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1688 ^, 1888
CELEBRATION
OF THE
1 Wo jiundreclth '^AnniN^ersary
OF THF
First Baptist Church,
MiDDLETOWN, NEW JERSEY,
October joth, i888.
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MacCrellish & Quigley,
Practical Book and Job Printers,
Trenton, N. J.
^^
Names of the Constituent Members of the First Baptist Church, Middletown, New Jersey.
ORGANIZED IN THE WINTER OF 1688.
Richard Stout, Jonathan Bowne, John Buchman, Walter Hall, Jonathan Holmes, William Cheeseman, William Compton, John Bowne, James Grover,
John Stout. OB.A.DIAH Holmes, John Wilson, John Cox, George Mount, William Layton, John Ashton, James Grover, Jr., Thomas Whitlock.
NumberTif Members October 30th, 1888, 223
/- ^. PASTOR,
Rev. E. Everett Jones, A.M.
DEACONS,
James Frost, Charles Allen, James G. Taylor,
James R Hopping, Church Clerk.
At a Sabbath Morning Service held in the month of May, 1888, it was
Voted — B3' this Church, that a Bi-Centennial Celebration beheld.
]'oted — ]Most cordiall}' and unanimously, that the New Jersey Baptist State Convention and New Jersey Baptist Education Society be invited to hold their Annual Meetings with us, on October 30th and 31st, 18SS, to join with us in celebrating our Bi-Centennial.
Voted — That our Pastor, Rev. E. Everett Jones, and Brethren Charles Allen, James G. Taylor, Warren Conklin, James G. Hopping, Harvey Jenkins, Daniel Irwin and William Mount, be appointed a Committee of Arrangements for the Bi-Centennial Celebration, in connection with the Bi-Centennial Committee appointed by the New Jersey Baptist State Con- vention, consi-sting of Brethren I. C. W3'nn, O. P. Eaches, H. C. Apple- garth, T. E. Vassar, A. H. Sembower, and Addison Parker.
At a subsequent meeting of the Bi-Centenuial Committee, the fol- lowing programme was adopted, presented and carried out, as out- lined in this Memorial \'olume.
Order of Exercises.
On Tuesday morning, October 3otli, 1888, the " New Jersey Bap- tist Education Society" held its Fifty-first Annual Meeting. Ad- dresses were made by Rev. E. F. Y. Pierce, Rev. Addison Parker, Dr. John Greene, and Dr. H. K. Trask.
Tuesda)^ afternoon, at two o'clock, under the general auspices of the " New Jersey Baptist State Convention," in its Fifty-ninth Anni- versary, the Bi-Centennial and Memorial Exercises of the First Baptist Church, at Middletown, N. J., commenced with a Service of Song.
e)onc|, . . . . ' . . 'M He G/luirch's Wei
By Mrs. Caroline M. Wtirdemann, of Washington, D. C, One of our Church Members.
We praise our God for this glad day, That we may greet you face to face ;
While heart and voice unite and say Welcome, thrice welcome, to this place.
This Church, our home ! alike we love Its present good, its memories sweet ;
So praise our God, while Saints above The welcome and the praise repeat.
come.
•Address of Welcome, . . . . IDy Qi-. Qi-Veretl ^ones,
Pasto7- of the Aliddletoivn Chtirch.
Brethren in Christ, and members of the two hundred Baptist Churches of New Jersey, as Pastor of this grand old patriarchal Church, and for my people, I extend to you Christian greeting, and bid you most cordial welcome to the old, historic spot, to our hospitalit}- , to our hearts and to our homes. We stand on sacred ground, thickly clustered with noble names and grand achievements. They tell us we are the old Mother Church, from whom eight daughter Churches have gone out, and are now as strong, as able, as ourselves ; but others tell us she is the mother of 17,000 or more Baptist Churches. Be that as it may, we are vividly reminded to-day of the gathering home of children and grandchildren on some festive Christmas-tide around the old homestead. Children and grandchildren are delighted, and the dear old faces of grandparents just simply beam with pleasure and delight over their happ}^ descendants.
We are reminded of the gathering of the tribes to Jerusalem of old, at the great and joyous feasts of the Lord, when even the desert paths through the valley of Baca were as wells of refreshment for the J03' set before them.
The old Church is joyous to-day in beholding what God hath wrought. The few have become the many, and the glory of God is in it. It is said that at the close of the war between France and Prussia, in 1866, the tri- umphant arm}' of Prussia came to Berlin for its reception and welcome. As each regiment approached the city gate from the Thiergarten, it was halted by a choir demanding by what right it would enter the oxty. The regiment replied in song, reciting the battles it had fought, the victories it had won ; then came a welcome from the choir, " Enter into the city." So came on regiment after regiment, reciting its deeds and victories, each challenged and welcomed in loud chorus. And then thej' marched on in triumph up the Linden, between rows of captured cannon, with the ban-
ners they liad borne and the banners the}^ had taken, and all of them saluted the statue of grand old Frederick, the Creator of Prussia. So it seems to me to-day, the hosts of God's elect have gathered here to salute the grand old Mother Church, and with songs and tokens of victory are marching together, singing hallelujahs and laying their trophies at His feet who hath brought us off more than conquerors. Trusting these anniversary services may make strong and lasting impressions on the Church here, and on all the Churches represented, and may be far-reach- ing in their influences, far out beyond all our calculations, we bid you all again, most cordial welcome.
©pening 'Address, B}' P- W- Aye
President of the Neiu Jersey Baptist State Convention.
Historical Sketch 1^
OF THE
FIRST BfiPTIST CHURCH OF MIDDLETOWN, NEW JERSEY.
BY WHEELOCK H. PARMLY, D.D.
Lord Macaulay has somewhere written, " A people which takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors, will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants."
This sentiment of Macaulay I fully adopt, and it will apply with equal force to individual Christians, and to Christian Churches. I adopt, also, another sen- timent, of the late David B. Stout, the once honored Pastor of the Middletown Church. He says : " He who studies history, lives twice — he lives in imagina- tion in the ages that preceded him, as well as in that in which his own frail life is fast ebbing away." We are making history, and this thought should inspire us so to live and act, that to others, who may read our history in future generations, it may appear that we served our own generation, both according to the will of God as well as to the best of our ability.
