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 G-eorge S, Bishop 
 
 Ten Years* Review 
 
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TEN YEARS' REVIEW. 
 
 le Place, History and Responsibility of the 
 Reformed Church. 
 
 A SERMON 
 
 :ACHED SUNDAY MORNING, APRIL 19th, 1885. 
 
 AT THE 
 
 NNIVERSARY SeRVICE, 
 
 IN THE 
 
 9 &'^* <!^*9 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. GEORGE S. BISHOP, D, D, 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 RiCHARO BR'NKERH0"F, 34 Vesey £t , 
 
 1885. 
 
 lUc, >Jfic UcH'r, 
 
SERMONS BY THE REV. GEO. S. BISHOP, D. D. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF GRACE. 
 
 SHUT UP TO FAITH. 
 
 ENTHUSIASM : PAUL BESIDE HIMSELF. 
 
 WHY DID GOD CREATE THE UNIVERSE? 
 
 SECULARISM AND THE TRUSTEESHIP. 
 
 ALLEGED CONTRADICTIONS IN THE Bir>LE. 
 
 EXPOSITION OF REFORMED PRINCIPLES. 
 
 WESTMINISTER AND HEIDELBERG. 
 
 THE VOICE IN DARKNESS. 
 
 THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 REPROBATION. 
 
 ELEMENTS OF GOSPEL COMFORT. 
 
 THE EGG-SHELL OF A CREED. 
 
 SELF EXAMINATION AND THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 HOLY BAPTISM, A TRUE SACRAMENT. 
 
 TEN YEARS' REVIEW. 
 
 Any of the above may be had on application to the Consistory, or from tlie publisher, 
 Richard Brinkorhoff, 34 Vescy street, New York. 
 
The Tenth Anniversary of tlie founding of the First Reformed Church, of Orange, 
 N. J., was celebrated by appropriate services on Sunday and Monday, April 19th and 
 20th, which were attended by great congregations. 
 
 The floral decorations were superb. Among them figured a large ''X"" in white 
 flowers— the dates 187-5-1885, in Azaleas, and the blended colors orange and blue, bear- 
 ing the Crest and Escutcheon of the Dutch Republic, the ancient Coat of Arms of the 
 Church. 
 
 The service— after the Salutation, Lord's Prayer, Ten Commandments, and chanting 
 of the psalm, "God be Merciful,'' — was broken by the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, 
 applied to Lucy Merrill Lindsley, a granddaughter of Mr. John L. Merrill, one of the 
 Elders of the church. Then followed the responsive reading of Psalm ciii — Prayer, 
 the Scripture Lesson I. Sanj. xxii., the Hymn, "Crown the Saviour," and finally the 
 Sermon, which here follows. 
 
 On Sunday afternoon the Sabbath school held its anniversary, anticipating the actuiil 
 date by one week, and on Monday evening there was a grand Reunion service, attended 
 by Drs. Taylor, of Newark, Clark, of Nyack, N. Y., Vehslage, of Irvington, and others, 
 at which remarks were made of the most lively, witty and withal earnest and impressive 
 character. The tribute paid to their pastor by members of the Consistory was especially 
 happy. When Mr. John Merrill stepped back, laid his hand on Dr. Bishop's shoulder 
 and said very simply, "This man!" the effect was electric. Very feeling references 
 were also made, both to the dead and living. Messrs. Samuel W. Baldwin, Abram 
 Osmun, and Henry W. Olcott were especially remembered. Mr. David r>ingham gave a 
 very touching description of the first appearance of the new petitioners before the Classis ; 
 when the venerable Dr. Taylor, of Bergen, stepped forward and welcomed the pastor 
 with tears, and Peter Duryee, Esq., welcomed as an old friend and co-lbunder of the First 
 Dutch church of Newark, Mr. Samuel Baldwin. 
 
 Souvenirs of the service in orange and blue were distributed, and after the Benedic- 
 tion and hearty hand shaking, the large congregation dispersed. 
 
TEN YEARS' REVIEW. 
 
 The Place, History and Responsibility of the Re- 
 formed Church. 
 
 " IValk about Zion, and go round about her, tell the towers iliercof. Mark ye luell her bulwarks , 
 consider her palaces: that ye may tell it to the generation folloiuing. For this God is our God forever 
 and ezier; He will be our Guide even unto death. — Psalm 4S: 12, 13. • 
 
 The sovereign right to be, is the Fiat of God. If 
 God says, "Let there be Light!" Light has a place 
 in the universe. If God says to Abraham, "I will 
 make of thee a great nation," Israel has a place 
 because the object of specific and Divine decree. 
 If Christ says to the Church, "I have chosen you 
 and ordained you "—the Church henceforth has a 
 place, on the ground of the will of her Master. 
 If again, Christ says to Paul— "Be an apostle !" his 
 right to be and to be recognized lies in the right 
 of Jesus Christ to call him. 
 
 It is useless— senseless to oppose ourselves, in 
 any way, to such statements as these. What we 
 must come to at last and may as well come to at 
 the beginning is a hearty graceful recognition of 
 the flat of Almighty God as final. 
 
 That is the ground on which we stand here as 
 a church— on none lower— none weaker— none 
 more excusable. We go back to predestination. 
 
 "High ground '." one may say. But no higher 
 than the case warrants. No higher than every- 
 thing on earth is forced to claim which has a 
 right— is right and means to assert it. 
 
