shall be my God." Oh, hear us, God of the fathers. 
 Be Thou the God of their children and of their children's children. 
 May none of these be lost, and at the next communion season 
 may there be a great ingathering, and among them many who 
 shall from this week's services be led by the good Spirit of grace 
 to make the great decision for God and for his Church ; and unto 
 God the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit, be all the praise. 
 Amen. 
 
 HYMN. — "The Church's One Foundation." 
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCH— The Pastor. 
 
 Although neither the day of the week nor the date of the 
 month can be positively given, it is reasonably certain that the 
 First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia was organized in the 
 autumn of the year 1698, and in all probability in the month of 
 November. A Presbyterian congregation had been slowly 
 forming for several vears before. The visit of Francis Makemie — 
 a name that American Presbyterians should never let die — to the 
 city in 1692 led to the gathering of the Protestant Dissenters of 
 different denominations for worship at the Barbadoes Store, of 
 which we shall speak later. But it was not until 1698 that 
 stated Presbyterian services began. This, be it noted, was only 
 fifteen years after William Penn first landed in America. He 
 obtained his charter from Charles II. in 1681, and, prior to his 
 own coming two years later, he sent his surveyors to lay out the 
 town, the plan of which he had in his own mind ; and the gen- 
 eral form of it was then laid from river to river, between what 
 are now Vine and South Streets. At that date this region was, 
 of course, a comparative wilderness. There were a few scat- 
 tered houses, if such they could be called, on the bank of the 
 river, which then was a steep bluff about twenty-five feet high. 
 It was the plan of the benevolent projector of this city to have 
 6 
 
82 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 this bluff preserved as a promenade, to which the people could 
 resort after the toil of the day and enjoy the cooling breezes, to- 
 gether with the view of the stately river and the delectable Jer- 
 sey shore beyond. It is worth remarking, in passing, that the 
 earliest settlers dwelt in caves, or, as they are called now in the 
 Far West, " dugouts," holes hollowed out of this high river 
 bank. Think of this when, the next time, in approaching the 
 Market Street ferry, you find yourself going down a very re- 
 spectable hill. 
 
 As nearly as I can make it out, at the time that Christ Epis- 
 copal Church was organized — viz., in 1695 — there were residing 
 here a little company of English Dissenters, Welsh Calvinists 
 and French Huguenots, who had sought this shore for " con- 
 science sake," and especially for their avowed Puritanical prin- 
 ciples; and not being able to feel at home, as was naturally the 
 case, in the Church of England — i. e., in Christ Church, which 
 was already holding worship — they met together for union relig- 
 ious services in a little store which belonged to the trading com- 
 pany which William Penn had chartered, called " The Society 
 of the Free Traders " or the " Barbadoes Company." This 
 company traded principally with the West Indies — with those 
 very islands which now, after two hundred years, have passed 
 into our possession. Their store was a small one-story-and-a- 
 half frame building, with a peaked roof (you have the picture 
 of it on the order of service), and stood there — at what is now 
 the northwest corner of Second and Chestnut Streets — as late as 
 the year 1832, eleven years after this edifice was erected. This 
 little company of worshippers felt the need of a minister to re- 
 side among them and to organize them into a church, and ac- 
 cordingly, casting about, they secured the services of Mr. Jede- 
 diah Andrews, a licentiate not yet ordained, who in the autumn 
 of 1698 came from Boston and began his labors among them. 
 Mr. Andrews was an Independent, or Congregational ist, but his 
 congregation, largely composed of emigrants from Scotland and 
 Ireland, were chiefly Presbyterians, and it seems to have been a 
 case of " like people like priest," for almost immediately, with 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 83 
 
 the cordial assent of Mr. Andrews, the Presbyterian form of 
 government was adopted. It is easy to see how kindly Mr. 
 Andrews took to Presbyterianism when we learn that he was 
 a " Congregational ist according to the Cambridge platform." 
 The Cambridge platform admitted the office of ruling elder in 
 the church, and most of the Congregational churches of that 
 day had them. AVe are sorry that they have "fallen from 
 grace " in this respect. 
 
 It is most interesting to note how tactful was Mr. Makemie. 
 Verily he had " the wisdom of the serpent and the harmlessness 
 of the dove." He induced his Presbvterian neighboring minis- 
 ters to unite in forming a Presbytery upon lines liberal enough 
 to satisfy Mr. Andrews and his Congregational brethren. At 
 the same time he secured the name and all the essential prin- 
 ciples of Presbyterianism. In this fraternal intercourse these 
 two men, Makemie and Andrews, the fathers of Presbyterianism 
 in America, lived and wrought until Makemie's death, without 
 the least jar or discord. " How pleasant it is for brethren to 
 dwell together in unity !" when, by so doing, they sacrifice no 
 essential principle. 
 
 Mr. John Snowden, by occupation a tanner, and Mr. William 
 Gray (baker) were the first ruling ciders of the church associ- 
 ated with Mr. Andrews in the moulding of the people into 
 Presbyterianism. Under the ministry of these men the church 
 prospered, and the congregation so much increased that, in the 
 year 1704, they found it necessary to have a larger place of wor- 
 ship. Accordingly they secured a lot on the corner of White 
 Horse Alley (now Bank Street) and Market Street, and on it 
 erected a new church edifice. Of this edifice, unfortunately, we 
 have no picture. It is the only one of which we have not. 
 But from a Swedish traveller, by the name of DeKalm, who 
 visited this country in 1748, we learn that it was a plain build- 
 ing, with a hexagonal or semi-circular roof, and that it ran 
 north and south, " because," as he said, " the Presbyterians are 
 not particular as to the points of the compass in placing their 
 churches," implying, of course, that some other churches arc. 
 
84 Bl-eentenniaJ Celebration of the 
 
 In this house Mr. Andrews was ordained and installed pastor 
 by the Presbytery organized through his efforts and those of his 
 friend Mr. Makemie. 
 
 In the year 1701, which was also the year in which William 
 Penn granted the city a charter, Mr. Andrews began keeping 
 the records of this church in a book which is now in the custody 
 of Dr. Perkins, the clerk of the session. In this book we have 
 the record of baptisms dating back to 1701, when March, not 
 January, was reckoned as the first month of the year ; and the 
 record of marriages also is in this most interesting and valuable 
 volume, application for transcripts from it being still received. 
 An entry in it, made by Mr. EdAvard Shippen, the first mayor 
 of Philadelphia, is interesting. It bears date of March 13, 
 1753, and is as follows : 
 
 " As I think it necessary that this book of records should be 
 preserved, I desire that my executors or administrators will take 
 particular care of it. It was delivered to me by William Gray 
 (one of the first elders), one of the executors of the Rev. Mr. 
 Jedediah Andrews, deceased. Edward Shippen." 
 
 The congregation steadily growing, the church edifice of 1704 
 was enlarged in 1729 by the help of contributions received from 
 Boston, "and it would not," says Mr. Andrews, "have been 
 done without it." This house was called "Old Buttonwood," 
 from the fact that some large buttonwood trees were adjacent to 
 it. (Of this edifice also you find a picture in the order of 
 services in your hands.) At this date the population of the 
 city numbered but about twelve thousand, and there was nothing 
 whatever worth speaking of beyond Fourth Street. 
 
 It is interesting, especially if we are ever tempted to say that 
 " the former days were better than these," to note that almost di- 
 rectly in front of this " Old Buttonwood " church in those days, 
 in the middle of the last century, slaves were sold upon the 
 auction block. Here are two very curious advertisements taken 
 from an old paper printed by " B. Franklin " (Benjamin Frank- 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 85 
 
 lin), who was then postmaster and a frequent, if not habitual, 
 worshipper at the First Church, under date of 1758 : 
 
 " To be sold : A likely negro wench about thirty-five years of 
 age ; is an exceeding good cook, washerwoman and ironer, and is 
 very capable of doing all sorts of housework. Inquire of the 
 printer." 
 
 But here is an advertisement, part of which is unfortunately 
 torn, that is still more curious. It was the custom in those days 
 not only to sell the negroes as slaves permanently, but many of 
 the poor emigrants who came over were also actually sold, or, 
 perhaps more accurately, " leased," for a term of years. There 
 was a large portion of the German population that were sent over 
 here owing to the political disturbances in Europe, and who 
 regularly sold themselves, and were known as " redemptioners." 
 This certainly is a very peculiar advertisement : 
 
 " To be sold : An Irish servant girl fit for " — That part is 
 torn out, but this still remains : " — being a good washer, and 
 can spin very well. Inquire at the New Printing Office." 
 
 Mark you ! this thing was " not done in a corner," but under 
 the very shadow of the First Presbyterian Church of those days. 
 It was almost in the very year in Avhich this church was organ- 
 ized that a clergyman at New Castle, Del., in a letter to one of 
 the members of the church, states that they "have lost our 
 schoolmaster, but that he can be replaced, as he learns that a 
 vessel is shortly to arrive, when he will go to the dock and buy 
 one." And it is also stated that no less a person than a dis- 
 tinguished signer of the Declaration of Independence was sold 
 in his youth as a slave, and after the expiration of his time 
 taught school. 
 
 In course of time, under the able ministry of Francis Alison, 
 the church edifice at Bank and Market Streets also began to be 
 too strait, and, being also out of repair, it was deemed best to 
 
86 Ili-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 take it down and build a new one in its place; as the old record 
 has it, " The congregation, beino- able and flourishing, began to 
 
 © © © ©7 © 
 
 think it necessary to rebuild our church, and in 1793 sub- 
 scriptions to a large amount were raised, and the (present) ele- 
 gant building commenced. Captain Magnus Miller, an 'an- 
 tient' and wealthy member of the congregation (I am still 
 quoting from the record), devoted his whole time in superin- 
 tending and rebuilding, and whilst the pestilential fever was 
 raging throughout the city did this worthy man continue to 
 superintend the rebuilding." It is pleasant to note that, whilst 
 the church was rebuilding, the trustees of the University of 
 Pennsylvania generously allowed the congregation to worship in 
 their hall. 
 
 In 1796, Dr. Ewing being then pastor, the congregation began 
 to worship in the new church, a picture of which you will also 
 find on the order of service. The original subscription lists to 
 this new building have been preserved and are in the possession 
 of the session. The first name which appears upon the list is 
 that of Thomas McKean, who was chief justice and governor of 
 this province and state. The pews were to be allotted. The 
 person who subscribed the most was to have the first choice. 
 The one who subscribed next, the second choice. If there were 
 two or more subscribing the same sum, they were to draw lots 
 for the choice. And I want to call your special attention to this 
 memorandum : " Provided always " — and this is part of the 
 terms of subscription — " provided always that the society reserve 
 to itself the right of allotting a pew in all or any of the said 
 classes of subscribers for the accommodation of such members 
 as may be aged, infirm, hard of hearing or respectable for their 
 long standing and usefulness in the congregation, without ha vino; 
 any reference to the amount of their subscriptions." Surely 
 that has the true Christian ring, and has rung down, thank 
 God, to the church of to-day ! 
 
 This church edifice, a truly fine one, remained until 1820. 
 By that time, while the town had had no extraordinary growth, 
 it had extended considerably toward the west, and there was a 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 87 
 
 desire on the part of many that the church should " go in the 
 same direction." But this was strenuously opposed by others. 
 The controversy over it is racy reading. The war was largely 
 carried on through pamphlets, and the air was thick with 
 them. It was insisted, on the one hand, that the building was 
 utterly unsafe — that the gallery was likely to fall down upon the 
 heads of the people at the very next service ; on the other hand, 
 it was claimed by those who had employed "experts" to make 
 an examination that the building was never in a better condition, 
 and never could be. It would stand for a century yet, and then 
 require only very slight repairs — not worth mentioning. Why, 
 then, commit the folly of moving to a far-away locality (to this 
 present one)? Why erect a church in a duck pond in the 
 wilderness ? The fact was that, at that time, the site proposed 
 (on which we now are) was used as a cattle yard. In 1701 the 
 square yonder, or what is now the square, had been granted by 
 the "proprietaries" as a "Potter's Field" for the burial of 
 strangers, and it was not until 1795, after the Revolutionary 
 War had closed, that burials ceased. Large numbers of the 
 soldiers of the Revolution who died from wounds or sickness 
 were buried not many yards away from us. And to the west the 
 houses were few and far between — a great stretch of barren pas- 
 ture land, from which the timber had been cut by the British 
 during the war. But the majority were for moving, and so it 
 came to pass that, in 1821, this edifice in which we are assembled 
 to-night was built. And those of us who have had occasion to 
 wander through " the crypts," in which aforetime the Sabbath- 
 school met, can testify that its foundations are strong indeed. 
 Grace and sense have been given to its custodians to preserve it to 
 this day in its original simplicity. It has not been modernized 
 and so spoiled ; and, notwithstanding it was built seventy-seven 
 years ago, there are not a few who are modestly of the opinion 
 that for the simple purposes of public worship it is not surpassed 
 by any church in the city to-day. 
 
 In the course of time the necessity for a better housing of the 
 Sabbath-school than the crypts beneath was felt, and accordingly 
 
Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 in 1829 the building, now "lost to sight, but to memory dear," 
 was erected on the corner of Spruce and Seventh Streets. There 
 for forty-seven years the Sabbath-school met, and there it received 
 the choicest blessings of divine favor. It was identified with 
 the lives of some of the noblest men and women whom the Pres- 
 byterian Church in Philadelphia has ever known. The building 
 in which they toiled for God has passed away, but what they 
 there wrought can never die . . . But prized as the building 
 was on account of its associations, it was admittedly not well 
 adapted to Sabbath-school purposes ; moreover, there was a 
 growing feeling that in order that this church might continue to 
 stand in its lot and do its work, instead of " following the fash- 
 ion " of moving to a new locality, it must have certain additional 
 facilities for adapting itself to its changing environment. That 
 conviction was at length embodied in the beautiful " Albert 
 Barnes Memorial," which in the year 1896, at the cost of about 
 $75,000, displaced the old structure. It is a noble memorial of a 
 noble man, just such a memorial in its structure and its purposes 
 as we believe would be according to his own broad mind and 
 generous, loving heart. For this memorial building, as for the 
 endowment fund of the church, which in this bi-centennial year 
 has so nearly reached the sum of one hundred thousand dollars 
 that that amount is now assured, we are largely indebted under 
 God to our elder and Sabbath-school superintendent Mr. George 
 Griffiths, without whose faith and works it is doubtful whether 
 they would have ever been. As Mr. Andrews said about the 
 Boston contributions, " it could not have been done without 
 him." 
 
 As you have noticed, I have made thus far almost no reference 
 to the pastors of the church, for the very good and sufficient rea- 
 son that my friend and brother, Dr. Purves (a First Church boy, 
 we are proud to say), is to follow this sketch with an address de- 
 voted exclusively to them. According to my promise to him, 
 but at the cost of extraordinary self-restraint, I have left them 
 severely alone, knowing that at his hands they will receive ample 
 justice. I should dearly love to have a similar paper devoted to 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 89 
 
 the eldership of the church, and I hereby charge Dr. Perkins, in 
 compiling the full history, to give the eldership their due ; for 
 whatever this church is or has been, in all these two hundred 
 years of its life, it largely owes to the able and devoted men who 
 from time to time have composed its session. Among them are 
 not a few names conspicuous and renowned, not only in the 
 Church, but in the State as well. I cannot forbear speaking of 
 two or three. There was Dr. Hugh Williamson, a man of great 
 learning, but child-like piety, and possessed to a large degree of 
 the qualities which make up the true statesman. He was one of 
 the most influential members of the convention that framed the 
 Constitution of the United States. Then there was Mr. Charles 
 Thompson, who was the first Secretary of the first American 
 Congress. He was brimful of patriotism, one of the master 
 spirits in American independence. When Franklin wrote to him 
 in July, 1765, "'We might as well have hindered the sun's set- 
 ting (as to have had the Stamp Act repealed). That we could not 
 do. But, since it is down, my friend, and it may be long before 
 it rises again, let us make as good a night of it as we can. We 
 can still light candles." Thompson answered as follows: "Be 
 assured, the Americans will light lamps of a different sort from 
 those you contemplate." It is an honor to any church to have 
 had such a man as he upon its rolls, and influential in its coun- 
 cils. While a boy of only eleven years, in 1739, he came with 
 his father and two brothers to this country from Ireland. His 
 father died on the voyage. His dying prayer was, " God take 
 them up." The captain of the ship robbed the children of all 
 their property and turned them loose down the Delaware some- 
 where. The lad found his way to Dr. Alison, afterward pastor 
 of this church. Dr. Alison took him and educated him — as he 
 did many another boy — in the academy in this city and in the uni- 
 versity into which that academy grew, and of which he was pro- 
 vost. Dr. Alison instructed at least four Governors, eight Con- 
 gressmen and four signers of the Declaration of Independence. 
 The president of Yale College declared him "the greatest class- 
 ical scholar in America, especially in Greek." Young Thompson 
 
90 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 had a remarkable aptitude for languages. In later years he trans- 
 lated the Septuagint — an original translation — copies of which are 
 very rare, but of which there is a fine one in our own church 
 library. According to Dr. Ashbel Green, it was a popular mode 
 of asseverating the truth of anything to say, " It is as true as if 
 Charles Thompson's name were to it." In all the factional dis- 
 putes of the Revolutionary Congress, his judgment was respected. 
 When a Congressional paper appeared, sanctioned by his name, 
 it was the custom to forget his official character and say, " There 
 comes the truth." It is pleasant to know that those who 
 served this church in those early days had such an unques- 
 tioned reputation for veracity and honesty, as the following 
 indicates. Upon the title-page of the third volume of Bax- 
 ter's works in our church library this is written : " Presented 
 by the Rev. Jedediah Andrews to his friend, Mr. David 
 Griffing." (This Mr. Griffing was one of the early elders.) 
 Then Dr. Wilson writes underneath, " This cannot be true, 
 because the Rev. Jedediah Andrews never would have given 
 away that which did not belong to him !" And in this con- 
 nection I cannot help mentioning that royal man, Mr. Thomas 
 Fassitt, one of the trustees of the church, who purchased the ex- 
 ceedingly valuable library left by Dr. Wilson, and presented it 
 to the church. It is a rare collection, indeed, and one of which 
 Ave may be justly proud, containing as it does books dating back 
 to the very beginning of the sixteenth century — the oldest one, a 
 copy of Lactantius, bearing the date of 1515 — noble specimens of 
 the printer's art. This deed is one of many wrought from time 
 to time throughout the history of this church by its trustees in 
 their individual or corporate capacity, which attest their loyalty 
 and devotion to it, To my surprise I find that the organization 
 of this church was not complete until the recent date of January 
 13, 1875, for it was not until then that deacons were ordained. 
 No doubt before this the church had its needy poor, and no 
 doubt they were cared for, but not in this constitutional and 
 Presbyterian way. "God hath chosen the poor of the world 
 rich in faith," and no church is complete without them and those 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 91 
 
 appointed to minister to them. The men who have served and 
 are serving in this capacity are worthy of the Christ-like office 
 they hold. As to the goodly membership of the church, the men 
 and women who from the beginning until now have here been 
 confessors of Christ, and sought to promote the intei'ests of his 
 kingdom, only a passing reference can be made. No church 
 ever had from generation to generation a more loyal membership. 
 The history of the church throughout has shown a certain most 
 marked "Esprit da corps" which has unified it and made it 
 strong. While devotion to and support of the men who have 
 served it in the pastorate has been most pronounced, there has 
 through all its vicissitudes been a loyalty to the church, a stand- 
 ing by it, a holding on to it, which has been most beautiful. Many 
 there have been (and many still there are) who have said from 
 these seats, "Thy servants take pleasure in the stones of this Zion 
 and favor the dust thereof." It is impossible in this brief paper 
 to recount their virtues, to enumerate their good works, or to 
 tabulate their benevolent offerings. The record of these things 
 is on high. " They labored and we have entered into their 
 labors." But there is something most impressive in the thought 
 of what the life of this church for the last two hundred years 
 stands for ; in the churches which have sprung from it, directly 
 or indirectly — is it not the mother of them all? — in the men 
 who, as ministers and missionaries, as statesmen and jurists, or 
 in humbler, but it may be not less useful, ways have served God 
 and their generation ; in the great company of devoted women, 
 who by their prayers and such blessed ministry as only they can 
 render have exemplified and made real and beautiful the gospel 
 they have here been taught. What this church has been to the 
 community, what part it has had in moulding public opinion for 
 good, as well as in saving individual souls, is known only to 
 Him who gathers up into his own pierced hands all the scattered 
 threads of human lives. 
 
 Throughout its entire history this church has had a most con- 
 spicuous and a most honorable place in the larger life of the 
 great Presbyterian Church to which it belongs. In the old 
 
92 Bi-eentemiial Celebration of the 
 
 Button wood Church the First Presbytery was organized in 1705. 
 Of the one hundred and ten General Assemblies of the church, 
 thirty-eight have convened under the roof of the First Presby- 
 terian Church of Philadelphia — viz., the assemblies of 1790 (the 
 third), 1796, 1797, 1800-1810 inclusive, 1812, 1813, 1815-1818 
 inclusive, 1824-1832 inclusive. These assemblies were held be- 
 fore the division into New and Old School, which, happily, has 
 now become almost altogether a mere matter of history. When 
 that division took place this church went with the New School 
 branch, and the New School Assemblies of 1839, 1840, 1843, 1846, 
 1849, 1854, 1863 met in this sanctuary. And here in more 
 recent times, within the memory of a considerable number pres- 
 ent to-night, were held two memorable assemblies — that of 1870, 
 when the church was again one, and that of 1888, the Centennial 
 Assembly, which is commemorated by the brass tablet of unique 
 design in the vestibule of the church. Such, most briefly and 
 fragmentarily, as must needs be in this sketch, is the history of 
 this dear and venerable church. " Its past, at least, God be 
 thanked ! is secure." Of its present we may not speak. Nor is 
 it necessary. " Here it is: Behold it and judge for yourselves !" 
 It is standing in its lot, true, we trust, to its traditions, with a 
 strong sense of " Noblesse Oblige." With a larger membership 
 to-day than it has ever had in its entire history, with a more 
 adequate material equipment than it has ever known, with an 
 endowment fund, which only needs to be doubled in order to en- 
 able it to do without embarrassment the enlarging work marked 
 out for it by God's providence, it is determined by the divine 
 blessing to keep the Presbyterian Banner waving in its strength 
 and beauty in this very part of the city where two hundred years 
 ago it was unfurled to the breeze in the love of God and man ! 
 