In preparing, at your request, a brief historical sketch of the First Baptist Church at Middletown, I remark at the beginning, that I perceive that you have assigned me a difficult task, inasmuch as I am not a Bi-Centenarian, con- sequently can make no statements as to her ancient history, as an eye-witness ; neither was I ever anything in her history but, for a brief period, an humble and loyal member in her fold. But the task becomes more difficult inasmuch as there are in existence histories of this body, written by excellent and hon- ored brethren, which differ widely in many of their statements from each other.
In considering these differences of statements, however, let us not judge too harshly, for when this Church was formed in theX'olony of New Jersey, the
(9)
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element of religious toleration was not practiced as it is to-day. In England, whence most of the inhabitants emigrated, the people had been in a turmoil between Romanism and Protestantism for several scores of years. Charles I. had lost his head in 1649, by reason of his attempts at persecution, and the very year, 1688, when this Church takes its date, was that in which England passed the bill of the Protestant succession to the throne ; while on the Conti- nent, Louis XIV committed, in 1685, one of the greatest mistakes ever recorded in the history of France. By the edict of Nantes, published by Henry IV in 1598, the terrible persecution of the Huguenots ceased, and for eighty-seven years their increase and prosperity were amazing in every respect. But by the revocation of that edict in 1685, oppression and persecution overreached them- selves, and 400,000 of the most industrious, the most intelligent, and the most religious citizens of the nation of France, with all their skill and influence of every kind, fled from their native homes like frightened sheep, to find safety in this and other Colonies, rather than submit to the tyranny of Romanism.
During such a period, and amid such various influences, arose this Mother Church. That difi'erences of opinion should exist under such circumstances, is not to be wondered at. The wonder really is that so much that we can rely upon has been preserved. And it is a matter of devout gratitude that, notwith- standing all the conflicting statements that from time to time have been made, there exist certain general facts, so well authenticated that all persons can and ought fully to agree in sustaining them. Among them are the following :
1. The Baptist historian, David Benedict, in his history, pp. 581-2, states on the authority of Morgan Edwards that about the year 1660 some few Baptists were found among the first settlers, and by difi'erent arrivals they continued to increase very slowly for about thirty years, and that about that time, that is in 1688, the First Baptist Church in Middletown was formed.
While all, so far as my examination has gone, readily acknowledge the exist- ence of the Church at this time, there are some like the historian, Morgan Edwards, who, in his "Materials towards a History of the Baptists in New Jersey," published in 1792, while recognizing the complete formation of 1688, claim that there was an incomplete formation in 1068. He uses the following language : " For the origin of this Church — of 1688 — we must look back to the year 1667, for that was the year when Middletown was purchased from the Indians by twelve men and twenty-four associates. Their names were in the town book. Of these the following were Baptists, viz.:
" 1. Richard Stout.
" 2. Jonathan Bowne.
" 3. John Buchman.
" 4. Walter Hall.
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"5. Jonathan Holmes. "6. William Cheeseman. "7. William Compton. " 8. John Bowne. " 9. James Grover.
" 10. John Stout.
" 11. Obadiah Holmes.
" 12. John Wilson.
" 13. John Cox.
" 14. George Mount.
" 15. William Layton.
" 16. John Ashton.
" 17. James Grover, Jr.
" 18. Thomas Whitlock.
" It is probable," lie continues, " that some of the above had wives of their way of thinking. However, the aforesaid eighteen men were the constituents of the Church of Middletown, and the winter of 1668 the time."
" Much of the early history of this ancient Church is wrapt in obscurity on account of the absence of faithful records of their organization. Benedict, for instance, dates their origin to 1667, and from the identity of names found upon the town book, and from the list of Church members, he concludes that the Baptists were among the first settlers of the town. Hence, it is highly probable that from the above date, 1667, until 1688 they were occasionally per- mitted to enjoy the Gospel from itinerant ministers, as well as frequent meet- ings for prayer and exhortation by brethren from their midst."
From the most careful examination of Benedict and Backus and Armitage and all the other authorities living or dead which I liave been able to consult, I have seen nothing to conflict with these statements, both as to the dates and the origin and the constituents of this venerable Church.
There are, indeed, minor differences as to the spelling of names and the per- sonality of individuals, but no difi^erences of suflicient importance to prevent us from receiving these statements as we ordinarily receive the history of ancient events or of poetry or science.
In the excellent history of the Holmdel Church, prepared by Rev. Thomas S. Griffiths, I find the following language, wliich is but a confirmation of the statement made : " Tlie Middletown Church had, in its beginning, two centres in the township of Middletown, at each of which the Baptist settlers predomi- nated, where they erected meeting-houses, worshiping and transacting the Church business in them alternately. One of these was the village of Middle- town, the other was Baptisttown, or the Academy. Baptisttown fitly desig-
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nated its religious type. It was a Baptist settlement. Each place and assembly is designated in the Church records. That at Baptisttown as the ' Upper Meeting House,' and the congregation as the ' Upper Congregation,' and that at Middletown village as the ' Lower Meeting House,' and the congregation as the ' Lower Congregation.' These congregations were absolutely one, sharing equally in the responsibility and privileges of the Church."
All these facts, which are either admitted or implied by the writers I have named, are conclusive evidence that there was a bod}' of Baptists in Middle- town who were united in sentiment ; whose organization was more or less complete after 1668 ; whose membership covered a territory that now comprises Monmouth, Ocean, Mercer and a part of Middlesex counties ; that it embraced men of wealth and talent and influence ; that John Bowne, James Ashton, Richard Stout, Jonathan Holmes and others conducted worship among them. In what places in this vast territory they preached, and whether these brethren were ordained or unordained, are questions of small importance. They settled themselves, as all agree, in 1688, into a complete Church state, holding their worship unitedly in two separate sanctuaries. Near the close of the century they fell into a quarrel and divided into two factions, so that in 1712 we find them in great difficulty. Schism and discord, bitterness and wrangling, seemed likely to rend the body. Under these painful circumstances they agreed to call in and abide by the advice of a council. The names of the members of it were Timothy Brooks, Abel Morgan, Joseph Wood, Elisha Thomas, Nicholas Johnson, James James, Griffith Miles, Edward Church, William Betridge and John Manners. Their report is recorded at length on the Church book, and is a document of singular importance and interest. It commences thus : " With respect to the present state and condition of the Church of baptized believers, yearly meeting at Middletown and Crosswicks and adjacent places in East Jersey, we, the associated Ministers and messengers sent from the Churches of the same faith and order in divers other places, being met at the above- named Middletown, May 24th, 25th and 26th, 1712. ' They advised them to bury all former disputes and contentions, to erase all the records in reference to them, and to subscribe to Elias Keach's Pastor's Confession of Faith and Church Covenant thereto annexed.' "
In accordance with this advice four leaves were cut out of the Church records. Happy results followed the advice of this council, and peace and harmony were restored. James Bolen, the former Clerk of Monmouth county, was unanimously elected Clerk of the Church. The membership at that time was 66. And it is a remarkable fact, creditable alike both to Pastors and peo- ple, that during all their history of two hundred years this is the only advisory council of which there is any record.
