FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, CORNER GRAND AND SOUTH STREETS. ITS CONSTRUCTION WAS BEGUN AUGUST 8. 1857. IT WAS DEDICATED NOYKMliKH 4, 1838. For the purpose of historical accuracy, the corrections of errors found in the following pages, are here inserted: Page 11. For E. G. F. Marsh, read E. ./. F. Marsh. Page 12. For Evanston and Everston, read Evertson. Page 12. For Robert C. Rankin, read Robert O. Rankin. Page 12. For Oirisworth, read Oriswold. Page 12. For Thomas P. Fish, read Thomas F. Fish. Page 12. Strike out the following names in the list of Trustees; Henry Tice, Samuel Nichols, Abel Belknap, Eli H. Coriain. Page 12. For Chas. H. Johnes, read ('has. A. Johnes. Page 12. For John Uubois, read />n/>i>i.*. Page 13. For Ackman Speir, read Aikman Sneir. Page 46. For last sentence, substitute: This was a token of grateful remembrance from Miss Julia Ferguson, a parishioner of the late Rev. Dr. John Johnston. 1784. 1884. CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE First Presbyterian Church, NEWBURGH, N. Y. REV. WILLIAM K. HALL, D. D , Pastor NEWBURGH, N. Y.: Journal P House and Cook Bindery. 1884 OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 1884. PASTOR, Rev. William K. Hall, D. D. ELDERS, James 0. Conklin, Charles E. Snyder, Daniel S. Waring, Martin L. Lee, M. c. Belknap, John Schoonmaker, I J. Howell. George Barnes. CLERK OF SESSION, . . . M.C.Belknap. DEACONS, Henry W. Siglar. Willi \m C. Belkb \i\ Joii.n C. II LSBROUCK. Treasurer of Church Fund, . John C. Hasbroitk. TRUSTEES, William 0. Mailler, Robert Walsh, M. C. Belknap, Howard Thornton, John Schoonmaker, Stephen King, Sami el Stanton, David Carson, Jonas Willlims. Presided of Board of Trustees, . William 0, Mailler, Clerk and Treasurer, . . . M. C. Bblkjs up. oil I of A meeting of the Officers of the Church was convened ai the Parsonage, Wed- nesday evening, September 24th, for the purpose of considering the question of celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the organization of the Church. Upon motion the pastor was chosen Chairman and Howard Thornton Secre- tary. It was resolved that the hundredth anniversary of the Church be marked by some appropriate services, and that a committee be appointed by the Pastor to make arrangements for the same ; that this committee consist of five persons, two Elders, two Trustees, and one Deacon ; that the Pastor be Chairman, <:r officio of the Committee ; that the date of the Celebration be fixed by the < !ommittee. The following persons were appointed— Elders D. S. Waring and M. C. Bel- knap; Trustees W. 0. Mailler, ami J. Schoonmaker; Deacon J. C. Hasbrouck. It was furthermore resolved that upon the occasion, memorial tabletsto the two deceased Pastors of the Church, Rev. John Johnston, !>.!>., and Rev. W. T. Sprole, D.D., be erected in the Church, and that the i 'on unit tec l> • authorized to consult a competent architect with reference to materials and design. A meeting of this ( lominittee was held Monday, September 29th. John C. Has- brouck was chosen Secretary. Upon motion, it was resolved that the preparations for the Church Centennial be apportioned to five committees, viz.: < 'ommiu i n Programme and invitations. ( !ommittee on Tablet. ( lominittee on Finance. ( lominittee on Reception. ( lominittee on 1 )ecorat ions. Thai the Pastor appoint the Chairmen of these Committees and that the Chair- men select such members of the < longregation to co-operate with them as they may deem advisable. The following appointments were made : On Programme and Invitations, . . Wm. 0. Mailler. On Tablets M. C. Belknap. ( >n Finance, D. S. Waring. On Reception, J Schoonmaker. On Decoration. ...... J. C. Hasbrouck. PROGRAMME. Sunday, November 9, 10.30 A. M. Historical Discourse, by the Pastor, Rev. Win. K. Hall, D.D. Thursday, Nor.,,,/,, ,■ ;;}//,, 2.30 /'. .1/. Anthem. Reading of the Scriptures, . . Rev. J. O. Denniston. Prayer— Rev. Irving Magee, D.D. Hymn. Address of Welcome, . . Rev. William K. Hall, D.D. UNVEILING OP MEMORIAL TABLET. Memorial Address upon Rev. John Johnston, D.D. Rev. S. I Prime, D.D. Address— Rev. John Forsyth, D.D. Hymn. Memorial Address upon Rev. W. T. Sprole, D. D. Hon. E. L. Pancher, LL.D. GREETINGS : From Presbytery of North River, . . Rev. F. B. Wheeler, D.D. From Calvary Presbyterian Church Rev. J. Searle. From Newburgh Ministers and Others. Hymn, (Composed for the occasion by Rev. F. H. Wheeler, D. D.) Benediction. Thursday Evening, 7.30 o'clock. Anthem. Doxology. invocation, Rev. J. Macnaughtan. Reading of Psalm. Hymn. Reading of Scriptures. Pra yer Rev. J. Searle. Sermon— Kev. Howard Crosby, D.D. Prayer, Rev. F. B. Savage. Hymn. (Composed for the occasion by Rev. J. Macnaughtan.) Benediction. HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. Preached Sunday, Nov. 9, 18S4. BY REV. WILLIAM K. HALL, D. D. Deuteronomy xxxii: 7—" Rememb sr the days of old. Consider the years of many generations. Ask thy father and he will show thee, thy Elders and they will tell thee." This song of Moses which he gave to his people as his long and eventful life drew to its close is characterized by the intensest desire fur the glory and honor of God. Beautiful as it i> in its imagery, vigorous as it is in its diction, elevated as it is in its sentiment, the beauty, vigor and elevation of the spiritual that per- vades if, particularly impress us. His soul is on lire with its zeal for the God of Israel. The memories of what (rod had done for their fathers move him with the deepest longing and solicitude tor their grateful obedience. He must give one more testimony before he lays down his earthly work to the goodness and mercy of God and warn them against the forgetfulness of it. It is to be his last testimony, his final appeal. Into this sublime ode or "Song," as it is called, from which the text is taken, all the energies of a genius inspired to the utini ist reach i if its powers are thrown. I have chosen it simply for the spirit it breathes upon us and for the suggestion it gives of the witness the history of our Church will present to ns of the gracious goodness and preserving grace of God. We are to take together a rapid view of the century's life this Church has lived. As we do it let ns hear the voice of this past of the generations gone who with their fathers and elders are bidding us to be faithful to our (rod and obedient to His Word. Before beginning this historical review, it is proper for me to say that 1 shall not burden your minds or weary your patience with many statistics or dates. Only those tha.t are absolutely necessary to place before you a clear and continuous record of the Church life will be presented. It is the purpose of the committee to have printed for preservation and future reference a full report of all the exercises of this ( ,'entennial Anniversary. In thai report will appear many things of a sta- tistical nature omitted in this discourse, including a complete list of the officers of the Church. A little more than a twelve-month has passed since Newburgh celebrated the Centennial that commemorated the closing events of the Revolution. A few months only elapsed after the encampments upon these surrounding hills were de- serted by the disbanded patriot army when this ( !hurch had its formal, legal exist- ence. Its history, therefore, is cotemporaneous with our national history. But previous to this time for nearly a score of years, there bad been a religious organ- ization here composed of those who were by education and conviction of the Pres- byterian faitli -or in the language of those days. " in communion with the Church of Scotland." It was an informal society, somewhat irregular and incomplete as to its ecclesiastical struct u re, and constituting hardly more than an outlying mission station or district. But it was so far independent as to have its own Board of Trustees and the management of its own temporal affairs and the freedom of co- operating with other neighboring societies in the choice and support of a minister. We find that according to the Ministers of the Marlboro Society in the year seven- teen hundred and seventy-three (1773) it united with that society in procuring the supply of a Minister for both congregations for a very brief period. It appears however to have been in their earlier years, in more cordial and active sympathy with the old Church at Bethlehem— the venerable mother of all the Presbyterian Churches in this region. To her it looked for religious aid and oversight and from her it received co-operation in supplying the religious needs of this then sparsely settled district. Through the long gloomy years of the Revolution ami amid all the distractions incident upon the long encampment of the army in its vicinity, this feeble congre- gation continued to maintain its existence, though having no pastoral supervision other than that given by an elder William Lawrence. Immediately after the close of the war the organization "strengthened," as the Historian of Newburgh tells us, " by the addition of several persons who became permanent residents on the disband'ment of the army, obtained the building which 6 had been erected by the army as a storehouse for clothing, where it appears to bave held public worship in the winter of seventeen hundred and eignty-tbree (1783), or spring of seventeen hundred and eighty-four 0784)." We learn from the Church Records that Divine service was held in this building in seventeen hundred and eighty-four, and that on the twelfth (12th I day of July of that year this feeble flock formally organized itself as a Presbyterian Society under the laws of the State, enacted the preceding April. It elected as its Trustees, Adolph Degrove, Daniel Hudson. Thomas Palmer, Joseph Coleman and Isaac Belknap. Who or how many constituted this corporate Society we do not know. Its roll of member- ship has not been preserved. We judge that they must have been weak both in financial means and in members, as they were unable to provide for the entire sup- port of a Minister. In the February of the following year, they united with the congregation in New Windsor, the compact to continue for seven years, "for the purpose." as the resolution stated, "of promoting the preaching of the Gospel." Prom 178a to 1790 the Rev. John Close was the stated supply. He was suc- ceeded by the Rev. Isaac Lewis, who served also as stated supply until the year of 1800. On May 6th, 1801, the Rev. John Freeman was installed pastor over the two Congregations. He resigned his charge in 1804, and was succeeded by the Rev. Eleazer Burnet in the following year, whose brief pastorate was terminated by death one year later. On the 5th of July 1807, the Rev. John Johnston was or- dained and installed pastor over the two Churches and continued to hold this rela- tion until 1810, when the union was dissolved and the Newburgh congregation having acquired sufficient strength to support alone a pastor secured exclusively his services. Thus for more than forty years the Society had continued its uninter- rupted life, and for twenty-six years as a legally incorporated organization, and hail not been able during all this period to furnish the support for a Minister. We can infer from this the degree of their feebleness and measure of their poverty as well as their pluck and their pertinacity. The history of the early beginning of other denominations among us that date back to those early days show also how hard was the struggle for self-continuance. When we turn to secular history and learn that the first settlers here upon this patent, the "Palatines." who in their places of nativity had occupied lands of the richest and finest soil, were discour- aged from obtaining a livelihood on these, then sterile hills, sold their farms and emigrated to more attractive fields, we can understand with what severity of toil and with what patience of spirit their successors endeavored to maintain existence. < Had enough these few earnest spirits must have been to secure that old shabby store- house from the • 'ommissary General for a place of worship. And doubtless it was with devout thanksgiving to God they took possession of -t and c upied it as their Church home. Such was their poverty that even the Church building, erected eighl years afterwards upon the same site, was left in an unfinished condition. It was hardly tenable. Dr. Johnston tells us in his autobiography that " it was with- out galleries, plastering or pulpit — a mere shell, ami that he often preached stand- ing on a carpenter's bench with a few boards on which to rest the precious Bible."' And the Bible which he used is the Bible now before me, from which the Scripture lesson has been read this morning. The historian of Orange County tells us that " the congregation was too poor to finish the building and place pews in it, and that the plan devised to seat it was, that every person who chose to do so, should have tie' privilege of putting up his own pew, with a choice of location for so doing." As the pews varied in form and size according to the taste of the several owners, the appearance presented must have been very strange and grotesque. And not only did these few Christian families have to contend with poverty. The community was pervaded with a spirit of irreligion and infidelity. Tin' openly avowed infidels were sufficiently numerous and strong to form a Club or Society for the dissemination of their opinions ; to hire a man. a certain apostate minister, upon a stipulated annual salary, to give public lectures on the Sabbath upon the teachings of Rousseau, Paine, Voltaire and others, and to support a weekly news paper devoted to their cause. Their attacks upon Christianity and the Christian Church were UlOSl virulent. So notorious was the place for its wickedness, for its open flagrant vice as well as for this determined spirit of opposition to the Chris ti.m religion and its institutions, that the frien,ds of Mr. Johnston, hearing of his purpose to accept the call to a pastorate here, remonstrated with him and begged him to r sider it. His biographj states that his mother wept and besought him not to locate in such a wicked place. It was in the midst of such surroundings and in the face of such obstacles that this little band of t 'hristian disciple.- tailed not through all the years to bear heroic witness for the truth and with steadfast zeal to maintain their foothold as a Chris- tian Church. When Mr. Johnston came to Newburgh though the leaders of this infidel party had di>-d and its strength and members had considerably diminished, yet the baneful effects of the influences that had long been at work remained. There was a widespread apathy and indifference to the cause of religion. In the young par- ticularly these effects were marked. The few people who cordially welcomed him and were eager to co-operate with him were chiefly those of advanced age. The Church at no time had numbered t - e than sixty-five, and only numbered thirty- seven when he assumed the charge of it. So we can understand how, under all these combined circumstances, 1 1 utli n ik must have been very dark and discour- aging to this young man entering upon his first pastoral charge. But it was not long b 'fore the outlook brightened. The spirit in which he had undertaken his work, which was indicated by the text he chose for Ms (irst ser n — " Brethren pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified among you." was imunicated to the faithful few who stood around him. Earnest prayer, accompanied with the faithful preaching of the Word of God, soon produced a marked change in the moral tone and religious life of the community. 1 judge from all that I have i n able to gather from written record and from conversation with those who had personal acquaintance with l>r. John- ston, the members of his flock and others, that he was not by mental nature or habit a disputant. He did not love controversy. He preached the Gospel in its simplicity, confident that it would win its own triumphs, giving no heed to the attacks that were made upon it by unbelievers. In this respect he differed from his predecessors and from ministers generally who came occasionally for a Sabbath to preach in Newburgh. They thought that it was their first and imper- ative duty to expose the falsity of these infidel teachings, and to reason down and away these fatal errors that had act i nired such dominance in the community. His reliance was upon the Word of God as the instrument of the Divine Spirit for enlightenment and conviction, and upon prayer for the blessing of the Spirit's pres- ence and aid. The practical and sanctified wisdom of such a course was soon made apparent. His people were spiritually quickened. The attendance upon Divine service was greatly increased. He had instituted a weekly prayer meeting, which was held in the homes of his people. A larger place was soon found to be neces- sary. A (diapel fir lecture room was built for the purpose. And thus the good work begun went steadily forward -until in the fifth and sixth year of his pastorate there was a large and genuine revival of religion. It was the first revival of reli- gion Newburgh had ever witnessed. The faith of Christians was greatly strength- ened. The Church was enlarged by the addition of many earnest converts, among whom was one who afterward became a very successful minister of the gospel, and another the wife of a devoted missionary. Three years later his ministry was blessed with another spiritual refreshing, when nearly fifty more were added to the church, among whom was one who became a minister of the gospel. In look- ing over the records of the church and Dr. .Johnston's own memoranda of inter- esting events in his ministry, I noted that there were seven such marked events in his ministry, and I was impressed with the fact that among their garnered fruit were so many that became afterwards Preachers of the Word and Elders of the Church — a fact in which the faithful and grateful Pastor found great joy. Time does not allow me to give you any detailed account of the long and suc- cessful ministry of this servant of God. Nor does it allow me— if 1 were adequately furnished for the task— to give you a description of his character. Others more capable of doing this than myself, who were personally observant of some of that work and were intimately acquainted with the man will speak to us at the Memo- rial service, on Thursday next, and to them are committed this duty and privilege. It is only proper for me to remark, in a very general way, thai the Church during the pastorate of Dr. Johnston this honorary title was conferred upon him in the filler part of his ministry by Lafayette College was lifted out of insignificance into prominence, out of weakness into commanding strength ; that whereas there were less than two-score communicants when lie became it- pastor, there were years when upward- of four hundred wt-rr reported as its membership to the Pres- bytery. The church roll has the names of nearly a thousand that were added to it during his ministry. It beca the source mid center of a powerful influence in the community. With the efficient aid of Churches of other denominations that were from time to time organized as the population increased, it elevated decidedly the moral tone of the community. The drift of public sentiment was entirely changed. Newburgh became as distinguished for its sobriety as before forifsdrunk- enness. for its