tihvaxy of ^he theological ^^minary 
 
 PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY 
 
 BX 9211 .P5 S42 1881 
 
 Dales, J. B. 
 
 A memorial discourse 
 
f-J 
 
 /'' 
 
A 
 
 MEMORIAL DISCOURSE: 
 
 1830-1840-1880. 
 
 REV. J. B. DALES, D. D., 
 
 PASTOR OF 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 Delivered Januiry 2d, 188 1. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, PA.: 
 Edward Pattkson, Printer, No. i8 South Third Street. 
 
Philadelphia, January 8, 1881. 
 Rev. J. B. Dales, D. D. 
 
 Dear Sir : The committee appointed by the annual congregational 
 meeting on January 3, to take steps to properly celebrate the fiftieth 
 anniversary of our church and the fortieth anniversary of your pastorate, 
 would respectfully ask of you the manuscript of the memorial sermon 
 preached by you on Sabbath morning last, with a view to its publication. 
 
 James Moore, 
 Wm. Arrott, 
 Jos. D. McKee, 
 Jas. D. Ferguson, 
 Jas. p. Murphy, 
 
 Committee. 
 
 Philadelphia, January 10, 188 1. 
 
 Messrs. Moore, Arrott, McKee, and others. 
 
 Gents : I very cheerfully send herewith the manuscript of the dis- 
 course delivered by me on January 2, as you have requested it for pub- 
 lication, and I have taken the liberty of adding some items of interest 
 to our congregation and the occasion. 
 
 With sincere regard, I am yours, 
 
 J. B. Dales. 
 
A MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 Deut. via. 2. — "Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord 
 THY God led thee these forty years." 
 
 Scarcely anything ever seems to be a more marked char- 
 acteristic and duty alike of all true religion, than that of 
 keeping in memory and from time to time manifesting 
 proper gratitude at the dealings of God with his people 
 in the ways of his providence and grace. So, doubt- 
 less, thought the man after God's own heart, when in some 
 of his sweetest and most exalting strains he cried, in the 
 77th Psalm, " I will remember the years of the right 
 hand of the Most High. I will remember the works of the 
 Lord: surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will 
 meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings." So, 
 more than a thousand years later evidently thought David's 
 infinitely greater Son, when he instituted that holy ordi- 
 nance of the Lord's Supper, which shall stand to the end of 
 the world the great memorial ordinance of the Church of 
 God, and said, "This do in remembrance of me." And so 
 must the great Law Giver of Israel have understood and felt 
 when under the immediate direction of God, and in 
 the presence of the more than two millions of the 
 
4 SECOND UNTIED PRESBVTKRIAN CHURCH 
 
 children of Israel as they had been brought up from small 
 beginnings and watched over and wonderfully helped of 
 God, until they had now become a great people, and 
 were about to go in and take possession of the long prom- 
 ised land, he then said to every one of them: "Thou shalt 
 remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee 
 these forty years," showing thus, by example and com- 
 mandment alike, that gratitude or a grateful remembering 
 and making mention of the Lord's doings in the past, is 
 ever a great standing duty of the Church and the children 
 of God. 
 
 And never, in our own case, atleast.has there been a year 
 of more marked and, in many respects, more interesting 
 and important anniversary^ events than the year 1880, — a 
 year in which the 13th of January was the fortieth anni- 
 versary^ of the call addressed to your pastor; the 4th of 
 June was the fortieth anniversary of his solemn ordination 
 to the ministry^ and installation by the Presbytery in this 
 pastoral charge; the 27th of September was the fiftieth 
 anniversary^ of the adoption of a charter for an incorpora- 
 tion of the congregation; the 4th of October was the 
 fiftieth anniversary of the organization of the church 
 by the reception of members and the election of Ruling 
 Elders; and the 13th of December was the fortieth anni- 
 versary of the entering of the congregation at length into 
 that dear old church edifice on Thirteenth street above 
 Market, where, in the course of the fifteen years that fol- 
 lowed, it may be believed many were made, by the 
 grace of God, to have their spiritual birth, while of it many 
 were often led to say, in the fullness of their holy joy : 
 " This is none other but the House of God, and this is the 
 gate of Heaven." 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL. 5 
 
 Such are some of the marked anniversary days that 
 have signalized the old year that has just closed, and that 
 calling for a grateful remembering of the leading hand of 
 a covenant God, during the long years that have passed, 
 make it appropriate forme to invite attention this morning 
 to some of the little less than wonderful things that 
 have marked these many years in the history of this 
 church and of your pastor's settlement in this charge. 
 The presenting of this in a connected story would be far 
 too long for this service. It is proposed rather to take up 
 the more prominent things that have characterized the 
 whole. 
 
 I. THE HISTORY 
 
 of the congregation and the pastorate. In the month of 
 May, 1822, a union was nominally consummated in this city 
 between the Presbyterian Church of the United States 
 and the Associate Reformed Church. By this act, all the 
 congregations of the latter body in this city were merged 
 in the former, and being thus without ministers and congre- 
 gations, the denomination here was practically blotted out. 
 Generally, however, elsewhere that act was not sanctioned 
 or in any way accepted. The Associate Reformed Church 
 still lived, and as persons who had been reared in it, and 
 who loved it as being in its principles and usages the church 
 of their fathers, and in their estimation, in accordance with 
 the word and the will of God, came to this city and in steadily 
 increasing numbers fixed here their homes, they desired a 
 church of this denomination. They found churches of various 
 other denominations around them, but they felt the want 
 of the church of their love. Prominent in this feeling and 
 first in the movement that followed for a new church was 
 a Mrs. Margaret McLandburgh and Mr. Jas. P. Ramsey, 
 
6 SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 
 her son-in-law, who had removed to this city from Chili- 
 cothe, Ohio. Largely at their instigation and that of a 
 few others, among whom were several young men who 
 had come to the city as clerks and employees in various 
 kinds of business, steps were taken in 1828 forfoundinga 
 church of the faith and worship they so fondly wished. 
 That movement beoan and was carried out in fervent 
 prayer; one of the petitions often being, as one of the 
 actors in it long after related, that if this movement was 
 not of God, and would not be for his glory, he would not 
 allow it to succeed. 
 
 It should be stated that as almost all who were inter- 
 ested originally in this effort were from the West, they 
 first looked to that quarter for preaching and counsel, and 
 they did not look in vain. The late Drs. Joseph Kerr and 
 John Riddell, of Pittsburg and its vicinity, gave them 
 encouraging correspondence ; Rev. Dr. Claybaugh, of 
 Chilicothe, Ohio, from whose congregation Mrs. McLand- 
 burgh came, and the Rev. Dr. Alexander Sharp, of Big 
 Spring, the early church of William McKee, and perhaps 
 others of the company, visited them, and greatly edified 
 them by their preaching. The late Rev. Henry Connelly, 
 then but recently entered into the ministry, was with them 
 some time during the summer of 1830, and by his hopeful 
 and indomitable spirit did much to prepare the way for a 
 permanent organization. But while the first movement was 
 thus under the auspices of the Associate Reformed Synod 
 of the West, yet being more directly in the East, the con- 
 gregation was transferred to the Associate Reformed Pres- 
 bytery of New York. The Rev. Dr. Mcjimsey was ap- 
 pointed to visit it and take steps for formally organizing a 
 church as soon as it might be found proper. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL. 7 
 
 About two years passed in these movements. At 
 length it was felt the time had come to act, and at seven 
 and a half o'clock, Monday evening, September 27, 1830, 
 a little band of persons who were thus anxious for an 
 Associate Reformed Church, met in the Classical Institute, 
 in this city. Jas. P. Ramsey was called to the chair, and 
 Wm. McKee was appointed clerk. After much deliberation,. 
 a charter which had been prepared by Mr. Connelly, who 
 was then supplying the place, was proposed for a legal 
 incorporation. One week later, Monday evening, Oc- 
 tober 4, 1830, the congregation met again, when the 
 Rev. Dr. John McJImsey was present. At that meeting 
 the charter was adopted, trustees were elected, and Dr. 
 Mcjimsey proceeded according to appointment to organize 
 the church. Five persons were received into member- 
 ship, viz : Jas. P. Ramsey, Robert Dunlap, Agnes Dunlap, 
 his wife, Mary Dunlap, and Margaret Dunlap. Messrs. 
 Ramsey and Dunlap were chosen Elders. The former 
 was ordained and installed in the chargre ; the latter, havine 
 been an Elder in the Associate Reformed Church at Pitts- 
 burg, was installed. Thus the infant church was formally 
 started on its course, under the name of the Associate 
 Reformed Church of Philadelphia. 
 
 Time passed on again, and on Wednesday evening, 
 July 2, 1834, Mr. John Forsyth, who had been invited 
 as early as the previous autumn to supply the vacancy, 
 and been called in the meantime to be the pastor, was 
 ordained to the ministry and installed in the church. Rev. 
 Dr. McCarrell, of Newburgh, N. Y., preaching from 2 
 Cor. v. II, and the Rev. James Lillie, at that time pastor 
 of the Franklin Street Associate Reformed Church, N. Y., 
 delivering the charges to the pastor and the congregation.. 
 
8 SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 
 Both of these excellent ministers of Christ entered years 
 ago into their rest. 
 
 Under this its first shepherd, the congregation was 
 much encouraged, and projected and did much good 
 work. But it was doomed to an early trial. In an 
 enfeebled state of heakh, Mr. Forsyth was compelled in a 
 little over two years to demit the charge, and preaching 
 his farewell sermon on the third Sabbath of December, 
 1836, the church became vacant again, and was made to 
 pass through various trials and difficulties until January 13, 
 1840, when your present pastor, who was then a student 
 in the last year of his course at the Theological Seminary- 
 was called, and on Thursday evening, the 4th of the next 
 June, was ordained and installed in the charge, the Rev. 
 Dr. Forsyth, his predecessor, preaching the sermon from 
 Phillipians iv, i ; Rev. Dr. McCarrell delivering the charge 
 to the pastor, and the Rev. David L. Proudfit to the 
 people. 
 
 It was an occasion of very deep interest. Many 
 friends cheered both the church and its young pastor 
 with their presence, and an affecting and fruitful God- 
 speed was devoutly given to minister and people as they 
 entered together upon the duties and responsibilities of 
 their new relation. A week from the following Sabbath 
 the first communion season with the new pastor was en- 
 joyed. Five persons were admitted, viz: Mrs. Jane Fer- 
 guson, Mrs. Margaret J. King, Andrew McFeeters, An- 
 drew Mitchell, and Lucy Mitchell, his wife, all of whom 
 have passed from our midst, except the first, who, in hon- 
 ored age still survives among us her husband, who for 
 many years was one of the purest members aod most 
 faithful Elders that ever occupied a place in this church. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL. g 
 
 At that first communion thirty-seven persons of the pre- 
 vious membership of the church sat down at the Lord's table, 
 only one of whom, Miss Margaret Gordon, is still among 
 us, in uninterrupted membership to this day. It was a 
 joyous occasion when, amid pleasant tokens of the Mas- 
 ter's presence with us, the Rev. Dr. D. C. McLaren 
 (now the oldest minister but one in our United Pres- 
 byterian Church), cheered our hearts on that beautiful 
 Sabbath morning as he preached of the " Bright and 
 Morning Star." Such is the early history of this church. 
 
 II.- ITS NAMES^ 
 
 Names are significant, and often there is much of his- 
 torical interest in them. So of this church. It was called 
 Fi'rs^, the Associate Reformed Church, because, belonging 
 to an ecclesiastical body that came into existence on June 
 13, 1782, when a union was consummated at Pequea, Pa., 
 between the large part of the Associate and Reformed 
 Presbyterian Churches. The body thus organized com- 
 bined the names of the uniting churches, and was styled 
 the Associate Reformed Church. 
 