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And now having settled, so far as I believe we can confidently settle, from any documents now in our possession, the origin and constitution, as well as the history, of this venerable Church up to the year 1712, let us pursue its remarkable subsequent history; and it is but justice here to notice that the ancient Church record-book, the only one they ever had, is in itself an interest- ing relic. It is a well-preserved ledger, bound in vellum, The first record is headed thus: "At ye yearly meeting May ye 24th Anno Dom 1712." But, carefully as this book has been preserved, with the four leaves cut out at that time by the advice of the council, we have no other authentic history preserved by the Church of an earlier date. Consequently, the historian must depend either on subsequent records or tradition or on the memory of individuals for any subsequent statements he may make ; and, without intending any reflection, either upon the living or the dead, and perhaps at the risk of severe criticism, after a careful examination I am compelled to pronounce the minutes exceed- ingly meagre, as furnishing a full and reliable history.
And here I desire to acknowledge my indebtedness to Rev. David B. Stout, Eev. T. S. Griffiths, Rev. E. J. Foote and Hon. Edwin Salter, whose sketches have all been quoted by me. To others, also, who have furnished information, I return thanks once for all. I shall not farther quote them by name, but give my deliberate conclusions from whatever sources they may be drawn.
1. The first Pastor after the council was Rev. John Burrowes, who was elected in 1713. He subscribed with his own hand to Elias Reach's confession of faith and covenant. He is reported to have come from Somersetshire, in England, to have been a successful Minister, and to have remained with them the rest of his life.
2. The next Pastor was Rev. George Eaglesfield, who was elected in 1731, and continued to preach among them till his death, in 1733. We have no other record of him than this.
3. The next Pastor was Rev. Abel Morgan, A. M., who was chosen Pastor in 1738, and who continued his ministry among them till his death, in 1785, the longest Pastorate and, probably, the most gifted Minister the Church ever had. So much has already been justly written, and so much more will be said on this occasion, about this faithful servant of God, that I shall make but a few quotations from others about him in this paper. In the the old Church book already referred to, we find the following record at the time of his death : "The Rev. Mr. Abel Morgan was born in the State of Delaware, April the 18th, 1713. He departed this life Nov. the 2-ith, 1785, near 6 o'clock in the afternoon, in the township of Middletown, county of Monmouth, State of New Jersey." He was one of the strong men of his da}^ pre-eminently prepared for the arduous pioneer work, which in that early history of the country he was called to per-
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form. He laid broad and deep the foundations of truth, and to the labors of such men are to be attributed, under God, the prosperity and success which, as a denomination, we are permitted to enjoy. His Ministry was faithful and pungent. In labors he was abundant, as a friend he was affectionate and con- fiding, and his memory will ever be fragrant among all the lovers of our Holy Religion. I have not been able, for the want of records, to ascertain the num- ber he baptized, but I have no doubt that it was quite large. He gave by will to the Church, for the use of the Pastor, his library, which consisted of many rare and valuable works — valuable because of their antiquity, some of the volumes being three hundred years old. As our Brother, Rev. E. J. Foote, in his sketch of Abel Morgan, written in 1883, furnished a correct list of this valuable library I shall spend no time in describing it. He preached more than 5,000 sermons during his Pastorate at Middletown, and left manuscript preparations for the pulpit, all dated and numbered, amounting to 10,000. He was a won- derful man in every respect. The excellent Samuel Jones, D.D., of lower Dublin, in his century sermon before the Philadelphia Association, preached October 6th, 1807, speaking of the Middletown Pastors, describes him as " the incomparable Abel Morgan," while Edwards says of him, " He was not a custom divine nor a leading string divine, but a Bible divine."
4. The next Pastor was Rev. Samuel Morgan, a nephew of Abel Morgan, who held the office a little more than six years, and baptized during that time sixty- five members into the Church. The only farther record I find of him says that Samuel Morgan was born at Welsh Tract, August 23d, 1750 ; that he was ordained at Middletown, November 29th, 1785, at which time he took on him the care of the Church. The ordination sermon was preached by Rev. Peter Wilson, of Hightstown, November 29th, 1785, two days after he preached the funeral sermon of Rev. Abel Morgan. He died in 1794, and was buried at or near Holmdel.
5. The next Pastor was Rev. Benjamin Bennet. He took the oversight of the Church in 1792. " He was a man of energy and enterprise. His preaching was said to be above mediocrity." He continued his labors with the Church until 1815, when he was elected a member of the House of Representatives of the United States, in which office he served until 1819. Consequently, his connection with the Church as Pastor was dissolved. During his ministry of twenty-three years he baptized fifty persons. He died on October 8th, 1840, and was buried near Holmdel.
6. The next Pastor was Rev. Augustine Eliot, who for about two years ministered to the Church, and during that time was permitted to baptize nine- teen persons.
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Then it appears succeeded a period when they were pastorless, and they so reported themselves to their Association (the New York Baptist Association), in 1820. But meantime, I judge, they were served by acceptable supplies, and among them a beloved Brother Hand, who had not yet been ordained, but whose labors among them were blessed.
7. Afterwards there succeeded to the pastorate, in 1822, Rev. William King, whose term of service continued for three years, during which time he bap- tized thirty persons. But this man proved himself a bad Shepherd, and left the Church very suddenly. The same man was reported to the New York Association, in 1829, from the Cayuga (N. Y.) Association, as an impostor, and I presume was at that time deposed from the ministry.