morality as before for its vice, for its Sabbath keeping as before for its Sabbath desecration, and for its religious spirit as it had been before for its infi- delity. And to this day it has retained these changed features of public and social life. Once, twice the Church building was enlarged to accommodate the increasing con- gregations. In the summer of 1837 a second Presbyterian Church was organized, and mainiy through the urgent and oft-repeated appeals and earnest personal ef- forts of this zealous pastor. It was his heart's desire to see the Kingdom of God advancing in this region, and it had long been his cherished wish to send out a colony from his own Church to plant another of a like faith and order in Newburgh. This second Church, largely in consequence of the agitations that arose over the division of the Presbyterian Church into the Old and New Schools, which took place at this time, did not gciin a firm footing. It had for a while a languishing ex- istenee and then died. At the start it united with the New School branch, and by this it alienated some of its prominent members and withdrew itself from the active sympathy and aid of the mother church, which had by a very derided majority voted to continue its organic relations with the Old School. Dr. Johnston's pas- torate extended over a period of forty eight years, dining which more than fifty Ministers preached for a longer or shorter time in Newburgh, with all of whom he had mainta'ned most friendly relations. Between him and his nearest clerical neighbors, the Rev. Dr. McCarrell, pastor of the Associate Reformed Church, and the late Dr. Brown, pastor of the Protestant Episcopal Church, with the former for thirty-three years and with the latter for thirty-nine years, there existed without interruption or jar the most cordial Christian friendliness and Christian courtesy. For such a useful, honored life and for such a glorious, imperishable work we can best voice our praise and gratitude in the inspired words which he chose as a text for a series of discourses delivered only a few months before his death, in which he reviewed his ministry. It is the twenty-first verse of the third chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, " Unto Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end, Amen.'' Dr. Johnston's death occurred on the 22d of August, 1855. and on the 19th of the following December the congregation called the Rev. S. H. McMullen to the vacant pastorate. Mr. McMullen had been for some months the assistant of Dr. Johnston and had greatly endeared himself to many of the people. A remonstrance, how- ever, from the minority against his settlement was presented to the Presbytery, which had such weight with that judicial body that it hesitated to put the call into the hands of the young pastor-elect. The commissioners appointed to prosecute the call before the Presbytery decided to delay until receiving further instruction from the congregation. The call was renewed. But the Presbytery deemed it in- expedient to settle Mr. McMullen under all the ^existing circumstances. The con- gregation did not further press the matter. On the 27th day of August, of the following year, 1850, forty five members re- quested dismission from the Church to constitute another Church, and the request was granted. It was at this time and with these persons together with others that soon joined them that what is now Calvary Presbyterian Church was organized. On the 10th of September following, a call was made out to the Rev. W. T. Sprole, D.D., and on the twenty-eighth day of the ensuing month he was installed pastor of the church. He came having had a large and rij sperience from a ministry in Philadelphia, Carlisle and Washington, and from the Chaplaincy and a Profes- sorship at West Point .Military Academy. He was a man richly endowed with men- tal gifts, of commanding personal appearance, of strong individuality and possess- ing many rare and amiable qualifications for a successful minister of the GospeL But I must not yield to the inclination to enter into any just description of the elements of power that an analysis of his character would present. This is not the hour and 1 am not the person to speak in detail of one whom so many of you knew so well and loved, whose ministrations were blessed to your spiritual good, and whose name will he cherished among your most tender and sacred memories. Fitting words regarding his life and character will be spoken by one whose loving hands have already sketched a vivid portraiture of them in a Memorial which is the beautiful tribute of warm personal friendship. With the settlement of Dr. Sprole the church entered upon a fresh and invigor- ated life. His pulpit abilities attracted large congregations. The old meeting house which even in Dr. Johnston's time had been too limited in its accommoda- tions for the congregation, proved now wholly inadequate to their needs. The question of building a new one had been agitated as far back as 1827. At that time the Board of Trustees resolved that one should be built, but fortunately with the proviso if it could be done " with unity, peace and harmony." Tin 1 matter pro- gressed so far that arrangements for services in tic Academy while the new build- ing was being constructed were proposed. There is a very significant though rather unsatisfactory note appended to the minutes recording the resolutii ins upon this subject: "Owing to circumstances not necessary to mention there was nothing done about building a new meeting house.'' Hut the time had now come when it must be done. The demand was impera- tive. And on the 25th of July, 1857, the Trustees resolved to go forward with the enterprise. This present site was wisely chosen, but not without much discussion and opposition, for there were some who were so strongly attached to the old loca- tion that they could not readily entertain the thought of having the new Church edifice elsewhere. On that old site that of the present Union Presbyterian Church — had stood the old storehouse of Revolutionary times, which their lathers had converted into a place of worship, [t seemed to them holy ground. Hut happily from our point of view to-day more judicious counsels prevailed. And here it was built, a massive atructure, grand in its proportions, beautiful in the symmetry of its outlines, a Christian Temple suggestive of the Scripture words spoken of old. "I will make the place of my feet glorious." The work was begun on the 8th of August, 1857. It was dedicated November 5th, 1858, and on November 10th (Thanksgiving Day) the iron cross was raised ami fixed on the spire. A few words in regard to the old Church building may be of interest to some, especially to the young. It was sold to the fjnion Associate Reformed Church which then wor- shipped in what is now the Hethel Chapel. This church was a child of the vener able Associate Reformed Church, now under the pastoral care of the Rev. Mr. Mac- naughtan, and its first pastor was the Rev. John Forsyth. Very soon after its re- moval it united with the old Scotch branch of the Presbyterian Church. Thirteen years later, in 1871, the old meeting house was removed to give place tothe present commodious and attractive edifice now occupied by that congregation. But to return. The prosperity of the Church in this, its new and stately home, continued. Its pecuniary resources were increased. Its roll of membership was extended. It kept full pace with the growth of the community in population and material wealth. The sixteen years, which was the duration of Dr. Sprole's pas- torate marked an important era in the life of the Church. At what was probably the most critical time in its history he assumed the pastoral charge of it. Under the blessing of Cxod his labors imparted a fresh inspiration of zeal and energy. A few years later the town made rapid advance in all material interests. It became a city. Amid all this pr >gress, and with this awakened spirit of enterprise around it. this Church was not behind its sister Churches "in lengthening its cords and strengthening its stakes." These years were years of great usefulness and invalu- able service to the Church. Dr. Sprole resigned his charge November 4, 1872. In the year 1874, he accepted the call of the Second Congregational Church in Detroit, which he resigned in ls?T. And on the 9th day of June. 1883 he "entered into the joy of the Lord." Whatever monument may now or hereafter mark his grave, this edifice stands as the endur- ing monument of his faithful ministry to this ( Ihurch. The congregation was not long without a minister after the resignation of Dr. Sprole. In February. 1873, it honored the present encumbent with a call to this responsible trust, and with March his ministry among you began, though the in stallation was postponed until .May— until after the regular Spring meeting of the Presbytery. Concerning these nearly twelve years of mutual labor in the cause of Christ and His Kingdom, it is not needful that I speak today, having so recently reviewed in a general way the ten years of my pastorate. Whatever statistics it is desirable to preserve, for future reference, will be inserted in the proposed printed volume, which will contain (he reports of the Centennial Anniversary of the Church. It is all sufficient to briefly say that I have been permitted to gather much fruit from the seed sown by my predecessor ; that God has blessed us with unity, harmony and peace, and has given us more prosperity— temporal and spir- itual -than our prayers and our work have deserved. These twelve years have wrought great changes in this congregation, of which many of you must he often reminded as you sit in these pews. Many honored heads of families, and among them not a few officers of the i 'hurcli, have passed away from us. Brethren let us 10 be prepared for the summons, mindful of the admonition of our Lord, "Be ye also ready, for in such nn hour as ye think not. the Son of man cometh." Thus have we taken our rapid flight over this century of church life. There- records show that duringthese three pastorates that cover more than three-quarters of this long period there have been tun thousand and ninety additions to the Church, fourteen hundred and twenty-three marriages, and thirteen hundred and sixty eight baptisms. Th sy sh iw a continuous history of prosperity. But it has not been without labors and prayers, which no record has or can preserve. The life even of a man can never be truly written, much less that of a Church. There arc a few reflections which have nunc to my own mind as I have been busy in these historical researches, one or two of which I desire to give to you before clos- ing. Time will not permit me to amplify even these. They are in the spirit of the text. ''In remembering the days of old and considering the years of many genera- tions," we learn that the Church of Christ has in itself an enduring strength and an all conquering force. These are to be found in the truth upon which it is built— upon the Christ who is the answer of man's conscious or unconscious need. That truth lies in the depths of every man's conscience. To the decree it is taught in its purity and simplicity and in the prayerful dependence upon the Almighty Spirit of truth and holiness, it will prove to be its own witness. The conflict of this truth with error in the early history of this church is a, bright illustration of this. Its triumphs are a testimony to us of the present generation who look upon these same everlasting hills upon which they looked, and to those who shall look upon them after we are gone to the abiding power of the simple Truth of the Gospel over unbelief and error. We learn too that in this Church of Christ there are not only this inherent strength and force for its own preservation, but for the moral life and health of t he community in which it exists. It is not too much to say that from the Church, whatever be its shortcomings, and they are many; whatever be the faults of its ad- ministration and its works, and they are not a few, there are ever proceeding those silent and active influences which are for the promotion and conservation of the good morals of a community, which are for the protection of society against the evils and the vices that would destroy the happiness of its homes and retard its prosperity. What were the moral condition of Newburgh to-day ; what its man- ners and customs ; what the advantages and prospects offered to its youth; what the respect for government, for law and order ; what the safety of its homes by night ; what the safety of its pedestrians by night or by day, were it not for the Churches of Christy Take also in the briefest form this thought for reflection. The influence of this Church of Christ that has so nobly sustained its life through these hundred years, and in that time has done so grandly its part in the moral and spiritual education of the community, has been only the aggregate of the moral and spiritual forces uirch each member has contributed. They lived unconscious of the full value of their humble work. It has been enduring. It is imperishable. There is in this thought great encouragement for us of to-day, who, receiving this sacred heritage from the fathers, are seeking to preserve it and to perpetuate it. Take to-day anew into your hearts the precious promise of our Lord, " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." The records of the Trustees of the Church are complete from the day of its incorporation — the 12th of August, 1784 — to the present time. Among the very early records are some " items" of peculiar interest from which the following are selected : 1787.— Nov. 2: Inventory of property, made under the State-law: Meeting House cost much out of repair) 40 pounds. Land belonging thereto | .North i 60 " 100 pounds. 1705.— March 23: Voted that three pounds per annum be allowed Mr. I, awrence for sweeping the house and keeping an eye to tin' windows and taking charge of the key. 11 1796.— Sept 5 : Resolved, That ministers of the Presbytery be accommodated with lodgings, etc., at the houses of the following persons, viz.: John Anderson two, John McAulay two, Benjamin Case t wo, Edmund Griswold two, Isaac Hasbrouck two, and Alex ander Wood one. 1798 January 22: Invited Rev. Mr. Lewis for three months on trial, for 37 pounds 10 shillings. The Sessional Records extant date from April 25, 1799, and are complete to the present time. The church roll at that time contains thirty-five na s, eleven males, twenty-four females. Only two of them are familiar family names in our church life to day— those of Belknap and Hasbrouck. This number was afterward increased to sixty-live, though when Dr. Johnston assumed the pastorate there were upon the roll only thirty-seven names. These Records during ll arlier years consist chiefly of cases of Church discipline, as do the records of all our churches. But there is one item of especial and unusual interest, and as it reflects deserved credit upon the pastor whose faithful service has been brought afresh bef or r minds, should be particularly noted. It relates to the founding of two scholarships in Princeton Seminary, by members of the Church. Dr. Johnston took a deep interest in the education of young-men for the ministry. He was a devoted, zealous friend of the Theological Seminary at Princeton. lie stood alone in his Presbytery, both in his advocacy and in his vote, when the pro position was sent by the General Assembly to ascertain the wishes of the Presby- tery regarding the establishment of this Seminary. Through his instrumentality two scholarships of twenty live hundred dollars each were secured lor it from mem bers of this Church. The right to name the beneficiaries was invested in the- Ses sion of the Church. One was founded in 1831 by Robert Hall and his sister Marion, and named by them the E. I). Scholarship. [For an explanation of this title see Joshua xx., 34. J The Church Records state that they were natives of Scotland, and had been brought up under the ministry of Dr. 'Brown of Haddington. For the greater part of their lives they had been scl 1 teachers in Scotland and this country. The other scholarship, which was productive in is:;:, was founded about the same time by Gilbert King, and was named after the founder the "King Scholarship." These benefactors were buried in the old ( lemetery adjoining the I ihureh. Marion Hall, who died at an advanced age, requested if anything was put upon her head stone, it should be "To know as 1 am known : 1 know nothing, but 1 am gauging to know." The amounts contributed by the Church for benevolent and other causes during these hundred years cannot be ascertained from the • !hurch records. It is only of a comparative^ recent date that the < Ihurcb collections have been made a matter of record. The Minutes of the General Assembly, containing the reports of tic contributions of all its Churches to the several Boards would show the approxi mate amount. But as no full series of these Minutes is at hand, even this cannot be ascertained. In the review of my ten years' pastorate recently given, it was stated that the amount contributed in that period to various causes of benevolei was twenty-five thousand one hundred and sixty-seven dollars, and to congregational purposes seventy-nine thousand one hundred and sixty-eight dollars, making the sum total one hundred and four thousand three hundred and lifts- dollars, or nearly ten thou sand five hundred dollars yearly. During this period a parsonage has ben pur- chased at a cost of ten thousand dollars the free h ill offering of the people. During this period also the Church has maintained a prosperous Mission in the Bethel Chapel on North Water Street. II had existed previously as an independent organization, though drawing very largely its j uniary support and its teachers from the membership of the Church. When it becam -ganically connected with the Church, it was under the Superintendency of Elder Robert G. Rankin, who died August 29, 1878. Since then Mr. William B. Brokaw has served as Superintendent. The Mission litis always had tin efficient corps of workers, and litis been instrumen- tal under God's blessing of accomplishing great good. Mr. John ( !. Hasbrouck litis been for many years the Librarian. Mr. Edwin gentle Comforter, dry the mourner's tears. Graciously behold and' bless with Thv favor Thy servant whom Thou hast ap- 15 pointed at this time to minister at this altar. Speak unto Thy servant that he may receive into his soul from heaven those things which Thou will have him speak unto Thy people here; give him a wisdom that is more than his human understand- ing, that the gracious words of his lips may lie as the gospels of .Icsus unto these hearts. blessed Fountain of fresh and ever-living waters, pour forth Thy life through him whom Thou hast made life's channel to this people, that they, receiv ing his message, may live in Thee. () let not his burden be greater than he ran bear. Because of Thy presence may lie be sufficient for every duty and stn >ng for all burdens. Make him lovely bv Thy love. By Thy softening yet strengthening grace make him adequate to tin 1 needs of all hearts, and steadfast in all good. In those heavy hours, when he is ready to sink, reach forth Thy hand to him and sus- tain him with hope. When he shall want most what Thou alone canst give, give Thyself to him. Having Thee In- can never lie poor. And when