LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Theological Seminary, 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 "^ "^ — ^ /^ 
 
 BX 9178 .B6 T96 1873 
 Boardman, Henry A. 1808- 
 
 1880. 
 Two sermons preached on the 
 
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 A DONATION- 
 
 FEOM 
 
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 Keceived 
 
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TWO SERMONS: 
 
 PREACHED ON THE 
 
 l^iu^ntg-Jifth and lorti^tl] ^nnitJ^rsari^; 
 
 AUTHOR'S PASTORATE. 
 
 HENRY A. BOARDMAN, D. D. 
 
 Tetith Presbyterian C/iiirck, Philadelphia. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 INQUIRER BOOK AND JOB PRINT, 304 CHESTNUT STREET. 
 
 1873. 
 
PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 The Conirnittee having this publication in chai-ge, 
 have instructed me that the Congregation wish to pre- 
 serve, in cojinection zvith the Anniversary Sermons, cer- 
 tain papers which they deem essential to the History of 
 the Te7ith Church. The papers so designated, and which 
 are 7^efein^ed to in one or both of the Ser77ions, are accord- 
 ingly printed in the Appendix. 
 
 The Committee further hifomn me that the intei^est 
 expressed by my people in the extract given in the second 
 discourse, from my ''Inaugural Sei-mon',' [May loth, 
 i8jj,) was so marked, as to justify tJiem in inpcratively 
 requiring that mo7'e of that se7'77i07i be placed ivitJii7i their 
 reach. So77ie further quotatio7is a7^e the7'cfo7'e added. 
 
 A few paragraphs, 07i various topics, 077iittcd in the 
 delivery, a7'e i7icluded i7i the ser77io7i of the Fortieth 
 A7iniversary. 
 
 Philadelphia, Nov. 13//^, iSyj. 
 
SERMON I. 
 
 "So WILL I COMPASS THINE ALTAR, O LORD : THAT I MAY 
 PUBLISH WITH THE VOICE OF THANKSGIVING, AND TELL OF ALL 
 
 Thy WONDROUS works." — Psalms xxvi. 6, 7. 
 
 As I appear before you this morning, my mind 
 goes back irresistibly to the scene presented in this 
 house on a Friday evening, just twenty-five years 
 ago,* The Presbytery to which the church belonged 
 was convened here, and with it a crowded auditory, 
 who had come together, as might be, to indulge a 
 rational curiosity, or to testify their Christian sym- 
 pathy in the solemnities of that hour. In such a pre- 
 sence, after an impressive sermon by my venerable 
 predecessor in this pulpit, I knelt in yonder aisle 
 and was ordained to the ministry, "by the laying on 
 of the hands of the Presbytery;" after which, I was 
 installed as the Pastor of this congregation. The 
 aged preacher, yielding to accumulated bodily in- 
 firmities, has long since ceased from all active min- 
 istrations ; and the voice which charged you to be 
 
 * November 8, 1833. 
 
6 Twenty -Fifth Anniversary. 
 
 faithful to your trust, is silent under the pressure of 
 a living death. Of the hands which were first lifted 
 in response to the prescribed demand, "Do you pro- 
 fess your readiness to take this man to be your min- 
 ister?" and then, as the benediction closed, were 
 stretched forth to give me a generous and hearty 
 welcome, many are paralyzed in the grave, and still 
 more are dispersed over the broad earth. Only here 
 and there, as I look around my congregation, do I 
 recognize one who participated in the services of that 
 evening, and went home to offer at the household 
 altar a prayer for the youthful Pastor who had dared^ 
 possibly unsent of God, to assume a charge so dis- 
 proportionate to his years and his powers. 
 
 What my own emotions were on that evening I 
 could not well express. It is, under any circum- 
 stances, a transaction of deep solemnity for a man 
 to be ordained to the sacred ministry. But for a 
 young man to exchange the training and tutelage of 
 the Theological Seminary for the official care and 
 oversight of a metropolitan church — to enter, wholly 
 inexperienced, and with scant resources of every 
 kind, upon a Pastorate involving labors and responsi- 
 bilities like this — you may well suppose that such a 
 transaction would stir his nature to its lowest depths 
 
Twenty -Fifth Anniversary. 7 
 
 and make him feel, with the apostle, " Who is suffi- 
 cient for these things ?" 
 
 You have a right to know how I came to take upon 
 myself a burden to which I was so unequal. I can- 
 not relate it in a sentence or two. Nor can I do 
 justice to the present Anniversary without saying 
 much more about myself than is agreeable to my 
 feelings. There are occasions, however, when a 
 Pastor may be allowed to refer to his own experience 
 as illustrating the mystery of God's providence. You r 
 kindness will excuse me if, after spending a quarter 
 of a century with you, I devote an hour to the recital 
 of some personal reminiscences not altogether alien 
 from your own history as a congregation. 
 
 Let me premise, for the information of families who 
 have but recently united with us, a very concise 
 statement respecting the origin of the church. The 
 merit of proposing the erection of a church on this 
 spot, is due to the late Furman Leaming. Mr. 
 Learning associated with himself five other gentlemen, 
 viz., Messrs. John Stille, of the Second Church, 
 George Ralston and James Kerr, of the First Church, 
 and William Brown and Solomon Allen, of the 
 Sixth Church. Through the liberality and energy of 
 these six Christian men, the work was accomplished. 
 The corner-stone was laid with appropriate ceremonies 
 
8 Twenty-Fifth Anniversary. 
 
 by the late venerable Ashbel Green, D. D., on the 
 8th day of August, 1828. On the 24th of May, follow- 
 ing, the first sermon was preached in the Lecture- 
 room by the Rev. Derrick C. Lansing, D. D. The 
 building was completed on the 7th of December, 
 1829, and opened for worship on the ensuing Sabbath, 
 On the i2th of March, 1829, Messrs. Furman 
 Leaming, John Stille, and James Kerr were elected 
 Ruling Elders. On the nth of May, of the same 
 year, the church was received under the care of the 
 Presbytery of Philadelphia. On the 9th of November 
 following, the Rev. Thomas McAuley, D. D., of New 
 York, was elected Pastor of the Church, and duly 
 installed on the 1 7th of December. After remaining 
 here three years, during which period his labors were 
 greatly blessed, Dr. McAuley resigned the Pastorate 
 (in Jan., 1833) and returned to the city of New York. 
 In the Spring of the preceding year (1832) Dr. 
 McAuley had seen fit to unite with the Second 
 Presbytery of Philadelphia, and the ecclesiastical re- 
 lations of the church were transferred to that body. 
 This Presbytery had been formed by the General 
 Assembly on the principle, not of geographical lines, 
 but of " elective affinity," with a view of allaying the 
 controversy, already commenced here, which after- 
 wards culminated in the disruption of the Presbyterian 
 
Tzvcnty-FiftJi Anniversary. 9 
 
 Church. The congregation remained without a 
 Pastor until the autumn of that year — having, at the 
 time, a communion roll of two hundred and ninety- 
 two members. 
 
 Indulge me now with some personal recollections, 
 which I should not think of uttering except in the 
 presence, if I may so speak, of my own household ; 
 and some of which will be new even to you. 
 
 Having become a student of theology at Princeton 
 in the fall of 1830, I was licensed to preach the Gospel 
 by the Presbytery of New York, in April, 1833. 
 Returning immediately to the Seminary, it so 
 happened that, under the system of rotation then 
 observed at Princeton, it fell to the lot of the venerable 
 Dr. Alexander to preach in the village church on the 
 ensuing Sabbath evening. Knowing that I had come 
 back with my License in my pocket, nothing would 
 answer but that I must take his place. You may 
 well imagine how such a proposal would strike me, 
 and how earnestly I tried to escape from the service. 
 But he was inexorable. I must go with him to the 
 pulpit, and preach my first sermon to a congregation 
 assembled to hear Dr. Alexander. It was not a 
 pleasant ordeal. But as I look over the sermon (i 
 Cor. iii. 18, " Let no man deceive himself,") preached 
 then for the first and last time, I have the satisfaction 
 
10 Twenty- Fifth Amiivei'sary. 
 
 of knowing that, greatly defective as it is in many 
 respects, it is replete with Gospel truth, and addressed 
 to men's consciences with as much point and solemn- 
 ity as any discourse I have written since. 
 
 During the remaining four or five months of my 
 stay at Princeton (the course then closed in Septem- 
 ber), I had the usual experience of Seminary students 
 in their Senior year, as regards proposals for a settle- 
 ment. But of the various invitations sent to me from 
 different parts of the church, there were only one or 
 two which occasioned me any serious perplexity. I 
 was urgently pressed by the Pastor of one of the 
 oldest and most important Reformed Dutch Churches 
 in the city of New York, to become his colleague. 
 This I declined. And then, in the face of my per- 
 sonal remonstrances, a call was sent me from one of 
 our own churches in that city. The circumstances 
 attending this call were so marked, that the congre- 
 gation felt themselves at liberty to urge the accept- 
 ance of it with great persistency ; and it cost me 
 several weeks of anxiety, before I could finally de- 
 cline it. 
 
 One thing only I had regarded as settled in my 
 own mind, respecting my future location : At an 
 early period in my theological studies, I had resolved, 
 even should the opportunity present itself, not to go 
 
Twenty- Fifth Anniversary. 11 
 
 from the Seminary to a large city. I preferred a 
 rural congregation as a matter of taste and feeling ; 
 and my deliberate judgment had ratified the prefer- 
 ence. But we are all led in paths which we know not. 
 I had my plans, and God had his purposes. In the 
 end, I did the only thing which I had made up my 
 mind, in respect to a settlement, I would not do. 
 
 The Session of this church invited me to supply 
 their vacant pulpit. The first Sabbath I preached 
 here was July 28, 1833, The sermons were from 
 Luke vi. 43-45, and Isaiah i. 2, 3. Three weeks 
 after, August 18, I again preached for them, from 
 Rom. i. 16, and Eccl. viii. 11. On the 2d of Septem- 
 ber, the congregation came together, and with entire 
 unanimity and cordiality, resolved to invite me to be- 
 come their Pastor. Here was a new and most im- 
 portant question to be met. I referred it, after seek- 
 ing wisdom from above, to our Professors. With one 
 voice they said I ought to accept the call. In the end, 
 I did accept it — not without many misgivings, but 
 satisfied that the pillar of cloud had moved in this 
 direction, and that there was neither peace nor safety 
 except in following it. 
 
 It was one of the incidents of my visit to the city 
 in August, that the Rev. Dr. Green waited upon me, 
 and inquired whether I would consent to entertain a 
 
12 Twenty -Fifth Amiiversary. 
 
 call from another of our principal churches here, 
 which was also vacant. I respectfully declined the 
 overture. 
 
 My ordination and installation had been fixed for 
 the 8th of November, and so advertised in the public 
 papers. On reaching the city, perhaps the very day 
 before this, I found myself brought at once and un- 
 avoidably into that burning polemical atmosphere 
 which continued to enwrap our churches for several 
 years after. It has already been mentioned that this 
 church was now connected with the Second Presby- 
 tery of Philadelphia. This Presbytery, as comprising 
 the New School elements of our denomination here, 
 was obnoxious to the Synod of Philadelphia ; and the 
 Synod had just dissolved it on the eve of my arrival. 
 The Presbytery appealed to the General Assembly ; 
 and, by the constitutional force of the appeal, its life 
 was prolonged until the case could be finally issued. 
 But the question was, '* Ought I to join a Presbytery, 
 and be ordained by it, which was in this delicate 
 position ? " The leading men of the congregation, its 
 founders even, were divided on this point ; and some 
 of them displayed a degree of feeling in discussing it 
 with me, amounting almost to acerbity. This was 
 sufiiciently embarrassing within twenty-four hours of 
 the time publicly announced for the ordination ; and 
 
Turn (y- Fifth Ajuiiversary. 13 
 
 the trouble was not mitigated by a most unexpected 
 visit from the Moderator of the Synod, the Pastor of 
 a country church, and an entire stranger to me, who 
 sought me out at my lodgings and, with many words, 
 endeavored to convince me that it would be extremely 
 unwise and irreg-ular for me to allow the service to 
 go on. You can readily imagine the state of painful 
 perplexity into which I was thrown by these occur- 
 rences. Had there been time to hasten to Princeton 
 for an hour, the burden would have lost more than 
 half its weight. But that was impossible, and it was 
 not a clay of telegraphs. There was not a single 
 Presbyterian Pastor in the city to whom I could look 
 for counsel with any hope of obtaining impartial 
 advice. But a gracious Providence relieved me. On 
 my way to the city, I found on board the boat that 
 man of God, whose praise was in all the churches, the 
 late Rev. Dr. Nevins, of Baltimore. He was to 
 spend a day here with his friends. It occurred to 
 me that he would be an unprejudiced judge ; and I 
 was sure he would appreciate the difficulties of my 
 situation. I went to him as I would go to an elder 
 brother, and opened to him my burdened heart. He 
 entered into the matter with a genial sympathy, and 
 counselled me to oo forward. This was enouo^h. I 
 conferred no more with fiesh and blood ; and the tie 
 
14 Twenty- Fif til Anniversary. 
 
 was formed which, by God's mercy, has now bound 
 me to you for a quarter of a century. 
 
 I say, "has bound me to yotc^ In one sense, this 
 language is sufficiently accurate ; for churches retain 
 their identity, whatever changes may occur among the 
 individuals who compose them. But it is one of the 
 affecting experiences of this day that I should find 
 myself surrounded by a congregation radically dif- 
 ferent from the one which received me on that 
 memorable evening. No one can be aware, except 
 by giving special attention to the subject, how constant 
 and potential is this law of change which controls the 
 destiny of congregations in large cities. It escapes 
 observation, partly because the process is silent and 
 gradual, and partly because there are ordinarily no 
 social bonds like those which clasp the members of a 
 rural church together, and make the removal of a 
 family an incident to be known and talked of through 
 the little community. In our country, especially, these 
 mutations go on with a certainty and rapidity which 
 must be unknown in most other lands. Nations are 
 like men : in their childhood, fond of change ; in their 
 old age, covetous of repose. A youthful nation like 
 ours cannot be at rest. Never content with the 
 present, its eyes are roving abroad to see how it may 
 better its condition. And with our vast territory, and 
 
Twenty- Fifth Anniversary. 15 
 
 the countless avenues open to political ambition, to 
 mechanical ingenuity, to commercial enterprise, and 
 to luxurious self-indulgence, the inducements and 
 facilities for indulging this propensity are too inviting 
 to be resisted. Add to this, the influence of taste and 
 preference, of misfortune and affliction, and of the 
 numerous subordinate agencies which inhere in the 
 social compact and shape its growth, and we shall 
 have an adequate explanation of the changes per- 
 petually in progress in our congregations, 
 
 I came in 1833, as just stated, to a church of two 
 hundred and ninety-two members. Of these there 
 are but thirty-seven remaining. All the Elders who 
 constituted the Session, and their three associates in 
 founding the church, are dead. Of the families I 
 found here, there are but two which death has not 
 entered, and only six in which one or both of the 
 heads have not been removed. In so far as can be 
 ascertained, one hundred and fifty-eight persons in 
 the communion of the church have died within the 
 period specified. The number of deaths in the con- 
 gregatio7i since January i, 1841 (there is no record 
 beyond that), has been, of children, sixty-eight, adults, 
 one hundred and ninety-five ; total, two hundred and 
 sixty-three — an average annual mortality of fifteen. 
 
 The number of additions to the church during this 
 
16 TTjenty- Fifth Anniversai-y. 
 
 quarter-century has been one thousand and sixty- 
 eio^ht ; to wit : four hundred and ninety-three by cer- 
 tificate, and five hundred and sevent}^-five by exami- 
 nation — an averag-e accession of eleven (nearly) at 
 each of our one hundred communions. The present 
 number of communicants in actual attendance is 
 about four hundred and fift)\ 
 
 The largest additions by examination have been, 
 in their chronological order, as follows : In ?^Iarch, 
 1835, twenty-three; March. 1838, thirty-four; March, 
 1840, twenty-eight ; ]March. 1 841, seventeen ; March, 
 1843. thirty-one; June, 1S52, sixteen; March, 1855, 
 fourteen; June, 1858, forty-one. At several of these 
 periods the Spirit of God has been manifestly pre- 
 sent in the congregation, with unusual power. His 
 sacred influences have come down, not as in the fire 
 and the earthquake, but "like rain upon the mown 
 grass, as showers that water the earth." The souls 
 of his people have been refreshed, and sinners have 
 been converted from the error of their ways. These 
 visitations of the Divine mercy, as will appear by the 
 statistics just recited, have, almost without exception, 
 occurred in the winter or spring of the year. The 
 providence and grace of God work in harmony. And 
 the result just indicated can surprise no one who is 
 familiar with the social and commercial life of a crreat 
 
Twenty- Fifth Anniversary. 17 
 
 city, and accustomed to trace out the religious ten- 
 dencies of the annual dispersion of the inhabitants in 
 the warm season. 
 
 But while we are grateful for these times of refresh- 
 ing with which it has pleased God to brighten our 
 path, let us not overlook the important fact, that the 
 church has grown rather by steady, gradual accretion 
 than by revivals of religion. This unquestionably is 
 the established plan of the Divine government. He 
 has his set times to favor Zion ; and glorious times 
 they are. We should never give over praying for 
 them, until he has established and made Jerusalem a 
 joy in the earth. But we have no Scripture warrant 
 for placing our chief dependence upon revivals. The 
 church has been mainly perpetuated by means of 
 faithful parental instruction, and through the stated 
 ministrations of the sanctuary. Where these two 
 agencies are duly employed, and sustained by the 
 fervent and habitual prayers of God's people, the 
 work of conversion will be always going on. And 
 it is this constant, healthy growth which every church 
 should desire, and to which every Christian is bound 
 to lend his influence. 
 
 The ordinance of Baptism has been administered 
 by the Pastor to five hundred and ninety-eight 
 children and one hundred and five adults — in all, 
 
 o 
 O 
 
18 Tiucnty- Fifth Anniversary. 
 
 seven hundred and diree persons. He has solemn- 
 ized die rite of marriage two hundred and twenty- 
 two times. His visits have been from three hundred 
 to five hundred annually — an aggregate, say, of ten 
 thousand during his ministry. 
 
 I have no data within my reach, which would enable 
 me to present even an outline history of our Sunday 
 Schools. But I think I am quite within bounds when 
 I express the belief, that some eight thousand children 
 must, within the last twenty-five years, have been 
 brought under religious instruction in the various 
 schools connected with this congregation. Besides 
 the parent-school, ths Sabbath School of a declining 
 church in Southwark was, many years since, resusci- 
 tated by the labors of some of our members. A 
 corps of faithful teachers from here sustained, for a 
 term of years, a flourishing school in the North 
 Western part of the city, which was relinquished only 
 because it was found impossible to procure a Hall in 
 which it could be continued. The first N^ight-school 
 in our city for the gratuitous instruction of young 
 men was established, it is believed, by a few gentle- 
 men of our congregation. This laudable example 
 was, after a while, followed by our municipal authori- 
 ties. Night-schools were, with great advantage to 
 the city, engrafted upon our Public School system, 
 
Twenty -Fifth Anniversary. 19 
 
 and have since been introduced into Boston and other 
 cities. And, to close this series, you have for sixteen 
 years sustained that admirable Sunday School in 
 Moyamensing, which has, within the last month, ex- 
 panded into a church, and received here, within these 
 walls, its first Pastor.''' 
 
 No one may presume to trace the vast and intricate 
 results which must flow from these various efforts. 
 It is matter of record, that they have already, by 
 God's blessing-, brought many souls to Christ ; and 
 that they have exerted a wholesome influence upon 
 some thousands of others. But there is a different 
 aspect in which the present occasion brings them 
 before us. They indicate the character of the church. 
 They show that, on some limited scale at least, 
 Christian activity has been the law of our household. 
 I dare not say that this has been the paramount law 
 with us : — would that it had been. But I may and do 
 assert that, while as a church we have been very 
 slothful and lukewarm, there has always been a 
 leaven here of the right kind — a body of faithful dis- 
 ciples, of both sexes, who have never forgotten our 
 Saviour's words, " Ye are the light of the world ; " 
 
 * The Rev. Willard M. Rice was ordained to the ministry and installed as 
 Pastor of the " MoYAMENSiNG Presbyterian Church," on Monday, October 
 18, 1858. 
 
20 Tzuenty-FiftJi Anniversary. 
 
 " Ye are the salt of the earth ; " " It is better to gfive 
 than it is to receive." They have not been content, 
 Hke the arid desert, to drink in the rain and the sun- 
 shine of heaven, and make no return. Refreshed 
 with the bread of heaven and animated by the love 
 of Christ, they have gone forth in quest of the needy 
 and perishing, and gathered them into schools, and 
 taught them the words of eternal life. In this work 
 of benevolence they have not only communicated, 
 but received, benefit. The measure which, in their 
 noble philanthropy, they meted out to others has 
 been returned sevenfold into their own bosoms. It 
 has kept alive the fervor of their piety, and made 
 them an example to the rest of us ; and, so, they have 
 brought back from their rude mission-fields, sheaves 
 of blessing which have relieved our penury and helped 
 us in our welfare. Had they nothing to show for 
 their exertions outside these walls, this church has 
 profited by their labors beyond the power of common 
 language to express. And the lesson which a Pastor 
 must long, in such circumstances, to impress upon 
 every one of his people, is that familiar but too often 
 neglected one, "Go, thou, and do likewise," 
 
 It is not essential that I should speak in detail of 
 what the church has done for the cause of Christian 
 benevolence. The pecuniary resources of the con- 
 
Tiooity-FiftJi Annivcrsai-y. 21 
 
 gregation have varied at different times, as the dispo- 
 sition certainly has, to devise Hberal things for the 
 spread of the Gospel. I may be allowed to specify 
 two instances (the erection of a new church will be 
 noticed by and by), in which your liberality displayed 
 itself in a somewhat pre-eminent way. The first of 
 these was at the semi-centenary commemoration of 
 1839. Our church then celebrated the Fiftieth Anni- 
 versary of the organization of the General Assembly; 
 and the funds collected on that occasion as a thank- 
 offering to God, were applied to the endowment of 
 the Board of Publication. Your share in that thank- 
 offering amounted to nearly eight thousand dollars ; 
 the largest sum contributed by any church in our 
 connection. Again, when it became necessary in 
 1845 to complete the endowment of the Princeton 
 Theological Seminary — a work achieved by the able 
 and disinterested exertions of my tried friend of more 
 than thirty years, who is providentially with me to- 
 day'^' — you attested your attachment to that revered 
 School of the prophets, and your love for the doc- 
 trines inculcated there, by a prompt and generous 
 offering of between six and seven thousand dollars, 
 exceeding that of any church except one in our body. 
 It is grateful to record facts like these. But candor 
 
 The Rev. CoKTLANur \'an Rensselaek, D. D. 
 
22 Twaity-Fifth Anniversary. 
 
 may demand a furdier statement. We do not always 
 respond in this way even to the most meritorious ap- 
 peals. Many who were once ensamples to the con- 
 gregation in this respect, have been taken from us by 
 death or otherwise. It is incumbent upon those who 
 have come in to occupy their places, to see that the 
 standard of liberality amongst us be not lowered. 
 It is a Divine apiiorism, " He that hath pity upon the 
 poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath 
 given will He pay him again." It is a remarkable 
 expression, he '' Icndcth unto the LordT It will be 
 well for us to inquire into its meaning now ; and to 
 ponder also those wonderful words, " Inasmuch as ye 
 have done it unto one of the least of these my 
 brethren, ye have done it unto me." Let these truths 
 be once enshrined in our hearts, and there need be 
 no further solicitude about the tone of Chrisdan 
 liberality here. 
 
 There is one other department of labor which it 
 would be inexcusable to pass over, even in this hasty 
 retrospect. I mean the " Dorcas Society'' of the con- 
 gregation. The idea associated with this ancient and 
 honored name is simply that of providing clothing 
 for a certain number of poor women and children. 
 Your benevolence has taken a wider sweep. After 
 clothing all the needy at our doors, you devote the 
 
Twenty- Fi fill An7tiversary . 23 
 
 winter's cheerful industry to the families of our faith- 
 ful and often suffering- Missionaries at the West: and 
 with what signal, and I may add, unrivalled energy 
 you prosecute this good work may be seen by the 
 following statistics. Since the origin of the Society 
 in 1836, you have provided for destitute children and 
 families at home, ten thousand three hundred gar- 
 ments. The Society commenced working for the 
 Missionaries in 1844. Within these fifteen years, 
 you have sent to these men of God and their families 
 eighty-nine large boxes, containing about sixteen 
 thousand articles of clothine. The estimated value 
 of these boxes for the last four years, was six thou- 
 sand dollars. The total number of garments prepared 
 for both classes of objects, from the beginning, is 
 upwards of twenty-six thousand. I know you will 
 say, " Give God the glory." I do give Him glory. 
 But I also "glorify God in youT I cannot repress 
 the pride and pleasure which I feel, in recalling the 
 munificent fruits of this enlightened and efficient 
 labor on the part of the ladies of my congregation. 
 I am ready to say, " Many daughters have done 
 virtuously, but thou excellest them all ! " Certainly 
 if the same admirable system which you pursue were 
 adopted in any considerable number of the congrega- 
 tions of our towns and cities, not only would every 
 
24 Tzvcnty-FiftJi Anniversary. 
 
 mission-family in our domestic field have its wants 
 amply supplied, but new bonds of sympathy and 
 prayer would link them to the church at large, and 
 greatly augment their capacities for doing good. 
 
 Allusion has been made to our colonics. The obli- 
 gation resting upon congregations which God has 
 been pleased to prosper, to extend the means of 
 grace to the destitute around them, and, whenever 
 practicable, to establish new churches, would seem to 
 be too obvious to require argument. It is, no doubt, 
 very pleasant for a people who have a Pastor to their 
 Tking, to sit down and enjoy his ministrations with- 
 out concerning themselves, except by an occasional 
 contribution, about the wants of their destitute neigh- 
 bors. But this is not "the mind which was in Christ." 
 Real Christianity is, like leaven, essentially active, 
 diffusive, and assimilating. And, if needful, it will 
 make sacrifices sooner than forego the duty and\ 
 pleasure of sharing its good things with others. It 
 was observed a moment or two ago, that there had 
 always been something of this spirit here. For my- 
 self, I may say, it had been for many years my anxious 
 wish that the church should colonize. In the winter 
 of 1846-7, I devoted a good deal of time and atten- 
 tion to a plan for establishing a church on Logan 
 Square. In connection with two or three gentlemen 
 
7\ueJity-Fi/fh Anniversary. 25 
 
 of my church, who entered heartily into the scheme, 
 I explored that part of the city. We selected a lot 
 of ground most advantageously situated. Several 
 conferences were held at my house and elsewhere ; 
 and, in the end, the plan failed only because it was 
 not met in a spirit of corresponding liberality by par- 
 ties residing in that vicinity, and who would have 
 been personally benefited by the enterprise. Thus 
 Logan Square was lost to us. But the idea was not 
 abandoned. 
 