8. The next Pastor was the excellent Thomas Roberts, who was elected to this office in 1825. The account which this Brother gives in his autobiography (p. 36) of his settlement with the Church is most interesting. I will here quote a few sentences from an interview held at this time at the " Upper House," now Holmdel, between Judge Jehu Patterson, for many years a pillar in the Middletown Church, and himself on this subject. The Judge had asked him whether he would be willing to settle with them as Pastor. Mr. Roberts' reply was characteristic. He writes: " I told him that such was my love of peace and harmony among brethren that I could neither labor nor live where they were absent. Judge Patterson replied that all their disagreement was concern- ing Mr. King, and went on to say, ' This imposture is evident and is becoming more so every day, so that soon all will be convinced of the deplorable fact.' As he said, so it came to pass, and all were happy to know that their King had fled, and glad to see the good old Baptist republic restored to the ancient Church."
Can any one wonder that with a Pastor of such a spirit, even though he served a Church worshiping in two large, separate sanctuaries, and covering a territory of at least twenty miles in diameter, they should dwell together as Pastor and people for twelve whole years in the most perfect harmony and unity ? This is, in part at least, explained by his immediate successor, Rev. David B. Stout, who says of him: " Mr. Roberts' labors were not in vain in the Lord ; he baptized during his ministry one hundred and forty-five persons. He lived in the affections of his people, his praise is in all the Churches of the saints, and his memory will long be cherished by all Christians." When he parted with the Church, their next letter to the ^Association, in 1837, after they had settled his successor, contains the following reference to it: *' We parted with one of the best of men and one whom we dearly loved." This state of things is farther explained by himself in his autobiography (pp. 39, 40), where he speaks of the wonderfnl brotherly love and unanimity which has marked
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their history, and then asks the suggestive question, " May not the influence of this Mother Church, in her early days, when that eminent man of God, Abel Morgan, presided over her, under God, be among the influences that has brought about this happy state of things ? " Can there be more than one, and that an affirmative, answer to such a question ? On the same page ot this auto- biography he makes the following remarkable statement : " During the whole time I served this beloved Church, I have no recollection of one unpleasant circumstance to mar our happiness as a Church. The membership maintained a circumspect deportment, letting their light shine endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, and God was glorified in them.'' I speak in part from personal knowledge when I say that I think it no injustice when I place Thomas Eoberts second only to Abel Morgan, as a Pastor of this venerable Church.
9. The next Pastor was David B. Stout, who was unanimously chosen on April 1st, 1837, and never, perhaps, was a Church more blessed than this Church in making such a selection. He came to them from Lambertville, New Jersey, in the strength of mature manhood, with five years of experience, and for a period of thirty-eight years went in and out before the people as a workman who needed not to be ashamed. The first letter of the Church to the Associa- tion after his settlement in 1837, contained this sentence: " We are all united in our new Pastor, Brother D. B. Stout." That was the keynote of his long and successful pastorate.
We have now followed the history of this Mother Church and her Pastors to a period when many of the living can speak from personal knowledge and experience, and none can successfully deny that David B. Stout, while natur- ally of a modest and retiring disposition, yet possessed a most genial spirit. He loved men, and was thoroughly devoted to his life-work. Surrounded at the time of his seitlement by a Church of 154 members true and faithful, he knew how so to improve his opportunity that in a few mouths, by the grace of God, he witnessed a most powerful revival. During the year 1838 he baptized 76 persons into the Church. That j'ear the work became so great that he called to his aid Rev. Frederick Ketchum, a recent graduate from Hamilton Theolog- ical Seminary, who afterwards became a most useful evangelist, both in New Jersey and in the West. The whole surrounding region, including Red Bank and Shrewsbury, where there was no Baptist Church at that time, was entirely changed by that work of grace. The late Dr. Greenleaf S. Webb, then Pastor in the city of New Brunswick, described that work, iu the writer's presence, as filling the whole region from Middletown to Burlington, N. J., with the power of saving truth. Pastor Stout continued his almost indefatigable labors till, in 1851, he was permitted to baptize 236 converts into the Church, and the
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membership increased to 567— the highest number ever reported by the (Church.
He makes the following report of that great revival in 1851 : " The hearts of professors were broken and melted in love ; brethren went everywhere, talk- ing and praying with the unconverted, and what seemed the more remarkable was, that wherever they went the Spirit of God had been there before them. It has been supposed that upon an area of five miles around the Church, not less than 500 persons were converted during that period." The largest number of baptisms by Mr. Stout at any one time was 82, on the 12th of January, and it was performed with ease, and without haste, in thirty-eight minutes. A large proportion of the converts were adults, and the larger number of them were males.
From the excellent statistical report of Rev. E. J. Foote, seemingly the best statistical report that has come to hand, I learn that during the thirty-eight years of Mr. Stout's ministry he baptized into the Church 661 members. From the same report I learn that from the year 1809 to 1837 other ministers bap- tized 196, and that Mr. Foote baptized during his ministry from 1875 to 1883 63 persons. Added to these, as reported by Rev. D. B. Stout, must be 65 bap- tized by Rev. Samuel Morgan between 1785 and 1792, and 50 that were baptized by Rev. Benjamin Bennet after 1792, making an aggregate of 1,030 baptisms between 1785 and 1883.
To this number we are glad to report and add baptisms — by Rev. E. J. Foote, 63 ; by Rev. F. A. Douglass, 13 ; by Rev. E. Everett Jones, 26 ; total, 102.
This last number (102), added to the 1030, makes an aggregate of baptisms into this Church as reported between the years 1785 and 1888, 1132. In this reckoning, on account of the imperfect records, we leave out all the baptisms which were administered during the 97 years which preceded the ministry of Rev. Samuel Morgan.
In the sketch of the Church, by Hon. Edwin Salter, of New Jersey, pub- lished in 1888, he reports that during Mr. Stout's pastorate "he had attended and oflficiated at over 600 funerals, and that, at the time of his decease, of the 206 members connected with the Church he had received all but one male and twelve females." The same author closes his sketch of Mr. Stout's ministry with the following truthful and appropriate tribute to the Rev. Mr. Stout : " He was a large-hearted and noble Christian gentleman, and, while an earnest adherent to his own faith, his loving soul called every man his brother who accepted an evangelical belief in the Saviour. His funeral services were held in the Church, which was filled to repletion. The carriages must have numbered one hundred and fifty," and, as reported to the present writer (who could not attend), it was the largest funeral ever witnessed in Middletown.