at last his eyes shall grow dim, let the light of heaven shine into them that at evening time it may be light. Bless all the world, < > Lord, and hasten the day of Thy coining, that all the earth may rejoice in Thee. JSow make glad this hour. Come into this place of Thy love. Fill these hearts with gladness and peace. Accept the praises that shall arise unto Thee. O Light of the sanctuary, till this place 1 with the beauty of Thy presence, and abide here as its glory forever more. Through Jesus < 'hrist, our Lord. Amen. After this fervent prayer the congregation united with the choir in singing the 3Gth Hymn, " Great is the Lord our God." The Pastor then delivered the following Address of Welcome: Brethren and Friends : It is with great personal satisfaction that I am privi- leged, as the pastor of this I Jhurch, to extend to you all its welcome upon the , icca sion of this, its Centennial Anniversary. It is an occasion for joy : it is a jubilee, our hearts throbbing with devout grat- itude to God for all His goodness and grace, and our lips showing forth His praise. In our joy and in our grateful praise, we desire that you. Ministers of Christ and Christian friends, should unite with us. While in a certain sense the history of any Church is its own, in another and very significant sense it belongs to the community, where its life is lived and where its influence is especially and constantly operative. We are all partakers in one way and another of the good that flows out from these centres of religious power and activity. We cannot bound and limit these streams of blessing that have their sources in these Churches of Christ by any parochial lines. Anil today as we in- vite you to look at this single stream that had its rise a hundred years ago in these hills, it is with the assured feeling that you will rejoice with us that its flowing has been continuous for so many years, and' that its full and overflowing waters have given such moral and spiritual health to the people. On the 12th day of August, 17^4, a few disciples, who had been sustaining for nearly a score of years a religious society somewhat irregular in its ecclesiastical form, organized themselves into a Presbyterian Church according to the laws of the State. That date marks the beginning of the corporate existence of this Church. A hundred years of Church life ! But it is not solely in this fact of age that we to-day find our joy ami that I have such satisfaction in extending to you this welcome. The < 'hurch has made a most hon- orable record, of which it has a right to he proud. It has steadily upheld the truth as formulated in the doctrinal standards to which it first gave adherence. It has proved itself loyal to the form and order of Church Government which it first es- poused. It began its life when Newburgh was only a hamlet. In its earlier period, though weak in numbers and in material resources, it bravely lived on in spite of the virulent attacks oi a strong infidel party in the community which was widely notor- ious for its bitter assaults upon Christianity and all its institutions. It grew with the nmunity's growth, doing nobly and efficiently its part in the moral and spiritual ed- ucation of the people. Peace and harmony to a remarkable degree have pei vaded this long life. That it has had but three pastors, the two deceased, whose characters and works will be set before us this afternoon by those who were per- sonally acquainted with them, and the third, the one who 'extends to you in its name its welcome, is a striking proof of the spirit of concord that has generally prevailed. 16 As these three pastorates do not cover the hundred years, a word of explanation is proper. In it earliest history it was served by stated supplies, who ministered also to the still older but likewise feeble Church in New Windsor. Only one minister was regularly installed over the two Churches previous to the settlement of the Rev. John Johnston. The Rev. Eleazer Burnet was ordained and installed pastor over them in November, 180"), but died at the expiration of the first year of his pastorate. As Mr. Johnston, or as he was afterwards and is to-day more familiarly known as "Father Johnston," or Dr. Johnston, was the first pastor the Church had exclu- sively for its own, it has regarded him as its first pastor. His pastorate termin- ating with death he was soon succeeded by the Rev. Dr. Sprole, my immediate predecessor. It is certainly a just cause of pride in the history of one's Church that its pas- torates have been of such long duration : that there has been such steadfast loyalty to those whom it has chosen for its spiritual teachers and guides. And we welcome you to rejoice with us to-day in the memories their names awaken. The continuous prosperity of this ( Jhurch is" identified with these faithful servants of God. who left their impress upon this Church life, who to a great degree were instrumental under God in moulding and shaping that life. We welcome vou, furthermore, to a participation in the joy that comes from the conviction that the unwritten history of the ( 'hurch is that after all which is its most imperishable value. The history of human hearts— of the inner, secret lives of those who have here confessed Christ and have consecrated themselves to His service; prayers that God has treasured in his book of remembrance; the spiritual conflicts out of which have come peace and strength; the comforts and consolations of the Gospel ; the calm resignations to the will of God ; the triumph- ant departures for the glory above ; how all this unwritten history is suggested to us as we think of those hundred years of Church life. There are a host who have to glory gone, whose benedictions are upon us to day; we seem to hear them bid- ding us rejoice, to keep high festival on this day of precious memories. They are the memories of a ('hurch life of which they formed a part and to whose spiritual force and material prosperity they contributed ; the memories of struggles in which they shared : the memories of prayers in which they joined. Friends, these voices from out the past tuat come to us from the skies are for your joy as well as for ours. For He, in whom they live, is our life and our salvation. It hits been our desire upon this centennial anniversary, as memorial words were to be spoken of these deceased pastors. Dr. Johnston and Or. Sprole, to place somewhere upon these walls a simple, unpretentious tablet that would be a reminder to those who are to come after us of the long service of these devoted Ministers of Christ. We had no desire to erect a tablet that from its elaborate design or expen- sive cost, or cunning workmanship would draw admiration to itself. Simplicity, durability, ban ty with its surroundings were the main things sought for. Such a tablet has ben placed upon these walls. It bears no fulsome inscriptions, no eulogistic words. If vou would seek lor the true monuments of these men, you will find it in the history of this Church, that celebrates its hundredth birthday. As the last words of the Address were uttered. Elder M. C. Belknap stepped forward and drew aside the red silk curtain that had veiled the tablet. For a few seconds silence was observed. The Rev. Dr. Hall then introduced the Reverend Dr. Prime, of New York, in the following words : Friends: The Committee did not require much time to consider whom the) should invite to give the Memorial Address upon the Rev. Dr. Johnston. There was one person who seemed to them especially adapted for this service; one who had a warm personal attachment lor Dr. Johnston, who sat lor some time under his min- istry and whoafterward was the pastor of a neighboring Church. Therefore, from his 'own personal knowledge of Dr. Johnston's character and work, anil out of a full treasury ■ •! pleasantand prized recollections, he will speak to us. I need hardly mention his name. It is in all Our Churches -The liev. Dr. S. I. Prime, of New York. 17 DR. PRI3IES ADDRESS. John Johnston was born in 1778, six years before the birth of this Church. His father was an intelligent farmer, who had been a school teacher. He lived in Montgomery, in Ulster now Orange County, New Xork. The lad worked on the farm, and when he was fourteen years old and had been employed awhile in a store, he decided, with his father's approbation, to get an education. He was pre- pared to enter college when his father died. This s a d event crushed his hopes, but ins mother was equal to the occasion, and resolved to accomplish the work. Prom the herd on the farm she selected some cattle, and the student boy with a drover to aid him, set oil through the country to sell them, forinoney to support him in college. They came to Newburgh, crossed the river, and going down into West- chester County, disposed of the cattle. He lodged at Yorktown. and waking early he heard two boys in a bed near him discussing the great question, " Can God sue us in the dark?" That conversation led him to serious reflections that shaped his course in lite.* Returning home, with his money, he was soon on his way to Princeton and an education. This was in October, 1799. George Washington died He-ember i:',th. 1799, only a few weeks after this youth entered college. The President of Hit liege delivered a funeral oration at Tren- ton; and the young man walked ten miles to hear it, stood up in the crowd three hours ami walked ten miles back, having had nothing to eat during the day. \et it was no small part of a young man's education to hear a funeral sermon on the death of George Washington. Heaven send us another Washington, and to God shall be the glory. He completed his course with honor, and was afterwards elected tutor in the college, performing the duties of that office so as to secure the respect of the offi- cers and students also. The voice of God, which he heard by the boys in Yorktown, continued to call him, and he desired to preach the everlasting Gospel. Beyond the Allegheny Mountains was a great divine whose fame as a, teacher of divinity had come over the hills to tin- college at Princeton. There was no School of Theology there at that time nor until ten years after. Coming back to Montgomery, to the home of his mother, the question of the Ministry was discussed in the councils of the family. A young lady in the neighborh I joined the council, for she was deeply interested in 'its decision She had already promised to he the wife of this ardent young man, and the question intimately concerned their future. Should he go away for a term of years, complete his studies, and then return to claim his bride, and with he' begin life's great work as a Minister of the Gospel ? Many elements of doubt am fear entered into that discussion. There were no public conveyances then like on steamboats and railroads. Pittsburg was farther off than London is now. Poy- ertv, illness, change of purpose, were all possible. Would time work no change in man or maiden? If they parted no w for three years would they be ever united to share the burdens and joys of wedded life ? They voted unanimously that he should go. Mounted on a little"horse, his whole wardrobe in the saddle bags under him, he rode down into New Jersey, through it to Pennsylvania, Lancaster, Columbia, Chambersburg, Bedford and Somerset, he crossed the mountains, a solitary trav- eler, was charmed with the magnificent views, with the hills and the Juniata val- ley, and received impressions of grandeur and loveliness that were fresh in his memory fifty years afterwards. At ( lanonsburg he found Dr. McMillan, the Apostle of the West' at whose feet he was to sit. Hut his course was more of practice than of study. His teacher was a great revival I 'readier and was continually called off to scenes of high religious interest, into which he plunged, taking all his students with him. At the end of a year and a half his money was exhausted, and he crossed the mountains again on horse-back, found employment as a teacher in Maryland, replenished his purse, went home after an absence of three years, found all right there and in the neighborhood, studied one year more at Princeton, and was licensed to preach the Gospel in October, 1803. The ( iiurch in Newburgh was at that time connected with one at New A\ indsor. He was called to the united charge. Having I n married to the woman he loved, he entered on his labors ami was ordained on the 5th of August, 1807. That Min- istry continued without interruption during the full term of his long and useful otK, • Many long years afterwards Dr. Johnston, attending Synod in New York City, dined with the Re\ I'i.I'" and a large party r. J. related tin, in id. nt, and one of lli " 1 "as one of those ooys." 18 life. To pursue the history of his Ministry in the City of Newburgh (after New Windsor set up for itself) would be to rehearse the record of a pure, godly man, whose walk and conversation were without spot and blameless, and whose life was one long testimony to the power of simple goodness. He was the most like a good child of any educated man I ever saw. It was a blessedness of his that he found that patient girl in Montgomery waiting for him after so many years. She was a mother to him as well as a wife. He has said, playfully, at my table when pressed to take this or that, "My wife does not allow it." It was her prudence and energy that caused the barrel of meal and the cruet of oil to hold out, when, but for her, a miracle would have been required to feed him. Oliver Goldsmith had him to sit for his portrait, when he drew the picture of the village Pastor, who- "watched and wept, who prayed and felt for all." He rarely preached a sermon without weeping. But he was sincere. He felt all that he said, and when pleading with sinners to be reconciled to God and with saints to be more like the Saviour, tears would flow and his voice would break so that he could scarcely proceed with his discourse. This was not weakness, for he was not a weak man ; he had immense ener- gy, industry and endurance : he went about doing good, with vitality and persever- ance rarely equalled in the ministry. I have seen and heard him when he was greatly excited. It was in his own church when the great disruption took place at Synod in the year 1838. It was agreed that the Synod must be broken asunder, but how should it be done ? "I go," exclaimed Dr. Johnston, "with the men who are known as of my School. I cast my lot in with them, and let my right arm drop from my shoulder if I do not stand by them in this hour of peril." There was in Newburgh in old times an association of men who cherished the infidel sentiments of the French Revolution, and sought to propagate them on American soil. Dr. Johnston had their names in his note book, and he kept a re- cord of their lives and deaths. Both were miserable. Intemperance, suicide, vio- lence of some kind for the most part sent them out of the world ; few of them died in peace in their beds. He did not repeat their names, for, thank God. it is not respectable to have infidel ancestors, and to perpetuate the memory of the dead would pain the living. But he was wise in dealing with the worst of them, and the unbeliever, as truly as the Christian, had a place in his heart. To have walked forty-eight years in one community, identified with every public movement, standing up bravely against iniquity in high places and low, his counsel sought for continually, and his opinion and advice being freely and honestly given, and to have borne himself under all circumstances, religious and secular, above re- proach or suspicion, isan achievement which the grace of God and his own good sense enabled him to accomplish. He could say with Paul, " I have fought a good fight," and there was never a man in Newburgh or elsewnere, who could take away his crown of a good name. He was a friend of my vouth, and my father's friend, and I count it no light privilege after both of them "have been dead for these many years, to take a part in these expressions of esteem for the memory of him who being dead yet speaketh. Long ago, when he first entered within the vail, a white 6tone was given to him with a new name written thereon. To-day we set up in this holy place a white stone, with his name inscribed upon it. Long ago he expressed astonishment that he who once kept his father's sheep, was raised up to be a Shepherd of the flock of God. to rank with illustrious men in the government of the Church, and its institutions of learning. Now he sits with the greatest and best of all past ages, and with Jesus the Mediator, whose church he loved and served so long and well. We set up this stone to tell the generations who come after us what a noble, blessed, faithful Pastor fed this flock through the first half of the nineteenth century, that they may hold in honor perpetual the name of Dr. John Johnston. The Kev. Dr. Hall : — Very soon after I first came to Newburgh, about twelve years ago, I was fortunate in making the acquaintance of the gentleman who was at that time chaplain at West Point. He seemed to me to be a man iu the vigor of his prime. But with the closer and more intimate acquaintance the years have brought, he has been grow- ing younger to my thought. I am sure that if the good Lord should spare him to us for twenty years more it will even then be said of him, "fresh to the end." He is among us, on his own native heath, to-day, 19 and we are all confident that what our esteemed friend does not know about the early Ministers, and early religious life of Newburgh is not worth knowing. The Rev. Dr. Forsyth will now address us. DR. FORSYTH'S ADDRESS. My dear Friends: I find myself as it were sandwiched between my dear friend Dr. Prime, to whose admirable Memorial we have just listened, and my other dear friend. Judge Panoher, i.e. between the Gospel and the Law. A few days ago I was a«ked by one of our editors for my manuscript. I re- plied that I "would cheerfully give it if I had such a thing about me ; but that I could not know what I might have to say until I had heard Dr. Prime. All that I could do would be to gather up the crumbs which Dr. Prime might leave, if indeed he left any. The same day Dr. Hall showed me the programme, and when I asked him what was to be the theme or text of my address, he said, "you can talk about anything." That was certainly a very large liberty ; but it would be cruel to you if I availed myself of it. You would not wish me to give you a sermon under the guise of an address, especially as we are to have one this evening by my old friend and former colleague in Rutger's College, and which, I am sure, will be one of the best, and so I must take up the theme which, at this last moment, Dr. Hall has given me, and deal with it as best I may — "Reminiscences." As a born Newburgher, I am sure that my memory of Dr. Johnston goes farther back than any of my clerical brethren near me. I fancy that even Dr. Prime never saw him until after he had experienced a remarkable change in his personal appearance. My earliest remembrance is that of a most venerable man as bald as Dr. Prime himself, while the few remaining hairs were as white as the driven snow. Suddenly, while he and Mrs. Johnston were on a visit to New York, his head be- came covered with a thick crop of hair as brown and beautiful as those of my friend behind me, the present Pastor of this chinch. And they retained their color to his dying day. The story goes that on the evening of that day Mr. and