 Second, United Presbyterian, because merged with its 
 denomination into a body that was organized May 26, 
 1858, in the city of Pittsburg, Pa. By the union of the 
 Associate and Associate Reformed Churches, that body 
 was appropriately denominated the United Presbyterian 
 Church, and in this particular congregation the title was 
 prophetic of the very marked spirit of unity and har- 
 mony that have ever characterized it — a church that is 
 Presbyterian in its government and faith, and United 
 Presbyterian in its history, its present denomination, its 
 principles, its leading characteristics, and its spirit. 
 
lO SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 
 III. OFFICERS. 
 
 First, Pastors. — In the course of the fifty years of Its 
 history this congregation has had only two pastors. The 
 first of these was Mr. John Forsyth, who was born In the 
 city of Newburgh, N. Y., graduated at Rutgers College, 
 pursued a thorough course of theological study under the 
 Rev. Dr. McCarrell, at the Seminary of the Associate 
 Reformed Church in his native place, and afterwards 
 passed a valuable season of study in the Divinity Halls of 
 Scotland. Returning then to this country, and de- 
 clining flattering Invitations which were extended to him 
 to labor in other places, he accepted a call from this con- 
 gregation, and was settled here. It was his first charge. 
 The dew of his youth was upon him. Bright prospects 
 were before him and the congregation, and much was antic- 
 ipated from his pastorate, when, under a threatened affec- 
 tion of the lungs he was compelled to retire. That pas- 
 torate was thus brief; but after the lapse of over forty 
 years its memory Is an evergreen still in the minds of 
 those who enjoyed it and are yet remaining, and no man 
 Is ever more welcome still In this pulpit than he who was 
 thus Its first pastor. 
 
 IV. PLACES OF WORSHIP. 
 
 These have been various. The first place of any for- 
 mal public worship was the school-room of the Classical 
 Institute on George street — now Sansom — above 
 Eleventh. The second was the lecture-room of the 
 Franklin Institute, on Seventh street above Chestnut. The 
 third was the small church edifice on Pearl street below 
 Eleventh — a building that had been erected by the Grace 
 Protestant Episcopal Church — and that was secured for 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL. I I 
 
 the benefit of our congregation by two of our members 
 generously becoming responsible for it. In that building 
 your pastor preached his first sermon for this congrega- 
 tion August 7th, 1839, from the words: "Being justified 
 freely by his grace through the redemption that is in 
 Christ Jesus," and there, like his predecessor, he was 
 ordained and installed. The fourth place was the church 
 on Thirteenth street above Market, to which the conere- 
 gation came with great joy December 13th, 1840, when 
 your pastor lectured in the morning from the Eighth 
 Psalm, and in the evening preached from the cheering 
 (and it was devoudy hoped, so far as our own church es- 
 pecially was concerned), the prophetic words in Ezekiel 
 xlviii. 35: "The name of the city from that day shall be 
 the Lord is there." In the afternoon the late excellent 
 Rev. Dr. John Black, of the Reformed Presbyterian 
 Church, Pittsburg, preached from the comforting words, 
 John xiv. 27 : " Peace I leave with you ; my peace I give 
 unto you." 
 
 In this memorable house of worship the congregation 
 remained until the communicants became so numerous 
 that they filled the entire audience chamber except the 
 galleries. The place was thus felt by all to be too strait 
 for us. After much deliberation and prayer, it was at 
 first resolved to remodel on that site, but afterwards it 
 was agreed to build on another and more eligible spot. 
 Accordingly, on the first Sabbath in July, 1855, your pas- 
 tor preached the last sermon in that old church from the 
 words (Gen. vi. 3): "My spirit shall not always strive 
 with man ;" and thence in the interval of buildine, the 
 congregation worshipped for nearly two years, first in 
 National Hall and then in Concert Hall, until April 2 2d, 
 
12 SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 
 1857, when with glad hearts and voices we came to the 
 lecture room of this new and noble bulldinor on Race 
 street near Sixteenth. The first sermon preached here 
 was by your pastor, from the words (Psalm xciii. 5): 
 " Holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, forever." 
 On the sixth of the following September we were per- 
 mitted, under the leading of the good hand of God, 
 to enter this large and well-finished audience chamber of 
 the building of our long anxieties, prayers and earnest 
 efforts ; your pastor preaching in the morning from the 
 words : " The Lord hath done great things for us, 
 whereof we are glad ;" Rev. Dr. J. T. Cooper in the 
 afternoon, from one of the sublime visions of John in 
 Revelation ; and in the evening the Rev. Dr. James 
 Prestley, one of his most eloquent discourses from the 
 words: "In all places where I have recorded my name^ 
 I will come unto thee and bless thee." 
 
 Thus the lone tenting^ were tabernacled at last. Seldom 
 does a purer or greater joy swell the hearts of any people 
 than as many of you may remember did ours when 
 literally "Then was our mouth filled with laughter and 
 our tongue with singing," while in a most marked manner 
 there was manifested a disposition on the part of the 
 members of the church to make fresh consecration of 
 themselves to God — to tell to all around how great things 
 he had done for us, — and to have our new and inviting 
 house of worship be a house of prayer for all people. 
 
 Hut it would not be proper to leave this part of our 
 history without a more particular account of the old 
 church edifice on Thirteenth street, from which we had 
 come. That church was built entirely according to the 
 will of Mrs. Margaret Duncan, a lady who emigrated from 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL. j-j 
 
 Scotland and settled in Philadelphia considerably over a 
 century since. Having after a time revisited her native 
 land, she had a long voyage on her return. The inex- 
 perienced captain was led far out of his way. The pro- 
 visions became well nigh exhausted. The sailors were 
 worn out with watching and toil. The ship was threatened 
 with certain and speedy wreck in the midst of the angry 
 sea. In that hour of awful peril, Mrs. Duncan retired to 
 her state-room, spent an entire day in fasting and prayer, 
 and then in the spirit of Jacob at Bethel, she made a sol- 
 emn vow that if God would interpose and send her deliver- 
 ance she would, if ever in any way able, build a house 
 where men might meet to worship and glorify him. Her 
 vow was heard. Her prayer was answered. God did 
 interpose. Mrs. Duncan was rescued. Entering at once 
 upon business on her landing, she was successful, and when 
 she died, November i6th, 1802, she left a will bequeath- 
 ing a lot upon which she devised that there should be erected 
 a house of worship, which she minutely described. She 
 provided, also, in proper form, all the money that would 
 be required to complete it. 
 
 This will was faithfully carried out, and on the 25th of 
 November, 18 1 5, that building was formally opened for the 
 worship of God, the late Rev. Dr. James Grey officiating 
 then as the pastor of a congregation that was styled the 
 Second Associate Reformed Church. That church build- 
 ing has long been known as the Vow Church, and signally 
 has it been blessed. Direcdy or indirectly, no less than ten 
 different churches may be properly said to have sprung 
 from it in this city, and its influence will be handed down 
 to generations still in the future. 
 
14 SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 
 In Mrs. Duncan's will the one only absolute proviso, 
 in addition to its being a house of worship, was that it 
 should be the property of a church belonging to the de- 
 nomination of which her pastor, the late Rev. Dr. Robert 
 Annan, was at that time a minister. That denomination 
 was, as was well known, the Associate Reformed ; and thus 
 when all the Associate Reformed Churches of the city 
 had ceased to exist, as they did in 1822, and our own 
 church was organized in 1830, its members immediately 
 claimed this building as being theirs by the will of Mrs, 
 Duncan, and it is one of the glories of our history as a 
 church, that at length all suits of civil law were withdrawn, 
 and on our payment of the amount expended by a sister con- 
 gregation — the congregation now of the Ninth Presbyte- 
 rian Church, then under the pastoral care of the late Rev. 
 Archibald Tudehope — and for many years since the useful 
 pastorate of the Rev. Wm. Blackwood, D. D.,LL. D. — we 
 came into peaceful and happy possession of it. And 
 when it became under the enriching blessing of God, too 
 small for its great purpose, the Legislature of the State 
 cheerfully passed an act authorizing the selling of it and 
 the investing of the avails in another church building, and 
 subject entirely and forever to the same proviso. That 
 was done, and this church buildinor in which we now 
 worship is the result. Thus here is still the Vow 
 Church. Through it, at the lapse of nearly a hundred 
 years, Margaret Duncan, though dead, yet has the gospel 
 preached. Ever may we, and all who may yet worship 
 within these walls, prove worthy of the trust, and be faith- 
 ful to it as those who properly feel that theirs is the church 
 of a most solemn vow. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL. I 5 
 
 The second pastor is still among you — the only minister 
 now of any branch of the Presbyterian Church who was liv- 
 ing and at work in this city at the time of his settlement, 
 and the only remaining pastor of any evangelical church, 
 with the exception of the Rev. Drs. Morton and Suddards, 
 of the Episcopal Churches of St. James andGrace,both of 
 whom, though retaining the honored rectorships ot their 
 cbngregations, have for many years had assistants that 
 have performed almost all the work of each charge. In 
 this respect your pastor has been signally honored of God 
 thus to stand now so largely alone. 
 
 Second, Ruling Elders. — Since the first organization 
 of the church in 1830, twenty-nine persons have been called 
 here by their fellow-members, and solemnly set apart to 
 the spiritual oversight of tliis church. Of these, eighteen 
 have finished their course on earth, and, it may not be 
 doubted, have gone up higher ; five are removed from us, 
 and six are still in their places in charge of the church. 
 With all of these men, but two, Messrs. Jas. P. Ramsey 
 and Jas. Black, your pastor was long personally associated ; 
 and he may say, as this day he does with a warm heart, 
 they were from first to last good and noble men — men 
 o-enerally without hobbies and not seeking the preemi- 
 nence, and such that almost without an exception, or for 
 even a moment never was there a jar or division in any of 
 our meetings, or a word that could offend pastor or fellow- 
 member. In all the vast round of matters that have 
 come before us for consideration or action decisions were 
 almost always reached by a real and substantial agree- 
 ment, and often without a formal or divided vote. Em- 
 phatically your pastor has had, in the session of this church, 
 his Aarons and Hurs; and the members of the congrega- 
 
I 6 SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 
 tion will ever do well to remember them who have thus 
 had the rule over them. 
 
 Third., Trustees. — In that early day when the congre- 
 gation sought to be incorporated September 27th 1830^ 
 several of the first persons that were elected trustees were 
 found to be ineligible either from their not being of age, 
 or from their not having become citizens. The first six 
 finally secured were Robert Dunlap, J. P. Ramsey, T. H. 
 Dickson, A. H. Julian, Wm. McKee and S. Sloan. In all, 
 there have been forty different men called to this office, 
 and entrusted with the management of the temporal affairs 
 of the congregation. In their hands have been largely 
 the procuring of our meeting places, the superintend- 
 ing and erecting of this house of worship, and the devis- 
 ing and raising much of the "means of carrying on the 
 church's operations. In all these things, and from the be- 
 ginning, they have in a marked degree been men that en- 
 joyed the confidence of their fellow-members in the church, 
 and have ever, in a most gratifying degree, justified that 
 confidence. Happily, they have ever been without strife 
 or bitterness in their meetings ; and so far as providing 
 for the pastor is concerned, have always largely had It, 
 that as it is strictly now all the stipulated dues for salary 
 are most scrupulously paid on the very day promised. 
 
 v.— WORK OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 This has been various. Only three forms of it may be 
 specially noticed : 
 
 First. — /;/ extending itself. The facilities for this were 
 for several years at first exceedingly limited. With no fixed 
 place of worship up to 1834, and with only a brief pastor- 
 ate until 1840, there was litde opportunity for any syste- 
 matic or enlarged work of church extension. Yet from 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL. 
 