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10. The immediate successor of Rev. David B. Stout was Rev. E. J. Foote, who was called from Red Bank, and on January 2d, 1876, took up the work which Mr. Stout had so recently laid down. He brought with him the experi- ence of rich, abundant and successful labors in many fields of toil, and for a period of eight years went in and out faithfully before this people, gathering in the sheaves which infinite love should send him. During that period the Lord gave him souls for his hire, and permitted him to baptize 63 persons into the Church, and then by His providence showed him another field, where he is still successfully engaged for his blessed Master. In 18S.T he removed to Trenton, N. J.
11. To Mr. Foote succeeded Rev. Frederick A. Douglass, who was installed as Pastor on December 20th, 1883. He brought to this field a long experience, both as a Pastor at home and as a Missionary in foreign lands, and used all according to the best of his ability. The Lord gave him as seals to his minis- try thirteen converts, whom he baptized into the Church. After three years of faithful labor, he closed his pastorate on December 31st, 18S6.
^•^2. The present Pastor, Rev. ETlEIvefett Jones, commenced his ministry here on April 1st, 1887. He was no novice when he began, for the Lord had blessed his labors in other pastorates. He has continued to own them in this com- munity to a remarkable degree, large congregations attend upon the ministry
\ of the Word, the Church are united and harmonious, and God has granted / him since his settlement as seals to his ministry 26 souls, whom he has bap- tized into the Church. Besides these, and placing a baptistery within these hallowed walls, and many other things worthy of mention here, the beasts have reason to bless him and this congregation, for during the past year they have done a new thing under the sun, that is, they have purchased a lot of ground adjoining this Sanctuary for one thousand dollars, and upon it have erected 24 new sheds for the horses — a thing which should have been done at any time within the last 200 years. If you would see other evidences of improvement about this Mother Church, look around you.
This Church has also been active in forming other Churches, either wholly or in part. In 1715, the Baptist Church at Hopewell, Mercer county, was organized from members who had previously emigrated from the First Church in Middletown. This Church became a very powerful and influential body, and so continued until about 1814, when it fell under the withering influence of antinomianism.
Following this, in 1745, the Hightstown Church took its rise from this body. It was first called the Cranbury Church, but for many years past has been one of the most efficient bodies in this State, and has herself become the mother of several other ('hurches.
19
The next Church was Holmdel, which was really a division of this Church, and became necessary by reason of the large growth of the body. In 1836, 52 members were dismissed and became an independent Church. Their history has been one of progress ever since their recognition.
Four years later, that is, in 1840, Keyport took its rise out of this Church, 11 members having been dismissed from her to constitute that body.
Before this, in the order of time, that is, in 1766, a flourishing Church was formed in Crosswicks from this body, which is now known as the Upper Free- hold Church.
In 1844 this Church dismissed 11 members, which, with others, were consti- tuted the First Baptist Church of Shrewsbury, located at Red Bank.
Nine years later, in 1853, 54 members were dismissed for the purpose of form- ing a Baptist Church at Riceville, now known as the Second Baptist Church of Middletown. And the next year, 1854, 64 members were dismissed to consti- tute the Baptist Church at Port Monmouth.
In addition to these (8) already named, it is but just to mention the Baptist Churches at Matawan, and Eatontown, and Atlantic Highlands and Long Branch, for all these young Churches owe more or less for their existence and present prosperity to this Mother Church, and yet she stands to-day in the midst of her children and grandchildren, strong in membership, integrity and power, a remarkable evidence of the sustaining grace of God, as well as a proof of the truth of the Scripture, "There is that scattereth and yet increaseth."
But while so engaged in prosecuting her general work of preaching the Gospel, this venerable Church has not been idle in the particular work to which t believe every Church should be devoted, and that is, in raising up men to preach the Gospel. During her long history we find several names of brethren who have been called, and probably licensed, by the Church to preach, but whether they were all ordained as Pastors is a question, for there is a lack of historic proof. Such names in her early history are those of —
1. John Brown.
2. James Ashton, put down by some as the first Pastor.
3. John Bray. They were probably all Licentiates and Lay Preachers, but not ordained Ministers.
4. John Occason was called to ordination by the Church in 1667, and preached throughout this extended field for about 45 years.
5. James Carman, who was baptized in 1692, was an ordained Minister, and preached at Cranbury, now Hightstown, and other Churches, till the time of his death, at about 79 years of age.
6. Samuel Morgan, the fourth Pastor, was called and ordained by this Church in 1785.
20
7. John Cook was licensed by the Church in 1789, and then removed to Vir- ginia, and was lost sight of by the Church.
Then occurred about 50 years when there is no record of license.
8. Samuel Sproul was licensed in 1839. He devoted himself to the pastorate of several Churches, chiefly in New Jersey, with great faithfulness and success, and died in the midst of his labors, at Schooley's Mountain, New Jersey, July 26th, 1880, aged 68 years.
9. Kelsey Walling was licensed and sent out by the Church in 1851, and is still in the field, an active and useful Preacher of the Gospel.
Besides these (9) there have been and are many others who, although not actually licensed by, yet owe a vast debt of gratitude to this Church for benefits received from her as members while they were pursuing their studies preparing for the ministry. Among these was Jackson Smith, who was a bright youth, but who, after careful study, abundant preparation, and a few years' labor as Pastor of the Churches at Lyons' Farms, Keyport and Princeton, in this State, was early and mysteriously called to his reward in heaven. Thomas S. Grif- fiths, who became the first Pastor at Red Bank and who is still doing valiant service among the Churches in this State. Wheelock H. Parmly, of Jersey City, who, while preparing for college, was a member of this Church and after- wards was licensed by the Amity Street Baptist Church, in New York city, under the pastorate of Rev. William R. Williams, D.D., LL.D.
Thus have we briefly and imperfectly sketched a few items in the history of a Church whose life runs back to near the settlement of this country ; a history which embraces all the wars through which this nation has passed ; a history of a Church which, throughout, has preserved its faith and integrity untar- nished, and which, if justice were done, it would require a volume to describe.