 Personally I am persuaded of as true a call to 
 the position which I occupy as ever Moses had, 
 or David had, or Paul had. If these men stand- 
 ing amid the real and substantial monuments 
 and trophies of their work had a right to be rec- 
 ognized and to be respected ; if David, for ex- 
 ample could stand up and fling abroad the chal- 
 lenge "What have I now done? Is there not a 
 cause? Did not the crisis of the times demand 
 it ?" equally have I in presence of those mighty 
 principles which God has raised me up to reafBrm 
 and by His help establish— The Doctrines of 
 Grace : a pure Consistory, in both its parts, in 
 both its Benches; the original, and scriptural 
 and apostolic order, and the utter abolition of 
 Trusteeships, of the secular— with the line sharply 
 drawn between the secular on earth and the un- 
 secular— a right to stand up here and say it. 
 
 Ten years ago I stood up on a platform of rough 
 boards supported by two wooden horses, the 
 weakest, most defenceless man perhaps on earth, 
 a man without a charge, without an influence. 
 
6 
 
 witljout a Imman future, with tlie religious secu- 
 lar— I mean with the strongly entrenched system 
 of the Trusteeship against me, anil possessing 
 the confldence of my friends only in the face and 
 at the peril of constant counter Influences which 
 worked unitedly and on each individual heart to 
 undermine me. 
 
 Yet for 10 years God has confirmed my action 
 and upheld me in the growing confidence, convic- 
 tion, conscience as I dare affirm of even those 
 Avho shared, at first, a prejudice against this 
 reformation. 
 
 To-day we stand one of the largest— I have it 
 from outsiders and am fain to believe it— most 
 solid foundations in Orange. Solid, not In our- 
 selves—God forbid, since we ourselves are less 
 than ashes— but in God— in Holy Principle— in 
 the deep instincts, judgments, moral affirmations 
 of all spiritual men. 
 
 Now, if in these circumstances, I, a man so de- 
 livered, so saved out of all my bitter distresses, 
 from the shame and the sorrow lying Ijcfore— if in 
 these circumstances I should forget "the hole of 
 the pit whence I am digged"— I should refuse to 
 get up and praise God by an open and formal ren- 
 dition of all the glory to Him— I should neglect, at 
 this point, to set up a New Ebenezcr— why then I 
 should deserve to descend a second time from the 
 pulpit, this time flung out of it, and should deserve 
 tlic reproltation, execration, scorn of every lionest 
 and rightminded and God-fearing man. 
 
 IJut while I speak of myself in the first in- 
 stance, I do it only in the sense of instrument— 
 of occasion. 
 
 In one view of it, certainly I was the founder 
 of the Church, the cause of its existence, but only 
 morally, not directly. I had, under the sugges- 
 tion of God's Holy Spirit, announced principles 
 which it was free to you to reject: or take up, 
 carry out and afflrm. 
 
 My work was done, the work for which the 
 Lord brought me over the mountains was done 
 the moment of the dissolution of the pastoral tie. 
 T then stood apart, my face in another direction, 
 my plans in another direction. All you had to do, 
 was do notliiug and one single M-eek would have 
 seen me a stranger to you and to Orange hence- 
 
 forth in tills world forever. I would have shaken 
 the dust from my sandals and taken my staff. 
 
 What did you do ? You took the Initiative. You 
 came to seek me. You came to seek me In the 
 persons of those honored names which have been 
 ever held by us in high regard and most grateful 
 remembrance. 
 
 You put it to me that God makes the pastoral 
 tie and that It cannot be broken but with the 
 consent of both parties. That constitutionally 
 called and acting constitutionally I could not be 
 put away for a whim, a mere freak of self-will. 
 That souls had been born again under me, many 
 souls who needed the care of one whom St. Paul 
 calls their father In Christ. That many others 
 had been greatly edified and some who had pro- 
 fessed conversion long before, brought to the 
 light, as never they had seen it. 
 
 That for me thus to leave a people who were 
 loyal and who would be loyal and practically say 
 to them, "You must find this teaching where and 
 how you can," to leave them thus, a flock with- 
 out a shepherd, for I was their shepherd, and for 
 reasons which to us had no existence, were sim- 
 ple cowardice and not to be excused. 
 
 These arguments, suggested some from one 
 quarter, some from others, and borne in upon me. 
 turned at last the scale. In other words, you, in 
 the light of conviction and led by God's spirit, 
 founded the Church. As I have often said and 
 have lieen glad to say, "/ icas only a chip on the 
 wave." You were the wave— you founded the 
 Church. 
 
 Lyric Hall was secured l)y you. An organ was 
 put there. Canvassing was done unknown to me. 
 I afterward understood that this movement was 
 due In chief part to Elder Joseph B. Fenby, 
 whose devoted exertions -were earnestly second- 
 ed by tliose of many '-elect ladles" among us. 
 A meeting was arranged for Saturday night 
 in one of your houses, in that very house 
 where three of us liad kneeled in prayer 
 a day or two before and laid the whole 
 affair before the Lord and asked for guidance. 
 At tliat meeting the proposal of a new Church 
 was explained and thrown upon every man's 
 conscience. It was a serious luuK'rtaking and 
 the time, a searching time. 
 
Upon the Lord's Day, April IStli, at 10 o'clock, 
 Lyric Hall stood open. Wliat would come of it ? 
 It was a moment of suspense, of tension— a man 
 alone in a great empty room ! Did God call for 
 anytliilig or did He not ? Would He sustain and 
 conflrni, or would He disown us ? 
 
 At lengtti a step was lieard upon the stair — a 
 solitary step. Does he turn back ? Hark, what 
 is that ? Another ? Yes and still another, and 
 then Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! A crowding till 
 the place was full and more than full. A scene 
 which tliose who witnessed and who shared it, 
 can never forget. I state these things for a few 
 simple and common sense reasons : 
 
 1st— They are something either to stand up for, 
 or be ashamed of. If once in my life, in a crisis 
 for God, I made a fool of myself I want to know 
 it, and own it, and if, once in ray life, in a crisis 
 for God I had nerve enough to plant myself on 
 the right side, if only once in my life, I want to 
 know that. 
 