 ADDRESS.— "The Pulpit of the First Church." 
 Rev. George T. Purves, D.D., LL.D., 
 
 Professor in the Theological Seminary, Princeton, N. J. 
 
 It would not have been possible for this church to have 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 93 
 
 maintained itself in influence and prominence during two cen- 
 turies, if its pulpit had not been filled by a royal succes- 
 sion of powerful preachers of the Word. The pulpit is the 
 brain of a Presbyterian organization. The brain, indeed, 
 needs to be fed by the life blood which circulates throughout the 
 entire body, and which in this ease constitutes the faith and piety 
 of the congregation. But the pulpit is the organ of thought, the 
 nerve centre, in a Presbyterian body, the instrument and the 
 master of the believing, confessing, consecrated life of the church. 
 Other churches may depend for their existence upon church 
 establishment, state establishment. Others may depend upon 
 hierarchical pretensions. Others may seek to be supported by 
 richness of liturgical service. But the American Presbyterian 
 Church has and wants none of these supports. If it continue to 
 flourish, it must be because of the vitality of the congregation ; 
 and this will be represented in the pulpit. 
 
 This celebration therefore would be incomplete if a tribute 
 were not paid to the distinguished men who have constituted the 
 ministry of the First Church. To them, more than to any others, 
 does this church owe the fact that it has been built and adorned 
 in successive generations. They have here preached with great 
 fidelity the truth of the living God, and at their incentive the 
 influence of this church has gone forth for good into city, land 
 and world. It is true that in every generation they have been 
 supported by a loyal people, and oftentimes by persons of con- 
 spicuous influence and large worth ; but the ministry of the First 
 Church of Philadelphia has organized and commanded and has 
 directed the life of the church. Its history is their history. It 
 is best known by the records which they have made and left be- 
 hind. They are the most distinct figures as we look back from 
 1898 to 1698, — some of them clear and freshly cut, as if they were 
 but made yesterday, others of them dim and blurred with time, 
 but all of them, whether near or distant, the impressive repre- 
 sentations to us of the vigorous vitality of this long-lived com- 
 munity of saints. We do well to honor the Christian ministry. 
 The history of a pulpit like this is better worth reciting than the 
 
94 Bi-eentennial Celebration of the 
 
 history of many thrones. It is worthy of critical study as well 
 as of reverent praise. I do not come here to-night for the pur- 
 pose of bestowing upon it mere laudation. I would rather de- 
 rive from it lessons for the present and inspiration for the future. 
 But I am embarrassed, of course, by the necessity which is 
 upon me of describing the ministry of two centuries on a very 
 small canvas. Even without giving the biographies of the 
 pastors of this church — which I certainly shall not attempt to 
 do — the subject would be beyond my compass if it were not for 
 two natural limitations which I may place upon the subject. In 
 the first place, I shall draw a line between the living and the 
 dead; and I am sure that the still living pastors of this church 
 would wish me to do so. They would rather unite with me to- 
 night in paying tribute to those who are the spiritual fathers of 
 our body. In the second place, my theme is reduced in size by 
 the marvellous length of the pastorates of this church. There are 
 really only six men whose name- need be mentioned between the 
 beginning of the First Church and the year 1870. There were 
 others who preached here, either as assistants or as stated sup- 
 plies, but they did not contribute anything to the history of this 
 pulpit. There was, indeed, one memorable exception to the 
 statement which I have made. In the early part of this century 
 this pulpit was occupied for five years by a young man whose 
 ministry was too brief to produce any great impression upon the 
 history of the church, but whose ministry was so brilliant that it 
 should not be passed unnoticed by me to-night. That was John 
 Blair Linn. He was only twenty-two years of age when he was 
 called to be associated with Dr. Ewino; in this church. Two 
 years after Dr. Ewing died, leaving him full pastor; but after 
 three years more Linn also passed away at the early age of 
 twenty-seven. He was a poet, as well as a scholar; he was a 
 man of letters, as well as a preacher of the faith. He had begun 
 to study law in the office of the celebrated Alexander Hamilton, 
 but his mind was not of the legal type. He was a man of 
 imagination and feeling; easily depressed and easily exalted; 
 acknowledged by his friends to be a genius, and evidently en- 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 95 
 
 dowed with the orator's magic art. Bat his life soon became 
 a pathetic straggle with disease and its attendant melancholy. 
 Had he lived he would doubtless have filled an honorable 
 career in the history of this church. But we need only pause 
 to-night that we may place a wreath of immortelles upon his 
 early grave. With that exception, the pastorates of this church 
 have been singularly long. Here is the roll of honor. Jedediah 
 Andrews, pastor for forty-six years, or, if we include the three 
 years when he was preaching in the Barbadoes Store, for forty- 
 nine years. Robert Cross, who served this church for nineteen 
 years. Francis Alison, who served the church for twenty-seven 
 years. John Ewing, who was pastor for forty-three years. 
 James P. Wilson, who was pastor for twenty-four years. Albert 
 Barnes, pastor and pastor emeritus for forty years. What a 
 record it is of glorious and efficient service! What a testimony 
 at once to the loyalty of the people and to the fidelity of the 
 pulpit! In these days of pulpit instability and of popular 
 mutability, our modern life stands aghast at the staying powers 
 of our fathers, and we wonder whether we, with our swift 
 changes, will be able to make the impression upon our day 
 which they made on theirs. But, at any rate, their long pas- 
 torates reduces my subject to-night. There are really only six 
 links in the chain which binds the ministry of the present with 
 that of the beginning, and those six men fall naturally into 
 three classes, which correspond to three periods in the history of 
 the church: the period of establishment, which was marked by 
 the ministry of Andrews and Cross; the period of solidification, 
 which was marked by the ministries of Alison and Ewing ; and 
 then what, without disparagement to others, I may call the 
 period of renown, which was marked by the ministries of 
 Wilson and Barnes. At any rate, the pulpit of this church in 
 these three periods, whether I have given them right titles or 
 not, differs distinctly from the character of the pulpit in the 
 other periods, and this may serve to guide our remarks to-night. 
 The period of the establishment of this church was marked, 
 then, by the ministries of Jedediah Andrews and Robert Cross. 
 
96 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 It was the period in which the Presbyterian Church was form- 
 ing in America, along with her other institutions, and the First 
 Church of Philadelphia was forming with them. It was the 
 period of Presbyterian emigration. The tide was coming mainly 
 from Scotland and from the north of Ireland, but also from the 
 Palatinate and from England, while within the colonies them- 
 selves there was constant movement, especially from New Eng- 
 land into what are now the Middle States. Mr. Andrews him- 
 self came from Massachusetts. He was a graduate of Harvard, 
 and he represented the conservative Congregationalism of Mas- 
 sachusetts, his native town of Hingham presenting an example 
 of a church which was almost as much Presbyterian as it was 
 Congregational. Robert Cross, on the other hand, came from 
 the north of Ireland, and he represented the staunch Scotch- 
 Irish stock which has contributed so much to the making of 
 stalwart Presbyterianism. The work of these two men naturally 
 lay in the building up of the Presbyterian Church in this new 
 country. Especially was this the work of Mr. Andrews. As 
 you have already heard, he was one of the founders of the First 
 Presbytery, and it is a testimony to the large-hearted judgment 
 of the man that, Congregationalist though he had been, he en- 
 tered so willingly into the formation of a Presbyterian church 
 in the Middle States, instead of insisting upon what would have 
 been an isolated example of Congregationalism. He it was 
 who moulded the mixed company who first met in the Barbadoes 
 Store in this direction of ecclesiastical government. He became 
 one of the leading members of the First Presbytery and of the 
 First Synod, when the latter was formed in 1717. We know 
 also that he was exceedingly interested in watching the growing 
 stream of immigration into this colony, that he made frequent 
 missionary tours into Jersey and into Pennsylvania, and a letter 
 which has been preserved from Mr. Andrews indicates the eager- 
 ness with which he felt the necessity of moulding these new- 
 comers into a united ecclesiastical system. But the rapid succes- 
 sion of Mr. Andrews and Mr. Cross in the pastorate of this 
 church is significant of a still larger fact in our American Pres- 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 97 
 
 byterianism, one that is important for the historian to notice and 
 which describes to us the character of this pulpit. As I have 
 said, Mr. Andrews was from Massachusetts. Mr. Cross was 
 from the north of Ireland, and therefore they represent the con- 
 fluence of two streams of Presbyterian immigration and of two 
 types of Presbyterian life and thought, which united to form this 
 church, as they united to form the Presbyterian Church in the 
 United States. For I am glad to say that our American Pres- 
 byterianism is not a transplantation of any foreign type. 
 It is the complex of several. It is an American product. 
 Its seeds came from the Old World, but it made an 
 American Presbyterian Church, with American ideals and 
 with American history, and the combination of two men like 
 Andrews and Cross in the pastorate of this church in the period 
 of its establishment was significant of the new church which was 
 being formed, to make for a new country a new ecclesia which 
 should better lift the standard of a common Christ. Therefore, 
 Mr. Cross and Mr. Andrews are significant to us to-night of the 
 period of the church's establishment. Both were strongly con- 
 servative men. Both were intense in their devotion to Presby- 
 terian doctrines. At any rate, Mr. Cross was the leader of the 
 old side. He was the one who made the protest against what he 
 deemed the extravagance of the revivalists which had then come 
 before the Synod. He was a conservative man. Mr. Andrews 
 sided with him in his conservatism, and this church followed its 
 pastors into the old side in the controversy of nearly 250 years 
 ago. This was proved by the very criticisms which were made 
 upon these men. Dr. Benjamin Franklin, although he often 
 worshipped here, did not care to listen to Mr. Andrews, he said, 
 because he was so polemic, because he was continually proving 
 the doctrines of his sect, which to the ethical philosopher were 
 exceedingly dry and uninteresting. George Whitfield himself 
 tells us that " Mr. Cross lashed me bravely last Sunday morning, 
 and Mr. Andrews praached against me." Let it be said, how- 
 ever, that at a later time Mr. Cross invited Whitfield to preach 
 in the pulpit of the First Church, and the invitation was ac- 
 
 7 
 
98 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 cepted ; but the criticisms show the type of the pulpit as it then 
 existed. It seemed to these men more important to insist upon 
 binding what was peculiar to the different types of Presbyteria/i- 
 ism together, in order that they might establish a Presbyterian 
 church in this place. No doubt they sometimes leaned back- 
 wards. No doubt they did not appreciate the good there was in 
 the great awakening, and perhaps they did not appreciate even 
 the good there was in Dr. Franklin's ethical philosophy ; but be 
 that as it may, they were so tolerant that they combined the dif- 
 ferent types of Presbyterianism into one body, and they gave 
 themselves, as wise men should do, to the supreme work of build- 
 ing up on these shores a distinctively American, but a really 
 Presbyterian church, which should here carry on the fundamental 
 principles for which the fathers had bled and fought and suffered 
 beyond the seas. 
 
 The period of the solidification or perpetuation of this church 
 comes next. During the last half of the last century Ave find 
 this church steadily growing in power and influence, until it be- 
 comes the influential body which we find it at the beginning of 
 the present century, and this continual growth and solidification 
 was mainly due to the ministry here of two remarkable men, 
 Dr. Francis Alison and Dr. John Ewing. Both of them were 
 scholars, both of them were great educators, and their lives were 
 beautifully intertwined. Alison had come from Ireland at the 
 earlv age of thirty. He had first been tutor in the family of Gov- 
 ernor Dickinson of Delaware. Then he had been ordained, and 
 settled in the town of New London, Pennsylvania ; but he 
 had soon become a teacher as well as a preacher, and he had es- 
 tablished in New London an academy which quickly sprang into 
 fame, both because of the learning of its principal and because 
 of the many distinguished men who in time came to graduate 
 from it. After awhile, however, he retired from New London to 
 Philadelphia, took charge of the academy in this place, and be- 
 came the assistant to Mr. Cross. When the academy was changed 
 into the College of Philadelphia, Dr. Alison became its vice 
 provost and professor of moral philosophy, and when Dr. John 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 99 
 
 Ewing succeeded Robert Cross in the pastorate of this church, 
 Dr. Alison was continued as his colleague also; for those two. 
 n^cn, Alison and Ewing, had long been friends. They were both 
 of the Scotch-Irish stock. Ewing had been Alison's pupil at 
 school at New London. Then, after having graduated from the 
 College of New Jersey, he had gone back to his old preceptor to 
 study theology, and then had followed him to Philadelphia and 
 into the teaching corps of the academy or college in this place. 
 Ewing, however, was evidently the finer preacher of the two, for 
 on the death of Mr. Cross he Avas unanimously called to the pas- 
 torate of this church in 1759. When he became the pastor of 
 the First Church, however, he did not cease his interest in educa- 
 tion. This is proved by the fact that he went abroad in order 
 that he might gather funds for the Newark Academy, and on his 
 return in 1779, when the College of Philadelphia became by Act 
 of Legislature the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Ewing was 
 made its first provost and professor of natural philosophy, and 
 these offices he continued to hold in connection with the pastorate 
 of this church. So for half a century the First Church of 
 Philadelphia was held by men who sat in professors' chairs, and 
 by means of their large culture and wide intellectual influence this 
 pulpit was brought to bear upon the best minds of the commun- 
 ity about them. Alison was pre-eminently a scholar and man 
 of classical attainments, though widely read in history and in 
 ethics as well. He received degrees from Yale; he received de- 
 grees from the College of New Jersey. He was, it is believed, 
 the first man to have received the degree of Doctor of Divinity 
 from a foreign university. What he was as a preacher we do not 
 know. We know that as a theologian he, too, was conservative, 
 and that he joined Mr. Cross in the protest made against revivals 
 in the Synod; but his friend, Dr. Ewing, describes him as a man 
 frank, ingenuous and nobly catholic in his spirit, a lover of 
 liberty to all mankind — how that note is always struck in the 
 men of those days ! — and a man who hated bigotry, superstition 
 and oppression. As a preacher, it is said, he was warm, an- 
 imated, argumentative and pathetic, and, says Dr. Ewing, his 
 
100 Si-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 friend and his companion, " There are thousands in this city to- 
 day [Philadelphia] who can bear witness to the earnestness with 
 which he was willing to spend and to be spent for their salvatiqp, 
 and to declare to them the whole salvation of God." But Dr. 
 Ewing was evidently himself the greater man. He was a man 
 of urbane culture and of the widest type of intellectual disci- 
 pline, with superb health. He discharged for many years the 
 work of pastor, provost and professor. When he went abroad 
 the freedom of the city of Glasgow was given to him. He 
 argued the cause of the colonies with Lord North before the 
 Revolution. He mollified and he made courteous even the iras- 
 cible and anti-American Dr. Samuel Johnson by the beauty of 
 his reply and the evidence of his learning, and, as the provost 
 of the university and as the pastor of the First Church of this 
 city, in this place he occupied a position of commanding influ- 
 ence. In fact, the language of Dr. Samuel Miller, of Princeton, 
 with regard to Dr. Ewing seems almost too extravagant to be 
 true or for me to repeat. Dr. Samuel Miller wrote, " There is 
 absolutely no one in America who has so wide a knowledge of 
 all the studies which are studied in college as Dr. Ewing. 
 Logic and history, Latin, Greek and Hebrew 7 , metaphysics and 
 philosophy — he is equally at home in them all." And Dr. Mil- 
 ler adds that the provost of the university, who was also pastor 
 of this church, when he was called upon at an hour's notice to 
 fill the vacant chair caused by the absence of a professor tem- 
 porarily, was able to step in and fill that chair, be the subject 
 what it might, with as much success, and Dr. Miller says with 
 even more success, than the incumbent of the chair could him- 
 self. Surely under the influence of two men like Alison and 
 Ewing we can understand the growth of the First Church of 
 Philadelphia. The keynote of this period was education. Both 
 men were recognized as intellectual leaders in the community in 
 which they stood, and if in the period of establishment Andrews 
 and Cross used the pulpit of this church for the making of a 
 definite and real American Presbyterianism in this city, Alison 
 and Ewing, in the period which succeeded, used this church to 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 101 
 
 link Presbyterianism in that bond of union where she has ever 
 since stood, and where she may ever stand — union with education, 
 the pulpit and the chair, one and inseparable, as it is illustrated 
 in the intellectual power of this pulpit by the vice provost and 
 provost of the university. 
 
 Now our rapid sketch has brought us to the beginning of this 
 century, and we approach what I may, without disparagement 
 of that which has gone before, describe as the period of renown ; 
 for Dr. Wilson and Mr. Barnes gave to this pulpit a national 
 and even international reputation. By a singular coincidence, 
 as both of their predecessors were educators, so both of these 
 men had been originally designed for the bar. By a singular 
 coincidence also both of them had been in early life prone 
 to skepticism, and only by a process of distinct rational convic- 
 tion had thev been led to the faith ; and by a singular coin- 
 cidence in both cases the conversion of the man had been the 
 moment of his dedication to the Christian ministry. Dr. James 
 P. Wilson came to the ministry of this church after having prac- 
 ticed for fourteen years, with distinguished success, the profession 
 of the law in the state of Delaware. Graduating from the 
 University of Pennsylvania with the highest honors in 1788, he 
 had returned to his native state and there entered upon his pro- 
 fession. The integrity of his character gave weight to his em- 
 inent abilities as a lawyer. He is said to have been the only 
 man at the Delaware bar of that day whom the elder Bayard 
 feared to face. In fact, he became Chancellor of the state. He 
 was in the midst of worldly success, which promised him enor- 
 mous reputation and vast accumulations of wealth, but all the 
 while the evidences of Christianity had been coming home with 
 greater and greater force upon his mind, and a series of sorrow- 
 ful circumstances in his own family had turned his thoughts to 
 higher things ; and so suddenly, in the midst of his success, the 
 distinguished lawyer confessed his Saviour, and forthwith ded- 
 icated his trained mind to the service of his divine Lord. 
 
 When therefore, after a few years of ministry in Delaware, Dr. 
 Wilson, at the suggestion of his old friend, Benjamin Rush, was 
 
102 Bi-eentennial Celebration of the 
 
 invited to this church, he brought to it an established reputation 
 and most distinguished abilities. By some means Dr. Wilson 
 had managed to make himself a most learned theologian, as he 
 had been a learned lawyer. How he ever managed it I do not 
 know. What course of training he put himself through I do not 
 know. But the fact remains that he no sooner appears in the 
 pulpit than he appears as a man of profound erudition, and that, 
 too, along lines where we would not have expected it. He is 
 said to have been one of the few American churchmen of that 
 day who had read all the Greek and Latin fathers through, and 
 it is said also that he was accustomed to commend their perusal 
 to his congregation. He was equally familiar with the great 
 writers of the reformed theology. I have in my possession Dr. 
 Wilson's private copy of the Essay on the Probation of Fallen 
 Man, and it has been of great interest to read the notes in his 
 own handwriting which he has appended to his own book, and 
 from those notes it appears that he was skilled in the exposition of 
 Scripture in the original languages, and was possessed of an origi- 
 nality of mind and independence of thought which was truly re- 
 markable. In theology Dr. Wilson was a Calvinist, but he had 
 reacted against the hyper-Calvinism of certain New England 
 schools, and he objected to certain current phraseology of the 
 Calvinistic theology. He was also noted for his sympathy with 
 all other branches of Christians. In the days in which he lived 
 he would, I suppose, have been called a liberal. When judged 
 by the standards by which Ave judge, he was conservative enough, 
 but he was an independent thinker. He was a man who knew 
 what he believed and why he believed it. He was a scholar and 
 a theologian and a philosopher. He was a prince among the 
 preachers of his day, and he was ready to maintain his beliefs 
 against all antagonists. Dr. Wilson was in his glory in the 
 pulpit. As a writer he was never popular, but as a preacher he 
 commanded the attention of his audience. Conversational in 
 style, speaking with but little gesture, for many years of his life 
 sitting in a high chair in this pulpit, he talked to his people as a 
 father would to his family, while at the same time he summed 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 103 
 
 up his conclusions with the authority of a judge, and certainly, 
 my brethren, it was learned preaching. Dr. Wilson would delve 
 into a text of Scripture ; he would draw the finest distinctions of 
 grammar ; he would cite authority against authority, and then he 
 would draw his own independent conclusions. Or he would lead 
 his audience to the finer points of dogmatic theology. He would 
 draw the finest distinctions between contending views, and then 
 he would in order set before them the reasons which led to his 
 own conclusion. He would cite his divine statute book like a 
 lawyer, he would argue with the precision of a logician, and he 
 would sum it up like a judge. It was the movement of a giant 
 mind, and yet it was all done with such clearness of statement 
 and such simplicity of manner that his intelligent hearers were 
 able and were glad to follow him. Mr. Barnes relates that on 
 the only occasion on which he ever heard Dr. Wilson preach he 
 said, " I never was so absorbed in the subject which a public 
 speaker was discoursing upon as I was upon that occasion, and 
 what seemed true of me seemed to be true of the entire audience 
 as well." Verily, there were giants in those days. There must 
 have been giants in the pews, as there was a giant in the pulpit. 
 The discourse was one which compelled thought. Men were 
 used to thinking about theology in those days. They believed 
 theology was a thing to think about, and not a mere thing to feel 
 about. Therefore they were willing to think, and Dr. Wilson 
 made them think ; and there was nothing that Dr. Wilson had to 
 say that was of use to them unless they thought. It is true that 
 Dr. Wilson did not always discuss problems of theology. He 
 had his message for the common duties of common life as well, 
 but in the pulpit he was distinctively a man of intellect, and this 
 church never exerted a stronger influence than when that Nestor 
 was at her head. 
 