 17 
 
 the very beginning the members of this church did what 
 they could. Almost immediately after the present pas- 
 toral relation was formed, plans were devised to gather in 
 hearers to the preaching and sinners to Christ. Strangers 
 removing to the city were cordially invited to find a 
 spiritual home in this church. Members having friends 
 emigrating hither from abroad, as large numbers thus 
 came for many years, particularly from the north of Ireland 
 and Scotland, felt themselves constituted special commit- 
 tees to seek them out and bring chem to the church, and 
 as the persons so brought found a worship corresponding 
 with that from which they had come in their Fatherlands, 
 and met with a cordial welcome at the hand of all, they felt 
 themselves at home at once, and in steadily increasing 
 numbers united with the church. Not unfrequently prayer- 
 meetings were opened in small streets where many people 
 were thrown together, and members of the church would 
 go from door to door, and invidng all to these meetings, 
 would be rewarded by seeing many come. Large num- 
 bers of these eventually found their way to the church and 
 became earnest and useful members of it. One woman 
 thus opened her house : She had not chairs enough, but 
 borrowing boards from a neighboring yard, laid them 
 upon boxes, and thus forming seats, freely invited her 
 neighbors in. Many came. At the first meeting, as we 
 sung the 23d, 103d, and other Psalms dear to many a heart, 
 and had exercises corresponding with them, it was ob- 
 served that several persons were much affected. One old 
 woman was found to have a certificate of good standing 
 at the time she left her home in Ireland, but it was now 
 seventeen years old. When asked why she had been so 
 long without a church home or membership here, she men- 
 
1 8 SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 
 tioned that when she first came she felt she was a 
 stranger, and finding the worship in the few places she 
 attended strange to her generally, she lost her interest in 
 churches, and for years now had not attended any church. 
 But now the long, dormant life was awakened. She soon 
 came to the church, then her family, and at length, from 
 that one meeting, as thus begun, twelve families came into 
 the church from that neighborhood. 
 
 As the members thus increased, and by doing what 
 they could were incited and strengthened to make greater 
 efforts, a feeling of interest was awakened on behalf 
 of what were then the outer portions of the city, and a 
 work of church extension was begun, in which the con- 
 gregation did a fruitful work. A few of its members 
 living in a locality where it was felt a church was needed, 
 would band together for prayer-meetings and sometimes 
 for Sabbath-school and other church work, and at length 
 a formal organization would be made. Thus on the 24th 
 of August, 1844, the session of this church organized as 
 directed by the Presbytery, the Second Associate Re- 
 formed, now the Fourth United Presbyterian Church, and 
 Rev. J. B. Scouller was called to be the first pastor. Early 
 in the following year, as a number of our members were then 
 living in Kensington, and only a few Presbyterian Churches 
 of any name were at that time in all that now populous 
 section of the city, a similar organization was made of the 
 Kensington Associate Reformed — now Presbyterian 
 Church — the church that has been so long and so success- 
 fully under the devoted and useful pastoral charge of the 
 Rev. W. O. Johnstone, D. D. On the 25th of February, 
 1848, the Third Associate Reformed — now Fifth United 
 Presbyterian Church, was organized near Fairmount — Mr. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL. 1 9 
 
 Joseph Warden from our session, and Mr. Samuel Patton 
 from our church, becoming the first two elders. Years later 
 several from our number were active with others in the 
 prayer-meetings and Sabbath-school work that resulted in 
 the formation of the Tenth United Presbyterian Church, 
 West Philadelphia, a church in which three of the five 
 worthy men that compose its Session at the present 
 time, viz : Henry Connell, Daniel Jarvis and Wm. A. 
 Stewart, were from our church. At the organization 
 February ist, 1867, of the North United Presbyterian 
 Church, which happily grew out of a mission Sabbath- 
 school that devoted members of oitr church had carried 
 on for several years, thirteen of the first fifteen members 
 were from this church, and also all the brethren that for 
 years composed its session, viz.: Messrs. Robert T. Elliott, 
 Jas. A. Elliott and John Spratt. 
 
 Other work of this kind was also done, the whole hap- 
 pily showing not only that Christians labor not in vain in 
 the Lord, but also how much may be accomplished if 
 only people will earnestly and persistently engage in 
 working for Christ and the salvation of souls. 
 
 Second. Sabbath-schools. — In consequence of its having 
 no steady place of meeting for several years, the congre- 
 gation was compelled to forego the privilege of any for- 
 mal work among the destitute children around. No 
 sooner, however, had a permanent place been secured, and 
 without waiting for the settlement of a pastor, than a 
 united meeting of the Session and congregation was held 
 April 23d, 1834, for earnest inquiry of the Lord, and of 
 one another, as to what should be done in reference to this 
 great work. At length Mr. William McKee moved that 
 a Sabbath-school should be formed. The resolution was 
 
20 SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 
 unanimously adopted, and a committee of seven — viz.: 
 Alexander H. Julian, Thos. H. Dickson, David Stuart, 
 James Ferguson, Matthew F. Lind, George A. D. Clarke, 
 Robert Dunlap, Jr., and Wm. McKee, were appointed to 
 establish the school. One of the ablest and most active 
 and efficient of all the members of the churcli was ap- 
 pointed Superintendent. Rules and regulations were 
 adopted, teachers were secured, and the school was 
 opened. All the neighborhood was visited for children 
 (the men taking one large part of the district for their ex- 
 ploration, and the ladies the other.) All classes and con- 
 ditions of persons were welcomed. At once the school 
 became a helper of the church, and soon there com- 
 menced a flowing which has happily never ceased, of con- 
 verts from it into the membership of the church. 
 
 That Sabbath-school has continued uninterruptedly to 
 this day — a period of nearly forty-seven years. Nor has 
 it been in vain. As nearly as can be ascertained, an ag- 
 gregate of over three hundred teachers, have been en- 
 gaged in its work. Something over fifteen hundred child- 
 ren have enjoyed its benefits. Several hundred have 
 come from it into the membership of the church. Mem- 
 bers have come from it to be elders and trustees in this 
 and other churches, while eight have gone from it into the 
 ministry of the everlasting gospel, and three have become 
 missionaries of the Cross far hence among the heathen. 
 
 Nor is this school relaxing its work. At present about 
 three hundred scholars are on its roll, about forty teach- 
 ers and officers are in charge of it, and durincr the last 
 year its offerings to the cause of Christ amounted to over 
 four hundred dollars. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL. 2 1 
 
 Third. Foreign Missions. — Besides doing- home mis- 
 sion service in its own immediate vicinity, and always 
 through the appropriate Board for the work of the church 
 at large in this land, this congregation has also ever mani- 
 fested interest in the cause of Christ among the heathen. 
 
 Six months after its first pastor was settled, or on the 
 fifth of January, 1835, a foreign missionary society was 
 organized. The monthly concert, or a meeting on the 
 first Monday evening of each month for prayer, on behalf 
 of foreign missions, was formed. Contributions began to 
 be systematically made for carrying on the great work. 
 Material help was given to sustain 'the late Rev. James 
 McEwen, as a missionary in India. An orphan boy in 
 Northern India, to whom was given the name of your 
 pastor, was educated from your funds, and has been for 
 years, as he is still, a faithful laborer in making the gospel 
 known to his benighted countrymen. 
 
 The spirit of this great work has happily continued to 
 this day in this church, and the influence is felt for good 
 in our own spiritual prosperity as a congregation here, 
 and in the carrying on of the great work of our Lord in 
 the missions of our church in Egypt and India. 
 
 VI. THE RESULTS. 
 
 These, it may be gratefully remembered, have been 
 various and manifest. 
 
 First. In Reo-ard to the Church. — And here no one 
 word more happily characterizes the long past which we 
 are remembering to-day than growth :- — 
 
 (i.) In membership. On its organization there were 
 five members ; at the settlement of your present pastor 
 there were thirty-seven. Those small beginnings have 
 
2 2 SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 
 gradually swelled into a goodly number of over diree 
 thousand that have been gathered in here in these fifty 
 years. 
 
 (2.) In places of worship. For the first four years 
 there was no fixed place, the congregation sometimes 
 worshipping in the school-room of the Classical Institute, 
 sometimes in the Mayor's Court Room, the back room of 
 the Musical Fund Hall, the lecture room of the College 
 of Pharmacy, then on Zane street, the Franklin Institute 
 on Seventh street, and then successively in the church at 
 Eleventh and Pearl streets, the church on Thirteenth 
 street, and finally in this large and commodious house 
 where every facility Is furnished for us and for our children, 
 and our children's children, to worship God and carry on 
 his glorious work. 
 
 (3.) In finances. At first, there being no house of wor- 
 ship, and no regular pews, the entire support of the ordi- 
 nances was provided for by annual subscriptions. In the 
 smallness of their numbers, these subscriptions had often 
 to be large from a few individuals. But in their love for 
 the church and its principles, they cheerfully made them. 
 Afterwards when they came into churches, the rents of 
 pews were depended on for years, and then as it was felt 
 that the worship of God ought to be free, and that it 
 should be sustained by the free-will offerings which every 
 worshipper is under solemn obligations to bring as an act 
 of w^orship into the sanctuary every Sabbath, the plan was 
 adopted of having no formal subscriptions and no arbi- 
 trary pew rents, but to have every person that attends the 
 church make a contribution, as it is conscientiously felt the 
 Lord has prospered him. This was believed to be de- 
 cidedly the scripture way, and to make it convenient, a 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL MEMORIAE. 23 
 
 package of small envelopes, having one for each Sabbath 
 in the year, Is urged upon every person at the beginning 
 of the year ; and on each Sabbath an envelope is laid 
 upon the collection plate with whatever every one thinks 
 it is his or her duty to give. 
 
 This plan has been eminently successful. It has furnished 
 regularly all the money that is required for carrying for- 
 ward the work of God in our own midst, and effectually 
 prevented all necessity for promiscuous or special collec- 
 tions for work abroad. All the contributions of commun- 
 ion Sabbaths are appropriated to the Boards of the church 
 at large, and are found to be ample for their purpose. 
 
 Worthy, also, is it of mention that God has led us to 
 that honorable and most proper position in which, as a 
 congregation, no debt hangs as a dark cloud over 
 our sanctuary. On the forefront of our church edifice it 
 may be truly written : " This is the Lord's — not the credi- 
 tor's — house ;" and our rejoicing before God and the 
 world is that as a church we " owe no man anything 
 but to love one another" — a state of things most happily 
 brought about by the generous spirit of liberality under 
 which nearly all the members of the church sought to avail 
 themselves of the privilege and the honor of having a 
 personal part in the work of presenting to God and the 
 world a free and unindebted church. In all this, also, 
 as often before the ladies of the congregation bore 
 such part in raising the funds which were required, that 
 the congregation unanimously placed upon its records its 
 grateful sense of their great effort and success in helping 
 to make our church financially free and independent. 
 
 (4.) In the cause of Christ. At first everything was 
 almost necessarily confined to itself, but there was also 
 
24 SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 
 early shown a wider spirit. The love for the church, and 
 its principles and interests, deepened. Longings were 
 manifested for revivings of the work of God. Personal 
 piety and household religion were sedulously cultivated. 
 Work for Christ in the Sabbath-school, in tract distribu- 
 tion, in the various religious and benevolent societies 
 around, and in all the operations of our own particular 
 branch of the church of Christ both at home and abroad, 
 was cherished and faithfully engaged in, and now for many 
 3^ears not a Board of our church has been permitted to 
 lack the portion that was each year due from this congre- 
 gation to help it perform the work committed to its hands. 
 Most emphatically has the aim of many of its members 
 been to have this church a light that could not be hid. 
 