 The Lyric Hall business, as I said at the time, 
 was either the work of the Spirit of God or that 
 of the devil. If it \f as the work of the Spirit of 
 God, then it was something to praise God for to 
 all eternity, and to recall and constantly recall 
 with public devoutest expressions of grateful 
 remembrance ; l)ut, 
 
 2d— We have either to stand by our action in 
 founding this Church, or admit the whole thing 
 with all its pretensions and all its results to be 
 wrong. No end, however good, can justify a bad 
 beginning; and. 
 
 3d— We are strong just in proportion as we 
 stand up for ourselves and respect ourselves, and 
 assert ourselves— when right, and weak to just 
 the degree in which we allow ourselves to be 
 faced down, and shamed out of our honest con- 
 victions and driven back to the wall. 
 
 And this parallel holds good, not only in the 
 case of churches but of men. The man who be- 
 ing right in any matter dares not say so, who for 
 the sake of interest, of business, of any consid- 
 eration whatever consents to muzzle and trick 
 with the truth and shuffle and play double, is a 
 
 man bound to be infamous. He cannot in any 
 
 long line of effort succeed. He has a worm in 
 
 tlie core of him. He will collapse from the cen- 
 ter. He must go down. We say, "Nothing suc- 
 ceeds like success !" but mere success never suc- 
 ceeds. It is a flash in the pan. What succeeds 
 and what always succeeds is Honor-Vjright 
 Honesty; but, 
 
 4th— God commands us to read up our record, 
 to go back and praise Him. He says, "Give glory 
 to God before your feet stumble on the dark 
 mountains." The heaviest charge God brings 
 against His ancient people Is that "they forgat 
 His works." God had no notion of performing 
 ten mighty miracles, the like of which the world 
 had never seen, simply to have them accepted as 
 helps, assistance, conveniences for the time be- 
 ing and then passed along as mere matters of 
 course. God rebukes irreverence, impiety and 
 heartlessness so flagrant. He commands them 
 most of all to celebrate those miracles and insti- 
 tutes the Passover to seal and keep them ever in 
 remembrance. 
 
 Oh, but the Egyptians, the worklliaess which 
 Israel had left behind would not like it. How 
 could they expect that their former task-masters 
 and neighbors, would like to hear them singing 
 to God, "Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt, 
 Thou hast cast out the nations to plant it !" 
 
 And yet God said, "Go and sing it." "Tell what 
 I have done for you." "Celebrate the signs and 
 wonders done in the Land of Ham." "Sing unto 
 the Lord for He hath triumphed gloriously." 
 "Tell what His arm hath done. 
 What spoils from death He won. 
 Sing His great name alone. 
 Worthy the Lamb !" 
 Why not ? No one knows "why not !" Not the 
 most timid Nicodemus of us all knows why not. 
 No one is going to hurt us while singing God's 
 praises. No one has hurt us. I appeal to any 
 man who went through the stern and the terrible 
 sacrifice, whether by the founding of this Church 
 he has lost anything. Many have gained influ- 
 ence, a good name, above all spiritual help, 
 strength, hght, comfort and Salvation by this 
 Church, but not a man has lost anything. Not a 
 man has any reason to believe he would have 
 been one cent's worth better off if there had 
 never been a Reformed Church in Orange. 
 
Tlie Cliurcli tlieii lias a, iilucc. First, liy ineil-js- 
 t illation. Second, by the uiaiilfest lielp ana ap- 
 l)roval of God, and now more 
 
 Because of wliat she is in herself. IJecause of 
 the purity, solidity an<l divinity of lier principles, 
 order and practical workinp. 
 
 We claim, as a system, to be the purest repre- 
 sentatives of Apostolic Christianity on earth. 
 We have to claim this, for If we did not claim It, 
 there are many of us who would be obliged, by 
 force of conscience, to go out and enter that still 
 purer representative to-day. It is not ancestry, 
 nor education, nor taste, but stern conviction 
 that holds us true to our beloved Church to-day. 
 
 We claim lor our doctrine, our order and prac- 
 tical workiiit,', the will and the Scripture of God ; 
 and, 
 
 First for the Doctrine, for the Five Points of 
 the Faith put steadily, clearly and like a five- 
 pointed star. 
 
 1st— We believe, right out of God's word, in 
 Total Depravity— in the Guilt, Pollution, and ab- 
 solute Helplessness of our nature. 
 
 2d— We believe that God hath mercy on whona 
 lie will have mercy, and that a man's salvation 
 depends, not first of all on his choice, but on 
 back of that the antecedent choice of God : "Ye 
 have not chosen me but I have chosen you." 
 
 ;(d— We believe that Jesus Christ died not as 
 the Redeemer of all men, but of Ills people, and 
 that Ills people will l)e i)roved to be the souls 
 who trust In Illm. 
 
 4th— We believe in a real inward divine change 
 in a man called regeneration, new birth, that a 
 man may have many calls under the Gospel, but 
 only one effectual calling. 
 
 5th— We believe that men thus called, thus 
 born again, have In them something that can 
 never perish and can never die. That no man 
 falls from grace, but from the lack of It. 
 
 Those are our principles, put in every shape 
 and aspect as our platform for the last ten years. 
 I doubt whether Orange In the one hundred and 
 fifty years of its existence has ever heard those 
 doctrines put so straight and so unninchingly by 
 so many diver.se but united voices for any equal 
 length of time. 
 
 And in those ten years, in tlie face of jilalncst 
 
 constant repetition, they have never been con- 
 futed. Xo man has da'reil got up and in set 
 terms deny them. If they are to be confuted, 
 it must be some time after these ten years. But 
 they can never be confuted. They claim to be 
 the Orthodox Divinity. (Jod attests them by con- 
 victions and conversions and all men within their 
 consciences admit their claim. 
 
