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 PRINCETON, N. J 
 
 
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 Levi Payson Stone 
 
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 1885 
 
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 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 5 
 
 I. Funeral Rites . _ _ - - 
 
 II. Memorial Services ----- 7 
 
 III. Memorial Discourse _ - - - 9 
 
 IV. Minute of Church Session - - - 33 
 V. Resolutions by Church Trustees - - 35 
 
 VI. Tribute by Professor Green, of Princeton - 37 
 
 VII. Resolutions by New England Society - 39 
 
 VIII. Resolutions by Home Insurance Company - 41 
 
Mr. Levi P. Stone died at Orange, N. J., Wednesday, 
 December 31st, 1884, in the eighty -third year of his age. 
 
 His funeral took place at the homestead, Oakleigh, in 
 Llewellyn Park, on Saturday afternoon, January 3d, 1885, 
 and was marked by the well known simplicity of his taste 
 and principles. The body lay in the library, the scene of 
 his morning and evening family devotions, in a closed 
 casket of polished oak, upon the foot of which two palm- 
 branches were crossed. The service was opened with 
 prayer by the Rev. Wm. Henry Green, D.D., LL.D., of 
 Princeton Seminary. The Scriptures were read by his 
 pastor, the Rev. Alfred Yeomans, D.D., the chief selections 
 being Psalm 90; John 5: 21-29; ^ Corinthians 15: 35-37; 
 I Peter 1:3-9; Revelation 14: 13; 7: 13-17. Prayer was 
 again offered by the Rev. G. H. Whittemore, of Cambridge, 
 Mass.: its sentiment was, that while the remembered wish of 
 the departed forbade a spoken tribute, yet it was right and 
 due to give God the praise and glory of all in which the 
 servant was like his Master, and of all he wrought for his 
 Master in the church and the world ; with special thanks- 
 giving for his memory as the head of a family, a friend, a 
 long-lived, useful, successful, happy man, — then a meek and 
 patient sufferer, until God gave his beloved rest in Jesus ; 
 with commendation of the bereaved to the God of the widow 
 and the fatherless ; and petition that the service and the 
 
6 
 
 burial might be hallowed by God's gracious audience and 
 acceptance of the prayer the Lord taught and which His 
 servant constantly offered as the priest of his household. 
 The body was followed to the Orange Cemetery by a 
 company of gentlemen, representing the family connection 
 of the deceased, the church of which he was an elder, and 
 the business house of which he was a founder. There the 
 service of committal to the grave was recited by his pastor, 
 and his mortal part was returned to the earth in the sure 
 hope of a glorious resurrection. 
 
II. 
 
 A memorial service was held in the Central Presbyterian 
 Church, of Orange, on the Lord's day, January nth, 1885. 
 After the invocation and singing of four verses from No. 
 45 in the Presbyterian Hymnal, " Through all the changing 
 scenes of life," the pastor, Dr. Yeomans, read the 37th 
 Psalm, and prayer was offered by the Rev. A. A. Hodge, 
 D.D., LL.D., of Princeton. The 442d hymn, "The Lord my 
 shepherd is," was then sung, after which Dr. Yeomans 
 pronounced the discourse contained in the following pages, 
 from the text. Psalm 37: 23, "The steps of a good man are 
 ordered by the Lord." The hymn, No. 805, "There is an 
 hour of peaceful rest," was sung in closing. 
 
 The afternoon service was equally, though not formally, 
 in the nature of a pious remembrance, the preacher, Dr. 
 Hodge, beginning with appropriate reference to the former 
 occasion and the questions that naturally arise about the 
 state of the loved and lost. The text was Philippians 
 3: 21. The theme was the Resurrection; the basis of its 
 expectation being faith in Divine revelation, and reliance 
 upon the great, central, historical, proven fact of the risen 
 Christ : invested at his ascension with the glorified body 
 which is the pledge of that to be given to his followers. 
 The hymns were Nos. 61, 506, and 151 in the Presbyterian 
 Hymnal. 
 
III. 
 
 IN MEMORIAM 
 Levi P. Stone. 
 
 MAY I, 1802 DECEMBER 31, 1 884. 
 
 Psalm 37: 23. — " The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.^'' 
 
 Some lives stamp themselves upon the community in 
 which they are lived, in such a way as to leave a distinct 
 impression of some one prominent trait, some reigning 
 characteristic which often passes into a name. Such 
 characters for instance, as James the Just, Richard the 
 Lion-hearted, Charles the Bold, William the Silent, and 
 the like, show distinguishing features which mark them 
 apart from all others of the same name in history. "The 
 Proud," "the Simple," "the Stern," "the Magnificent," are 
 names that have clung to historical characters like their 
 own shadows. The great multitude pass muster without 
 such marking. But here and there are souls in a commu- 
 nity, who in the intuitive judgment of their fellows are 
 distinguished by a prevailing tone or temper, and are named 
 accordingly. 
 
lO 
 
 Some such distinct impression seems to have been made 
 by the character of him whose famihar form is now hidden 
 from our eyes, but whose memory will ever be precious 
 among- us. While other excellencies were neither few nor 
 small, there was a certain impression of goodness about 
 him which appeared as a sort of crown upon all the rest. 
 I have remarked how often since his departure the expres- 
 sion of surprise and sorrow on learning the sad tidings, has 
 been followed by a summary of character as it existed in 
 the speaker's mind in the words : " Well, he was a good 
 man." 
 