 On the evening of the 20th of January, 1852, a con- 
 siderable number of gentlemen belonging to the con- 
 gregation, met by invitation at my house, to consider 
 the subject of " erecting a new church west of Broad 
 Street." At this conference, it was ureed that our 
 church had been overflowing for several years ; that a 
 new church of our order was imperatively needed in the 
 city ; that without such a church we could not main- 
 tain our proper relative position among the evangeli- 
 cal denominations of the city, nor should we be doing 
 our part towards supplying the spiritual wants of the 
 community; that the signal harmony and prosperity 
 we had enjoyed demanded this return at our hands, 
 as a token of our gratitude to the Giver of all good ; 
 and that there was every reason to believe that a 
 strong colony from our own congregation, uniting 
 
20 Twenty-FiJtJi Anniversary. 
 
 with other famihes in the neitjhborhood which mioht 
 be selected, could, by the favor of Providence, accom- 
 plish the desired end without detriment to existing: 
 churches, and with larg-e advantage to the greneral in- 
 terests of religion. I need not rehearse the sequel. 
 The West Spruce Street Church was erected; and 
 the church itself was organized on the 3d of April, 
 1856. Great praise is due to the colony of thirty-four 
 communicants and their associates, which went out 
 from us on that occasion, and especially to those noble 
 minded Christian men by whose liberality and zeal 
 this work was accomplished. The hundred thousand 
 dollars they have " lent to the Lord," will come back 
 to them and their children with large interest. It is 
 written in the bond, " that which he hath given will 
 He pay him again." And heaven and earth shall 
 pass away before this pledge can fail. 
 
 Our second colony, that of October iith, has but 
 just left us. They have gone to a different field, but 
 on an errand consecrated by the Saviour's own ex- 
 ample — to preach the Gospel to the poor. Difficul- 
 ties they expect to encounter, but they are not intimi- 
 dated. They go, as they believe, at the Master's call ; 
 and this is all the warrant they demand. They have 
 His promise, " Fear not, for I am with thee ; be not 
 dismayed, for I am thy God." Putting their trust 
 
. Tiucnty- Fifth Anniversary . 27 
 
 here, they expect to succeed. And I believe, by- 
 God's blessing, they will succeed. 
 
 You have been instrumental, then, in founding two 
 new churches. Of the manifold means and methods 
 for doing good, none can exceed this. For an evan- 
 gelical church is God's own institution. It is perma- 
 nent. It comprehends all other elements and appli- 
 ances for promoting Christianity. It is a sun which 
 radiates light and life in every direction ; a fountain 
 whose living- waters will flow on forever. You have 
 done a good work in sending- these two half-tribes 
 over Jordan. Never forget that they are still part 
 of the household and, as such, claim an interest in 
 your sympathies and prayers. 
 
 As a general rule, no church can be considered as 
 fulfilling its design, which is not endeavoring to 
 furnish some candidates for the sacred ministry. The 
 neglect of this duty on the part of Christian parents, 
 has been one of the prominent sins of the church for 
 the last score or two of years. A better day seems 
 now to be dawning. A throng of young men have 
 suddenly come forward, with the humble, grateful 
 cry upon their lips, " Lord, here am I : send me." 
 May it prove the harbinger of a new and blessed era 
 for the church. 
 
 It is pleasant to know, that our own church has not 
 
28 Tiuenty- Fifth Anniversary . 
 
 been entirely remiss in this matter. Within the 
 period embraced in this review, there have been 
 fourteen young men connected with the congregation, 
 who have devoted themselves to the ministry. Of 
 these, three came to us having this object already in 
 view. Three who made their profession of religion 
 here, relinquished, perhaps I might say, brilliant 
 prospects at the Bar, as several gave up other pursuits, 
 in order to become ambassadors for Christ. Two, 
 who spent a considerable time with us — one of them 
 brought hither as a student of medicine, by a good 
 Providence, that he mio-ht find a Saviour and serve 
 him in the ministry of reconciliation — are held in high 
 esteem by the Church as learned and laborious foreign 
 Missionaries ; to whose names it were ungrateful not 
 to add that of an intelligent and lovely Christian 
 woman, of our communion, the wife of one of our 
 leading Missionaries in China. This band of ministers 
 are preaching the Gospel with ability and fidelity, 
 some of them in situations of orreat influence and re- 
 sponsibility. To a Pastor's heart, few things could 
 be more comforting than the reflection, that God may 
 have employed his feeble and unworthy agency in 
 raising up one and another to hold forth the word of 
 life to the perishing, after his own lips shall have been 
 sealed in death. God grant that our church may 
 
Twenty-Fifth Anniversary. 20 
 
 abound, as it ought to do, more and more in this so 
 needful work. And may His choicest blessing rest 
 upon those beloved brethren who have gone forth 
 from us to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. 
 
 " May they that Jesus whom they preach, 
 Their own Redeemer see ; 
 And watch Thou daily o'er their souls, 
 That they may watch for Thee I " 
 
 I have stated that, immediately on arriving in this 
 city, I found myself in the presence of that great con- 
 troversy which resulted five years afterwards (1838) 
 in a division of our Church. The theological questions 
 involved in this controversy, had agitated the country 
 for several years. All New England was convulsed 
 with disputations about the " New Haven divinity." 
 And as that theology had crossed the border and in- 
 truded into our household, alarm and apprehension 
 followed in its train. It was not, as many alleged, a 
 mere war of words. It took hold upon the central 
 truths of the Gospel, such e. g. as original sin, the 
 atonement, regeneration, and justification, together 
 with the whole subject of moral agency and human 
 accountability. Sentiments were propounded on 
 these fundamental topics which contravened the plain 
 teachings of the Scriptures, and which no dialectic 
 skill could reconcile with the Confession and Cate- 
 chisms of the Presbyterian Church. 
 
30 Twen'y-FiftJi Anniversary. 
 
 It must not be supposed, however, that all who 
 arrayed themselves on the side of the ''New School^' 
 espoused these errors. When the lines came to be * 
 drawn, many were carried to that side by local and 
 personal considerations, who had no sympathy with 
 the " New Divinity ; " as others were, who adopted it 
 only in some very qualified form. But unquestion- 
 ably it was a contest which involved both the purity 
 of our faith, and the integrity of our ecclesiastical 
 polity. Two incompatible systems of doctrine, and 
 two no less irreconcilable theories of ecclesiastical 
 authority and policy, were struggling for the mastery. 
 For five years the issue remained doubtful. The 
 opposing parties marshalled their forces annually at 
 the General Assembly ; and with varying fortunes. 
 Majorities vibrated. In place of the harmonious and 
 delightful proceedings which now mark the yearly 
 convocation of our Supreme Judicatory, it was then 
 an arena for fierce debate and parliamentary manage- 
 ment. The oriants of the church were there ; and 
 they were not men to play with foils. 
 
 Interpreting the facts by the light of subsequent 
 history, the composition of the two parties, viewed in 
 the aggregate, is equally palpable and significant. 
 Allowing for numerous individual exceptions, it was 
 virtually a contest between Presbyterianism and Con- 
 
Twenty- FiftJi Anniversary. 31 
 
 gregationalism ; or certainly between those whose 
 training had made them decided and earnest Presby- 
 terians, and others who had adopted our standards in 
 a loose and general way — " for substance of doctrine." 
 Adhering, in her maturity, to a policy adopted in her 
 youth simply for missionary purposes, our church had 
 kept open the door into the ministry so wide and for 
 so long a time, that some hundreds of her pulpits 
 were filled by men who, however exemplary in other 
 respects, had no paramount attachment either to her 
 faith or her government. It was in keeping with this 
 character, that they should steadfastly resist all efforts 
 of the Church to foster her own benevolent institu- 
 tions, as distinguished from voluntary societies. The 
 Presbyterian theory was, that the Church should have 
 her own Boards of Missions and Education ; Boards 
 of her own creation, and responsible to herself; that 
 she might superintend the training of her ministers 
 and direct her missionary operations at home and 
 abroad. The counter view was, that all these in- 
 terests ought to be conducted by existing Societies 
 of a mixed nature, partly Presbyterian and partly 
 Conofregational, which, havinof no ecclesiastical char- 
 acter, were in a great degree independent of eccle- 
 siastical control. This question and that of doctrine, 
 constituted the two cardinal issues on which the con- 
 
32 Tiveiity- Fifth Anniversary. 
 
 test was waged. It is gratifying to know that, after 
 twenty years' further experience, our brethren of the 
 other branch of the Church have admitted their error. 
 Their General Assembly has found it indispensable 
 to self-preservation to establish Committees for con- 
 ductincr the work of Education and of Missions, on 
 the identical principle of our Boards. 
 
 These facts involve no disparagement of Congre- 
 gationalism as such. \or is it desig-ned to intimate, 
 by this historical review, that Congregationalists ought 
 not to be welcomed to our churches. Some of our 
 ablest and best Pastors have come to us from that 
 body. We have in our communion thousands of 
 faithful Christians reared in Congregational churches. 
 I wish we might have tens of thousands more. And 
 I would fain hope that the friendly relations subsist- 
 ing between most of the Cono-reorational bodies in 
 New England and ourselves might be perpetuated. 
 But when it comes to introducing men into the min- 
 istry of our church who have no special affection 
 either for our doctrines or our order, the case is 
 widely altered. Such an amalgamation is inexpe- 
 dient for all concerned; and at the period of which 
 we are speaking, it brought our beloved church to 
 the brink of a precipice. A merciful Providence in- 
 terposed and rescued it. The division which ensued 
 
Twenty- Fifth Anniversary. 33 
 
 was followed by a law-suit For three weeks the 
 church stood at Csesar's bar, while the momentous 
 issue was pending, whether she was responsible to 
 the civil power for ecclesiastical acts done by her own 
 proper tribunals and within the scope of her own 
 charters. A "momentous issue," I style it; because 
 " it was a blow struck at the root of the great prin- 
 ciple of our institutions, viz : that spiritual concerns 
 are not to be interfered with by the civil power.'"-"' It 
 was not our church only which was on trial, but every 
 church in this Commonwealth. And had the verdict 
 of the juryf been finally sustained, there would have 
 been an end to religious liberty in Pennsylvania. But 
 the Judiciary nobly vindicated the rights of conscience. 
 After a brief six weeks the verdict was set aside \\ 
 and the whole case adjudicated on the broad princi- 
 ples of the Constitution under which it is our happi- 
 ness to live. 
 
 How signally that decision has been ratified by a 
 benificent Providence, in the unparalleled prosperity 
 of our Church from the day the case was settled until 
 now, it needs but a glance at our present condition 
 to perceive. But I must not venture upon that field 
 now. Let me return to our own history. 
 
 * The late Hon. John Sergeant. 
 t March 26, 1839. 
 5 X May 8, 1839. 
 
34 Twenty-Fifth Anniversary . 
 
 I had been no indifferent observer of the rising 
 contest, during my Seminary-Hfe. The " New Di- 
 vinity" was my special study. For some years I had 
 Hstened to the preaching of its two great expounders. 
 One of them had invited me to become his theolog-i- 
 cal pupil. I esteemed and honored them both. There 
 were strong personal considerations to bias me in 
 favor of the system. But when I came to examine it 
 by the law and the testimony, I saw plainly that it was 
 less a theology than a philosophy — an elaborate web 
 spun of earth-born metaphysics, not a glorious sys- 
 tem of faith deduced from the incorruptible word, 
 and suited to the necessities oi a race of sinners. 
 This conviction, the fruit of long and patient investi- 
 gation, was impressed upon my mind when I came 
 here. But neither my age nor my circumstances 
 would have justified me in taking an early and con- 
 spicuous part, as I was urged to do, in the existing 
 controversy. My church, as already mentioned, had 
 been transferred to the new Presbytery. Its influen- 
 tial members were divided amonor themselves on the 
 pending ecclesiastical questions. I was the friend of 
 all ; they were all my friends. They were content to 
 hear the Gospel from my lips ; and it was one of the 
 earliest of my pulpit-offices among them, to preach 
 an extended series of carefully written sermons on 
 
Tiventy-FiftJi Anniversary . 35 
 
 the doctrines of the atonement and regeneration, one 
 design of which was to discuss the erroneous senti- 
 ments then prevaiUng on those subjects. Had I gone 
 further, and made myself a partisan, or prematurely 
 proposed a change in the ecclesiastical relations of 
 the church, the cono-reo-ation must have been rent in 
 twain. As it was, we remained where we were until 
 the Second Presbytery was dissolved by the General 
 Assembly (1837), and then, church and pastor applied 
 to, and were received by, the Presbytery of Philadel- 
 phia. At the meeting of the church held to decide 
 upon this matter, there were some votes against the 
 change ; and a few excellent and useful men withdrew 
 their certificates and united with other churches. But 
 neither then, nor at any other time, were the harmony 
 and tranquility of the congregation seriously dis- 
 turbed. When it is remembered that our city was 
 the theatre where the two great parties had their an- 
 nual conflict, and that we were livine in an atmos- 
 phere surcharged with the elements of strife, this 
 result can be referred only to the special goodness of 
 God towards us. It deserves this day our tribute of 
 gratitude. 
 
 If it be asked, why I have introduced this sketch 
 into my discourse, I answer, because it is the most 
 important ecclesiastical transaction which has occurred 
 
36 Twenty-Fifth Anniversary. 
 
 here during my ministry ; and it could not have been 
 passed over with any propriety. I have no desire to 
 re-open the questions then settled ; still less, to revive 
 any personal antipathies or prejudices. I do not know 
 of a single minister in our Presbytery who cherishes 
 the slightest feeling of unkindness towards his brethren 
 in the other branch of the church. I never hear them 
 mentioned except in terms of respect and courtesy, 
 and with satisfaction at the success with which God 
 may be crowning their labors. The controversy is 
 hardly ever alluded to in our clerical intercourse. It 
 belongs now to histor}- ; and there we are content to 
 leave it. The land is broad enough for the two 
 Churches to pursue their respective plans without 
 collision or jealousy. And the only rivalry between 
 them should be, which shall do most for the salvation 
 of men, and the orlorv of their common Redeemer. 
 
 One controversy suggests another. This also be- 
 longs to the record of the past quarter century ; and 
 as Providence was pleased to assign me some very 
 humble part in it, I may be allowed briefly to speak 
 of it. 
 
 I fear no challeno-e, when I claim it as one of the 
 honorable characteristics of the Presbyterian Church, 
 that however aggressive it may be in its demonstra- 
 tions against worldliness and sin, and against false 
 
Twenty- Fif til Anniversary. 37 
 
 religions of whatever name or creed, its spirit is 
 eminently peaceful and fraternal towards all evangeli- 
 cal denominations. It is no part of the ordinary 
 routine of our Pastors to preach against or about 
 other churches. Their peculiarities are rarely men- 
 tioned, unless it be in a didactic form, by way of ex- 
 plaining some doctrine or rite of our own. Our 
 readiness in co-operating with them for objects of 
 common interest may be seen of all men. And we 
 cordially bid them God-speed in all legitimate and 
 scriptural efforts to promote the cause of Christ. 
 
 But if we are slow to attack, we know how to 
 defend. Dwelling among our own people, and begirt 
 with munitions of rocks reared by no mortal hand, we 
 cannot allow our peaceful heritage to be invaded, 
 without resentincr and resistino- it. It was so invaded 
 at the period to which I refer — some fifteen or sixteen 
 yedrs ago. The Oxford Tract movement vivified the 
 dormant elements of ecclesiastical pride and intoler- 
 ance in the Church of England ; and the controversy 
 thus originated soon embroiled the Protestant de- 
 nominations generally in Great Britain and America. 
 The pretensions put forth by the sponsors of this 
 movement were monstrous. They reached to the 
 extreme of parcelling off the entire Christian Church 
 among the Episcopal, the Papal, and the corrupt 
 
38 Tzventy-FiftJi Anniversary, 
 
 Oriental Hierarchies. Outside of these Hmits there 
 was no church, no ministry, no vahd ordinances. The 
 ministers of other denominations were unauthorized 
 intruders into the sacred office, and their churches 
 were schismatical organizations. 
 
 These sentiments were not breathed in a corner. 
 They were proclaimed from the pulpit. They were 
 sent forth from the press in every imaginable form, 
 from the stately and learned octavo to the sentimental 
 novel. They were scattered broadcast over the land. 
 With proselyting officiousness, they were thrust, in 
 private life, upon the members of other churches, who, 
 not unfrequently, came to their pastors in perplexity 
 of mind, as members of my church did to me, to seek 
 counsel and instruction. 
 
 No alternative was left us. However averse to 
 controversy, it was the most obvious of all duties to 
 repel these attacks, and protect our people in the 
 enjoyment of their hereditary rights and franchises. 
 The ground which we stood upon, we occupied in 
 common with nearly all the churches of the Reforma- 
 tion. Indeed, at the Reformation, evcjy Protestant 
 Church rejected the jw'e divino doctrine of Prelacy 
 the English Church adopted that polity on grounds 
 very different from those assumed by so many of its 
 clergy in later times. To this day. Diocesan Episco- 
 
Twenty- Fifth Annivei^sary. 39 
 
 pacy probably does not embrace among its supporters 
 onc-fiftee]ith part of the population of Protestant 
 Christendom. That any portion of the Church should 
 prefer and adopt it, as the most expedient and suit- 
 able system for themselves, is all well. No one will 
 complain of this. We, certainly, who are of the great 
 family of the Reformed Churches, can have no quarrel 
 with them for building their walls on a pattern dif- 
 ferent from ours. Nor do we readily see why they 
 should have any quarrel with us. We believe that 
 their covenant God and ours is the same ; that the 
 same Redeemer died for us ; that the same Divine 
 Spirit dwells in both Churches ; and that we are all 
 travellinp^ to the same heaven. We see in their com- 
 munion many of God's dear children whose piety and 
 zeal would be an ornament to any church. We honor 
 their church for all that God has done through its in- 
 strumentality in behalf of the common salvation. We 
 know no reason why there should not be perpetual 
 amity and fellowship between us. And this, we are 
 persuaded, is the sentiment of growing numbers in 
 their own ranks, who revolt at the idea of their tribe, 
 one of the least of the thousands of Judah, severing 
 itself from the communion of the great body of God's 
 Israel. 
 
 But, unhappily, at the period just indicated, an 
 
40 Tiventy-FiftJi Anniversary. 
 
 arrogant and denunciatory spirit ran riot for a 
 time throuo-h their body ; and as it proscribed all 
 other Churches, a general conflict was unavoidable. 
 In common with other Pastors in our Church, I felt it 
 my duty to deliver and publish a course of Lectures, 
 exposing the unscriptural nature of these pretensions, 
 and warning you against the devices employed to 
 seduce you from your ancient faith. With the final 
 results of the contest we are content. 
 
 This controversy, also, has now passed into the 
 province of the historian. Let us hope that a fresh 
 baptism of the Spirit may avert similar calamities, and 
 draw closer than ever the bonds which should unite all, 
 of whatever name, who love the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 It will be time enough for the Churches to war with 
 each other when they can find no more enemies of 
 their common Master to turn their arms against. 
 
 I came to you, as I have related, direct from the 
 Seminary. That twenty-five years should have 
 passed since that eventful evening, sounds to me like 
 a fable or a dream. It is only when I cast my eyes 
 around me that I can realize it. An unusual thing it 
 is — too unusual — for a Pastor to spend a quarter of 
 a century with the same congregation. In my own 
 case, it is the more remarkable because of the pre- 
 carious health which has so often interrupted my 
 
Twenty- Fifth Anniversary. 41 
 
 labors. The foundation of this was laid in a severe 
 attack of sickness contracted on a necessary visit to 
 the North, only two weeks after my installation. It 
 has repeatedly led to a suspension of my ministrations 
 for several weeks or months together; and in 1847, 
 under imperative medical advice, I was obliged to 
 spend a year in Europe. I felt that it was due to my 
 congregation, before going abroad, to place my resig- 
 nation in their hands. I can never forget the kind- 
 ness with which you returned it to me, and the 
 generous sympathy you expressed in my trial. 
 
 If I should say that various opportunities of a dif- 
 ferent kind have been thrown in my way for termi- 
 nating this relation, I should only relate a common 
 experience among Pastors. Few men, I suppose, 
 spend twenty-five years in the ministry without being 
 more or less approached with invitations to change 
 their place of residence. Among the suggestions of 
 this sort which have reached me, there have been 
 some of a very attractive character ; and one'"" which 
 came to me so clothed with the authority of the Church, 
 and so enforced by private solicitation, that the dis- 
 position of it became the most perplexing and painful 
 
 * The appointment of the author by the General Assembly of 1853, to the 
 chair of Pastoral Theology in the Theological Seminary at Princeton, vacated 
 by the death of the Rev. Dr. Archibald Alexander. — (See Appendix.') 
 
 6 
 
42 Twenty- Fifth Anniversary. 
 
 question I have ever had to deal with. The occasion 
 is too recent to require that I should do more than 
 advert to it in this passing way. Let it suffice to 
 state, that your own earnest and affectionate remon- 
 strances, seconded by a formal appeal on the part of 
 the leading members of the Bar, the Schools of 
 Medicine, the men of science, and the chief merchants 
 of our city, (the most remarkable incident, so I regard 
 it, of my whole public life,) forbade me to leave you. 
 I have seen no cause to regret my decision. I ma)' 
 not speak with confidence about my charge here ; 
 but, in all frankness, I believe that the result has been 
 highly advantageous to the Princeton Seminary, and 
 to our Church at large. 
 
 There are some considerations pertaining to the re- 
 sponsibilities and duties of a pastorate in a great city, 
 and particularly in our own city, as distinguished from a 
 conorreg^ation in the countrs', or in a small town, which 
 naturally occur to the mind at a season like this, and 
 it may be allowable to devote a few words to them, 
 I refer, in general, to the wide sphere of labor which 
 a minister in this position is expected to fill ; and the 
 variety of objects which invite or demand his attention. 
 Even as regards the composition of his own congrega- 
 tion, there may be peculiarities which have an im- 
 portant bearing upon his ministrations. His people 
 
TziJcnty-FiftJi Annivei^sary. 43 
 
 are a constituent part of that concourse of human 
 beings who go to make every large city a centre of 
 mighty influence ; and there may be among them 
 some who have much to do in determining whether 
 that influence shall be for good or for evil. Again, 
 he preaches to numerous strangers. There must be 
 some thousands of visitors and travelers in such a 
 city every Sabbath, a large proportion of whom find 
 their way to the sanctuary. In this way, a Pastor is 
 constantly casting bread upon the waters. They stop 
 long enough to hear a single sermon from his lips, 
 and are gone on the morrow ; but who shall say what 
 untold treasures they may not have taken with them ? 
 Not only so, but he may have within the sound of his 
 voice a different class of strangers ; not transient way- 
 farers, but temporary residents. I refer, as you may 
 suppose, to those admirable schools, academical and 
 professional, which every season attract such large 
 numbers of youth to our city — (for it is of our own 
 city, I prefer to speak.) I have always regarded the 
 Female Boarding-Schools connected with my congre- 
 gation, as one of its most interesting and encouraging 
 features. I have looked to them with some confidence, 
 to see the fruit of our Sabbath services ; and, by God's 
 blessing, I have not looked in vain. They have shared, 
 I think, in every revival we have enjoyed. And some- 
 
44 Twenty- FiftJi Annivei^sary . 
 
 times the dew has come gently down upon these 
 fleeces, when the ground all around has remained 
 dry. It is, let me add, one of the real pleasures of 
 my occasional summer tours through the country, to 
 meet with those — now, perhaps, happy wives and 
 mothers — who hail me with true affection as a Pastor, 
 and take me back to their school days in Philadelphia. 
 And then, these Schools of Medicine. Here are 
 one or two thousand of young men pursuing their 
 studies in our city for six months of the year. They 
 are from every part of the Union. Their future in- 
 fluence, social and professional, must depend largely, 
 under Providence, upon the training they receive 
 here. It is no trivial responsibility to be concerned, 
 even so far as their occasional attendance upon one's 
 ministrations may go, in giving direction to a swelling 
 tide of influence like this. That the agency of the 
 pulpit Is not always lost upon them, may be illus- 
 trated by the fact, that In two instances known to me, 
 young men who came here to study medicine, were 
 led in this house to exchange that profession for the 
 ministry, and are now, one of them, as already noted, 
 an accomplished and eminent foreign missionary, the 
 other an active and useful Pastor in one of our prin- 
 cipal cities. Why should we not expect beneficent 
 changes like these to occur frequently ? There must 
 
Tivcnty-FiftJi Anniversary. 45 
 
 be many pious young men in these medical classes, 
 who have never even examined the question, whether 
 it may not be their duty to enter the ministry. And 
 how many are there who, if converted, might become 
 burninof and shininof liohts in the church ! 
 
 But it is not only in the pulpit that we have to do 
 with strangers. Besides the ordinary claims of hos- 
 pitality which visitors expect at the hands of the resi- 
 dent Pastors, and which it is our pleasure to recognize, 
 the medical reputation of our city makes it the Mecca 
 of invalids. A very large number of these have been 
 under my pastoral care, frequently for months to- 
 gether. My visits of this kind could be reckoned 
 only by hundreds, perhaps by thousands. And I 
 would not have had it otherwise. For what could I do, 
 should I hear at last those piercing words, " I was a 
 stranger, and ye took me not in : I was sick, and ye 
 visited me not." Far from their homes, oppressed 
 with disease, possibly drawing near to death, who 
 would not deem it a privilege to go to these sufferers 
 and, if so it might be, alleviate their sorrows and 
 soothe their anxieties, by pointing them to the Lamb 
 of God ? There are no chapters in my experience 
 as a minister, more affecting than some which relate 
 to this subject. I could describe to you scenes of 
 anguish which would move you all to tears ; and 
 
46 Twenty- FiftJi Anniversary. 
 
 scenes of rapture which would thrill you with holy 
 and grateful joy. But I must not detain you with 
 such incidents. 
 
 I refer to these things, to illustrate the cares and 
 responsibilities of a Pastor in a great city. But what 
 you have heard is only the beginning. If you would 
 know the whole, you must not only be familiar with 
 his entire congregation, but you must understand his 
 relations with the benevolent institutions of his own 
 Church ; the time he is expected to devote to the in- 
 terests of education, and to the manifold metropolitan 
 charities which need and deserve the countenance of 
 the clergy ; the endless interviews with the authors 
 or agents of all sorts of good objects in each one of 
 our thirty or forty States and Territories; and the 
 mosaic-like correspondence he carries on with all 
 manner of people from January to December. The 
 sum of the whole is, that if a Pastor fulfil, even in 
 any tolerable degree, the ends of his ministry, he can- 
 not lead a very idle life. And, again, it should excite 
 no surprise that so many Pastors break down under 
 these accumulated labors — labors which in the prin- 
 cipal churches of the European capitals are always 
 divided among two or three ministers. The Protest- 
 ant Episcopal Church in our country is gradually 
 adopting the same system: there are probably some 
 
Twenty- Fifth Annivei^sary. 47 
 
 present who will live to see it extensively introduced 
 into our own communion. 
 