Mrs. J. were at a little party in the house of a friend. The host asked Mrs. J. if Mr. J. had come. She looked around the company, and replied, "No, I don't see him," though he was sitting within a few feet of her. I have often wished that a portrait had been taken of him before this change occurred. Here I must say a few words in regard to Mrs. Johnston— one of the grandest and noblest Christian women that ever lived in Newburgh. She was indeed a helpmeet for her husband — remarkable for her " large, sound roundabout " < hris- tian "sense." Dr. Johnston was, as Dr. Prime has told us, singularly emotional by nature. I think that I never heard him preach without his bedewing his sermon with his tears. Mrs. Johnston was remarkable for her calm, self-poised, energetic readiness for every good word and work. To homes visited by sickness or sorrow, or want she was quick to go, by day or by night, on a mission of sympathy, nurs- ing or help, as the case might be. Hundreds of families— many of them not be- longing to this church — could rise up and call her blessed. She was one of the founders of the Dorcas Society, now nearly seventy-live years old. She was one of the founders and teachers in the first and, for a long time, the only Sunday School in Newburgh. It met in the old church, as a sort of Union School, and so con- tinued until the interior and the exterior of the church were changed into the form which many of you will remember ; when the Presbyterian and the Associate Re- formed Church each set up a Sunday School of its own. Originally the pulpit stood in the north end of the church. It was neither a mere platform nor a desk, but — though irreverently called a tub— it was a true churchly pulpit, with a beau- tiful canopy over it, which was surmounted by a dove with an olive branch in its mouth. Had Mrs. Johnston lived in Macedonia in apostolic times, I am sure that she would have taken her place among those concerning whom St. Paul wrote — "help those women who labored with me in the Gospel,"— whose names are in the Book of Life. And I am equally sure that if the present generation knew how much this noble woman did for this Church during the many years of her husband's pastor- ate, there would be another tablet beside the onejust unveiled, to the memory of Mrs. Mary Johnston. Now, when Christian women are so largely " coming to the front," to use a military phrase, in all kinds of Christian work, 1 wish that then- might be such a tablet, not merely to preserve the memory of a " mother in Israel," 20 but also to serve as a stimulus to the ladies of this Church to follow her, as she followed Christ, in all good works. When Dr. Johnston first came to Newburgh, there were only two churches with pastors in the village — his own and the Associate Reformed. Our Methodist friends had indeed a small society. How small it was and continued to be for quite a num- ber of years may be inferred from the size of their first Meeting House, 32 feet by 45, which stood in what used to be called the Old Town, at the corner of Liberty Street and Gidney Avenue. That little society has. as you know, grown into three noble and mighty bands. If some of the good old Methodists of a hundred, or even seventy-five years ago could rise from their graves, and walk down Liberty Street until they came to Trinity Church, the venerable mother of the other two, I fancy that they would be utterly astonished when told that this is a Methodist Chinch, that the little seed that they had long ago planted had grown into this magnificent tree of righteousness. We may be sure that when convinced of the fact, they would there in the street have shouted Hallelujah with old-fashioned Methodist vigor. The Associate Reformed church of that day stood between William and Ren- wick Streets, a little east of Grand, and quite out of town. Those who attended it must have been very "zealously affected" towards their own faith and forms of worship, when they were content to trudge there in summer's heat and winter's cold, through dust, and mud, and snow. At one time they had as their pastor, a young and very popular preacher, who, by the way, was called from here to the First Presbyterian Church of Albany. They naturally were counting a good deal on the eloquence of their young minister as a means of growth. Some one was one day telling a very prominent merchant of the village, who probably looked at everything within as well as as without from a business point of view, about this popular minister. "O, yes," said the merchant, "Mr. Stansbury is an eloquent man, but Mr. Johnston has the best stand." So he had, for it was in the heart of the village. In due time the Associate Reformed people, becoming convinced that their " stand " was a very poor one, left it and built the church at the corner of Grand and First Streets, in 1821-22, the first minister in which was the late Rev. Dr. McCarrell, and also their parsonage — the only one for many years in Newburgh, but which every church should have, at the corner of Liberty and First Street. Meanwhile, in 1819, that saintly veteran, the Rev. Dr. John Brown, whom only a few weeks ago devout men of various denominations "carried to his burial." in the almost 70th year of his ministry, but was then the young Rector of St. George's, by his own untiring energy had erected the church at the corner of Second and Grand Streets. And thus was formed an ecclesiastical right angled triangle, at the several angles of which stood the Presbyterian, the Episcopal and the Associate Re- fornied churches, the like of which I fancy, could not be found in any other town in the United States. At one angle stood the Presbvterian Church; at another the Episcopal ; at the third the Associate Reformed. When Dr. Johnston died he had been Pastor of this church fifty years. Dr. Brown had then been Rector of SI. George's forty years; and Dr. McCarrell Minister of the Associate Reformed a lit tie over thirty years. And these were their first and only charges. These three men differed physically, intellectually, in their literary and scientific tastes, as well as in regard to church polity and forms of worship; but they were one in their de- votion to their common Lord, and in zeal for the salvation of men. They never exchanged pulpits ; never sat together at the same communion table, but they were bound together by the closest and warmest friendship not only never broken, but never even for a moment disturbed during the many years they labored side by side, each in his own sphere and among his own people I know that I must put an arrest upon memory, considering the many voices to which you are to listen after mine ; but I must say a word in regard to one other minister who began his labors only a year or two after Dr. Drown. I refer to Dr. James R. Wilson, the first Pastor of tile Reformed Presbyterian Church, to which my dear friend, the Rev. Dr. Carlisle, has so successfully ministered during the last thirty-six years. Dr. Wilson was truly a man of genius, of imposing presence, of varied accomplishments, and one of the most brilliant Preachers that have ever occupied a Newburgh pulpit. It has been my good fortune to hear many of the most distinguished pulpit orators, Catholic and Protestant, in our own country, in Britain, Prance, Holland, Germany, Austria, Italy. I never heard one who could more completely keep and rivet the attention of his audience than Dr. James R, Wilson when in his prime. You may judge of his power in this re- gard, when I tell you that mere child as 1 then was, he could keep me wide awake at an evening Ben ice during a sermon of an hour's length. 21 "The fathers, where are they ? and the Prophets, they live forever?" None of us can doubt where the Fathers of whom 1 have spoken are. They have joined the church above. Whatever differences separated them on earth, they have utterly disappeared. They are now joining in the one song and service to the Lamb. I )ear friends, let us "remember those who have spoken " to us or to our fathers and mothers, the word of God, whose faith let us follow, considering the end of their conversations Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever." " And now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make us perfect in every good work, to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever, Amen.'' After tlio singing of a hymn, the Rev. Dr. Hall remarked : I am glad to have in this pulpit upon this occasion a Christian layman, and I am glad, too, that ho is a Methodist, so that we may hear not only from the pews but from the representative of another denomination, with what pleasure and profit the ministrations of the late Rev. Dr. Sprole were received. There is no one known to me better qualified to speak of him upon this occasion, both from choice memories of a warm friend- ship, and from a just appreciation of his excellencies and abilities, than our friend Judge Fancher, of New York. Out of a full heart he will now address us : JUDGE FANCHER'S ADDRESS. It is my privilege on this occasion to make a few remarks relative to one who was my intimate friend, who, for well nigh a score of years was the beloved pastor of this Church; who was chiefly instrumental in causing to be reared the walls of this beautiful edifice, and who, after a useful life of service in the cause of Christ, has been joined to the general Assembly and Church of the first-born which are written in heaven. I formed his acquaintance when he had lately passed through a grievous ex- perience, but doubtless that experience was a, trial that served to devote him more exclusively to his great work of a Christian Minister. He had been deprived of his position as a Professor and < Ihaplain in the military academy at West Point; and when he applied to the Federal authorities to be in- formed of the cause of his removal, he received neither an explanation nor the civility to which he was entitled. A brief sentence explains it all: Jefferson Davis was at that time Secretary of War. Turning then to that sacred work to which he was called, ami for which he was so well lifted, Doctor Sprole immediately entered upon his Ministry to this congre- gation of the First Presbyterian Church in Newburgh, with a (-Hastened spirit, a fervent zeal, and the precious qualification he had received from above — a quali- fication that was like a baptism of lire. With what zealous ardor he then preached ! It was a tide without an ebb. He seemed at that junction to have reached the fullness of his manly strength. He was in the prime of life, and Nature had endowed him with her choicest gifts. His every energy was thenceforth consecrated to the furtherance of the glorious Gospel of tie- Blessed God which was committed to his trust. His stately form, his engaging address, his voice of singular cadency, his eloquent words, his fervent spirit, all conspired to charm his hearers, to make his Ministry powerful, and to touch with a deepening interest his every successive dis- course. The experiences of the pas! had, in their measure, equipped him for his loved employ; and his full and earnest soul was all engaged to proclaim those great truths— the sweetest and the most awful that man may ever utter or man may ever hear comprised in the Gospel he was commissioned to declare. His enthusiasm seldom lost its splendid passion. It may be thought he did not always preach as he did at that epoch of his life. It would be surprising if he did. Towering flames will at intervals subside. But 22 there were ever to be noted in his pulpit efforts a scriptural orthodoxy, a scholarly accuracy, and a dignified manner; while ever and anon his impassioned eloquence breathed the flame of enthusiasm into his words so that errand truths were con- spicuously depicted and made replendent in his discourse. Stars and crescent never so gorgeously embossed a shield. It was with a ready facility that he made his way to the fountain depths of truth, and drew from thence pure and refreshing thoughts; and often as his discourse proceeded, there was lent to his cheek a livelier red, to his voice a deeper earnestness, and to his appeals a spirit-moving influence, till hearts were throbbing beneath the power of the Gospel thus pro- claimed. To one key-note was the harp of this enchantment strung. It was found in themes suggested by texts like this: " For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world throngh him might be saved." To some of us addicted to Armenian tendencies of belief, there has seemed sometimes to be a complexity and want of ethereal fire in discourses touching some of the doctrines inculcated by the Westminster Assembly of Divines. But, strange as it may be, the discourses of Dr. Sprole were, not infrequently, tinctured with a strong infusion of those doctrines, and yet there was in them no complexity or dry- ness. The waters of a Mediterranean flowed over the Sahara, and the seeming desert was changed into a garden! He was never afraid to utter his sentiments, and whenever he declared them, no explication of his principles, beyond his own words, was needful. Alexander Hen- derson himself, who it is said wrote the Westminster Confession, might have ap- proved their perspicuity and orthodoxy. Prominent as he was in the great denomination to which he was attached, his distinctive creed was as conspicuous as his stately form. He was not the less esteemed anywhere for his denominational loyalty, yet whenever he had chosen a theme connected with some generally received doctrine of the Gospel, then it was that he preached his grandest sermons and displayed the conspicuous qualities of a great preacher. As an illustration I will refer to an occasion when he was unexpectedly called upon to occupy a prominent Methodist pulpit in the city of New York. He turned to a friend and asked, "On what shall I preach?" The reply was, "The central theme of the gospel." "Very well," said he; and, ascending the pulpit, he preached from the text, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whosoever believetfi in Him should not perish, but have Eternal Life." He wielded a masterly power of description, and in the prefatory portion of that sermon one seemed to see the stricken, dying Israelite, straining his death- dimmed eye toward the only object of hope, and then, as he looked, suddenly re- joicing in his new-found life. But as the speaker proceeded to the portion of the sermon where the central doctrine of the Christian faith became the theme, then, O then, what majesty was in his mien — what triumphant vigor was in his utterance — what revelation was made of the grandest truth ever proclaimed by man— and how eloquently he discoursed concerning the atonement of Christ and that faith which is the condition of the great salvation. The preacher's eye was, at times, swimming in tears— his strong frame seemed to quiver with the emotions of the soul, while the hushed and listening auditors hung with delight upon his impas- sioned utterances. A brother minister who heard him preach from the same text said: " I shall never forget that sermon. Its influence is upon me as I write." The sermons of Dr. Sprole were often masterpieces of impressive composition, and yet he never outspread a banquet for vain effect. His profound belief in the truths that he enunciated plainly went along with his words and gave them power. In the simplest phrase that human lips can try, he uttered the most momentous truths concerning the mysteries of the kingdom of God, and, as with a winnowing fan, he gathered up the good seed, and drifted the chaff away. Sometimes, as is known, a poet will sing a song in which all human hearts will join with him. So, as to some utterances of Dr. Sprole, they keep their silent melody in the delighted memory, charged, as Wordsworth said, " with peaceful admonitions for the heart." He was rich in stores of various knowledge, and was gifted with uncommon power of clear and forcible expression. He was deeply read in the standards of Christian doctrine, and had arrived at conclusions in theology that settled his be- lief on an immovable foundation; yet he was no sectarian bigot, but he readily conceded the merit of the opinions of others, so far as they comported with the 23 essentials of the Christian faith. What those essentials are he clearly discerned. No cloud obscured his spiritual landscape. His social sympathies and affections were strong, and there is no aspect of his character more charming than that in which he appeared in his family circle sur- rounded by wife and children, or when enframed with friends in social converse. One could choose him for a friend because he could give Rood counsel, could share in joys and sympathize in sorrow. Often his kindly-beaming face would be lighted with the smiles of genial friendliness. When such a friend falls by the shaft of death, how lonesome the world seems! His commanding personality had a charm of manner that contributed largely to his personal influence. But his distinguishing merit— let me emphasize — his dis tinguishing merit was his manifest love of the sacred truths he proclaimed, and the fidelity and power with which he exercised the functions of an able minister of the New Testament. One of his clerical brethren, well acquainted with him, said: " I recall his preaching with peculiar pleasure. It was sometimes so tender that my eyes were often filled with tears." Those who had opportunity to hear him can testify that he had studied the law of Christ so fully that his words seemed to reflect the great principle of love which is the essential spirit of the Gospel. One of his compeers in the ministry said: " I can never forget one Sabbath that I spent with him at West Point. He administered the Lord's Supper in the chapel. His address at the table was one of the best I ever heard." As he passed from the threshold of this edifice, to return no more, doubtless he devoutly presented to God his beloved flock and lifted a prayer that he might be succeeded in his pastorate by a worthy successor who should lead them in the green pastures beside the still waters; and, if his sainted spirit is permitted to come again into the assembly that worships here, it must be known to him how well his prayer has been answered. He has bequeathed to us the rich legacy of his precepts and example, and memories of him that are blessed, are recorded on the tablets of many hearts. To our limited vision the darkness of death and the grave has deepened over him, but to faith's clearer view his redeemed spirit has been borne by the angels to that bright realm where there is no darkness at all. His familiar voice that so often rang beneath these arches is forever hushed. We can hear it no more, save in the mournful halls of memory — like a harp touched by the night wind. Yet his example teaches us that no true work was ever wasted, no true life has ever failed! Let us make a record in remembrance to his memory! It will remind us of his fervid genius and his shining virtues; of the life-long labor of love that he per- formed; of his instrumentality in gathering an assembly of his beloved people within the walls of this enduring edifice; and it will discourse to us of him who was the faithful pastor, and whose name, as we believe, is inscribed on the lengthening roll of the blessed company of Heaven. Sic sat est vixissc— It is enough to have lived! Grander was it than to have been the victorious chieftain in many battles, or the gold-crowned