If this brief sketch shall aid in the instruction and elevation of the present generation, as well as in giving a more perfect knowledge than we have hith- erto possessed of this venerable Mother Church, my end shall be answered and to God shall be all the glory.
21
The Bi-&ntennial (Jhurcli, Tlynin; By Robert UowVy, I).!).
( Written expressly for the occasion.) Sung by the whole congregation standing.
O, Lord, Thou art our living head ;
What precious grace our life has crowned ! We seek Thy courts with reverent tread,
And stand as if on holy ground.
Two hundred years ! O, who can tell The battles fought, the victories won ?
Though men who bore the standard fell, The}' passed it on from sire to son.
Our feet are where the fathers trod. Our lips recount their deeds of love ;
As they were true to Truth and God, So we will follow them above.
All blessed and triumphant they
Who dropped the sword for palm and crown ;
The godly cease ; but we to-day Take up the work which they laid down.
Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place
In all the generations gone ; Uphold us, till we see Thy face
When breaks on earth the heavenl}^ dawn.
Prayer was then offered by Rev. Dr. Symmes, late Moderator of the Synod of New Jersey (Presbyterian).
The commemoration anthem, composed by Robert Lowry, D.D., was then sung by the choir.
(Commemoration Antherq, . . . JVlusic by l|)r. LfoWry.
For Thou, O, God, hast heard ui)' vows :
Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear Thy name.
Thou wilt prolong the king's life; and his years as many generations.
He shall abide before God forever :
O, prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him.
So will I sing praise unto Thy name forever. Amen. — Psalms, 6i : ^-8.
"Address, .... loy Jloq. jloratio (i^ates IJones.
The Hon. Horatio Gates Jones, of Philadelphia, a third cousin of the Rev. Abel Morgan, and who brought with him an oil portrait of that famous former Pastor, was then introduced, and made the following address as to the life and work of his ancestral relative, and his great joy at the privilege of being present at this memorial service :
Mr. President and Brethren — I feel myself highly honored in hav- ing been invited to participate in your Bi-Centennial Services. But you have given me more honor than I deserve, for I am not, as your President announced, a lineal descendant of Rev. Abel Morgan, as he had no descend- ants, for he was a bachelor. Still I claim to be the only living relative of Mr. Morgan present on this occasion. He was a cousin of m}- grand- father, Rev. David Jones, the Revolutionary chaplain, who spent several years of his youth in this place, and studied divinitj^ with his cousin. He also did something else, and this he did not learn of your eminent Pastor. While here he fell in love, and like the majority of 3^oung divinity students, as soon as he was ordained he was married by Mr. Morgan to Miss Anne Stillwell , one of whose ancestors was descended from the famous Obadiah Holmes. So that to-day I feel flowing in my veins the blood of
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23
the brave hero who suffered for hi.s religious principles upon BovSton Common, in 1651. As your Church and Pennypack, Piscataway, Cohan- sey and Welsh Tract were the five which formed the Philadelphia Associ- ation in 1707, I was accompanied here by the Rev. James W. Willmarth, of the Roxborough Church, who is the Moderator of the Association. We felt that, as officers of our Association, it was our duty as well as privilege to show our regard for j^our venerable Church.
So much has been said bj^ Dr. Parmley and will be said by Dr. Baches, that I need not give you to-day any historical facts, and I might now, with propriety, take my seat. But I feel that I must say a few words about Mr. Morgan, to whose memory your Church has erected a beautiful monument, soon to be unveiled. He was a devout man, a scholar of very considerable learning, an earnest preacher of the blessed Gospel and a powerful Minister. He was beloved b}^ his people, respected b}' his brethren, and honored during all his life by the Philadelphia Association. He believed and practiced what he preached. Although he was a thor- ough Welshman by descent, yet he never attacked others who differed from him, from the mere love of theological disputation. But if the doc- trines of the Bible w^ere misrepresented, his spirit was roused at once, and he buckled on his armor and contended most earnestl}' for the faith once delivered to the saints. This occurred most conspicuously when he pub- lished his two learned books against the Rev. Samuel Finley, D.D., after- wards the President of Princeton College, the ancestor of the celebrated Samuel F. B. Morse. All who have read those books must admit that Dr. Finley found in Mr. Morgan a foeman worthy of his steel.
Mr. President, we do not live in the past, nor in the future, but in the ever-living and changing present, surrounded at all times by new duties and extraordinary events. We may, however, learn much from the past, and if we are wise we shall do so. As we do thus look back and trace the onward progress made in science, literature, the arts and the study of the Bible, we can devoutly thank God and take courage, for we feel that, despite all the attacks made against the precious truths of the Gospel, the gates of hell will not prevail. When two centuries shall have rolled away into the vast ocean of eternit}^ may we not believe, judging from the past history of this Church, that amid all the advances in the varied departments of life, our people will still cherish the same love that we do for God and the truths contained in this blessed volume which he has given us.
24
" Who'll press for gold the crowded street, Two hundred years to come ? Who'll tread these aisles with pious feet,
Two hundred years to come ? Pale, trembling age and fiery youth, And childhood with its brow of truth. The young and old, on land and sea, Where will the countless people be Two hundred years to come ?
" We all within our graves shall sleep Two hundred years to come : No living soul for us will weep Two hundred years to come ; But others then our lands will till, And others then these seats will fill, And others here will preach and pray — But, the same Gospel as to-day. Two hundred years to come."
25
Historical Sketch
OF THE
INCREASE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BAPTISTS
OR,
Two Hundred Years of New Jersey Baptist History.
BY O. P. EACHES, D.D.
A GLANCE AT THE TIMES.