 There is another view of a pastorate in one of these 
 great cities, to which my long residence here may 
 justify me in adverting. In their social structure they 
 differ essentially from all other communities. They 
 are the centres, not simply of trade, and of politics, but 
 of talent, of learning, of art, of eloquence. The lib- 
 eral professions are there in their strongest array. 
 They attract to themselves genius and enterprise of 
 every type, and from every quarter. They are the 
 seat of that great power in a free State, the press; 
 the theatre of books and reviews, and of daily jour- 
 nalism, the pabulum of the masses. Everything is 
 canvassed — politics, commerce, philosophy, religion — 
 the huge alembic is forever seething and surging. 
 Intense intellectual activity is the law of that miniature 
 world. And within the last quarter of a century 
 several new agencies have come into play, which have 
 impressed upon the whole mass a greatly increased 
 momentum. 
 
 Among these may be specified certain radical events 
 in our political progress (it cannot be necessary to 
 name them), which have conspired to develop more 
 fully the inherent vigor and restlessness of our na- 
 tional character. Again, science has been popular- 
 
48 Twenty- Fifth Anniversary. 
 
 ized to an extent unthought of at any former era. 
 Nor can we overlook, in this connection, the founding 
 of that new social institution, which promises to in- 
 corporate itself with our metropolitan life, I mean. 
 Popular Lectures. This has grown, in part, out of a 
 general craving for some species of entertainment 
 more rational, and of better moral tendency, than 
 dramatic performances. The indications are, that we 
 are to have a body of Lecturers as a distinct and per- 
 manent profession. What the ultimate effect of such 
 an institution will be, we have not as yet the requisite 
 data for determining. With our limited experience, 
 however, it is quite apparent that it will combine the 
 gjod and the bad, like most other human contri- 
 vances. It is at least certain, that the business will be 
 largely taken up by men of showy parts and facile 
 elocution, the sponsors, often, of grave errors in re- 
 ligion or in morals. Orators of this description will 
 find ready employment at the hands of men who get 
 up courses of Lectures for private gain, and who are 
 indifferent to every question but that of the profits. 
 To them, it is all one whether their rhetoricians declaim 
 truth or error, deism or pantheism, Paul or Spinoza. 
 They would as soon seed the ground with thistles as 
 with wheat ; or have the fountain they open at the 
 very heart of a great city, send forth hemlock, as 
 
Tivcnty-Fifth Anniversary. 49 
 
 living water. Like the British opium dealers in China 
 their aims are purely mercenary; and so they make 
 money, it is no concern of theirs who are poisoned 
 and who nof. 
 
 That professional Lecturers generally have been, 
 or are likely to be, of this description, is not asserted. 
 The class already comprises men of eminent worth, 
 who never gain the public ear without pouring into 
 it something adapted to make people wiser and better; 
 and we may hope that such teachers will be multiplied. 
 But we have seen enough to know that the system is 
 susceptible of ready abuse, and may be perverted to 
 the very worst ends. In either case, whether well or 
 badly managed in a moral view, it is exerting a 
 powerful influence upon the social life of these cities, 
 and must not be omitted in formingf an estimate of 
 the present position oi th.Q pulpii. 
 
 The idea I wish to present, on this head, as deduced 
 from our very cursory survey of the field is, that the 
 demands upon the metropolitan pulpit have been 
 gradually rising during the last twenty-five years, and 
 that it needs to o^ird itself" with fresh streng-th if it 
 would continue to command the homagfe of the culti- 
 vated mind of the country. In saying this, I am far 
 from recommending that the sacred desk should be 
 degraded to an arena for intellectual gladiatorship. 
 7 
 
50 Twenty- Fifth Aimivei-sary. 
 
 I do not forget that the Christian ministry is a divine 
 institution, with its appointed sphere which it may not 
 transcend, and its prescribed themes which it may 
 not neglect, but at its peril. Nor can I question that 
 this institution, so ordained and equipped of God as 
 his chosen instrumentality for reforming and saving 
 the world, is equal even to the herculean task de- 
 manded of it here ; that, by God's blessing, it can so 
 restrain, ameliorate, and control all these tumultuous 
 forces of which we have been speaking, as to work 
 out not merely the well-being of society, but the 
 spiritual elevation and eternal well-being of the in- 
 dividuals who compose one of these mighty Babels, 
 But the point of the argument is this. The preach- 
 ing of the cross follows the law of all other instru- 
 ments ; to effect its end it must be used according 
 to the desien of its Author. It is not in the nature 
 of things that the pulpit should maintain its hold upon 
 this complex, impatient, excited mass of human beings, 
 at least upon the educated portion of them, unless it 
 bring to its vocation competent intellectual vigor and 
 various knowledge, as well as genuine moral ex- 
 cellence. It must keep abreast of the other learned 
 professions in ability and general culture. It must 
 be able to present the high themes of revelation in a 
 manner adapted to win the respect of a community 
 
Twenty-Fifth Anniversary. 51 
 
 so constituted, and that, too, without compromising 
 the Gospel in a single point of doctrine, or abating 
 one jot or tittle of its lofty requisitions. 
 
 Here, then, is work for the ministry which will de- 
 mand the utmost exertion of their powers. It is not 
 to be compassed without patient study and per- 
 severing toil. They must "give attendance to read- 
 ing, to exhortation, to doctrine;" and "study to show 
 themselves approved unto God, workmen that need 
 not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." 
 However important it may be to keep up a familiar 
 personal intercourse with their congregations, it will 
 not do to allow this, except In cases of sickness and 
 affliction, to take precedence of their public ministra- 
 tions. No intelligent congregation can be perma- 
 nently satisfied with pastoral visiting as a substitute 
 for Instructive preaching. They may tolerate It for a 
 while ; but by and by they will begin to bemoan the 
 penury of the pulpit, and to inquire whether it was a 
 purely Levitical ordinance, that " the priest's lips 
 should keep knoivledge!'' Exhausting work It Is, 
 which they ask of their Pastor — far more so than in- 
 cessant visiting — but they will feel, and they ought to 
 feel that, instead of consuming his time and strength 
 In visiting a few families, week by week, his prime 
 duty is to prepare " beaten oil " for the sanctuary, 
 
52 Twenty-Fifth AiiJiiversary . 
 
 which may irradiate and cheer his entire flock ; and, 
 this being accompHshed, to see all he can of them at 
 their houses. 
 
 But this is an incidental suggestion. The main 
 idea to be enforced is, that the sphere of pastoral 
 labor in these cities is constantly expanding ; that it 
 demands, and will reward the noblest energies, and 
 the most self-denying efforts of any man whom Provi- 
 dence may appoint to the work ; and that, when 
 every^thing is done which such a man can do, nothing 
 is accomplished except as God may bless his poor 
 instrumentality. 
 
 Not to pursue this topic farther than may barely 
 suffice to lift the curtain for a moment upon the rela- 
 tions and responsibilities of a Pastor established in 
 one of these marts of empire, let us cast an eye 
 beyond our own enclosure. The changes described 
 as having occurred among ourselves, have their coun- 
 terpart in the records of our own sister churches in 
 this city, and, indeed, in the history of the various de- 
 nominations here, for the past twenty-five years. I 
 find myself at the close of this period, among the 
 senior Pastors of the city. 
 
 When I came here to reside the Rev. Mr. Barnes 
 had already been setded as the Pastor of the First 
 Church for three years, and the Rev. George Chand- 
 
Tiventy-Fifth Anniversary. 53 
 
 ler as Pastor cf the First Church in Kensington for 
 a still longer period. The Second Church was vacant, 
 but a few months after called the Rev. Dr. Cuyler to 
 its pulpit. Dr. Ely was Pastor of the Third Church ; 
 Mr. Potts, of the P'ourth ; Dr. Winchester, of the 
 Sixth ; Dr. Engles, of the Seventh ; Mr. McCalla, of 
 the Eighth ; Mr. Gibson, of the Ninth ; Mr. Grant, of 
 the Eleventh; Mr. Eustace, of the Twelfth ; Mr. Pat- 
 terson, of the First Church, Northern Liberties ; Mr. 
 Judson, of the First Church, Southwark, and Mr. 
 Symmes, of the Fairmount Church. Dr. McDowell 
 had been settled the year before as the first Pastor of 
 the Central Church. The First Church, Penn Town- 
 ship; the Second Church, Southwark; and the Second 
 Church, Kensington, were vacant. Dr. Skinner hav- 
 ing resigned the charge of the Fifth Church (now Dr. 
 Wadsworth's), to go to Andover, that church was 
 vacant, and so remained for several years. A seces- 
 sion from it subsequently organized the Clinton Street 
 Conoreoational Church, and invited Dr. Todd to be- 
 come their Pastor. After spending some years with 
 them Dr. Todd returned to New England, and they 
 were reorganized as a Presbyterian Church. 
 
 It will be seen that of the fourteen Presbyterian 
 Pastors I found here, only three remain in the city. 
 With these may be associated the laborious and effi- 
 
54 Twenty-Fifth Anniversajy. 
 
 cient Pastor of the Independent Church on Broad 
 Street. Several of the churches have changed their 
 Pastors three or four times. The mortahty among 
 our ministers has been of a character to excite very 
 solemn and tender reflections. Of those who have 
 resided here, whether as Pastors or otherwise, for a 
 term of years since '^2>y I can' recall no less than 
 twenty-four who have died — some few of them after 
 removing from the city. You will be interested in 
 hearing this list from the necrology of the Church. 
 It is as follows : — 
 
 The venerable Mr. Potts, Mr. Judson, Mr. Scott, 
 Mr. Dinwiddle, Mr. Blythe, Mr. Eustace, Mr. Patter- 
 son, Mr. Loughridge, Mr. Williamson, Dr. Winches- 
 ter, Mr. Stewart, Mr. Harned, Mr. Hoge, Mr. Doug- 
 las, Dr. John Breckinridge, Dr. Green, Dr. Cuyler, 
 Dr. Wm. A. McDowell, Mr. Manwaring, Dr. Carroll, 
 Mr. Connell, Mr. Dickinson, Mr. Rood, and Mr. 
 Ramsey. Of these twenty-four, seventeen were or 
 had been Pastors in this city. 
 
 I know of no Baptist minister who has been here 
 for twenty-five years. Most of their pulpits have 
 been vacant and refilled several times. The same is 
 true of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Several of 
 their older congregations have had two, three, and 
 even four Rectors since 1833. Among the ministers 
 
Twenty- FiftJi Anniversary. 55 
 
 of that church who have passed away, may be men- 
 tioned the venerable Bishop White, Mr. James, Dr. 
 Bedell, Dr. Abercrombie, Dr. Montgomery, Dr. Clark, 
 Dr. Boyd, Mr. Fowles, and Mr. Tyng. To these may 
 be added Dr. Livingston, and his late excellent son, 
 and Dr. Ludlow, all of the Reformed Dutch Church; 
 that eminent divine and scholar, Dr. Wylie, of the 
 Reformed Presbyterian Church ; Mr. Bowers, of the 
 Associated Reformed ; and the venerable Dr. Mayer, 
 of the Lutheran Church. 
 
 It were well to pause and ponder this record. To 
 a Pastor, it is full of solemn meaning. I would fain 
 have my own heart opened to its monitory teachings; 
 as I would gladly linger, also, to pay a tribute of re- 
 spect and sympathy to the memories of these excellent 
 men. But the time forbids this : and I pass on to 
 notice chanores of a different character. 
 
 In 1833, there were twenty churches here in con- 
 nection with the General Assembly. Now there are 
 twenty-seven belonging to our branch of the Church, 
 and fifteen to the other, making a total of forty-two. 
 In the year 1838, after the separation took place, 
 there were in our churches (O. S.) about two thou- 
 sand seven hundred communicants. Now, we number 
 about eight thousand ; the number having trebled 
 in twenty years. 
 
56 Twcnty-FiftJi Anniversary. 
 
 Regarded in itself, diis is a very gradfying increase 
 both as to churches and communicants. But the 
 population of the city has advanced from one hundred 
 and sixty-one thousand in 1830, to, say, four hundred 
 and fifty thousand (city and liberties, not including 
 the county) in 1858. In other words, there are nearly 
 three hundred thousand more people here to be 
 supplied with the means of grace than there were 
 twenty-eight years ago. In any other country, this 
 would sound more like romance than history. Here 
 it is sober verity. And while, in one view, we may 
 congratulate ourselves at what we have accomplished, 
 in another, we have cause to feel humbled that we 
 have done so little towards bringing the ordinances 
 of the Gospel within the reach of this vast population. 
 Let us work while the day lasts ; the night cometh 
 in which no man can work. 
 
 If the time allowed, it would be interesting to 
 glance at the extraordinary progress of our Church 
 at large since 1833, and to spread before you the 
 statistics of our various Boards. But I must content 
 myself with the following summary. The figures in 
 the first column present the state of the whole Church, 
 five years before the separation. Those in the second, 
 are the statistics of our own branch of the Church 
 for the current year. 
 
Twenty- Fifth Anniversary . 57 
 
 1833. 1858. 
 
 Ministers, - - - - - 1,855 2,320 
 
 Churches, . . . . . 2,500 3,146 
 
 Communicants, . . . . 233,580 233,755 
 
 Synods, ..... 22 33 
 
 Presbyteries, .... m 159 
 
 Addinor to these the statistics of the other branch 
 of the Church, the total will be, Ministers, three 
 thousand nine hundred and thirty-two; Churches, four 
 thousand eight hundred and thirty-three; Communi- 
 cants, three hundred and seventy-seven thousand two 
 hundred and sixty-five. 
 
 It were futile to attempt to embrace in a single ser- 
 mon the reflections awakened even by this very 
 superficial retrospect of the period which defines my 
 pastoral life among you. One sentiment, not so im- 
 mediately personal as some I may presently express, 
 is too deeply impressed upon my mind to be withheld. 
 
 The last twenty-five years has been a time of trial 
 
 no less for churches than for political institutions. 
 
 Every important denomination in our country has 
 
 been agitated with great controversies. Several of 
 
 them have been rent asunder. And others, though 
 
 retaining an external cohesion, are riven with seams 
 
 and fissures which make their alleged unity a merely 
 
 nominal thing. The position in which Providence 
 
 placed me, has not been unfavorable to a calm and 
 8 
 
58 Twenty-Fifth Anniversary. 
 
 comprehensive survey of the working of the various 
 systems of ecclesiastical faith and polity. And I feel 
 it to be both my duty and my pleasure, to say here 
 to-day, that ever)^ year's experience has gone to con- 
 firm my confidence in the principles which you and I 
 entertain, and to enhance my gratitude to God that 
 / have had my bii^th and training and ministry in the 
 Presbyterian Church. I cast no reproach upon 
 other Churches. I challenge no exclusive immuni- 
 ties for our own. But I bless God that / am a 
 Presbyterian. 
 
 One ground of this is, that in reviewing the period 
 of my pastorate, I find the Presbyterian Church honor- 
 ably distinguished by the estimate it puts upon Divine 
 truth. There is a system of theology which, how- 
 ever it may be designated by a mere human name, 
 and styled Calvinisin as a matter of convenience, has 
 been held by the great body of eminent divines and 
 evangelical Christians from the days of the apostles 
 until now. It was embodied in the Creeds and Con- 
 fessions of the Reformed Churches, with scarcely an 
 exception. It teaches the sovereignty of God, the 
 fore-ordination of all events, the depravity of man, the 
 vicarious nature and the efficacy of the atonement, 
 the necessity of regeneration, justification by faith 
 alone, the absolute dependence of man upon the Holy 
 
Twenty- Fifth Anniversary . 59 
 
 Spirit, the obligation of repentance and holy obedience, 
 and eternal rewards and punishments. Of this system, 
 which so many illustrious theologians and so many 
 renowned churches have deduced from the teachings 
 of Christ and his apostles, I have found the Church 
 to which it is your privilege and mine to belong, to 
 be the special guardian. She has not held it as a 
 mere form — content that it should be enshrined in 
 her symbols and put away out ol sight. She has not 
 overshadowed it with rites and ceremonies, and de- 
 graded it to a subordinate place in her ministrations. 
 She has not allowed other incompatible and hostile 
 Creeds to come and encamp within her walls along- 
 side of it. She has not permitted her ministers to 
 suppress it, lest, peradventure, certain of its high and 
 holy utterances might offend the pride of the human 
 heart. On the contrary, she has insisted that her 
 pastors should hold it in its plenary integrity ; that 
 they should faithfully preach it ; that they should repel 
 every effort which might be made to corrupt or dilute 
 it ; that they should instil it into the minds of the 
 rising generation ; and that they should constantly 
 impress it upon all their people, that a Church is 
 nothing without the truth ; that there can be no real 
 religion separate from the truth ; that God has con- 
 fided to man no treasure so sacred and so invaluable 
 
()0 Twenty- Fifth Aniiiversary . 
 
 as the TRUTH ; and that to betray or even disparage 
 the TRUTH, is to commit a heinous sin against God 
 and to make war upon the only hope of a lost world. 
 These imperative and pregnant requisitions I have 
 seen maintained and enforced by the Presbyterian 
 Church, with an energy displayed by no other com- 
 munion. Nowhere else have I observed the same 
 appreciation put upon sound doctrine, or the same 
 stern and righteous reprehension dealt out to the 
 popular sentiment expressed in that infidel sneer, 
 
 "For modes o^ faith let graceless zealots fight," 
 
 Taught in a different school, and imbued with a 
 spirit as alien from this as light is from darkness, she 
 has, as occasion called for it, "contended earnestly for 
 the faith once delivered to the saints," and shown her- 
 self a livine branch of that Church which is "the 
 
 PILLAR AND GROUND OF THE TRUTH." 
 
 Had she paused here, however, my reverence for 
 her had been abated. But while insisting upon the 
 truth, I have seen her with equal zeal reprobating a 
 barren orthodoxy; and everywhere teaching that trtitJi 
 was in order^ to godliness. No Church has been more 
 inflexible in enforcing the necessity of a radical change 
 of heart by the power of the Holy Ghost, and of a 
 reliance upon the righteousness of Christ as the only 
 
Twenty- Fif til Anniversary. 61 
 
 ground of hope for a sinner. No Church has been 
 more faithful in protesting against the three great 
 delusions of fanaticism, formalism, and a mere worldly 
 Christianity. She has scorned all fellowship with 
 those types of so-called piety which make religion to 
 consist in dreams and revelations, and vulgar antics 
 in the sanctuary. With the same firmness she has 
 lifted up her remonstrances against any undue re- 
 liance upon rites and sacraments; and iterated it in 
 the ears of her children, that they might emulate the 
 very Pharisees in their outward observances, without 
 knowing the first rudiments of the Gospel. And, 
 again, she has branded as hypocritical and ruinous, 
 any profession of faith which leaves the individual still 
 a votary of the world; which practically aims at amal- 
 gamating the service of God and the service of mam- 
 mon, and repudiates every badge of discipleship but 
 ofoinof to the Lord's table. Resistino- these several 
 errors, she has never ceased to inculcate an enlightened 
 and vigorous faith, which shall authenticate itself by 
 a holy temper and life, as indispensable to salvation. 
 And herein she has appeared to me to exhibit another 
 of the marks of a truly Scriptural Church. 
 
 Again, I have watched the working of this Church 
 and found its influence to be good, and only good 
 and that continually. It has seemed to me to com- 
 
62 Twenty- Fifth Anniversary. 
 
 bine in a pre-eminent degree, the opposite elements 
 of strength and flexibiUty, It is neither a petrified 
 image of orthodoxy, nor a flaming meteor consuming 
 itself and everything it touches with unhallowed fire. 
 At once conservative and progressive, it has readily 
 affiliated with every agency adapted to elevate and 
 improve the race, and as instinctively arrayed itself 
 against every demonstration hostile to the happiness 
 of mankind. The friend of civil and religious liberty, 
 it has gone forward to their rescue on emergencies 
 which awed the resolute and made the prudent falter. 
 Animated by a robust and generous patriotism, it has 
 with one hand scattered spiritual blessings over our 
 land, and with the other poured oil upon the surging 
 billows of faction, and employed its majestic powers 
 in holding the incensed and alienated sections of the 
 Union together. This I have seen ; and loving my 
 country, I cannot but love my Church, which has, 
 under God, done so much, first, to achieve the inde- 
 pendence of my country ; secondly, to foster all its 
 vital interests ; and, last of all, to preserve its integrity 
 and perpetuate its blessings. 
 
 For these reasons — not to specify others — I am 
 grateful to God, after twenty-five years' experience, 
 that He was pleased to cast my lot in the Presbyterian 
 Church. I feel that " the lines have fallen to me in 
 
Tzueiity- Fifth Anniversaiy . 63 
 
 pleasant places," and that I have " a goodly heritage." 
 It is of all others the place where I should choose to 
 deposit my best earthly treasures. No human fore- 
 sight can guard against every contingency. And our 
 beloved Church 7nay hereafter become venal and 
 apostate. But in looking over the country and re- 
 viewing the last quarter of a century, there is no 
 guardianship to which I would so soon commit my 
 children and the friends who are dearest to me, as 
 her's. I believe they will be safer there than any- 
 where else. I believe they will be exposed to fewer 
 noxious influences, and surrounded by more of the 
 associations which are favorable to virtue and piety. 
 I believe it will be most conducive to their present 
 happiness, and to their eternal salvation — that, so to 
 speak, there will be a greater probability of their 
 getting to heaven, and of children's children following 
 each other there from generation to generation. And, 
 believing this, I must be false to every paternal in- 
 stinct, false to the sacred claims of those who may 
 come after me in long succession, false to the sainted 
 dead whose principles I have inherited, and false to 
 that Saviour whose mercy I have experienced and 
 whose most unworthy minister I am, if I should 
 neglect any practicable means for inspiring my own 
 household and the families committed to my care. 
 
64 Twenty-Fifth Anniversary. 
 
 with the love I cherish for our Church, and the inflex- 
 ible purpose never to abandon it. And in this par- 
 ticular (certainly not in others,) I may say without in- 
 delicacy, and in all sincerity I do say, " I would to 
 God, that every parent in my congregation, and all 
 who hear me this day, were both almost and alto- 
 gether such as I am." 
 
 I have glanced at a topic here too important to be 
 dismissed without a sentence or two more — I mean 
 the duty of training up our children in the principles 
 which we ourselves profess. It is too much the case 
 in this age of precocious childhood, when the relations 
 of the parties seem often to be inverted, that children 
 are left to wander away from the fold to which their 
 parents belong, wherever caprice may carry them. 
 Numerous agencies are conspiring, at least in our 
 country, to foster a premature independence on the 
 part of the young, and make them impatient of all 
 wholesome control. The compact family organiza- 
 tion, with its paternal priesthood, its orderly habits, 
 its secluded, confidential intercourse, and its stated 
 convocations for instruction in the Sacred Scriptures, 
 is rudely invaded from without, and its defences are 
 in imminent danger of being broken down. The 
 whole spirit of this bustling, officious, money-making, 
 impertinent age, is hostile to the very idea of Home, 
 and to all its sacred duties and pleasures. 
 
Tiventy- Fifth Anniversary. 65 
 
 Then, again, this is a period of great latitudinari- 
 anism in rehgion. Everybody wishes to be deemed 
 reUgious, and of course, as the carnal mind is just as 
 much "enmity against God" as ever, the only way in 
 which this can be brought about is to bring religion 
 down to a level that shall make it palatable to the un- 
 renewed heart. Truth, therefore, is little thought of 
 The piety which insists upon the "washing of re- 
 generation and renewing of the Holy Ghost," upon 
 the sprinkling of the blood of atonement upon the 
 heart and conscience, upon faith in the Redeemer as 
 the only medium of pardon, and upon a holy life — 
 this sort of piety is "too fanatical." A decent de- 
 portment will be conceded, and a sound creed, and a 
 punctilious ceremonial; but here you must pause. If 
 you venture further, you become "precise" and 
 "puritanical." 
 
 Now what are we to do, with dangers like these 
 threatening our children on every hand? Are we to 
 let the w^orld come in and confound our domestic ties, 
 and sweep away our sons and daughters into the 
 great vortex of frivolity and impiety? Are we to 
 abandon them to their own capricious impulses, and 
 let them throw themselves into the stream of fashion- 
 able formalism? We cannot do it. That is, we can- 
 not do it without betraying the most sacred trust 
 9 
 
66 Twenty-Fifth Anniversary . 
 
 God has confided to us. We are bound by every 
 consideration of duty and interest, to cherish their 
 household virtues; to bind them close to our hearts 
 and keep them there; and, above all, to pour the triilh 
 into their minds; to keep them within the reach of the 
 Gospel; to show them the excellence of that system 
 of faith and order which we hold; and to train them 
 to love and cherish it for their own sake and for our's. 
 If a quarter of a century has shown us anything more 
 of the power and preciousness of this divine system, 
 let us manifest it by teaching our families to prize it 
 also. If it has been a blessing to us, it will be no less 
 a blessinof to them. To lodo-e it in their hearts in its 
 transforming and saving efficacy is God's prerogative 
 not our's. But we can, ordinarily, keep them from 
 castinof it off We can do much to link them in in- 
 violable bonds to our beloved Church, to surround 
 them with influences favorable to their conversion, 
 and, by God's blessing, to prepare them for a useful 
 life, a peaceful death, and a glorious immortality. 
 