 This brings me, last of all, to the man whose name is associated 
 in the minds of most of us with this pulpit, the man whose new 
 memorial adorns this church, as it ought, and of whom I may 
 speak to-night as a son of his spiritual father. It is not neces- 
 sary for me to describe the external relations of Albert Barnes 
 
104 Bi-een(ennial Celebration of the 
 
 to this people and to this church, even to the extent to which I 
 have described those of his predecessor. Enough to say that he 
 graduated from Hamilton College and from Princeton Seminary. 
 After a five years ministry at Morristown, New Jersey, he was 
 Galled in 1830 to the pastorate of this church. The first years 
 of his ministry were years of sharp controversy, with which his 
 own name was intimately connected and his own person the 
 object of attack, and through which he passed not only with firm 
 confidence in his own convictions, but with a gentleness and mild- 
 ness of spirit which was truly beautiful. That controversy has 
 long since died and been buried, and even to allude to it seems 
 like taking up ancient history. Nevertheless we should not fail 
 to remember that to it Mr. Barnes was indebted in very large 
 measure for the notoriety with which he first blazed upon the 
 church of America. Not that he was a controversial preacher 
 at any time. He was as gentle as he was firm. He was as 
 large-hearted as he was positive, and in those days of fierce storm, 
 when the Presbyterian Church was broken into two halves, Albert 
 Barnes never used the, pulpit to pillory his opponents. Neither 
 need I dwell, nor can I dwell to-night, upon his wondrous liter- 
 ary activity. He was, as you know, a great maker of books. 
 He was the most popular commentator on the Scripture of his 
 day. He saw the opportunity which was before him, and he im- 
 proved it, of supplying a series of biblical hand-books which 
 should meet the needs of the growing number of Sunday-school 
 teachers throughout the world, and his book attained a usefulness 
 and circulation which had been equalled by nothing of the kind 
 ever before. To that he added other books on the atonement 
 and the evidences of Christianity, and spread his fame not only 
 in this land, but in other lands, and even into heathen lands as 
 well ; and so under him the press was allied with the pulpit, as 
 under Ewing and Alison the school had been allied with this 
 pulpit. It was known throughout the world as the great com- 
 mentator's pulpit, and strangers came to Philadelphia that they 
 might hear him preach. The same thing has been seen frequently 
 in more recent times, but Albert Barnes was I suppose the first 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 105 
 
 to ally the power of the pen with that of the living voice. Nor 
 can I venture to trust myself to delay to-night to describe his 
 personal character. Would that I were able to frame a fitting 
 tribute to express the love and veneration that we feel ! He was 
 the embodiment of conscience. He never swerved from the path 
 of duty, if he knew it. He was as simple and unaffected as a 
 child. He had the gentleness of a woman and the courage of a 
 knight. He was utterly without pretensions. He was singu- 
 larly distrustful of himself, so that he was surprised both at his 
 own fame and at the success of his books. His piety was of the 
 serene kind, like a southern sky. His convictions were as deep 
 as the deep sea currents. To hundreds of homes in Philadelphia 
 he was the representative of all that was holy and strong. We 
 reverenced him, we admired him, we loved him. 
 
 But I am not to speak of these things, but of the pulpit, for 
 that is my theme ; and yet, when one comes to consider wherein 
 lay the secret of the pulpit power of Albert Barnes, there is need 
 for most careful thought. He was, both in his manner and in 
 his method, a singularly plain and direct speaker. He was no 
 orator. He lacked in imagination. He had no powers of rhe- 
 torical description. He did not make use of illustrations to any 
 large degree. He did not use any of the outward or external 
 helps which most men employ to make their delivery emphatic. 
 His power must have lain in what he said, and in that alone, 
 and if I may be bold enough in this presence to-night to en- 
 deavor to analyze wherein lay the power of the pulpit of Albert 
 Barnes, I think I would make it to lie in the following features. 
 First of all, that it definitely and positively represented to the 
 community certain ideas for which he was known to stand, to 
 emphasize, and which his pulpit was the exponent of. Albert 
 Barnes, largely perhaps through the controversy, and through 
 the need of the emphasis, I do not hesitate to say, which was then 
 required to be placed upon these things, emphasized the freedom 
 of the gospel, the responsibilities of the individual man, and the 
 universal sweep and power of the redemption of the crucified. 
 It may seem strange to us that such things should have made a 
 
106 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 pulpit conspicuous or distinctive, but we live in a different atmos- 
 phere altogether. Men came to this church expecting to hear 
 that side of truth emphasized, and they heard it. Men came to 
 this church expecting to hear ringing protestations of gospel 
 freedom, human responsibility, and the everlasting and universal 
 offering of the cross, and they heard it ; and there can be no 
 doubt, first of all, that it was the association in men's minds of 
 Albert Barnes with that distinctive emphasis on truth which he 
 gave it, which made him in the first place the power of his 
 pulpit. Then, next to that, his pulpit was conspicuous as a 
 rational pulpit. You listened to him as to a man who had 
 thought out a system of Christianity from premise to conclusion. 
 He never seemed to want to drive or to excite you, but always 
 to persuade you. This was conspicuously the type of his mind. 
 He had a logical mind. His favorite argument was the argu- 
 ment from analogy. He had been much influenced by Thomas 
 Chalmers. Especially, however, in his own personal experi- 
 ence the cause of this lay. He had first been skeptical, and he 
 continued, I may fairly say, to have the skeptical habit to the 
 end of his life. He always felt the power of doubt. He always 
 felt the power of opposing arguments. Unless a thing rationally 
 commended itself to his understanding, rationally commended it- 
 self to his comprehension, he would not accept of it. Christian- 
 ity must seem to him rational, or he could not preach it. This 
 was the second source of his power. There are not many men 
 who like long to listen to mere dogmatism. There are not many 
 men who like long to be fed with the nebulous diet which comes 
 from the hands of the mystic. Neither of those classes were the 
 men that were attracted to Albert Barnes. But the fundamental 
 characteristic of his method of preaching was that it was an ap- 
 peal to the reason of men, and he believed from his very soul, 
 what some men in our day are foolishly denying, that although 
 Christianity is supernatural absolutely and wholly, yet that it 
 can justify itself at the bar of the human mind. 
 
 Then, in the third place, the power of Albert Barnes' preach- 
 ing lay in the fact that it was expository. This was the result 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. > 107 
 
 doubtless of his own commentaries and their influence upon him- 
 self. It is one thing to be biblical ; it is another thing to be 
 expository. He loved to go through the Bible book by book, or 
 through a book in order, as he did in his own exposition of them. 
 That was the day when this was not common. Dogmatical con- 
 troversy was to the front, and the consequence of his method of 
 continuous biblical exposition was that his people came to drink, 
 Sunday after Sunday, of the fresh, clear waters of salvation, and 
 of course they came again and again to drink. 
 
 But again we add to that, that the power of the pulpit of Al- 
 bert Barnes lay in the fact that he always emphasized the appli- 
 cation of the teachings of Scripture to current social and even 
 political questions. As I have said, his interest was practical 
 and not speculative, through and through, and he had the cour- 
 age of his convictions. He lived in an age of controversy. It 
 was in 1833, when he had just come to this church and when the 
 storms of theological controversy were upon him, that he preached 
 a brief sermon on the Christian's conformity to the world, in 
 which he levelled his shafts against doubtful amusements and 
 social vices. Then his pulpit stood for aggressive religion and 
 against aggressive iniquity. He lived at a time when the Sun- 
 day-school was first coming into being, and, as I have said, his 
 " Notes " were intended to advance that movement. Missions, 
 in the next place, were to the front. The church was just be- 
 ginning to realize that the gospel was to be preached to the 
 world, and into the missionary movement Albert Barnes threw 
 himself with his old enthusiasm. Next came the temperance 
 question. He lived at a time when men's minds were just be- 
 ginning to be awakened to the awful degradation of Christendom 
 through drink, and it is noteworthy that he not only throughout 
 his life declared himself on the side of total abstinence against 
 an overwhelming sentiment, but that he had the satisfaction, 
 when in Morristown and a young man, of knowing that through 
 his labors the drink traffic had nearly been driven out of that 
 community. Then came the threatening storm of civil strife. 
 The slavery question was uppermost. Men spoke of it with 
 
108 Bi-ccatennial Celebration of the 
 
 bated breath. They expressed their opinions at the risk of 
 friendship and reputation. Homes were divided. Friendships 
 were broken. Mr. Barnes uttered his emphatic protest against 
 the peculiar institution as a preacher of righteousness, declaring 
 that it was unholy in the sight of God, not as an agitator would, 
 but with the calmness and dignity and profound conviction of a 
 man of God, and people listened to those calm, brief words as 
 they would to a martyr who was ready to die for his faith. In 
 fact, the most pathetic thing about Mr. Barnes' pulpit was the 
 interest which he took in life. He longed to live ; he longed 
 that he might be spared to see the onward movement of progress. 
 His intelligent interest was the keenest in the things which were 
 taking place about him ; and what gives a pulpit more power, 
 my hearers, than a man whose soul is filled with the truth which 
 has come from God, and at the same time whose life is in the 
 closest touch with the struggles, doubts and questionings of the 
 men and women about him, and who brings that truth and that 
 struggling humanity together? That is what Mr. Barnes did. 
 There lay one great secret of his power. I should not fail to 
 add that he was eminently a hopeful preacher. He was a con- 
 vinced optimist. He seems to me to have anticipated Brown- 
 ing's words, " God is in his heaven. All is right with the 
 world." Not that but Mr. Barnes, or Browning either, failed to 
 see the shame, the guilt of life, but that he believed in redemp- 
 tion, that he believed in the onward, conquering march of the 
 Christ, and he believed that the world was ever getting better 
 under the influence of Christianity, and therefore he came to his 
 people with this cheering, hearty, hopeful, steadfast faith, which 
 was ever sure to bring peace and joy to their hearts. Such 
 seems to me to have been the secret, humanly speaking, of the 
 power of the pulpit of Albert Barnes. 
 
 Many of us remember that Sunday morning when the news 
 sped from home to home that he was gone. Like Enoch, he had 
 walked with God, and like Enoch, he was not found, for God had 
 taken him. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, without 
 a struggle and without a pain, and perhaps just because of the 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 109 
 
 swiftness of his translation, does his life stand before us in its 
 unbroken, massive strength, and he, being dead, yet speaketh. 
 
 So I bring to a close, my hearers, my hasty sketch of the pulpit 
 of this church. To sum it up, let me say that from the begin- 
 ning it has been an intellectual pulpit, dealing with men by the 
 power of great truths, never descending to the trivial or the 
 sentimental ; fundamentally believing that thought is the master 
 of the man, and that ideas are the moving power of the human 
 heart, It has been a theological pulpit, never hesitating to 
 explain the articles of the Christian creed, and believing that 
 Christian life can be best fed by specific and articulate doctrine. 
 It has been a human pulpit, in touch with life, sensitive to the 
 needs and struggles of those about it. A nd, to crown all, it has 
 been from the beginning on, as it is this day, an evangelical 
 pulpit. It has proclaimed man's lost state. It has proclaimed 
 redemption by the crucified alone. It has proclaimed the saving 
 power of the blood of Calvary. Behind these men who have 
 stood in the pulpit of the First Church there has ever been the 
 cross, unseen and yet not unseen ; for, with streaming eyes and 
 trembling lips and beating hearts, they have been calling the 
 generations, one after another, to come beneath its shadow, and 
 they have proclaimed that there is no salvation save in him who 
 hung thereon, and therefore in this church thousands have found 
 the way of life. Here children have sung the praises of their 
 Redeemer. Here young men and women have made their con- 
 fession. Here strong men have bowed and submitted their lives 
 to Christ, and a great host, some of them in glory and some of 
 them still upon the field of battle, are what they are to-day, 
 under God, because of the ministry of this dear old church. Yet 
 we cannot merely honor our fathers. We rather thank God that 
 he gave them unto us. Then we take courage for the future, and 
 we swear as by the altars of our sires that we, too, will proclaim 
 the truth as they proclaimed it, and that we, too, will do it fear- 
 lessly and fully as they did it; that we will meet the ques- 
 tions of our day as they met the questious of their day, 
 and that, above all, like our fathers, we will uphold the 
 
110 Bi-cen term ia I Celebration. 
 
 cross of Calvary, let men say what they will, and proclaim 
 that atonement for human sin which it has been the glory of this 
 pulpit to proclaim. We will summon the twentieth century to 
 come to the service of their Redeemer as our fathers did the two 
 centuries that are gone. If Ave have had a great history, may 
 God give us a great future. 
 
 HYMN 521. • 
 
 BENEDICTION. 
 
TUESDAY EVENING, 
 
 NOVEMBER 15, 189S. 
 
 GREETINGS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 ANTHEM. — "How Amiable are Thy Dwellings." — Barnby. 
 
 PRAYER.— Rev. William H. Roberts, D.D., LL.D., 
 Stated Clerk of the General Assembly. 
 
 Oh, Thou who art the King immortal and eternal, lift upon 
 us, as we stand within this sanctuary, the light of Thy presence. 
 Shed abroad within our hearts, by the Holy Spirit, the influences 
 of the faith and the hope which are in Thy Son, our Lord 
 and Saviour. As we gather together this evening hour may it be 
 true of each one of us that he can say, with Thy ancient servant, 
 " I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of 
 the Lord." We praise Thee, O God, for Thine unnumbered 
 mercies unto us, Thy people. We thank Thee alike for the gifts 
 of Thy providence and the riches of Thy saving grace. We bless 
 Thee, above all, for Thy gift unspeakable unto us, Thy Son, 
 Jesus Christ, the great head of Thy Church, the Catholic. We 
 bless Thee in this hour for the Church, which is His body, for 
 that portion of it which is found within this Zion, for the history 
 of this particular church of Jesus Christ, for the faithful servants 
 of the Lord who here have endeavored to do their duty unto 
 Him from generation to generation. We thank Thee likewise, 
 O God, for the history of that larger branch of Thy Church of 
 which we are all members. We praise Thee for the Presbyterian 
 
 ill 
 
112 Bi-eentennial Celebration of the 
 
 Church in these United States of America. We thank Thee 
 that in all its history it has been faithful to the word of Thy 
 truth, to the doctrines of the cross, and to the headship of the 
 Lord Jesus. We bless Thee that, knowing the truth, it has pro- 
 claimed that truth, and that through that truth this great nation, 
 of which Ave are a part, is in truth free with the freedom with 
 which Christ enfranchises immortal souls. We thank Thee for 
 Thy rich blessing as ministered to our church, for the missionary 
 spirit which for several generations has stirred within her, for 
 the triumphs of the gospel as achieved, under Thy blessing, 
 through her instrumentality. We bless, Thee, Father, for our 
 beloved country. We thank Thee that in her borders Christ is 
 honored and served, and we pray Thee that, more and more 
 through her in every troublous time, Thou wouldst vindicate the 
 wisdom of Thy guidance, and wouldst glorify in our history Thy 
 Son, Jesus Christ. More and more give us as a people to walk in 
 His footsteps and to be true to His gospel, which is to be 
 preached unto every creature, and is to bring life and liberty and 
 joy, both for this life and the life which is to come. Unite all 
 Americans, we pray Thee, and bless them for Thy Church uni- 
 versal. We thank Thee for that Church which is Thine house, 
 O God, the pillar and the ground of the truth, as found in every 
 land, and we pray Thee more and more purify her unto Thyself, 
 sanctify her by Thy spirit, and make her to be in truth a glori- 
 ous Church. And now, abide with us, we pray Thee, through- 
 out this service. As Thou hast shed abroad here within this 
 house and throughout the borders of Thy Zion Thy presence in 
 clays past, lift upon us the light of Thy favor this evening and 
 the succeeding evenings of this anniversary occasion, and bless, 
 we beseech Thee, all of us, with all the interests which we repre- 
 sent as we bow in Thy presence. May Thy rich blessings rest 
 upon this congregation, upon the pastor who here abides in 
 strength, upon all who are associated with him in the work of 
 the Lord, upon the Presbyterian Church in these United States, 
 and the people of Christ in every land. May it be, O God, 
 clearly made manifest in the days that are close at hand that 
 
THE MARKET STREET i'lll'Ki'11 ()K 17H4. 
 
 |p ;RP|tp BJlIlfPii 
 
 THE ALBERT BARNES MEMORIAL, CORNER OF SEVENTH AND SPRUCE STREETS. 
 
 ERECTED 1896. 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 113 
 
 Thou art in the midst of Thy people, causing prosperity to be 
 made manifest in her palaces and peace to dwell within her 
 borders. Glorify Thy Son through the unity of Thy people in 
 their faith in Jesus Christ, their hope of salvation to Him, and 
 their labors for the spread of His kingdom ; and unto Thy name, 
 Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, shall be all the praise. Amen. 
 
 HYMN 307. 
 
 KEV. HERRICK JOHNSON, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 It is not often that an audience is favored with the presence of 
 three Moderators in the pulpit or on the platform. It is more 
 rare that each of these three Moderators should be down for a 
 speech, and it is more rare still that these Moderators should 
 represent such august bodies as the Presbytery of Philadelphia, 
 the Synod of Pennsylvania, and the General Assembly of the 
 Presbyterian Church of the United States of America. It is my 
 business to moderate these Moderators to-night; but their moder- 
 ation being known and read of all men already, they will need 
 no moderating; and so I will call upon Dr. Wallace RadclifFe, 
 D.D., Bishop at Washington, and Moderator of the Assembly of 
 the United States that met at Wenonah last May, to give us the 
 first address. 
 
 ADDRESS. -Rev. Wallace Radcliffe, D.D., 
 
 Moderator of the General Assembly. 
 