 It is indeed an enviable life that makes such a mark. 
 And I am sure there is not one who knew him at all inti- 
 mately, who would not recognize this title as perhaps 
 more truly descriptive of the man, than any other single 
 qualifying word that could be chosen. Not that there was 
 any lack of positive qualities of another sort. Not that 
 goodness was prominent by reason of the weakness of 
 other virtues. But while there was a rare combination of 
 other excellencies, this one rose above them all, as a sort of 
 halo round the man whose brightness drew peculiar notice. 
 So then if we should choose one descriptive word, we would 
 say : " He was a good man." 
 
 And when we come to look into the composition of this 
 bright crown, we find the beaten gold of a heart chastened 
 and shaped by heavenly grace. We find a true godliness 
 as its main substance. And we see that " the steps of a 
 good man are ordered by the Lord." Which may mean 
 
1 1 
 
 not only that God takes care of a man who is good, guiding 
 him safely in plain and pleasant paths ; but also that this 
 ordering is what makes him good as well as crowns him 
 with happiness and enviable reputation. 
 
 It is well for us to trace such orderings, — to scan and 
 ponder the steps by which such crowns are reached. 
 " Great and good lives," — says the biographer of an eminent 
 Christian minister — " lives that are at once manly and 
 godly, where the affections that spring from the earth are 
 imbued with the holiness that distills from heaven, — are like 
 the rays of sunlight which gladden the world while they 
 shine, but leave it dark and chilly when they depart. O 
 for an art in the moral sphere, equivalent to that of the 
 photographer in the material, whereby we might seize and 
 fix and perpetuate those rarer rays, which stream through 
 the mass of human history like veins of felspar in a quariy ! " 
 
 The life that we review to-day, was not great indeed in 
 those elements that strike the public eye. There were no 
 blazoned deeds, no bulletined achievements that make the 
 name familiar to those who have never seen the face. We 
 chronicle a quiet life ; rich in heart-treasures, and glorious 
 in meekness. 
 
 But let us not mistakenly suppose that such a life may 
 not be truly great. Some one has said that history is not 
 made by revolutions. The notable deeds which overturn 
 a despotism, and give liberty to a land oppressed, are the 
 tokens of changes, not the workers of them. They only 
 show that history is already made. Centuries of unevent- 
 
12 
 
 ful life may have been needed to mature those changes, and 
 prepare for their manifestation. The real force that works 
 them has been burrowing unseen, while men thought things 
 were going on just as they ever were. Times that are 
 most fruitful of real progress, are not times of noise and 
 flaunting banners, and smoke of battle in which heroes 
 loom up to view. These men are not the producers so much 
 as the results of change. They are only the scene-shifters 
 who rush upon the stage when the great "personse " of the 
 drama have come to the end of an act. Meantime the 
 quiet lives are really doing the work. It was not by the 
 bellowings of Danton in the National Assembly, that the 
 French Revolution was brought to pass, so much as by the 
 noiseless pen of Rousseau, and the still ferment of his 
 disorganizing philosophy in the public mind. 
 
 When therefore we look upon a life that flowed along 
 rather like a stream gliding through a meadow, than a torrent 
 roaring among the mountains, let us not suppose that the 
 gentleness and humbleness prove want of strength. More 
 strength is required to do things quietly, than to do them 
 noisily. The quiet lives are really the productive ones, 
 bringing to perfection the most excellent fruits. "The 
 fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make 
 peace." 
 
 ' ' Stillest streams 
 Oft water fairest meadows, and the bird 
 That flutters least is longest on the wing." 
 
 Bearing such truth in mind, let us this morning call 
 lovingly to remembrance the well ordered, quiet, peaceful, 
 
13 
 
 prosperous, happy steps by which God led our departed 
 friend from the hour of his birth into this world, to the hour 
 of his birth through death into the world of glory. 
 
 Levi Payson Stone was born in Wendell, Massachusetts, 
 on the 1st of May, 1802, being the second son of Levi 
 Stone and Betsey Kidder, who were married January 14th, 
 1796. 
 
 The family tradition is that three brothers, by the name 
 of Stone, came from Wales and landed in Salem, Mass., 
 dispersing to Lexington and Framingham, in that State, 
 and Stonington, Conn.; and that the Framingham settler 
 was the progenitor of the branch to which the grandfather 
 and father of Mr. Stone belonged. They both bore the 
 name of Levi, and lived, the first from the year 1722 to 
 1800, and the second from 1767 to 1855. 
 
 His brother Lewis, five years older, and his sister 
 Elizabeth, nine years younger than himself, who with him 
 comprised the family, both passed away before him. His 
 father was a man of the Puritan mold, of incorruptible 
 integrity and deeply religious character ; a man of influence 
 in the community, and a leading deacon in the Congre- 
 gational Church. We may infer that the religion of the 
 father was of the typical New England tone of the day, 
 somewhat sombre and solemn, from the fact that among 
 the books which he specially valued as spiritual helps, 
 " Hervey's Meditations among the Tombs," was for him a 
 sort of vade mecum. From both his father and mother, 
 the son inherited a religious cast of thought, and that 
 
conscientious regard for truth and right which lay at the 
 foundation of his character Hke immovable granite. The 
 longevity he attained, may also be regarded as in some 
 sense an inheritance, since his father lived to the good old 
 age of eighty-seven, his mother however dying at the age 
 of sixty-five. The family were in moderate circumstances. 
 But in those days, the prevailing ambition of New England 
 fathers and mothers looked to procuring for the sons a 
 collegiate education, even though it must be done out of 
 narrow resources. And the subject of our memoir would 
 have been sent to college, had it not been thought that his 
 constitution was too delicate to stand the strain of study and 
 of sedentary life. All the educational advantages he enjoyed 
 were therefore confined to the ordinary course of the public 
 school, and half a year at Amherst Academy. 
 