In 1688, it was not the State of New Jersey, but the Provinces of East and West Jersey. William and Mary were upon the English throne. Not a thought of separation from the mother land had ever come to the minds of the new settlers. The records of the Dividing Creek Church contain in full the King's proclamation of October 31st, 1760. The Association, in 1769, when considering a petition to the King for the relief of the suffering Baptist brother- hood in New England, calls him " Our Gracious Sovereign." The Baptists were loyal to Christ and to the Crown. The population of the two provinces could not have been over 5,000. In 1740 it was only 40.000. The remains of Indian tribes were in the provinces. In 1745, Brainerd was giving his saintly life to them. In the records of the Upper Freehold Church, founded in 1766, are these words, giving a glimpse into the olden times: " The first of that way (meaning the way of Christ) was one James Ashton, the eldest son of James Ashton, Baptist Minister at Middletown, who came here to Crosswicks, which was then a wild and unsettled place, but possessed with the Indians in great abundance." In New England, King Philip's Indian War had closed but a few years before. The news of the glorious revolution in England, whereby despotism and papal supremacy had been driven away in the person of James,
26
perhaps had not gladdened the hearts of the Baptist fathers when thej^ laid the foundation of the Middletown Church. John Bunyan, about five years before, had published the " Pilgrim's Progress." Milton, about twenty years before, had published his " Paradise Lost." Sir Isaac Newton, at this time, was establishing the theory of gravitation. A few Baptist people on this side of the ocean were giving to the world great moral discoveries in building up a community where the conscience was unbound. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes took place three years before, whereby France put upon herself a curse that has lasted two centuries, and sent to this country those Huguenot families, the Stelles and Runyons and Ganos, by whose presence the Baptist Churches of this State have been enriched. Baxter and Dryden and Pascal and John Locke were living. Some of the constituent members of the New Jersey Baptist Churches were born before the Pilgrims saw Plymouth Rock. Some of them may have seen Cromwell, or Milton, or Gov. Winthrop, or Miles Standish ; may have heard John Bunyan, or Roger Williams, or John Clark, or Cotton Mather, or John Cotton.
New York and Philadelphia were straggling villages. Trenton was not f junded for fifty years afterward. The era of invention had not yet begun. Thousands of words in our language have been born since that time. Wash- ington and the men who were to lay the foundation of our national life were not born for half a century afterward. When we dig down to the foundation of our Baptist Churches we seem to be living in some far-off age.
GENESIS OF BAPTIST CHURCHES.
Plant the Bible and Baptists will spring up. Plant Baptists within a score of miles of each other and Baptist Churches will grow. Some of those who came across the waters were Baptists. Others, breathing the freer air of this land, were made such by the study of the Word. The Churches of our faith sprang up on this continent in this order :
Providence, R. I 1639
First Newport 1644
Second Newport 1656
First Swansea 1663
First Boston 1665
North Kingston, R. I 1665
South Kingston, R. 1 1680
Charleston, S. C 1683
Tiverton, R.I 1685
Pennepek, Pa 1688
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When the foundations of tlie first Baptist Church of New Jersey were laid there were on this continent ten small groups, seemingly unimportant, of bap- tized believers ; all of them having a str^g^le to live themselves and to keep the truths alive which they stood for. They could not have numbered five hundred — perhaps far less than this number. But we cannot measure the mag- nitude of a truth by mere numbers. At Marathon only 192 fell, yet twenty- five hundred years of civilization were bound up in that struggle. In January, 1688, twelve Baptist men and women at Pennepek, Pa., formed themselves into a Church. Let us rehearse their names — Elias Keach, John Eaton, George Eaton and Jane his wife, Sarah Eaton, Samuel Jones, John Baker, Samuel Vans, Joseph Ashton and Jane his wife, William Fisher and John Watts. Their action was a stimulus to the Jersey Baptists to form themselves into Churches. The brethren at Middletown settled tiiemselves into a Church order after consultation with the brethren at Pennepek.
CENTRES OF BAPTIST INFLUENCE.
Four Baptist Churches in the State may fittingly be called Mother Churches, because from them have come, by direct or indirect descent, almost all the Baptist Churches within our borders. These are —
Middletown, established in 1688.
Piscataway, established in 1689.
Cohansey, established in 1690.
Cape May, established in 1712.
MIDDLETOWN,
in order of time, stands first. For a score of years before 1688, without doubt, there were Baptists here. The faith of these old-time saints was kept alive by meetings held in the house of John Stout, and then in a building erected upon a lot given by Capt. John Bowne. Bowne and James Ashton were the prin- cipal speakers. Of the thirty-six persons who purchased the title from the Indians, eighteen are said to have been Baptists. Rev. Obadiah Holmes, who had witnessed for the truth of the New Testament by being publicly whipped in Boston, one of the proprietors. Pastor of the Newport Church from 1652 to 1682, may have visited and preached to these Baptist saints living in Mon- mouth county. Rev. Thomas Dungan, Pastor of the Church in Cold Spring, Penna. (a Church on the Delaware, founded in 1684, which was soon merged into the Pennepek Church), may have comforted their hearts by visiting them.
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Let us keep in memory the names of these eighteen men who covenanted with Jesus Christ and with each other to build up the truth and to strengthen each other :
Eichard Stout, John Stout,
William or James Bowne, Obadiah Holmes,
John Euckman, John Wilson,
Walter Wall, Thomas Cox,
Jonathan Holmes, George ISIount,
Wm. Cheeseman, Wm. Layton,
Wm. Compton, James Ashton,
John Bowne, Thomas Whitlock,
James Grover, Jr., James Grover,
Other men, whose names we shall not know until we meet them above, and saintly women, not a few, may also have belonged to that first New Jersey Baptist Church. The Pastor of this Church was Pastor of all the Baptists in the territory covered by Monmouth, Mercer, Ocean and a part of Middlesex counties. By division of its field and by dismission of members, eight Churches have sprung from it. These, in turn, have given birth to others, so that all the Churches in this section of the State may say of Middletown, She is the Mother of us all.
PISCATAWAY
stands second in the list. A large tract on the east side of the Earitan was bought of the Indians, in 1683. Among the first settlers were people from Piscataqua — now Dover, N. H. In this place Hanserd Knollys, the distin- guished English preacher, sowed Baptist sentiments as early as 1638. It is claimed tliat of these early settlers at least six were Baptists. These six were formed into a Gospel Church in 1689. Let us record the names of these six Baptist worthies : Hugh Dunn, John Drake, Nicholas Bonham, John Smalley, Edmund Dunham, John Eandolph. This newly-formed Church was rich in spirited leadership — three of the members, John Drake, Hugh Dunn and Edmund Dunham, being lay-preachers. The first meeting-house, by order of the township, was " built forthwith, as followeth : dimensions, twenty feet wide, thirty feet long, and ten feet between joints."