 Brethren of the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, I 
 am sure if formal voice could be given I would be authorized to 
 bring to you in your thanksgiving the hearty congratulations of 
 the whole Presbyterian Church of the United States of America. 
 This is no local interest. It lias been no temporary achievement. 
 Your name and your influence reaches beyond the confines of the 
 Presbyterian Church, and all good people rejoice with you, and 
 congratulate you upon the memories of the past, the joys and 
 
114 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 inspirations of this hour. There is no need to-night to heed the 
 apostolic admonition to forget the things that are behind, and I 
 apprehend no dread of any saline judgment, nor any need of 
 admonition to remember Lot's wife. We will look back ; for we 
 do not look back upon any sin or Sodom, but upon that which 
 carries in it joy, help, high achievement and rare and precious 
 hope. Many things are emphasized in the history and work of 
 this church. I think every one will recognize that among these 
 the first — not the first thing perhaps in importance, but the first 
 that I will mention — is that you have emphasized the authority 
 of the sermon. The pulpit has been the central thing in the 
 worship of this church. It has been the commanding thing in the 
 history and influence of this church. It needs emphasis in our day. 
 We have sometimes the suggestion that the sermon must be ab- 
 breviated, that there must be somehow an intrusion of other things 
 that shall give it a subordinate place. Nay, there are those who 
 will see it entirely out of its honored place in church services, 
 as they vainly imagine that in the day of culture and spiritual 
 achievement the sermon has lost its power and place. There was 
 a definition in one of the old books on homiletics which said 
 that the sermon was a brief essay upon some religious subject, to 
 be read after service. I do not suppose that this church ever 
 accepted that definition of the sermon. You have magnified 
 your pulpit. You have demanded the consecrated brain, and 
 therefore from this church have gone out the streams that have 
 made glad the city of our God. The message of the church is a 
 proclamation of truth, of special truth for special purposes. Its 
 business is to announce truth, that human souls may be redeemed 
 and built up into the likeness of Jesus Christ. Its business is to 
 proclaim not economy, not sociology, and certainly not the tran- 
 sient interests of passing politics, but transcendentlv, supremely 
 always, the truth which is to liberate man from sin and bring 
 him into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Truth is in 
 order to goodness. Truth is necessary to goodness. Xo goodness 
 without the knowledge of the truth. Ignorance is not the mother 
 of devotion. If man is to be disenthralled, if society is to be 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 115 
 
 uplifted, if the world is to he redeemed, it will be supremely by the 
 power of the written and preached word. It will be a bad day 
 for the world when the church is too busy to preach. The church 
 that preaches is the church that conquers, not immediately, not 
 in a day or a year; but the church that brings to man the truth 
 out of which the true and accepted life will arise, is the church 
 that one day will comprehend in its influence and in its glory 
 humanity. Nothing else will make men. You may have a 
 Christmas tree, beautiful to look upon, full of toys, brilliant with 
 lights, but you cannot have an oak unless it has the roots 
 grounded in the soil, and the Tree of Life arises from the roots 
 of the true doctrine; and this church has emphasized, and does 
 to-day in its history emphasize, in the second place, the vitality 
 of Presbyterian doctrine. We are told sometimes that Presby- 
 terianism has passed its growth, that Calvinism is about dead. 
 It is the fashion to look at us who believe in it as rather old 
 fogies, and again and again we have had the announcement that 
 it is doomed, if not dead. Calvinism is old, old as Calvin, old as 
 Augustine, old as Paul, old as David and Moses, but it is as new 
 as the nineteenth century, and it is as applicable to men's lives, 
 to the problems of society, to the interests of legislation, to the 
 happiness of the world, as in its first announcement. Calvin- 
 ism carries in itself not only the essential characteristics of human 
 salvation, but the power specifically and supremely that makes for 
 righteousness. Calvinism is distinctly and distinctively evangel- 
 istic. We are taught sometimes, you know, that we are a good, 
 staid, sober people; but if you want communities aroused, if you 
 want the evident outpouring of the Spirit, if you want enthusiasm 
 and numbers and speedy achievement, you must try some other 
 "ism." Presbyterianism is good in its place, but we want some- 
 thing more noisy and more direct; and yet has it ever occurred to 
 you that Calvinism is the one great revival doctrine ? It is under 
 Calvinism that the great revivals of the Church have occurred. 
 Go right down the history of the mighty movements of the Spirit 
 of God, not here and there in little communities, not in some 
 village church, not as following the footsteps of some one man, 
 
116 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 but moving down the years and bringing to men the power 
 that grips communities and nations, that lifts men and com- 
 munities and nations up from darkness into the larger light 
 and liberty, that has given to humanity the new view of 
 Christ and the larger sense and power of the eternal things, 
 and from the beginning until now you will find that it is by the 
 modification and reiteration of that doctrine which we call Cal- 
 vinism, and of those truths which we find embodied in the word 
 of God. Read the book of the Acts, " Him, being delivered by 
 the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, 
 and by wicked hands have crucified and slain," and out of that 
 the revival of the thousands of converts, and down through the 
 years the truth that was mighty is the truth which you and I 
 understand as Calvinism. And so it comes to pass that when the 
 Presbyterian doctrine takes hold of a church or of a community, 
 it lives. This church lives, and it is the testimony to this nation 
 of the vitalizing power of tin; vitality that lies in the truth this 
 pulpit preached. It comes to pass, you know, that we are in the 
 habit of saying that you cannot kill a Presbyterian church. The 
 funeral is often appointed, but the corpse is not ready. Often 
 and often Presbyterian ism has had its funeral appointed, but we 
 have had no services. I can remember a little church that very 
 nearly died — a Presbyterian church of colored people. They lost 
 their pastor, they lost all their elders but one, they lost their 
 sexton, they lost all their people apparently, and the shutters 
 hung, and the paint became discolored, and the fires went out, 
 and things seemed to be in dissolution, but the one remaining 
 elder became sexton. lie could not preach, lie could not teach 
 the Sabbath-school, but every Sunday night he unlocked that 
 church, and built a fire, and by himself held prayer meeting. 
 "All the winter long the prayer meeting of one, or, as he was in 
 the habit of saying— dear old Hiram Fry, of blessed memory— 
 "A prayer meeting of four, the Father and the Son and the 
 Holy Ghost and me," and right out of that prayer meeting came 
 finally, at the end of that winter, quickening thoughtfulness, the 
 gathering of one and another to the prayer meeting, until now 
 
First Presbyterian Chureh in Philadelphia. 117 
 
 they have their pastor, their beautiful church, their crowded 
 pews, and quite as good and quite as live a church in its Presby- 
 terian work and worship as any other church in the state of 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 This church has emphasized again the grace of spiritual hos- 
 pitality. You have welcomed new ways of stating things. You 
 got yourselves into trouble some time ago by it, but at the same 
 time, it is a good thing. The maiden is the same, though she 
 appear in muslin or in silken robes — just as beautiful, just as fair, 
 and just as winning. Truth must not always wear upon itself 
 the black robe. We have a right to expect new garments, new 
 statements, new announcements, new formulas, and he is wise 
 who, knowing the spirit of the times, takes the truth that is old 
 and gives it the new garment that makes it winning and 
 acceptable to the common man. You have been hospitable further, 
 in that you have welcomed new T ways of doing: thing's. Some 
 churches do things by going away from them ; they move out, but 
 there were things to be done in this community. The gospel was 
 still to be preached. It required grit and grace to stand in your 
 lot, to accept your responsibilities, and to here fulfill the work of 
 your anointing. It is the great problem of to-day. We have 
 not yet conquered the cities. The gospel of Christ is blocked 
 in its approach and hindered in our great cities as nowhere else, 
 and through the gospel of Christ, and by the activity of the 
 church, the nation is to come to its larger life and better liberty 
 as the gospel, through the church, solves the problem of the 
 large cities. You are meeting your responsibilities. That 
 trouble, I believe, is to be met not by more churches, but by 
 large ones. It is to be met along the line that the Westmins- 
 ter divines taught us, as they taught in their day — the multi- 
 plicity of helpers, the doctor and the pastor, the multitude of 
 helpers which shall seize the opportunities, which shall go down 
 the varied and multiplying channels of religious activity, and 
 make a large church a mighty factor, a fountain of influence from 
 which shall go out the multiplied streams of beneficence to their 
 communities. And so, out of this all, dear brethren, I congrat- 
 
118 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 ulateyou that these and all other things but emphasize in your 
 life and in your hopes the sure presence of the Divine Spirit. 
 All honor to the men who in the years past have consecrated talent 
 and service here. All honor to the men and women who by 
 their faith and prayers have magnified here the grace of our God. 
 All honor to the history of the years, for this is but honoring the 
 present grace and magnifying the name of the present Christ. 
 This history had been impossible save as Christ was fulfilling to 
 you, as he has through all of the years, "Lo, I am with you 
 alwavs," day by day and every day unto the end of the world. 
 'May the benediction continue, that the years to come shall reveal 
 still in the larger faith, in the better patience, in the more radiant 
 hope, in the nobler achievement, the spirit of Him who walketh 
 in the midst of the golden candlesticks. 
 
 REV. HERRICK JOHNSON, D.D , LL.D. 
 
 It has been the blessed custom of this great anniversary week 
 to have an offering made at each service in behalf of the endow- 
 ment fund of this church, and in the full belief of one of the 
 doctrines that have been eulogized to-night and commended every 
 night from this platform, in the full belief of the perseverance 
 of the saints, we mean to continue this custom to the close of the 
 week, and an offering is to be made to-night in behalf of the 
 endowment fund of this church. May I be pardoned if I refer to 
 the historical fact that this endowment fund originated, not through 
 any purpose of my own, but incidentally, while I was pastor of 
 this church. Many of us felt that this church ought to move to 
 another part of the city and continue its work there as one of the 
 great historical churches of the Presbyterian Church of the 
 United States of America. A subscription was started for the 
 purpose. It reached something like $40,000, but there were 
 some so reluctant to move from the old spot, and so many entered 
 their protest, that the movement was finally abandoned. I thank 
 God for that this evening. I believe, though I did not believe at 
 the time, that it was a wise decision. Many of the subscribers 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 119 
 
 to that fund for the removal of the church determined to let 
 their contributions stand as contributions to an endowment fund 
 that should perpetuate the existence of this church for all time in 
 this locality, and who can doubt but that that was a wise decis- 
 ion? God has put before this First Presbyterian Church of 
 Philadelphia a door open, and there is a great and wide and 
 blessed work for this church to do in the future. It needs this 
 endowment fund. You all know that wealth in large part has 
 moved away from this locality, and the congregation cannot be 
 depended upon for all the vast expense which is involved in con- 
 nection with the prosecution of such work as is being done bv 
 this church at this time, and hence it is proposed to advance the 
 endowment fund during this anniversary week. Something 
 like $100,000 has already been secured. It ought to have 
 $200,000. Brethren, as the Lord has prospered you, give 
 to-night, that you may put a stone in this building that shall 
 perpetuate the Presbyterian influence and the gospel of the blessed 
 God. There are cards in the pews for the use of those who may 
 not be provided with the requisite funds, and the offering will 
 now be made. 
 
 OFFERTORY. 
 
 REV. HERRICK JOHNSON, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 Rev. Dr. George W. Chalfant, our Bishop at Pittsburg, and 
 Moderator of the Synod of Pennsylvania, will be the next 
 speaker. He brings to the mother church of this city the 
 greetings of the Synod of Pennsylvania. 
 
 ADDRESS.— Rev. George W. Chalfant, D.D. 
 
 In the arrangement of this program the order of official 
 dignity has perhaps been in view— the General Assembly, the 
 Synod and the Presbytery. The historical order, you know, 
 would be just the. opposite, and in either case, above all, we put 
 in the place of honor the church out of which they sprang, one 
 
1 20 Bi-eentennial Celebration of the 
 
 following the other. In the country — a great country, the most 
 populous as it is the oldest in the world — in which it was my 
 privilege to spend this year from March to October, antiquity is 
 honored as it is nowhere else. Among the old things that we 
 saw there was the great wall, fifteen hundred and fifty miles 
 long, forty feet thick at the bottom and twenty-five at the top, 
 and thirty-five feet high, that for twenty-three hundred years has 
 stood between China proper and the roving bands of the far 
 North. One Sabbath we spent in an old temple called the 
 "Temple of the Horn Mountain," just at the base of the wall 
 where it surmounts the loftiest peak of the mountains separating 
 China proper from Manchuria. We knew that the temple was about 
 the same age as the wall itself, and was closely associated in 
 thought and in the estimation of the people with it. We asked 
 the priest who presided up there what this temple had to do 
 with the wall. "Why," he said, "don't you know, by the temple 
 the wall stands ? " Now, outwardly it appeared to us that the 
 temple was defended by the wall, because it was on the safe side, 
 the Chinese side of that great bulwark ; but, on further reflection, we 
 saw that perhaps the priest had represented the matter more accord- 
 ing to the truth, for the temple was supposed to represent that invis- 
 ible power by which all outward thiugs subsist. And so it seems 
 to me, if yonder Independence Hall represents the bulwark of 
 that in this land which we all prize and value — our social and 
 political structure ; and then, if this old church represents, as it 
 does represent, the service and worship rendered to the Supreme 
 Spiritual Power, we can stand here to-night and say, " By the 
 temple the wall stands." 
 
 But a social custom prevails in that old country, to which I 
 intended principally to refer when I introduced this illustration, 
 a social rule which we saw exemplified on more than one occasion. 
 Many generations dwell in the same house,and where there is a grand- 
 father and a father and a son, or even another generation — four 
 generations or five generations in the household — it is the universal 
 law all over that land that when the grandfather sits down to his 
 meal, or to the feast of honor, all his descendants stand and wait. 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 121 
 
 Never would one of them, though he were the emperor himself, 
 dare to sit down with the aged parent at the same feast. The 
 younger only look on and try to take in and contribute to the 
 honor and joy of the elders; and so we come to serve you 
 to-night, But we are reminded that the antiquity of China is 
 largely an effete, lifeless thing, yields no fruit, develops no fresh 
 interest, accomplishes nothing for the present generation and 
 promises nothing for the future. This, we rejoice to know, is not 
 true of the antiquity of this church. That antiquity is the 
 antiquity of the brook, that goes on forever ; of the living, fruit- 
 bearing tree, that gathers in strength and gathers in the blessed 
 return that it affords to those who may enjoy it from year to 
 year and from age to age. What we rejoice in, above all other 
 things, looking back over these two hundred years, is that the 
 First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, from the beginning 
 until now, has stood for an aggressive, earnest evangelism, has 
 meant going out to seek ancHo save the lost. Pardon me if I illus- 
 trate and enforce this single observation by an incident that is 
 somewhat personal. My own ancestors came to Philadelphia 
 with that good old man whom you all honor, William Penn, 
 before this church was built, but my grandfather removed beyond 
 the mountains. There my father was born and lived and died, 
 and there I was born and reared and had my education until I 
 was ready to enter the ministry. My first call was to this side 
 of the mountains, to the neighborhood of Harrisburg, where I 
 became the first pastor of a little church that had been organized 
 only a little while before. In that church there was, among 
 others, an elder, a physician of very large practice, of very exem- 
 plary life, and active in all the Lord's work, highly respected and 
 beloved by all in that community. That physician was a won- 
 derful lover and admirer of Dr. Albert Barnes. When he was 
 a medical student in this city, he attended this church, and if I 
 am not mistaken, made a profession of religion in this church, 
 and he never could talk enough about his reminiscences of what 
 he had heard and what he had experienced in this blessed place, 
 which at that time I had never seen. He gave me a little book 
 
122 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 of Albert Barnes', and I have it yet. Among other things, he told 
 me a little story. I give it to you just as he gave it to me. He 
 said that one time a young man, just out of the seminary, was 
 called upon to occupy this pulpit for Dr. Barnes. Being very 
 much exercised about it, and desirous of meeting public expecta- 
 tion, he came to Dr. Barnes to consult about what he should 
 preach, and he brought several sermons with him. He had pre- 
 pared a number of elaborate sermons in the way of exposition or 
 defence of the peculiar doctrines that were exciting a good deal of 
 controversy at that period, which gathered around the venerable 
 pastor of this church, as you all know. He thought it would be 
 eminently proper for him to bring the fruits of his fresh study 
 to the defence of this great and good man ; so he went over these 
 several sermons, and, after he had presented them all, the doctor 
 said: " My young brother, keep those great doctrinal sermons 
 for the country church out where you reside. People out there 
 will be able to understand and appreoiate them. Bring to us, in 
 this sinful city, the simple gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ." That 
 little story, whether true or false, has remained in my mind. It 
 influenced my whole ministry, and has given me my conception 
 of the great and good man who served you so long — a man I 
 never saw, whom I never had the honor of personally knowing ; 
 but I feel sure that it represents not only the controlling spirit of 
 that great man, but also of the church which he served, which 
 others have so nobly served before him and after him, and which 
 is here to-night to call to mind these precious things of the 
 ancient times. 
 
 Allow me, brethren, to emphasize, if possible, this single 
 thought in another way, before I sit down, by reciting a simple 
 allegory which I framed many years ago for some little children. 
 In Arabia there were two young men, one we will call Mahmoud, 
 and the other Ali, who had noticed with concern how much the 
 caravans suffered in crossing the great desert ; how they some- 
 times perished from thirst, and sometimes were overwhelmed by 
 the mighty sand storms. Mahmoud was rich, but Ali was poor. 
 One day Mahmoud said to Ali, " I know what I will do. I will 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 123 
 
 take the wealth that Allah has bestowed upon me, and I will 
 have great stones carried out into the midst of the desert, and 
 will build a caravansary, high and strong, and I will have an 
 endowed train of camels that will bring supplies across the 
 desert, and there I will keep abundance of water and food for 
 man and for beasts." So he built this mighty structure, and upon 
 the topmost stone had his own name engraved, that posterity 
 might know how much Mahmoud had done for the glory of God 
 and for the welfare of humanity. Ali said, "I am poor. I am 
 not able to build a great caravansary like Mahmoud has built, 
 yet God has given me something. He has given me patience, he 
 has given me physical strength, and a measure of skill." So Ali 
 went out in the desert and began to delve with his hands, and 
 throw out the sand, day after day, in the hot, burning sun, until 
 he had made a great pit, and there in the bottom there began to 
 appear moisture. Then he went once, and again and again, away 
 across the desert, and bore upon his shoulders loads of earth, and 
 he brought little seeds and little sprouts of plants and trees. He 
 mixed the earth with the moist sand, put in the seeds and the 
 little sprouts; he attended them with the utmost care; they grew 
 and flourished, and as they began to shed their shade over the 
 opening, lo ! the water increased and rose and rose inch by inch, 
 until, as years went by, and the plants attended by his care grew 
 to trees, lo ! the water began to flow. Still he kept planting 
 his seeds, and placing his little germs along its banks. It 
 swelled to a wide stream, flowed out into the desert, and green- 
 ness and beauty began to spring up all around it. The ages 
 rolled on. The sands of the desert piled higher and higher 
 against the stout walls of Mahmoud's caravansary, until they 
 leaped over them; they filled all the space, and there was nothing 
 in the place of that mighty and beneficent structure but a great 
 mountain of barren sand. But Ali's oasis is green and inviting 
 still. There to-day the caravans delight to rest and refresh 
 themselves as they pass over the weary desert. So it seems to 
 me, brethren, the laborers of the past, the dead and the living, 
 have sought to open up and maintain here a blessed oasis for the 
 
124 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 refreshment of man and for the glory of God, and by his bless- 
 ing it abides, and by that continued blessing it will abide until 
 there is ushered in the reign, the glorious reign, of the thousand 
 years. 
 
 HYMN 298. 
 
 REV. HERRICK JOHNSON, D.D., LL.D 
 
 Dr. Dana needs no introduction to a Philadelphia audience. 
 He represents for us to-night the Presbytery of Philadelphia, and 
 brings the greetings of the brethren of the city. 
 
 ADDRESS.— Rev. Stephen W. Dana, D.D., 
 
 Moderator of the Presbytery of Philadelphia. 
 
 I esteem it a privilege and an honor to extend the greetings 
 and the congratulations of the Philadelphia Presbytery on this 
 happy occasion. 
 
 I rejoice, first of all, that this old mother church is still alive — 
 that after its two hundred years of history it is so strong and 
 vigorous and without a wrinkle upon its brow. 
 
 When Li Hung Chang,- the great Chinese prime minister, was 
 visiting this country, his first question after an introduction was, 
 " How old are you '?" The papers made fun of it, and the ladies 
 did not always relish it, considering it somewhat impertinent. 
 It was intended, however, as a compliment. When Jacob came 
 to Egypt, the first question of Pharaoh was, "How old art 
 thou ?" Old age was considered a crown of glory, an evidence 
 of accumulated wisdom. An honored old age is still so con- 
 sidered by us. 
 
 There is something very impressive in the continuous life of a 
 nation or a church. Generations come and go. The leaders 
 and the led rise, do their work and pass away, but the old flag 
 still waves, and the old church still stands. This church has 
 had an honored pastorate, a distinguished eldership and member- 
 ship — a vast host in these successive years, who have " fought 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 125 
 
 the good fight, finished their course" and received their crown. 
 But others have come, who have entered into their heritage, per- 
 petuated their work and influence, and will transmit it to their 
 successors. 
 
 I rejoice, not only that you are alive, but that you still remain 
 on this old historic spot, in the midst of. a teeming population 
 who need the gospel, whether welcoming it or not. 
 
 I recall the agitation of twenty-five years ago or more con- 
 cerning the sale of this old church for the purpose of uniting 
 with another and moving to Broad Street. The argument for 
 taking such a step was that this church could not remain self- 
 sustaining with so many of its families and best supporters mov- 
 ing from it. Then began the effort to endow the church. A 
 goodly sum, thirty or forty thousand dollars, was then raised, 
 and in these later years, through heroic efforts, the endowmeut 
 of a hundred thousand dollars gives this church an opportunity 
 for enlarged usefulness just at a place where it is greatly needed. 
 You have found that " giving does not impoverish." There has 
 been a continuous outgoing from the life of this church to enrich 
 others. Yet, on that account, the heart of this mother church 
 has been enlarged and her own life lifted to a higher plane. 
 
 Those were days of small things, two hundred years ago, 
 when Jedediah Andrews, a graduate of Harvard, came from 
 Massachusetts to preach to that little company in the Barbadoes 
 Store or warehouse, and organized the First Presbyterian Church 
 in Philadelphia. The little company of Presbyterians to whom 
 he ministered had Scotch, Welsh, Swedish and New England 
 elements in it. The new congregation was far from homogene- 
 ous, and gave little promise of success. " The Presbyterians," 
 says the Episcopal missionary Talbot, " have come a great way 
 to lay hands on one another ; but, after all, I think they had as 
 good stay at home, for all the good they do." 
 
 The prospect was but little better in 1703. "They have 
 here," says Keith, "a Presbyterian meeting and minister, one 
 called Andrews j but they are not like to increase here." 
 (Gillett, 1, 211.) 
 
126 Bi-eentennial Celebration of the 
 
 The first century of Presbyterianism in Philadelphia was not 
 one of marked and gratifying increase. The bitter dissensions 
 and controversies had been one cause of weakness, and the in- 
 tense patriotism of our people during the Revolution had sub- 
 jected them to such persecution that many Presbyterian families 
 had fled the city, never more to return. In addition to this, 
 French infidelity had exerted its deadening, demoralizing influ- 
 ence upon the religious and irreligious alike, and the close o-f 
 the eighteenth century found the churches of all denominations 
 inert and languishing. At the beginning of this century, ninety- 
 eight years ago, there were but three Presbyterian churches in 
 this city and less than five hundred communicants in a popula- 
 tion of 69,408. The fourth church was organized, I believe, a 
 year or two after this. There are more communicants in this 
 one church alone than were in the three Presbyterian churches 
 of Philadelphia a hundred years ago. This century has been 
 marked by great advance in evangelical Christianity, to which 
 the Presbyterian Church has contributed its share. 
 
 Turning our eyes away from our own country and from the 
 vast mission fields beyond the sea, for which this church has 
 done so much, I congratulate this people on what they and theirs 
 have done for church extension within our own city. A hun- 
 dred years ago there were three Presbyterian churches in Phila- 
 delphia, with five hundred communicants. Now there are 
 seventy-three churches in the Presbytery of Philadelphia alone, 
 and within the city limits there are ninety-eight churches be- 
 longing to our branch of the Presbyterian Church, with 41,013 
 communicants and 46,532 in the Sunday-schools. In 1800 
 there was one Presbyterian church to 23,136 of the population. 
 Now there is one church to 12,244. In 1800 there was one 
 Presbyterian communicant to every 138 of the population ; in 
 1898 one Presbyterian communicant to twenty-nine and a quar- 
 ter of the population. 
 