 You will readily suppose that on the recurrence of 
 an anniversary like this, my own mind reverts with in- 
 terest and anxiety to the general tone of the jjtinistrations 
 with which we have been occupied here. To express 
 all that I feel in recalling the deficiencies and weak- 
 nesses, the mistakes and sins, which have marred these 
 
Twenty -FiftJi Anniversary. 67 
 
 services and impaired their usefulness, would neither 
 be decorous nor profitable. I will only say that there 
 can be no individual here whose impressions on this 
 point are stronger than my own ; and certainly none 
 whose retrospect of the Sabbaths we have spent to- 
 gether can awaken so many sad and reproachful 
 emotions. But the scene is not all dark. It is an un- 
 speakable satisfaction to me to reflect that, with all its 
 imperfections, the preaching you have listened to has 
 been, not deism, not philosophy, not mere morality, 
 but the Gospel of Christ. According to my ability^ 
 I have set forth before you that system of truth of 
 which I have just been speaking, as the burden of 
 prophets and apostles, the glory of the Reformed 
 Churches, and the peculiar jewel of our own. When 
 I came to you " in weakness and in fear, and in much 
 trembling," it was with the determination to "know 
 nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him cruci- 
 fied." I have never interpreted this to mean that a 
 Pastor was to confine himself to the iteration of the 
 Saviour's name, or to the exposition of a few leading 
 doctrines of the New Testament. I regard it rather 
 as importing that the preacher Is to take his stand at 
 the cross, and to bring forward the whole circle of re- 
 vealed truth as surveyed from that position. Such I 
 find to have been the apostle's own explanation of the 
 
68 Tiuenty-FiftJi Anniversary. 
 
 rule, as interpreted by his practice. For there is 
 scarcely a topic in divinity or in morals which he has 
 not handled; and they who would circumscribe the 
 pulpit to a few common-places in the evangelical 
 system, will appeal in vain to Paul for an authority. 
 How difficult a task it is "rightly to divide the word 
 of truth," is known only to those who have attempted 
 it. Examine the Bible. See what an inexhaustible 
 treasure-house it is, in the extent and variety, in the 
 grandeur and importance, of its themes. Consider 
 its histories and biographies, its prophecies and doc- 
 trines, its precepts and promises; then look at the 
 endless diversities of human character and condition; 
 the multifarious variety of wants and woes, of dangers 
 and duties, of relations and responsibilities, which 
 meet often in a single congregation ; and decide 
 whether it can be a trivial matter so to select and 
 adjust the topics of the Bible as to insure to every 
 individual of this mass "his portion in due season," 
 and to bring about in a protracted ministr}- the best 
 possible results. All that can be fairly exacted of a 
 Pastor is, that he should aim at this, and do his best 
 to accomplish it. That your Pastor has grievously 
 failed in very many particulars, he has not the least 
 question. But I liavc endeavored to preach to you 
 the Gospel of Christ; and "I have showed you and 
 
Tivcnty-FiftJi Anniversary. ()0 
 
 have taught you pubhcly and from house to house, testi- 
 fying- to you all, repentance toward God and faith 
 toward our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 For the candor and kindness with which you have 
 listenedt o these instructions, I owe you many thanks. 
 For the efficacy which it has pleaseci the great Head 
 of the Church to impart to them, neither you nor I can 
 be sufficiently grateful. We have reason, — I certainly 
 have, — to be deeply humbled, that these twenty-five 
 years have passed away and left no more fruit. But 
 some fruit there is; and for this we may lay our thank- 
 offering upon His altar. You can recall "times of re- 
 freshing from the presence of the Lord," when you 
 felt this to be the house of God and the very gate of 
 heaven. To many among you this is consecrated 
 ground. It will be said of our humble church here- 
 after, "This and that man was born in her. The Lord 
 shall count when he wTiteth up the people, that this 
 man was born there." Here God has met you. 
 Here, when you came up to his courts careless and 
 giddy, His spirit opened your hearts to the truth, set 
 your sins in order before your eyes, pierced your 
 bosoms with anguish, and sent you home with the cry, 
 "God be merciful to me a sinner!" And here he has 
 again met you, taken off your burdens, and dismissed 
 you with that peace which passeth understanding. 
 
70 Twenty- Fifth Anniversary. 
 
 This has been the place of your espousals to Christ 
 and here you have for the first time sat down at his 
 table, and commemorated his dying love. 
 
 But no pen may attempt to delineate the scenes 
 which must occur in any church where the Gospel is 
 preached, and which have doubtless occurred here, 
 during a period of twenty-five years. The influences 
 proper to a place like this, are too powerful not to 
 tell upon the characters of those who are brought 
 within their reach. What fierce inward conflicts have 
 there been here between the flesh and the spirit ! 
 What upbraidings of conscience ! What stifled con- 
 victions ! What struggles against the truth ! What 
 wrestlings with sin ! What noble resolves ! What 
 cries for deliverance ! What yearnings after pardon ! 
 What anxious looks towards Calvary ! What 
 triumphs of Satan over awakened souls ! What victo- 
 ries of contrite and believing penitents over Satan ! 
 How many led captive by sin ! How many con- 
 querors! 
 
 Here, in the sanctuary, is the great battle-ground 
 on which heaven and hell are contesting the posses- 
 sion of the soul : — 
 
 " The soul of man — Jehovah's breath — 
 That keeps two worlds at strife ; 
 Hell moves beneath to work its death, 
 Heaven stoops to give it life ! " 
 
Twenty- Fifth Anniversary . 71 
 
 Nor does the conflict cease with the surrender of 
 the soul to Christ. The whole inward life of the 
 Christian is compounded of hopes and fears, joys and 
 sorrows, sinning and repenting, doubting and trust- 
 ing, striving and halting, cleaving to earth and soar- 
 ing heavenward. And the sanctuary is, of all others, 
 the spot where the adverse elements which enter into 
 his character are stimulated into intense activity, and 
 produce their most decisive effects upon his conduct. 
 
 For twenty five years these latent processes, seen 
 only by that eye v/hich sees all thmgs, have been 
 going on here, in hundreds of bosoms. Let God be 
 praised that there have been results which we can all 
 think of with complacency. He has met the hungry 
 here and fed them with the bread of life. He has 
 given to mourners in Zion beauty for ashes, the oil 
 of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for 
 the spirit of heaviness. He has given strength to the 
 weak, and to them that had no might he has increased 
 strength. He has sought that which was lost, and 
 brought again that which was driven away, and bound 
 up that which was broken, and strengthened that 
 which was sick, and made them and the places round 
 about his hill a blessingf. He has extracted the stingr 
 from wounded consciences, bound up the bruised 
 reed, and revived the smokinor flax. He has enabled 
 
72 Twcuty-Fifth Aniiiversary. 
 
 mourners to say, where they thought they never 
 could say it, " Thy will be done !" He has given his 
 people strength to endure trials which they had be- 
 lieved must crush them. He has disclosed the pillar 
 of cloud and of fire to the perplexed and timorous. 
 He has laid his hand upon the presumptuous, and 
 held them back from sins which must have destroyed 
 them. He has brought scoffers and sensualists and 
 washed them from their pollution in the fountain 
 opened for sin and for uncleanness. He has shown 
 the amiable and the moral the insufficiency of their 
 own righteousness to bear the scrutin)- of a holy God. 
 He has stirred up parents to greater fidelity and 
 children to greater reverence, and opened in nume- 
 rous families sources of pure and rational enjoyment 
 such as they had never dreamed of. He has touched 
 the hearts of young men, turned them aside from 
 their chosen occupations, and sent them forth one 
 after another as ambassadors for Christ. 
 
 These, and such as these, are the benign offices he 
 is carrying forward here, as in other churches. And 
 when we reflect upon the results involved in these 
 merciful dispensations, continued among a people 
 without interruption through a quarter of a century, 
 or for thirteen hundred Sabbaths, the children of Zion 
 may well " be joyful in their King." Like the Hebrews 
 
Twe7ity-Fifth Anniversary. 73 
 
 at the dedication of their temple, you may " go to your 
 tents joyful and glad of heart, for all the goodness 
 that the Lord has done for Israel his people." 
 
 Standing where we do to-day, it is impossible not 
 to call to mind our trials as well as our mercies. The 
 ministry I have fulfilled among you, as already re- 
 marked, has not been without its interruptions, some 
 of which have threatened to bring it to a close. But 
 in your view, my attacks of sickness have been simply 
 Providental affliction's which called for sympathy and 
 succor ; and you have not only submitted to them 
 without complaining, but made every recurrence of 
 the trial an occasion for heaping upon me fresh kind- 
 nesses. I repeat that I am not insensible either to 
 your affection, or to the mercy of our Heavenly Father 
 in restoring me to health so often and permitting me 
 to resume my work. There is no employment in this 
 world which I love so much as preaching the Gospel; 
 no office which I feel to be so honorable or so useful 
 as that of a Christian Pastor. And I am never laid 
 aside from its duties temporarily, without being filled 
 with sorrow in reviewinor the manner in which I have 
 met my responsibilities, and penetrated with gratitude 
 to God for the favor he has shown to my unworthy 
 labors. Nor do I regard it as the least memorable 
 token of his paternal care, that the congregation has 
 
 lO 
 
74 Tzve7tty- Fifth Anniversary. 
 
 been kept in the same united and flourishing condition 
 in my absence, as when I have been with you. 
 
 But your trials — and especially your bereavements — 
 how they come thronging around us on an occasion 
 like this. What a chasm has this quarter of a century 
 made in the congregation assembled here on the 
 evening of the 8th of November, 1833? Here and 
 there, as I look along these aisles, I meet a friendly 
 face which greeted me, a stranger, then; but, with a 
 very few exceptions, the gentlemen who sat at the 
 heads of these pews have disappeared. Numerous 
 families have been entirely broken up by death. And 
 some of you have had breach upon breach in your 
 fireside circles, until every step of the way to the 
 cemeteries has been wet with your tears. The mor- 
 tality already mentioned has included all classes and 
 ages; death is no respecter of persons. We have 
 seen many hoary-headed saints gathered into the 
 garner, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his sea- 
 son. Infants that have lingered here just long enough 
 to entwine themslves around loving hearts; daughters 
 in the pride and loveliness of opening womanhood; 
 wives whose nuptial ceremonies proved the harbinger 
 of their funeral pageants ; mothers whose clustering 
 virtues shed the radiance of heaven over happy 
 households ; young men panting for the contests of 
 
Tweitty-FiftJi Anniversary. t o 
 
 life, like the war-horse for the battle; and men of 
 business immersed in the cares of an extended traffic — 
 all have vanished from our eyes, and the places which 
 knew them know them no more. By far the larger 
 number of those who are gone I have visited in their 
 sickness — not to speak again of the frequent in- 
 stances in which I have been called to minister con- 
 solation or instruction to strangers whom Providence 
 has brought here to die at our hotels. Death has be- 
 come a familiar spectacle to me; and I have seen it 
 under many forms. I have seen it when it came like 
 a demon attended by the furies of hell. And I have 
 seen it when it came like an angel of mercy with its 
 retinue of seraphs to convoy the departing spirit to 
 the skies. I have watched the lamp of life go out, 
 when the harrowing thought has struck a chill through 
 me that, in all probability, life and /lope must expire 
 together. And I have watched its flickering flame 
 with the joyful assurance that after a momentary 
 eclipse it would be rekindled before the sapphire 
 throne. I have stood by the dying when it was too 
 painful to be endured, except under an inexorable 
 sense of duty. And again I have stood by the dying 
 when the chamber of death seemed like the very 
 vestibule of heaven. It has been my allotment, by 
 turns, to teach in the presence of death, and to be 
 
76 Twenty-Fifth Anniversary. 
 
 taught ; to point to the Lamb of God, and to have the 
 Lamb of God held forth to me ; to preach Jesus 
 Christ and him crucified, and to hear Christ crucified 
 preached with an eloquence and a power unknown 
 to my poor ministrations ; to encourage desponding 
 souls, and to see some " Great Heart" going forward 
 to the last encounter with a majestic faith which 
 gave certain presage of victory. For the most part, 
 those who had borne an exemplary Christian charac- 
 ter have died in peace. Even w'here they have long 
 had a peculiar horror of death, and felt that they must 
 be overwhelmed in the waves, they have been merci- 
 fully relieved of this fear as the hour approached, and 
 at length, on going down into the river, the water has 
 been so low and still that they have passed over all 
 but dry-shod. To my own mind this is one of the 
 most expressive and touching of all the tokens we 
 have of the faithfulness and tenderness of our 
 Heavenly Father — his condescending kindness to- 
 wards humble and doubting Christians in the prospect 
 of death. It is a spectacle of true moral sublimity to 
 see such a Christian — a delicate and refined female, 
 perhaps — losing her timidity as she loses her strength, 
 gaining confidence amidst the decays of nature, her 
 faith waxing stronger as she draws nearer to eternity, 
 and finally exclaiming, as she grapples with the last 
 
Twenty- Fifth Anniversary. 77 
 
 enemy, " Thanks be to God which giveth me the vic- 
 tory, through Jesus Christ our Lord !" I know of 
 nothing adapted in an equal degree with scenes hke 
 this, to confirm our faith in the divine authority of our 
 holy rehgion, or to arm the beUever against the fear 
 of death. I would counsel you, therefore, not to shun 
 such scenes. There are lessons there for you, which 
 you will get nowhere else. 
 
 " The chamber where the good man meets his fate, 
 Is privileg'd beyond the common walk 
 Of virtuous life, quite in the verge of heav'n." 
 
 And when your turn comes to meet the destroyer, it 
 may greatly nerve your faith and hope to have fre- 
 quented this " chamber," and seen how God has 
 supported even the feeblest of his children and brought 
 them off more than conquerors. 
 
 But there is one aspect of this subject peculiarly 
 solemn to the mind of a Pastor. He looks over his 
 congregation and finds, it may be, that several hundred 
 of the individuals who once sat under his ministry 
 are now in eternity. What report have they borne 
 with them as to his fidelity? Did he set life and 
 death before them ? Did he admonish them of their 
 sins ? Did he tell them what they must do to be 
 saved ? Did he, on all fit occasions, urcre them to 
 
78 Twenty- Fifth Anniversary, 
 
 make their peace with God ? Did he caution them 
 against false grounds of confidence? Did he endeavor 
 to estabhsh them in the truth and build them up in 
 holiness? Did he labor to bring out their resources, 
 to show them how they might be useful and how they 
 might make the most of their influence in promoting 
 the success of the Gospel ? 
 
 These are very serious, as they are very natural 
 questions. The dead are now beyond his reach, and 
 the Ineradicable impress of eternity is upon them. 
 Happy is that Pastor whose conscience acquits him 
 of blame In this matter ; who feels, in respect to all 
 who are gone, that he did everything he could for their 
 salvation. Alas, my brethren, who of us, Pastor or 
 people, can say this concerning the dead ? How 
 many are gone with whom we ought to have labored 
 more to bring them to Christ ? How easy would it 
 have been to speak to them oftener on the subject, to 
 place some suitable book in their hands, to Invite 
 them to the sanctuary, to remove their prejudices 
 against religion, to do a score of things, any one of 
 which might, by the blessing of God, have been useful 
 to them. 
 
 I feel all this as a Pastor. There are doubtless 
 parents here who feel it keenly as to their deceased 
 children. Every one must feel it In respect to com- 
 
Twenty-Fifth Anniversary. 79 
 
 panions and friends. who have been summoned away 
 in an unexpected hour. Let us see to it that the 
 lesson is not lost upon us. We may go to the graves 
 of the departed and bemoan our unfaithfulness to 
 their souls; but the best tribute we can pay them is to 
 perform our duty to the living. There are others still 
 around us who may die as suddenly and with as little 
 preparation. These we can reach. And if the slum- 
 berers could burst their cerements and come back, 
 they would bid us cease from wasting our posthumous 
 regrets upon them, and address ourselves to the 
 saving of those for whom salvation is yet possible. 
 
 But I trespass too long upon your patience. A 
 single thought more, and I have done. 
 
 The past and the future blend imperceptibly to- 
 gether. While we review the years that are gone, 
 the imagination busies itself about the years that are 
 to come. On the evening of that ordination service, 
 the scroll on which the events of this quarter-century 
 were to be recorded was, to our eyes, of virgin white- 
 ness : no mortal hand would have presumed to draw 
 the faintest hair-stroke of the annals to be inscribed 
 upon it. To God's eye it was all written over then, 
 as it is now to us. But who could have conceived 
 what characters it was to reveal ? Who amone that 
 
80 Twenty- Fifth Anniversary. 
 
 vast assemblaoe could have believed, had the idea 
 been suggested, that twenty-five years would work 
 such changes in this congregation as those we have 
 been contemplating ? Another scroll lies before us 
 to-day, unsullied as the Alpine snow. It is to receive 
 the history of these coming years, and bear it to the 
 judgment seat, and then onward through eternity. 
 When, at the close of another quarter-century, that 
 too faithful chronicle shall be spread before the con- 
 gregation then worshipping in this house, it will doubt- 
 less be like the one we have been reading. It will 
 tell of changes possibly as great as those which are 
 past. It will relate the joys and the sorrows of many 
 a household ; the dispersion of families ; the achieve- 
 ments of sin and the victories of grace. It may state 
 that of the four hundred and fifty communicants now 
 here, only fifty remain in the Church ; and that of the 
 families to which those fifty belong, there are not four 
 which have escaped the inroads of death. It may 
 speak of times of refreshing when many were born 
 again ; of other colonies gone forth to plant new 
 churches ; and of young men here dedicated to God 
 in baptism, who have become able and godly ministers 
 of the New Testament. It may contain some humble 
 memorial of successive Pastors, who have stood here 
 and published the Gospel of the kingdom. 
 
Twenty- Fifth Anniversaiy. 81 
 
 There is an absolute certainty that many who are 
 now here will be written in that record as among the 
 dead. There is little probability that I shall be here 
 to witness its unrolling. Even with fewer years, my 
 precarious health would forbid that expectation. But 
 I am willing to leave that event with Him who has 
 crowned my life with unnumbered mercies. My times 
 are in His hand. Goodness and mercy have followed 
 me all the days of my life; and I cannot distrust Him 
 for the future. But I must and do distrust myself 
 I fear for my own soul. And, my beloved people, 
 when I think of the subtlety of sin, and the mighty 
 hindrances which obstruct our salvation, I fear for 
 yours also. I tremble at times, under the weight of 
 this burden which God has laid upon me. I shrink 
 with anguish from the thought of meeting you at the 
 bar of Christ. I entreat you for my sake if you can 
 be heedless about yourselves, to be reconciled to God. 
 Whatever may be my lot in that day, wherever I may 
 stand, I cannot bear to see any of yoiL at the left 
 hand of Christ. Oh give yourselves to the Saviour 
 while you may. And cease not to pray for inc, that I 
 may be faithful unto death, and so, through the un- 
 searchable riches of Christ, "may have right to the 
 tree of life," and may with yoic "enter in through the 
 gates into the city." 
 
 1 1 
 
SERMON II. 
 
 " And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord 
 THY God led thee these forty years." — Deut. viii. 2. 
 
 Had I consulted simply my private feelings, this day 
 would have passed without any public commemoration. 
 But I was given to understand that you were expect- 
 ing me to take some notice of it, and I surrender my 
 personal preferences to your wishes — the more so, as 
 my own life has, during "these forty years," been so 
 blended with the life of this Church, that neither 
 could be considered apart from the other. 
 
 I come to the Sanctuary, then, to greet this Anni- 
 versary with two Psalms upon my lips, a Psalm of 
 thanksgiving and a Psalm of penitence. It is impossi- 
 ble for me to review the countless mercies of my 
 pastoral life without exclaiming, " Bless the Lord, O 
 my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy 
 name." Equally impossible is it for me to recall the 
 countless deficiencies and sins of my pastorate, with- 
 out crying in deep contrition, " God be merciful to me 
 a sinner ! " 
 
 The uppermost thought in your breasts as. we 
 enter upon these services will be — " How remarkable 
 
8-4 Fortieth Anniversary. 
 
 it is that a Minister of the Gospel should remain with 
 the same congregation for forty years." It is remark- 
 able. Only a few ministers are spared to exercise their 
 sacred functions for so long a period. And of these, 
 perhaps, not more than one in a thousand knows but 
 a single installation. In my " Quarter-Century Dis- 
 course "' of November 7th, 185S, the circumstances 
 attending my call and settlement were minutely de- 
 tailed ; as were all the facts pertaining to the erection 
 of this edifice, and the organization of the Church in 
 the year 1829. Referring you to that sermon, it must 
 suffice to say here, that this relation has been continued 
 so long, simply because the time has never yet come 
 when we could agree to sever it. On my part, I have 
 had the common experience of Pastors in the way of 
 solicitations to exchange my field of labor for some 
 other — emanatincr now from Churches, now from 
 Theological Seminaries, and anon from State Uni- 
 versities and other institutions of learning. With a 
 single exception, all questions of this sort have been 
 disposed of sub silentio, without consulting you or in- 
 voking light, as is the custom of the day, from the 
 public press. The exception was one which addressed 
 itself no less directly to you than to myself, and you 
 were not slow in acting upon it.* 
 
 * See Appendix. 
 
Fortieth Anniversary. 85 
 
 On your part this union has been preserved in the 
 face of obstacles which, with many another congre- 
 gation, would have brought it to an early termination. 
 For during my whole incumbency I have been strug- 
 gling with precarious health: not always an invalid, 
 sometimes in full vigor for years together, but re- 
 peatedly laid aside for months, or equal only to half 
 work — a great trial to any Pastor and people. But 
 you have refused to interpret these interruptions as 
 any valid reason for dissolving the tie which united 
 us. You have twice returned my proffered resig- 
 nation into my own hands,'-' with assurances ot your 
 generous sympathy and unimpaired affection. And 
 to crown all, you have brought hither my beloved 
 brother and co-pastorf to share my work, to lighten 
 my burdens, to supply my lack of service, to cheer 
 me with his fraternal counsel and aid, and to help you 
 on your journey heavenward by his faithful ministra- 
 tions. 
 
 Thus has it come to pass, through the merciful 
 ordering of Divine Providence, that we are to-day 
 celebrating the Fortieth Anniversary of our Union. 
 The preaching of the Gospel is, in my judgment, the 
 highest privilege that man can enjoy in this world. 
 
 * See Appendix. 
 
 •j- The Rev. Louis R. Fox. 
 
8G Fortieth Anniversary. 
 
 To be allowed this privilege for the space of two score 
 years, appears a distinction and a blessing almost too 
 lofty- and too priceless to be conferred upon any worm 
 of the dust. But that no one wjio is clothed with this 
 office may be exalted above measure, there is linked 
 with the pre-eminent honor a responsibility- so ineffa- 
 ble, that no conscientious man could for a moment 
 think of accepting the trust unless he were sure that 
 God had called him to it and would sustain, him under 
 it. I cherish the humble conviction that it was His 
 voice that summoned me to this field of labor, and 
 His authority that has kept me here ; and, beyond 
 question, if the very imperfect tillage laid out upon 
 this soil has yielded any fruit, it has been. Beloved, 
 because "ye are God's husbandry^," and He has 
 smiled upon the planting and the watering, and 
 gathered in the sheaves. 
 
 What these sheaves have been, no figures can 
 adequately express. But as you will be looking for 
 figures to-day, it may be stated, that the additions to 
 the Church during these forty years have been 1,504, 
 to-wit : on profession, 846 ; by certificate, 658. Of 
 the 292 communicants who welcomed me at my 
 ordination, the names of thirteen still remain upon 
 the register ; but there are only six in actual attend- 
 ance upon our worship. I have solemnized the rite 
 
Fortieth Anniversary. 87 
 
 of marriage 301 times ; and administered the ordi- 
 nance of Baptism to 914 persons, viz., to 154 adults 
 and 760 children. There are no data by which to 
 ascertain the number of children connected with our 
 Church and Mission Sunday-Schools during this 
 period : it would be safe to estimate the total at not 
 less than fifteen thousand. Not to attempt any 
 financial summary, let it suffice to say that this con- 
 gregation has always been honorably distinguished 
 for its Christian liberality, and that during the past 
 year you have contributed to benevolent objects about 
 ^25,000. Our Mission-School was never, during the 
 thirty years of its existence, in a more flourishing con- 
 dition than it is to-day. And the commodious and 
 beautiful Chapel you are erecting for its accommoda- 
 tion, will be at once a fitting " Memorial " of the loved 
 and honored dead, and a sphere of permanent and 
 grateful Christian labor for the living. 
 
 In the department of " Dorcas and Missionary 
 work," this Church has always maintained a pre- 
 eminence among the four thousand churches of our 
 denomination. Since the year 1844, you have sent 
 to the faithful Missionaries in our frontier states and 
 elsewhere, two hundred and fifty valuable boxes of 
 clothing, worth, at a very moderate computation, sixty 
 thousand dollars, and, in the comfort and encourage- 
 
88 Fortieth Anniversary. 
 
 ment ministered to these self-denying brethren, worth 
 more than you or I could well conceive. 
 
 The colony we sent out in April, 1856, to found the 
 "West Spruce Street Church," has made its own re- 
 cord. With such reluctance did those excellent 
 brethren leave us, that their final consent was yielded 
 only on the condition that the Pastor of the mother 
 Church should divide his Sabbath ministrations equally 
 between the two pulpits. And this arrangement was 
 continued until an illness with which I was visited, and 
 other circumstances, brought it to a termination. 
 Most gratifying is it to observe the prosperity with 
 which God has crowned this enterprise. The thirty- 
 four original members have grown to 527 ; they re- 
 ceive large accessions annually ; their contributions 
 to religious objects the past year amount to 17,000 
 dollars ; and, led by their excellent Pastor, they are 
 manifold and efficient in their labors for the spread 
 of the Gospel at home and abroad. Had this con- 
 gregation nothing else to show for its stewardship, it 
 might point with gratitude to God to its agency in ' 
 establishing the West Spruce Street Church. 
 
 It might gratify you to know the sum total of your 
 contributions to religious and charitable objects, so 
 far as the same have been put on record, but I have 
 no head for statistics. Nor would it be possible to 
 
Fo7^tietJi Amiiversmy. 8*.) 
 
 formulate in figures, the history of a congregation 
 Hke this. A perfect skeleton is not a man. The real 
 life of a church is to be estimated by quite another 
 standard — can, in fact, be fully measured only by the 
 eye of Omniscience. One or two things which lie 
 upon the surface are these. 
 
 Great cities are the centres of wealth, of intelligence, 
 and of power. They control, under God, the policy 
 of cabinets and the destinies of nations. You have 
 your place in the heart of one of these cities. I know 
 of no church which has more fitly represented, in 
 happy combination, the social worth, the commercial 
 integrity, the high professional ability, and the patient, 
 conscientious, God-fearing industry of this commu- 
 nity. Could its long catalogue of names be unrolled 
 here, it would require no further demonstration to 
 satisfy you that the Church has, for these forty years, 
 been a beneficent power in our city not only, but in 
 our country. Its influence has told auspiciously upon 
 the material prosperity, the mercantile stability, the 
 various culture, and both the medical and the legal 
 fame of Philadelphia. And without cavil, it has played 
 no secondary part in founding and carrying forward 
 those countless Charities which have conferred a last- 
 ing renown upon our city. 
 
 A kindred fact deserves notice. At the commence- 
 
 12 
 
90 Fortieth Annivej^sary. 
 
 ment of the present pastorate this was a frontier 
 church. To-day the great mass of our population is 
 North and West of us. The twenty-seven Presbyte- 
 rian Churches of 1833, have become sixty-one, the fif- 
 teen Pastors, fifty-two, and the 5,935 communicants, 
 18,300; with a total of contributions to the cause of 
 Christ, for the year 1872, of ^758,000. Many of these 
 new churches have recruited themselves at our ex- 
 pense. They have somehow discovered that the 
 Christian men and women trained here were worth 
 having; and no undue modesty has restrained them 
 from whispering in their ears that scriptural appeal, 
 " Come over into Macedonia and help us ! " And they 
 have gone — earnest, faithful disciples, and you may 
 find them now carrying out for the edification and 
 comfort of the churches of their adoption, the lessons 
 of faith and love they learned at the Master's feet 
 while in the ancient homestead. Did we resist their 
 departure ? Never in a single instance. Among them 
 have been some whom it was, to your Pastor at least, 
 a sore personal trial to give up, and whose places 
 in our own church could not be, and have not been 
 filled. But who are we that we could withstand God ? 
 Not to speak of the selfishness of the policy, how 
 great must have been the criminality of discountenan- 
 cing the removal of these excellent brethren when the 
 
Fo7dieth Anniversary. 01 
 
 Master Himself was calling them to other and wider 
 fields of labor. Rather should we rejoice that He 
 had put it in our power to aid in nourishing the vitality 
 of these younger churches, that so, by and by, they 
 may be in a condition to do the same thing for feeble 
 congregations that will claim their sympathy. Not 
 to enlarge upon the question, it will be seen how the 
 life of our own church has interwoven itself with the 
 lives of other churches, just as intermarriages blend 
 the history of one family with others, so that to learn 
 what any one household has done of good or ill, you 
 must not only gather up the records of the parent 
 stock, but follow all the sons and daughters to their 
 separate homes and see what has happened there. 
 