 When seventeen years of age, he broke off from study 
 and entered a store in Coleraine, Mass., as a clerk on a 
 salary of fifty dollars a year and board. The second year his 
 salary was increased to one hundred dollars, and the third to 
 one hundred and fifty dollars. Such an income in those days, 
 would of course represent a considerably larger sum in 
 these times, when the value of money is less. But receiving 
 from his New England parentage a better heritage than 
 wealth in the predisposition to temperate desires, industri- 
 ous and frugal habits, and withal a spirit of sturdy self- 
 dependence, he was able to save something even out of his 
 fifty dollars a year to be laid aside as capital ; and in the 
 fourth year of his clerkship, he entered the firm as a 
 
15 
 
 partner, giving his note for the requisite sum. A 
 few years further on, having made enough money to 
 clear off his note, he removed to Greenfield in the same 
 State, entering into a partnership in business there. After 
 some twelve years or more had been spent in these early 
 enterprises with continually augmenting gains, to the 
 amount of five thousand dollars, he came to New York 
 when he was about thirty years old. Passing over his first 
 years here, in which he proved himself of high mercantile 
 honor, we come to the time when, early in 1836, in connec- 
 tion with Mr. Egbert Starr and Mr. Oliver E. Wood, he 
 established the dry goods firm of Stone, Wood & Starr, 
 with the place of business at first in Maiden Lane, and 
 afterwards in various prominent locations in the commercial 
 district of the city. Mr. Wood retired from the firm in 1843, 
 and the firm then became " Stone & Starr," and thus con- 
 tinued for nearly ten years, until the admission of junior 
 partners. 
 
 During the time that A. T. Stewart was rising into promi- 
 nence as a dry goods merchant, the firm of Stone & Starr 
 ranked with Stewart & Co., as one of the leading houses in 
 that line in New York. Its business career was one of 
 uninterrupted prosperity, the firm weathering successfully 
 the financial storms which proved disastrous to multitudes 
 of the staunchest houses around them, and never being- 
 
 o 
 
 compelled to suspend or ask favors from their creditors. 
 
 At the bottom of this steady prosperity in business, we 
 doubt not there lay the chastening influence of his religious 
 
i6 
 
 education, restraining him from any hazardous haste for 
 riches, and drawing around him in his business connections, 
 men of like spirit with himself, who helped to make the 
 name of the firm a synonym for financial soundness and 
 commercial faith. This is one way in which " the steps of 
 a good man are ordered by the Lord." 
 
 What might be called his religious experience, began in 
 very early life. It could not have been otherwise in such 
 a home as that in which he was reared. Far back in the 
 line of his ancestry the godly spirit took its rise. Not 
 only his father and mother, but their fathers and mothers 
 and their grandparents on both sides of the house were 
 Christians. In a journal which he kept, he says of his 
 mother that " She made no public profession of her faith 
 in Christ, until after her marriage. She seldom spoke of 
 her own experience, and when she did, it was with much 
 caution, and frequently in a manner which implied that she 
 feared she might be self-deceived." She died when her son 
 was thirty-six years old, and her last message to him from her 
 death-bed at which he did not arrive until she had expired, 
 was, "Tell him that the love of Christ passeth all understand- 
 ing," A letter from his father two years after his mother's 
 death, says, amidst other counsels, "See to it my child, that 
 the world does not get too strong a hold of your affections. It 
 is a deadly enemy to the soul. It destroys its thousands. Be 
 diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." 
 
 In the midst of such an atmosphere of godliness, it was 
 not strange that he should be deeply imbued with religious 
 
17 
 
 convictions. And yet such was the solemnity in which the 
 avowal of Christian discipleship was held in those days, 
 and to such a depth was self-examination carried, that all 
 through his early manhood, Mr. Stone, though greatly 
 exercised in soul, did not feel justified in confessing himself 
 a Christian. He was greatly troubled about being born 
 again. He told me some years ago, while talking of his 
 early life, that one of his clerks once asked him what it was 
 to be born again, and he replied that he could not tell him. 
 He wished he could. It was a question that was on his 
 mind night and day. He said he supposed he must pass 
 through some great and radical change, like that which 
 Paul experienced. The clerk told him he thought he was 
 mistaken there. That set his mind on another tack, and he 
 began to have clearer and more comfortable views. But 
 the thing that brought him to the light, and gave him 
 settled convictions, was the reading of Dr. Charles Hodge's 
 Way of Life, in which the words in ii Cor. 5 : 14, were 
 explained in a way that was new to him. When he saw 
 what the Apostle meant in saying, "If one died for all, 
 then were all dead," — that is, not that all were dead in 
 sin before Christ died for them, but that all died in Him 
 to sin when He died; — " If one died for all, then all died ;" — 
 when he caught sight of this clear statement of a vicarious 
 atonement in which the Lord Jesus became the sinner's 
 substitute, bearing the penalty in his stead, his mind was 
 filled with light and peace. And ever afterward he seemed 
 grateful to the man who had been the means of opening 
 
his eyes. To some extent, this doubtless explains the deep 
 interest he took in Princeton Seminary, in which Dr. Hodge 
 was a professor. 
 