 In this steady advance this old church has had no small share. 
 I shall not attempt a full history of church extension, but shall 
 single out a few of the notable instances in which this church 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 127 
 
 has borne a noble part. In 1808, Mr. Hamilton, who lived in 
 the old mansion which still stands in Woodlands Cemetery, and 
 after whom that suburb of the city was at one time called 
 Hamiltonville, gave a plot of ground to different denominations 
 in that village on condition that a church should be built upon 
 it within twenty years. In 1828, the last year of grace, mem- 
 bers of this church gave two thousand dollars to put up a simple 
 edifice on the lot given to the Presbyterians, in which twelve 
 years after, in 1840, was organized what is now known as the 
 Walnut Street Presbyterian Church, unto which I have had the 
 joy and privilege of ministering for over thirty years. The 
 Walnut Street Church, in turn, in addition to all the other good 
 it has done in its nearly sixty years of existence, has been chiefly 
 instrumental in starting three other churches— the Patterson 
 Memorial, the Emmanuel and the Greenway. The Clinton Street 
 Church, once such a tower of strength in this city, was formed 
 by a colony of choice spirits who went from this First Church 
 at the call of duty. In the same way Calvary was started, 
 which, in turn, became the mother of churches under the 
 leadership of such men as Matthew r Baldwin and John A. 
 Brown. Olivet, Tabor, Hope, and Hermon in Fraukford, are 
 the children of Calvary, while North Broad Street and Oxford 
 were greatly aided at first by Mr. Baldwin and others once mem- 
 bers of this First Church. The children are rising up to-day 
 to call the mother blessed. In all that aggressive period of 
 church extension, Albert Barnes was the leading spirit. For 
 forty years Albert Barnes held his place as the pastor of this 
 foremost Presbyterian church of Philadelphia. I consider it 
 an honor to have enjoyed, not only the acquaintance, but, as I 
 believe, the friendship of Albert Barnes. It was my privilege 
 to know him as he neared the setting sun in the calmness and 
 beauty of a serene old age. I heard much of Mr. Barnes, w T hile 
 a student in Union Seminary, from the lips of his old friend, 
 Dr. Skinner, who was our teacher of homiletics. Dr. Skinner 
 frequently held up Albert Barnes to us as a model pastor, 
 preacher and Bible student. I met him personally for the first 
 
128 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 time thirty-one years ago last spring, when I came to Philadel- 
 phia from my parish in Belvidere, New Jersey, to receive ordi- 
 nation from the Fourth Presbytery, to which Mr. Barnes and 
 this church belonged. His old friend and former elder in this 
 church, Dr. J. Marshall Paul, was my friend and elder in Belvi- 
 dere, and through him we were introduced. You can hardly 
 imagine my surprise when, at the first interview, he asked me 
 to lecture for him the following Wednesday night. Much as I 
 shrank from attempting to say anything in the pulpit of such a 
 man, he would not take no for an answer; and hence my first 
 sermon in Philadelphia was preached in the lecture room of this 
 church in the spring of 18G7. He was kind enough to go to 
 Belvidere at my installation and deliver the charge to the pastor. 
 When I came to Philadelphia, thirty years ago, he had just re- 
 signed his pastorate, and I, as the young Moderator of the 
 Fourth Presbytery, presided at the installation of his successor, 
 Dr. Herrick Johnson, and propounded the constitutional ques- 
 tions. On that occasion, Dr. Z. M. Humphrey, who had just 
 been installed pastor of the Calvary Church, preached the ser- 
 mon, Albert Barnes gave the charge to the pastor, and Dr. Shep- 
 ard the charge to the people. 
 
 After Mr. Barnes' retirement from the pastorate, when he 
 made West Philadelphia his permanent home, he and his family 
 attended the Walnut Street Church, and during the two remain- 
 ing years of his life he won the confidence and affection of our 
 whole people. For many years we have had a memorial window 
 in our church, as a tribute of our affection to this man, placed 
 near the pew where he was accustomed to sit. 
 
 When I consider what Albert Barnes did for this First 
 Church, for Presbytcrianism in Philadelphia and in our country, 
 as well as the influence of his writings so widely felt, I rejoice 
 that this people have erected an Albert Barnes Memorial Build- 
 ing, which will help to keep his name fresh in the minds of the 
 generations that follow him. 
 
 I close as I began, by extending to this people the heartiest 
 congratulations of the Presbytery of Philadelphia in that this 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 129 
 
 old mother church still retains such a vigorous life and has 
 within it such possibilities of large and increasing influence. 
 We rejoice that under the wise leadership of your beloved pas- 
 tor, Dr. Baker, you have addressed yourselves to the new and 
 changing conditions which surround you. The past of this 
 noble church is inspiring. It stirs one's blood to recall what 
 the fathers have wrought. But, thank God, your eyes are 
 toward the future. Laurels quickly fade. Yesterday, with its 
 work and reward, is soon gone ; to-day is here, and to-morrow 
 is beckoning. The problems of the hour are serious and urgent. 
 In the solving of them, we count upon this historic church to 
 do its full share. As you move into the twentieth century, it 
 ought to be with a quickened pulse and with a stronger faith, 
 assured that larger, better things are still in store for you. 
 After another century shall pass, when you and I shall be known 
 no more among men, God grant that this dear old church shall 
 stand and continue to stand as a witness for the truth to genera- 
 tions now unborn. 
 
 Kev. Herrick Johnson, D.D., LL.D., read by request a minute 
 adopted by the Presbyterian Ministers' Association of Philadel- 
 phia, conveying to the church hearty congratulations upon its 
 past history and its present prosperity. 
 
 PRAYER.— Rev. Wallace Radcliffe, D.D. 
 Lord Jesus Christ, Thou art the Master whose Ave are and 
 whom we serve. We thank Thee for that great multitude here, 
 who, serving Thee, now rest from their labors and their works 
 do follow them. We rejoice in the gladness of the past. Thou, 
 who dwellest in the pillar of cloud and fire, still lead here Thy 
 servants unto other service and higher achievement. Send 
 forth Thy light and Thy truth. Day by day lead them, and in 
 the end crown them and all their work with Thy love and Thy 
 glory, to the praise of Thy grace. Amen. 
 
 DOXOLOGY. 
 9 BENEDICTION. 
 
WEDNESDAY EVENING, 
 
 NOVEMBER 16, 1898. 
 
 PRAYER BY THE PASTOR. 
 
 Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we beseech Thee for 
 Thy presence and Thy blessing during this hour of praise. May 
 everything be begun and continued and ended in Thy fear, and 
 may all the words of our months and all the meditation of our 
 hearts be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our Strength and our 
 Redeemer. Amen. 
 
 ANTHEM. — " How Lovely are Thy Dwellings." 
 
 PRAYER.— Rev. Edward B. Hodge, D.D., 
 
 Secretary of the Board of Education of the Presbyterian Church. 
 
 O Lord God Almighty, who art, and wast, and art to come, 
 our fathers' God and our God, who are we that we should 
 approach to Thee and take Thy name upon our lips ? We are 
 not worthy of the least of all the goodness and truth which Thou 
 hast manifested to Thy servants from the beginning even unto 
 this hour. Thou hast made us to draw near to Thee. Thou hast 
 given us a place in Thine house. Oh, grant unto us a blessing as 
 we now come with our song of grateful love and our expression 
 of gratitude for our privileges. Who are we that we should build 
 a house to Thy name ? Who are we that we should be permit- 
 ted to oifer the incense of prayer and praise so near to our God? 
 O Lord, we thank Thee, and praise and bless Thee for all that 
 Thou hast accomplished also by our unworthy instrumentality. 
 Thus it pleaseth Thee by the foolishness of preaching to save 
 
 131 
 
132 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 them that believe, and for all that has been wrought for Thy 
 name in this place we bless Thee again and again ;. for Thy ser- 
 vants who have ministered here in the days that are gone, for all 
 those who through their work have obtained like precious faith 
 with us. We ask that, generation after generation, if it please 
 Thee, Thy name may still be great in this place. Oh, help us, 
 on this anniversary occasion, to obtain for ourselves and for the 
 city where we dwell, for the people around about this church of 
 Christ, a blessing, rich and full and free; a blessing for our 
 nation, and a blessing for the world. Lord, Thou has granted to 
 us the privilege of the possession. Write in Thy book the 
 prayers we offer to-night. Grant to Thy servant who in the suc- 
 cession of the ministry is now in charge of this church of Christ 
 Thy special blessing. May the Spirit of the Lord God be upon 
 him. Anoint him to preach good tidings to the meek, bind up 
 the broken-hearted, give beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for 
 mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Make 
 his ministry abundantly fruitful. Bless all the organized chari- 
 ties of the church. Bless its Sabbath-school, and grant that the 
 young may be trained here for the service of the Saviour. We 
 thank Thee for those who have been reared up in this church 
 already as heralds of the Cross of Christ, to preach in this and in 
 foreign lands the story of revealed love. Oh, multiply the num- 
 ber who shall go forth in Christ's name, with Christ's message 
 from this place, and grant that our land, by reason of the gospel 
 preached in this church and similar churches of Christ throughout 
 our borders, may be kept true and loyal to our Lord and Saviour, 
 Jesus Christ. May Christian religion and Christian morality 
 characterize our national existence. Prepare us for what our 
 destiny may be in Thy providence, and grant that all the world 
 may soon know of Christ and the story of His cross. We pray 
 Thee that Thou will hasten the coming of Him whom we love, 
 and grant that our feeble labors may be instrumental in hastening 
 the day when it shall be said that the kingdoms of this world 
 are become the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ. This, our 
 hearty thanksgiving for unspeakable blessings in the past ; this, 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 133 
 
 our earnest intercession concerning the time that is to come, 
 most devoutly and earnestly we make in His name who died 
 for us and rose again; to whom, with the Father and the Holy 
 Ghost, we ascribe, as is most justly due, all honor and might and 
 majesty and dominion, world without end. Amen. 
 
 HYMN 225. 
 
 THE PASTOR. 
 
 Vice is not the only thing in this world that seeks company, 
 thank God. Joy seeks company, and the house joy filled is, 
 I believe, the most anxious for companionship. When the 
 woman had found her lost coin, she called in her friends and 
 her neighbors to rejoice with her. This is a time of rejoicing for 
 this old church. Our hearts are brimful of gladness as we recount 
 the way over which the Lord our God has led us all these years, 
 and it is the most natural thing in the world for us to say to our 
 friends and to our neighbors, to our sister churches : "Come, come 
 to our altars and rejoice with us, for God has been gracious unto 
 us." We yield claim of priority to one church in this city of 
 ours. Before the Presbyterian Church was organized, two hun- 
 dred years ago, Christ Episcopal Church was in full operation of 
 Christian worship and service. So it is eminently fitting that from 
 the Protestant Episcopal Church, first of all, we should have 
 greetings, as we ask our sister churches to come to us and rejoice 
 with us. We are honored to-night with the presence of the Eight 
 Kev. Bishop Whitaker, and I take unfeigned pleasure in present- 
 ing him to you. 
 
 ADDRESS.— "Greetings of the Protestant Episcopal Church." 
 
 The Right Rev. O. W. Whitaker, D.D., LL.D., 
 
 Bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania. 
 
 You are celebrating, dear brethren, the anniversary of a very 
 old church, and I take pleasure in being here with you to share 
 
134 Bi-eentennial Celebration of ilie 
 
 in your rejoicing and your thanksgiving;. But the term "old," 
 as applied to a church or anything else, is a relative one. When 
 I began my ministry in the mining town of Gold Hill, in 
 Nevada, in 1863, before the end of the second year we had built 
 a pretty brick church, and it was spoken of as the new church, 
 but for at least fifteen years past that has been spoken of in that 
 community as the old brick church. When I was at St. Albans, 
 in Hertfordshire, England, a year ago last summer, I went around 
 the walls of that building with the Bishop of St. Albans, and I 
 said, "This is indeed a very old cathedral." He said, "Part of 
 it is, and part of it is new. The first church on this site was 
 erected probably in the fourth century, and a part of this which 
 you now see was probably erected in the sixth century, but a 
 great deal of it has been built within the last five hundred years." 
 Old and new are relative terms, but certainly a church that goes 
 back two hundred years in this new country of ours may properly 
 be called old, for the thought of its beginning carries us back to 
 the time when Pennsylvania began to be, and when Philadelphia 
 was coming into existence, and it may not be uninteresting or 
 unprofitable if Ave recall a little of those beginnings. 
 
 It was, I think, in 1617 that some Swedes and Finns settled 
 near Cape Henlopen, and gradually extended up the river, until 
 by 1637 they had taken up farms close up to the junction of the 
 Delaware and the Schuylkill. Others joined them, and they 
 extended further north and west, until they met the tide of the 
 Dutch that was flowing over from New Amsterdam since 1609, 
 and there Swedes and Dutch contended in a friendly maimer with 
 each other for the occupation of the soil. But the English soon 
 came in, and in 1655 the Dutch had so outnumbered the Swedes 
 that they submitted to the Dutch; but in 1664 the English were 
 so in the ascendency that the Dutch submitted to the English, and 
 this became English land. It was, as you know, in 1682 that 
 William Penn came, and with him a great host of Quakers, and 
 then this became a Quaker community. So far as I have been 
 able to determine, in 1682 there were only seventeen hundred people 
 occupying what is now the city of Philadelphia and a great part 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 135 
 
 of those were Quakers, and in 1684, although ships were contin- 
 ually coming over, bringing their loads of immigrants, the popu- 
 lation of Philadelphia was only twenty-five hundred. 
 
 But those people, Swedes and Dutch and English and Quakers, 
 were not unmindful of a superintending Providence. They were 
 not forgetful of the worship in which they had been educated, 
 and so early as 1627 there was a building erected for public wor- 
 ship at Tinicum, and that continued to be used, with various 
 alterations and modifications, until 1700. In 1677 there was a 
 Swedish house of worship, out of which has come Gloria Dei on 
 Swanson Street, There were Quakers in Philadelphia and the 
 neighborhood before Penn came, and I read that there was a 
 Quaker Meeting House in Kensington in 1681, and that another 
 was built in 1682, and another in 1683, and another in 1684, and 
 another in 1685; so that there were six Quaker houses of wor- 
 ship before there was built Christ Church, or before this sprang 
 into being. Christ Church was built, the first church, in 1695, 
 but there are many churches which compete for priority in the few 
 years which followed. Certainly there was a congregation gath- 
 ered at St. John's, Concord, which used the prayer book in its 
 service in 1698. There was another, St, David's, in Radnor, in 
 which the same form of worship was used. There was yet another 
 at Oxford, nine miles then from Philadelphia, but now within 
 the limits of the city. Certainly within a very few years of that 
 time, and probably before 1700, there was a congregation wor- 
 shipping in what is now known as Lower Providence or Evans- 
 burg, and it was not long after, certainly, that there was a con- 
 gregation gathered for public worship according to the forms of 
 the Church of England near Lancaster. So that there were, out 
 of the Welshmen, and out of the Englishmen, and out of the 
 courtesy of the Quakers — for I like to mention, as I have recently 
 on another occasion, that the congregation of Episcopalians at 
 Oxford received its first place of worship as a gift from the 
 Quakers — it was out of these small beginnings that the several 
 churches and congregations were gathered together. 
 
 I do not know the antecedents of the gathering of this congre- 
 
136 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 gation which two hundred years ago first came together for the 
 worship of Almighty God, but I rejoice to believe that in this 
 church from the very beginning there has been a continual 
 preaching of repentance towards God and faith in our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. I rejoice to believe that the successive preachers 
 of this church might have taken for their motto the first line of the 
 noble hymn which we have just sung, " In the Cross of Christ I 
 Glory." I rejoice to believe that the pulpit of this church for 
 two hundred years has given forth no uncertain sound in declar- 
 ing the great central truth of our religion, that God was in Christ, 
 reconciling the world unto himself, and therefore it is that I 
 cherish most kindly feelings towards this church, and that I 
 count it one of my privileges to number among my friends your 
 pastor. It was a courtesy, and an act of Christian kindness for 
 which I shall always be grateful, that when I came to this city, 
 twelve years ago, one of your clergy invited me to his house, 
 where I found assembled about twenty of the Presbyterian clergy 
 of Philadelphia, and that there we spent a couple of hours in 
 social, Christian, friendly converse. It was an act of genuine 
 Christian hospitality, and it touched deeply my heart, for I have 
 always felt and acted upon the principle declared by St. Paul 
 when he said, " Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ 
 in sincerity." There is a bond which links curiously together 
 Christ Church and this First Presbyterian Church. Benjamin 
 Franklin, who was a pew-holder in this church and who attended 
 here frequently, was also an attendant at Christ Church, and was 
 for five years one of its vestrymen. Bishop Stevens and Dr. 
 Albert Barnes were close and intimate friends while they exer- 
 cised their ministry here side by side, Dr. Barnes in this church, 
 and Bishop Stevens, then Dr. Stevens, rector of St. Andrews, on 
 Eighth Street. There has been, I am told, during the past two 
 or three years, an increased demand for Dr. Barnes' Commenta- 
 ries, and I count it as a significant sign of the times that the 
 minds of men are turning back to such a style of commentary 
 and such. a view of the Scriptures as they find set forth in those 
 various editions of his commentaries upon the different books of 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 137 
 
 the Bible, some of which I have read with great interest, and 
 especially what I think was his last book, " The Evidences of 
 Christianity in the Nineteenth Century." I believe that the 
 great hindrance to the progress of the gospel of Christ amongst 
 men is owing mainly to two causes, the first of which is the 
 unhappy division that exists among Christians ; and the second, 
 the failure on the part of so many Christians to walk answerable 
 to their high calling in Christ Jesus ; and as I think what might 
 be if all who hold the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ were of one 
 mind and one heart, and if all who profess to call themselves 
 Christians were striving to make their lives a reflection in spirit 
 and in character of the life and character of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, what a transformation would be witnessed in the world 
 around us ! 
 
 When Macaulay came back from India he said that he was 
 struck, more than by anything else in the religious life which he 
 witnessed there, by the nearness of men of -different ecclesiastical 
 organizations to each other when they were confronted with that 
 immense mass of heathenism with which they had to deal, and 
 he said that in a country where men worshipped cows the distinc- 
 tions which separate Christians from each other in civilized lands 
 count for very little. We do not live in a community or in a 
 civilization where men worship cows, but are there not changes 
 as threatening, difficulties as great to be overcome in the unbelief, 
 the denial of Christ, that is all around us ; in the perversion of 
 doctrine ; in the degrading of Christ from his mediatorial office ; 
 in the failure to present as St. Paul presented the great offering 
 which he made for the sins of the whole world, which should 
 call for a union in heart and spirit of all who believe in the Lord 
 Jesus Christ? When I think of the unhappy divisions amongst 
 Christians who all have to bear the burdens and anxieties of a 
 common life, I am reminded of those words of Bishop Home, 
 when he said, "As I view the separation amongst those who are 
 followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, and their lack of sympathy 
 one with another, I often think of those beautiful and affecting 
 words which Milton puts into the mouth of Adam when he 
 
138 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 addresses Eve : ' Rise ! let us no more contend, or blame each 
 other, blamed enough elsewhere, but strive in offices of love how 
 we may lighten each other's burden in a share of woe.' " Enough 
 has been done for the arts of controversy. Let something be done 
 for piety and holy living. When we are united in these, then our 
 vision may be clearer to be united in all things. God will reveal 
 even that to us when we are prepared to receive it, and it will be re- 
 vealed to us. It may not be in this life, but it will surely be in that 
 world of light where the peacemakers shall receive the fullness of 
 their beatitude, and where all who pray that they may be one in 
 spirit shall indeed be one with each other and with our Lord in 
 the unity of his eternal and glorious kingdom. Amen. 
 
 THE PASTOR. 
 
 It is the righteously proud, and at the same time thankful 
 boast of this First Presbyterian Church, that it has had some- 
 thing to do with the building of the great University of Penn- 
 sylvania, whose fame now is world-wide. I told you on Monday 
 evening that when at one time in its history this church was 
 houseless, the University very courteously offered the use of its 
 hall for the worship of the congregation. In course of time this 
 church was permitted to serve the University in the persons of 
 two of its pastors, one of whom was the vice-provost and the 
 other provost of the University. Provost Harrison, knowing 
 how the life of this church has touched the life of the University, 
 has most kindly consented to come here to-night and say a word 
 to us, and I am exceedingly happy to present him to you. 
 
 ADDRESS. — "Greetings of the University op Pennsylvania." 
 Charles C. Harrison, LL.D., 
 
 Provost of the University. 
 