 This thought has a still broader side. A metro- 
 politan church reaches, in the lapse of years, thousands 
 of people whose domiciles are far distant from its 
 site — merchants, travellers, and other sojourners, who 
 from curiosity or some better motive, are attracted to 
 its ministrations. Nor these alone. In our own case, 
 there has always been mingled with our winter as- 
 semblages, a liberal delegation from our great medi- 
 cal schools. And one of the most interesting features 
 of the congregation has been the presence, during 
 my entire pastorship, of a large number of young per- 
 sons in attendance upon the admirable Female Semi- 
 
92 Fortieth Anniversary. 
 
 naries of our city. By filaments like these we have 
 been linked with families of culture and worth in 
 almost every part of the land. The seed sown at 
 random here has taken root in a genial soil; and 
 many a garden in remote cities and hamlets has been 
 embellished with flowering shrubs and generous fruit 
 trees transplanted from our humble nursery. Am I 
 not warranted in saying that Omniscience alone can 
 trace the myriad streams of blessing that are per- 
 petually flowing out from every evangelical church? 
 And that these hallowed and hallowing influences are 
 indefinitely augmented where a church has, for scores 
 of years together, the surroundings of a great city? 
 
 In commending the liberality and zeal which you 
 have carried into your work, I am very far from in- 
 tending to say that we have done our whole duty. 
 Tried by the standard of the New Testament, or by 
 the church of the apostolic age, our deficiencies have 
 been many and glaring. But God has given us the 
 ability and disposition to take some not insignificant 
 part in the benevolent operations of the time ; and 
 that in a way which it is pleasant to reflect upon. 
 While in measure we have fallen short of the New 
 Testament canon, we have essayed to cultivate its 
 spirit. You will understand me when I refer to the 
 prevailing tone and methods of the Christianity of the 
 
Fortieth Anniversary. 93 
 
 day. Without disparaging its nobler elements and 
 its manifold achievements, those whose memories 
 reach back forty years will recall the more quiet style 
 in which even efficient church-work was done at that 
 time. In a Hour or cotton mill you must expect more 
 noise according as you multiply your hoppers and 
 spindles. Possibly this may be a necessity in the 
 higher sphere with which we are dealing. It certainly 
 is a result. We have enlarged and diversified our 
 machinery, and put on ten or twenty hands where we 
 had a solitary craftsman, and with more than a corres- 
 ponding increase in the tremor and whirr. Religion 
 has come to be such a power in the earth, that it no 
 longer sees any occasion for the tranquil demeanor it 
 formerly observed. It courts applause. It revels in 
 pageants. It delights in advcrtisemejits. When it does 
 a good thing, It means that the world shall take note 
 of it. And the world would be very ungracious to re- 
 fuse this, since its own methods have been so largely 
 adopted by the church. Understand me. I do not de- 
 precate, but exult In, the rising power of the church 
 as exemplified in the wider leaven it has diffused 
 throuo^h all our orreat communities, and the marked 
 attention which its movements invite, not only, but 
 compel from the secular press. We have here one of 
 the lines which mark the risino^ of the tide, and record 
 
94 Fortieth Anniversary. 
 
 the gradually increasing influence Christianity is ac- 
 quiring over the public mind. It is in every view a 
 wholesome sign, that our best daily papers, not to 
 speak of literary magazines, assign a place to ecclesi- 
 astical proceedings and to religious topics generally, 
 which would not have been accorded to them even 
 a few years ago. The significance of this change lies 
 in its beine an index to the state of feelino- among- the 
 masses. The supply of this sort of reading has grown 
 out of the demand, and every Christian man should 
 take encourag-ement from it. 
 
 In perfect consistency with these views, it may be 
 held that one of the chief enticements to which the 
 church is exposed, lies in the direction hinted at a 
 moment ago — that of making a parade of its piety ; 
 of using drums and trumpets too freely ; of courting 
 a notoriety which, unsought, might be positively 
 healthful, but, solicited and aimed at, cannot fail to be 
 hurtful. Of course some advanced Christian will re- 
 ply, " You forget that the world moves. What could 
 one of your cotton mills do with the machinery that 
 was in use forty years ago?" As I shall have occasion 
 to advert to this topic again, I forbear answering your 
 interpellation now except in a sentence or two. The 
 world does move : and, through the mercy of God, it 
 is moving on the whole, in the right direction. Nor 
 
Fortieth Anniversary. 95 
 
 will it be disputed that Christianity, no less than 
 husbandry, commerce, the mechanic arts and educa- 
 tion, must from time to time vary its implements and 
 methods. But the nature of true religion is as immu- 
 table as the perfections of its Divine Author. 
 " Righteous Abel " stood as the representative of all 
 the righteous for these sixty centuries. There has 
 never been, and there never will be a period in time nor 
 in eternity, when the essential spirit of genuine piety 
 was not a spirit of humility ; a spirit, the opposite of 
 needless din and ostentation ; the spirit, in other 
 words, of Him who, while he went about doing good, 
 neither strove nor cried, nor did any man hear His 
 voice in the street. Would it occur to any historian 
 to cite this beautiful inspired portraiture as descriptive 
 of the piety of our day ? And yet is not this faultless 
 model the one to which all Christians profess to con- 
 form? 
 
 It is not claimed that we have conformed to it. It 
 is absolutely certain we have not. But it is due to 
 you to say, that the characteristic animus oi our church 
 has been rather of this type than of the other. You 
 have never been conspicuous for courting notoriety. 
 Efficient and not officious, you have rendered many 
 a useful service to the cause of Christ which no earthly 
 chronicler has been asked to record. There are ser- 
 
96 Fortieth Anniversary. 
 
 vices of this kind which otight to be recorded for the 
 honor of the Master, for the encouragement of the 
 faithful and the reproof of the selfish. Jesus Himself 
 sanctioned it when He enshrined in His own biography 
 the loving ministration of Mary of Bethany, and made 
 her name more fragrant for all the ages, and through- 
 out all lands, than the precious nard with which she 
 anointed Him, Had Mary aimed at this she had 
 missed her end, and possibly incurred the rebuke 
 as well of her blessed Lord as of His disciples.. 
 But mindful only of Him, and without one thought of 
 anything beyond that small room where they were 
 sitting, she performs in gentle silence a modest act 
 which, alike to her amazement and that of the twelve, 
 He takes up on the instant and makes it more widely 
 and more lastingly known than if He had set it in the 
 face of the sun. Nothing approximating to this can 
 happen a second time. But does not the spirit of this 
 loved and loving woman commend itself to the 
 Christian consciousness as the spirit of true disciple- 
 ship? Is not this the way in which, even in our 
 bustling age, we ought to go about our work? And 
 should we not be thankful to-day for the honor God 
 has put upon us, in that this church has never been 
 without a goodly corps of disciples who have prized 
 it as the sweetest of all offices to minister to the Lord 
 
FortielJi Anniversary. 97 
 
 Jesus in the persons of His members, utterly regard- 
 less of notice either by the world or the Church? 
 
 These remarks, it will be observed, have reference 
 exclusively to the spirit which should animate our re- 
 ligious duties. In respect to the general style and 
 tenor of the ministrations upon which you have at- 
 tended, it does not become me to speak except in two 
 aspects. For the substantive matter of these min- 
 istrations, the sermon with which they were opened 
 (on the tenth day of November, 1833,) was founded on 
 the text, 1st Cor. ii, 2 ; "I determined not to know any- 
 thing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified," 
 I dare not say that I have never lost sight of this 
 fundamental canon which underlies the whole science 
 of homiletics, and the entire service of the ministry. 
 But I think I may appeal to you, that "Jesus Christ 
 and Him crucified," has been the habitual, controlling 
 theme of this pulpit; and that, with such ability as I 
 might, I have constantly taught you that "there is no 
 other name under heaven given among men whereby 
 we must be saved." 
 
 It may interest you to hear some extracts from the 
 sermon just mentioned. I give them without altera- 
 tion ; and also a single passage from the sermon 
 preached on the afternoon of the same day, from Luke 
 viii. 18; "Take heed, therefore, how ye hear."''' 
 
 13 * See Preface. 
 
98 Fortieth Anniversary. 
 
 The first part of the discourse is devoted to the in- 
 quiry, " What it is not, and what it is, to preach Jesus 
 Christ and Him crucified." The second enforces the 
 obHgation restino- upon the ministry thus to preach, 
 by considerations Hke the following: 
 
 I, "It is a sufficient reason for preaching these 
 doctrines that they are the doctrines of the Bible. 
 
 It has been before remarked that they all centre in 
 Christ, and that almost every page of the Bible has a 
 reference to Christ. The great object of this sacred 
 volume, subordinately to the advancement of the 
 divine glory, is to reveal a Saviour to our ruined race. 
 We are taught, therefore, what is the character of 
 God, and the nature of His administration ; what 
 we are ourselves ; what are our obligations and duties 
 to our Creator and our fellow-creatures ; and in what 
 true happiness consists, and how it may be secured. 
 All this and much more is made known to us by One 
 who is intimately acquainted with all our circum- 
 stances, and who knows far better than we do what 
 is best for us. Moreover our teacher is a Being of 
 infinite wisdom, power and goodness. His benevo- 
 lence and wisdom will surely devise the measures 
 best calculated to promote our happiness, and His 
 power will as certainly carry those measures into effect. 
 The simple and only inquiry with us therefore, is, 
 
Fortieth Anniversary. 99 
 
 what hath God said ? And whatever he has revealed 
 for our edification, correction, or comfort, it is plainly 
 the duty of His ambassadors to declare. It matters 
 not that they may imagine they could amend or im- 
 prove the message entrusted to them; the business 
 of an ambassador is not to alter, whether to abridge 
 or enlarge his message, but to interpret and deliver it. 
 It is of no moment that there are in this volume "some 
 things hard to be understood," for it is not the preroga- 
 tive of debased human reason to reduce all mysteries 
 to the narrow limits of its own comprehension, or else 
 to reject them as absurdities. It deserves no con- 
 sideration that many of these inspired truths are 
 offensive to the great mass of mankind, for mankind 
 are universally subject to an odious distemper which 
 disqualifies them for judging either of their true 
 moral condition, or of the adaptedness of the pre- 
 scribed remedy to their disease. 
 
 The simple question must and will recur, what hath 
 God said? And because He has plainly revealed the 
 doctrines stated in the former part of this discourse, 
 those doctrines must be faithfully proclaimed. No dis- 
 cretionary power is left us. The tenure by which we 
 hold our office — the very terms of our commission 
 compel us to preach them. Whether men will hear 
 or forbear, will receive or oppose, we must, like the 
 
100 Fortieth An^iiversary . 
 
 prophet sent to Nineveh of old, " preach the preach- 
 ing which God bids us." 
 
 2. A second reason why men should preach Christ 
 crucified in the manner pointed out is, that this preach- 
 ing, and this alone, is perfectly adapted to our charac- 
 ter and circumstances. 
 
 In illustration of this point it may be remarked that 
 the system of doctrines which has been referred to is 
 precisely suited to man as a condemned rebel. 
 
 That this is truly man's condition, needs not to be 
 formally proved. His doom is recorded in the Word 
 of God with an explicit frequency which shames all 
 incredulity ; and whithersoever we turn our eyes we 
 read in lines of pain and sorrow, of tears and blood, 
 the indication of God's just displeasure against our 
 race. And had not the Gospel been published, these 
 indications must have been more and more appalling, 
 the ravages of vice more fearful, and human suffering 
 more insupportable, until the world had been con- 
 verted into an immense charnel house. For apart 
 from the great propitiatory sacrifice made known in 
 the Gospel, nothing could appease the wrath of God, 
 nor open to man a way of escape from the bondage 
 of his degrading passions. Through the cross of 
 Christ alone we hear of pardoning mercy. There is 
 but one spot in the wide universe from which " for- 
 
Fortieth Anniversary. 101 
 
 giveness " is breathed forth, and that spot Is Calvary. 
 Well might the angels sing, " Peace, good-will to men." 
 Well may the heralds of salvation catch the strain and 
 prolong the glad annunciation, " Peace, good-will to 
 men." O, let Christ and Him crucified be preached. 
 It is rest to the weary. It is hope to the desponding. 
 It Is health to the sick. It is life to the dead. 
 
 Again, this preaching is suited to man as a depraved 
 sinner. Man Is corrupt as well as guilty. He needs 
 not only to be pardoned but to be reformed, to be reno- 
 vated, to be " new created." The power which made 
 him, alone can re-make him. He Is too hardened in 
 sin to be reclaimed by mere human influence ; and all 
 human expedients have failed of effecting In him a 
 radical change of character. But the Gospel comes 
 to him sustained by a divine energy ; and through 
 the instrumentality of its truths applied by the Sacred 
 Spirit his understanding is enlightened, his will is 
 renewed, his affections are purified, and the holy 
 image of God is re-estamped upon his soul. Thus 
 enabled to discern the beauty, excellency, and glory 
 of spiritual things, he breaks away from the thraldom 
 of sin, and begins to enjoy that liberty wherewith 
 Christ came to make this people free. One reason 
 why the doctrine of Christ crucified, and those which 
 grow out of it, produce this result Is, that they are 
 
102 Fortieth A7mive7'sary. 
 
 accompanied by a Divine influence which insures 
 their effect upon the heart ; and another is, that they 
 exhibit in the clearest Hght the true nature both of 
 heavenly and earthly things, and present the strongest 
 possible motives to induce man to transfer his af- 
 fections from this world to abetter. Yieldincr to their 
 persuasive power, he adopts new principles of action, 
 selects new objects of pursuit, and in the humble but 
 sincere belief of the Gospel, lays the foundation of a 
 character which shall hereafter grow up in the sym- 
 metry of perfect holiness, and be beautified and 
 adorned with the unfading graces of the heavenly 
 state. In confirmation of these views it is interestinof 
 to observe how constantly the sacred writers refer to 
 Christ, in urging their converts to seek that true dig- 
 nity of character which both results in and flows from 
 sincere obedience to the Gospel. '•' '•' '•' '=' 
 
 3. This preaching tends more than any other to 
 glorif)^ God. . =•= -^ * •^- '■■■ * '^ 
 
 4. Finally, Christ crucified should be preached, be- 
 cause God has ever attended this preaching with a 
 peculiar blessing. 
 
 It was so in the case of the Apostles. * * * 
 Thus it has been also in the subsequent history of 
 the church. In proportion as these doctrines have 
 been faithfully exhibited, has true piety flourished; and 
 wherever they have been subverted or suppressed 
 
Fortieth Annivej'sary. 103 
 
 evangelical religion has declined. It is under the 
 preaching of these doctrines that our own country has 
 been blessed with very numerous gracious effusions 
 of the Holy Spirit — insomuch that it may almost be 
 characterized as the "Land of Revivals." And accord- 
 ing to the Divine promise, such preaching is the ap- 
 pointed means by which our whole ruined race is to be 
 reclaimed, reformed and sanctified to the service of 
 God. 
 
 Having thus endeavored to explain and enforce the 
 obligation of ministers of the Gospel to preach 
 Christ and Him crucified, I shall close this discourse 
 with one or two practical inferences. 
 
 I. We learn from this discussion the dignity and 
 responsibility of the Pastor's office. 
 
 His commission is derived from God. He speaks 
 in the name of God. He comes as an ambassador 
 from the Court of Heaven to treat with his fellow-men 
 on the most solemn and momentous subjects. In 
 comparison with the business in which he is engaged, 
 all earthly affairs, even the rise and fall of empires, 
 sink into utter insio^nificance. How sacred the ofiice! 
 How responsible its duties! He stands between the 
 dying and the dead. Immortal souls are entrusted to 
 his keeping, and he watches for them as one who is 
 to give account. 
 
 And what minister, as he considers the deceitful- 
 
104 Fortieth Aimivei^sary. 
 
 ness and corruption of his own heart, the temptations 
 which assail, and the dangers which encircle him, the 
 inestimable value of the souls of his people, and the 
 aggravated condemnation of the unfaithful shepherd, 
 is not forced to exclaim with irrepressible emotion, 
 "Who is sufficient for these things?" 
 
 2. Again, this discussion may well remind the 
 people of their duties toward their Pastor. 
 
 If his office be one of such high responsibilit)', and 
 so nearly connected with their own best interests, let 
 them strencrthen his hands and encourao^e his heart. 
 
 o o 
 
 He needs their sympathies. He needs their for- 
 bearance. He needs most of all their prayers. 
 
 My hearers, will you remember these things ? 
 Contrary to all my anticipations, to all my intentions, 
 and to all my former views of duty, I have assumed 
 the spiritual charge of a large and important Church. 
 I trust that I have done it in the fear of God, and with 
 a supreme desire to glorify His name. But I can this 
 day adopt the language of the Apostle to the Corinthian 
 Church, and assure you that " I am with you in weak- 
 ness and in fear, and in much trembling." I tremble 
 for myself, lest after preaching to others, I may be 
 cast away. I tremble for you, lest the Gospel which 
 I proclaim may be a savor of death unto death to your 
 souls. 
 
Fortieth Anniversary. 1U5 
 
 It will be my object to preach Christ crucitied to 
 you in the manner which has been imperfectly de- 
 scribed this morning-. In the discharge of this and 
 all my other duties, I must claim your indulgence and 
 I must ask your prayers. If the great Apostle of the 
 Gentiles, a chosen vessel of God and filled with the 
 Spirit, felt so deeply his need of an interest in the 
 prayers of the Church as repeatedly to solicit their 
 remembrance of him at the throne of Grace, with how 
 much earnestness may I be permitted to say, " Brethren, 
 pray for me!" And if you really wish to afford me 
 encouragement in my pastoral labors, you will do this 
 most effectually by receiving with cordial affection the 
 Saviour whom I preach. It is comparatively of little 
 moment in what light you may regard me; but eternal 
 consequences are suspended on your acceptance or 
 rejection of my Divine Master. It is His message 
 I bring you, and His love I .proclaim to you. And 
 hereafter you will find either that His frown is perfect 
 misery, or His smile unmingled joy ; that hell is woe 
 because Christ is absent, or that heaven is bliss 
 because Christ is there." 
 
 I add a paragraph from the afternoon sermon. 
 
 " You should hear with a deep sense of the solemnity 
 
 and importance of the truths presented. 
 
 "The Christian Ministry, the Sabbath, and the ordi- 
 14 
 
106 FortictJi Anniversary. 
 
 nances of the Lord's House, were not instituted to be 
 ' a vain show.' You are not required to be present 
 in this place in order that you may unite in unmeaning- 
 ceremonies, or hsten to abstract discussions which have 
 no bearing upon your duty and happiness. Nor are 
 you at hberty to come here merely to gratify a thirst 
 for knowledge, or to enjoy the pleasure of excited 
 feeling. The Sanctuary is designed to be the theatre 
 of the most solemn transactions which take place in 
 our world. The business of our political, judicial, and 
 legislative bodies, relates only to the property, the lib- 
 erty, or at most the lives of men. And you have all ob- 
 served how intense an interest is often excited through- 
 out a whole community by the agitation of these sub- 
 jects. You have observed with what breathless silence 
 a heterogeneous crowd, bound together by no tie but 
 that of a common nature, attend on every step of an 
 investigation which involves the life of a fellow-creature, 
 and you have yourself, perhaps, awaited with painful 
 anxiety the issue. By what mysterious agency Is It 
 then, that you are divested of all your sympathies 
 when you enter the House of God ? Where are 
 feeling and reason and conscience when a cause is 
 pending which Involves your own life, and not your 
 life merely, but your never-dying soul ? The truths 
 which are here declared to you are most solemn, most 
 
FortictJi Aitniversajy. 107 
 
 momentous truths. They relate to holiness and sin, 
 to life and death, to heaven and hell, to time and 
 eternity. They relate to your personal sin or holi- 
 ness, yoiir life or death, the heaven or hell which yoii 
 are to inhabit. They concern you every day and hour; 
 your every act, every word, every thought. They 
 concern,, deeply concern you, whether you regard 
 them or not. You may disbelieve them. You may 
 despise them. This cannot alter their essential nature. 
 Refuse to listen to them. Treat them with cold in- 
 difference, with philosophic scorn, with vulgar ridicule. 
 They are truths still, immutable truths, truths which 
 affect in the highest degree your present character 
 and your future destiny. Let me urge you then to 
 believe these truths, and to attend to them as those 
 whose eternal well-being is suspended on their accept- 
 ance of the Gospel." 
 
 As regards the manner in which that great system 
 of theology and morals, of which the doctrine of the 
 cross is the heart and stem, has been set before you, I 
 find much to regret — much that I feel mi^ht be 
 amended, if it were possible for us to live our lives 
 over a second time. But on one point my mind has 
 not wavered. I began my labors here with the con- 
 viction that the minister of Christ must assign the 
 same pre-eminence to the pulpit which the New Testa- 
 
108 Fortieth Anitiversary. 
 
 ment accords to it. One of my own pastors had 
 already quoted to me this remark, made by the late 
 celebrated Dr. Griffin, in " charging " him at his ordi- 
 nation, to-wit : "Never expect to satisfy your congre- 
 gation in the matter of pastoral visiting." I did not 
 expect to satisfy my people, and have not been dis- 
 appointed. That I might and should have been more 
 diligent in this department of my work, is freely con- 
 fessed. But where the two functions come in collision, 
 the paramount claim of the pulpit must be insisted 
 upon — with this qualification, viz.: that even the pulpit 
 must yield to the demands of the sick, the desponding, 
 the awakened, and the bereaved. Thus limited, the 
 requisitions of the pulpit must be held sacred as 
 against challenge from whatever quarter. Congrega- 
 tions do not like to be told this. They hear with 
 latent discontent of churches whose pastors spend 
 nearly their whole time in going from house to house; 
 and ver)' pleasant work it is to a pastor to go from 
 house to house, in the free, cordial, confidential inter- 
 course which should obtain between a minister and his 
 people. But what is to become of the pulpit? Were 
 it not better that the time devoted to a half-dozen 
 families should be given to the preparation of sermons 
 which might edify his entire congregation ? And, 
 note well, the same households that are covetous of a 
 
Fortieth Anniversary. 109 
 
 pastor's frequent visits, are usually sensitive as to the 
 quality of his ministrations. They expect to entertain 
 an anoel throuo-h the week, and then to be entertained 
 by an angel on the Sabbath. 
 
 This cannot be. Flesh and blood is not equal to it. 
 The demands upon a pastor's time, parochial and 
 extra-parochial, (I am speaking" of large cities,) are so 
 multiform and pressing that unless he be a very 
 Boanerges for physical endurance, and made, too, with- 
 out nerves, or with iron nerves, he vinst elect between 
 the social yearnings of his people, and the plenary 
 necessities of his pulpit. It will probably dawn some 
 day upon our principal congregations, that the Re- 
 formed Churches of the continent and the Episcopal 
 Church in our own country, have adopted the true 
 plan in providing every pastor with an assistant — 
 usually some young man whose training (it may be 
 added,) for a year or two in that relation must be in- 
 valuable to him in after years. However that may be, 
 no minister can expect to sustain himself permanently 
 in such a position, without constant and diligent study. 
 We may lay stress upon this at an era so distinguished 
 as the present for the culture of polite literature, the 
 unexampled progress of science, and the general dif- 
 fusion of knowledge. Under any circumstances a con- 
 gregation is entitled to the best preaching their pastor 
 
110 Fortieth Anniversary. 
 
 can give them. And the obhgation to furnish them, I 
 do not say rhetorical or eloquent, but well considered 
 and instructive sermons, becomes imperative in an 
 educated community. 
 
 Let me observe, as in a parenthesis, upon this 
 point, that no one except a minister can understand 
 how much the quality of the preaching depends upon 
 the quality of the hearing. If I have succeeded, how- 
 ever imperfectly, in this department of my work, the 
 merit is, in no trivial measure, due to you. It has 
 been my high privilege from the day of my ordination 
 until now to minister to an intelligent and appreciative 
 congregation. And I could thoroughly sympathize 
 with my beloved friend and brother — that illustrious 
 scholar and preacher-'- in whose hands I left my pulpit 
 during my year abroad — when he paid you the rare 
 compliment of saying, that he " enjoyed preaching to 
 you more than to any other congregation." 
 
 Let me not be understood, in the remarks just made 
 on this general subject, as intimating that the pulpit 
 should go to the schools for its themes, or lay out its 
 strength upon philosophical essays and the researches 
 of science. This were treason to its Lord and ruinous 
 to men's souls. But the ministry may be presumed 
 to note the current tides of speculation, the rise and 
 
 * The late Prof. J- Addison Alexander, D. D. 
 
Fortieth Anniversary. Ill 
 
 progress of erroneous and hurtful opinions, and what- 
 ever may menace the well-being of the church and the 
 spread of the Gospel. And they must be prepared to 
 handle the aucrust teachinofs of God's word with some 
 wise reference to passing events, and in a way to 
 command the respect of intelligent hearers. It must 
 be apparent that the responsibility which, as well in 
 this view as in others, attaches to the ministr)- of our 
 own church, is alike onerous and honorable. The 
 Liturgical sects divide the exercises of worship, more 
 or less equally, between the minister and the congre- 
 gation, little prominence being given, or even allowed, 
 to the function of preaching. Our simple ritual — 
 perhaps too simple — concentres the interest of the 
 service in the pastor. The service takes its com- 
 plexion mainly from himself; from his own culture, 
 wisdom, taste, zeal and spirituality. We may lament 
 this, but the fact is patent. And being patent, the 
 obvious consequence follow; on the one hand, that a 
 cyclopcean task is laid upon the ministrs' of our com- 
 munity, and on the other, that they are bound to bring 
 their very best powers to the prosecution of it — con- 
 tinually invoking the aid of that Divine Spirit without 
 whom Paul himself must have planted and Apollos 
 watered in vain. 
 