 Then with these principles the Order. 
 
 This goes on the ground that the Church Is not 
 a democracy, not a republic, not an organization 
 at all of man's manufacture, but a Christocracy, 
 a kingdom and a government dictated and con- 
 trolled by Christ. That "God," as says St. Paul 
 "hath in tlie Church set governments." 
 
 We learn from the New Testament that our 
 Lord Jesus Christ called and commissioned 12 
 apostles. We know the marks of an apostle, that 
 he personally must have seen the Lord, that he 
 must be Inspired to write and be infalliljle in 
 teaching. 
 
 The twelve Apostles formed a rank into which 
 I none beside have ever been admitted. Peerless, 
 alone their names are written on the twelve 
 foundations of the New Jerusalem. They existed 
 for a special purpose and are the foundation 
 morally on which the Church Is built. 
 
 Cut beside these twelve we learn from Scrip- 
 ture that God from ages immemorial has raised 
 up men especially to teach Ills Church. We rec- 
 ognize such men in Enoch, Moses, Samuel, Ezra, 
 and in the New Testament In Timothy, In Titus, 
 In Epaphras, in Tychicus, whom St. Paul styles 
 "faithful ministers," who took the place, in the 
 Christian congregation or Synagogue, of the man 
 who was the angel or the ruler of the Jewish 
 Synagogue to which it succeeded. 
 
 With this man, called Chaziin Ilakencseth, 
 ruler of the congregation, and Shcliach Tsibbor 
 angel of the church were associated for inferior 
 administrative duties, otliers. Elders, called 
 Tsekenim, and by the (irceks /'rcubi/teri, who 
 were to have a double honor in proportion to 
 their wise and holy, gentle shepherdizing, ic. 
 "ruling well" the flock. In Acts H : 23, wc read 
 that "they ordained them elders in every 
 church." 
 
 And with them Deacons, Parnassiui. cilledby 
 
the Greeks Diakoni. These in the ancient syna- 
 gogue had charge of those outside affairs, made 
 necessary by its existence as an orderly corpo- 
 rate body. 
 
 All this comes out in Scripture in a thousand 
 ■ways. In I Timothy 1st and 2d, we have: 1st, 
 a charge to the Pastor. "This charge I commit 
 unto thee, son Timothy," ie. the Ephesian 
 Church. Then follow charges, first to the 
 Elders and next to the Deacons. 
 
 In Phil I: 1, the Consistory is formally ad- 
 dressed. "To the saints which are at Philippi, 
 with the Bishops, or overseers and Deacons." 
 
 This order of government in every local 
 Church by Benches of Bishops and Deacons, we 
 hold to be inherent and infallible— Divine. To 
 us no single congregation, without it, is properly 
 organized. Nor without it will it ever be found 
 possible to maintain discipline upon the one 
 hand, unsecularism on the other. 
 
 The reason of the Trustee, or secular man 
 called in to assist in controlling affairs in God's 
 house, is, always, defective organization. A 
 church, for instance, without a body of deacons 
 who link her spiritualities, her sacraments to 
 her material interests, must seek the help of the 
 worldly trustee. Some one must attend to these 
 material interests. That is only common sense. 
 If therefore you abolish Christ's order, you must 
 make one of your own. You must do without 
 ordination, and without prayer and without 
 constitution, in other words in the dark, by a 
 ring, by an organization apart from and often 
 set squarely opposed to your spiritual govern- 
 ment, what Christ has taught you to do honest- 
 ly, holily, above board, under one united ad- 
 ministration, in one word, in His way and with 
 these three things, !c. with prayer, ordination 
 and constitution. 
 
 Accordingly, outside of the Reformed system 
 secular men and corporations are found sharing 
 the affairs of every local church. The only ex- 
 ception which I know is Plymouthism, that ex- 
 treme self-will, which solves the difficulty— what 
 a solution! by destroying the visible church, by 
 abolishing, in one fell back-stroke, every offi- 
 cer, minister, elder and deacon, which Christ 
 has ordained. 
 
 This trinity of officers and functions in each 
 perfect local church, this body, soul and spirit, 
 Alms-giving, Ruling, and Teaching or headship 
 of moral direction, we find and uphold from the 
 Scripture— we receive and maintain from men 
 who were not apostles, but after, inferior to the 
 apostles, to whom it was said, "The same com- 
 mit thou unto fiiithful men." None but men 
 ordained can commit ordination. 
 
 And this trinity of functions and of officers, 
 in every local church, is all we find. AVc stop 
 there. Less we dare not allow on peril of be- 
 ing defective. And more we dare not admit for 
 fear of presuming on Christ. Our position is 
 simply that of the Waldensjan Brethren, held 
 outside of Rome, since the Apostles. 
 
 But these Doctrines and this Order we propose 
 to hold not in a sharp and angular and in- 
 sular, but in a large, magnanimous and conti- 
 nental way. Systems we know are never strong 
 for being brutal. We count it as our advantage 
 that our very origin— made up of refugees from 
 every side — a veritable Cave of Adullam, as was 
 said in the first address from that text, I. Sam'l, 
 23, 1 — 2d, which opened our services in Lyric 
 Hall— our very origin like that of the denom- 
 ination to which we belong has made us a 
 Church, not of a race or a language, but of a re- 
 ligion. 
 