 He united with the Congregational Church of Greenfield, 
 on profession of his faith, July 5, 1829, when he was 27 years 
 of age. Among his papers, he preserved a copy in his own 
 hand of the covenant into which he had entered with the 
 church. Two years later, he wrote down the following expres- 
 sion of his purpose, and renewal of his covenant with God: 
 
 "Lord's day, July 4, 1830. It is this month two years 
 since I began to indulge a hope in the mercy of God in 
 Jesus Christ; and one year this day since I took upon me 
 the vows of God in pubhc, and was admitted into the 
 communion and fellowship of the church. Relying on the 
 promises to repenting sinners of acceptance through the 
 Redeemer, I do this day renewedly devote myself to the 
 service of God; all my faculties of body and mind, all my 
 time, property and influence, resolving to bring into captiv- 
 ity every thought to the obedience of Christ, and to live 
 no longer unto myself, but unto Him that died for me, 
 choosing Him for my whole portion for time and eternity. 
 Through divine assistance. — L. P. S." 
 
 After his removal to New York, he united with the Brick 
 Church, then under the ministry of Dr. Spring. His con- 
 nection with this church dates from October 4, 1833. Here 
 he entered actively into Sunday School work, visiting 
 among the tenement houses, and proving his earnest zeal 
 by faithful labors among the poor. On March 7, 1841, he 
 
19 
 
 was appointed a deacon in the Brick Church, Mr. Wood, 
 his partner, being- also appointed a deacon at the same time. 
 And some time afterward he was elected to the eldership in 
 the same church. Subsequently removing his residence to 
 Brooklyn, he attended the Second Presbyterian Church, 
 then ministered to by Dr. Spencer. 
 
 He was married in Sudbury, Mass., June 13, 1854, to 
 Caroline Elizabeth, daughter of Roland and Martha Cutler, 
 and after his marriage had his home in Brooklyn, until 
 his removal to Orange, in the year 1857. 
 
 At that date, Orange was only beginning to feel distinctly 
 that pulsing of New York life and enterprise, which has 
 since wrought such marvelous changes, and made our city 
 with its surrounding townships the most beautiful and 
 attractive of the suburbs of the metropolis. Llewellyn Park 
 had been laid out, and presented peculiar attractions to one 
 who was fond of communing with nature apart from busy 
 crowds. Mr. Stone's tastes drew him to rural scenes. To 
 the keen enjoyment of the charms of nature, he united a 
 genuine poetical temperament, which revealed itself in 
 snatches of original verse scattered here and there through 
 a journal which he kept for several years. Some of these 
 would bear comparison for real poetic feeling with much 
 that has become classic. Here, for instance, is a bit of de- 
 scription of some fondly remembered scene of his boyhood : 
 
 " There stands the mill, half hidden by the bank, 
 The miller too, coated like fabled puss 
 From top to toe ; his rustic manners all 
 In keeping with the rural scene around. 
 
20 
 
 With bushy tail, and cheek protuberant, 
 The squirrel, though years have intervened, 
 With vividness I see, intent on food 
 For winter. Quick he leaps from rail to rail. 
 From log to log, then stops, and rising looks 
 With wary eye and leaps agaiir." 
 
 These are but the first hnes of a page which is dated at 
 the bottom, New York, 1834. And here, again, as if he had 
 already in his visions of the future a prophetic dream of his 
 home among the trees and flowers of the mountain side, he 
 writes : 
 
 " Oh, I would leave 
 The haunts of busy, plodding man, and on 
 Some mountain summit drink the purer air 
 That breathes around. Give me the verdant grove. 
 The wide expanse of heaven, — soft shades 
 Of autumn twilight, and the breezes bland 
 Which speak a present Deity, where I 
 May raise my silent orisons." 
 
 This also bears the date of 1834. I introduce these frag- 
 ments here, to show the taste and artistic sensibility which 
 led him soon after his removal from Brooklyn to Orange, 
 to fix his permanent home amidst the trees and shrubbery 
 and greensward of Llewellyn Park, where the eye could 
 see afar the haunts of busy, plodding man, but where no 
 din of human turmoil could disturb his silent orisons. 
 
 Not long after coming to Orange to live, he built his 
 beautiful home in the Park. The house in its solidity and 
 graceful architecture rising above a charming lawn, and 
 embowered among noble forest trees, as it is the product of 
 his own taste, is also a just expression of the man himself 
 With a total absence of all affectation, attempt at display, 
 
21 
 
 or parade of wealth, there is abundant token of a just 
 appreciation of what is beautiful, both in the works of man 
 and in the charms of nature. There was a peculiar becom- 
 ingness to the man in the home he had prepared for him- 
 self and his family. The house with all its furniture fitted the 
 man, and the man the house. It gave appropriate expres- 
 sion to his prosperous business career, with none of the 
 obtrusive pride of success, which often crops out in tinsel 
 and fillagree. We can mark some tokens even in such 
 things as these of a well-balanced mind, in which a natural 
 self-complacency is chastened and subdued by a gracious 
 humility. In these expressions of character, which are by 
 no means trifling things, as well as in the character itself, we 
 may see again how the steps of a good man are ordered by 
 the Lord. In this delightful home he had realized at length 
 the dreams of his youth. Here he passed the years of his 
 declining strength in a happiness unclouded by a single 
 great sorrow, free from carking cares, and perpetually 
 refreshed by kindly nature. Truly an enviable lot : 
 
 " How blest is he who crowns in shades like these, 
 A youth of labor with an age of ease." 
 