 And if so, what can any of us do without persist- 
 
112 Fortieth Atuiiversary. 
 
 ent, systematic, absorbing study ? An inspired man 
 has his emblem in a living: fountain of water. Other 
 teachers are but cisterns ; some, purely cisterns — 
 nothing comes out except what has been poured in : 
 others, cisterns which have a few little springs within 
 that supplement the stores received ab extra, and 
 give color and flavor to the entire contents of the 
 reservoir. In either case the stream will shrink as 
 streams usually do, unless constantly recruited at the 
 source ; and when it shrinks there is heard a murmur- 
 ing of the flock because their shepherd has led them 
 into a recrion where " there is no water to drink." A 
 prudent shepherd will toil very hard sooner than incur 
 this peril, and toil hard he must or he will not elude it. 
 Not to enlarge upon a topic which will recur in 
 another connection, the history of Christianity shows 
 that wherever the evangelical pulpit has been thus re- 
 garded and cherished by ministers and people, there 
 it has been owned of God as the most efficient of all 
 means in reforming society, in bringing sinners to 
 Christ, in edifying believers, and in propagating the 
 Gospel, In perfect honesty of soul I express my 
 sorrow that this pulpit has not fulfilled, as it should 
 have done, the conditions just specified ; while I may 
 be permitted to claim that I have uniformly looked 
 upon it as being entitled to the first place in my 
 
Foj^tieth A^tniversajy. 113 
 
 studies and labors, my sympathies, my aspirations and 
 my prayers. 
 
 There is another agency of which, at your prompt- 
 ing and with your co-operation, I have largely availed 
 myself — the Press. The books that have gone out 
 with my name have been very kindly received both 
 in this country and Great Britain. But I refer to the 
 subject simply to put on record here a statement en- 
 tirely personal in its nature, but prompted, I trust, 
 more by a sentiment of gratitude than by any selfish 
 motive. Several years ago I was led to write and 
 publish a small volume called "The Great Question,"* 
 Not to impugn the estimate of the pulpit just pre- 
 sented, I may and must affirm, that the book here 
 mentioned has been owned of God beyond any other 
 labor of my head or hand. In so signal a manner 
 has He set His seal upon it, that I cannot but regard 
 the writing of it as the most important work of my 
 life. I mean just what I say. If God, in His great 
 mercy, has put it in my power to do anything which 
 has been helpful to the cause of Christ in the past, or 
 which promises to be useful to my fellow-men when 
 I am gone, I believe it may be found in the prepara- 
 tion of this book. To His service it was dedicated. 
 
 *"The Great Question: — Will you consider the subject of Per- 
 sonal Religion ? " — American Sunday School Union. 
 15 
 
114 Fortieth Anniversary. 
 
 With His rich blessing it has been crowned. In His 
 gracious keeping I leave it for the future. And to 
 His name, from the depths of a grateful heart, I ren- 
 der all the praise. 
 
 By an easy transition we pass from these topics to 
 some of the changes affecting the externals of our 
 worship, which have come in during the last forty 
 years. Conspicuous among these is the altered style 
 of our ecclesiastical architecture. The wholesome 
 sentiment has become common, that the house which 
 a people rear for the Lord, should not, to say the 
 least, be inferior to their own houses. The improve- 
 ment in the construction of churches in their outward 
 aspect, and interior grace and comfort — may be noted 
 as real progress. But even Eden had its peril. And 
 there are snares along the best paths we walk in, and 
 the best schemes we pursue. The tendency now is 
 to expend too much money upon churches; to make 
 them too ornate; to contrive one set of churches for 
 the rich and another for the poor; whereas, the 
 Christian Sanctuary is, of all places in the world, the 
 spot where the rich and the poor should meet together 
 in the presence of Him who is the Maker of them all. 
 Should Protestantism on any extended scale, forbid 
 or frustrate this, it would give some pretext for the 
 as yet senseless cry that " Protestantism Is a failure." 
 
Fortieth Anniversary. llo 
 
 But it cannot be. The Churches of the Reformation 
 will continue to be, as they have always been, the 
 best friends of the poor. Only let them see to it that 
 they do not carry the costliness of their Sanctuaries 
 to the point of a sinful extravagance, and slight the 
 claims of the Lord's poor to a place in His House and 
 at His table. 
 
 Let us next suppose one of our faithful Mission- 
 aries, on returning after an absence of forty years, 
 say in Africa, to worship on his first Sabbath with 
 almost any three of the leading congregations in one 
 of our large cities, what would chiefly attract his 
 notice? First, unquestionably, the general aspect of 
 the wardrobes before him. When he left the country, 
 congregations of the same rank wore plainer cos- 
 tumes. Such congregations in Europe do still. It 
 is not the custom in those countries to "dress up" 
 either for church or for the street. Foreigners of 
 rank who visit us, note the contrast as revealing one 
 of the weaknesses of a people who talk much of their 
 "Republican simplicity." We may not deny that 
 their strictures are founded in reason. But the per- 
 verse usage has too firm a footing to be uprooted. 
 We may regret that extreme elegance, and costliness, 
 and decoration, are not reserved for the social occa- 
 sions to which they so intuitively belong. But it is 
 
116 For'tieth Anniversary. 
 
 idle to inveigh against the bad taste of a fashion 
 which has become as thoroughly national as any 
 fashion we have. 
 
 The next thing to strike the attention of our Mis- 
 sionar}' brother would probably be the posture of the 
 congregation during the devotional exercises. When 
 he went abroad, it was the established practice among 
 Presbyterians to stand in prayer. This was the set- 
 tled custom of the whole church for the first six cen- 
 turies of the Christian era. \ arious causes have 
 been assigned for the change that has gradually crept 
 into our churches, and which is said to be infecting 
 even those of Scotland and Ireland. Enouo^h that it 
 has become ver)' prevalent, and is sanctioned by large 
 numbers of the most devout of our communion. I 
 havx regretted and resisted the innovation; but the 
 Christian people will have it so, and the churches 
 should now choose for themselves among the other 
 allowable attitudes of devotion. These are prostra- 
 tion, kneeling, and bowing. The first is out of the 
 question. To the second, which many would prefer, 
 the arrangements of our pews are not suited. The 
 third, which has the sanction of the venerable Re- 
 formed (Dutch) Church, has commended itself to all 
 •who have relinquished the custom of the fathers, and 
 promises to become general. Should this be the re- 
 
Fortieth Anniversary. 117 
 
 suit, a further modification of our order would be in- 
 dispensable. Bowing or kneeling in prayer infers, 
 both for comfort and edification, standing in the office 
 
 * 
 
 of praise; and unless obvious tokens are misinter- 
 preted, not many years will have elapsed before this 
 becomes a familiar, if not the current usaofe in our 
 communion. 
 
 Another change would be noted by our visitor. 
 He attained his majority under a prescriptive rule 
 which fixed the canonical duration of the Sabbath ser- 
 vices, certainly the morning service, at two hours. 
 The benediction now falls upon his ear a half hour 
 sooner in the morning, and nearly an hour sooner in 
 the afternoon or evening. The prayers, the sermon, 
 the hymns, (I do not say the music) — everything is 
 abridged. On inquiring into this, he would hear it 
 vindicated on two quite dissimilar grounds. He 
 would be told that it was exacted by the reigning 
 spirit of the country; that being "a very great people," 
 and having more to do than any other people, we 
 must needs be in haste with our worship as with our 
 other occupations ; for it is undeniable that we carry 
 this impetuosity into every department of politics and 
 business, into everything, in fact, except our amuse- 
 ments; — the theatre, the opera, the banquet, the 
 fashionable ball, being among the necessaries of life, 
 
118 Fortieth Anniversary. 
 
 it would be suicidal to curtail the time devoted to 
 them. This would be one explanation. From a dit- 
 ferent quarter he would be told that, since he went 
 abroad, the claims upon the time, and thought, and 
 health of our pastors have been doubled, perhaps 
 quadrupled; that the indefinite multiplication of be- 
 nevolent societies has very largely increased the de- 
 mands upon the sympathies and care of private 
 Christians; that the arduous labors they bestow upon 
 Sunday-schools and Missionary enterprises consume 
 some hours of each Sabbath; and that, with these 
 altered conditions of the church, it is proper that the 
 stated exercises of public worship should be less pro- 
 tracted than they were formerly. Our guest would 
 be too fair-minded to dispute the validity of this 
 reasoning, whatever he might think of the other. 
 
 But a greater surprise (logically preceding the one 
 just named,) awaits him. It was hinted a moment 
 ago that he would not find the music of the sanctuary 
 abridged. He might happen, for the day, into churches 
 where he would find it materially improved — for there 
 are m,any such churches. But he would not be long 
 in discovering that in our great cities music had 
 usurped a place in the house of God to which it has 
 no valid claim. \'ery early (to repeat what was said in 
 your hearing a few years since,) was it brought into 
 
Fortieth Anniversary. 119 
 
 play as a means of perverting and debasing" public wor- 
 ship. Widi one voice die fadiers resisted its abuses, 
 and strove to preserve its purity and to keep it in its 
 place. But they were foiled. Music continued to 
 encroach upon the customary ritual until the choir 
 subjugated the pulpit. For several centuries preach- 
 ing was practically suspended. Painting and sculpture 
 allied themselves with their sister-art. Vast cathedrals, 
 alien from the whole genius of the Gospel of Christ, 
 and suitable only for pompous shows, took the place 
 of the humble sanctuaries of the early believers. The 
 church by degres exchanged its spiritual character 
 for the functions and trappings of a civil state. 
 Christianity became a mere political institute ; and 
 worship a sacrilegious ceremonial in which God's 
 altars were used to offer incense to human pride and 
 ambition. 
 
 The cycles of history return upon themselves. It 
 is not probable that those who are most concerned 
 will care to look into this mirror, or that the lesson, if 
 seen, will be heeded. But there the lesson is. The 
 process which wrought such irreparable evil in the 
 early church is repeating itself in our day. Music is 
 again the chosen implement for sapping the walls of 
 Zion and defacing its beauty. People used to go to 
 church to worship God. This seems, on the whole, to 
 
120 Fortieth Anniversary. 
 
 be the Scriptural idea of going to church. But they 
 are now invited to the sanctuary to enjoy a musical 
 treat; in many cases to witness a melo-dramatic per- 
 formance — a sort of Sanday Opera, mollified, indeed, 
 but in full keeping with the Opera of the other six 
 days. As yet these are, with us, exceptional instances. 
 But any church may grow to them in time. Already 
 it has come to be recognized in very numerous con- 
 gregations, and confined to no one sect, as an indis- 
 pensable means of what is- called "success," to pro- 
 vide the most artistic and elaborate music. Churches 
 are not ashamed to compete with each other, in hold- 
 intr out inducements of this sort to allure visitors. 
 Multitudes of young people, forsaking the pews where 
 they belong, are flitting about from church to church 
 " to hear the music." This is the acknowledged 
 motive. They have too much candor to pretend that 
 they go to join in the prayers and praises of the sanc- 
 tuary, or to hear the preaching of the Gospel. They 
 go simply to be regaled with fine singing. This is the 
 end they aim at ; and this the burden of their report 
 when the service is over. The preaching is nothing — 
 the less of it (in their esteem) the better. 
 
 Now am I declaiming against the culture of music? 
 No. Am I proscribing musical exhibitions ? No : not 
 in their legitimate place and character. Am I dispar- 
 
Fortieth Anniversary. 121 
 
 aging the value of good singing in the house of God? 
 Not at all. There must be a certain harmony be- 
 tween the refinement and taste of a congregation and 
 their service of song, or it will mar the comfort and 
 edification of their worship. But this is not to justify 
 or extenuate the arrogant and pernicious substitution 
 of cunning music and its kindred devices, for the 
 authorized exercises of the Lord's house. To in- 
 timate that the practices reprobated may be telling 
 upon the whole cast of our religion, and replacing the 
 substance with the shadow, might provoke a smile. 
 But your incredulity may have its solution. People 
 standing upon a drifting field of ice, miles in diameter, 
 are not cognizant of its motion. Our Christianity has 
 been so long and so widely drifting from its ancient 
 moorings that we have, possibly, lost sight of all the 
 land-marks. A single observation will suffice to 
 correct your reckoning. Bring the Christianity now 
 growing so popular in our cities to the test of the law 
 and the testimony. See whether it be the religion of 
 Christ and the apostles. See whether its worship and 
 its spirit be the spirit and worship of the early church. 
 If this inquiry be conducted with candor, you will be 
 shut up to the conclusion that a change is stealing 
 over our Christianity which seriously threatens its 
 
 vitality. The passion for ornate music is doing for 
 i6 
 
122 Fortieth Anmversa7y. 
 
 the church what the most subtle of the mineral 
 poisons does for the body. The first effect of arsenic, 
 in minute potions, is to beautify the complexion. 
 Persevered in, the result is asphyxia and death. Men 
 are not satisfied with the church as Christ made it and 
 pronounced it, " ver)^ good." They must refine upon 
 His model, and array it in other vestments, and make 
 it attractive to the senses, and adjust it to a "cultivated" 
 generation. And they are too busy in embellishing 
 its exterior to note that their manipulations are poison- 
 ing the blood, and weakening the pulse, and extin- 
 guishing its very life. This, too, with the inevitable 
 effects of the treatment before their eyes. It is the 
 common vice of empirics that they never learn any- 
 thing. If it were otherwise, these people would see 
 that they have only taken up a system of practice 
 which has been in vocjue for ag-es in the Oriental 
 Churches and the Church of Rome. Those churches 
 offer them satisfactory exhibitions of a mere spectacular 
 Christianity. The methods they have adopted, if per- 
 sisted in, would in time assimilate any Protestant 
 church to these hierarchies. And if they cannot or will 
 not see it, the Christians of these communions ought 
 to see it, and put a stop to this pestilent tampering 
 with sacred things. 
 
 If you cannot endure the simplicity of *the New 
 
Fortieth Anniversary. 123 
 
 Testament ceremonial; if the central place assigned 
 by Christ to the preaching of the Gospel offend you ; 
 if the house of God be in your esteem a mere music- 
 hall or theatre ; and the only worship you crave be 
 an oratorio or a drama ; why insist upon fashioning 
 Protestant churches to this style of devotion ? If the 
 scheme be so captivating in the bud, the full bloom 
 must be still better. Why not go at once to some 
 Romish church, where you will be certain to find all 
 you are yearning for, without the toil, and the delay, 
 and the unseemliness, of attempting to effect this trans- 
 formation in churches established to protest against a 
 sensuous religion ? The glory of the Christian re- 
 ligion is its spirituality. Herein it is the poles away 
 from any and all of the false religions. Its beauty and 
 strenofth lie in its holiness. Its rites and ordinances 
 are but the orraceful setting for those sublime truths 
 through which we behold the King in His glory. As 
 you enlarge the frames you exclude the light, and 
 obscure the throne and Him who sits upon it. In 
 other words, the whole moral power of the church lies 
 in its conformity to its Lord and its spiritual com- 
 munion with Him. This destroyed, it not only becomes 
 impotent to all the beneficent ends it was designed to 
 accomplish, but its mighty enginery is thenceforward 
 turned to augment and accelerate the multitudinous 
 evil forces which are hurrying men to destruction. 
 
124 Fortieth Anniversary. 
 
 Most cheering is it to note that a re-action has 
 taken place since the pubhcation of the sermon just 
 quoted. In every direction congregations are re- 
 asserting their right to take part in the office of praise. 
 And our Missionary friend might draw comfort from 
 the assurance that in our own communion this musical 
 mania seems to have passed its crisis. Here and 
 there a church will still indulge itself in the extrava- 
 gance and sensationalism of operatic entertainments; 
 but the indications point to a general revival of the 
 ancient psalmody in conformity with the inspired 
 canon, "Let the people praise Thee, O God, let all 
 the people praise Thee." 
 
 Not to advert to other changes in the externals of 
 our worship, may I be allowed, in this connection, to 
 suggest one or two further changes as being in my 
 view desirable. After forty years' observation and 
 experience, I am not satisfied with the ritual of any 
 denomination. An imposed Liturgy, minute and in- 
 flexible, which is by many devout Christians held to be 
 only less precious than the Bible, would be to me as 
 much a yoke of bondage as would have been the 
 Levitical ceremonial to the early disciples. But care- 
 fully composed forms of prayer were much in use 
 among the Reformers, and are to be found in the 
 writings of most of those illustrious men whose names 
 
Fortieth Anniversary. 125 
 
 adorn the annals of the Presbyterian churches of 
 Europe. The weak point in our services is the de- 
 votional offices ; the preaching is better than the pray- 
 ino-. The gift of prayer is but scantily bestowed upon 
 some who are not lacking in the grace of prayer. 
 And ministers who are liberally endowed in this re- 
 spect, are not always able to coTnmand the sacred 
 faculty. Every Pastor knows what it is to go to his 
 pulpit with an aching head, with nerves all ajar from 
 a sleepless night, burdened with some sorrow, harassed 
 with some vexing care, or otherwise unfitted to preach, 
 and still more unfitted to lead his people to the mercy- 
 seat, and speak with and for them to our Father in 
 heaven. What a relief would it be to pastors in cir- 
 cumstances like these, to have at hand some suitable 
 form of prayer; and how much would it contribute to 
 the edification of believers. Why should not our 
 General Assembly provide a few such forms, not to 
 be imposed upon the ministry, but to be used by them 
 at their discretion; and also to supply an obvious 
 want where vacant congregations meet for worship 
 without the presence of a minister? 
 
 Again, if our methods could be revised, I should in- 
 sist upon the concert of pastor and people in the 
 audible offering of the Lord's Prayer, and the reciting 
 of the Apostles' Creed once every Sabbath, together 
 
126 Fo7'tieth Annivei^sary. 
 
 with the responsive "Amen," at the end of every 
 prayer. In respect to the Creed, there are probably 
 many Presbyterians who are ignorant that it is the 
 common heritage of the churches, and that it is always 
 included in our "Confession of Faith." The Super- 
 intendents of our own Sunday and Mission-schools 
 having judiciously introduced these two exercises into 
 their stated services, the way, it is hoped, may be 
 opened for copying the example in our ordinary 
 Sabbath worship. 
 
 It has long since passed into a proverb, that as men 
 advance in years they are prone to disparage the pre- 
 sent in the interest of the past. Some of the young 
 men before me have doubtless been ready to exclaim, 
 while sitting here, "Say not thou, 'What is the cause 
 that the former days were better than these?' for thou 
 dost not inquire wisely concerning this," It is no 
 more a sentiment of mine, that "the former days were 
 better than these," than it is that these days are what 
 they ought to be. No candid man can review the 
 records of the last fort)' years, without conceding the 
 fitness of the verdict that marks this age as an "age 
 of progress." An illimitable field, replete with the 
 trophies of genius and skill, opens its alluring pano- 
 rama to the eye just here. But let us confine our 
 view for the present to the church. Christianity, as 
 
Fortieth Anniversary. 127 
 
 already intimated, has become a greater power in the 
 earth than ever before. It is more widely diffused. 
 It has more disciples. It is making itself more de- 
 cisively felt in the affairs of cabinets and nations. 
 There are encouraging signs of a growing unification 
 of its energies, looking to more systematic and vigor- 
 ous assaults upon the grand domain of sin and Satan. 
 And at no period has the Evangelical Church had 
 more reason to "thank God and take courage." The 
 distinctive feature which reveals itself in these several 
 characteristics, is the presence of the lay element. This is 
 the most important change which has taken place in 
 the practical administration of the church for these 
 four decades, — the waking up and organizing of the 
 Christian laity for Christian work. We are not to re- 
 proach former generations with their supineness, how- 
 ever much we may deplore it. The light was not 
 vouchsafed to them, which shines upon us. Not by a 
 sudden vault, by a slow and contested progress has 
 the vital principle struggled up to its true position in 
 the consciousness of the church, that the universal 
 law of Christ's kingdom is service; that the duty and 
 privilege of laboring in the Master's vineyard is no 
 exclusive function of the ministry; that the entire host 
 of God's chosen, irrespective of age, sex, or condition, 
 are to go out into the great field, which is the world, 
 
128 Fortieth Anniversary, 
 
 some to plant, some to water, some to reap, some to 
 gather up the sheaves and carry them in to the gar- 
 ner, some to thresh the grain and winnow the wheat 
 from the chaff — every one to do something, "to 
 every man his work." This is the doctrine pro- 
 claimed from the Evangelical pulpits, in the social 
 prayer meetings, in the Sunday-schools, and by the 
 religious press in multitudinous forms. And through 
 the potent influence of the Divine Spirit upon men's 
 hearts, it has been cordially accepted, and so far car- 
 ried out into practice, that Christians who are really 
 such, no longer feel comfortable unless they are 
 making some effort, if not to aid in propelling the 
 chariot of salvation, at least to remove here and there 
 an impediment from the track. 
 
 If you would see the fruits of this genuine revival 
 of Scriptural Christianity, look abroad. One of its 
 palpable results is at our doors, in the enlarged scope 
 that has been given (not however without a certain 
 incidental abuse, to be mentioned hereafter,) to the 
 Sunday-school system. No strong church is now 
 content without its Mission-school. Not one of our 
 cities that is not dotted over with these schools. They 
 are furnishing grateful instruction to the deserving 
 poor ; and diffusing the savor of the Gospel through 
 many a neighborhood only a step removed from ab- 
 
Fortieth Anniversary. 129 
 
 solute barbarism ; while in their reflex influence, they 
 are ministering purity and vigor to the piety of the 
 churches. 
 
 Not less efficient are the numerous societies and 
 institutions which the inventive philanthropy of the 
 day has devised for the relief of every type of suffer- 
 ing and want. Not only are millions of money con- 
 tributed for their support, but a vast army of faithful 
 workers — many among them ladies of wealth and high 
 social position — are enlisted in their service, and de- 
 voting their time and toil to the well-being of these 
 suffering classes. What need we (let it be asked in 
 passing,) of organized "Sisterhoods" to do this work? 
 The Romish Church abounds with these fraternities ; 
 and every one must honor the courage and kindness 
 they so often display in times of famine and pestilence. 
 But is Protestantism without its Sisters of Charity 
 and Sisters of Mercy, and Sisters of all the other 
 graces ? Wearing no distinctive garb and bound by 
 no technical code, they attract less notice than their 
 Roman sisters ; but are they not relatively far more 
 numerous, and do they not practice as much self- 
 denial, and is not their ministry fulfilled with quite as 
 much fidelity, and gentleness, and constancy ? As 
 things now are, all Christian females amongst us are 
 instructed to reg^ard themselves as dedicated to these 
 
 17 
 
130 Fortieth Anniversary. 
 
 and their kindred offices, so far as Providence may 
 open the way. If a separate " Order " were created 
 for the purpose, would not the tendency and ultimate 
 effect be to concentrate this entire work in the hands 
 of its members— thus discouraging personal activity 
 among devout women outside of the society, to their 
 own loss, the loss of the poor, and the detriment of 
 the church ? And has not this been the historical re- 
 sult in the Romish communion ? 
 
 It were alike superfluous and impracticable to recite 
 here even the titles of the benevolent associations 
 which have sprung up in the path of Christianity, 
 within the last forty years. Like new planets and as- 
 teroids, " still they come ;" and the church's firmament 
 is growing more brilliant every year. Nor its firma- 
 ment only. It is gradually dispelling the thick dark- 
 ness of Paganism, and covering the earth with a robe 
 of light and beauty. God in His mercy is opening all 
 lands to the heralds of salvation. The marvellous 
 triumphs of science and art have brought remote 
 countries into such near fellowship, that whereas, in 
 1830, it took Missionaries six months to make the 
 journey to certain fields, there is perhaps no point on 
 the surface of the globe which it might be desirable 
 for a Missionary to visit, that he could not reach from 
 any other point in six weeks. And intelligence from 
 
Fortieth Anniversary. 131 
 
 most of these regions is flashed over the globe in a 
 few hours. But I must not dwell upon this inviting 
 theme. 
 
 Among the choice fruits, however, yielded by the 
 Christianity of the last forty years, there is one other 
 which it were inexcusable to pass over; I mean the 
 creation of a religious literature adapted to the times, 
 and with special provision for the young. Comparing 
 these two epochs, the first was marked with such a 
 dearth of juvenile religious books of an approved 
 character, that the acrorreofate did not exceed a few 
 dozens of volumes. Now this handful has swelled into 
 many thousands. Nor Sunday-school books alone. 
 No former period has rivalled the present in the pro- 
 duction of Commentaries, larcre and small, Dictionaries, 
 Cyclopoedias, and other helps to the study of the 
 Bible; nor was the Bible itself ever published at so 
 cheap a rate nor so widely circulated. Whatever pro- 
 fusion may have signalized the issues in any other de- 
 partment, the religious press has achieved an easy 
 pre-eminence alike as to the quantity and the quality 
 of its products. These facts are decisive as indicating 
 the advanced scholarship, the enlightened piety, and 
 the practical philanthropy which distinguish the church 
 of our day. For, next to its own ordinances, the press 
 must be reo-arded as its rio-ht arm for the discomfiture 
 
132 Fortieth Anniversary. 
 
 of error, and the maintenance and diffusion of God's 
 truth. 
 
 You will now acquit me of any illiberal depreciation 
 of the present, or any blind idolatry of the past, if I 
 venture to shift the lens a little, and to hint that the 
 picture we are looking at is made up, like all other 
 pictures, of light and shade. Some of the shadows 
 have been glanced at. If there are others which stand 
 out in strong relief, it may be owing to the orient 
 back-ground. It is when the moon is brightest we 
 see its m.ountains most plainly. 
 
 Taking a second glance, then, at the Christianity of 
 the day, and measuring it by the standard of 1830, 
 what do we see ? It has more wealth, more gene- 
 ral culture, more of the Missionary^ spirit, a higher 
 range of liberality, and far greater activity in propa- 
 gating itself. These attributes, as already intimated, 
 are slightly marred by the taint of a bustling, ostenta- 
 tious element, which seems, ever and anon, to cry out 
 with Jehu, "Come, see my zeal for the Lord!" More 
 conspicuous still is the coquetry that has been going 
 on between the church and the world. The world, too, 
 has been erowingr richer. It affects more state and 
 splendor. It is more addicted to shows and sports. 
 And now that religion has come to be such a power, 
 it pays court to the church, seeks its society, tenders 
 
Fortieth Afniiversary. 133 
 
 it its wardrobes, invites it to its entertainments of 
 every kind, and begging forgiveness for the un- 
 gracious transaction of Calvary, and the slaughter of 
 a few millions of Christians since that event, prays 
 that the church and itself may henceforth be good 
 friends — meaning thereby that the church is to don 
 its livery, to go wherever it goes, do whatsoever it 
 does, and exchange its old puritanical yoke for one of 
 its own make, of a much easier pattern. And how 
 does the church receive the world's proposals? Very 
 much as Eve did the tempter's. At first with min- 
 gled astonishment and resentment. 
 
 " Thee, Serpent, subtlest breast of all the field 
 
 " I knew, but not with human voice endued ; 
 
 " Redouble then this miracle and say, 
 
 " How cam'st thou speakable of mute, and how 
 
 " To me so friendly grown above the rest 
 
 " Of brutal kind, that daily are in sight ? " 
 
 You will recall his reply, a marvel of ingenious 
 and fatal sophistry; and then follows the impression it 
 made upon her. 
 
 " He ended, and his words replete with guile, 
 " Into her heart too easy entrance won : 
 " Fixed on the fruit she gazed, which to behold 
 " Might tempt alone ; and in her ears the sound 
 "Yet rung of his persuasive words, impregn'd 
 " With reason, to her seeming, and with truth."* 
 
 * Par. Lost, B. ix. 
 