 The Dutch Church never was Dutch; its cat- 
 echism was written in Germany and by Ger- 
 mans; its confession of faith was 
 written by a Belgian; its Liturgy was pre- 
 pared by John a'Lasco, a Pole, and re-touched 
 by John Calvin, a Frenchman ; its Canons of 
 Dort were drawn up by an Ecumenical Council 
 of Protestant Europe in which six English bish- 
 ops took part: its first Church edifice, because 
 of persecution in the low countries, was Austin 
 Friars. London ; its first Church service was on 
 English soil; it was the foster mother of the 
 Puritans, who after 12 years' residence under the 
 eaves of Utrecht and Leyden. sailed from Delft 
 Haven— men modified and moulded by that 
 residence to carry from the Dutch the germs — 
 would they had carried more of them— which 
 went to constitute a stable,equable New England- 
 
 The Dutch Church in Europe never waD 
 
10 
 
 Dutch, i.e. exclusively as the English was Eng- 
 lish, the Scotch Scotch, the Genevan Genevan. 
 
 And the Dutch Church in this land has never 
 been Dutch. To begin with she was half Hu- 
 guenot. Dc Witt, Vermilye. llapelye, De Peys- 
 ter, Lispenard, Desbrosses, Bleekcr, DeLancey, 
 Jay, Demarcst, Guion, Dubois, Duryea, and 
 scores of others arc all French Huguenot 
 names. 
 
 More than this, she was in large part Scotch. 
 The first Covenanting minister in Scotland, the 
 martyr James Kenwick, was ordained in Hol- 
 land, where he studied Divinity, by the Classisof 
 Groningen. The Livingstons of our Church, 
 Dr. John Livingston, our first and greatest theo- 
 logical professor, the man who translated our 
 .standards into the quaint and beautiful lan- 
 guage in which we read them to-day, was a direct 
 descendant of that Livingston of glorious mem- 
 ory, who, at the Kirk of Sehotts, was blessed in 
 one sermon, to the conversion of over 500 souls. 
 
 But time would fail to speak of Laidley, Drs. 
 Knox, Bethune and Ormiston. Chambers and 
 Campbell, besides many others of a Scotch ex- 
 traction who on the whole preforrrd our pol- 
 ity as being oldest, most complete ami least 
 adulterate. 
 
 And if the Dutch Church thus received from 
 every quarter, she has evei felt it her duty to 
 make repayment in kind. The Dutch Republic 
 founded on her religion was a vast blessing to 
 Europe. To William Prince of Orange, the 
 north of Ireland, under God, owes its protestant- 
 ism to-day. The Orangemen of Ireland— the 
 Orange, worn with the blue, are the historical 
 witness of this. From these and from the fur- 
 ther fact that thus conglomerate, we have exist- 
 ed strong, united, orthodox, upon these shores 
 .'!00 years, it is apparent that we cannot be, if 
 we wished, either narrow, childish or change- 
 able. 
 
 AVe have not, at this late day, to iind out what 
 is our Polity—What is a Sacrament? Our busi- 
 ness is to push these things, to thank God for 
 our heritage, and praying in the Holy Ghost to 
 seek for power in service and in saving souls. 
 
 And we have every reason to think that our 
 beloved, unsccular Order, with its sober meth- 
 
 ods, its graceful as well as gracious expressions 
 of worship, its genial, generous as well as dig- 
 nified and self-respecting spirit, is making its 
 proper and to-be-expected advance between the 
 bald sternness of Puritanism upon the one hand 
 and the meretricious pretensionsof Ritualism on 
 the other. Godhasgivenitlargely into the hands 
 of the Reformed Church to carry the balance-rod 
 between undue extremes in His Church. 
 
 And thus the thought of our place has run in- 
 to the thought of our History. Our own history I 
 can but touch upon. Owing to the great and 
 general public interest excited hy the inception 
 of the movement, I have column upon column 
 from the Orange papers, and Newark papers, 
 and from the Presbyterian and Reformed Relig- 
 ious press. 
 
 It is well that I should recall perhaps the be- 
 ginnings. I quote now from the Newark Jour- 
 nal the following account of our first service; 
 
 "The hall was crowded to overflowing. The 
 services were of an irregular character. Rev. 
 Mr. Bishop called upon any person to lead in 
 prayer. Mr. David Bingham and Mr. John 
 Merrill responded. The 23d chap, of 1st Sam. 
 was then read by Mr. Bishop (the Cave of Adul- 
 1am) and the leading points explained. When 
 he had finished expounding the text he said: 
 'You all know why you are assembled here this 
 evening ; fix it in your mind whether it is by the 
 work of devil, or of God; or if I alone could 
 have brought you here. I see many tearful eyes 
 and believe they are exhibitions of the workings 
 ofGodandnot of man. We purpose to form a 
 new Church. There is room for one on a new 
 basis. The basis we have chosen is the Reform- 
 ed Church of America. AVhy? Because in the 
 Church from which we come there is a board of 
 trustees, and we do not intend to trammel the 
 Gospel with a purely temporal power. In the 
 Relormed Church the doctrine is the s;ime, but 
 government is in the hands of the minister, 
 elders iind deacons. Then too we want to see if 
 a church established on the free-seat system 
 cannot be sustained. We don't want our Church 
 cut up in pieces and sold and rented to pay for 
 the uiaintenance of God's word. ' 
 
11 
 
 He then distributed cards among the people on 
 which was the doctrine of the Reformed Church 
 in these brief sentences. 
 
 ' The doctrine ofgrace called Calvinstic pure 
 and simple. 
 
 'Church governnicnl in the hands Christ's own 
 o2icers--the minister, the elders and the deacons 
 of the Church. 
 
 'In the name of our God will we set up our 
 banners !' 
 
 "The real organization of the chuieh then fol- 
 lowed. Mr. Bishop said he wished it clearly 
 understood by those present that they di I not 
 want any one to sign the petition he held in his 
 hand which was addressed to tne Classis of 
 Newark, unless his mind was fully made up 
 to take such action ; further that he could not 
 help thinking more of those who. being satisfied 
 came forward at once and made their stand for 
 the principles they believed in, than of those 
 who straggled in afterwards when its success 
 was assured. 
 