 In the year 1866, Mr. Stone retired from business, and 
 though for many years thereafter he retained an interest in 
 the firm, and a desk in the office to which he daily resorted, 
 he gave himself more and more to the enjoyment of his 
 home, his books and his friends, and to such good works 
 as his ample means enabled him to promote. His culti- 
 vated mind and taste for reading saved him from that sense 
 
22 
 
 of vacancy which is so apt to canker the ease of retiring 
 business men. 
 
 His religious hfe, though flowing from Puritan springs, 
 was far from being austere or saturnine. With a conscience 
 uncompromising and imperious, he was suavity and gentle- 
 ness itself in his intercourse with men. The rugged 
 theology he had quarried from the Bible with the help of 
 Augustinian and Calvinistic tools, lay at the foundation of 
 his strong and manly character. The sovereignty of God ; 
 the total depravity and inability of man ; the sinfulness of 
 the race, both federal and actual; the sacrifice and the 
 imputed righteousness of Christ, as the only ground of 
 pardon and justification ; and the work of the Holy Spirit as 
 the only means of sanctification ; — these and kindred doc- 
 trines he believed with all his soul. And he lived as one 
 imbued with such a theology might be expected to live. His 
 doctrinal preferences drew him to the Old School wing of the 
 Presbyterian Church in the days of the division. Strongly 
 conservative in temper, and ever jealous of what he believed 
 to be purity of doctrine, when the question of the reunion 
 of the Old and New School bodies was up in the General 
 Assembly at Albany in 1868, of which Assembly he was a 
 member, he ranked himself courageously upon the unpopular 
 side, and, true to his convictions, voted with a small minority 
 in the negative. 
 
 But above the rock-like substratum of religious conviction 
 there lay a warm and mellow soil in which the genial 
 graces found abundant rooting. Not alone along theologi- 
 
23 
 
 cal lines had his mind been trained. The journal of his 
 early life in New York contains evidence of careful reading 
 in histoiy, biography, mental, moral and natural philosophy, 
 poetry, travels and general literature. Even with the 
 severer paths of metaphysics he was not unfamiliar. He 
 had a discriminating taste for art, and in his younger days 
 he even used the pencil himself in sketching with pleasing 
 accuracy and fair perspective. A journal of travel which 
 he wrote for his sister on a trip to Washington in 1834, is 
 interleaved with pencil drawings of prominent objects 
 which attracted his attention. From the west window of an 
 apartment he occupied at No. 23 Broadway, about that time, 
 he drew a sketch of the scene which lay before him, which is 
 interesting not only as a proof of skill with the pencil, but as 
 a reminiscence of those early days of the now mammoth 
 city. The half-dozen houses that intervened between his 
 window and the water front, the mile-wide river beyond, the 
 shipping at the wharves, and Jersey City in the distance, 
 with a large windmill on the water's edge and the smoking 
 stack of a glass-factory at the southern point of land, — the 
 only tall chimney denoting a factory which then appeared, — 
 all are clearly delineated and form a pleasing picture. 
 
 He had an eye for beauty, whether in the human face 
 and form, the animal kingdom, inanimate nature, or the 
 creations of art. The country roads in all directions had 
 for him a never failing charm. Often, as I have been driving 
 with him, his eye would kindle at the sight of a meadow 
 full of daisies. As the royal yellow of the golden-rod 
 
24 
 
 flashed along the roadside, or the autumnal scarlet and 
 vermilion of the dogwood and maple flamed among the 
 foliage, he would appear excited and absorbed by the beauty 
 of the scene. A handsome horse passing under his eye 
 would never fail of an admiring glance. I remember his 
 once calling my attention to the picturesqueness of a group 
 of children in bright-colored dresses on an emerald lawn. 
 Dogs, with their curious and amusing characters, delighted 
 him not a little. And the sight of fawn-colored, blooded 
 cattle tethered on the green would bring a smile of pleasure 
 to his face. Birds, flowers, clouds, mountains, trees, waters, 
 blue skies, all the beautiful things with which God has 
 crowded this beautiful world, formed an element about him 
 in which he seemed to hold continual revel. And he saw 
 the hand of God in all these things. There was a devout- 
 ness in his enjoyment of nature which crowned it like a 
 diadem ; which gave it a zest that can only be felt by the 
 pure in heart to whom alone it is given to see God. And 
 here, again, we mark how the steps of a good man are 
 ordered by the Lord. 
 
 These sensibilities, these subtle capacities for enjoyment 
 doubtless, to the casual observer, lay beneath the surface 
 of the man. His countenance, grave and almost solemn 
 when in repose, gave no token of them. But all who knew 
 him intimately will judge the portrait true. Principle, per- 
 haps, rather than feeling was mainly the guiding motive 
 of his conduct. But while we might not call his an emotional 
 nature, it could by no means be qualified as cold, stern, or 
 
25 
 
 apathetic. They to whom he was friendly never had a truer 
 friend. What he lacked in demonstrativeness he more than 
 made good in genuine warmth of attachment. An uncon- 
 querable diffidence was more responsible for apparent cold- 
 ness than any lack of tenderness of heart. I venture to say 
 that those who knew him only by sight and never heard 
 his hearty laugh, little suspected that he possessed as keen 
 a sense of the ridiculous as any among us. Yet I have 
 seen him convulsed with laughter in the exuberance of his 
 enjoyment of a humorous anecdote. 
 