 Second. Personally. — Just as he was twenty-four years 
 of age, and with but three sermons fully prepared, your 
 pastor came under appointment of the Associate Reformed 
 Presbytery of New York in August, 1839, to supply this 
 church. Before he was twenty-five he was invested, on 
 the fourth of June, 1840, with all the responsibilities of the 
 ministerial office, and of this pastoral charge. It was a day 
 of weakness and trembling ; but since that day he has 
 never preached as a candidate for any other pulpit. He 
 has been invited to other promising and useful fields of 
 labor both in the pulpit and in the professorial chair, but 
 never for one moment has he entertained the thouo'ht of 
 accepting any of them. He has never been laid aside for 
 any length of time, and for many years was never absent 
 a Sabbath in the year except when attending to official 
 duties in the service of the church at large. 
 
 In these long years he has preached, as God has enabled 
 him, over four thousand sermons in this congregation ; 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL. 
 
 25 
 
 has baptized 83 adults and 1,040 infant children, and has 
 received into the church 3,276 persons, of whom 1,321 
 were by certificate, and 1,955 o^"* profession of their faith 
 in Christ. He has united 917 couples in marriage, and 
 attended 987 funerals. In all the 149 communion seasons 
 enjoyed, there has never been one in which there were 
 not accessions made to the membership of the church. 
 
 In this long" review there are two things for which your 
 pastor is this day profoundly thankful. 
 
 First. — That while he has been thus spared in the good 
 pleasure of God, and enabled to preach these thousands 
 of sermons, yet with all the imperfections that have 
 marked them, he has never knowingly been permitted 
 to preach a single sermon from this pulpit that did not 
 somewhere and in some way set forth Christ and him cru- 
 cified as the only hope of the sinful and the lost, and to 
 urge men to believe in him, that they might not perish but 
 have everlasting- life. And 
 
 Second. — That while there have been shortcomings, 
 and failings, and manifold imperfections in his oversight 
 of this pastoral charge, yet he has never been made to 
 see and feel that sorest of trials to a pastor's heart — the 
 slight, or neglect, or unkindness, or ill-will and persistent 
 enmity of any of all the long list of his people. Many 
 have always done much to encourage, and help and glad- 
 den him, amid all the anxieties and trials of this ever-im- 
 portant charge. Some in being neglectful of their own 
 best interests, and persistent in holding back from the 
 right ways in which they have been most anxiously sought 
 to walk for their everlasting good, have been the occa- 
 sion of many a tear and many a prayer; but scarcely any 
 have ever been at all, or for any length of time, the occa- 
 sion of a pang for a personal unkindness or wrong. 
 
2 6 SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 
 Vn.— INCIDENTS. 
 
 In a long history like that of this church and its pastor 
 there have many things occurred, some of which may be 
 properly mentioned: First, of a painful kind. On Wednes- 
 day, July 2, 1834; the first pastor of this church was or- 
 dained and installed. On the following Sabbath, July 6, 
 James P. Ramsey, his earliest and one of his dearest 
 friends in the congregation, the first ruling elder that was 
 ordained here, and the man in whom he had most expected 
 to confide, was called away by death. On Monday evening, 
 January 13, 1840, your present pastor was called, the Rev. 
 Wm. Maclaren, then of New York city, moderating in 
 the call. The first person who subscribed to that call, and 
 the one that was one of the best known to your pastor of 
 all the congregation, and from whose experience, good 
 judgment and energetic spirit he expected much in the 
 anxious future that was opening up before him, was 
 William McKee. But that meeting was his last in the 
 church, and that signing of the call was his last public act. 
 On Sabbath morning, the 8th of the following March, he 
 departed this life. On April 22, 1857, we entered, after 
 long waiting and toil, this house of worship, and had our 
 cup filled with joy. In less than five weeks from that day. 
 May 27, 1857, Robert Dunlap, the first installed and 
 oldest of all the rulino^ elders of our church, ceased from 
 earth, and entered into rest — incidents affectingly showing 
 that many of the great movements in our history have been 
 signalized by the removal of dear ones from our midst, 
 and showing that God would ever have us feel that He 
 and not man is the abiding Helper. 
 
 Seco7id, of a cheering kind. Under a grateful sense of 
 the Lord's goodness in all the way in which he had led 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL. 27 
 
 them, five members of this church have remembered it in 
 their wills, and left in the hands of its Session or officers the 
 means of having good done long after they should be called 
 away. Deeply constrained, also, by the love of Christ and 
 with a sense of the high honor of being ministers of the 
 everlasting gospel, and thus of being instrumental, in some 
 measure, of meeting the wants of a perishing world, thir- 
 teen young men from our midst have studied in whole or 
 in part for the gospel ministry, eleven of whom fully 
 entered upon the great work of being ambassadors for 
 Christ, four of whom are now in useful pastoral charges in 
 our Church, viz: Revs. Wm. B. Short, Cambridge, N. Y. ; 
 Jas. A. Clarke, Prospect, Pa. ; David Anderson, Octoraro, 
 Pa. ; and W. J. Martin, Cabin Hill, N. Y. 
 
 Nor is one other incident of scarcely less rich fragrance, 
 as memory brings it up in delightful evidence ot the 
 interest the early members of this church always felt in 
 its welfare and good. On October i6, 1834, Mr. David 
 Stuart, brother of Mr. George H. Stuart, of this city, and 
 lately deceased at Birkenhead, England, was admitted, 
 on examination by the pastor, the Rev. Dr. Forsyth, into 
 the membership of this church. Here he remained for 
 several years, and here his first child was baptised by your 
 present pastor. Circumstances, however, called him to 
 remove to Liverpool, England, where he settled in his 
 business. In the spring of 1857, as the ladies of our church 
 were engaged in furnishing this new edifice, which was 
 then approaching its completion, they had your pastor 
 write to Mr. Stuart to ask the price in England of the 
 moreen required for cushioning and lining the pews, and 
 whether it would be anyadvantage for us to purchase it there 
 rather than in the United States. Some weeks afterward 
 
28 SECOND UNITED rRESBYTEKIAN CHURCH 
 
 his reply came to our door In the form of a full supply of 
 all the material desired, with the bill, amounting to nearly 
 $i,ooo, receipted in full, and a note in which, with an 
 express desire to avoid publicity, he subscribed himself an 
 early friend of the church, and bade it God-speed in all 
 its ofood work. 
 
 T/iird, of a rejoicing character. In that while all topics 
 have been more or less discussed in this pulpit, as they 
 were called for by the circumstances of the congregation 
 or the signs of the times, and as the best interests of 
 the church and the world at large demanded, there has 
 always been a systematic study of the Bible in course.. 
 In the order of these studies, expository lectures have 
 been given upon the First Epistle of Peter, the Lord's 
 Prayer, Jonah, Ruth, the Ten Commandments, Esther, 
 Matthew, the Epistle to the Romans, the Acts of the 
 Apostles, James, more than half of the book of Psalms, 
 and nearly all of the Gospel by John. Thus a large part 
 of the Holy Scriptures have been studied in their immediate 
 connections. While, too, in the course of those many years, 
 it is not known that there has ever been a family for any 
 length of time in our church that has not had some of its 
 members brought to confess Christ, and become members 
 of the church, it can also be happily said of several 
 families of from five to ten members each, the entire house- 
 hold have been led to take their place on the side of 
 Christ and be seated together at the table of the Lord, 
 giving thus happy anticipations of the time coming when 
 whole families from our midst shall sit down together at 
 the marriage supper of the Lamb, not one absent, but all 
 gathered in — not one lost, but all saved. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL. 29 
 
 VIII. 
 
 But many and eventful in interest as these years have 
 been to us as a church, what changes have been occurring 
 around us? Many of these come very impressively to 
 your pastor's mind and heart this day. 
 
 In the Presbyterian Church in this city, fifty years ago, 
 there were less than twenty congregations; now there are 
 nearly one hundred. The two Associate Churches and 
 the one Associate Reformed then, have become eleven. 
 And with the vast extending of the population and its 
 needs in these years, churches of every denomination 
 have been largely multiplied. Who .can estimate the vast 
 amount of good thus accomplished? 
 
 Very tender here is the recollection this day of the 
 co-Presbyters, who one after another have finished their 
 course and entered into their rest during this long 
 period: Revs. Andrew Bower, who died December 31st, 
 185 1 ; Thomas H. Beveridge, August 15th, i860; Geo. 
 C. Arnold, November 30th, 1863 ; James Law, July i6th, 
 1872; S. S. White, August i6th, 1876; W. C. Jackson, 
 December 22, 1878; D. M. Gordon, August 23, 1880; 
 Wm. Easton, D. D., July 25th, 1879; J. C. Campbell, 
 August 31st, 1879; and William Bruce, D. D., November 
 loth, 1880 — men most of whom would have been men of 
 mark anywhere, and all of whom loved and were loved as 
 Christian brethren, and were men conscientiously devoted 
 to Christ, to his church, and to his service. Very pleasant 
 is their memory. With every one of them your pastor 
 has taken sweet counsel, and walked with them to the 
 house of God. ' 
 
 Very pleasant, also, though affecting, is the memory of 
 the Evangelical pulpits of this city in that day. They were 
 
30 SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 well and ably filled. To say nodiing of the more recent 
 ministers, there were here then in the First Associate 
 Church the Rev, Chauncey Webster, who, with many pe- 
 culiarities, was always an instructive preacher; and in the 
 Second Church of that body was the Rev. J. T. Cooper, 
 D. D., now of Allegheny Theological Seminary ; then 
 in the freshness of a settlement here only about nine 
 months earlier than your pastor's, and- even then giving 
 rich promise of all the excellence and ability that have 
 marked his later years for good to the church and the 
 world. Here, too, then, were the Rev. Samuel B. Wylie, 
 D. D., of the Reformed Presbyterian Church — one of the 
 ripest scholars — a man who was emphatically a father and 
 a friend to a young minister, and one whom your pastor 
 can never forget ; and Rev. James McLeod Willson, who 
 was a genial friend In social life, and one of the most un- 
 compromising and able advocates of " Christ's crown and 
 covenant" everywhere. Here, too, at that time, were the 
 Rev. Drs. George W. Bethune, of the Reformed (Dutch) 
 Church, John McDowell, C. C, Cuyler, George Chandler, 
 Albert Barnes and Henry A. Boardman, of the Presby- 
 terian, the elder Stephen H. Tyng, of the Episcopal, 
 George B. Ide and Joseph H. Kennard, of the Baptist, 
 and John P. Durbin and Thos. H. Stockton, of the 
 Methodist — all men that were then in the fulness of 
 their matured and cultured powers — men of godly and 
 evangelical worth — and men that made the Philadelphia 
 pulpit of that day a name and a power in the land. But 
 time has passed, and with the single exception of Dr. 
 Cooper, not one of all here named is left in our midst, or 
 is now in the land of the living. They have entered into 
 their rest and their reward ; yet precious is their memory, 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL. 3 I 
 
 and hallowed far more than many may ever know In time, 
 has been the influence of some of them in their fervent 
 prayers, their genial spirit, their valuable suggestions 
 and their rare excellencies in the pulpit and out of it, 
 upon the ministry that you have had in this pulpit these 
 forty years. 
 
 What changes, also, have been in the country ! By the 
 census of 1830, the population of the United States was 
 12,866,020; in 1840 it was 17,069,453; and now in the 
 ever onward, and in this country rapid march of events, it 
 is 50,152,559, or is nearly four-fold greater than when our 
 congregation's half century began. ' Then slavery had its 
 deep impress on our soil, and was recognized and allowed 
 by our national government ; but in these years, and 
 under the sovereign movings of him who ever, sooner or 
 later, hears the cries of the oppressed, and rises up to 
 plead their cause, emancipation was decreed, and on the 
 I St day of January, 1863, every chain of slavery was broken, 
 and the; way was prepared for the first time in all our Inde- 
 pendent national history for "Liberty to be proclaimed 
 throughout all the land, and to all the inhabitants thereof." 
 