inheritor of a kingly throne! The Rev. Dr. Hall:— In 1837 and 1838 the Presbyterian Church in America from causes which it is not needful for me now to specify, was divided into two branches called the Old School and the New School. The division of the New York Synod took place in the First Church, in Newburgh. After thirty years of separation, years of misunderstand- ings, and rivalries, a union was happily effected. In 1870 the union of the Old and New School Presbyteries of New York took place in the First Presbyterian Church of Newburgh. The Minister who was chosen to preach the sermon upon the occasion and was afterward chosen as the first Moderator of the United Presbytery, was Eev. Dr. Wheeler, of Poughkeepsie. It is eminently appropriate that he should be selected to bring to us the greetings of the North River Presbytery. He will now address us. 24 REMARKS OF THE REV. FRANCIS B. WHEELER, I>.I>. Fathers, Brethren and Friends: I deem myself fortunate in my presence here to-day. On an occasion that links itself with the far away of yesterday with Teach- ings into the far-away of to-morrow— fortunate in bringing Presbyterian greetings to this honored Church, so important and conspicuous in all her ecclesiastical rela- tions — where history is so inter linked with the Presbyterianism of the Hudson Valley, from New York to Albany — a loyal child of the Presbytery, and a fostering mother too— a pillar of strength and beauty both. A light upon the hill, seen afar, steady and sure in its shining, and ever a factor of power in all Christian activities. We greet her venerable in years and yet with eye not dimmed, and force not broken by the flow and friction of one hundred years. With all the changes that have swept the sky of human affairs, this Church has not moved from the granite foundations of a pure faith, nor failed in her loyalty to Jesus Christ. We greet the Church at this point of her march, as she tarries a little, to gather up the reminis- cences of the past, with devout recognition of mercies vouchsafed and strength imparted. One hundred years of service. Thank God for that. Sowing beside all waters, and reaping with full hand along the crowding and crowning years. Along the way what prayers have been lifted, what sacrifices have been made, what victories secured. I am glad we have fallen upon antiquity. Time was when we were told, on the other side of the Atlantic, with an almost sneer, " You have no history, you have built no monumental stones." We have grown away from that, and have bravely pushed our way up into events that hallow and make glorious our history. We now hold Centennials, marking that which gives color, richness and novelty to our humanity. We are growing old. And with age comes no debility, no decadence. Church and State with us. both have a history with breadth of strength and flush of beauty. We have our Century Stones, and to them bring sanctified and tri- umphant orations. Newburgh, sitting like a queen upon this beautiful bay, shad- owed by yonder mountains, has her share in them, Only one year ago, along her streets "was the the march of bannered host commemorating a national event which will ever constitute a bright setting in the crown of our glory. To-day she brings her thanksgivings to the shrine of this Church, honored of God in the past, and radiant with clustering hopes for days to come. The day is auspicious— we do well in being glad, and it is befitting that North River Presbytery should bring her greeting. Salutations on life and health of the Church— strong and lusty life— prosperity uninterrupted, A living Church to-day, though one hundred years lie behind her. It is a grand thing to live, to keep place and hold as years wax and wane. As your city sits by the river, and stretches the roots of her prosperity out into its living tides, so this Church, planted by the rivers of water, has not only brought forth her fruit in her season, but her leaf also has not withered. The river by which the fathers and mothers planted is the River of God. full of water, hence it is, that this cedar of Lebanon is full of sap— well planted, well nourished, well grown, the tree stands and flings its branches out into the sunshine of God's loving kindness. We greet you in that you are alive, and are so ready to do and suiter, if need be, in further servii f the Lord. You are alive, because of the spirit of the living creature is in all the wheels of your organization— the breath of God in the body of your existence. Greeting comes to vou'also, for the reason you have wrought so well, and ac- complished so much for the Master. You have not been idle, there has been work here, solid, redemptive, abiding. Witnessing for Christ ; holding the form of sound words— keeping the faith— harvesting of souls. What privilege and what honor, to live and stand for the Lord Christ, through the toss and whirl of a hundred years. The work of this < !hurch has not been in vain I tod has given it the impe- tus of His strength, and lifted it into the eternities of His glory. And our greeting is warm, generous, full of praise, because you have such fu- ture before you how grandly that future opens from this Mount of Communion— along the King's highway, into larger usefulness, and more abundant r. suits. As the river yonder comes from mountain springs, widening, deepening in its How, past green fields, and the hum of manifold industries, bearing on its affluent tides the wealth of a continent, so the stream of your Church life runs, its course not finished. On. still onward, in the channel of continued and ever fresh opportunity, till, through the gates of the morning, if shall murmur into the rest of everlasting seas. So, with the greeting 1 bring admonition to larger activities and higher con- 25 secration. As I sat listening to the story of those who have gone before you in the history of this Church, there seemed to me, here, other presences than those upon whom mortal eyes fell — a goodly host — those who had sown in tears -gathered in joy — the servants of the dear Lord. Your fathers, mothers, brethren, friends- why, the air was tremulous with their presence, and out of the witnessing cloud came voices of praise, encouragements and incentives to greater fidelity. Oh, hear ye them as they speak — " Though dead, they speak in reason's ear, And in example liv , Their laich and hop,-, and mighty deeds Still fresh instrui tion give." They vanish — are gone— their voice dies away in faint echoings. Then comes another, more majestic, anil loving, the dear Lord of your fathers, from whose heart has come into your veins the Life Everlasting Mis benedictions fall, and I hear Him say, "Holdfast till 1 come, and I will give thee a Crown of Life." O, brethren and friends beloved, with you I will make answering. O, Lord, our Christ, we will — till Thou shalt come, and these eyes shall see the King in His beauty. The Eev. Dr. Hall : — About four years ago Calvary Presbyterian Church of this city celebrated its twenty -fifth birth-day. Upon that happy occasion, an honored place was given to her mother, or rather to the one who represented her. In the prosperity of this daughter, no one rejoices more than this mother, and her prayer is that it may steadily continue and increase. There is a tradition that the mother was not very lavish in providing for her when she went forth from the old home to establish one of her own. But even if this lie true, she has i^iven ample proof of ability to take care of herself. The mother's benediction is upon her. Let it mingle with the greetings from the child. REV. J. SEARLE'S REMARKS. If it were regarded as blame-worthy in the daughter, twenty-eight years ago, to leave the old homestead in opposition to her mother's wishes, and begin house- keeping on her own aceount, there has been abundant evidence, in the cordial re- lations of later years, that the fault has been entirely condoned, and if there was ever a thought in the daughter's mind, that her mother might have dealt more generously in her outfitting, that too has been so far forgotten, that but for your own reference, it certainly should have had no mention here today. And now, without fear of a single frowning look, this daughter comes into this stately house, where she finds her mother's dwelling, far more luxuriously than in the old home from which she went out, and most heartily and sincerely extends her congratula- tions to her on this Centennial of her natal day. There is always something very sad and depressing in seeing our parents after the flesh grows old, because we cannot but associate with increasing years, failing strength and vigor; nor can we think of these, except as foretokens of that great change which shall remove them altogether from our sight, and put an end to all the precious joys of personal fellowship. But how different it is with a Church. God has provided, that when she has ful- filled, and still continues to fulfil her mission, by loyally holding up the standard of His truth before men, added years shall issue only in added vigor ami increasing opportunities of usefulness. We have read with intense interest, the history of this our mother Church, as set forth in the eloquent words of her beloved pastor, and as we have marked the gracious dealings of the Lord towards her, we have called to mind what is said of the procession of the ancient Spartans, when the old men with whitened locks, and bent forms and tottering footsteps, led the van, showing the scars they bad received in their country's service ami exclaiming, " We have 1 o brave." Then came the active warriors, in the prime of their manhood, and as they bared their brawny arms, ready for labor or for battle, they cried, " We are brave." And to 26 dispel all fears as to what might come to pass, when the old men should have passed on to join the great company of the dead, and the men of middle age should have grown old, or have been slain in battle, there followed the youths and the boys, who, as smiles of joyous anticipation lighted up their faces, said, " We will be brave, for we are Spartans." Brave and true were the fathers who a hundred years ago laid the foundations of a Church of Christ here; and amidst their struggles with poverty, and in the teeth of bitter opposition, maintained the ordinances which God had ordained for the enlightenment and salvation of men. We thank God that we have a share with you in the heritage of their blessed memories. We recognize, gratefully, the hand of God in raising up to take their places, as one by one, in answer to their Master's call to higher service, they have dropped out of rank, the band of consecrated men and women who still rally round the standard of the cross, and by the agency of the same gospel truths which were so precious to the fathers, seek to elevate, establish, comfort and save the souls of men. And we have not only a bright hope, but a confident assurance, based upon the Word, " Instead of the fathers shall be the children," that when the present gener- ation of Christian laborers shall have fallen asleep, there shall still be found brave and loyal souls to stand up for God and His truth, in this place. Our "heart's desire and prayer to God" for this Church is, that He will so abun- dantly endue you with the grace of His Holy Spirit, that "he that is feeble among you may be as David and the house of David, as God, as the Jehovah-Angel to go before them; " that your influence for good may be so perpetuated and multiplied that when another hundred years shall have completed their round, the Word of Life, the only unnickering light that has ever shone on the darkness of this world, may still be held forth here, that men, enlightened by its rays, may find their way to Christ. And at her next Centennial, may other daughters rise to call this mother blessed, and to bid her God-speed, as we do this day. The Rev. Dr. Hall : — We are not done with the feast of good things, though we have heard from those especially designated in the pro- gramme. There is more to follow. I have been casting my eye over the audience, in search of the Rev. Dr. Applegate. He promised me he would come and present the greetings of St. George's Church. We have heard from the Rev. Dr. Forsyth, of the friendly relations that ex- isted for about forty years between the Rev. Dr Brown, who so recently left us for the glory beyond, and the Rev. Dr. Johnston. It would have given us great pleasure to have heard from his successor to-day. I know that something unforeseen must have prevented him from being present.* We have heard from Dr. Forsyth about the famous historic Church triangle of Newburgh, and of the harmony and friendship between the pastors of these three churches, Dr. Johnston, Dr. Brown, and Dr. McCarrell. The triangle was broken by the removal of the home of the First Presbyteriad Church to this site. The harmony and friendship, however, that existed between the pastors of the Associate Reformed Church and this Church have been bequeathed to their successors. It will give us pleasure to hear a few words from the Rev. Mr. Macnaughtan, pastor of the Associate Reformed Church. REV. J. MACNAUGHTAN'S REMARKS. It is an unspeakable pleasure to nie, sir. in company with so many of my breth- ren, representing the churches of Newburgh, to bring greetings to you and your people on this joyous Centennial occasion. It is a matter for congratulation "that - A letter was afterward received from Rev. Dr. Applegate, expressing his regrets. He was suddenly called away from home. 27 through a century, so remarkable in its manifold developments in every direction, so prolific in great social, political, moral and religious revolutions and conflicts, this Church has fought the good fight and maintained the faith. The century through which your Church has lived is perhaps the most remarkable in the world's history, and cannot be far surpassed in the eonspicuousness and the importance of the great interests that have crowded its years, by any that are yet to come before the curtain shall fall and the great drama i if time shall be completed. That this Church has done its part, in the midst of the great events transpiring around it. is abundantly evident from the words that have been spoken here this afternoon, as well as by this noble temple which faithful hands have reared, and thestn >ng, hearty, vigorous, moral and spiritual life that here finds a home and an inspiration for itself. A Church that has breasted the waves of a century's conflicts and comes to its conclusion with the freshness, the enthusiasm and the enterprise which everything here — this noble gathering, this splendid adornment, the festive garments with which loving hands have added new beauty to this fair house of Cod, the words of welcome that have greeted us. warm and eloquent in the expresion of the devotion and zeal of this people to every good work, and of loyalty to Jesus ( 'hrist -indicates that its life has been builded upon numberless heroisms, nameless fidelities, and that the children are not unworthy of the sires from whom they derive their life. You, Sir, and your people are to lie congratulated that amid all the changes and vicissitudes of these past years, a record has been made that so grandly justifies this proud occasion. And we are glad to greet you also, because you have not left us out in your re- joicing, but have taken pains to link your life ami history with the history of the Churches throughout the city. You have in this Centennial occasion brought be- fore this community not only the splendid history of your own Church, and the noble fidelity of the brave men who have been her leaders, but, in connection therewith, the names of the men and the Churches who with your own have made Newburgh what it is to-day in its moral and religious life. You have thus made the occasion ours as well as yours. It is this fact that adds, if anything can, to the heartiness of the greeting which I bring to you from the Old Associate Reformed Church. These two Churches, which for so many years stood within sight of each other, with St. George's, are all children of the same time with common traditions, associations, memories, so that the story of one must tell in some measure the his- tory of them all. And your Centennial has reminded us of the magnitude of our obligation as citizens of this fair city to the three men whose names are unsepar ably connected with these three Churches. Clustering near each other as they did, they did but suggest the unity of heart and aim, the community of enthusiasm and devotion which each felt for Christ, the undivided consecration, in the midst of radical differences of thought, of creed and polity, which they were not the men to forget. These are the men whose hands <+od lias laid upon this community in benediction. And who, on this occasion even, of quickened interest and enkindled sentiment, will claim adequately to set forth our obligations to these faithful and departed ones? We have to thank you, of the First Church, for reviving this old history, and setting before us the old life, that has so much to do with all that is best in the character and life of this conservative community. But to me, Sir, and I doubt not, to you also, and I am sure that Dr. Applegate, if he had been able to be present with us. would have shared in the feeling, there has come a sense of grave responsibility, deeper than ever experienced, in regard to the trust committed to us. It is no small thing to have had such a spiritual an- cestry in the pulpits in which it is our privilege to preach the ( rospel. It is no small thing to be the successors of men so faithful, so useful, and so consecrated. And as I have sat here, and heard that old story told, 1 have felt oppressed as never before with the responsibilities of my offl :e, and have found a new motive to put behind my endeavors, in the hope of so working as to gain even the smallest claim to be remembered by those who shall come after with any smallest atom of the gratitude that has been poured out to-day to the memory of these fathers in Israel. And the thing that has impressed me in connection with the references that have been made to these men is this: That little has been said in regard to their attain- ments in the line of scholarship, or in regard to their intellectual endowments, their capacity as preachers, or any of the other things that are reckoned by many as constituting the chief elements of power in the preacher. It lias not been be- cause these men were deficient in these things that so little has been made of them. We know that they were all men richly endowed in these regards —men of no ordi- 28 nary attainments and intellectual force. And there can be no doubt that the strength of their piety was greatly enhanced by these things. But the fact that has impressed me in this unfolding of the moral history of these past years is this: almost all who have spoken in this place to-day have spoken only of the goodness and the consecration of the men who have been the leaders and the guides of this community. And I am profoundly impressed by this fact. It is to me a revelation and an inspiration. That which has told in these old ministries through a hundred years, must be in ours, if our work is to live; we are to be helpers of men, and builders of the Church of Christ. 