 "He then read the following Petition : 
 
 "Of solemn, hearty and deliberate choice we 
 bind ourselves to God and one another relying 
 only on his Hisgrace to walk together as a Christ- 
 ian Church and so unite in making this petition 
 and request to the Reverend the Classis of 
 Newark. 
 
 "We the undersigned, members in full com- 
 munion, and in good and regular .standing of 
 the Church of Jesus Christ; and residents of 
 Orange and East Orange do hereby pray your 
 reverend and honorable body for corporate and 
 formal organization under the name and title of 
 church, of Orange N. J., cheer- 
 fully submitting upon our part, to all your 
 doctrinal standards and to the government, 
 customs and usages of the Reformed Church in 
 America. 
 
 "Before a person signed the above petition Mr. 
 Bishop in a solemn and impressive manner pro- 
 nounced tlieso words : "No man having put his 
 hand to the plough and looking back is fit for 
 the kingdom of Heaven ! 
 
 "When all had signed who wished to, it was 
 announced that the number of communicants 
 was 121." So far from the account published in 
 
 the Newark Journal of April 19th 1875. It gives 
 very little impression of the solemnity, tearful- 
 ness and power attendant on that first meeting. 
 You all remember Father Osmun's prayer and 
 how he struck the key note of the Church's 
 early, genial, if I may so say, family spirit. The 
 Journal soQS on to say "Mr. Abram Osmuu 
 hoped that one of the features of the new or- 
 ganization would be sociability and that the 
 congregation never would break up without a 
 few minutes being given to exchange the civili- 
 ties of the day." 
 
 I feel at this point that it is nothing more 
 than right and due to a full resume of the cir- 
 cumstances of our most wonderful birth as a 
 Church, to quote two extracts of comments 
 from editorials in the Banner of the Covenant, 
 Presbyterian, of Pittsburgh, and from the Christ- 
 ian Intelligencer, then to us an unknown sheet. 
 The Banner under the heading, "Itching Ears 
 ! —a Mistake!" goes on to say, "the trustees have 
 ' asserted the right to rule the church, and have 
 : said in effect that if the pastor did not preach to 
 j fill the seats, down goes his salary. As a matter 
 ] of course this attempt to make the pastor preach 
 ; something else than he had solemnly sworn to 
 preach must be condemned by every honest man 
 and woman. No pastor who has any proper 
 conception of his responsibilities can submit to 
 ; such dictation," 
 
 The Intelligencer in making reference to our 
 movement says the following sound and profi- 
 table words. 
 
 "Preachers of the Gospel are ambassadors for 
 Christ, whose first duty is to obey their instruc- 
 tions. A sermon is either a merely human com- 
 position subject to the rulesof ordinary criticism 
 or it is a message from God— a constituent part 
 of public worship and claiming the reverent at- 
 tention of those to whom it is addressed. The 
 standard of judgment is not what the people 
 wish, to please them, but the balances of the 
 sanctuary. A time serving ministry which 
 takes the terrors out of the law, and the Saviour 
 out of the Gospel, will not give offense by preach- 
 ing unpopular doctrines, nor will it alienate the 
 rich, the prejudiced and influential people to 
 whom it is as a very lovely song of one that 
 
12 
 
 hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an sent men and(Jod-sent Churches have been of 
 instrument. i another complexion than that. 
 
 ••But he who preaches the whole counsel of | God has helped us here from point to point. 
 God is quite sure to wake up its enemies. Some | In the first place giving us a lot in the central 
 will go away in a rage. Others will cry out, part of the town and on the 
 
 "Hast thou found me, oh mine enemy?" "Art 
 thou he that troubleth Israel?" Some will take 
 up stones to stone him, and others will move t<> 
 cast him out of the Synagogue. 
 
 "Now what shall he do? just what St. Paul did 
 when he wrote to the Galatians about certain 
 false brethren who came in privily to spy out 
 
 mam street. Who 
 does not see in the fact that we could control 
 the location, who does not see in the generosity 
 of Mr. Samuel W. Baldwin, one of the chief 
 founders of the Church, a singular providence. 
 
 Suppose wo had gone upon a back street. 
 Does any man in his senses, humanly speaking, 
 assert that we would have done f|uite as well? 
 
 our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that I T\,i(.a nf,t «„o,.„ , • .u- 
 
 I J>oes not every one see in thus, as it were, strate- 
 
 tbey might bring us into bondage : to whom we 
 gave place by subjection, no, not for one hour, 
 that the truth of the Gospel might continue 
 with you. 
 
 gic movement of God, the practic:i I gift of suc- 
 cess to any faithful endeavor? 
 
 "The Lord will provide for those faithful and 
 brave souls who stand fast in the liberty where- 
 with Christ has made us free. And no true- 
 hearted minister of the Gospel will hesitate to 
 
 God has helped us from point to point. On 
 Monday, P. M.. April 26th, the application for a 
 church organization -,Tas received by the Classia 
 of Kewark, convened in the North Reformed 
 Church of Newark, and on M'^ednesday, May 
 
 meet the crisis. When it comes, reformation, or | ^~^^' ^^"^ o-'S'ini^-itio" wa.., by the Classis, per- 
 fected. A committee consisting of Rev. Dr. 
 
 revolution will be the necessary result, hut he 
 will give place by subjection, no, not ior one 
 hour." 
 
 Such was the work done April 18, 1875. Such 
 •were the comments on the work. IIow has it 
 since been justified? 
 
 1st— By a steady and uninterrupted growth. 
 Of Israel God said, "Sing: A vineyard of red 
 wine, I, the Lord do keep it : I will water it 
 every moment, lest any hurt it, I will keep it 
 day and night." 
 