 It gives me great pleasure to represent the University of 
 Pennsylvania on this occasion ; for, apart from the fact that this 
 church and the University ma}- be classed as among the old 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 139 
 
 institutions of our city, and for more than one hundred years 
 were very near neighbors in point of locality, there have been 
 strong personal ties to unite them in a certain kind of fellowship 
 which ought not to be forgotten. You are probably all aware 
 that the University had several stages in its evolution to the 
 present institution. It was first the " Charity School of Phila- 
 delphia " ; then, when Franklin took up the work, the " Academy 
 and Charitable Schools " ; very soon the " College, Academy and 
 Charitable School"; then "The University of the State of 
 Pennsylvania," co-existent with the preceding, and finally, by a 
 union of the two -latter, " The University of Pennsylvania." 
 Just at the point in this development when the institution 
 reached academic grade, in 1752, we find the pastor of this 
 church called upon to fill the responsible chair of the Greek and 
 Latin Languages. As soon as its charter as a college was attained, 
 he was, in addition, charged with the executive duties of vice- 
 provost, and in 1756 he was advanced, with advancing courses 
 of study, to the chair of Higher Classics and Metaphysics, which 
 he retained until his death, in 1779. That the Rev. Francis 
 Alison worthily maintained the traditions of the Presbyterian 
 Church in favor of a learned ministry is evident from the char- 
 acter and scope of the work assigned to him during these twenty- 
 seven years of service, under the critical eyes of a Board of 
 Trustees including the most intellectual men of the province, 
 and in such subjects as the classics and metaphysics. Like 
 Samuel's, his sons walked among you to his honor. In these 
 days, when so many Philadelphians persist in sending their sons 
 away from home for a college training, it is pleasant to look 
 back on the records and find three stalwart sons taking their de- 
 grees in their father's college, and then going forth to the active 
 service of their country in the War of the Revolution. Benja- 
 min and Francis Alison both served as surgeons in the Conti- 
 nental Army. Of their cousins, Hector received one of our first 
 honorary degrees, and was chaplain of one of the Pennsylvania 
 troops ; Robert was a lieutenant-colonel of the First Pennsyl- 
 vania Battalion, and Patrick was one of the chaplains of the 
 
140 Bi-centeanial Celebration of the 
 
 Continental Congress. They were of sturdy stock, these Ali- 
 sons, and I think that the church on Market Street and the col- 
 lege at Fourth and Arch were the stronger for them, and spiritu- 
 ally and intellectually helped to strengthen them. 
 
 By no means as a matter of course, but purely on account of 
 fitness, the relations of this church to the University were 
 cemented when, in 1758, the Rev. John Ewing, a year before 
 becoming your pastor, was elected pro tempore professor of 
 ethics; in 1762, professor of natural philosophy, and in 1780, 
 provost — the first to hold that title as of the University. It has 
 been said of Dr. Ewing that in mathematics and astronomy, in 
 Latin, Greek and Hebrew, in metaphysics and moral philosophy, 
 he was probably the most accomplished man in the United 
 States. The University of Edinburgh gave him the degree of 
 " D.D. " ; and there is a good story told of his visit to England 
 at that time and of his interview with the celebrated Dr. John- 
 son. Dr. Johnson was exceedingly rude and bitter in his re- 
 marks about the colonists, saving, at length, " Sir, what do you 
 know in America? You never read. You have no books 
 there." " Pardon me, sir," said Dr. Ewing ; " we have read the 
 " ' Rambler.' " The soft answer of your pastor turned the 
 wrath of the irascible Johnson into the most cordial civility for 
 the rest of the visit. Until his death, in 1802, the church and 
 University shared in the happy possession of this gifted man, 
 and for a part of that time he was also, as your pastor, ex-ojieio 
 a trustee of the University. His four sons also grew up among 
 you, were graduated with us, and, in after life, filled honorable 
 and useful places in their native city. 
 
 Others of your pastors were known and honored by the Uni- 
 versity. Dr. Ewing was succeeded by the Rev. John Blair Linn, 
 whom death removed so soon from among you ; but during his 
 brief pastorate he received from us the doctorate of divinity. 
 His successor, the Rev. James Patrick Wilson, was an alumnus 
 of 1788, and so esteemed as an under-graduate that he was at 
 once, on graduation, offered the post of assistant professor of 
 mathematics, which he declined. His son, of the same name, 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 141 
 
 was graduated with us in 1826, while his father was still your 
 pastor, and followed in his father's steps to high honor in the 
 ministry, both of the Wilsons receiving the degree of doctor of 
 divinity from their alma mater. 
 
 Your some-time ruling elder, Charles Thomson, was a tutor 
 in our college at its beginning. He became secretary of the 
 Continental Congress, and in 1784 the trustees gave him the 
 doctorate of laws, which, the year before, they had given to 
 George Washington, and for the same grateful and patriotic 
 reason. And I think that another of your elders in Revolution- 
 ary days, Dr. Benjamin Williamson, was a student in our young 
 medical department. 
 
 I would not have time nor space to enumerate the personal 
 bonds between the two bodies, found in the faculty and students 
 in their relations for nearly one hundred and sixty years, but will 
 dwell for a moment on one of more recent times. In 1834 the 
 Rev. Albert Barnes was elected a trustee of the University, and 
 for thirty-six years was a most honored and useful member of 
 that body. I think that his trusteeship was almost coeval with 
 his pastorate, and that he was equally esteemed and influential 
 in either position. He was a vigorous opponent of Episcopacy, 
 but in the service of the University he was the cordial friend of 
 and co-worker with Bishops Potter and Stevens, and it was the 
 latter who pronounced at his death a most eloquent and affection- 
 ate tribute to his virtues and his labors. 
 
 Some of our lay trustees were active in the affairs of this 
 church in its earlier years. Franklin belouged to no denomina- 
 tion, but averred it to be his duty to help all so far as he could, 
 and for some years was a pew-holder here. Chief Justice and 
 Governor Thomas McKean, Chief Justice Shippen and Governor 
 William Allen, all active in the church, were conspicuous trustees 
 in the University, and it would be tedious to enumerate the many 
 individuals whose spiritual life was fostered here, while their 
 intellectual life was upbuilding at the University. * 
 
 I have recalled these historical matters with a two-fold pur- 
 pose : First, to show that the University is not out of place in 
 
142 Bi-ecntennial Celebration of the 
 
 this celebration, but that it has had all along such strong personal 
 ties to unite it to this congregation as fully to justify a cordial 
 greeting and warm congratulations. And my second purpose is, 
 to plead for a continuance of these friendly relations. The 
 University has never had, and we hope will never have, a theo- 
 logical department. It is the University's function to minister 
 to the intellectual and moral part of man, but not to invade that 
 spiritual province which has been divinely committed to the 
 Church. The spheres are not antagonistic, but mutually helpful. 
 The Presbyterian Church has insisted always on the highest 
 standards of clerical and popular education. The universities 
 have found among its ministers and members many of their 
 staunchest advocates and most munificent supporters. And to- 
 night, as a University officer, and in the name of the University, 
 I extend hearty and fraternal congratulations to this corporation 
 which so honorably completes its second century, and our sincere 
 prayers for the divine blessing on the third, now opening so 
 auspiciously before it. And I ask that the pastors and people 
 of this church may always count the University of Pennsylvania 
 as in a certain ex-ojficio and ex-rclatione way its friend ; that for 
 all time they may mutually share in felicitations on each other's 
 prosperity. 
 
 THE PASTOR. 
 
 It has been thought that it would not be amiss, but on the other 
 hand entirely appropriate, that at these gatherings throughout the 
 week an opportunity should be given to those who were present 
 to give offerings for the enlargement of our endowment fund. In 
 order that this church, and churches similarly situated, may go 
 on and do their God-appointed work in the years to come, with 
 the changing conditions in which they are placed, an endowment 
 fund, and a liberal one, is imperatively required ; and so to-night 
 we will ask for an offering, not wishing to be importunate, but 
 simply feeling that in the good providence of God there may be 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 143 
 
 those who shall be prompted of Him to help us in this work in 
 which Ave are engaged. The offering will now be made. 
 
 ANTHEM.— "The Magnificat." 
 
 THE PASTOR. 
 
 Several months ago I asked Bishop Foss if he would honor us 
 with his presence to-night, and convey to us the greetings of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church. He promised to do so, and fully 
 intended to do so, but a short time ago a demand was made upon 
 him to go out of the city to perform a certain duty, and he felt 
 that he ought to do so. Consequently we have not the pleasure 
 of having Bishop Foss with us to-night. He bade me, however, 
 convey to you his personal greeting, and to say how much he 
 regretted that he must be absent, and then he further bade me 
 ask Dr. MacMullen to take his place and give the greetings of 
 his church. I am sure that we are all glad to-night for this priv- 
 ilege of hearing Dr. MacMullen. I cannot introduce him to you 
 to-night as Bishop MacMullen. Perhaps that may come later. 
 At any rate he is welcome within our gates, and he knows full 
 well that the church of which he is an honored pastor has the 
 highest respect and the truest love always of the Presbyterian 
 Church. 
 
 ADDEESS. — "Greetings of the Methodist Episcopal Church." 
 Eev. Wallace MacMullen, D.D., 
 
 Pastor of the Park Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church of Philadelphia. 
 
 I certainly feel grateful to Bishop Foss for his suggestion to 
 Dr. Baker, for I count it a high honor to be allowed to stand on 
 this historic, consecrated spot on this most notable occasion, as 
 the representative of my church. I feel that in bringing you our 
 greetings I ought to speak our word of gratitude for certain things 
 that we feel indebted to the Presbyterian Church for, and, first 
 of all, to acknowledge the indebtedness of contact. When 
 
144 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 Thomas Coke, a man almost as abundant in missionary labors as 
 the Apostle Paul, was in his early manhood in Oxford, he was 
 tainted with the prevailing skepticism of his day, and he had 
 created within him a great longing for a spiritual life by reading the 
 work of your Dr. Witherspoon on "Regeneration;" so that great 
 man of yours, who was so prominent in helping mould our 
 national destiny in its beginning, and was influential in giving 
 final ecclesiastical form to your Presbyterian body in this country, 
 left his vital touch upon our first bishop — a man who brought to 
 a consummation the organization of our church. 
 
 Then I want to acknowledge also the indebtedness of antago- 
 nism. We Methodists and you Presbyterians had some very 
 exhilarating debates in the good old years that have given place 
 to these better years of blessed brotherhood. Friction is one of 
 the processes for the generation of heat, and while it is quite true 
 that heat may be dissipated and so not be available for practical 
 uses, nevertheless I think the heat that was generated in this 
 exceedingly warm controversy has been at least partly transformed 
 into enduring forms of energy. I think, in the first place, some 
 of our good old Methodist fathers got a little more intellectual 
 muscle because of the battle they were compelled to do for the 
 truth as it appealed to them. Brave, crippled old Epictetus said 
 that God sometimes matched men with rough circumstances as 
 wrestlers with them, that by means of the wrestle they might 
 become conquerors. God in his providence matched some of our 
 Methodist fathers with some Presbyterian giants, and I think 
 there came a good deal of additional intellectual fibre to those 
 who bejmn the work of our church in this land and else- 
 where, and that it was partly by reason of that that they were 
 mightily able to extend the borders of the common God and win 
 souls into his flesh. Moreover, I am sure this is true : that by 
 reason of that intellectual, bloodless warfare, that by very reason 
 of it and not in spite of it, we were able a little better to cherish 
 the truth that seemed specially dear to us. That very bit of 
 truth for which w T e stood, not as monopolists of it at all, but as 
 champions of it for a time — the democracy of the human soul in 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 145 
 
 the republic of God, the freedom of men — I think that our his- 
 torical emphasis upon it was simply in keeping with the spirit of 
 the age in which we had our birth. Liberty was the impulse that 
 was moving human hearts everywhere, here in our American col- 
 onies, over there in England and in France, where the writings 
 of Voltaire and Rousseau and their predecessors had done much 
 to open men's eyes to the evils of despotism ; the liberty that had 
 its initial impulse in Martin Luther when he wielded his Thor's 
 hammer in nailing- that thesis of his ag-ainst the Wittenberg; 
 church door. Now, I am perfectly sure that by reason of the 
 battle we offered in behalf of that bit of God's total truth, we 
 were enabled to get it into a little clearer view and get a firmer 
 grip upon it ; for it is certainly true in the measure that we do 
 battle for things dear to us that we are enabled to separate them from 
 other surrounding and associated truths, isolate them, as it were, 
 so we are better able to tell their size and appreciate their preci- 
 oiisness, and I am perfectly certain of this: that in the theological 
 antagonism of those years we were enriched, as all the world has 
 been, by your splendid emphasis upon that truth of the sover- 
 eignty of God — perfectly sure of it. It is not easy to hear sweet 
 songs when we are in the darkness of black night. It is not 
 easy to sing the praises of God with one's feet in the stocks, as 
 Paul did. It is not easy to see the flowers of JBeulah and the 
 towers of the Celestial City when one is in prison. Bunyan did. 
 It is not easy to hang outstretched upon the cross and see the 
 open arms of the dear God waiting to receive the failing spirit. 
 Jesus did. It is not easy to look back through our human his- 
 tory, and think of the wars that have cursed it, and of the 
 rumors of wars with which still it is full ; it is not easy to look 
 upon those things and still keep steady and peaceful, and the way 
 to be able to do it is to have a tremendous grip upon this truth 
 of the supremacy of the God of love. I thank the Presbyter- 
 ian Church for its tremendous, splendid emphasis upon that 
 blessed, comforting truth of the sovereignty of God. And now 
 I bring unto you our hearty congratulations upon the termina- 
 tion of these generations of church life. How much that life 
 10 
 
146 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 has meant to multitudes of souls ! Carlyle said that one of the 
 enduring symbols of men, for which they are glad to do battle, 
 is the Church. When one had a church, he said, what one could 
 really call a church, then, though he were in the conflux of the 
 immensities and the centre of the eternities, he could stand man- 
 like towards God and man. The vague, formless universe became 
 for him a firm city and dwelling which he knew. Such virtue was 
 in those words, well spoken, I believe, "Well might men praise 
 their credo and raise for it stateliest temples and reverent hierarchs, 
 and give them the tithing of their substance. It was something 
 worth living for and worth dying for." 
 
 When I think of the unnumbered souls that have been kept 
 steady in their faith through these two hundred years by the life 
 and ministry of this church, the steadiness that it has helped to 
 give the community in which it was put, I thank God anew for 
 the church. What have been the elements that have helped on 
 your perpetuity, the duration of your church life? I have not 
 any doubt that one element — and you will not think it strange 
 that it impresses me very much — has been lengthened leadership. 
 It is not strange that I, with my knowledge of limited pastorates, 
 should be impressed by the fact that you only had seven pastors 
 between 1702 and 1870. I am glad that you have been wise 
 enough to allow a congregation to grow up by the natural laws of 
 growth around the leadership of consecrated personalities. I 
 profoundly wish I could put that in among the causes of our 
 thanksgiving as Methodists to you Presbyterians. I cannot just 
 now. I believe if we live long enough I shall have that thing 
 to be thankful for, that the time is coming when, along with the 
 virtues of our system — and they are not few, by any means — that, 
 instead of appointment from year to year, we shall have possible 
 the indefinite continuance of that sort of arrangement that shall 
 not be interrupted by the almanac, which many times is simply 
 mechanical and therefore an impertinent interference with vital 
 processes, and that we shall allow those things to be decided by 
 the fitness of things in the providence of God. I think it is 
 coming, and 1 have not any doubt that is one of the element,-; 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 147 
 
 that have contributed to your strength in these centuries. I 
 know another one was your energy, and if we may be allowed to 
 judge the past by the evidence of the present, it has been an 
 energy that has been adaptive. You have learned that 
 
 " New occasions teach new duties ; 
 
 Time makes ancient good uncouth ; 
 They must upward still and onward 
 
 Who would keep abreast of truth. 
 Lo I before us gleam her camp-fires ; 
 
 We ourselves must Pilgrims be, 
 Launch our Mayflower and steer boldly 
 
 Through the desperate, wintry sea ; 
 Nor attempt the Future's portals 
 
 With the Past's blood-rusted key." 
 
 You have not attempted it. You have had energy that was 
 adaptive. You have been emptied from vessel to vessel, from 
 sanctuary to sanctuary; so you have been saved from that 
 temptation to which Moab yielded, of settling upon your lees. 
 The wine of your church life has been made purer, sweeter 
 and richer by reason of the changes that have been forced upon 
 you by changing conditions. You have comparatively recent]}' 
 decided you would not run awav from a neighborhood that 
 needed you, and you have adopted this necessary plan to provide 
 financially against the dangers of fluctuating populations. 
 
 I say that an adaptive energy has been one of the reasons for 
 your success and your lengthened life, and I am quite sure that 
 another element— and I think that is more important — has been 
 feeling. You have heard one of your speakers talk about your 
 pulpit during these two centuries. You have not had anybody 
 talk about the pew. Those are things that elude investigation, 
 that could not be tabulated — the forces that have been residing; in 
 these pews and the pews of the sanctuaries that preceded this one. 
 You could not put those things into speech or print, and yet 
 churches to-day, and in all days, need winning pulpits no more 
 than they need winning and holding pews. The men and women 
 of heart, out through whose finger-tips there steals some of tin' 
 
148 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 energy of the great God, out through whose eyes there flashes 
 some of the light gained at the altar of God, in the home 
 and in the church — I am perfectly certain that you have that sort 
 of winning feeling hi these pews of yours. You never could 
 have lived so long without it. It is not true that intellectual 
 brilliancy in the pulpit and business sagacity in the pew are the 
 most important things making up the equipment of a church. It 
 is not that. It is rather heart in both places that has a premium 
 in the markets of the world to-day. It is that which wins men's 
 allegiance, hooks them to us by hooks of steel, speaks God 
 through us and unites them to Him. That is the spiritually needed 
 thing. The worldlings may not admit it, those whose standards 
 of manhood are all false, those who prefer to deal more with 
 the glitter of life than with its gold, but there are noble souls 
 everywhere who infallibly feel the presence of soul, and yield to 
 its magnetism as certainly as the heavenly bodies attract one 
 another, and they are drawn in precise measure with the meas- 
 urement of the soul that comes near; and one thing that has 
 been spiritually useful, I have no doubt, in both pulpit and pew 
 has been feeling given over to the service of God. 
 
 May God bless you in the new century into which you go, and 
 give you still larger life. I think that to the Church, just as 
 certainly as to single souls, we may say in Holmes' words : 
 
 " Build thee more stately mansions, O, my soul, 
 As the swift seasons roll. 
 Leave thy low-vaulted past ; 
 Let each new temple, nobler than the last, 
 Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, 
 Till thou at length art free, 
 Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea." 
 
 God gave you work as a church to help in this nation in those 
 formative, colonial days, and he gave you work to do in those 
 strenuous birth-throes of the Revolution in those times, and he 
 is a helping God, and surely with the vigor of this new and 
 mightiest of the nations on the face of the earth, this Colossus of 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 149 
 
 the West, your work is not done yet. In the city— which is indeed 
 the storm centre and nerve centre, too, of our population in our 
 modern civilized life — he gives you work to do. I cannot with- 
 hold my own personal tribute to your pastor, Dr. Baker, and to 
 your superintendent, Mr. George Griffiths, the one for his able 
 presidency and the other for the origin of the Christian League, 
 which has been so useful in curing one of the worst plague spots 
 of our city, and putting upon a firm basis Christian work among 
 the Chinese in our midst. The Lord bless your pastor and pros- 
 per that work exceedingly. You have more work to do, and 
 God will give you grace and strength to do it. Depending upon 
 him, not disposed to be plethoric with the wealth that has come 
 in the past years, not disposed to say to your corporate soul, 
 "Soul, eat, drink and be merry; thou hast much religious and 
 ecclesiastical goods laid up for many years " — not that sort of 
 thing at all, but just because God has been so good to you as a 
 people, to put at his disposal all the energy which he begun and 
 has fostered, to do still better service for him and men— not to 
 rest upon what your fathers did. "It is as easy to be heroes as 
 to sit the idle slaves of the legendary virtues carved upon our 
 fathers' graves. They were men of present valor, stalwart old 
 iconoclasts, unconvinced by axe or gibbet that all virtues have 
 passed. But we make their truth our falsehood, thinking that 
 hath made us free; hoarding it in moulding apartments, while 
 our tender spirits flee the rude grasp of that great impulse which 
 drove them across the sea." 
 
 You will not do that. You will remember " new occasions 
 teach new duties." You will find in some new cause God's new 
 message offering you the bloom or blight, and you will choose 
 the one and work well for him. May the blessing of the 
 Almighty, which makes rich and adds no sorrow, be upon you in 
 abundant measure forever ! Amen. 
 
 DOXOLOGY. 
 BENEDICTION. 
 
THURSDAY EVENING, 
 
 NOVEMBER 17, 1898. 
 
 THE PASTOR. 
 
 Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, grant to us, we beseech 
 Thee, in this service, Thy blessing. We are gathered here in 
 the name of Jesus Christ, and we pray Thee that we may have 
 in our hearts the assurance that we are truly worshipping Thee 
 in spirit and in truth. And unto Thy name, Father, Son and 
 Holy Spirit, shall be the praise. Amen. 
 
 ANTHEM.— "O Lord, Our Governor."— Gadsby. 
 
 PRAYER.— Rev. J. Sparhawk Jones, D.D., 
 
 Pastor of Calvary Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia. 
 