134 Fortieth Aiiiiivei^sary. 
 
 Here, If I mistake not, is the precise posture of 
 affairs between the church, rather between a certain 
 influential portion of the church comprising people of 
 almost every communion, and the world. One large 
 wing has surrendered. Another large wing stands 
 firm as a rock. While between the two, the centre 
 parleys with the world — now consenting, now re- 
 fusing — but agitated continually with throes of con- 
 science, and leaving by-standers in painful suspense 
 as to the final issue. ' Some of you will live to see, and 
 (as may be) to deplore or to rejoice in it. I shall not. 
 But every true believer must lament that the Lamb's 
 Bride should tolerate such advances from His crucifier. 
 
 Another shadow demands notice — one which links 
 itself on the one hand with our current Sunday School 
 system, and on the other, with what I cannot but re- 
 gard as the ill-advised change which has occured since 
 ' 2i1 aniong the Presbyterian churches of our city, in 
 transferring the second Sabbath service from the after- 
 noon to the evening. You will anticipate me as re- 
 ferring to the deteriorated family-life of our day, and 
 its bearings upon the welfare of the church. Having 
 published my views upon this subject of transcendent 
 importance,* I shall make no apology for quoting a 
 few paragraphs apposite to the present discussion. 
 
 * In the " Christian Weekly^'' the admirable paper of the American Tract Society. 
 
Foi'ticth Anniversary. 135 
 
 It is about time for our Evangfelical churches to con- 
 sider the question, What is to become of the Family? 
 
 That the family is a divine institution and, as such, 
 to be sacredly cherished, is an article of the creed 
 which they all hold in common. But whether it be 
 held, generally, as a living", fruit-bearing principle, or 
 as a dead letter, is a point not definitely settled. 
 
 As regards the place assigned to the family in the 
 Christianity of the fathers, there is no room for a 
 diversity of opinion. Recognizing its charter as an- 
 tedating that of the church, and bearing the King's 
 image and superscription, the early Christians, tread- 
 ing in the steps of the devout Jews, paid special honor 
 to the domestic constitution, and scrupulously fulfilled 
 its religious obligations. Tertullian and Jerome have 
 dwelt upon the conscientious care with which house- 
 hold piety w^as cultivated in the ancient church. The 
 same healthful token reappeared at the Reformation. 
 With the emancipation of the church from Roman 
 bondage, the family began to resume its scriptural 
 position, to reassert its hereditary rights, and to ex- 
 ercise its prescribed functions. No intelligent Chris- 
 tian can require to be informed of the dignity and 
 sacredness with which the family was invested among 
 the Presbyterians of Scotland, the Puritans and Non- 
 conformists of England, and the Colonists who founded 
 
136 Fortieth A7iniversary. 
 
 our Eastern States. Nor would it be difficult to show, 
 that to the wise and generous culture so sedulously be- 
 stowed upon their homes by the earlier generations of 
 these illustrious immigrants, is largely to be traced 
 whatever is of choicest value in our national character. 
 As the family is older than the church, so it is the 
 universal and indestructible unit, both of the church 
 and of the state, by God's appointment co-ordinated 
 with them, and made essential to their proper develop- 
 ment and stability. It has its own rights, duties, and 
 privileges. Within its legitimate sphere, its authority 
 is paramount. Neither the church nor the state may 
 lawfully intrude upon its domain. Established for 
 certain ends, its adaptation to those ends is marked 
 with the wisdom and benevolence which pertain to 
 all the Divine arrangements. What could be more 
 beautiful, what (duly administered) more effective, 
 than an organism which thus " sets the solitary in 
 families," insures to parents the gradual nurture and 
 unfolding of all their purest and best powers and sus- 
 ceptibilities, and surrounds children with an atmos- 
 phere impregnated with blended authority and love ? 
 Not to speak of the social and civil bearings of this 
 system, its auspicious aspect towards the church is too 
 apparent to require elucidation. The family life 
 flows into the broad stream of the church life, and the 
 
Fortieth Anniversary. 137 
 
 church Hfe flows into the ten thousand rivulets of 
 the family life ; and so each nourishes the other. But 
 this only happens — except in some imperfect degree — 
 when each keeps within its own orbit. The family 
 cannot do the work of the church ; nor can the church 
 do the work of the family. And this brings us to the 
 topic suggested by the inquiry: "What is to become 
 of the family ?" 
 
 Thoughtful men of all professions are alarmed at 
 the growing laxity of the domestic ties in our country. 
 The proportion of divorces to marriages is something 
 frightful. Parental government is giving place to the 
 despotism of children. Families are becoming mere 
 heaps of stones without cement or symmetry, which 
 fall to pieces with the slightest pressure whether from 
 within or from without. The general drift, even of 
 the professedly Christian body, is palpably towards 
 the world. Very few young men of the class that 
 may be designated as " in society " now enter the 
 ministry. And among those who do not come to the 
 Lord's table, the church herself scarcely recognizes 
 any difference between the children of Christians who 
 have been dedicated in prayer and baptism to God, and 
 the children of the world. 
 
 It were quite invalid to refer this untoward condition 
 
 of things to any one cause. But the church herself 
 i8 
 
138 Fortieth Anniversaiy. 
 
 cannot be held guiltless in the matter. The church, 
 it is true, is increasing in numbers, wealth, and power. 
 Its array of benevolent institutions would have done 
 honor to any age of Christianity. Its ceaseless activi- 
 ties at home and abroad are yielding fruit to the praise 
 of God's glorious grace. But if, as many careful ob- 
 servers surmise, the stream has more breadth than 
 depth, and threatens to run shallower still, may not a 
 partial reason for it be found in the practical dispar- 
 agement of the family on the part of the church? 
 " How can this be," some zealous worker may ex- 
 claim, "when the church is so prodigal of her labors 
 on behalf of the young ?" Let me answer by remind- 
 ing you that, according to the word of God, the church 
 is endowed with a three-fold function, to wit: Evolution, 
 Acquisition, and Edification. Our own standards, in 
 common with those of the other historic churches, lay 
 great stress upon the first of these — the increase and 
 expansion of the church from within. The children of 
 believers receive the seal of baptism, because they are 
 members of the church. As such, " they are to be 
 taught to read and repeat the catechism, the Apostles' 
 Creed, and the Lord's Prayer. They are to be taught 
 to pray, to abhor sin, to fear God, and to obey the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. And, when they come to years of 
 discretion, if they be free from scandal, appear sober 
 
FortietJi Anniversary. 1^9 
 
 and steady, and to have sufficient knowledge to discern 
 the Lord's body, they ought to be informed it is their 
 duty and privilege to come to the Lord's Supper."* 
 What prominence does the church give in her minis- 
 trations to the domestic constitution, as thus defined ? 
 How far are parents instructed in their imperative 
 duties, and assisted in the discharge of them ? With 
 \vhat measure of fidelity does the pulpit set forth the 
 all-important truth, that believing parents, relying 
 upon the promised blessing of God, ought to count 
 upon their offspring being early called into the king- 
 dom of Christ, and oTOwino- up into religion as the 
 children of God? Or, does the church of our day, 
 repudiating this Scriptural doctrine of home-nurture, 
 thrust her own offspring out to take scot and lot with 
 the children of the world, as if to show with what tact 
 she can afterward employ her solicitude and skill in 
 ways and means for bringing them back again ? In 
 a word, has the church that conception of the family 
 which indisputably entered into the Christianity ot our 
 fathers — that it is, equally with the church, of God's 
 planting ; that it was designed to be a chief means of 
 perpetuating the church; that the church must extend 
 to it instruction, protection, and sympathy, but without 
 attempting to arrogate its functions or curtail its pre- 
 
 * Directory for Worship, ch. ix. 
 
140 Fortieth Anniversary . 
 
 rop-atives ; and that any unlawful meddlino- with its 
 mechanism must be no less hurtful to itself than to 
 the family ? 
 
 As in contravention of these radical principles, the 
 family is now-a-days quite overshadowed by the 
 Sunday-school. An institution originally devised by 
 Christian philanthropy for the benefit of poor, outcast 
 children, has gradually enlarged its sphere until it not 
 only comprehends all the children of the church, but 
 is practically deemed of more importance to the cause 
 of Christ than the family itself, God's own ordinance. 
 This is not said by way of disparaging Sunday- 
 schools. They are of priceless value to the church 
 and to the world. Would that they mio^ht be multi- 
 plied throughout all our spiritual wastes, and made a 
 hundred-fold more efficient. But is not the system 
 so managed that it tends to undermine and supersede 
 the family ? In terms, parents are reminded that 
 their obligfations cannot be transferred to the Sabbath- 
 school teacher. But as a matter of fact, is not the 
 Sunday-school magnified both by the pulpit and the 
 religious press far above the family? Where one 
 word is uttered on behalf of the family, or one sermon 
 or address devoted to it, are not twenty given to the 
 Sunday-school ? Is not the parent unconsciously 
 putting off his duties upon the teacher, and the family 
 
Fortieth Anniversary. 141 
 
 life more and more merging itself in the Sunday- 
 school life ? And is not the family step by step 
 yielding the high position assigned to it in the economy 
 of God's kingdom, to an institution which, however 
 commendable, should be used only as an auxiliary to 
 the family and the church? 
 
 The Sunday-school is here referred to in its ordi- 
 nary type, as connected with many of our best churches. 
 This is not the place to speak of the growing abuses 
 of the system — the ostentation, the ambition, the 
 worldly methods, the theatrical trumpery^ with which 
 it is so often disfigured, and which are equally offensive 
 to good taste and to serious piety. The question, 
 " Whereunto will these things go ?" is beginning to 
 attract attention ; and if the mischievous nonsense 
 proceed much further, we may expect to see judicious 
 parents withdrawing their children from the Sunday- 
 school altocT-ether. 
 
 Dismissing that topic, there is another quarter in 
 
 which the church holds out a threatening- visacje to- 
 es o 
 
 wards the family, viz, : in wresting from it its here- 
 ditary claim to Sunday evening. To preclude mis- 
 conception, it is freely granted that the surroundings 
 of a congregation may be such as to justify and even 
 to require stated public worship on the evening of 
 the Lord's Day. It is important, also, that in every 
 
142 Fortieth Anniversaiy. 
 
 large city, some churches should be open every 
 Sabbath night — a provision happily secured under the 
 old Philadelphia regime^ whereby each church had one 
 Sunday evening service every month. But, con- 
 ceding these points, has the church any warrant so to 
 appropriate the entire Sabbath, as to deprive the 
 family of all fit opportunity for its religious and social 
 duties ? The Scriptural conception of the family as a 
 miniature church with its altar, its priest, its congre- 
 gation, and its worship, is theoretically accepted on 
 every side. But there is one element not specified 
 here, in the absence of which the well-ordered ma- 
 chine becomes simply a polished engine without any 
 steam. How can there be worship, whether public 
 or domestic, without a fixed sacred season ? And 
 what season is secured to the household church? 
 The morning of the Sabbath is given to the sanctuary, 
 the afternoon to the Sunday-school, and the evening 
 again to the sanctuary. The family is ignored. The 
 arrangement is precisely that which would obtain if 
 the family organization had no existence. To urge 
 that the services proper to that primeval church can 
 be adequately cared for in the broken parentheses of 
 time between the three public services, is to betray a 
 very meagre conception of the domestic institute and 
 its hio-h aims and inalienable functions. What the 
 
Fortieth Annivei'sary . 143 
 
 case demands is, a regular convocation of the entire 
 family, for systematic instruction in the Word of God 
 and the catechisms proper to the respective denomi- 
 nations, for prayer, the singing of hymns, the reading 
 of suitable books and that free, confidential, hearty, 
 joyful intercourse, which the Psalmist no doubt had in 
 view when he said, " The voice of rejoicing and salva- 
 tion is in the tabernacles of the righteous," All the 
 greater need of this is there, because in our busy 
 metropolitan life (to speak only of cities) men see 
 very little of their families from Monday morning to 
 Saturday night. While they might, perhaps, gather 
 their households together of a Sunday afternoon, the 
 season, as just intimated, is not favorable and does 
 not invite to it. So that Sabbath evening, as it is the 
 natural, so it is virtually the only period of the seven 
 days when these grateful reunions can be held. How 
 much they would contribute, if generally observed, to 
 invigorate the domestic ties, and to counteract that 
 strong tendency to the premature dispersion of fami- 
 lies which is stimulated alike by the geographical and 
 the political conditions of our country, must be ap- 
 parent to every one whose natural affections have 
 not been dwarfed or paralyzed. 
 
 An elaborate argument, indeed, might be framed 
 just here, in favor of restoring the family to its true 
 
14-4 Fortieth Anniversa7y. 
 
 position as a religious ordinance, by way of repressing 
 that filial insubordination and juvenile arrogance which 
 are the opprobrium of American society. Enough, 
 that this return to early usages would conduce to the 
 well-being of famihes; that it would bring into the 
 church a generous succession of intelligent, conscien- 
 tious, and stable Christians ; and that it would tell with 
 beneficent effect upon all our social and civil interests. 
 
 Let the church then, cease to monopolize the day 
 of rest with her public services. Let her recognize 
 the family as, equally with herseif, a divine institution, 
 with chartered rights and imperative duties as sacred as 
 her own. Let her take her usurping hands off the Sab- 
 bath evenine; exalt the family in her current ministra- 
 tions; keep the Sunday-school to its legitimate sphere; 
 and use every scriptural means to foster household 
 piety, and to cultivate those graces which have their 
 true rooting and find their best development under 
 the parental roof-tree. Thus shall the church and 
 the family resume their normal relations, and each be- 
 come once more to the other a source of strength and 
 peace and enduring prosperity. 
 
 At the close of forty years, more pregnant with 
 great events and with human progress than any 
 equivalent term since the Day of Pentecost, you will 
 expect me to glance (it is impossible to do more) at 
 
Fortieth Anniversary. 14 o 
 
 some few of the salient points that stand out in the 
 history of this period. Of the three European and 
 two American wars which have taken place, it must 
 suffice if I barely allude to our own fratricidal conflict, 
 which, by God's great mercy, resulted in the preserva- 
 tion of our cherished Union. A single reminiscence 
 only I wish to put on record here, partly because it 
 connects itself with the tone of our Christianity, and 
 partly for a reason personal to myself Immediately 
 on the surrender of the Southern forces in April, '65, 
 you listened to a sermon from this pulpit entitled, 
 "The Peacemakers," in which it was attempted to 
 show that "the true function of the church in respect 
 to war is threefold, (i.) If possible, to prevent war. 
 (2.) If this be unavoidable, to attemper and mitigate 
 it. And (3) to do whatever may be lawful and right 
 to bring war to an end, and to restore a just, humane, 
 and Christian peace." Seven weeks afterwards, the 
 war being over, you listened to another sermon, en- 
 titled, "The Peace we need, and how to secure it." 
 
 A sentence or two from this sermon may exhibit its 
 aim and purport. 
 
 "A lofty mission it is that invites our efforts. To 
 
 heal our country's wounds, to repair its desolations, 
 
 to soothe its sorrows, to allay its enmities, to replace 
 
 prejudice, discord, and confusion, with candor, respect, 
 19 
 
146 Fof'iieth Anniversary. 
 
 and kindness; and to resuscitate the various agencies, 
 moral and material, which may cement the Union, and 
 renew its prosperity; — this is the sublime task which 
 invokes the generous co-operation of all lovers of 
 their country. Its difficult^' is conceded. But there 
 is a power, and only one, by which it can be accom- 
 plished," "The pervading presence and power of the 
 Gospel of Christ is the grand necessity of our countr}'." 
 Both these sermons were published by the con- 
 current action of gentlemen in the congregation rep- 
 resenting the two great political parties. Meanwhile 
 our General Assembly, convening at Pittsburgh in 
 May, '65, while the countr}', though at peace, was still 
 rocking with the convulsions of the war, passed a 
 series of denunciator)^ resolutions against the South- 
 ern Presbyterian Church, which were so palpably un- 
 constitutional that the conscience of the church rejected 
 them, and they are known to this day as the " dead- 
 letter resolutions." The embers, however, which had 
 gone out in the watch-fires of the army, still glowed 
 not only, but freshened up on the altars of the church. 
 The General Assembly of the following year, ('66), 
 in session at St, Louis, adopted several sets of reso- 
 lutions inspired by the same warlike spirit, and one 
 immediate effect of which was, to drive from us the 
 major part of two of our best Synods, Kentucky and 
 
Fortieth Anniversaiy. 147 
 
 Missouri. Being a member of that body, I could not 
 forswear my conviction that it is the prescribed mis- 
 sion of the church to heal wounds, not to exacerbate 
 them, to repress strife, not to foment it. Co-operating, 
 therefore, with a small minority of my brethren, 
 like-minded with myself, I withstood, fruitlessly, but 
 to the utmost, this untoward legislation. As I thereby 
 incurred not only harsh censures from without, but 
 the displeasure of some of my own people, I feel a 
 peculiar pleasure in reminding you that the entire 
 church has now come to the ground assumed by that 
 humble minority, and that the United General Assem- 
 bly of last Spring, by a luianimcnts vote, declared the 
 obnoxious resolutions of '65 and '66, and the cor- 
 responding measures of the then New School Assem- 
 bly, to be "NULL AND VOID." This is only one more 
 proof that love is stronger than hate. What it has 
 done it can do again. The Southern Church now 
 holds aloof, declining the fraternal overtures of our 
 Assembly, But it cannot last. Two great bodies of 
 Christians holding the same Standards, with the same 
 government and worship, allied by the same hallowed 
 traditions, and seeking the same ends, though rent 
 asunder by war, cannot be permanently estranged. I 
 hazard nothing in uttering the prophecy that there are 
 those present who will see that blessed re-union ac- 
 
148 Fortieth Anniversary. 
 
 complished, for which so many anxious and loving 
 hearts, Nordi and South, are yearning. 
 
 This allusion is suggestive of the most important 
 organic change which has occurred within the period 
 we are reviewing, among the Presbyterians of our 
 country. I mean the re-union of the two branches of 
 our church. It was not without serious distrust in 
 various quarters that this consummation was brought 
 about; but all parties are now satisfied that the thing 
 was of God, and that there is a blessing; in it. As 
 showing the growdi of the church, I quote the essen- 
 tial statistics for 1833 (prior to the disruption) and 
 1873. The Presbyteries have increased from 128 to 
 172, Ministers, from 1972 to 4534. Churches, from 
 2,807 to 4,802. Communicants, from 219,126 to 472,- 
 023, For the ecclesiastical year ending in April last, 
 the additions to the church by profession were 26,698, 
 and the sum contributed for ecclesiastical and benevo- 
 lent purposes was $9,622,000. Such an exhibit as 
 this may well inspire the grateful feeling, "What 
 hath God wrought !" While with one heart and 
 voice we praise Him for His " wonderful works " to 
 us and ours, it will be the reproach and sin of our 
 half-million of communicants, if they do not address 
 themselves with renewed energy, faith and devotion, 
 to the pleasing and responsible mission He has laid 
 
Fortieth Anniversary. 149 
 
 upon them, of evangelizing the masses at home and 
 abroad. This cannot be done effectively even by the 
 largest supplies of men and money, reinforced by the 
 utmost activity in the use of them. The real strength 
 of the church lies in its "power with God." And this, 
 a^ain, lies in its faith and holiness. As it lengthens 
 its cords it must strengthen its stakes. Hand-work 
 must draw its sustenance from Heart-work. This 
 vital point protected — the church keeping itself un- 
 spotted from the world, and leaning only upon the 
 Arm of its Beloved — there seems no reason why we 
 should not look to see a still greater prosperity, and 
 nobler victories over error and sin than any hitherto 
 vouchsafed to us. 
 
 There are reasons of the gravest character why we 
 should aim at this. Not to look abroad, every 
 thoughtful man must perceive that the task laid upon 
 the Christianity of our country is one of colossal pro- 
 portions. This is evident enough if we consider only 
 the growing millions of people to be supplied with the 
 means of grace, multitudes of them ignorant and de- 
 praved, and, in remote frontier regions, ever tending 
 towards barbarism. But this consideration aside, 
 there are four unseemly features thrusting themselves 
 forth upon the fair seeming of the Republic, at once 
 too conspicuous to be ignored, and too threatening to 
 be trifled with. 
 
150 Fortieth Annivei'smy. 
 
 One of these is the new phase of infideHty, trans- 
 planted from Europe, and which finds here a genial 
 soil. Up to the present era, the great leaders of 
 science and philosophy, such men, for example, as 
 Boyle, Newton, Herschell, Cuvier, Davy, Locke, Reid, 
 Stewart, Brown, Edwards, and others, have usually 
 had their place among the disciples of the cross. Now 
 a school of scientists and another school of metaphy- 
 sicians have arisen, who, hopelessly distracted among 
 themselves, are agreed in denying the recorded facts 
 of the Bible, and all the distinctive doctrines of the 
 old historic faith. It is a calumny to assert, as is often 
 done, that Christian theologians are alarmed at the 
 alleged discoveries and specious theories of these 
 men. We feel no apprehension that the rocks or the 
 stars, the brute animals or the human constitution, can 
 be made, unless by the aid of the rack and the thumb- 
 screw, to yield a tittle of testimony against the Divine 
 origin and supreme authority of the Sacred Scriptures. 
 But what we do fear is, that in an age pre-eminent 
 like the present for its intellectual pride, the lofty pre- 
 tensions of these teachers may mislead and destroy 
 many who know little or nothing of the Bible, and 
 who will drink in the poison without applying the 
 antidote. 
 
 A second sign upon our horizon is the revival of 
 
Fortieth Anniversary. 151 
 
 Romanism. It was generally supposed that the 
 Papacy had reached the climax of its dogmatic here- 
 sies at the Council of Trent. The world, therefore, 
 has looked on with amazement, to see two fresh false- 
 hoods of horrid mien Invented within the last few 
 years, and, under penalty of anathema, Imposed upon 
 the consciences of Its deluded millions as God's truth, 
 to wit : the Immaculate Conception, and the Infalli- 
 bility of the Pope. Whether it was this last and 
 greatest stride of impiety that filled Its cup of iniquity 
 to the brim, we know not. But certain It Is, that from 
 the day that blasphemous decree was enacted the 
 Papal See has reaped nothing but disaster in Europe. 
 In Italy, Its own seat of empire, In Germany, In France, 
 even In Austria and Spain, it has encountered con- 
 stant defeat and humiliation. But, strange to say, 
 baffled and prostrated as It has been at home, it Is 
 seeking, not without some tokens of success, to re- 
 construct its dilapidated throne in England and 
 America. Helpless in Roman Catholic countries, 
 which have wilted under its baleful sway. It is natur- 
 ally covetous of the wealth, anci power, and happiness 
 of the two Qfreat Protestant nations of the crlobe. 
 England and the United States have become the 
 chosen seats of Its proselyting schemes. Need we 
 shrink from the conflict it Invites? By no means. 
 
152 Foi'tictJi Anniversary. 
 
 But when it Is considered (i) that the most formidable, 
 because the most unscrupulous, of all its frateniitieF, 
 the Jesuits, partially or absolutely expelled from 
 various European vStates thirty-nine times prior to the 
 suppression of the Order in 1773, and now once more 
 suppressed by the Romish Cabinets, are flocking to 
 our shores, and will largely conduct their operations 
 here ; (2) that there are tens of thousands of so-called 
 Protestants who refuse to distinguish between oppo- 
 sition to a corrupt system and enmity to its mis- 
 guided followers; censors who would have charged 
 the Saviour with hostility to the Jewish people be- 
 cause, in very kindness to their souls. He warned 
 them against the unscriptural glosses and traditions 
 of the Pharisees; (3) that the whole Ritualistic w^ing 
 of one of our prominent sects is simply a well-ordered 
 nursery for Rome; and (4) that we have on every side 
 demagogues who would not scruple, if it were deemed 
 politic, to barter our Public School system or anything 
 else we have, for votes ; when these things are con- 
 sidered, it will be acknowledged that our Christianity 
 must have all its resources at command, if it would 
 counterwork the devices of this its ancient and im- 
 placable foe. 
 
 One of the topics just adverted to is of sufficient 
 importance to be noted as a third and distinct factor 
 
Fortieth Anniversaiy. 153 
 
 in the array of heterogeneous elements combined 
 against true rehgion. In my Quarter-Century sermon 
 the hope was expressed, that the controversy forced 
 upon the other churches by the Oxford Tract party, 
 mio-ht not be renewed. It was a bootless wish. The 
 Popish leaven which the imperious will, first of Henry 
 VIII, and then of Elizabeth, forbade the Reformers to 
 eradicate from the established church, has proven a 
 fatal legacy to the successors of Cranmer and Latimer, 
 Hooper and Ridley, Bradford and Jewell, in every 
 subsequent generation. Now, as at the Reforma- 
 tion, it miorht be said to that church, " Two nations 
 are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be 
 separated from thy bowels ; and the one people shall 
 be stronger than the other people ; and the elder 
 shall serve the younger." Not only are these two 
 peoples as dissimilar in tone, and purpose, and effort, 
 as were Jacob and Esau in their physical character- 
 istics ; but the younger have shown themselves strong 
 enough to conquer the elder. For, undeniably, evan- 
 gelical Christians were the first fruits of the British 
 Reformation. The school of Bancroft and Laud 
 came afterward. Their advent was the signal of a 
 conflict which has continued to this day, and which 
 has palpably reversed the primal relations of the par- 
 ties. The younger has waxed stronger and stronger, 
 20 
 
lo4: Fortieth Annivei^sary. 
 
 and the elder has waxed weaker and weaker ; and the 
 prospect just now is not hopeful as to the final result. 
 If this were purely a domestic quarrel we could not 
 intermeddle with it. But it is much more. The 
 Ritualists are not content with defiling the graves of 
 their own Reformers. They revile the very name of 
 " Protestant." Constituting a fraction of the very 
 smallest amoncf the leadinij denominations of Christ- 
 endom, they claim an exclusive partnership with Rome 
 (although spurned by her) in the promises and im- 
 munities of the " Church of the living God." All other 
 churches are branded as pseudo churches ; all other 
 ministers as usurpers ; all other ordinances as invalid. 
 This in itself is simply ludicrous ; it reminds one, as 
 the Princeton Review said some vears ago, of that 
 amusing way the Chinese have of calling all other 
 nations " barbarians." But it has a orraver side. 
 These people are substituting a sacerdotal system for 
 the faith of their and our fathers. They are sapping 
 and mining at the very foundations ; putting " the 
 church " in Christ's place ; and, if not of design, yet 
 practically magnifying the externals of worship above 
 the cardinal doctrines of the Gospel. Although 
 numerically a small minority among the professing 
 Christians of the land, they have ample wealth and 
 f9.natical zeal. Addressing themselves to that passion 
 
Fortieth Anniversary. 155 
 
 for a sensuous reli":ion which is the common inherit- 
 ance of the unrenewed heart, and superadcHng the 
 blandishments of pomp and fashion, there is ground 
 to apprehend the worst from their proselyting efforts, 
 especially in a country abounding with families who 
 are ready to adopt any creed or any ritual which may 
 promise to introduce them into a social sphere su- 
 perior to their own. The experiment is not novel. 
 The Ritualism of which we are speaking is nothing 
 but embryonic or imperfectly developed Romanism: 
 " Popery without a Pope," as Gregory XVI wittily 
 styled the type of it which was prevalent forty years 
 ago. And they who would see whereunto it may, and 
 logically must grow, have only to look at that great 
 apostacy of which the long suffering nations of Europe 
 are just now trying to rid themselves. Humiliating 
 it is that Italy, which has long been the chief depend- 
 ence of our paper mills, should not only send us the raw 
 material of commerce, but find here a ready demand 
 for her discarded ecclesiastical frippery. But so it is. 
 Our mimic Romanists rightly judge that this is their 
 appropriate costume. What could be more becoming 
 to a set of earnest workers who, though contesting 
 the Roman supremacy, are indirectly and, if you will, 
 unconsciously, toiling to bring back the halcyon days 
 of Leo X, and Cajetan, and Tetzel ? 
 