 God has kept and watered for ten years this 
 vineyard of red wine, this witness for a special 
 blood atonement. 
 
 He has kept and watered. Growth is an im- 
 portant mark of favor, "I will increase you with 
 men like a flock." If you have a pretended con- 
 venticle of extra spirituality anywhere, and 
 that thing does not grow and does not push con- 
 version and does not care for any such demons- 
 trations as a baptism of the Holy Ghost for 
 power to shake a dead community and pluck 
 men as brands from the fire, you may stop just 
 where ycu are, you lack the very first mark of a 
 heaven-sent witness. All down the ages God- 
 
 Terhuue, and Messrs. Hart and Vehslage. and 
 Elders Frederick T. Frelinghuysen and Benja- 
 min C. Miller, met in Lyric Hall and received 
 the letters on24 members of the Second Presby- 
 terian (Brick) Church, besides those of a few 
 others. The following oBicers were elected: 
 Eldkrs : Samuel W. Baldwin, David Bingham, 
 .John L. Merrill, Jotham II. Condit, Joseph B. 
 Fenby, Walter Tomkins, Abram P. Osmun. 
 Dkaco.vs: Simeon Simmons, Robert M. Lynd, 
 James Martin, George Douglass, George E. 
 Brinckerhoft", George P. Olcott, Edward I. Condit. 
 In the evening the Kev. Dr. W. J. R. Taylor 
 preached the sermon from Eph. II: 20,22. and 
 the Elders and Deacons were then installed, the 
 Ministers r'resent laying their hands upon the 
 heads of those not already ordained, and setting 
 them ap.irt to the duties of their respective 
 offices in the name of the Father and of the Son 
 and of the Holy ({host. 
 
 The new Consistory then retired for a few mo- 
 ments and on their return announced that they 
 had called the Rev. George S. Bishop as Pastor. 
 Their action was ratified by a unanimous vote of 
 the Church. 
 
13 
 
 On Tuesday. May 25th, the chosen Pastor was 
 installed- The sermon was at that time 
 preached by the Rev. Dr. David Inglis from 
 Isa. 60 : L3. "And I will malce the place of my 
 feet plortous .'" The Installation Form was read 
 by the Rev. J. Pascal Strong. President of the 
 Classis. and the charge to the Pastor delivered 
 by the Rev. W. 11. Clark, (now Dr. Clark), of 
 Paterson, and that to the people by Dominie 
 Vehslage. of Irvington. 
 
 The first Communion of the Church was cele- 
 brated on Sunday morning, June 6th, when it 
 was announced that four had been received on 
 Confession of Faith. It was also announced that 
 all names previous to this date would be regard- 
 ed as among the founders of the Church. 
 
 On Thursday, September ;iO, 1875, ground was 
 broken for the new Church. After singing and 
 prayer, the Pastor pronounced these words of 
 inauguration : 
 
 "In the name of God the Father Almighty ! 
 
 "In the name of God the Son our faithful and 
 Beloved Saviour ! 
 
 "In the name of God the Holy Ghost our Quick- 
 ener and Comforter! 
 
 "In the name of the One God of Heaven and 
 earth — the God of Election, Redemption and He- 
 generation— {ho God of Free Grace, the Gospel 
 and Glory, we now break the ground for a tem- 
 ple to stand to His honor and praise !'' 
 
 "The ground," says the East Orange Gazette, 
 "was then broken by Mr. Abram Osmun, the 
 senior member of the Consistory, the Dominie 
 taking a pick-axe and working out the five 
 points of Calvinism around the spot where the 
 spade touched the earth." 
 
 On Thursday, April 27, 1876, the Corner Stone 
 was laid in presence and by the assistance of 
 representatives of the Classis of Newark. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Taylor offered prayer. 
 
 After the salutation and Lord's Prayer, Ps. 87 
 was read responsively : "His fonndation is in 
 the Holy mountains. The Lord lovcth the gates of 
 Zion more than all the dicellings of Jacob !" 
 The Rev. C. R. Blauvelt followed with a selec- 
 tion from the First Epistle of St. Peter. 
 
 The Corner Stone contains a box enclosing the 
 Bible, the Constitutien of the Dutch Church, 
 and a history of our own Church, prepared by 
 the Clerk of the Consistory, Elder .Joseph B. 
 Fenby. 
 
 After the singing of the hymn, "Crown the 
 Saviour 1" the Domiiie taking a mallet pointed 
 to the corner stone on which was engraved the 
 five pointed star emblematic of the five points 
 of grace. 
 
 Then striking the stone three times with the 
 mallet, he said : "I lay the corner stone of a 
 House to be erected and devoted to the service 
 of Almighty God. 'In the name of the Father 
 and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost! Amen. 
 "Other foundation can no man lay than that is 
 laid, which is Jesus Christ," Nisi Dominus 
 Frustra! "Except the Lord build the house 
 they labor in vain that build it!" 
 
 On Sunday, Octobers, 1876, just one year and 
 a-half from our first service in Lyric Hall, we 
 entered this Church. The formal dedication of 
 the edifice to God did not, however, take place 
 until afterward, as a debt still remained on the 
 Church. 
 
 This debt of about §5,000 was removed three 
 years later, and on Sunday, October 26. 1879, the 
 Church was formally dedicated to the service of 
 Almighty God. The sermon preached at that 
 time styled "An Exposition of Reformed Prin- 
 ciples," was printed in very handsome form at 
 the request and under the direction of the 
 Consistory. 
 
 God has helped us thus from point to point. 
 During 10 years I have never but once, and then 
 only in part repeated a sermon. 
 