0, let us make the aspiration and the prayer of our ministry be more hereafter than it has been before: — " More love, O Christ, to Thee, More love to Thee ! " And it is this out of which has come the fraternal relations of the Churches of Newburgh, the breadth, the catholicity of the Christian temper of this community. Not in the creeds antl confessions is the Church to rind its point of unity, but in its piety and consecration, in its devotion to Christ and its zeal to save and educate tin- souls of men. This Church, the other Churches of this city, found this to be true, and in their practice, and in the grand results that are before us here to-day in this place, we have the witness to its utility. Standing, then, on this ridge of time, with the ripe and tender memories of these years about us, let us take the standard that their saintly hands have borne through a century's conflict, and, forgetting our differences, let us hold it aloft, and so let us try to realize here below that unity that will be the crowning glory of the heavenly life. One in the love and service of Christ. The Eev. Dr. Hall : — A few miles west from Newburgh a colony settled in the early days, known as Covenanters, and they were the true scions, of the old stock. From the old Church in Coldenham have sprung the churches of that faith and order in this city. We have heard this after- noon of the remarkable pulpit power of one of its ministers, the Rev. Dr. Wilson. We have with us upon this occasion one of his successors, the Eev. Mr. Carlisle, who has the honor, now that Dr. Brown has left us, of having had the longest pastorate of any of us — thirty-five years. May many be added to it. Brother Carlisle, we shall be happy to hear from you. REMARKS OF THE REV. S. CARLISLE. The circumstances connected with our assemblage to-day are peculiar and inter- esting. It is not to commemorate some important discovery in the department of the arts or sciences, but the organization of this congregation in this city one cen- tury ago. The friends of Christ every where rejoice in the Church's enlargement, growth and prosperity. They know that while the members of a new organization are few, their material and financial resources inadequate, yet, still, their strength and use- fulness arc not dependent exclusively upon these things, but upon the presence and blessing of the Most High. Besides her mission (the preservation of the truth, the reformation of society, the evangelization of the world, the salvation of souls) is precious, to be accomplished not by political stratagem and policy, not by disci- plined legions of armed men in marshalled array, nor by external coercion, but by the preaching of the Gospel, accompanied by the Holy Spirit. Two circumstances have distinguished this century: Increased and active efforts in every department of the Christian Church, for the extension of the Redeemer's Kingdom at home and abroad, introduced with wars widespread and universal, but these were followed with the glorious triumph of the Prince of Peace. Second, the translation of the Scriptures Of the Old and New Testaments into many of the Languages of earth, together with their extensive dissemination, so that the world is practically leavened with the Word of God, and the indications are that the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth. In both these objects this Church part icipated and shared. To commemorate departed worth, generous and noble deeds for Christ, is both 29 reasonable and scriptural. The Most High has stamped it with his approbation, by erecting a commemorative tablet in the Eleventh of Hebrews, on which are inscribed the names and transcendent excellencies of those of whom the world was not worthy, and in this spirit we have met to-day, to make mention of the names and acts of those who founded this Church, though they little thought that their efforts would be so successful, or that so many would assemble in this spacious house of worship, at the close of a century, to express gratification at what they did. It is sometimes said that the congregation moulds the pastor. However this may be, there is no doubt the pastor moulds the people, and that the prosperity, growth and enlargement of a Church is under God mainly owing to him. and we rejoice that this fact has been so prominently recognized in these services— that honor has been given to the former pastors of this Church and to the present pastor, for to them much honor is due. The dead require no such commemoration. The founders of this Church are gone; they have entered into rest, and are enjoying their reward; nor are they intended for them; still, the names of the righteous shoud be had in continual remembrance, and one generation should praise His works to another, and declare His mighty acts. They are profitable and beneficial to the living — stimulating them to greater activity and self-denial in the Redeemer's service. But it should never be forgotten that the best memorial, the noblest monument you can erect is the reception of those great fundamental principles for the propagation of which this church was founded ; such as salvation through the Cross— that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the word of God, the only rule of faith and morals— that it is the duty and privilege of every man to search these Scriptures for himself, and to receive and profess what they teach— and tuat the Lord Jesus Christ is the sole and exclusive Head of the Church. Like the Ark, the Church was early cast upon the floods. Upon it the winds have blown, the billows have raged, threatening its destruction, but the Church lives, and the well founded hopes and fond expectation is that she will live, and live for ever and ever, and that in process of time she will be guided to the haven of rest, where eternal peace and absolute security will be enjoyed. Accept my Christian salutations; assured that my earnest wish and prayer is that the success of the past may be an earnest and foretaste of that prosperity which will attend you in the present century. The Kev. Dr. Hall : — Fifty years ago next month the First Baptist Church of this city was organized. Previous to that time, however, there had been temporary organizations and spasmodic attempts to organize. But for fifty years it has had a continuous history. In its early beginnings it was very ambitious for an inordinate quantity of -water, Orange Lake being used for a baptistry. In recent years it has been satisfied with less water, and has been more ambitious for the extension and glory of the Kingdom, in the conversion of men. Brother Jones it will give us pleasure to hear a few words from you. REMARKS OF THE REV. ARTHUR JONES. Mi/ Brother : It is with deep gratitude as a Christian minister for God's blessing upon this people that I bring the hearty congratulations and Godspeed of the First Baptist ( 'hurch to its nearest neighbor. Upon one of my first visits to Newburgh there were fields of floating ice in the river, and the ferry boat, in order to secure an open passage steamed quite a dis- tance to the north. 1 was looking at the church spires and counting them. I saw two at the upper end of the town, but when, after a few moments of wandering, my eye returned, I could see only one. We had come to that portion of the river where both were in the same line of vision. The height of the one had been given to the other, and the breadth of base of the other had been given to the one— so perfectly did the color of the cut stone blend with the weather beaten cypress shin- gles. And the one spire I then saw was far better proportioned than either could claim to be, viewed separately. Well, it was tin optical illusion, and hardly worthy of mention here. But I take great comfort in thinking that here is a spiritual 30 point of view, (and who shall not say it is not the truest) from which these two churches are really one. No man believes in his denomination, its mission, more than I. We are two in views of doctrine; necessarily adhered to because honestly held. We are one in a common faith in the same crucified Lord. Let us never for- get that our unity is higher and stronger than our separation, by as much as Christ himself is greater than any doctrine. The Rev. Dr. Hall : — When the Second Presbyterian Church of New- burgh ceased to exist, its meeting house was sold to the Second Metho- dist Episcopal Church, or as it is now called, St. John's M. E. Church. And there it has its home to-day, though the building has been much en- larged and improved to accommodate the needs of that prosperous and active congregation. But there is another fact of interest to offset this. We stand to-day by the cradle of Methodism. It was here, on the very site of this Church, and in close proximity to if not on the very spot where this pulpit stands, that Elnathan Foster, the Class-leader, gath- ered weekly around him in his home, the class from which grew the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Newburgh.* So, Brother North, you can feel quite at home here. And while your people are kind enough to preserve the old Church home of the extinct Second Presbyterian Church, we reciprocate by protecting the cradle of Newburgh Metho- dism with this edifice built over it and around it. We will now listen to the Rev. Mr. North, of St. John M. E. Church. REMARKS OF THE REV. C. R. NORTH. Dr. Hall has already given you the best points of my speech. Whilst the various members of your theological family have been claiming relationship to the First Presbyterian Church, as cousins, aunts, sisters, daughter, etc., I have been trying to decide what connection might be claimed by the Church which I am privileged to represent, and conclude that it must be a son-in-law. I have no doubt that among other excellent reasons for the good understanding be- tween the St. John's Methodist Episcopal Church and the First Presbyterian Church is the fact, that the son-in-law and mother-in-law keep house separately. It is not a little interesting to discover the evident uncertainty in the minds of the projectors of thtit first Second Presbyterian Church as to what would come of it. In his charge to the Elders at its organization l)r. Prime plainly shared their per- plexity when he queried in his text "By whom shall Jacob arise, for he is small?" It was evidently foreordained from the beginning to be a Methodist Episcopal Church. Whether it was through the tough roots of your theology that the sap of that put e gospel, which has always run in the fibres of the Presbyterian Church, came into that Second Church, or whether drawn by the /ran* out of an atmo- sphere charged with the prevailing Arminianism, certain it is that when the Rev. Mr. Hill was deposed for inculcating a doctrine deemed heretical, and having to do with certain views about Christian perfection, the decree was seen to be working, and the first Second Presbyterian < 'hurch made way for Methodism. There are two ends to the history of the St. John's Methodist Episcopal Church. The one, confessedly, is a Presbyterian end, the other a Methodist end. And there are, in point of fact, two ends to its church edifice : the one a Presbyterian end, and the other a Methodist one And the North end is the Presbyterian one. [Dr. Hall "That is the end you occupy. Is it not V" "Yes; and it is the hardest end to fill: '] The truth is the currents of Presbyterian and Methodist history in this region have run close together. It was only two years after the organization of your So- ciety that Ezekiel Cooper established on tiiis very spot the first Methodist Class. During the years when your Society belonged to your Presbyterian New Windsor •The Rev. Dr. Crawford, Presiding Elder, has informed me that he was married in the parlor of Elnathan Fos- ter's house. He is, and ought to be, grateful to our Church for spreading such a beautiful canopy over a spot of such pleasant associations to him. 31 Circuit our Class formed a part of the Flanders Circuit of the Methodist Episcopal Church. We both, you observe, started out with the circuit system. When you adopted the station system in 1810, and installed J)r. Johnston, our Society built the old brick meeting-house and likewise entered on a more independent career. And now, not claiming to be their delegated representative, but rather by your appoint- ment, I am here to bring to the First Presbyterian Church the greetings f the nearly two thousand communicants of the Methodist Episcopal churches of New- burgh. I am sure I represent them in assuring you of their joy in your century of prosperity, and in pledging their prayers for peace to you and a triumphant future. The scene here to-day is an inspiring one. It could not have been a hundred years ago. My brother of the Baptist Church has beautifully set forth the unity of our Evangelical Church. The coming together of streams into one great body of water, is often proof of some one strong stream with a high source. Such a stream from even a great fountain may divide in its course, but its waters come together at last. The waters of the Mississippi by devious channels, through an intricate delta, at last meet in the Gulf and so in the mightier sea. The Nile, by many channels with divided waters beyond its delta, is made one again in the midland sea. So with God's blessed truth. From its Eternal Source it has poured into the world ; run- ning in the divided channels of the denominations, its living waters are meeting in the very fulness which they have produced. One in their source and one in their confluence. Of this blessed truth, this union of greetings to the Frst Presbyterian Church to-day is a demonstration. The more one considers that text of Dr. Prime's, in which so many years ago he asks " By whom shall Jacob arise?'' I am satisfied of the confusion of his mind, for Jacob surely could not fairly have been in question before Isaac saw the light, and we are told that " Abraham was a, hundred years old when Isaac was born." One hundred years of Abrahamic life have been yours, — years of usefulness and of faith. May your century bring forth to you some grainier unfolding of your life ! In behalf of the denomination 1 represent 1 challenge you to a deeper consecration of life and energy until we mingle together in the eternal unity of Heaven ! The Key. Dn. Hall: — There is a Church that is more Presbyterian, both in its polity and in its doctrine, than the Presbyterian. It is from the Dutch Church that the father's derived the essential rjrinciples of Pres- byterianism. The Rev. Mr. Myers, pastor of the Dutch Church, or rather, of the American Reformed Church, of this city, will now say a few words to us. REMARKS OF THE REV. H. V. S. MEYERS. My dear Friends: I come to you to-day bearing congratulations and greetings of the oldest religious denomination in tlie State. You are marking your Centennial by these services. More than two and a half centuries ago the Dutch Church was formed in New York City. And in many localities all along this valley of the Hudson, these churches were established nearly two hundred years ago. But the Dutch skipped Newburgh, which was of course a great misfortune to the settlement, now a city. It is a matter of congrat- ulation that the Presbyterians came in to occupy the ground. But it is to the ad- vantage of this city that it is surrounded by Dutch churches throughout the coun- try regions. And if the Dutch Church had nothing to do with the establishment of Presbyterianism here, it has had much to do with its perpetuation. It has been remarked that the prosperity and continuance of this church have been caused by the strong infusion of Scotch blood. I venture to say that if this Church were canvassed, it would be found that there is far more Dutch than Scotch blood in it. From the surrounding churches the Dutch people drift into this city. We gladlj receive them and alter a while pass them along to the other churches. They do good service for us, and when we send them to others we do so with the hope that they may be as useful in their new relations. If there were a relationship nearer than sisterhood. I should claim it for my church to-day. I believe the utmost cordiality and good feeling has always existed 32 between this church and that of which I am pastor, and it will not be my fault if it does not continue. I bear to you our hearty good wishes. You have lived a hundred years—" May you live a thousand years and your shadow never grow less." The Rev. Dr. Hall : — There is yet another Church of the Presbyterian family in Newburgh, from whom we have not yet heard. And though the time allotted for this service has passed, we cannot be dismissed with- out hearing a brief word of greeting from the pastor of the United Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Mr. Pindley. REMARKS OF THE REV. J. G. D. FINDLEY. In bringing von the greetings of the United Presbyterian Church, I speak in behalf of one of the newest to the oldest of the Evangelical congregations of our city. We have not vet reached our Quarter Centennial; while you have rounoed out a full hundred years. We rejoice with you that these have been to you years of growth— growth in numbers and influence and in power for serving the Master- years of large Christian usefulness and years in which you have had so many evi- dences of the Spirit's blessing attending the preaching of the Divine Word. As you review the past and look out on the future, what reason you have to thank God and take courage ! How wonderfully God in His providence is widening the field for Christian work to you and to all his Churches ! It is our earnest wish that in the century to come you may attain a much larger growth and influence, abounding in every good work, and that you may be in the fullest sense as a church, a pillar and ground of Gospel truth. Reference has been made to the po- sition of this church and her then Pastors as Old School, in the memorable contro- versy of 18 18. Let me say that though I am speaking in behalf of one of the youngest of Newburgh's churches, I represent one of the most conservative branches of the Presbyterian family. A writer in New England some years ago, referring to three of these branches represented here to-day, spoke of them as the " Old School," the '■ Older School," and the " Oldest School." May not we of the different schools continue to be in most hearty accord— holding the unity of the Spirit, if not in the peculiar views of the "older" and "oldest," at least in stead- fast adherence to our common heritage of "Old School" theology— the doctrines of grace the scriptural Galvanism imbedded in our common Westminster Stand- ard's V Let us hold fast the form of sound words. I rejoice that all the Churches, sending in their greetings today have so much of Christian unity in the great central truths of the Gospel, held in common by us all,— Christ, His divinity and redemption by His blood. As my brother from the Baptisi l 'li inch has intimated, we are "all one in Christ." We will find in the centuries to come, as in the ages that are gone, that it is " the old, old story" that softens and converts the wayward and the lost. It is "Christ, and Him crucified" that will ever be the power of God unto salvation to all who believe. The Rev. Dr. Hall: — Friends: I promised that these services should not extend beyond half past five, and here it is a quarter of six. I notice that Dr. Crosby has a very anxious face, and In! is doubtless wondering if wo keep up this feast much longer, how he will be able to draw any to his that In; is to spread for us this