156 Fortieth Annivei'sary . 
 
 In making these remarks, I utterly disclaim any 
 hostility to our sister church. Differing from the other 
 churches of the Reformation in its government and 
 rites, it holds in its Creed and Articles, the same 
 theology. The Mother Church has in past years 
 waged a mighty and successful conflict with the 
 Papacy. It has been baptized with martyr blood. It 
 has enriched the world with very numerous examples 
 of a piety as pure, as beautiful, and as beneficent, as 
 any type of Christianity produced in any land or under 
 any tutelage since the Apostolic age. There are at this 
 moment multitudes within its communion, on either side 
 of the water, who would adorn any branch of the church 
 at home or abroad. And, if the remark may be per- 
 mitted, there are many among its attached and de- 
 voted children, whom it is my pride and pleasure to 
 claim as my esteemed personal friends. But "they 
 are not all Israel, which are of Israel." When men 
 array themselves against God's truth, and attempt to 
 subvert the faith once delivered to the saints, a position 
 within the church only enlarges their capacity for 
 mischief, and makes resistance to their devices a more 
 imperative duty. The evangelical Christiaiis of that 
 communion see their all at stake in this contest, and 
 other churches are bound to make common cause 
 with them against a common adversary. 
 
Fortieth Aiuiiversaiy. 157 
 
 The fourth ominous token alluded to, is the preva- 
 lence of Idolatry. It will not be surprising if some 
 future historian, in giving an account of our condition 
 at the present period, should say — " In respect to re- 
 ligion, the population was about equally divided be- 
 tween worshippers of the true God and worshippers 
 of Mammon." Would this be a slander? Go to the 
 Courts, the Prisons and the Penitentiaries. Go to our 
 Stock Exchanges. Go to Congress and the State 
 Legislatures. Open your Journals and read the daily 
 record of brutal crimes, and still more, of dishonesties 
 of every type and hue, and say whether Mammon 
 be not our chosen god. Say whether the extinction 
 of slavery and the suppression of rebellion can avail 
 to save a country which has this mercenary passion 
 eating like a cancer at the core of all public and all 
 private virtue. Here surely is an adversary meet for 
 our Christianity to grapple with; for nothing short of 
 a superhuman power can master it. 
 
 Taking the gauge of these four characteristics only, 
 it will be conceded, that neither our own nor any 
 other evangelical church can discharge its duty to the 
 country without putting on the whole armor of God. 
 The imperative demand is for a higher spirituality on 
 the part of individual believers, for more earnest 
 labors, and for a closer union and greater concentra- 
 
158 For tie ih Anniversary. 
 
 tion of purpose and methods among the churches. 
 To this result things are tending. The recent meeting 
 of the "Evangelical Alliance" in New York, the 
 most remarkable relio^ious convocation ever witnessed 
 in this hemisphere, illustrated the essential unity of 
 genuine Protestanism, and gave presage of concerted 
 and efficient action for the promotion of pure Chris- 
 tianity, beyond anything the modern world has yet 
 witnessed. Let. us thankfully accept the omen and, in 
 our several spheres, help forward this auspicious 
 movement so fraught with blessing to our own land 
 not only, but to the whole human race. 
 
 I find the temptation almost irresistible, to dwell 
 upon other topics which must crowd themselves upon 
 any one who sits down to write of the last forty years. 
 In many respects, the whole aspect of the world is 
 chanored. Our own national domain has been ex- 
 tended to the Pacific coast ; the States have increased 
 from twenty-four to thirty-seven ; and the population 
 from fourteen to forty millions. Numerous unknown 
 regions of the globe have been explored. Persia, 
 Japan, and large portions of Africa, have been brought 
 into relations of commercial intercourse with Christian 
 lands. A new atlas has become necessary even for 
 Europe. Steam and electricity are annihilating time 
 and distance. Geology is rifling the solid earth of its 
 
 I 
 
Fortieth Anniversary. 159 
 
 secrets. Astronomy is adding new planets to our 
 system, measurino- the distances of the fixed stars, and, 
 aided by chemistry, resolving the mystery of light, 
 and boldly interrogating the sun as to his composition 
 and laws. Jurisprudence is constructing fresh safe- 
 guards for constitutional liberty, and adapting its 
 codes to the altered conditions of society. Medicine 
 has already augmented by several years the average 
 duration of human life. Slavery, serfdom, despotism, 
 where they still survive, are betraying signs of weak- 
 ness. The nations are everywhere sighing and 
 struggling for freedom. Truth and error, right and 
 wrong, are keeping all Christendom alive with their 
 conflicts. Commerce and finance are driving their 
 mighty mechanism with a momentum unknown to the 
 fathers — and just now (it may be added), since they 
 would scorn the lessons of experience and persist in 
 sowing the wind, reaping, for the fourth time since 
 ' '^1, the inevitable whirlwind. Amidst the universal 
 jar and tumult, the Gospel of Christ halts not in its 
 benign work ; goes forth on its mission of love and 
 mercy through Protestant and Papal, Mohammedan 
 and Pagan lands ; and ceases not to cry in every 
 tongue and to every people, " Behold the Lamb of 
 God who taketh away the sin of the world !" What 
 wonders are accumulated upon this age. Surely it is 
 
160 Fortieth Annivei'sary. 
 
 a greater privilege to live now, and especially to 
 begin life now, than at any former period of the 
 world's history. My dear young friends, where much 
 is given, much will be required. Show yourselves 
 worthy of your imperial birth-right. 
 
 Returning to ourselves, and drawing this too pro- 
 tracted discourse to a close, all the Presbyterian 
 Pastors whom I found here in ' ^2) "^^^ dead except 
 one, who long ago removed from the city. Another 
 exception I am most happy to make now, since my 
 beloved brother, the Rev. Dr. Chambers, with his 
 very prosperous church, has recently come back into 
 our fold — an honored servant of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, who is fulfilling the forty-eighth year of a most 
 faithful and useful ministry. The only other pastors 
 whose installation antedates my own, are the Rev. 
 Dr. Morton, of St. James' Episcopal Church, and the 
 Rev. Dr. Furness, of the Unitarian, Church. Under the 
 Methodist discipline frequent change of pastors is the 
 normal law. In the other denominations, our own in- 
 cluded, most of the congregations have had a suc- 
 cession of pastors. The necrology of Presbyterian 
 ministers, pastors and others, resident here, embraces 
 names upon which it were grateful to dwell, if the 
 occasion would permit. Still more would it fall in 
 with my feelings could I indulge myself in reminis- 
 
Fortieth Anniversary. 161 
 
 cences of the dead of our own church. It fills me 
 with solemn, meditative thought, to reflect that if we 
 could call up from the grave all who have departed 
 this life since 1841, (there is no complete record be- 
 yond that,) a congregation of seven hundred persons 
 would file in through yonder doors and yf// these pews. 
 What an assemblage ! Infants in arms, laughing 
 children, young men in their strength, and maidens in 
 their bloom and beauty, old men with their crowns of 
 glory, mothers in Israel, eminent merchants, skilled 
 artisans, accomplished engineers, gallant soldiers, 
 ripe scholars, learned physicians, eloquent advo- 
 cates, profound jurists, generous philanthropists, wise 
 and patient Christian teachers, and very many of 
 the Lord's poor, His choice and cherished jewels. 
 How many hearts would bound at the sight. How 
 many eyes would brim. What household here would 
 not eagerly scan the up-turned faces in quest of the 
 " loved and lost " — the one, two, three, peradventure 
 in some instances twice three, whom death had torn 
 from their arms. "Loved and lost^' did I say? No, 
 Beloved, the infinite mercy of our Father has ordered 
 it otherwise. By far the greater part of those who 
 are gone, have fallen asleep in Jesus. Not in unkind- 
 nes5 to you, but in love to them. He came to take 
 
 21 
 
162 Fortieth Anniversary. 
 
 them to Himself, that the}^ might be where He is, and 
 see and share His glory. 
 
 " Mourners they were — they weep not now; 
 Sick - now they know not pain ; 
 And glory shines on every brow 
 Of that once feeljle train." 
 
 My heartfelt sympathy I tender you, alike in your 
 sorrow that they are gone, and in your joy that they 
 are gone to be forever with the Lord. 
 
 These bereavements bear one aspect to me which 
 they cannot, except in a very limited measure, present 
 to you. You are immediately concerned in a few of 
 them. I am concerned in them all. I was their 
 Pastor. They were my people. Did I watch for 
 their souls ? Did I kindly and faithfully instruct, warn, 
 comfort, and Qruide them ? Did I leave nothino- un- 
 done which might help to extricate them from the 
 toils of sin, to establish them on the sure foundation, 
 to cheer them in their work and warfare, and to in- 
 sure their final triumph? Alas, dear friends, as this 
 question has often thrust itself upon me while per- 
 forming the last rites for our dead, so it comes upon 
 me with overwhelming power at this moment. I dare 
 not say, I have done all that I ought to have done for 
 the dead. I know that I have not. One thing I may 
 humbly venture to re-affirm, I have for forty years 
 
Fortieth Anniversary. 163 
 
 preached the Gospel from this pulpit. I have set be- 
 fore all who worshipped here, the way of life and the 
 way of death. I have constantly invited and urged 
 you to come to Christ, and I have habitually tried to 
 comfort the people of God. For the favor with which 
 these ministrations have been attended, I again bow 
 my knees before God in grateful adoration. For the 
 sins and failures w^hich have deformed these services, 
 I again supplicate forgiveness. 
 
 What, then, Is the great lesson of this Anniversary 
 for you and for me ? We are all passing away. In 
 the nature of things, I cannot expect my ministry to be 
 prolonged for many years. It may terminate at any 
 moment. Yes, and any Sabbath may see some of 
 your seats vacant. Are we ready for the summons ? 
 Have we fled to Christ ? Are we sprinkled with His 
 blood ? Are we clothed with His righteousness? Are 
 we Imbued with His spirit? Are our loins girded and 
 our lamps trimmed, as those who wait for the coming 
 of their Lord ? 
 
 My dear people, bound to my heart by so many 
 sacred ties, on that day when the ransomed shall be 
 Slathered at the rieht hand of Christ, I would that not 
 one of you should be wanting. And I close up the 
 record of these forty years with the fervent prayer to 
 "the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the 
 
164 l^ortieth Annwersa7y. 
 
 whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He 
 would grant you according to the riches of His glory to 
 be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner 
 man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; 
 that ye, 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 ye might 
 be filled with all the fulness of God, 
 
 Now UNTO Him that is able to do exceeding abun- 
 dantly ABOVE ALL THAT WE ASK OR THINK, ACCORD- 
 ING TO THE POWER THAT WORKETH IN US, UNTO HiM BE 
 GLORY IN THE CHURCH BY ChRIST JeSUS THROUGHOUT 
 ALL AGES, WORLD WITHOUT END. AmEN." 
 
APPENDIX, 
 
 [See Preface.) 
 
 I. 
 
 The Pastor's health having failed in the Spring of 
 1847, his Physicians decided that a year in Europe 
 was "indispensable," His resignation was immediately 
 sent to the congregation. By a unanimous vote, they 
 not only declined to accept it, but made generous 
 provision for the supply of the pulpit during his 
 
 absence. 
 
 11. 
 Proceedings of the congregation on the occasion of 
 the Pastor's election, by the General Assembly of 1853, 
 to a Professorship at Princeton, (copied from one of the 
 newspapers of the day.) 
 
 PRINCETON AND DR. BOARDMAN. 
 
 Resohitions adopted tmanimoiis/y at a Congregational 
 Meeting of the Tenth Presbyterian Church, of Phila- 
 delphia, held June 7, 18^3. 
 
 Whereas, The General Assembly of our Church, 
 at its recent meeting in this city, elected our Pastor, 
 
166 Appendix. 
 
 the Rev. Henry A. Boardman, D. D., to the office of 
 Professor of Pastoral Theology and Church Govern- 
 ment in the Theological Seminary at Princeton ; and 
 whereas, this congregation feel it to be due equally 
 to their Pastor and themselves, and to the venerable 
 body that has been named, to give some expression 
 of their views and feelings in the matter, therefore, 
 
 Resolved, I. That we, as a con<^regation, under our present Pastor, are now, 
 and have always been, entirely united and haiTnonious; that we have been 
 greatly blessed and prospered under his ministry ; that we entertain for him the 
 most cordial love, and the most unbounded confidence ; that his separation from 
 us would be the sundering of ties which are of longer growth than those which, 
 ill a majority of cases, bind together husband and wife, parent and chdd, brother 
 and sister; and that we cannot contemplate such a separation without a feeling 
 of bereavement akin to that which marks the dissolution of any of those strongest 
 and tenderest of the ties of human affection. 
 
 Resolved, 2. That, much as we love Dr. Boardman, and deeply as we should 
 feel and deplore his loss, yet it is not this consideration mainly which moves us 
 to the belief that duty does not call him to the relinquishment of his present 
 pascoral office ; that Dr. Boardman, by his commanding talents as a preacher and 
 writer, and by other eminent qualities, equally rare and peculiar, is, m our 
 opinion, fitted, as few men are, for the office of a prominent city pastor; and 
 that, by the consistent and conspicuous use of these high qualities, during a 
 period of twenty years, he has acquired a wide-spread and most important in- 
 fluence, not only among his own congregation and throughout ttie entire Presby- 
 terian community, but among other denominations, and especially among pro- 
 fessional gentlemen, lawyers, physicians, merchants, men of literary and scientific 
 pursuits, and generally among those whose views and characters contribute 
 materially to shape the views and characters of the community. 
 
 Resolved, 3. That the importance of such a man, in such a post, is, in our 
 opinion, greatly underrated by those who would take Dr. Boardman from us ; 
 
Appendix. 1G7 
 
 that much as we vakie and love the Princeton Seminary, we think the vacancy 
 there existing, even if continued for another twelvemonth, would be less dis- 
 astrous to the cause of religion at large, than would be the removal of Dr. 
 Boardman from Philadelphia ; that the true issue, in this case, is not between the 
 Princeton Seminary and one isolated congregation, but between that Seminaiy and 
 the cause of Christ, already greatly weakened, in a great commercial metrojjolis 
 numbering nearly half a million of souls; that while Princeton has such men as 
 those pre-eminently able divines who now fill its leading chairs, no vacancy could 
 be so felt as would be the loss of Dr. Boaidman to this great and growing city. 
 
 Resolved, 4. That the personal and commanding influence among all classes 
 in the community, which Dr. Boardman has acquired during his long continu- 
 ance in his present charge, would be entirely lost to the cause of Christ by his 
 removal ; that the leaving of his present charge for the one tendered to him at 
 Princeton, is quitting a field of great and certain usefulness for one that is at 
 least untried, and that would certainly bring, upon a constitution already im- 
 paired by labor, the burden for active preparation for new and exhausting 
 duties requiring full health and unbroken energies. 
 
 Resolved, 5. That the influence of Dr. Boardman in awakening young men 
 to a sense of their duty in reference to the claims of the Gospel ministry, has been 
 extensively blessed by the Great Head of the church ; that, in our opinion, he 
 does render, and may continue to render as essential service to the cause of re- 
 ligion in his position as pastor of a large metropolitan congregation, as in any 
 other in which he could be placed ; and that this consideration is entitled to the 
 greater importance when we consider how few cmdidates for the ministry are 
 now coming forward in any of our churches. 
 
 Resolved, 6. That in addition to the considerations which have been already 
 presented, there are others likewise of a general nature, and worthy of grave 
 consideration, though connected wiih the movements of this particular congre- 
 gation ; that, under the promptings, and in accordance with the well-known and 
 earnest wishes of our Pastor, we, as a congregation, have entered upon a plan for 
 forming a new church and congregation in the midst of a most influential and 
 wealthy population in the southwestern part of our city; that this plan, now 
 nearly matured, and about to be consummated by the erection of a suitable church 
 
1G8 Appendix. 
 
 edifice with ample accommodations, is, in the providence of God, so connected 
 with the personal ministrations of Dr. Boardman, that his removal will entirely 
 undo what has been already done, and will, in fact, extinguish that important 
 prospective church ; and that, furthermore, the failure of this enterprise will have 
 the effect to retard, in other respects, the great cause of church extension, now so 
 auspiciously begun in this city. 
 
 Resolved, 7. That while, as personal friends of our beloved and venerated 
 Pastor, we cannot be insensible to the high honor which has been paid him by 
 the General Assembly, in selecting him to this important Professorship, we do yet 
 earnestly entreat him to take into serious consideration the facts and arguments 
 which have been now presented ; nor are we without a confident hope that he 
 will see his way clear to continue the relations which he has so long, so honorably, 
 and so usefully held among us ; that such an issue to the present crisis would be 
 received by us as a signal token of the Divine favor; and that we would thereby 
 feel distinctly called upon, as a memorial of God's goodness, to engage with re- 
 newed zeal in the important Christian enterprise already named. 
 
 Resolved, 8. That a Committee of five be appointed to wait upon the Pastor, to 
 urge upon his consideration the views of the congregation, as contained in these 
 resolutions, and as otherwise expressed at this meeting. 
 
 III. 
 
 Letter of Citizens of Philadelphia, referred to on 
 page 42 of this volume. 
 
 Philadelphia, June 8th, iS^j. 
 To THE Rev. Hexrv A. Boardman, D. D. 
 Reverend and Dear Sir: — 
 Although not members of your congregation, and 
 some of us not having the honor of your personal ac- 
 quaintance, we have ventured to address you in re- 
 gard to the recent action of the General Assembly 
 
Appendix. 169 
 
 of the Presbyterian Church, inviting you to the chair 
 of Pastoral Theology and Church Government, in the 
 Theological Seminary at Princeton. 
 
 As civilians, and belonging, many of us, to other 
 communions than your own, it would ill become us to 
 say anything on the question, as it lies between you 
 and the Theological Seminary just named. That In- 
 stitution, no doubt has strong claims upon your con- 
 sideration, and we are not surprised that the vener- 
 able body who have the control of its appointments, 
 should have had their attendon directed as it has been, 
 in seeking to supply the vacant professorship. But, 
 as citizens of Philadelphia, and interested in whatever 
 concerns its general welfare, we desire to have a hear- 
 ing. In common with our fellow-citizens, we have 
 seen with no little satisfaction the weight of influence, 
 which, as a Christian pastor, you have gradually ac- 
 quired among various important classes, not often 
 brought within the sphere of religious teachings — the 
 happy manner in which you have connected the claims 
 of Christianity with the highest intellectual and social 
 culture, making it thereby attractive to gentlemen of 
 education and refinement, without at all derogating 
 from its divine character and authority — the clearness 
 and emphasis with which, at different times, you have 
 set forth the social and relative duties of those 
 
 22 
 
170 Appendix. 
 
 engaged fn the various learned Professions, as well as 
 of merchants and others employed in the pursuits of 
 commerce. We have learned to recognize in you, 
 not merely the pastor of a single congregation, but 
 the dignified expounder of commercial and professional 
 morals, whose teachings and whose personal character 
 are of public importance. We feel that your de- 
 parture from Philadelphia would be a loss not easily 
 repaired, to the public Christianity of a great com- 
 mercial metropolis. It is for this reason that we have 
 presumed to address you on the question now await- 
 ing your decision, and ver)' respectfully to say, that, 
 as citizens of Philadelphia, we are interested in the 
 result. 
 
 Your most obedient servants, 
 
 Horace. BiNNEY, 
 George M. Dallas, 
 Charles J. Ingersoll, 
 WiLLL\M M. Meredith, 
 James Duxdas, 
 Garrick Mallery, 
 Joel Jones, 
 Charles Gilpin, 
 P. McCall, 
 Thomas Biddle, 
 Roblev Dunglison, M. D., 
 
Appendix. 171 
 
 Morton Mc Michael, 
 
 Robert M. Bird, 
 
 Samuel V. Merrick, 
 
 Thomas I. Wharton, 
 
 A. L. Elwyn, M. D., 
 
 William H. Allen, 
 
 Oswald Thompson, 
 
 St. George Tucker Campbell, 
 
 Henry McMurtrie, M. D., 
 
 William B. Reed, 
 
 Samuel F. Smith, 
 
 Henry M. Watts, 
 
 John Tucker, 
 
 John Richardson, 
 
 William Duane, 
 
 Charles Macalester, 
 
 Thomas D. Mutter, M. D., 
 
 John Cadwalader, 
 
 Richard S. Smith, 
 
 Lawrence Lewis, 
 
 J. R. Tyson, 
 
 Henry J. Williams, 
 
 Henry Vethake, 
 
 Joseph Pancoast, M. D., 
 
 Charles Gibbons, 
 
 Samuel Breck, 
 
1 72 Appendix. 
 
 Caleb Cope, 
 James Markoe, 
 William A. Blanchard, 
 John Grigg, 
 Stephen Colwell, 
 Charles Ingersoll^ 
 George Cadwalader, 
 Francis N. Buck, 
 J. J. Vanderkemp, 
 William D. Lewis,, 
 William Heyward Drayton, 
 H. Pratt McKean, 
 Benjamin Kugler, M. D., 
 M. Russell Thayer, 
 D. Haddock, Jr., 
 William Vogdes, 
 John C. Mitchell, 
 Joshua Lippincott, 
 Edwin M. Lewis, 
 Frederick Brown, 
 Thomas Earp, 
 John K. Mitchell, M. D., 
 John Haseltine, 
 Charles E. Lex, 
 John S. Riddle, 
 Samuel Allen, 
 
Appendix. 173 
 
 John Sparhawk, 
 R. E. Rogers, M. D., 
 Matthew Newkirk, 
 Francis Wharton, 
 S. R. Warrington, 
 John H. Campbell, 
 Thomas Fletcher, 
 Benjamin B. Reath, 
 Thomas Reath, 
 G. M. Troutman, 
 
 J. B. LiPPINCOTT, 
 
 Daniel Smith, Jr., 
 
 A. V. Parsons, 
 
 Thomas L. Bell, 
 
 Joseph Patterson, 
 
 Thomas Smith, 
 
 David Reeves, 
 
 Albert G. Waterman, 
 
 John Sibley, 
 
 Augustus Heaton, 
 
 E. Otis Kendall, * 
 
 James H. Orne, 
 
 J. M. Tyler, 
 
 Samuel Wright, 
 
 John C. Weber, 
 
 Isaac Elliott, 
 
1 74 Appendix. 
 
 John R. Bakek, 
 
 John B. ■Myers, 
 
 James L. Claghorn, 
 
 Stephen H. Brooke, 
 
 B. T. Pratt, 
 
 Albert Molton, 
 
 William G. Billin, 
 
 TnoiLvs G. Hollingsworth, 
 
 Archibald McIntyre, 
 
 Jonathan Patterson, 
 
 Edward D. Woodruff, 
 
 George Philler, 
 
 George W. Biddle, 
 
 John W. Ash me ad, 
 
 A. J. Lewis, 
 
 Arthur G. Coffin, 
 
 Joseph A. Clay, 
 
 Sat^iuel Jackson, M. D., 
 
 James Bayard, 
 
 Isaac Hazlehurst, 
 
 John Fausset, 
 
 Francis Hoskins, 
 
 S. B. Barcroft, 
 
 THo^L\s Beayer, 
 
 James Page, 
 
 J. Carson, M. D. 
 
Appendix. 175 
 
 IV. 
 
 The Pastor's resignation, in October, 1871, (from a 
 published report of the proceedings of the congre- 
 gation.) 
 
 REV. DR. BOARDMAN. 
 
 A congregational meeting of the Tenth Presbyterian 
 Church, Philadelphia, was held on the loth of October, 
 instant, [1871] to consider the resignation of the 
 Pastor, Rev. Henry A. Boardman, D. D. 
 
 After the reading of a letter from the Pastor, it was, 
 on motion of the Hon. J. K, Findlay, unanimously re- 
 solved that the following minute should be entered 
 on the records of the church ; 
 
 1. The pastorate of the Rev. Dr. Boardman over this Church has existed for 
 more than thirty-eight years. In that time the uniform purity of his Hfe, the 
 wisdom and discretion which have m.irked his intercourse with us, the gene- 
 rosity and kindness of his heart, and the tender sympathy which he has ex- 
 hibited in our seasons of sickness and sorrow, have bound us to him in hontis of 
 affection, whose strength it is beheved has rarely been equalled, and never sur- 
 passed, in the case of any pastor and his people. 
 
 2. In the public ministrations of the sanctuary, his correct taste, his accurate 
 knowledge of the Word of God, his large acquaintance with the human heart, 
 his powerful reasoning and his persuasive eloquence in presenting the truths of 
 religion, have combined to render him one of the great ornaments of the Ameri- 
 can pulpit. 
 
 3. The last previous occasion on which the continuance of his pastorale came 
 iiefore his congregation was in the year 1853. After he had declined calls from 
 
176 Appendix. 
 
 some of our most important churches, and refused invitations to preside over 
 several distinguished literaiy institutions, the General Assembly of the Presbyte- 
 rian Church elected him, against his will, one of the Professors in the Seminary 
 at Princeton. Thereupon, this congregation, its Session and Trustees, rose up 
 with united energy, and presented their protest against his removal. The 
 Governor of the State, in a written communication, seconded their opposition. 
 The leading members of the bar and business men of the city also presented to 
 the public their remonstrance, so that it became impracticable to carry out the 
 resolution of the Assembly. 
 
 4. For more than fifteen years longer he discharged, without interruption, the 
 duties of his great office. On the 6th of January, 1868, he preached discourses 
 which it was believed he had never surpassed. On that night he was stricken 
 with disease, and for several months the issue was doul)tful, until, by God's good 
 providence, he came out of the trial with his great faculties wholly unimpaired. 
 During this conflict he was watched by his people with the affectionate solicitude 
 which more resembled that of children for a parent, than of a people for their 
 pastor. 
 
 After the adoption of these resolutions, addresses 
 were made by various gentlemen, and the congre- 
 gation then, with great cordiality, again refused to 
 accept the Pastor's resignation. 
 
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