 What changes, too, in the work of the church abroad ! 
 With the exception of the American Board of Com- 
 missioners for Foreign Missions, which was organized in 
 1 8 10, and the American Baptist Union, which began Its 
 mission work in 18 14, there was not then a strictly foreign 
 missionary organization in this country, and not a single 
 evangelical church was distinctively or separately en- 
 gaged in this great work ; but now there Is scarcely any 
 branch of the true church of Christ that is not girded up 
 to it, and that with all the force of its denominational 
 name and power. In 1840 neither the Associate nor 
 
32 SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 Associate Reformed Churches had a single laborer in the 
 foreign field, or any distinctive hand as churches in that 
 service. One by one, however, both of these churches — the 
 former in 1843, and the latter in the following year — re- 
 solved upon it, and under their respective committees and 
 the Board, which was formed when the United Presby- 
 terian Church was organized in 1859, and their missions 
 were consolidated, they have in these years sent out 
 ninety-one persons to the foreign field, have had more 
 than half a million of dollars contributed to carry on 
 the work, and have now fifty-eight reported stations 
 under their care in the two missions of India and Egypt, 
 with seventeen organized churches, 1,289 native commu- 
 nicants In them, and 3,644 persons receiving daily instruc- 
 tions in the great truths of the everlasting gospel. 
 
 Most wonderful, also, have been the developments of 
 these years in the world's history and condition. The 
 navigation of the ocean by steam had scarcely at that 
 time been attempted; now it has become co-extensive 
 with the globe. The magnetic telegraph had not been 
 even dreamed of; now it traverses continents and 
 oceans alike, and has become a means of instantaneous 
 communication for individuals and nations the world 
 over. In these years civil oppressions and religious 
 intolerances have been vastl) laid aside: Russia has given 
 up her serfdoms ; China has opened her gates to the 
 world; Japan has entered upon the noblest civilization. 
 In 1848 began that trembling of the Papal civil power, 
 which culminated at length in its utter overthrow in Italy 
 in 1870, and made all that land, and the very city of Rome 
 itself, as it is this day, free to the gospel and the world. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL. 33 
 
 In one word, in this half century more than in centuries 
 before, the way has been prepared for the regeneration 
 and true elevation of mankind, for the evangelizing and 
 real civilizing of the world, and for the universal honoring 
 and glorying of God, 
 
 IX. FINALLY. 
 
 Members and friends of this dear old church : — 
 
 First. — Be thankful under this remembering of all the 
 way by which God has led us this half century and these 
 forty years, and show that thankfulness by a fresh and full 
 consecration of heart and life, time and substance, self 
 and all to the service and the glory of him who hath done 
 great things for us, whereof we may well be glad. 
 
 Second. — Be faithful. — Faithful to him who hath re- 
 membered his promises to the fathers, and hath blessed 
 their children — faithful to the principles and ordinances, 
 the love of which led to the foundation of this church, and 
 that have ever been, under the blessing of God, one of its 
 most distinctive and leading elements of usefulness and 
 good — and faithful to all the best interests of the church 
 itself, as dear to our fathers and deserving to be dear to 
 their children as it goes down the years and the genera- 
 tions of time. 
 
 Third. — Be devoted. — Devoted to Christ as the "all and 
 in all" for the good of the soul, and as the hope of the 
 church and the world — devoted to duty in the closet, in 
 the family, in the places of prayer, and in the sanctuary — 
 devoted to work in the Sabbath-school, the missionary 
 and Dorcas, and every other society of the church, and in 
 all the ways that are devised, and that God in his provi- 
 
34 SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 dence may call for, that good may be done, souls be saved, 
 the church built up, and God glorified. 
 
 The time is short. So live, that while you live you will 
 be felt, and that when you die you will be missed. So 
 live, that through your diligent, persevering, sanctified in- 
 strumentality, it may be said of very many, as this church 
 is pointed to, " this man was born there." So live, that in 
 some sense it may be said of you as of one referred to by 
 the aged Mrs. Lefevre, who at nearly eighty years of age 
 was gathered into our Sabbath-school and then into our 
 church. As her dying hour was drawing on, she one day 
 looked back with grateful memory to the little girl who 
 had first induced her to go to the school, but who had 
 since died, and said : " .Oh, when I reach heaven I will first 
 seek Jesus, and casting myself down before him will praise 
 him with all my heart ; and then I will seek Mary, and 
 finding her, will take her right up to him and say: ' Here 
 is Mary, who first led me in the way to thee and to be 
 saved.' " 
 
 Brethren, the time is short. Not as many years are 
 before your pastor as have been. Still, as ever in the 
 past, and onward to the end, his one highest and most 
 longing aim, next to the saving of his own soul, has been 
 and shall ever be, to have a great multitude of whom, as 
 they come from under the ministry of these long years, 
 he may be able to say, as he presents himself with them 
 before the throne, " Here am I and the children whom 
 thou hast given me." 
 
 My dear people, will you all be of that happy group 
 on that day? 
 
SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 35 
 
 Historical Record. 
 
 1830 — 1840 — 1880. 
 
 PASTORS. 
 
 Rev. JOHN FORSYTH, D. D., July 2, 1834, to Dec, 1836. 
 Rev. J. B. DALES, D. D., June 4th, 1840. 
 
 ELDERS. 
 
 *James P. Ramsey, Ordained and Installed, October 4, 1830. 
 
 ♦Robert Dunlap, 
 
 *Joseph Warden, " ' 
 
 *James Black, " ' 
 
 *William McKee, 
 
 *Thomas H. Dickson, " ' 
 
 *A. H. Julian, 
 
 *W. R. Grant, M. D., 
 
 *John Weir, ' 
 
 *James Ferguson, " ' 
 
 Andrew Braden, " " 
 
 ^Robert Vincent, " " 
 
 George Patton, " " 
 
 *James H. Dales, " 
 
 Samuel C. Huey, " • " 
 
 *William K. Hemphill, " 
 
 William Getty, " " 
 
 *John McCausland " 
 
 December 20, 1835. 
 October 6, 1837. 
 
 November 19, 1840. 
 September 3, 1848. 
 
 September 8, 1853. 
 
 December 10, 1857. 
 
 * Deceased. 
 
36 
 
 SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 Alexander McNeil, Ordained and Installed, December lo, 1857. 
 
 *James Wilson, 
 
 *James McCaughin, 
 
 *William D. McLeod, 
 
 John Alexander, 
 
 John Braden, 
 
 James D. Ferguson, 
 
 John McDowell, 
 
 Robert Glass, 
 
 Samuel Cummings, 
 
 *W. J. Wallace, 
 
 March 6, 1865. 
 December 9, 1875. 
 
 TRUSTEES SINCE 1830. 
 
 *Robert Dunlap, 
 *James P. Ramsey, 
 *Thomas H. Dickson, 
 *A. H. Julian, 
 *William McKee, 
 ^Samuel Sloan, 
 ^Andrew McFadden, 
 "'^James Ferguson, 
 ^Thompson Black, 
 W. H. Scott, 
 J. K. Bell, 
 *David Stuart, 
 *Robert Vincent, 
 Matthew Fife, 
 James Moore, 
 Samuel C. Huey, 
 *William K. Hemphill, 
 William Taylor, 
 ^Willam D. McLeod, 
 Andrew Braden, 
 
 *James H. Dales, 
 John McDowell, 
 *John Booth, 
 James Braden, 
 *J. W. Hewitt, 
 William Getty, 
 Robert Nelson, 
 *Robert McCausland, 
 John Cochran, 
 John M. Wallace, 
 Robert McKnight, 
 Robert T. Elliott. 
 Joseph D. McKee, 
 John S. Alexander, 
 William McAdoo, 
 James D. Ferguson, 
 James P. Murphy, 
 *W. J. Wallace, 
 James H. Purdon, 
 William McLaughlin. 
 
 ♦Deceased. 
 
SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 37 
 
 SABBATH SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS. 
 
 ^William McKee, 
 
 ^Thomas H. Dickson, 
 
 *A. H. Julian, 
 William Getty, Samuel C. Huey, 
 
 Joseph D. McKee, 
 
 William Getty, 
 
 Robert Glass. 
 
 PRECENTORS. 
 
 *Thomas H. Dickson, 
 
 Alexander Murphy, 
 
 *W. K. Hemphill, 
 *James Noble, 
 
 *Alexander Robb^ 
 
 Samuel C. Davis, 
 Joseph Loudenslager, 
 
 *John K. McGowan, 
 
 *John Gibson, 
 
 D. Musser McKee. 
 
 ♦Deceased. 
 
 Present Organization., 
 
 PASTOR. 
 
 Rev. J. B. DALES, D. D. 
 
 RULING ELDERS. 
 
 Alexander McNeil, John McDowell, 
 
 John Alexander, Robert Glass, 
 
 John Braden, James D. Ferguson, Stated Clerk. 
 
 TRUSTEES. 
 
 Joseph D. McKce, President, John S. Alexander, 
 
 James H. Purdon, Secretary, James P. Murphy, 
 
 James D. Ferguson, Treasurer, William McLaughlin. 
 
 PRECENTOR. SEXTON. 
 
 D. Musser McKee. Charles Lewis, I2g Gebhard St. 
 
38 
 
 SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 SABBATH SCHOOL. 
 
 Robert Glass, Superintendent. 
 
 James P. Murphy, Assistatit Superintendent. 
 
 Taylor Braden, Secretary. 
 
 James H. Purdon, Treasurer. 
 
 Howard R. Ferguson, ^ 
 
 Lewis F. Williams, \ Librarians. 
 
 Charles McCaughin, J 
 
 TEACHERS. 
 
 William Arrott, 
 Joseph D. McKee, 
 James P. Murphy, 
 James D. Ferguson 
 T. E. Patterson, 
 John McDowell, 
 Frank Getty, 
 William G. Garland, 
 John Blakely, 
 John M. Cooper, 
 John Murphy, 
 Robert Glass, 
 Robert H. Ferguson, 
 Harriet M. Breaden, 
 Elizabeth McFarland, 
 Elizabeth Arnold, 
 
 Sarah F. Dales, 
 Sarah Hollis, 
 Mary Gibson, 
 Kate A. McLaughlin, 
 M. J. Hollis, 
 Mary C. Alexander, 
 Isabel S. Ferguson, 
 Mrs. M. H. Jackson, 
 Mary McCaughin, 
 Margaret Wesley, 
 Susan Stewart, 
 Susan Purdon, 
 Ellen Woolley. 
 Agnes Martin, 
 Ella Braden, 
 Mary Glass. 
 
SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 39 
 
 PRESENT APPOINTMENTS. 
 
 Public Worship. — Every Sabbath, 10^ A. M., and 4 P. M. 
 
 Baptism. — First Sabbath, P. M., each month. 
 
 Communion. — Second Sabbath in March, June, September and 
 December. 
 
 Session. — Stated Meeting. The first Monday evening of each 
 month. 
 
 Trustees. — Stated Meeting. The first Monday evening of each 
 alternate month. 
 
 Lecture. — Wednesday evening, every week, at 8 o'clock. 
 
 Prayer Meeting. — Every Thursday evening, at 8 o'clock. 
 
 Sabbath School Every Sabbath, except on Communion days, at 
 
 2^ o'clock P. M. 
 
 Annual Meeting. — First Monday of New Year. 
 
 SOCIETIES. 
 
 TEMPERANCE BENEFICIAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 John Blakely, President. 
 Joseph Dougan, Jr., Secretary. 
 William Arrott, Treasurer. 
 James H. Purdon, Financial Secretary. 
 Meets every alternate Monday evening. 
 
 LADIES' MISSIONARY AND AID SOCIETY. 
 Mrs. J. B. Dales, President. 
 Ella Braden, Recording Secretary. 
 Mary C. Alexander, Corresponding Secretary. 
 Belle Ferguson, Treasurer. 
 Meets first Monday evening each month. 
 