 Almighty and ever-living God, Thou art the confidence of all 
 the ends of the earth, and Thou art our confidence, and hast been 
 the confidence of the fathers who have laid the foundation to 
 that upon which we build, and who have prepared the way for 
 us who now enter into their labors. O God, we bless Thee for 
 the way in which Thou hast led the world. Thou leadest Joseph 
 •like a flock. Thou art the Father of the spirits of all flesh. 
 Thou hast always had a people in the world to serve Thee, those 
 who have not bowed to Baal. We bless Thy great name that 
 Thou hast set eternity in man's heart, that Thou hast given him 
 a vast capacity for reverence, for faith, for joy, for hope, for 
 thanksgiving, and that he has gone forth to build temples and 
 found worship in Thy name, and that always Thou hast had a 
 
 151 
 
152 Bi-eentennial Celebration of the 
 
 people to serve Thee, a church in the wilderness, a church in 
 Israel, a church in the New Testament, a church that has come 
 down from age to age, and which Thou art prospering, and 
 against which Thou hast said the gates of Hades shall not pre- 
 vail. We bless Thee, O God, for Thy great promises, for Thy 
 great work, for all Thou hast done for the world that lies in 
 wickedness, and we pray Thee that Thy work may prosper, that 
 Thy word may be mighty and may prevail. Do Thou bow the 
 heavens and come down. Do Thou baptize the nations. Do 
 Thou hasten that day, Almighty God, when He who sits upon 
 the white horse, whose name is Faithful and True, whose ves- 
 ture is dipped in blood, upon whose head are many crowns 
 and in whose hand is a sword, may go forth, conquering and to 
 conquer. Accomplish the number of Thine elect, hasten Thy 
 kingdom, O God, which was foreseen and has been foreseen in 
 vision and dream and in prescience by holy men of old who spoke 
 as they were moved by the Hply Ghost, and grant that Thy 
 kingdom may come and that Thy will may be done in earth as 
 it is in heaven. We bless Thee for this particular society. We 
 bless Thee for the founding of this church. We bless Thee for 
 the long line of able ministers of the New Testament who have 
 expounded the gospel of eternal life in this place. We bless 
 Thee for all that has been attempted and accomplished in Thy 
 name, and we pray Thee that this church may still remain as a 
 city set upon a hill that cannot be hid. Do Thou grant that all 
 Thy servants who are here concerned in the upbuilding of the 
 kingdom of God may be abundantly blessed and prospered. Let 
 their shoes be of iron and brass, and as their day, so let their 
 strength be. We pray Thee that this church may in the future, 
 as in times past, cast out a wholesome, healing and comforting 
 ray in this dark world, bringing in the losf, perishing, forlorn 
 and miserable, and leading men to the gospel and cross of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, Hear us, O God. Bless our gathering 
 together at this time. Pour out Thy Spirit upon all flesh. Hear 
 our prayer. Pardon all our unprofitableness. Accept our 
 service. And to Thy name shall be praise. Amen. 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 153 
 
 HYMN 139. 
 
 THE PASTOR. 
 
 As those of you who heard the historical sketch on Monday 
 evening may remember, this church owes a very decided debt to 
 the Congregational Church. From the Congregational Church 
 this church obtained its first pastor, who served them so loner 
 and so faithfully, who had so much to do with the moulding of the 
 life of the church at the beginning. Then again, when this 
 church built really its first church edifice, going out of the Bar- 
 badoes Store into a church of its own, it received very valuable 
 help from the Congregational Church of Boston. Mr. Andrews 
 says that the church would not have been built otherwise, if the 
 friends in Boston had not generously contributed, and through 
 all its history this church has had peculiarly friendly relations 
 with the Congregational Church. We esteem it, therefore, a 
 privilege to welcome to-night Dr. Behrends, of Brooklyn, who 
 is able to represent, and will represent fully, the Congregational 
 body. He has come over here, I know, at the cost of some per- 
 sonal sacrifice. I regret that the weather is so unpropitious that 
 these seats are not all filled, but I can assure him that 
 those who are here will be most appreciative listeners, and we 
 will be glad now to hear him. 
 
 ADDRESS.— " Greetings of the Congregational Church." 
 
 Rev. A. J. F. Behrends, D.D., 
 Pastor of the Central Congregational. Church, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 I want to assure you, Christian friends, at the very outset, 
 that no personal sacrifice has been involved in my accepting the 
 very courteous and cordial invitation of your pastor to be pres- 
 ent here to-night, to join with you in these congratulatory services. 
 I am more than glad to be here. I judge that Dr. Baker is very 
 much better acquainted with Presbyterian polity than he is with 
 Congregational polity. There is such a thing as a Presbyterian 
 
154 Si-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 Church, there is such a thiug as an Episcopal Church, there is 
 such a thing as a Methodist Church ; but if there be such a thing 
 as a Congregational Church or a Baptist Church, I should like to 
 have Dr. Baker point it out to me. You said u church " most 
 of the time and "body" only once. I have been a Baptist 
 about sixteen years and a Congregationalist about twenty-four 
 years, and I have been on the watch for that thing during forty 
 years, and I have not found it yet. We speak of Congregational 
 churches just as we speak of Baptist churches, because that is 
 one of the points upon which we differ from Presbyterians or 
 Methodists or Episcopalians. The peculiar feature of our ecclesi- 
 astical organization is that there is no body higher than the local 
 church itself, no appeal to Presbytery, no appeal to Conference, 
 no appeal to Synod, no appeal to General Assembly ; and so I 
 beg you to remember at the outset that I do not represent any- 
 body but myself, and I do not speak for anybody but myself. I 
 am very glad I am not alone. There is a team of us here 
 to-night. Dr. Tupper does not represent anybody except him- 
 self. It does not even follow that he represents the church of 
 which he is the pastor. If the people of his church are like the 
 people of my church, they believe a good many things I do not, 
 and I believe a good many things they do not, and I generally 
 try my very best to get the best of them. That is the minister's 
 business. 
 
 I am very sure, however, that I have an easy place to-night so 
 far as this matter of bringing to you greetings from your Con- 
 gregational brethren, because while we are separate in ecclesiasti- 
 cal organization, and separate in regard to many specific functions 
 of church life, there is a very broad and deep common founda- 
 tion in the faith and the practice which distinguish both Presby- 
 terians and Congregationalists, and for that matter Baptists too. 
 That hymn which we have just been singing seems to me to have 
 been and to be peculiarly adapted as a point of departure for the 
 services of this evening. We have been lifted up on its wings 
 into the heaven of heavens. Under its inspiration we have the 
 bright vision of a world conquest by the gospel, and by it, as by 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 155 
 
 a strong flood tide, when the heart enters into it, so that we sing 
 with the spirit and with the understanding also, all barriers of 
 ecclesiastical and of theological separation are swept away. There 
 is a good deal of the polemic in my make-up. I like a good 
 square fight, but I always break my lances and I throw the 
 severed parts away whenever the cross of Jesus Christ appears in 
 view. There is no fight left. I have been asking myself while 
 you were singing, Where am I to-night? You say, u That is 
 easy enough to answer; you are in the pulpit of the First Pres- 
 byterian Church." No, I am not. That is only part of the 
 truth. I am not merely in the pulpit of the First Presbyterian 
 Church, made famous by forty years of pastoral service by that 
 great and good man, Albert Barnes ; I am on a platform which 
 for two centuries has been true and steadfast to Jesus Christ and 
 to his gospel, and therefore I do not feel a bit out of place. I ask my- 
 self, Who am I ? I look at your program and find my name there, 
 and probably a good many of you wonder what those three 
 initials mean, and when you try to pronounce the last name I 
 venture to say there will not two of you pronounce it alike. I 
 do not know any two men that ever did pronounce it alike. That 
 is not my name. That was given to me before I knew anything 
 consciously of my existence. It is a name that in a very few 
 years will perish with me, obliterated upon the headstone where 
 my body shall be laid away. It is not the name I am going to 
 carry into eternity. My earthly father gave it to me, but I am 
 another's son by the grace of adoption, and somewhere in my 
 New Testament I have read this : that a white stone is given to 
 every believer, and upon that stone a name written which no one 
 knows except he who gives it and he who receives it. By the 
 pierced palms of the Lord Jesus Christ that name has been 
 written on this heart of mine, as it is written on your 
 heart, and on yours, and by and by from out of that 
 heart it shall come in flashes upon the brow. That is my 
 name. A child of God, not by any inherited right or personal 
 merit, but by the free grace of adoption which centres in him 
 who is the eternal Son of God, and in whom alone your sonship 
 
156 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 and mine is. Then I have asked myself another question, 
 " What am I ? " That perplexes me a good deal sometimes. 
 When I look back upon my religious history, I wonder how I 
 ever survived the changes through which I have passed. I was 
 baptized in the old Dutch Reformed Church, and that on good 
 Holland soil, for I was born across the ocean. Then I was very 
 diligentlv trained in the theologv of the Lutheran Church, con- 
 firmed when I was only a lad of fourteen, became a communicant 
 of that body of Christians, an unconverted lad, knowing nothing 
 in personal experience of the saving power of Jesus Christ and 
 the ministry of his Holy Spirit in the conscience and in the 
 affections. Four years passed away, and one of those old-fash- 
 ioned circuit riders in the forests of southern Ohio who murdered 
 the king's English, had never read one page of Murray's gram- 
 mar, or any other, but who knew his Bible, and who knew what 
 salvation by Jesus Christ was — those simple, blunt words of his 
 fell into soil that was prepared, and the deep springs within 
 were broken up, and there was a strong grip upon the conscience, 
 and I was converted in the old-fashioned Methodist way until I 
 shouted " Glory, hallelujah ! " Yes, I did then. I have not done 
 it often since. Sometimes my blood boils in me to do it. Then 
 I became a Presbyterian, and got thoroughly straightened out on 
 theology. Then the Baptists put me under water. Then I went 
 to a Baptist college and was graduated there. Then I had the 
 Baptist theology crammed into me at Rochester, New York. 
 Then I was ordained by a Baptist Council, and for ten years I 
 performed the duties of a Baptist minister; eight years in 
 Yonkers, New York, and two years and a half in Cleve- • 
 land, Ohio. Then I jumped over the. fence and became a 
 Congregationalist. I have been there twenty-three years 
 now, seven in Providence, Rhode Island, and the last six- 
 teen years in Brooklyn. You call that evolution. I call it 
 revolution. There is only one more step I have got to make: 
 to go back into the church of my fathers, the old Dutch 
 Church, famous for many things ; most famous for the Synod 
 of Doit, whose Calvinism is just a little steeper than that of 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 157 
 
 the Westminister Confession of Faith. I see you have got one 
 Dutchman there. 
 
 Well, that is rather introductory. I am not a collector of 
 curiosities, I am not an antiquarian, but among the few literary 
 treasures in my library are these four things : a sermon plan 
 in the handwriting of Mr. Charles Spurgeon; a manuscript 
 sermon by Nathaniel Emmons, preached in 1802; a manuscript 
 sermon by George B. Cheever, preached in 1846 and repeated in 
 1851 (he gave himself away when he wrote that second date 
 on the margin), and a manuscript sermon by Albert Barnes, 
 preached in the pulpit of this church on the sixth of December, 
 1846. It is accompanied with an autograph letter, dated July 
 14th, 1858, when it was published for the first time. Here is the 
 old hymn book. You do not use it now, but I can give you the 
 hymns that were sung that Sunday morning. Hymn No. 403, 
 which was the first hymn, "A charge to keep I have, a God to 
 glorify." The second was hymn No. 145, ''Majestic sweetness 
 sits enthroned upon the Saviour's brow ; His head with radiant 
 glories crowned, His lips with grace o'erflow." The last hymn, 
 concluding the service, was 128; a hymn, by the way, written 
 by an Arminian and sung by a Calvinistic congregation, "Jesus, 
 Lover of my Soul." It has been a very interesting task for me 
 to compare these four sermon samples. They yield very inter- 
 esting disclosures. Spurgeon's outline is for sore and wounded 
 hearts. I heard the sermon, of which I have only the plan. Its 
 theme was the furnace which God prepares for every believing 
 soul. He never duplicates his furnace, Spurgeon says. He has 
 one furnace for each man whom he wants to save, and when its 
 work is done he breaks it to pieces, and, strangely enough, the 
 general theme which he drew from his text was the relation of 
 election to trial by fire. I remember one point that he made that 
 I never forgot. He said, " The fire changes you, but it does not 
 change God's purpose on behalf of you." So 'this sermon is a 
 message of comfort. Emmons' sermon is just like him, fully 
 written out, two general divisions, seven subdivisions, eight 
 improvements added for full measure — seventeen in all, written 
 
158 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 on small, unlined note paper, with every line just as straight as if 
 the ruler had been drawn across it, a solid, merciless, theological 
 treatise from beginning to end, of which you could not drop out 
 a word, setting forth the terrible doom of the sinner. Dr. 
 Cheever's sermon is a tender and impassioned plea that Chris- 
 tians engage in the service of God for the conversion of men ; and 
 Albert Barnes, writing on large,- green-colored, gilt-edged, broad- 
 margin sermon paper, with a chirography almost as fine and exact 
 as steel eugraving, puts his whole soul into a simple, ardent com- 
 mendation of the Christian ministry to young men of earnest 
 minds. His text was Acts 16:1 to 3, and the theme was an 
 appeal to young men on the subject of the ministry. 
 
 Each one of these four sermons was a revelation of the man. 
 Spurgeon, in love with the ministry of comfort ; Emmons ham- 
 mering the steel links of a theological system ; Cheever aflame 
 with the passion for souls; Barnes throwing his whole heart 
 into the ennobling of young life by pen and by speech; for 
 that is the meaning of his voluminous notes on the Bible. I 
 should not dare to tell you what my theological teacher said about 
 Albert Barnes' notes. I see that Prof. Johnson yonder, in the 
 rear of the room, has had the audacity to print it in his autobi- 
 ography of that revered theological teacher. I will not tell you 
 what it was. You will not know unless you hunt it up. But I 
 want to say this, that Albert Barnes never wrote his notes for 
 theological students. He never designed his notes for those who 
 are competent to act as critics upon the original. He wrote his 
 notes for Sunday-school teachers, and with them they have had 
 a remarkable influence. The training of youug men was, from 
 the beginning to the end of his ministry, one of the four things 
 in which he toiled with unabated enthusiasm. The other three 
 were these : temperance, the abolition of slavery and unlimited 
 atonement. 
 
 I would lilce to talk for about an hour and a half to-night on 
 this subject of Albert Barnes and Presbyterianism. I tell you 
 there is a lot for a Congregational ist to do when he gets on that 
 topic. It is very inviting. President Patton has spoken to you 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 159 
 
 on Presbyterian doctrine, and I presume that when his speech is 
 published there will not be an Arminian left in the city of 
 Philadelphia. I see that Dr. Herriek Johnson has unfolded to 
 you the beauty and the beneficence of the Presbyterian Form 
 of Government, and I presume that when that speech is 
 printed the Baptists and the Congregationalists will be piling 
 pellmell over each other to see who shall get the Presbyterian 
 government first. Now, speaking of President Patton, I was 
 in this house once before. I do not believe one of you remem- 
 bers my coming in or going out. I was not in the pulpit. I 
 had a seat down in one of these pews twenty years ago, on Sun- 
 day morning, damp and misty, just about as it is to-night. 
 There was a very slim congregation present. We had an excel- 
 lent sermon, though, from Prof. Patton. What impressed me 
 more than the sermon even was this: that he should be standing 
 in the place made famous by Albert Barnes, and evidently, if I 
 have read your program aright, you are not a bit afraid of 
 Princeton College or of Princeton theology; because, if you had 
 been afraid, you would not have selected President Patton as the 
 expounder of Presbyterian doctrine. Throughout the entire 
 painful period of disruption, from 1837 to 1870, Albert Barnes 
 was in the thick of the fight. It pleased God to spare him, and 
 in his own city, in May, 1870, to be a personal witness, if not an 
 active participant, in the great reunion. Seven months after- 
 ward he entered into the eternal peace; and eight years after- 
 ward he was followed by Charles Hodge. These two men 
 clasped hands before they died ; and in heaven, as Melancthon 
 said on his deathbed, theologians even never quarrel. The Lord 
 grant you, my brethren, favor, that there may never be a second 
 disruption. Let us be patient and wait, so long as loyalty to 
 Jesus Christ and to the Scriptures of his endorsement remain 
 supreme. It seems to me that those are the two pillars of our 
 faith, the two great piers over which is sprung the mighty arch 
 of salvation, crossing the turbid, the wide, the roaring waters of 
 sin and of death. The incarnation of God in Christ, and the 
 inspired authority of the Bible, these must stand. I say the 
 
1 60 Bi-eentennial Celebration of the 
 
 incarnation of God in Christ ; not a Pantheistic immanence, 
 which, creeping up from the sponges of the sea and the shellfish 
 comes to its flower in man and to its full fruit in Jesus Christ — 
 not that; not a Pantheistic immanence of God in Christ, nor 
 merely a mystical union of God with him by the Spirit, but a 
 conscious personal identification of Jesus Christ with the eternal 
 Godhead — that has been the note of triumphant conviction and 
 of amazing courage through martyr fires and through dungeons, 
 from the hour that Peter made it until the present time. The 
 inspired authority of the Bible, — not a hard and fast theory of 
 inspiration, whether mechanical or dynamic, whether verbal or 
 noematic, whether plenary or partial, not that; not the claim of 
 absolute inerrancy in dates and genealogical tables and quotations 
 from the Old Testament and minor details, but these two things: 
 the historicity of the record, and the authority of the doctrine. 
 By these we stand and by these we fall. For these we intelli- 
 gently, deliberately, incessantly do fight, and will fight to the 
 very end. Brethren, I hope you have had enough of trials for 
 heresy. One bite of that sort of thing is enough to gorge a man 
 for a lifetime. I do not mean to say that sometimes they are 
 not necessary. They are. So are amputations, but you do not 
 want one every week in a family, and one trial for heresy is 
 enough for a century. After all, they do not settle much of any- 
 thing. The open fight is the best. Let men say what they have 
 to say, and let their speech be searched to the inmost core. Search 
 the Scriptures; test what is taught. In the open fight over the 
 Bible down to this moment tradition holds the vantage ground. 
 I may be a very poor observer, but if I am right in my observa- 
 tion, Willhausen has one foot in the grave already where Baur is 
 buried, and there was more genius and learning in Baur's single 
 head than there is in the whole Willhausen school of the present 
 day. The truth is that substantially the battle has been fought, 
 and the victory has been won. It only remains to send the cav- 
 alry after the stragglers. It has been fought and won, not by 
 ecclesiastical censures, but by the weight of Christian scholar- 
 ship. I was going to say I hope every one of you will get the 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 161 
 
 polychrome Bible. The polychrome Bible is its own hangman. 
 The new Hebrew dictionary, that is being got out laboriously in 
 parts on the other side of the Atlantic and this, is going to be 
 dead before it is finished. When I saw the advertisement in the 
 papers of the Expositors' Bible, which was to take the place of 
 Dean Alford's Commentary, which I have had on the shelves on 
 my revolving desk for these twenty-five years and more, you can 
 imagine how eager I was to buy it. My Alford is all to pieces, 
 leaves and binding and all. I said, "Oh, here is a great fiud ! " 
 Well, I read it. It is doomed to failure. I have no further use 
 for the volumes that are going to succeed. You and I may just 
 as well stick to the old Bible, the Bible that our fathers read and 
 the Bible that our mothers thumbed, and for me at least there is 
 not a better commentary to be found anywhere than the com- 
 mentary of John Calvin. I do not know of any better. The 
 old way is still the best. That is very strange sort of talk for a 
 Congregationalist, is it not ? Because many of you good folks 
 who do not know us think that we are a rope of sand, think 
 there is not anybody among us who has any personal convictions 
 that are strong enough to die for. You think of us as a creed- 
 less church. Well, we have very little ecclesiastical machinery, 
 and there are no authoritative creeds among us; but I tell you 
 what we have got. We have a history, and facts often speak 
 louder than words. We have a history on both sides of the 
 Atlantic of which any sect may well be proud, a history that is 
 not distinguished by mere petty controversies upon ecclesiastical 
 forms or procedure, a history which shows you a constituency 
 steeped in the ardent love for the Bible, a history which shows 
 you a constituency that has always stood firm as a rock for the 
 preaching and the divinity of that gospel which was once for all 
 delivered unto the saints. We have a great history. It is a long 
 while ago, but still it is part of our history, and it has become 
 part of yours as Presbyterians, that the finest mind which the 
 United States has ever produced, the greatest of all American 
 philosophers and of all American theologians, belongs more to 
 us than he does to you, though he died with you — Jonathan 
 11 
 
162 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 Edwards, who passed from his exile at Northampton to become 
 president of Princeton College; and I say, brethren, what God 
 hath joined together let no man put asunder. Congregationalists 
 do not believe everything that Edwards believed or taught or 
 wrote, and you do not either. You are just as badly off as we 
 are. Mark Hopkins was an Edwardsean in his ethics; Dr. 
 McCosh was not ; and Dr. McCosh, with Mark Hopkins, did 
 not find any difficulty in laying down full length on the grass 
 together on the hill slopes of Williamstown, and they loved each 
 other as brothers. We have our history ; and that history burns 
 and glows with ardent, enthusiastic loyalty to Jesus Christ, the 
 eternal Son of God, made flesh, dying for us sinners and for our 
 salvation, and with a burning enthusiasm for the inspired 
 authority of the word of God. Brethren, we have our domestic 
 infelicity, and so have you, and I look around and I find every- 
 body has them. I look back and see that they had them 100 
 years ago, 500 years ago, 1800 years ago, 4000 years ago. It has 
 always been so. It w r ill be so to the end of the world. I do not 
 take a great deal of stock in all this namby-pamby talk that Ave 
 are living in a peculiar age. Men are men, and human nature 
 is human nature. Forms of conflict may differ. At heart it is 
 always the same — the old fight between darkness and light, between 
 truth and falsehood, between sin and righteousness, between God 
 and the devil — always the same outside of the Church and in the 
 Church, always the same fight. Yes, w T e have our troubles and 
 we have had our troubles, and so have you all ; but the old faith 
 stands, and the old faith holds the fort with us, with you, with 
 all, and it is going to sweep with its victorious column all the 
 continents and all the isles of the sea. Nothing else can do it. 
 The old gospel preached on the day of Pentecost, by the preach- 
 ing of which, begun by Paul, the old Roman Empire was con- 
 verted, and the eagles bent before the Nazarene — that is going to do 
 it. The old gospel — this is my greeting to you to-night. You 
 have stood fast. We have stood fast. You are standing fast. 
 We are standing fast. Stand fast for the days that are to come. 
 Put on the whole armor of God. With the helmet of salvation 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 163 
 
 upon the head, with the breast-plate of righteousness covering the 
 vitals, with the left arm glued to the shield of faith, quenching 
 the fiery darts of the wicked, and with the right hand seizing the 
 two-edge blade of the Spirit, which is the word of God, stand for 
 the future as you have stood for these two hundred years, and as 
 you are standing now, and, if I may venture to say it, we can 
 stand with you, shoulder to shoulder. Swarming all around us, 
 in eager haste, will come the great, gospel-loving crowd of 
 Baptists, from whom no pool of water and no fenced table shall 
 ever be able to separate us. 
 