 Sincerity, moreover, was one of his crowning character- 
 istics. No speck of guile could any one discern in his 
 crystal spirit. His honest, kindly eye never looked what 
 it did not mean. He had his antipathies, his likes and dis- 
 likes, as what strong manly nature has not. But if he was 
 earnest in his preferences, he was just in his discriminations. 
 The soul of sincerity was his. And none could say that he 
 was ever less than generous in his judgments. 
 
 Assuredly a void is made in this whole community by 
 his departure which cannot easily be filled. Public-spirited 
 and liberal as a citizen, his hand was ever open for the fur- 
 therance of any enterprise that promised good to his neigh- 
 bors. And there is not a charitable institution in this whole re- 
 gion, or a struggling church or mission, that has not profited 
 by his beneficence. As a husband and a father, singularly 
 without blemish. As a Christian, a humble penitent before 
 his God, trusting solely in the blood of Christ; a true priest 
 in his household, and a pillar in the church. Truly I feel 
 
26 
 
 to-day as though I could cry out with EHsha as EHjah 
 vanished in the heavens : " My father ! my father ! the 
 chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof! " 
 
 In these days of specialism, when excellence in one 
 department of life and labor seems to be conditioned upon 
 ignorance in all other departments, it is a fact worthy to be 
 noted, that with all the qualities which gave Mr. Stone so 
 keen an enjoyment of the poetical and the picturesque and 
 such pleasure and proficiency in reading and study, he held 
 so high a place among his business associates. His success- 
 ful organization and control of a business firm, with large 
 and widely extended interests, and his reaping the rewards 
 of his labors in an ample competency, are guarantee enough 
 of high capacities for affairs, knowledge of men, and com- 
 prehension of the laws of trade. Add to this the fact that 
 he was one of the founders of so prominent a moneyed 
 institution as the Home Insurance Company, and that he 
 was a director and a member of one of its most responsi- 
 ble committees from the beginning of its existence, and we 
 see in what esteem his judgment as a business man was 
 held among some of the ablest financiers of the country. 
 / Among men of letters he was held in no less honorable 
 regard. We have spoken of his interest in the Princeton 
 Theological Seminary. Some years ago, by a generous 
 donation to the Seminary, he established a lecture course 
 which, by consent rather than direction of the founder, bears 
 his name, " The L. P. Stone lectureship." This has been the 
 means of bringing forth choice productions from some of the 
 
 / 
 
27 
 
 ablest theologians in this and other countries, such as the 
 Rev. Drs. R. S. Storrs, Wm. M.Taylor, Robert Flint, of the 
 University of Edinburgh, S. C. Bartlett, President of Dart- 
 mouth College, and Mark Hopkins, ex-President of Williams 
 College. The esteem in which he was held by the pro- 
 fessors of that institution may be inferred from these words 
 from a member of the Faculty : " For sixteen years he 
 was a most valued member of our Board of Directors, and 
 for ten years he was in addition a member of our Board of 
 Trustees. He always manifested the most lively interest in 
 the welfare of the Seminary, and the successful prosecution 
 of its important work for Christ and His Kingdom. He 
 was wise and judicious in counsel, wide in his sympathies, 
 generous in action, tender and devout in feeling ; and there 
 was no one whose presence was more welcomed, and who 
 was regarded with a more genuine respect and affection. 
 His loss will be deeply felt and deplored here, not only from 
 his official connection with the Seminary, but in consequence 
 of the pleasant friendly relations which subsisted, the warm 
 friendship which was entertained for him as a man, the 
 admiration of his gentle and lovely Christian spirit and his 
 manifest devotion to the cause of the Master, and his firm 
 attachment to the form of Scriptural doctrine and order 
 which is represented in the standards of our church. 
 
 In addition to his other gifts to the Seminary, the me- 
 morial which he erected to himself in the lectureship will 
 keep his name ever in fresh remembrance here as long as 
 the Seminary shall continue." 
 
28 
 
 Not more than two weeks before his death, Mr. Stone 
 had added to his other benefactions to the Seminar}- a 
 contribution towards the purchase of a valuable collection 
 of the writings of the Puritan Divines which was offered for 
 sale in London, and which the faculty were very desirous 
 of securing. Concerning this latest gift. Professor Green 
 says : " The generous interest taken by Mr. Stone in the 
 matter, and the handsome contribution which he made 
 towards it, has put it into our power to obtain this most 
 valuable collection." 
 
 He was also a director of the German Theological School 
 of Newark, and various institutions of learning here and 
 there throughout the land, and needy churches are indebted 
 to his liberality for assistance. I learn that in his will there 
 is contingent remembrance again of the Princeton Seminar}^ 
 and that our Home and Foreign Mission Boards have not 
 been forgotten. 
 
 Let me add a brief testimony of another sort to the 
 influence which such a character exercised on another class 
 of men. The example of his upright and successful life 
 could not be otherwise than salutary to those who are just 
 at the threshold of their business career. Temptations 
 from the sight of prosperous ungodliness under which the 
 Psalmist says his " feet were almost gone ; his steps had well 
 nigh slipped," may receive a counter-check from the con- 
 templation of such a life as that which we commemorate. I 
 quote from the letter of a young man connected with the 
 family written to one of the daughters: — 
 
29 
 
 "I can tell you the influence your father always had on 
 me, an influence I have always hoped I would leave behind 
 me when I came to die. Nothing charms a young man 
 like success ; and when he sees it attained by any one, like 
 lightning his mind runs over the principles of the life that 
 attracts him. So it was with your father's life to me. To 
 see the happiness of his last years, honored and respected 
 by all, was to me a complete refutation of that prevalent 
 idea that a smart wickedness is the true basis of success ; 
 and I can say truly, it has steadied me many a time when 
 the other side of the question seemed more alluring." 
 