 YOUNG PEOPLE'S ASSOCIATION. 
 John S. Dougan, President. 
 Robert B. Williams, Vice-President. 
 Robert J. McKain, Secretary. 
 Anna McFeeters, Treasurer. 
 Meets every alternate Tuesday. 
 
40 SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 BOARDS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 FOREIGN MISSIONS, 
 
 HOME MISSIONS, 
 
 ED [/CATION. 
 CHURCH EXTENSION, 
 
 FREEDMENS MISSION, 
 
 PUBLICATION, 
 
 MINISTERIAL RELIEF. 
 
 All the offerings of Communion Sabbaths are for 
 these Boards and the Poor. 
 
 " Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse and prove me 
 now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, and see if I will not pour 
 you out a blessing, until there shall not be room to receive it." 
 
SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 4 1 
 
 MEMORIAL MEETING. 
 
 On the evening of February 22, 1881, a Memorial Meeting was held 
 in the church to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of its organiza- 
 tion, and the fortieth anniversary of the pastorate of Rev John B. 
 Dales, D. D. A large and delighted audience was in attendance, com- 
 pletely filling the church. The vestibule, lecture room and auditorium 
 were tastefully decorated with choice plants. The pulpit was entirely 
 given up to a floral display, in which prominently appeared the figures 
 1830, 1840, and 1880. Large portraits of both pastors, handsomely 
 festooned, were conspicuous. The choir, under the leadership of 
 D. M. McKee, was full, and was well reinforced in the singing by the 
 choir of the North Church. The large audience joined heartily in this 
 portion of the service. 
 
 At quarter before eight the platform in front of the pulpit was taken 
 possession of by a number of ministers and others. Joseph D. McKee, 
 Esq., a son of one of the founders of the church, was in the chair. 
 After singing, and prayer by Rev. Dr. Blaikie, and some remarks by 
 the chairman, a paper was read by John Alexander, Esq., as a tribute 
 from the session to the pastor. A minute which the Trustees had pre- 
 pared and entered on their book of records was read by James D. 
 Ferguson, Esq. 
 
 It was a matter of great regret to all, that Rev. John Forsyth, D. D., the 
 former pastor of the church, was not able to be present, but a letter of 
 kindly greeting and pleasant reminiscences was read from him byWm. S. 
 Stewart, M. D. Mr. R. H. Ferguson read letters also from Revs. J. B. 
 ScouUer, D. D., of Newville, Pa., formerly pastor of what is now the 
 Fourth United Presbyterian Church of this city ; J. D. Gibson, D. D., a 
 fellow-student of our pastor in the Theological Seminary ; Rev. George 
 Patton, of Rochester, N. Y.; J. T. Cooper, D. D., Professor of 
 Theology in the Theological Seminary at Allegheny, Pa., and George 
 H. Stuart, Esq., of this city. 
 
42 SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 As a representative of the Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, Rev. 
 W. P. Breed, D. D., made an address, and was followed by Rev. James 
 Crowe, of the Ninth United Presbyterian Church ; T. W. J. Wylie, 
 D. D., and Rev. S. O. Wylie, D. D., of the Reformed Presbyterian 
 Church; Rev. David Anderson, of Octoraro, Pa., formerly connected 
 with the Sabbath-school, and by Rev. Wm. O. Johnstone, D. D., of the 
 Kensington Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia. A number of ministers, 
 and others interested in the Church, were present, but as the hour be- 
 came late, they could not be called on to make remarks. 
 
 The exercises were brought to a close by the ceremony of presenting 
 to Rev. Dr. Dales, by William Arrott, Esq., a handsome silver memorial 
 from the congregation. In a few well-timed remarks, he expressed to 
 the pastor the warm regards and the best wishes of the people. He also 
 presented to Mrs. Dales from them a beautiful floral ornament. To these 
 presentations the pastor responded happily. The audience then united 
 in singing from the cxxii. Psalm, 
 
 Pray that Jerusalem's peace endure, 
 
 For all that love thee God will bless ; 
 Peace dwell within thy walls secure, 
 
 And joy within thy palaces. 
 For sake of friends and kindred dear, 
 
 My heart's desire is "peace to thee ;" 
 And for the house of God, my prayer 
 
 Shall seek thy good continually. 
 
 And the benediction was pronounced by Rev. Francis Church. Thus 
 closed a meeting of great enjoyment and interest to all, and a fitting 
 celebration of the semi-centennial of our beloved Church, and a forty 
 years' pastorate. 
 
 PAPERS PRESENTED. 
 
 Mr. John Alexander, from the Session, read the follow- 
 ing paper: — 
 
 Friends and Brethren: On behalf of our Session, we are desired 
 to say a few words to you upon this peculiarly interesting occasion — the 
 fiftieth anniversary of our congregation, and the fortieth of the settle- 
 ment of our pastor. 
 
SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 43 
 
 And in the first place we wish to express the great pleasure, which we 
 are sure all the congregation feel, in having our anniversary graced with 
 the presence of so many distinguished co-workers and friends of our 
 pastor and his people. 
 
 This token of Christian courtesy and good-will we cordially accept 
 as a harbinger of the happy day when the watchmen on Zion's walls 
 shall see eye to eye, and we all be made one in Christ. 
 
 Upon this double anniversary, there comes before the mind's eye a 
 long line of faithful men, who should be held in everlasting remem- 
 brance for their works of faith and labors of love in this congregation, 
 but who have been taken to their higher reward, the fruit of whose self- 
 sacrificing services we their successors now enjoy, and would do well to 
 cultivate and perpetuate. Those men were the Aarons and Hurs who 
 stayed up the hands of our Moses, so that, under God, our Israel pre- 
 vailed, and the gospel has been heard from his mouth for the space 
 oi forty years. 
 
 In this age of itching ears and love of change, the length and har- 
 mony of our pastorate furnish an example alike creditable to pastor 
 and people. 
 
 The object of our assembling, and the coming of our friends to our 
 assistance, is that we may consider together all the way that God has led 
 us, and to thank him for the past, and invoke his blessing and guid- 
 ance in the future, as well as do honor to our faithful and beloved 
 pastor, and to show appreciation of his arduous, long, and loving service. 
 
 On behalf of the Ruling Elders, we earnestly ask, that in the future 
 we may enjoy in an increasing degree the co-operation of the people, by 
 which we may be enabled more fully to aid and relieve the untiring 
 labors ot our pastor. 
 
 Ruling Elders too often do little because little is required of them, and 
 little is required of them because they do little. 
 
 On behalf of the Session specially, we would like to say much more 
 than time permits, and merely suggest a few thoughts, which from our 
 standpoint we submit for the earnest consideration of all. One is, 
 that while we should rejoice with thanksgiving in the confidence that 
 many souls have been gathered here, who will contribute to the lustre 
 of the crown of our glorious Redeemer, we may all be humbled in view 
 of the comparatively little that has been done in our day in aid of the 
 pastor in evangelical work in the church and in the community. Most 
 
44 SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 earnestly we hope that each member of the congregation will feel that 
 there is a personal obligation resting on him or her to fill efficiently 
 some post in our Lord's work, both in the church and in the community. 
 
 If time permitted, and the characteristic modesty of our pastor and 
 his exceptionally efficient help-mate would allow it, and if it were neces- 
 sary in their presence, we would delight to pay some just tribute to their 
 united efficiency in the Christian work of the church and community, 
 because we know that much of our success is justly attributable, even in 
 the financial as well as the other interests of the congregation, to the 
 laborious work and hearty co-operation of Mrs. Dales. 
 
 In conclusion, let us all give good heed to the word of God which 
 has been preached unto us, being confident our honored pastor can have 
 no greater joy than to hear that his children walk in the truth. 
 
 Mr. James D. Ferguson, a son of one of the former 
 Elders of the Church, read the following, from the Board 
 of Trustees: — 
 
 The congregation, at its annual meeting in January last, having pro- 
 vided for a Memorial Meeting to commemorate the forty-first year of 
 the service of our pastor, the Trustees have directed the following paper 
 to be read upon this occasion, and placed upon their minutes: 
 
 We, as a body, join heartily with our fellow-members of the church 
 in congratulating our beloved pastor, that he and we have been favored 
 together by the good hand of God for so many years in having him 
 minister unto us of the things concerning salvation, and that his labors 
 and prayers have been so manifestly blessed by the Holy Spirit. We 
 rejoice that his ministry has been so acceptable and full of good works 
 to all who have been under its influence, so that children's children 
 to the third generation have risen up to call him blessed. 
 
 Under his fostering care we have grown from the feeblest beginnings 
 until we have become one of the largest churches of our United Presby- 
 terian body. 
 
 We are free from all encumbrance of debt — owing no man anything 
 — and have been enabled to contribute liberally to the Boards of our 
 church and to other religious and benevolent objects. Our growth has 
 been steady and constant, sufi'ering at no time any material check or 
 
SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 
 45 
 
 hindrance. In all our relations, we have been favored with harmony 
 and united effort for the prosperity of Zion, and the evidences are all 
 around us that the blessing has not been withheld. 
 
 We fervently and heartily congratulate you here pu^icly, dear pastor, 
 that we are thus permitted to rejoice together at the goodness and faith- 
 fulness of God, and we join our prayers with those of all our people 
 that goodness and mercy may still continue to follow you and your 
 labors until we shall all stand together, pastor and people, among the 
 redeemed, in the church above. 
 
 LETTERS. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Forsyth, the first Pastor of the Church, sent 
 the following letter: 
 
 U. S. Military Academy, West Point, N. Y. 
 
 February 21, 1881. 
 My Dear Dr. Dales: 
 
 It is a bitter disappointment to me that I cannot be with you to join 
 in the interesting commemorative exercises of to-morrow evening, in 
 consequence of a broken arm not yet restored to its normal state, and a 
 severe cold. How I long to look upon the face of my dear old church 
 — I cannot say my old people, for, with very few exceptions, as our 
 Moravian friends say, they "have gone home," and are now at rest with 
 Christ. But while church members die or disappear, the church lives, 
 so if I take any part in your meeting, it must be "by letter," and not 
 in "bodily presence." 
 
 Well, if I were with you, I presume thai my share would be to give you 
 my recollections of the church, previous to the time when you entered 
 into my poor labors. I supplied the church some three months before 
 1 was ordained and installed as Pastor. We first met in the school-room 
 of the late Mr. J. P. Engles, in Sansom street, which was about the size 
 of your old parlor in Filbert street, and, at first, if my congregation had 
 been doubled, each one would have had plenty of elbow room. Indeed, 
 for the first month — April — it seemed as if Nature intended to extinguish 
 uswith deluges of rain. All through the week, from Monday until Saturday 
 
46 SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 
 evening, we had beautiful weather, but on Sabbath down came the rain, 
 with the apparently accumulated strength of a whole week. I was a really 
 inexperienced youth, and my people (I will mention their names pres- 
 ently) were few \^ number, but they were animated by a truly heroic 
 spirit. They were determined to re-establish in Philadelphia an Asso- 
 ciate Reformed Church, and they did it. A chureh which has been for 
 many a year and continues until this day, strong in numbers and in in- 
 fluence. 
 
 Let me give you the names of those who formed that little church in the 
 school-room. They were Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Ramsey, Mrs. Lind, their 
 sister, and Mr. M. Lind, her step-son. Mr. Ramsay you never knew, but 
 his memory should be ever warmly cherished by your church. He was 
 one of the loveliest men with whom I have ever been acquainted. He 
 was then in the grasp of that disease which in a few months terminated 
 his useful life. But his zeal and energy were unabated, and I have some- 
 times thought that but for him the Church would have ceased to be. Then 
 there were Mr. and Mrs. Dunlap and their son Robert, and daughters— one 
 of whom, my dear and valued friend, you ought to know and value more 
 than any other man, — Mr. and Mrs. Thos. H. Dickson, McKee, Julian, 
 David Stuart (afterwards, and for many years one of the princely mer- 
 chants of Liverpool), dear old father Black, and some others whose 
 names escape me at this moment. I am a poor hand at remembering 
 names, but their faces I vividly see. 
 