 Fifteen sermons, in editions of 1,000 and 2,000 
 making in all 18,000 copies and about 288,000 
 pages have been printed and scattered abroad. 
 Some of them have, the last in the last number of 
 the New York Observer, as also in the Christ- 
 ian Intelligencer been very kindly and heartily 
 commended for their soundness and power. 
 
 For one year your pastor was editor of the 
 Gospel Sower, then a semi-monthly, which in 
 one month gained 1,000 new subscribers and 
 
14 
 
 during the year extended its circulation from 
 .i.fiOO to more than 5,000. The editorials, written 
 with but two exceptions by myself, were main- 
 ly republications of sermons preached in this 
 pulpit. Thus by your help I had an audience 
 of about 15,000 persons and much was done in 
 the way of reviving the ancient spiritual feeling 
 of the whole Church. 
 
 We began April 18th, 1875, with 124 communi- 
 cants. We reported to the Classis last Tuesday 
 J an even 400.^Five hundred and forty names 
 { have been written on our roll, and 236 have been 
 added on the Confession of Faith. Five hundred 
 and twenty-two in all have been added under 
 my ministry of 12 years since coming to Orange. 
 It is proper also to add that one whc'lo year of 
 lirolonged absence in Europe and other absences 
 besides this have been compelled by the state of 
 my health. 
 
 I speak of the Pulpit, but what is not also due 
 to the Consistory and to the pews, especially to 
 the Sunday School department? We shall 
 never forget our honored dead, nor ought we to 
 forget our honored living. The tribute paid to 
 your Sunday School Superintendent last 
 Christmas is the attestation of your deep, grate- 
 ful sense of his work and his worth. You have 
 honored yourselves in doing him honor. We 
 shall always honor God, and ourselves by ex- 
 hibiting the appreciation and the gratitude of 
 holy, tender, cultivated hearts. 
 
 And now my brethren what are some of the 
 reflections at this stage of progress upon our re- 
 sponsibility? 
 
 The figure 10 denotes responsibility. Favors 
 lay claims. Grace compels gratitude. The past 
 presses on us an avalanche of Mercy's Divine 
 obligations. What are we to do in that case? 
 what are the Lessons ? what is the outlook ? 
 
 1st— Our history teaches us the hlesning and 
 fhe benrfit of putting God first. "I have set the 
 Lord always before me," says David. The glory 
 of God. How will this be as toward God? How 
 honor God? that was his mark. 
 
 Most men fail here. If we think, wc shall see 
 that we fail here. Nine out of every ten mis- 
 takes wo make are made because we think of 
 ourselves first, our preference, our notion, or 
 our vanity; or other people's preference or no- 
 tions or vanity, and not of the Honor of God. 
 
 Men say, "I did not think!" Yes. but wc 
 ought to think, to imitate David, to put the 
 Lord first of all. In business, in pleasures, in 
 practical judgments, in courses of conduct, in 
 methods of service to have it written up high 
 and written up bright. Nisi Dominus Frustra .' 
 Nothing, nothing, nothing without God ! 
 
 2d — Our history makes us responsible fo hold 
 oursclvcn steady and steadfant in one ponition. 
 The fact that God has so blessed us, confirmed 
 us, is reason enough for maintaining the things 
 which we have, which arc always "ready to die." 
 The Theocratic principle is always ready to be 
 broken down, if for no other reason than that 
 men are by nature wilful and restless. Now 
 conservatism in regard to Gospel institutions 
 has in it much of religion. If any changes are 
 to be made God who has so kindly taught us so 
 far "will reveal even this unto us." Meanwhile 
 we can wait, especially with the crowning, over- 
 whelming blessing of God pouring down upon 
 us continuously, we can wait, borrowing before- 
 hand, in the exercise of patience, a little por- 
 tion of God's own eternity. 
 
 The students in New Brunswick sing about 
 the college: 
 
 "There she has stood irom the diiys of the flood. 
 On the banks of the Old Karitan !" 
 
 That, of course, in one sense is nonsense but, 
 in another, it is the expression of a mighty prin- 
 ciple, llutgers dates back to Utrecht, Utrecht to 
 the changeless principles of grace. 
 
 AVhat we have here to-dny, comes down to us, 
 in the vicissitudes and flux of ages, from 
 David's time, from Moses' time. Il.ad you gone 
 into a Synagogue in the time of David— and 
 David tells about the Synagogue in Psalm 74, 
 the 8th verse— you would have seen precisely the 
 same arrangement of Pulpit, Elder's Bench and 
 Deacon's Bench, which jou see here to-day. 
 The institution is an old one sanctioned by the 
 presence of the Lord Jesus and by the constant 
 practice and precept of the Apostles. St. .James 
 in hi? epistle calls the church "the synagogue." 
 The institution is an old one and commands 
 respect. It is worth holding to a little longer, 
 especially in these relaxing, rationalizing, 
 ritualizing days; and, 
 
 od— We are responsible for more, to push the 
 thinii. God has shaped for us a five sided 
 wedge. Our work is to drive the wedge homo, 
 to pray, labor and urge it. 
 
 What might wo have done in these ten years 
 had we had larger confidence in baptisms, down- 
 pourings of the Holy Ghost ! 
 
 Yet it is not too late. The time will come, I 
 verily believe it, when this Church will enjoy 
 an old-fashioned, pure and mighty revival. 
 May God grant it and to His name be the praise! 
 
PHOTOMOUNT 
 PAMPHLET BINDER 
 
 •AY4.OA0 BROS. Im. 
 SvfMu**, N. Y. 
 Stsdtton, C*M. 
 

 BX9517.5.06R3B6 
 
 Ten years' review .the place, history 
 
 rnili"lir?;.'l'f,?:.°?,'?^,'.S5?':"^;y-Speer Library 
 
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