 We have yet to speak of his connection with this church, 
 which he loved so well and served so faithfully. 
 
 Upon his making his permanent home in Orange, Mr. 
 Stone transferred his membership to the First Church of 
 Orange, then under the charge of the Rev. Mr. Hoyt. Here 
 he continued to worship for nearly ten years. When the 
 movement was made which resulted in the formation of the 
 Central Church, he was one of the leading men in the 
 enterprise. And when this church was organized in 1867, 
 Mr. Stone, with Francis H. Abbot, David L. Wallace and 
 George W. Thorp constituted the original session. Three 
 of these, together with the first Pastor, have now gone from 
 us to the church above, and there is but one member of the 
 original eldership remaining with us. 
 
 I need hardly speak of the invaluable services of the 
 late senior elder to the young church. His character in the 
 community was like a benediction upon the enterprise. 
 
30 
 
 His hand was open for its needs, and his beneficence made 
 up a goodly portion of the money represented in the church 
 property to-day. His heart was given to this work as it 
 had not been given to the furtherance of any similar work 
 before. He loved his church. He delighted in its services. 
 Never was the gray head missing in the sanctuary or even 
 in the prayer-meeting, when ill health or absence from home 
 did not detain him. He was one of those rare spirits that 
 would never forsake his seat in his own church to attend a 
 service elsewhere. Such constancy of devotion was one of 
 the elements of his influence here. In the building of the 
 church his taste was one of the forming, guiding powers, 
 determining that the structure should be of nothing less 
 solid than stone, and the architecture such as should be 
 pleasing to the eye. He took pleasure in the very walls of 
 Zion, and his spirit could respond to the breathings of desire 
 in the song of David : " How amiable are thy tabernacles, 
 O Lord of Hosts ! I had rather be a doorkeeper in the 
 house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." 
 There was no service for the church or its members so 
 humble that he felt himself above it, and there is not a poor 
 hovel in this town to which he would not gladly go in 
 person if he thought he could do good thereby. He seemed 
 bent upon fulfilling his covenant of consecration : " I do this 
 day renewedly devote myself to the service of God ; all my 
 faculties of body and mind, all my time, property and 
 influence, resolving to bring into captivity every thought to 
 the obedience of Christ." 
 
31 
 
 During two or three of the last years of his Hfe, his 
 strength had been perceptibly failing, and his regular 
 attendance upon the church services began to be intermitted. 
 But through all his days of declining powers he was bright 
 and happy, retaining to the last his interest in what was 
 going on around him, and to the end continuing his 
 charitable gifts as the steward of the Lord. He was often 
 heard to speak of what a happy life he had lived, unbroken 
 by any great and crushing sorrow. He felt indeed that his 
 steps had been ordered by the Lord and that He who had 
 promised, " Even to hoar hairs will I carry you ; even I will 
 carry and will deliver you," was true to his pledge. 
 
 His spirit was much in prayer during his last illness, and 
 he seemed to be anxious for the coming of his Lord. 
 When oppressed for breath and able only to speak in half- 
 articulate words, the name of Jesus was often on his lips, 
 and he appeared to be repeating in connection with it the 
 word, Come ! Come ! Come ! which those beside him 
 thought to be a prayer to Christ. His thoughts may have 
 been dwelling on those closing words of the Holy Book : 
 " Even so, come, Lord Jesus ! " 
 
 Gently the Saviour led him to his rest, blotting out in 
 unconsciousness, by degrees, the faces of those he loved on 
 earth, while the eye of his spirit looked right on to the King 
 in his beauty. Surely to the last his steps were ordered by 
 the Lord. Up to his journey's end was he not led by the 
 kindly hand that — 
 
32 
 
 " Leads us to rest so gently that we go 
 
 Scarce knowing if we wish to go or stay, 
 Being too full of sleep to understand 
 
 How far the unknown transcends the what we know." 
 
 The continuity of the Christian fellowship was typified in 
 his departure between two communion days. At one 
 sacramental season, he sat with us and took of the bread 
 and wine which present to our faith the body and blood of 
 our Lord ; and at the next, the veil of sense was rent, he 
 saw the Saviour as He is, and his spirit was joining in the 
 praises of the saints. 
 
 While by faith, therefore, we see him joined with us in 
 the fellowship of the one body of our Lord, he is not lost 
 to us, but only gone before. And while in our feeble sight 
 we cry out: "Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth; for 
 the faithful fail from among the children of men," let our 
 faith join the two worlds of grace and glory into one, with 
 Christ at the head of both, and let us claim him still as ours 
 and resolve to follow him as he has followed Christ. 
 
IV. 
 
 Orange, i 8th January, 1885. 
 
 At a meeting of the Session of the Central Presbyterian 
 Church, held this day, the following Minute was adopted, 
 ordered to be recorded, and a copy forwarded to Mr. Stone's 
 family : — 
 
 It well becometh us, as a Session, to recognize our 
 Master's hand, in removing from our midst our beloved 
 senior elder, Levi P. Stone ; who, " after he had served his 
 own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep " on the last 
 day of the past year. 
 