 THE PASTOR. 
 
 I very much regret to say that Justice Williams is not with us 
 to-night, and we shall not have the great pleasure of hearing an 
 address from him, representing the laity of the church ; but the 
 state of his health is such and the pressure of his duties upon him 
 at this time so great, that he did not deem it expedient to come, and 
 we did not deem it expedient to urge his coming. We know what 
 he would have said to us, at least we know the spirit of it, for we 
 have heard his voice more than once in our own church meeting. 
 He begged me to assure those who might be present of his 
 most hearty interest in this celebration, and of his willing- 
 ness to do all that might be in him to do in the way 
 of personal service when he shall come, back to worship 
 with us during the winter. So the only remaining address 
 is the address to be given by our brother, Dr. Tupper, of the 
 First Baptist Church of this city, whose voice we have before 
 heard within these walls a little time ago. There were peculiarly 
 intimate relations between the Baptists and Presbyterians — you see 
 I say nothing about the church — in the early days. They met 
 together in that old Barbadoes Store, and I have no doubt they 
 had some royal meetings. In course of time they thought best to 
 separate, to go each his own way, but it was in all friendliness 
 and through conscientious conviction, and so after these two 
 hundred years we meet again. We meet under peculiarly happy 
 
164 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 circumstances, and next month I believe the Baptists are to cele- 
 brate their bi-centennial, and we will get the start of all others 
 by offering them to-night our heartfelt congratulations and 
 greetings. 
 
 ADDRESS. — "Gkeetings of the Baptist Church." 
 Rev. Kerr Boyce Tupper, D.D., LL.D., 
 
 Pastor of the First Baptist Church, Philadelphia. 
 
 Like my very distinguished, evolved and revolved Baptist- 
 Congregational brother, Dr. Behrends, I am very happy indeed 
 to be with you on this inspiring anniversary occasion. Especially 
 do I feel it a source of pleasure and gratification to have the 
 privilege and honor to-night of bearing at this your bi-centennial 
 the greetings and congratulations of the Baptists of this city, and 
 particularly the members of my own church. At a meeting of 
 that church last night the following resolution was offered and 
 heartily and unanimously carried : " The First Baptist Church 
 in Philadelphia sends most cordial Christian greeting to their 
 beloved brethren of the First Presbyterian Church in Philadel- 
 phia. In 1695, when both of us were few and feeble, we met in 
 joint worship in the storehouse on the Barbadoes lot. You prof- 
 ited by our minister, John Watts, on alternate Sundays, and we 
 by your occasional supplies. On December 11, 1698, nine persons 
 coalesced into the Baptist Church, whose bi-centennial we shall 
 celebrate next month. With true Presbyterian push you organ- 
 ized into a church nearly a month earlier than we, just as in 1815 
 the Second Presbyterian Church stole a march upon us by 
 founding the first Sunday-school in Philadelphia, less than a 
 month before we did. We have been trying to keep up with you 
 in good works ever since then, but we find it taxes all of our 
 ingenuity and our strength. As stated by good old Morgan — I 
 give his own words — you in a manner drove the Baptists away 
 two centuries ago. We have long since forgiven you, and wel- 
 comed you into our hearts, and know no rivalry other than in 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 165 
 
 love for our common Lord and Master and in service for our 
 fellow man." 
 
 This resolution, Dr. Baker, I hand you to keep as an expres- 
 sion of our sympathy, our love, and our congratulation. The 
 nearly five million of people whom I represent to-night have the 
 profoundest admiration for the great Presbyterian body, for its 
 heroic history, for its splendid culture, for its missionary enthu- 
 siasm and achievements, for its. consecrated devotion to a pure, 
 unemasculated, evangelical Christianity. I think that we in 
 nothing rejoice so much as in this : that you have with such 
 fearlessness and such firmness and such fidelity always stood true 
 to the great, cardinal, fundamental, vital principles of the gospel 
 of Christ. With us, you are true to the inspiration of the New, 
 and, Dr. Behrends, the Old Testament also, which Dr. Behrends 
 has so faithfully defended, through the last two years particu- 
 larly, to the divine nature and atoning death of Jesus Christ, 
 to the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit, to the depravity 
 of man and the need of a divine renewal from above, to the 
 spiritual character of church membership, and to the inalienable 
 and glorious right of private judgment and of private interpre- 
 tation — all of these things because God's word reveals these 
 things, and we together believe that what God's word reveals man 
 should accept, and what God's word enjoins man should seek to 
 obey ; that in all matters of the soul you have heard no voice but 
 divinity, claimed no master but Christ, and held no creed but 
 the Holy Scriptures. Together I think you and I have on this 
 simple, eternal, immovable principle always stood, heroically and 
 fearlessly, trammelled by no machinery, tied down by no set form 
 of worship, and fettered by no tradition, but free to come and 
 go, to preach and plan and labor just as we pleased, if only we 
 are true to the infallible word of the eternal God. We thank 
 God and take courage when we think of your history in that 
 direction. Let me say to-night, I believe the glory of any 
 Christian denomination can be expressed in one sentence, and 
 that sentence is this : to maintain among themselves and to prop- 
 agate among others absolute loyalty to God's word in belief and 
 
166 Bi-eentennkd Celebration of the 
 
 in life, to win the world to Christ, to develop the Church of God, 
 and to advance humanity in the highest principles of the glori- 
 ous civilization, on the basis and through the instrumentality of 
 that word as the final and sufficient revelation of God's will and 
 God's way to men, that one divine aim comprehending all things, 
 even as the narrow tubes of the telescope comprehend the farthest 
 fields of visional space that the human eye cau take in. The 
 Baptist rejoices with you in this : that you have always been so 
 true to the glorious gospel of the Son of God, and let me say as 
 a Baptist, that I rejoice so much to-night as I look over the pro- 
 gram, to see that the various branches of the great Church of 
 Christ have been represented in these bi-centennial services. There 
 are only two churches in the world, the church universal and the 
 church local, the church organic and the church organized, the 
 church divisible and the church indivisible, the church mortal 
 and the church immortal, the church born of God and the church 
 constructed of men ; and to every man that has his heart in the 
 matter, and whose heart has been touched by the Spirit of God, 
 the church universal is always more than the church local, and 
 the church indivisible more than the church divisible, and the 
 church organic more than the church organized, and the church 
 born of God more than the church constructed of men. As a 
 Baptist I love to sing with the Methodist Wesley, " Jesus, 
 Lover of my Soul, Let me to Thy Bosom Fly," and then with 
 the Episcopalian Topladv, "Rock of Ages, Cleft for me, Let 
 me Hide Myself in Thee," and then with the Congregationalist 
 Palmer, " My Faith Looks up to Thee, Thou Lamb of Calvary," 
 and then with the Presbyterian Bonar, " Glory be to God the 
 Father, Glory be to God the Son, Glory be to God the Spirit, 
 Great Divine Three in One," and then with the Reformer 
 Luther, "A Mighty Fortress is Our God, a Bulwark Never 
 Failing," and then with the Catholic Newman, "Lead, Kindly 
 Light, Amidst the Encircling Gloom, Lead Thou me On," and 
 then with the Unitarian Behring — would to God all Unitarians 
 would sing as he sang ! — " In the Cross of Christ I Glory, Tower- 
 ing O'er the Wrecks of Time; All the Light of Sacred Story 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 167 
 
 Gathers Round its Head Sublime," and then with the Baptist 
 Faucett, " Blest be the Tie that Binds Our Hearts in Christian 
 Love ; The Fellowship of Kindred Minds is Like to that 
 Above." Then I love to hear all these voices blending together 
 in one great song of union, " Like a Mighty Army Moves 
 the Church of God ; Brothers, we are Treading where the 
 Saints have Trod ; We are not Divided ; All One Body We, 
 One in Hope and Doctrine, One in Charity." I believe that 
 more and more we are seeing that in the Church of Christ there 
 is room for all graces and all gifts, Episcopal sestheticism, Con- 
 gregational scholarship, Presbyterian theology, Methodist activ- 
 ity, Quaker passivity, and Baptist independence, if it does not 
 run into anarchy. There is room for all these, that we may be 
 the perfect Church of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. So I 
 take great pleasure to-night in bearing greetings and congratula- 
 tions of the Baptists, not only of this city, but of our nation and 
 of the world, to this old church on this occasion. 
 
 So much for the greetings. What message have I for you 
 to-night? Like my ancient Baptist brother, John Bunyan, and 
 like my recent Baptist brother, Dr. Behrends, I have been some- 
 what tumbled up in my mind to decide what to talk to you 
 about in the twenty minutes that I have left ; but I have settled 
 on this, "Some marks of progress in the world since this church 
 was founded." I want to go home to-night believing that God 
 is reigning, and that our world grows better from generation to 
 generation because God reigns supreme from century to century. 
 In a peculiarly fascinating address by perhaps the most gifted 
 and accomplished of all nineteenth century statesmen — I believe 
 it was the last public address that was ever made by that grand 
 and good man whose ashes - Westminster Abbey has recently 
 received — there was uttered in England, before an enthusiastic 
 and sympathetic audience, this ringing, royal sentence, "Let us 
 believe that Christianity and humanity are advancing all the 
 time ; that, whether we can see it or not, there is a constant and 
 developing progress in human life and in the affairs of God; that 
 though iniquity may prevail for a season and men's hearts fail 
 
1 68 Bl-eentennial Celebration of the 
 
 with fear, still both onward and upward goes our race in God- 
 guided and irresistible movement." Now, as you begin to stand 
 on the very threshold of your third hundred years, I want more 
 than ever you should believe that our world grows better, that 
 you should look around you and see, as encouragement and 
 inspiration, with a really optimistic soul, that there is improve- 
 ment everywhere and in all directions, in material conditions, in 
 social relations, in philanthropic endeavor, in educational move- 
 ments, in moral elevation, and in Christian growth and attain- 
 ment, the whole race moving forward, through frightful crises, 
 to what Mazzini calls the cultivative progress of human destiny. 
 Human history is not a descending, a downward spiral, but an 
 upward, an ascending spiral, growing by a sure evolutionary 
 process from the less to the greater, from the good to the better, 
 and all the world under God improving because God lives, or, as 
 Whittier puts it so well, "All the good the past have had remains 
 to make our own time glad." Fortunately I am an optimist 
 because I am a Christian, an optimist not so much from a genial 
 disposition as from faith in God Almighty, because, as Dr. 
 Behrends has so well said to-night, truth is stronger than false- 
 hood, right is stronger than wrong, and God is stronger than the 
 devil. Above all the din and roar of our day I love to quote 
 those two lines from the popular song, " God's in his heaven ; 
 all's right with the world." 
 
 I know there are many conditions of our day that make us 
 tremble. Take our own country, for instance. There is the 
 vast increase in our population. There is the nature of much of 
 our immigration, so ignorant and thriftless. There is the natural- 
 ization among; us of communism and anarch v, nihilism and 
 socialism. There is the rapid development of our urban life, 
 beyond the power sometimes it would seem of the gospel to reach 
 it. There is the non-attendance of thousands and thousands 
 upon Christian worship, and their indifference to the sanctuaries 
 of Christian faith, and all these things throw a deep, dark, dis- 
 tressing shadow over the disk of our civilization ; and yet the 
 man that will stop and consider our world — contrast our world 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 169 
 
 to-day with the world of two hundred years ago — will take 
 courage, thank God, and have inspiration to be better and to do 
 better in the rest of his life. Let me give you a few illustrations 
 to-night in the realm moral first, and then in the realm spiritual. 
 At the great World's Exposition, in 1893, there might have been 
 seen in the Massachusetts building, in Chicago, lottery tickets 
 issued by Harvard College in 1794. Those tickets sold for five 
 dollars each. They were offered in the legislative rooms in 
 Boston. All the proceeds of those tickets went to build a 
 library for Harvard College. Is such a thing possible to-day, 
 after the development of civilization and of Christianity for the 
 last two hundred years ? You may have been surprised at that, 
 Go to the very next building and you will find there lottery 
 tickets issued by the state of Massachusetts and by the govern- 
 ment of our United States in the year 1794, as a means of rais- 
 ing money for the expenses of the government. Now, after 
 Christian operation in our country, we find that this very gov- 
 ernment of ours is not allowing even the advertisement of a 
 lottery to pass through the mails of the United States. That 
 may have astonished you; but there is something more than that. 
 I have here in my pocket a copy of a lottery ticket issued by a 
 Christian church when this church was one hundred years old. 
 The original is held by one of the citizens of Philadelphia. It 
 reads thus, "Protestant Episcopal Lottery, No. 6696" — which 
 shows how many had been taken up to that time. " This ticket 
 entitles the possessor to such profits as may be drawn against its 
 number, if demanded within six months. By order of the 
 General Association of Rhode Island. (Signed), William H. 
 Larned, Moderator. November 17, 1797." When this church 
 was ninety-nine years old, it was nothing uncommon for colleges 
 and churches and states and the United States of America to use 
 lottery tickets, something to-day unthinkable, owing to the devel- 
 opment of our civilization. 
 
 Look at another aspect of this moral development. When 
 this church was one hundred years old liquor was used in fami- 
 lies, was used at funerals, w r as used at the ordination of ministers, 
 
170 Bi-eentennial Celebration of the 
 
 and used at the dedication of Christian churches. If you will 
 go to Beverly, Massachusetts, and take up the church record in 
 the year 1785, you will find these words, "And the church 
 shall lay by thirty-five pounds for the ordination of our pastor, 
 Reverend Thomas McKane, eighteen pounds of which shall be 
 for rum and for wine." In the end of the seventeenth century 
 you remember what in England the usual sign was, as you went 
 through the streets, on every tavern, " Come in and drink for a 
 penny. For two pennies get dead drunk. No cost for straw." 
 That was the usual sign. To-day, you and I, because of the 
 impact of Christianity on our civilization, place screens so that 
 we cannot see these spectacles of death in these houses of hell. 
 At the very close of the eighteenth century, as Sydney tells us in 
 his life of Sir Richard Hall, the usual invitation to dinner from 
 one gentleman of high order to another gentleman read thus, 
 "Mr. A. presents his compliments to Mr. B., and requests the 
 honor of his company to dinner and to get drunk." Now, con- 
 trast our day with that, and you will have faith in the Lord God 
 Almighty, who is ruling and overturning these things for the 
 glory of his name and for the uplifting of our civilization. 
 To-day we demand that sobriety shall be part of the life of every 
 man who ministers to the higher necessity of humanity. The 
 great mountain peaks of intellectual life have already been 
 touched by the sunrise of reform, and that radiance is creeping 
 flown into the valleys of ignorance and of vice, just as the 
 morning brightness first tints Mont Blanc, and then bathes sweet 
 Chamounix in its refreshing light. I think you and I, as we con- 
 sider these things, will thank God that with the development of 
 the Church there has been this uplifting of civilization in so many 
 directions. 
 
 Now come for a few moments into the Christian realm and see 
 what vast improvement has been made in Christian work, in the 
 development of Christian enterprise, since this church was 
 founded. Iu 1809 there were only five church members among 
 all the students of Yale. There were four infidel clubs, and 
 there were many students who went by the name of French and 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 171 
 
 English skeptics. Last year Yale graduated two hundred and 
 seven men, and out of the two hundred and seven men one 
 hundred and sixty-four were members of evangelical churches. 
 That speaks for the power of God in the civilization of America. 
 In the first eight years of Bowdoin College there was only one 
 Christian. In the first five years of Williams College there was 
 only one church member. How is it to-day ? Only a few months 
 ago 1362 students of Michigan University gave their religious 
 impressions and their religious conditions, and out of the 1362, 
 697 were found members of the Episcopal, Presbyterian, Con- 
 gregational, Lutheran, or Baptist churches— more than one-half. 
 There are to-day in our United States colleges 70,700 students, 
 and out of that number 39,400 are members of some evangelical 
 church— the power of God in the hearts of the young men. 
 More and more our youth, because of the growing power of 
 Christianity, are beginning to take this old book up and to say, 
 " It is the oracle of my faith. It is the manual of my education. 
 It is the inspiration of my life. It is the charter of my liberty." 
 More and more these young men are falling down at the feet of 
 Jesus Christ, and saying there as they fall, "My Lord and my 
 God." If you and I will only stop and think, we can thank God 
 that during the history of this church there have been such 
 marvellous developments in Christian civilization. Now, taking 
 the matter of numbers— and I want to dwell on this because 
 there are so many pessimistic declarations to-day — let me give 
 you some figures that will encourage you as you go into the new 
 century. In 1800, less than one hundred years ago, we find 
 there was only one Christian church to every 1750 people. In 
 1850 we find one church to every 500, in round numbers. In 
 1870, one church to every 450. In 1890, one church to every 
 436. In 1895, one church to every 344 people. Think you, in 
 the last one hundred years from one church to 1750 people to one 
 church to 344 people ! Does not that speak wonders for the devel- 
 opment of the gospel in America ? You and I think our popu- 
 lation has increased wonderfully. From 1800 to 1850 our popu- 
 lation increased ninefold, our church membership twenty-eight 
 
172 Bi-centennial Celebration of the 
 
 fold. From 1850 to 1890 our population gained 152 per cent., 
 our church membership gained 243 per cent. When this church 
 was one hundred years old we had only 1400 ministers in Amer- 
 ica. To-day we have 110,000 instead of 1400. Then we had 
 only 2000 churches. Now we have 147,000 churches. Then 
 we had only 200,000 communicants. To-day we have 20,167,000. 
 Whenever I get to be a little pessimistic, I like to take up Dr. 
 Carroll's last report and read it over, and though there may not 
 be much in it as the figures express, yet they do give encourage- 
 ment and inspiration to the heart of a man who believes in God 
 and looks for the advancement of the kingdom of Christ. What 
 are those figures? You may remember them. Ministers in 
 America, 110,000. Churches in America, 142,000. Organiza- 
 tions in America, Christian, 167,000. Communicants in Chris- 
 tian churches in America, 20,100,000. Sermons preached last 
 year — would you not like to have heard them all? — 10,000,000. 
 Services held in Christian churches last year 10,000,000 — inde- 
 pendently of all the Bible school sessions — and to-day $675,000,- 
 000 invested in church property, with a Protestant population of 
 47,000,000 and a Catholic population of 8,700,000, and we are 
 now about to close a century during which more missionary 
 boards have been established, more missionaries have been sent 
 out, more converts have been made from papal and pagan and 
 Moslem communities, more Bibles have been circulated and dis- 
 tributed, more rich and rare trophies brought to the mediatorial 
 cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, than ever before in all the one 
 thousand years of the past; so much so that men are beginning to 
 accept the statement of Schliermacher when he says : " To abolish 
 Christianity is to pluck up by the root all that is noblest and best 
 and wisest in the world's civilization." As you, the First Pres- 
 byterian Church here, and my people in the First Baptist Church, 
 step upon the threshold of their third hundred years, I want 
 their notes to be these : never so much love and loyalty to Jesus 
 Christ as to-day; never so many followers of the humble Naza- 
 rene as to-day; never so much earnestness in understanding 
 Jesus as the way, the truth and the life as to-day ; never such an 
 
First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. 173 
 
 intelligent appreciation of God's Church and the application of 
 that spirit to the great and mighty problems of the world as 
 to-day. The great heart of the Church, pulsating with unusual 
 velocity, the pure fires of evangelism burning with unwonted 
 brilliancy on unnumbered altars, and the evidence everywhere 
 that God has a living Church, an immortal body of his Church, 
 and that living Church is the strength, the power, the inspiration, 
 to the celestial life of all the churches named after Jesus Christ. 
 The Atlantic Monthly and Professor Shodde and Professor 
 Shopenhauer and other men may talk to me as I enter the third 
 hundred years of my church's life, about the darkness, about 
 the fog, about the shipwreck, but under God's own light I can 
 stand and say: 
 
 "I know not where his islands lift 
 
 Their fronded palms in air; 
 I only know I cannot drift 
 
 Beyond his love and care ; 
 And so beside the silent sea 
 
 I wait the muffled oar: 
 No harm from him can come to me 
 
 On ocean or on shore." 
 
 For "God's in his heaven; all's right with the world." 
 
 The motto I shall give to my people on December 1 1 will be 
 found in the words of Whittier, which I want all my people to 
 learn and to commit and to repeat during the next year ; and 
 the words are these : 
 
 "Henceforth my heart shall sigh no more 
 For olden times or holier shore; 
 God's love and blessing then and there 
 Are now and here and everywhere." 
 
 God give us this optimistic spirit as we enter the third hun- 
 dred years of our two organizations. 
 
 HYMN 390. 
 
174 Bi-centennial Celebration. 
 
 THE PASTOR. 
 
 Our bi-centennial celebration will come to its close to-morrow 
 evening with a reception and reunion of the present and former 
 members of this church, of Presbyterians generally in the city, 
 and of all such friends as may choose to come and spend the 
 evening with us. This Church will be opened and the Memorial 
 Building will be opened. There will be room for all who may 
 come, and I hope many will come. 
 
 DOXOLOGY. 
 
 BENEDICTION. 
 
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