 In the following May or June — I am not certain which — we removed 
 into the little Grace Church, Eleventh street above Vine, which had been 
 occupied by the congregation of which I think the venerable Dr.Suddards 
 is still rector. There our congregation soon grew in numbers, especially 
 in the evening, when I had regularly among my hearers members of 
 Dr. Boardman's, and of my venerated friend Dr. S. B.Wylie's. Two days 
 after my ordination my dear friend Mr. Ramsey entered into his rest, 
 and his funeral was the first at which 1 officiated, assisted by Mr. VV. L. 
 McCalla and Dr. John Breckinridge in the burial ground beside the 
 old Scots Church, in Spruce street. I was then boarding in a good 
 old Orthodox Quaker family in the lower part of Arch street, with Mc- 
 Kee, Julian, David Stuart, and I think our dear friend Geo. H. Stuart, 
 who was then, as he is now a member of Dr. Wylie's church. I thought 
 that our enterprise was buried in Mr. Ramsey's grave. But a day or 
 so afterwards, I went into McKee's room — if the house is standing, 1 
 
SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 47 
 
 could show you the very room and spot where the interview occurred 
 — I said to him, " Well, what is to be done? " "Done? " said he, 
 "why the church is to go on, and if it is necessary I will support it my- 
 self." He would have done it, but he was sustained by dear Julian, who 
 had an indomitable courage, though to hear him talk you would have 
 said that he was a doubting Thomas. O, how I loved those men ! 
 Their memory is as dear to me as if they had been my own brothers. 
 And let me here say that the names Ramsey, Dunlap, McKee and 
 Julian deserve to be preserved in memorial tablets on the walls of your 
 Race Street Church, for I am persuaded that without them that church 
 never would have existed. 
 
 After we removed to the little Grace Church, both the church and 
 congregation grew in numbers. There were some who were simply 
 pew holders of whom I have a distinct remembrance, among whom 
 were Dr. Moore, long at the head of the Mint, Mrs. Moore and her 
 venerable mother, Mrs. Patterson, the widow of the first director of 
 the Mint, Dr. R. Patterson ; Mr. Sheepshanks, of Vine street, and his 
 mother-in-law, Mrs. Spencer, the daughter of one of the early pastors 
 of the Second Presbyterian Church. 
 
 My first marriage ceremony was that of my dear friends, McKee and 
 Julian. It was for me a tremendous business, and in order to make 
 sure that the affair would be rightly done, I think that I must have 
 bound all the chairs in my room half a dozen times. 
 
 I do not know how diligent you have been, my dear brother, in 
 family visitation, but 1 doubt whether you have ever come up to my 
 measure. I had then no wife either to help or to bother me, and at least 
 every month — I think even more frequently — I saw all the families 
 under my care. 
 
 There are two churches far dearer to my heart than any others with 
 which I have been or ever can be associated. They are yours, and 
 Union Church, Newburgh, of each of which I was the first pastor. My 
 prayer for you and your dear people is, that you may be spared to each 
 other for many years to come — at least to celebrate your semi-centennial. 
 If it were proper, in any case, to envy anybody, I feel as if I could 
 envy you ; but, no. I give thanks to our dear Lord and Master, that 
 you have been spared to labor with such signal success in one field. 
 My prayer for my old church and your dear people is, " Let thy work 
 appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children ; and let 
 
48 SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 
 the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish thou the 
 work of our hands upon us ; yea, the work of our hands establish thou 
 it." Believe me, affectionately yours, 
 
 JOHN FORSYTH. 
 
 Letter from Rev. Dr. J. D. Gibson: 
 
 South Kortright, N. Y., February 16, 188 1, 
 Rev. Dr. Dales, D. D. 
 
 My dear Brother : Your letter of the nth inst., inviting me to be 
 present at the meeting to be held by your people on Tuesday next, for 
 the purpose of commemorating the things of the past, in their ecclesias- 
 tical history, which ought not to be forgotten, was duly received. 
 Thanks for the favor. 
 
 My first emotion on reading it was most pleasurable. 1 almost fan- 
 cied myself already upon the ground with you in Philadelphia, and that 
 we were going back together to revisit the scenes of our enrly days in 
 the dear old Seminary at Newburgh — to wend our way once more with 
 Hebrew Bible or Greek Testament under our arm — to sit at ihe feet of 
 that great and good man. Dr. McCarrell, and, after the recitation, to 
 have him clasp us in his arms until we felt in every nerve that he loved 
 us and that we loved him ; or it might be to go down to the basement 
 of Union Church and listen once more to those rich and scholarly lec- 
 tures upon ecclesiastical history, delivered by Prof. Forsyth ; and that 
 having started at that never-to-be-forgotten point, we would talk of the 
 forty years' journey which you and 1 have made, during which we have 
 had the bread of heaven to eat, and have drunk water from the rock. 
 
 But after all, I have to say, I cannot go to your meeting, and I am 
 very sorry. May the blessing of the God of Israel rest largely upon 
 you and your people. Yours in the best bonds, 
 
 JOHN D. GIBSON. 
 
 Rev. George Patton, for many years a member of the 
 
 conoreoation, wrote : 
 
 Rochester, N. Y. , February ij, 1881. 
 Rev. J. B. Dales, D. D 
 
 My dear Pastor : I never feel like beginning a letter to you in any 
 other vv'ay ; for though I have been a pastor myself for twenty-five years. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL. 49 
 
 I feel as if you were still my pastor. If we were near you, my wife and 
 myself would advise with you as we did in the years gone by. 
 
 I wish we could be with you on the 2 2d, but our duties here require 
 that we forego the pleasure of gathering with others in the dear old 
 church home. 
 
 So the Lord has granted you the great privilege of being the pastor of 
 one flock for over forty years. What a history must be in that short 
 sentence — " a pastor for forty years." How many joys and sorrows? 
 how many trials and blessings ? how many have been gathered into the 
 church on earth ? how many have gone home to glory ? 
 
 I recall such names as Dunlap, Julian, Dickson, Ferguson, Moore, 
 Hemphill, McElroy, Taylor, James H. Dales, McLeod, Braden, and 
 many others. 
 
 I am amazed when I think that so many ^re in heaven. Is it not a 
 delightful thought, as we are growing old, to know we have more friends 
 in heaven than on earth? 
 
 It is now more than thirty-five years since we first met. I was then a 
 boy. I cannot write the history of those years, yet they pass before me 
 like a. panorama, and the thought of my heart is, God bless John B. 
 Dales. 
 
 You, my dear pastor, first led me to hope that I might enter the 
 ministry. If I can fix any one time when I felt specially called to it, it 
 was while hearing you preach from the words, "Whom shall I send, and 
 who will go for us?" in the old church on Thirteenth street. Never 
 shall I forget that night. I can see you and hear you yet. For twenty- 
 five years you have been preaching Christ through one whom God helped 
 you deeply to impress. 
 
 You know what followed. Through those long and sometimes dark 
 years of preparation you were ray faithful friend and adviser. 
 
 You helped to license me to preach the gospel. You were with me 
 at my first communion in the dear old church of Seneca, N. Y. You pro- 
 nounced the words by which I obtained one of the most faithful wives 
 any man ever had. Dear pastor, it will soon be thirty years since we 
 parted. We shall not likely see much of each other in this world, but 
 I believe we shall all be yet joined together above. God bless you and 
 your family, and the dear old church. May the peace of God rest with 
 you now and forever. Yours in Christ, 
 
 GEORGE PATTON. 
 
50 SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 
 Letter from Rev. Dr. Scouller : 
 
 Newville, Pa., February ig, 1881. 
 
 My dear Brother : I am greatly obliged to you for your kind invi- 
 tation to attend your memorial service on Tuesday next. It would cer- 
 tainly afford me much pleasure to do so, and thus turn back the shadow 
 upon the dial for tlie last third of a century. But it cannot be. You 
 \no\y now I am dry-docked here, without the prospect of very extensive 
 repairs. 
 
 I have— and good reason to have — more than ordinary interest in 
 both you and your congregation. And I find that, as I grow old, my 
 thoughts and affections turn more frequently and more tenderly towards 
 the days and the companions of my youth. The memories of forty 
 years ago are fresh and greener than those of last year. 
 
 In 1844 I was planted down by your side as your first co-presbyter 
 and fellow-laborer in your city ; and when we separated, I went directly 
 to your childhood's old home to become the pastor of your father and 
 mother, and brothers and sister. I have been with you in many scenes 
 and seasons of labor and of enjoyment, and I have been with you in 
 the hour of sore bereavement, and performed the last sad ministerial 
 rites over the dust of a beloved wife. Our intercourse in person and 
 by letter has been frequent, continuous and pleasant. And now, after 
 God has given to you an abundant harvest, and is giving you a time and 
 place to turn and look back, and review the way by which He has 
 brought you, I trust and pray that you may have the divine assurance 
 that the sins and faults of youth are forgiven, and that your life's work 
 has been accepted. And that in the strength of this assurance you may 
 be enabled to go on steadily and usefully until the setting sun will call 
 you home to that rest and reward which wait the return of the weary 
 laborer. 
 
 I have always felt a kind of family interest in your congregation. It 
 was founded principally by Mrs. McLandburgh, my father's cousin, and 
 her son-in-law, James P. Ramsey, and William McKee, my own cousin. 
 They, together with a few others, petitioned the Associate Reformed 
 Presbytery, of Big Spring, on the 28th of April, 1829, to be recognized 
 as a mission station, and to be supplied with preaching. The Presby- 
 tery received them, and for a year granted them considerable supply. 
 But the growing infirmities of the venerable Thomas Smith left the 
 
SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 5 I 
 
 necessities of the Presbytery beyond its ability, and in 1830 this mission 
 station was transferred to the Presbytery of New York, which had better 
 facilities for cherishing it. And there it remained until the organiza- 
 tion of the Presbytery of Philadelphia in 1845. 
 
 The real founder of the congregation was Mrs. Margaret McLandburgh, 
 a woman of many rare excellencies, and whose life afforded much mate- 
 rial for an interesting biography. Her parents, William and Margaret 
 Young, were natives of Scotland. Covenanters in religion, married in 
 York county. Pa., most probably by the Rev. John Cuthbertson ; they 
 had a family of five sons and one daughter, and they both died in 1779, 
 when Margaret was but two years old. Her mother's only brother, my 
 grandfather, as next of kin, took charge of the orphaned children, and 
 brought up the baby girl as the companion of his own youngest daughter, 
 who became the mother of William McKea. She married Henry Mc- 
 Landburgh, of Adams county, and soon afterward settled in Chillicothe 
 while Ohio was yet a territory. As a wife, she did her part nobly, and 
 when left a widow with three children, she took charge of a large busi- 
 ness, and managed it with skill and energy. To enlarge that business, 
 she moved, in 1827 or 1828, to Philadelphia, and entered into the 
 wholesale trade. While thus engaged, she was instrumental in founding 
 an Associate Reformed Church in Philadelphia, just as she had done 
 nearly thirty years before in Chillicothe. After returning to Chillicothe 
 she gave up her business to her sons, and gave her time to her friends 
 and her church, and good books. She was well known to all the min- 
 isters of our church in the West, for she was given to hospitality, and 
 had ample means with which to sustain it. In person, tall and gaunt, with 
 a mind clear and strong, she was ready to grapple with anything in business 
 or in theology. One of the oldest professors of theology in our church 
 supplied in Chillicothe between the pastorates of Drs. Claybaugh and 
 W. T. Findley, and he told me that after a pretty lengthy experience as an 
 inmate of her family, he stood in more awe of her theological catechising 
 than of any of all his acquaintances. She long outlived her usefulness 
 and her enioyment, for she became blind and deaf, and died but a few 
 years ago well on in her nineties. 
 