evening. I desire exceedingly to call upon these Ministers of our city and of neighboring Churches, who have not yet addressed us. I am sure that they are all in a congratula- tory mood. And I am confident that their hearts are so turned toward us that they will be willing to furnish for the printed Report of these Exercises, the thoughts that they would now utter. We will have this understanding between its. 33 We will now unite in singing the original hymn on the programme, composed by the Rev. Dr. Wheeler, of Poughkeepsie. We will sing it to the time of " Lenox," after which the Rev. Dr. Crawford will dismiss us witli the Benediction. i. Our earthly years, O God, Are at thy sole command ; And paths by mortals trod, Are from Thy mighty hand. Our history, a passing dream, A mystery, and fitful gleam. And yet, O God supreme, Our years are not in vain . But richer than they seem, In solid, lasting gain. Along the years, we live for Thee. In joy and tears we build for Thee. III. One hundred years have fled Since here our fathers wrought ; And lo, their work not dead, For lives the Church they sought. Thy Church, O God, preserved by Thee, Thy work, O God, all praise to Thee. IV. What memories arise Prom out the misty past ; Glad visions greet our eyes, And sorrows shadows cast. O Christ, our King, thy love so great, We grateful sing and celebrate. Prom out the gate of years, Along the King's Highway, We march through stormy fears, To reach eternal day. Our watchword, Christ, Humanity The world for Christ, in loyalty ! In accordance with the mutual understanding referred to above, following salutations have been kindly sent to me. the FROM THE REV. F. B. SAVAGE, PASTOR OF THE UNION PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, OF THIS CITY. Dear Brother: I feel that it would be ungrateful on your part did you not remember on this occasion the land from whence ye sprung and the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. I come v.ith greetings from the " old stand," that has been mentioned as being highly approved of by one of our commercial brethren, and though our connection with the Presbyterian branch to which you belong is of more recent date, yet as possession is nine-tenths of the law. we claim a part in this Centennial. We own the land on which Dr. Johnston's Church stood, corner of Montgomery and First Streets, a lot soaked with the prayers of the saints and hal- lowed by the memories of one hundred years' services. \Ve took possession of the old white Church in February, 18")7, and by good work and steady preaching wore it out, so that a new one was built more glorious than the former house. The only thing we have of Dr. Johnston's memory is the old bell that rung out on the air of this hillside, summoning the worshippers to God's house, and ringing out the news of a salvation broad and universal. But, alas, even the old bell wore out in the good cause, for it not only rang for the services of the Sanctuary, but also for alarms of fire, not to mention Fourths of July and other occasions. But the bell is not lost or thrown away, but, fused again with the addition of more metal, rings out its greeting to you on this Centennial occasion. Union Church greets you on this joy- ful festival and marks your progress with joy and gladness, and wishes you noth- ing but the largest growth and prosperity iii the future. Ye are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief cor- ner-stone ; in whom all the building fitly Iraiued together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the.Spirit. 34 FROM THE REV. C. W. FRITTS, FASTOR OF THE REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH, OF FISHKILL-ON-HUDSON. Brlovrd Brethren : It affords me great pleasure to extend to you my best con- gratulations as you celebrate to day tlic first century of your existence. To recall the piety, tlie deeds, the endurance, the rare worth of our ancestors is not only a dutv but privilege. The Hebrew people often rehearsed to their children the great events of their history. From generation to generation they handed down the story of the bond- age in Egypt, the flight, the Red Sea, the wilderness journey, the founding of the nation in Canaan. Their leaders, in order to deepen the impressions of the past, used various auxiliaries. Places were named, monuments and altars built, heaps of stones raised, the '" rod that budded" and the pot of manua were preserved, all to remind of the times of old and how the Lord had led them. As a Church yours has been a marked history. For five score years you have sown the good seed of the Kingdom besidethe waters of this majestic river, and the ha: vest has been thirty and sixty, and an hundred fold. Here consecrated and eloquent Pastors have declared the unsearchable richesof Christ; here devoted Elders have labored for the Master; here true and noble wo- men, a great company have wrought for the upbuilding of Zion. What multi- tudes have been converted here ! How many have been instructed, cheered, strengthened and comforted ! What a host have fallen asleep and have passed from earthly care and struggle to eternal rest ! The immortal poet Homer tells us that Piomede saw the gods in battle after Pallas Athene had blown the mist from before his eyes. To day you are dispelling the mists that have gathered about your history, and T am sure you have discerned much that is heroic and saintly. The characters, the services of the fathers, to recount these cannot but awaken giatitude, quicken piety and inspire zeal. Moabite soldiers once prevented a burial and the remains were hastily cast into the sepulcrhe of Elisha. And we read that " when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood upon his feet." Even so, contact with the sacred past of the providence and grace of God will be to you reviving and life-giving. May you ever cultivate the historic spirit, and then memory with mystic chains will bind together the bygone and the living present. I congratulate you. brethren, that for a century your Church has held and de- clared a pure faith. You have never abbreviated the creed, nor shortened the commandments. In your Bible there has not been one verse too much, nor one miracle too many. In every period of unbelief and scepticism you have contended "Earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints." I congratulate you upon your harmony and prosperity. Having obtained help of God, you continue to this present time. From the side of Heaven and eternity there is nothing on earth so glorious as a Church of Christ where disciples are edi- fied and sinners are converted. I congratulate you upon your feeling of brotherhood and Christian fellowship manifested by including in your jubilee representatives of so many denominations of Christ's < Jhurch. The attitude of neighboring Churches in relation to one another as they battle against their common foes should be the same as that of the men of Israel under Joab toward their brethren under Abishai. "And he said, if the Syrians be too strong for me, then thou shalt help me; but if the children of Amnion be too strong for thee, then I will come and help thee." I thank God that more and more we are seeing eye to eye and face to face, liv- ing and laboring together in the "unity of the Spirit and the bonds of peace." In the early chinch the tests of discipleship was: We know that we have passed from death unto life because we l« ve the brethren." And now, brethren beloved, for the future take as your watchword the motto of the ancient band of Uedeinptorists; "All for Thee, blessed Jesus, all for Thee." "God is able to make all gran- abound towards you; that you, always, having all Sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work." In the' language of one of old, 1 say to you : "The Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you, as He hath promised you." 35 FROM THE REV. J. R. THOMPSON, PASTOR OF THE SECOND REFORMED PRESBY- TERIAN CHURCH, OF THIS CITY. In behalf of the Westminster Reformed Presbyterian Church, of which I have been Pastor for about twenty-eight years. I tender cordial greetings to the First Presbyterian Congregation of this city that is assembled here to-day, under most auspicious circumstances, to celebrate the Centennial of its existence. fn extending these fraternal salutations I assure you that they are not a cold and formal expression of common courtesy; but the sincere greetings of a Congre- gation in a sister branch of the great Presbyterian family that holds the same sys- tem of evangelical doctrine and form of Church government. Purified and fused in the furnace of persecution, the Presbyterians of Scotland and Great Britain, that were our honored ancestry, were one body about two hundred years ago; but unhappily after the Revolution that elevated King William to the throne ol England, in 1 G88 a family separation took place, and this once united church diverged into new lines, and consequently are to-day found as different tribes, yet, thanks 1 e to God, following the same Leader, and animated by the same spirit of Christian love that is the true bond of church union. " Though distinct as the billows yet one as the sea." This organic separation, we trust, is only temporary; for the signs of the times in the ecclesiastical world seem to indicate, as appears from the quadrennial meet- ings of the Presbyterian Council, a closer alliance, in the near future, when the scattered fragments of the broken Presbyterian body will, under the " Power from on high," be melted and moulded into one organic union, and shall approximate that desired consummation when they all shall "come in the unit, of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of Cod, unto a perfect man. unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." A survey of the progress of Presbyterianism, during the hundred years of the existence of this Congregation, awakens within us the profoundest gratitude; is a pledge and prophesy of still greater achievements; and is well calculated to stimu- late to a closer union and more persistent efforts for the salvation of perishing souls, the enlargement of the Church ami the bringing of the nations into submis- sion to Christ, whom they shall "crown Lord of all." As brethren, then, united in the great fundamental doctrines of Christ's king- dom; laboring in the same inviting field; and eagerly seeking the same grand ends — the glory of rd "their chapiters of brass live cubits hi ch, their nets of checker-work, their wreaths of chain-work, seven for each chapiter, their double rows of pomegranates, one hundred in each row, and the lily-work mingled with all,"— ami you catch some notion of the exquisite fairness of these two pillars at the porch of God's house. The context shows that the temple was in the Apostle's mind when he wrote, and these would be the pillars to suggest his reference. More- over, the names of tile pillars, Jachin and boaz, from the words signifying estab- lishment and strength, would prompt naturally the use of the word establishment in his writing. If we are correct in tins view, then the more clearly is the < Ihurch, as a pillar of the truth, a pillar to manifest the beauty of the truth, ami not in any sense a foundation on which the truth rests. In this same sense James. ( 'ephas and John were pillars, not that they sustained the truth or the Church, but that they exhibited by their conspicuous and consistent lives the beauty of the truth and the excellency of the Church. The Church then, as the established pillar of God's truth, is the grand manifestation of the truth as it is in Jesus, as it concerns human re- demption, as it is the mystery of Cod in its living solution. It seems that this apos- tolic statement must withdraw us very far from all outward form and formula as our criterion in determining the Uhurch. We must look for that which an- swers to the objective gospel by its subjective life. We must find pure character, divine life, godly communion, brotherly love, for these only, as a mirror, can reflect the grace which brought heaven down to earth. Ecclesiastical lineage, historic catenation, formal words can have no weight in the decision concerning the < 'lunch if its characteristic be the manifestation of the redeeming grace of God, I he truth of the overwhelming: mystery. And are we not brought by these considerations to regard the individual man, for it is each individual man who can receive by faith the truth into his life and so manifest it, and are we not compelled tosay that the Church of Cod is the company of believers, no more, no less'. - Everything outward must grow from this centre, as the shell grows from the animal life and not the ani- mal life from the shell. If this, then, be the Church, we can readily answer our second question. 2. Wherein in the angeW delight in ilx study of the Churcht It is just the de- velopment of the new divine nature implanted in man, binding men together not by carnal interest, but by holy love, growing broader, deeper through the ages toward millennial fullness. They must watch this with a thousand-fold the delight we witness the advent of Spring and the development of the new leafy year, as they remember the Paradise once given over to the fierce winter of sin, and look longingly for the new Eden with its myriad plants of grace and fruits of righteous- ness. Surely these are lit angelic, studies. We cannot imagine those pure seraphic beings pleased with the pomps and splendors that dazzle the eyes of human multi- tudes and to which Kings are wont to give the name of " Church. " We cannot picture these holy intelligences taking delight in the punctilios of an intricate ceremonial and captivated by the charms of earthly art. Our minds revolt from so unseemly a conjunction. It is God's truth impressed upon the heart and life, the outgoings of love in its forms of forgiveness, forbearance, sympathy, patience, gentleness, and its combinations with godliness, faith, courage and exalted hope. Where loving Christians assemble, there the angels love to gather, and hence one of the apostolic arguments for carefulness and propriety in such assemblies is this — "because of the angels.'' The individual history of every believer must be a study of holy curiosity to the students of the divine mystery. Our Saviour became one of us. He entered fully into the race; and the great mystery of which he is the central figure may be said to be repeated in its movements in each soul wherein Christ is formed. Indeed the words of the Apostle are, "Great is the mystery of piety." Is it not the mystery winch piety enacts as well as that which 42 it beholds in the Redeemer? Is not the Christ-career (so to speak) repeated in each believer, for he lives not, but Christ lives in him. Look at the six points. God is manifest in his flesh, for he is the temple of the Holy Ghost; his new life is reckoned just in the Spirit's witness— he is t\xv& justified in the .Spirit; he is seen of angels according to the tenor of our theme; he is preached unto the Gentiles as his Christian conversation is known to all; he is believed on in the world, when he is trusted as the Saint of God; and at the close of his earthly career he is received up into glory. Does not each believer thus forn an appropriate study of the angelic host as lie develops in himself the great mystery of God? Is it too much to believe that this Christ-life in man draws to each believer the unwearying attention of heavenly companions? Does not Jacob's ladder have one, at least, of its fulfilments in this tracing of the likeness between Christ and His own redeemed ones as they abide in the earthly Bethel, the house of God, the Church of the living God ? This leads us to our last inquiry: 3. What influence upon the Church should this known position of the heavenly host exert f It may be suggested that God's watchful interest in His People is enough ; that we need no other incentive than this in our course of grace toward the glory of God. But has not the apostle pointed us to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Gideon, Barak, Samuel, David and an innumerable company of glorified saints, with the encouraging cry: "Seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race set before us." If we are to look to men — glorified men— as spectators of our course, and draw an argument for faithfulness from this source, shall we not use the revealed fact of a countless host of angelic witnesses, most eager in their watching, as an incentive to our holy living, as we press forward toward the mark for the prize of our high calling ? Is there not a new element of interest here which we find not either on one hand in the ranks of glorified saints or on the other in the sublime wishes of our God Himself ? Is there not (as we have used the phrase before) a holy curiosity in these that cannot mark the others who watch our heavenward way ? They are not omnicient as God is, and they have not had our experience as the glorified Saints have had it, and this lack in them gives us the power to present with fresh force to them the developing power of the Christ-life in us. We can in- struct them in the ways of God's grace. We can make them start with new sur- prise by our new attainments in holiness. Here then is the lever which our text furnishes to the thoughtful Church for its elevation to a higher plane of godliness, a motive which if allowed to act, must have its own peculiar force in removing the inconsistencies which so often disfigure the Christian name. The view thus af- forded us gives a new depth of color to the inspired statement that God hath made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, and to that other sublime as- sertion that our citizenship is in heaven. If we walk, the conscious companions of the holy angels, the angelic standard of holiness will be ever before our minds checking the usurpations of selfishness and earthliness in a realm that is legit- imately divine. It would not be so much the action of the reason, syllogistic- ally enforcing our consistency, as the excitement of the heavenly affections and the higher spiritual taste. The divine instinct given us, when Christ is given us, would be directly addressed, and we should receive very much such influences ms we might expect to receive if we were admitted to the actual society of the heavenly world with all our imperfections still upon us. We have a word used by religious writers, and yet, 'tis true, a clumsy word, which describes the condition of soul likely to be evolved under such influences as these: I mean "heavenly mind- edness," a condition in which the graces flourish without a touch of legality, and spontaneity replaces effort in the holy life. 1 1 will not be said that, by thus setting before ourselves the angels' interest in t he < 'limvli. we are withdrawing the attention from our Lord Himself, for the com- plexity of motives is a strengthening of each separate motive in the aggregate. The more we give heed to the angelic witness, the more will the love of Christ impel us. If, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, his own glory is only enhanced by his angelic accompaniment, surely in our own faith-view of our blessed Saviour, the beholding of the heavenly host will de- tract nothing fioin our admiring love for Him by whom they live and form the ministry of salvation. Furthermore, if the Lord himself upon the high mountain and again in the garden of