 We give thanks that he was spared, for so many years, 
 to go in and out among us ; for his holy example ; his wise 
 counsels ; his liberal support ; and his friendly fellowship ; 
 and that, when his work here was ended, he was painlessly 
 gathered, " in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in 
 in his season," into the garner of God. 
 
 We pray that his mantle may fall on each of us, his 
 surviving associates in the service of the Church of Christ; 
 that we may be followers of him, who, by faith and patience, 
 now inherits the promises. 
 
 Our sympathies go forth to that other little circle, of 
 Home, where his absence will be more felt than even by 
 ourselves ; and commending the bereaved ones to the tender 
 mercies of a compassionate God, we bid them be thankful 
 
34 
 
 for the distinguishing blessing so long vouchsafed them ; 
 resigned under its withdrawal for a season ; and joyful in 
 hopes of eternal reunion. 
 
 By direction of the Session, 
 
 David L. Wallace. 
 
V. 
 
 At the regular monthly meeting of the Board of Trustees 
 of the Central Presbyterian Church of Orange, held on 
 January 5th, 1885, the following resolutions were moved and 
 adopted : — 
 
 Whereas, it hath pleased Almighty God to take unto 
 Himself our friend and fellow-officer, Mr. Levi P. Stone, 
 senior elder and one of the founders of this Church : 
 
 Resolved : that we, the Board of Trustees, hereby record 
 our sincere sorrow at the loss which this Church has 
 sustained by his death, and our high appreciation of his 
 lofty and consistent Christian character, his loyal zeal, and 
 his ever-ready benevolence whereby the interests of this 
 Church have been greatly promoted and strengthened : 
 
 Further resolved: that we respectfully tender to his 
 bereaved family our heartfelt condolence and sympathy on 
 the removal of one whose conspicuous virtues shone in 
 private as in public life — and that we transmit for their 
 acceptance a signed copy of these resolutions. 
 
 J AS. K. Morgan, N. E. Whiteside, 
 
 Abiel Abbot, John Dunn, 
 
 C. G. Alford, Secy, A. Lang, 
 
 Thomas. Miller, President. 
 
VI. 
 
 upon the news of the death of Mr. Stone, Professor W. 
 Henry Green, D.D., LL.D., (author also of another tribute 
 quoted on page 27) wrote as follows, in a communication 
 dated, Theological Seminary, Princeton, N. J., December 
 31st, 1884: — 
 
 " His deep interest in this Seminary, and the benefits he 
 has conferred upon it by his counsels and his gifts during 
 his official connection with our Board of Directors cannot 
 soon be forgotten, 
 
 "His gentle and lovely Christian character, his kindly 
 spirit and his refined manners shed a grace and attractive- 
 ness over his whole person. Such a death must be keenly 
 felt in his own household and immediate circle, but it is 
 besides a great public loss." 
 
VII. 
 
 Copy of Resolutions adopted by the New England 
 Society of Orange, N. J., in memory of the late Levi P. 
 Stone, Esq. 
 
 At the monthly meeting of the New England Society 
 of Orange, January 3d, 1885, it having been announced 
 that Mr. I>evi P. Stone, a member of the Society, had 
 departed this life at the ripe age of eighty-three years, the 
 following minute was unanimously adopted : — 
 
 Resolved: that the Society has learned, with unfeigned 
 sorrow, of the decease of an honored member, Mr. Levi P. 
 Stone, of Llewellyn Park. 
 
 Mr. Stone had shown his appreciation of the objects and 
 aims of the Society by becoming a member when already 
 past the age of three score and ten, and although it could 
 not have been expected that one so far advanced could be 
 an attendant upon its business meetings, the Society has 
 felt honored by the sympathy and fellowship of a citizen 
 and friend of so high a character. 
 
 Mr. Stone has been widely known among us, and in the 
 neighboring metropolis, as a business man of the strictest 
 integrity and honor, as well as of eminent success, and in 
 all the relations of life he has shown himself to be a true 
 Christian and a philanthropist whose ear was never deaf to 
 the cry of human want or distress. 
 
40 
 
 Resolved : that the Secretary be requested to communi- 
 cate to the family of the deceased this expression of esteem 
 for the departed, and of sympathy with those who survive. 
 
 H. B. Thomas, Secy, 
 jfanuary yth, 1885. 
 
VIII. 
 
 At a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Home 
 Insurance Company, of the City of New York, held January 
 3d, 1885, at the office of said Company, the following 
 Preamble and Resolutions were unanimously adopted : — 
 
 Whereas^ We have assembled to pay a suitable tribute of 
 respect to our friend and long time associate, Levi P. Stone, 
 who departed this life on the morning of 31st December, 
 last, it is 
 
 Resolved, That in the death of Mr. Stone we lament the 
 loss of one of the founders of the Company and one of the 
 original Directors whose valued services, for more than 
 thirty years as a member of this board and of one of its 
 standing committees, are entitled to our grateful recognition. 
 
 Resolved, That in submitting to the Divine will, we also 
 recognize the goodness which gave to our departed friend 
 and associate so long a life of honor and of usefulness. 
 
 Resolved, That we extend our heartfelt sympathy to the 
 bereaved family, and that a copy of these resolutions be 
 suitably transcribed and presented to them. 
 
 The foregoing is correctly transcribed from the records 
 of the Company. 
 
 Chas. J. Martin, 
 J. H. Washburn, President. 
 
 Secretary. 
 
Press of C. H.Jones & Co., 114 Fulton Street, New York City. 
 
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