 I first worshipped in your congregation in April, 1839. It was then 
 vacant, and William McKee seemed to have the general oversight, for 
 he led the prayer-meeting, visited the sick, etc. A wonderful man, 
 who did a life's work, and yet died at thirty. Robert Dunlap, David 
 
52 SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 Stuart, Alexander H. Julian, Thomas H. Dickson, Wm. R. Grant, James 
 Ferguson, and sundry others whom I knew in those early days, are all 
 gone, and a second and third generation have taken their place. 
 
 And the changes in the city are as great. Going to my field of labor, 
 I went up Chestnut street to Schuylkill Seventh (I think you call it Six- 
 teenth now), and then took a diagonal course southwest across Ritten- 
 house Square to Pine and Twentieth, and no house obstructed my way. 
 Going to Kensington, I went up Ninth to above Vine, and then made a 
 bee-line for Front and Master. All this had to be done on foot, for a few 
 lumbering omnibuses running east and west on a few of the central 
 streets, was all the public help then to be had. If you wished to re- 
 ceive or post a letter, a visit had to be made to Dock and Third. If 
 you wished to send a note to a friend in another part of the city, you 
 could either employ a messenger, or give to '' Blood's Dispatch,^' which 
 generally got it through the next day. If you wished to vote, you had 
 to go to the State House and fall in line in one of the queues, which 
 sometimes stretched a square from the window. And, strange as it may 
 now appear, some of the best lawyers and heaviest merchants sat in the 
 City Councils, and even went to the State Legislature, and a few watch- 
 men took charge of the city at night. But enough ; all these things 
 and many more you remember well. When I think of them, and con- 
 trast them with the present, they do seem like a long time ago. And 
 then it is that I realize that you and I are growing old. 
 
 You presided at my ordination, and from before that to the present 
 we have been friends, and in many things co-workers. I thank God 
 that you have been spared so long, and been permitted to do so much. 
 I cannot sympathize with you in this joyful hour, for we have not had 
 similarity of experience enough to do that, but I can rejoice with you, 
 and ask that you may always remain a stranger to the prayer which has 
 become painfully familiar to me — 
 
 Make me of use, my God ! 
 
 Let me be not forgot; 
 A broken vessel cast aside — 
 
 One whom thou needest not. 
 
 Affectionately yours, 
 
 JAMES B. SCOULLER. 
 
SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 53 
 
 Letter from Rev, Dr. Cooper : 
 
 175 Sandusky St., Allegheny, Pa., Feb. ij. 1881. 
 Rev. J. B. Dales, D. D. 
 
 My dear Brother; I am in receipt of your kind invitation to be 
 with your congregation in celebrating, on the 2 2d of this month, the 
 fortieth anniversary of your pastorate. Since the invitation came, my 
 mind has often recurred to the event, and it is with a sad feeling of re- 
 gret that I shall not likely have the pleasure of manifesting by my pres- 
 ence the deep interest which I feel in the occasion. 
 
 Memory carries me back through forty years and beyond to the time 
 when we first met. It was in Philadelphia, in the year 1839, I think. 
 I was sitting in the book store of Mr. William S. Young. You came in, 
 remarking that you would like to look round among the books, which, 
 I remember, you were cordially invited to do. 1 am not certain whether 
 I then knew you to be a licentiate of the Associate Reformed Church. Of 
 one thing I am quite certain, namely, that that was the first time of which 
 I have any knowledge of having met you. 
 
 Little did I then think, dear brother, that the few words which, with- 
 out any introduction to each other, we then exchanged, were the begin- 
 ning of a friendship of more than forty years standing, and not only a 
 friendship, but a fellowship of work in the same city for over thirty 
 years, and for more than twelve years in the very same presbytery. Nor 
 is this all. For three years we were associated together as editors of the 
 Christian Instructor, in company with that dear brother, George C. 
 Arnold, a name the very mention of which cannot fail to awaken tender 
 emotions in the hearts of all who knew him. You, dear brother, will 
 not forget our pleasant hours of intercourse with him. 
 
 I cannot overlook the fact how intimately you and I were associated 
 for about twelve years as members of the Board of Foreign Missions. 
 Some of the meetings we had in that room so familiar to you are still 
 fresh in my mind. How anxious were oftentimes the hours we spent 
 there. I can see before me the countenances of the brethren as we 
 thought of the pressing calls that were coming to us, and our inability to 
 respond to these calls, and the little ground that we often had to indulge 
 the hope that help would soon come. You will not forget, too, my dear 
 brother, how often the Lord rebuked our fears by sending that help in 
 
54 SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 a manner and from a source of which we sonietimes had little or no 
 thought. As I recall to mind each member of the Board, I realize the 
 fact that three of them have gone to be, as we trust, with the Lord. I 
 refer to Brothers Beveridge, Arnold and Jackson. 
 
 We are both drawing near the end of our work. Your life has been 
 one of incessant service. May it be spared many years in the work that 
 you have loved so well, and in which you have, by the grace of God, 
 been enabled to do so much for the Master. 
 
 May this relation, which has been of such long standing, never be 
 broken, and when at last you are called away, may those of the dear 
 people whom you have so long served have occasion to say : 
 
 " How beautiful it is for man to die 
 Upon the walls of Zion ; to be called 
 Like a watch-worn and weary sentinel. 
 To put his armor off and rest in heaven." 
 
 Believe me, as ever, your friend and brother, 
 
 J. T. COOPER. 
 
 Letter from George H. Stuart, Esq., 
 
 1339 Pine St., Philad'a., February 22, 1881. 
 
 My dear Friend: I have been very poorly all this month, closely 
 confined to the house, and only within the past ^tvi days able to ride 
 out for a few hours during the early part of the day. I am thus very 
 reluctantly obliged to deny myself the great pleasure I had anticipated, 
 of being with you this evening. 
 
 The fiftieth anniversary of your congregation, and the fortieth of your 
 own most successful pastorate, would have revived many precious memo- 
 ries, which i^w, if any, but your good wife and myself could recall. 
 Memory^ as it goes back to the early days of the little faithful flock who 
 worshipped in the small frame building on Eleventh street above Vine, 
 recalls at this distant day the familiar forms of Ramsey, Dunlap, McKee 
 and Julian, who, with a few others, laid the foundation of your now 
 prosperous congregation, and out of which many others have grown. 
 My brother David, at the time of the organization, was a member of the 
 First Associate Church, on W4lnut street above Fourth, then under the 
 ministry of the late Dr. Beveridge, but soon afterwards, as the intimate 
 
SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 55 
 
 personal friend of Messrs. McKee and Julian, he cast in his lot with 
 your congregation, and continued with you until his removal to England 
 in 1841. 
 
 Your predecessor and the first pastor of the congregation, the Rev. 
 John Forsyth, with Messrs. McKee, Julian, my brother and myself, all 
 boarded together on Arch St. , south side, below Third. After attending 
 my own Church and Sabbath School at the corner of Eleventh street and 
 Marble alley, under the pastorate of the late Dr. Samuel B. Wylie, I seldom 
 failed to hear Mr. Forsyth in the evening, and many of Dr. Wylie's con- 
 gregation also attended, and thus the young and eloquent pastor was 
 encouraged. In the early days of your own ministry, I was often a 
 delighted and instructed hearer, and have watched your onward and suc- 
 cessful ministry until you are now the oldest Presbyterian pastor and the 
 third, if not the second oldest pastor of any denomination in our city of 
 so many churches. 
 
 In all this time, what changes you and I, my dear brother, have wit- 
 nessed, both in church and State. No longer now is there need for the 
 Young Men's Anti-Slavery Society, organized on evangelical principles, 
 mainly by the young men of your Church and ours, and in those early 
 days it cost something to be a member of such a Society. 
 
 But I must not enlarge, for time would fail to recount all that memory 
 calls up of those hallowed days which I spent with the founders of your 
 congregation, and especially of my close personal relation to Messrs. 
 McKee and Julian, whose memory is still very precious to me. I write 
 this in weakness, but with the earnest prayer that your meeting this 
 evening may be one not only of great pleasure, but, better still, of great 
 blessing, not only to yourself personally, but also to every member of 
 your beloved flock. Trusting that God, in his Providence, may spare 
 you to enjoy the fiftieth anniversary of your pastorate, I remain, 
 
 Yours in Christian bonds, 
 
 GEO. H. STUART. 
 
 Letter from Rev. Dr. Shepherd : 
 
 507 Brown Street, Phila., February 21, 1881. 
 
 My dear Dr. Dales : I regret that a wedding to-morrow evening will 
 prevent my attendance at that time at the Church, Race street below 
 Sixteenth, on the very pleasant and quite uncommon occasion of the 
 
56 SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 fiftieth anniversary of the Second United Presbyterian Church, and 
 the fortieth of your pastorate. 
 
 To your people and yourself, many will tender congratulations ; and 
 for your people and yourself, many will offer prayers that God's favor 
 in the future may be as conspicuous as in the past, but from none of 
 your friends will come heartier congratulations and prayers than from 
 myself. 
 
 With thanks to the Committee of Invitation, and with strong affection 
 for yourself, I am, my dear brother, very truly yours, etc., 
 
 THOMAS JAMES SHEPHERD, 
 
 Pastor for twenty-nine years nearly of the First Presbyterian Church, 
 Northern Liberties, Philadelphia. 
 
 Letter from S. C. Huey, Esq. : 
 
 Philadelphia, February i8, 1881. 
 Rev. J. B. Dales, D. D. 
 
 My dear Sir: I have just received a kind uivitation — the anniver- 
 sary of your long pastorate. I regret that I am under engagement, to 
 be absent Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Accept my 
 congratulations that the good Lord has spared you so long to perform 
 so much work, and do it so well. 
 
 I pray God to continue your useful life for many more years to come; 
 to bless you in your person, family and work, and to cause his face to 
 shine upon and do you good. This is the fervent prayer of your old 
 parishioner, 
 
 SAM'L C. HUEY. 
 
 Letter from the Rev. Dr. McLaren. 
 
 MoRRiSTOWN, N. J., February 21, 1881. 
 Dear Brother Dales: Your favor of the nth inst., after a little delay 
 at Princeton, reached me in this place, where I am sojourning. I should 
 be glad to meet you and your congregation on an occasion so interesting 
 and honorable to you both as that of to-morrow cannot fail to be. It 
 is a jubilee, a harvest-home to your Church and to you. Its fifty years 
 of organic church life and your forty years of pastoral episcopate over 
 
SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 57 
 
 it, conjointly with an honored eldership, will be reviewed with emotions 
 various in kind and degree, and will, by faith and hope, be joyously 
 associated with their gracious results on the future of this world and the 
 world to come. 
 
 My personal acquaintance with both pastor and congregation began 
 before the relation was constituted which has been prolonged for so 
 many years. It was mainly enjoyed in those times, when successively 
 I Avas accustomed to meet among the elders Messrs. Ramsey, Dunlap, 
 McKee, Julian, Huey, &c. 
 
 The reminiscenses of more recent times, as well as of the earlier, are 
 fresher in others' minds than in mine, and I write this note only to con- 
 gratulate both pastor and church on their prolonged and happy period 
 of laboring together in the cause of Christ. 
 
 I cannot with seriousness, my dear brother, wish you a repetition of 
 your forty years in the pastorate, but I do heartily wish and pray that 
 the church may have many returns of their fifty, enjoying, professing 
 and maintaining the same faith, order and piety that have been their 
 golden badge and riches in the time past. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 JOHN F. McLaren. 
 
 The following telegram was also received : 
 
 Kansas City, Mo., February 22, 1881. 
 
 "Sincere congratulations to Pastor and Congregation. Read Psalm 
 cxxii." 
 
 WM. GETTY.