Gethsemane received the encouraging help of angelic companionship, surely his disciples, who are still in the vale of temptation, may find no danger in receiving a like encouragement from the same interested and sympa- 43 thizing helpers. Still again, as our knowledge of Jesus himself may be increased by our study of his image in his own saint, so we may deepen our appreciation of our Lord by contemplating the holy ones on whom the reflection of His own radiance is ever seen, a contemplation possible to the soul only through the teach- ings of the Holy Ghost. To manifest the wisdom of God to the angelic world is then the motive which the text offers to the Church of God for its faithfulness and purity. That wisdom will be manifested in the increasing depth of personal piety and in the new conquests of the Church from the world. These are the lofty aims to which all forms, plans, methods, should he altogether subordinate and sub- sidiary. They are the irreat ends of redeeming grace, the essential evolution of the' mystery of God. The affectionate interest of the holy intelligences is en- hanced as we run in the line of our Lord's great purpose and make fruitful the travail of His soul. To run counter to this, to build up an earthly structure, to substitute official dignities for spiritual ministries, to frame a perfunctory system for a warm and living communication, to magnify the letter at the expense of the spirit, is to chill the hearts of the heavenly witnesses and disappoint their earnest gaze. A due regard to these celestial students of our course will render the Church of Jesus not only more spiritual, but more united. The oneness of Christ's work will be reflected in the oneness of His people. All differences will be shunned as bringing a reproach upon the one faith and one baptism, which have marked the Church from the world, and thus thwarting the angelic expectation to see the assimilating processes of the Holy Spirit perfected. The differences that now ob- tain in the Church of Christ, so far as they isolate one portion from another and form, in spite of protest, a quasi antagonism in the one mystical body, are a shame to those who emphasize them, and should arouse every believer to earnest, prayerful effort toward their obliteration. The quick recognition of the Christ-life in others and the ready union with all who possess that life in the common service of the Master should characterize every Christian for Christ's sake, for his brethren's sake, and because of the angels. The Rev. F. B. Savage, of Union Presbyterian Church, of New- burgh, offered the closing prayer : Thou Great Head of the Church: We thank Thee for what we have heard this day of Thy dealings with this people. We thank Thee for the memories of the past, laden with the sweet fragrance of lives spent in Thy service, of the glorious witness to the power of the Gospel of Christ. We thank Thee that Thy people have so often met Thee in the Sanctuary, when the sacrifice having been made and the blood offered through Jesus Christ Thou hast been propitious to Thy people — Thy presence has gone with them and Thou hast led them. And now, as they stand on the threshold of another century, we pray that Thy presence may go with them, abiding in their midst, that the word preached by Thy servants from this sacred desk may prove the power of God and the wisdom of God to the salvation of many precious souls. And may this people be "strengthened with might in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith, that they, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that they may be filled with all the fulness of (rod. Now, unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us ; unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end." Amen. The congregation rose and sang with much spirit the following hymn, composed for the occasion by the Rev. J. Macnaughtan, of Newburgh, to the tune of " America." i. ii. Our father's God and ours, Changeless 'mid change we trace] In these centennial hours, Thy care, Thy love, Thy grace, Praises delight; From those far years. And the glad song we raise, Now strength and beauty crown, Does but prolong the praise, ( lentennial gifts adorn That through the vanished days, The infant Church then born, Has.been Thy right. "Mid faith and prayers. 44 in. rv. Thanks for the men bestowed, Brave, loyal, true, the dead, Who with Thy grace endowed, Christ sanctified, Christ led, Thy people led; Our heritage ! Who toiled through praise and blame, Help us, dear Lord, that we Workmen who did not shame As brave and true may be, The Gospel, or the Name Writing such deeds for Thee, of our great Head. On our new page. v. Our father's God, and ours, In these centennial hours, Grant us Thy grace. And may the song we raise, Prolong Thy glorious praise, Till in millennial days We see Thy face. The Benediction was pronounced by the Rev. C. W. Fritts, of Fish- kill-on-Hudson. CONGRATULATORY LETTERS. Among the many congratulatory letters received, the following have been selected as a sample : Newburgh, New York, Nov. 12th, 1884. My Dear Doctor Hall : I regret that I cannot be with you during the anniver- sary services of your church. One hundred years of work for Jesus ! This is something worth recalling and commemorating. It is a grand record for heaven as well as for earth. May it be counted worthy to be held in everlasting remembrance by the great Head of the Church. I rejoice with you on the occasion, and in all the good your church has been instrumental in accomplishing during the past hundred years. To my own cordial greetings, I feel assured that I can add those of my brethren of the Reformed Epis- copal Church. We wish you peace and prosperity in the name of our one Lord. In your accomplished work we sympathize; to your present rejoicings we respond with hearty Aniens ; and for your future we ask the continued guidance and help of the Divine Spirt. May your Church continue to be a bulwark for the truth, useful and faithful, even to the day of the manifesting of the Lord Jesus Christ. With fraternal regards, I remain, my dear Doctor, Yours truly, B. B. LEACOCK. Rev. W. K. Hall, D. D. Parsonage First Presbyterian Church, \ Racine, Wis., Nov. 7, 1884. | My esteemed Brother Hall: Your kind invitation to be present at the centennial celebration of the First Presbyterian Church in >>'ewburgh, N. Y., on the 13th, is in hand. If the journey were not so long and expensive, and the cares of a large parish so pressing, I should be delighted to accept it and be with you. No other insti- tution on earth can seem to me exactly like that church of my childhood in which, at the early age of 18, I stood up to confess Christ in company with an aged woman brought late into the fold, for she was -e than four score years of age. "With fond affection my memory goes back to those childhood days : When good father Johnston, as we reverently called him, ministered to us so faithfully, speaking the truth in love. Portions of some of his discourses I remember to this day. Under his ministry from 1832 to 1844, 1 received impressions which I can never forget. As I remember him he was peculiarly earnest and interesting in tin' prayer meetings, and yet_inore so in the monthly concerts held on Monday evenings in the old Ses- 45 sion Rootu. which was so often packed with people gifted in prayer and very earn- est in pleading for God's blessing upon the church and the world, The blessing did come. There was church growth and the missionary spirit was kindled in the children of the church. The strong choir in the high north gallery; what hearty, whole-souled music they made without an organ but with a well-played bass viol, and at times violins and other instruments. There were many line voices in that choir, for public taste and culture had not then outgrown the old-fashioned singing school which brought forward a constant supply of new material for the choir and for good congrega- tional singing. Dr. N. S. Prime was for some of those years teacher in the Academy, and his elo- quent voice, as well as that of his gifted" sons, was often heard in that high pulpit from which one might speak with a voice of authority as somewhat above the peo- ple. Hut no scene in that old Church seemed tome so historic and full of thrilling interest as that meeting of the Synod of New York and New Jersey, when it split intothree factions— Old School. New School and Protestants, or those who protested against the right of the Synod to ask its members to which General Assembly they adhered. How manv yearsof misunderstanding and aversion, if we may not say of mutual misrepresentation and bitterness, followed that sad schism which required so many yearsof patient, prayerful waiting, and such consummate wisdom forits final heal- ing. Happily those days of distrust and division have passed, and the Presbyte- rian Church, redoubled in power and usefulness, as a reunited host knows no schools but the school of Christ. Wishing prosperity and peace to the dear old Church, my first spiritual home : and praying that God's richest blessings may abide with it in all the future, I remain yours in Christian fellowship, E. CORWIN, Pastor First Presbyterian Church, Racine, Wis. The following letter from the venerable Dr. Wickham, written upon reading an article in the New York Observer upon the Church Centen- nial, is of such general interest as to warrant its insertion in this Re- port : Manchester, Vt., Nov. 24th, 1884. Dear Mr. Prime : Your interesting and truthful notice of that venerable man of God whom we were wont to call Father Johnston, has awakened reminiscences of which it may interest you personally to have me write: When he was ordained to the ministry and installed pastor of the united Pres- byterian Churches of New Windsor and Newburgh, August 5th, 1807. I was present. I was then a lad of ten years, and as my mother had taken me with her on a visit with friends at New Windsor, 1 was permitted to accompany her to the public exercises of that occasion. It was the first time I had witnessed a service of that character; and now after the lapse of nearly fourscore years 1 have a vivid remembrance of the impression made upon my youthful mind by what I witnessed and heard on that occasion, and of most of those who participated in the ordina- tion of the candidate. I was conscious then of a vague desire that when I should become a man I might be a minister of the Gospel. Twenty-seven years from that time, having become a member of the same Presbytery with Father Johnston, and called to the pastorate of the Church of which you was subsequently pastor, at my installation he it was to whom the part was assigned of giving me the charge. Nor can I ever forget the pathos and tenderness of his utterance as he set forth to his much younger brother the duty and responsibility of the pastoral office. The Church at New Windsor at the time of the ordination of Mr. Johnston had the precedence of that of Newburgh, and it was acknowledged to have the prior claim to have the services of that occasion performed within its house of worship. But in the course of a single generation, while the population of the latter place had greatly increased, that of the former was relatively diminished. The Church at Newburgh after a few years was so enlarged that it separated from that at New Windsor, and thenceforth enjoyed the exclusive ministerial labors of Dr. Johnston, until in a ripe old age he was called to his reward. On August 5, 1837, just thirty years from the date of Mr. Johnston's installation 46 as pastor of the united churches, the house of worship within which that ceremony was performed had been taken down. Its timbers were removed to another part of the town, and when a new house of worship had been constructed within which the same timbers were used, the same Presbytery which had ordained Mr. Johnston, though with the single exceptiou of himself consisting of other men, was assembled both to dedicate the new structure to the worship of Jehovah and to ordain to the work of the ministry and install as pastor of the Church and congre- gation worshipping therein, Rev. James M. Sherwood, who is doubtless well known to you. The chief performance on that occasion was by Father Johnston, in deference to whose wishes the day fixed for those solemnities was, at the comple- tion of thirty years from the day of his own ordination within what was sub- stantially the same structure, though in a different location. It fell to me on that occasion to give the charge to Mr. Sherwood. Residing with his parents in the town of Fishkill, he was licensed to preach by the same Presbytery with which he became connected by ordination— the Presbytery of North River. To yourself, but not to the public, the facts stated above may have some interest. In regard to the good man who is the subject of your notice, I will sav that when attending the Synod, which at that period uniformly met in the city, he was always a welcome guest at the house of my parenls. The acquaintance formed in childhood was cherished through life, and it added to my happiness during the time I spent in Matteawan, that it gave me opportunity often to enjoy his society and to have the benefit of his counsel and Christian example. Affectionately vours, J. I). WICK HAM. Report of the Centennial Exercises from the Newhtirgh Journal. 1784—1884. A Notable Centennial — Observance of the Hundredth Anniversary of the First Presbyterian Church — Afternoon and Evening Exer- cises of Great Interest —Unveiling of a Memorial Tablet — Ad- dresses by Several Ministers — Sermon by the Bev. Dr. Howard Crosby, of New York — Fine Decorations, Music, Etc. The Centennial observance of the organization of the Presbyterian Church in this city was finished at the First Presbyterian Church yesterday, services having been held both afternoon and evening. The day was a very pleasant one for the ( lelebration of the event, — one of the finest and most balmy days of " Indian Sum iner.'' The attendance of members of various denominations in the afternoon was large, many of the number having come from other places to participate in the noted event. The services began at 2:30 o'clock. The church was lighted with the electric light, among the number of lights being one in the form of a large star, placed on the front of the organ. The globes of this consisted of glass of various colors — red, blue, green, white, etc. — and it added much to the beauty of the scene presented. Many parts of the church were decorated with flowers, plants, ever- greens, etc., the whole presenting a beautiful scene. Upon the front of the pulpit desk were placed lilies, evergreens, and flowers, both sides of it also being banked with choice potted plants. At the back of the pulpit, on the wall, was the follow- ing inscription, in large letters: "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day and for- ever. " Beneath it were the dates, " 1784" and "1884" resting against a bank of evergreens. Flowers and other decorations were placed in great abundance near the window back of the pulpit, at each of the other windows of the church, and at the front of the organ. On the front of the pulpit, resting in a bank of evergreens, was a large floral anchor of pure white flowers. Upon the wall at the north side of the sacred desk was the tablet, erected to the memory of the first two pastors of the church, while beneath it hung an elegant floral wreath, composed of various hued flowers, in the center of which were the initials "J. J." This was made by Miss Ferguson of this city, a niece of the late Rev. Dr. John Johnston. The appear- 47 ance of the interior of the church was beautiful in the extreme, and very much to the credit of the ladies of the church, who had spent many hours in the work of properly decorating the sacred edifice. The following ministers and. others occupied places on the pulpit platform or anions; the congregation in the afternoon and evening : Dr. Howard Crosby, of New York; Br. S. Irenieus Prime, editor of the New York Observer; Dr. F. B. Wheeler, B.B., of Poughkeepsie; Br. Irving Magee, D.D., of Rondout; Rev. C. W. Fritts, of Fish kill; D. J. Atwater, Bethlehem; Thomas Reeves, Matteawan; Wil- liam B. Darragh, Walden; Mr. Sherwood, Washington ville; Ci. P. Noble, Cornwall; F. E. Kavanaugh, Wappingers Falls ; Judge E. L. Fancher, New York. The following citv pastors were present at the services : Rev. Dr. W. K. Hall, pastor of the church, Rev. Dr. John Forsyth, and Rev. Messrs. C. R. North, J. Q. D. Findlev, S. H. Jagger, Jeremiah Searle, J. Otis Denniston, John Macnaughtan, F. B. Savage, C. C. Manz, J. R. Thompson, \V. H. Becker, Samuel Carlisle, H. V. S. Meyers, Arthur Jones, Frederick Hinckley. At the evening service, the Rev. Br. Crosby, the Rev. Br. Hall and the Rev. Messrs. Searle, Macnaughtan and Savage wore the Genevan or teacher's gown, thus reviving the ancient Presbyterian usage, which has always been retained in Scotland and in many of our American cities. THE MEMORIAL TABLET. It is made of grey stone of a shade very similar to that of the columns of the church, quarried, as we are informed, in Illinois. It is very chaste in its design, without elaboration or excessive ornamentation, and in perfect harmony with the interior of the church in the simplicity and purity of its outlines. It has a rich and substantial appearance, and evidently was designed by one who has a refined taste. Its position is on the west end of the church, about a foot or so from the north side of the pulpit arch. The inscription upon it is in gilt and is as follows : In Mcmoriam. The Reverend John Johnston, D.D , Pastor of llns Church from 1807 10 1855. Died August 23, 1855, Aged 77 year-,. The Reverend W. T. Sprole, II. D., Pastor of this Church from 1856 to 1872. Died June 9, 1883, Aged 74 years. This tablet was erected by the congre- gation upon the centennial anniversary of the organization of the church, Novem- ber 13, 1884. Editorially the Newburgh Journal published the following : Yesterday's Centennial. Yesterday's Centennial observances, while of special interest to the members of one of our religious organizations, possessed features of interest to all our citizens. The occasion recalled the times immediately after the close of the Revolution, when, if the historians report correctly, the cause of religion and even of morality was at a low ebb, here and elsewhere in the country. It recalled also the valiant service in behalf of religion and morality rendered in their respective fields of de- nominational toil by men of cherished memory like Boetors Johnston and Mc- Carrell, long since passed away, and Sprole and Brown, who recently entered into rest. It is well that these memorial days should be set apart, when the younger generation, in Church or State, may pause in the rush of business long enough to pay reverence to the memory of the fathers, study their motives and methods, and inquire how much we of this day owe to their devotion and their patriotism. How- ever progressive may be the views of the man of the present, he will not deny that he may learn useful lessons from the past. In centennial and other memorial ob- servances here such lessons have been impressively enforced by capable men, close students of contemporaneous events and the history of former times. In the record of yesterday's observances, which we publish elsewhere in this issue, there will be found much food for thought. A* . rnris