COIIANSEY
was formed in 1690. In 1683 a company of immigrants, members of the Clough- ketin Church, in the county of Tipperary, Ireland, landed at Perth Amboy, and traveled across the country to Cohansey Creek. In 1685, Obadiah Holmes, (a
29
son of that Obadiah Holmes whose back had been scarred for the truth's sake,) arrived from New England. In 1688, Elias Keach, of Pennepek, bap- tized three persons. At that time Pennepek Church embraced all the Baptists of West Jersey. The Lord's Supper was observed regularly at Cohansey and Burlington. In 1690, Eev. Thomas Killingworth moved into the neighborhood. In that year a Church with nine male members was formed. Let us record the names of these nine foundation-men of the Cohansey Church — Rev. Thomas Killingworth, David Sheppard, Thomas Abbot, William Button, Obadiah Holmes, John Cornelius, Kinner Vanhj'st, John Child, Thomas Lamstone. It is worthy of notice that in these three old Churches there is not a hint, from tradition, that any women were constituent members. And yet we feel justi- fied in thinking that there must have been Godly women in them all.
We ought to notice, to-day, the great worth of Rev. Thomas Killingworth in laying the foundation of our Church institutions in this State. He was present at Middletown when the Church was organized there. He was present at the formation of the Piscataway Church. He was a member of the Cohansey Church at its organization, and became its first Pastor. It may be that back of all these organizations was the power and controlling influence of this man of God who came to this country from England soon after his ordination to the Ministry.
CAPE MAY
had Baptist settlers who came from England in 1675. Among these were George Taylor and Philip Hill. Taylor held Bible readings in his own house. Upon his death, in 1702, Mr. Hill took up the work and continued the meetings. Mr. Keach preached here as early as 1688. The Church was constituted in 1712, with 37 members. These four centers of Baptist influence are strong Churches to-day because they gave so much of their own lives to beget other lives.
Almost all the Churches in the State have descended from these four Churches, or from the migration of Baptists into this State from other States or foreign countries. One Church originated in this way : A colony came into North Jersey from Connecticut, in 1751. This colony was a Church of Separatists, holding to infant baptism, but insisting upon regeneration in the membership and an inner call for the ministry. Having gone so far in the truth, they were led to go further. They adopted believers' baptism. The question arose whether baptism by an unbaptized person was valid. They answered it in the affirmative. Thereupon Elkanah Fuller baptized William Marsh, then Marsh baptized Fuller. In this manner the First Baptist Church of Wantage origi- nated. In like manner, in 1639, Ezekiel HoUimau baptized Roger Williams, and then Williams baptized Holliman.
It is not a matter of surprise that some extravagances belonged to the early history of this Church. For some years mixed communion prevailed. This,. in time, gave way to a more scriptural order. In 1761, a community of goods prevailed among a large part of the membership.
WHY THEY CAME TO THE JERSEYS.
A number of the early settlers in New England held Baptist views. These views were too large for the narrow orthodoxy of Massachusetts and Connec- ticut, No one but a member of the standing order could be a freeman. The doors of the First Baptist Church in Boston were closed by order of the Gen- eral Court. Persecution led Baptists in Wales, England, Ireland, New England, to seek a better country.
When Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret obtained possession of New Jersey, about 1664, they formed a Bill of Rights, by which " liberty of con- science to all religious sects who behave well " was guaranteed. In this State, for over two hundred years, the Baptists have enjoyed the privilege of an open Bible, and the doors of the meeting-house never closed by the State. Baptists held positions of honor and trust in the Jerseys from the beginning. Captain John Bowne, of Middletown, was a member of the Provincial Assembly in 1668-1675, and Speaker in 1683. Jonathan Holmes, of Middletown, was a Deputy to the Legislature in 166S. Rev. Benjamin Stelle, of Piscataway, was one of the Magistrates of the town. Rev. Thomas Killingworth and Obadiah Holmes were the first Judges of the Court of Common Pleas of Salem county. John Holme was also a Judge of the Salem County Court. In 1721, Rev. Nathaniel Jenkins, Pastor of the Cape May Church, was a member of the Colonial Legislature. A bill was introduced to punish all who denied the doc- trine of the Trinity, the Divinity of Christ, and the Inspiration of the Scriptures. Thereupon brave Nathaniel Jenkins said : " I believe the doctrines in question as firmly as the promoters of that ill-designed bill, but I will never consent to oppose the opposers with law or any other weapon save that of argument." He believed in the truth, and he believed that the Truth of God could stand without the addition of pains and penalties from the civil power. The jail and the whipping-post add nothing to the truth of a teaching. The bill failed to become a law. Nathaniel Jenkins registered the mind of every Baptist in the land when he voted nay upon that bill. In Rhode Island there was religi- ous freedom ; in this State a large-hearted toleration prevailed. Accordingly, we find Thomas Killingworth, at a court held at Salem, December 24th, 1706, taking out a license under the Toleration Act for a preaching place at Penns Neck. The Baptists in this Colony were breathing a free air and growing
31
The brethren in some of the other Colonies were sorely afflicted. In 1770 the Baptists at Ashfleld, near Boston, refused to pay the taxes levied upon them to build the new Puritan meeting-house. Thereupon their orchards, meadows, cornfields and grave-yard were sold. In the records of the Cape May Church, December 31st, 1774, a contribution was considered for " our persecuted breth- ren at Ashfleld, in Boston government." At the meeting of the Philadelphia Association, October 11th, 1775, the Cohansey Church reported two pounds " For our suffering brethren in New England." The whole world to-day stands debtor to these men who counted their principles of more worth than their property. We give praise to the Churches in our State that stood by them and helped them.
WHAT THE CHURCHES STOOD FOR.
Those thirty-three men of Middletown, Piscataway and Cohansey Churches, what truths did they represent? They stood for this — the supremacy of Jesus Christ in the Church, or, as the fathers expressed it, the Kingship of Jesus ; and therefore these men of two centuries ago went to the New Testament and asked it for the word of Jesus Christ. Tradition and custom and creed and centuries had but little weight with them. The Word of Jesus Christ had great weight with them. This truth is not worn-out to-day. Jesus Christ, and He only, is law giver in Zion. Customs and conveniences and majorities can never change falsehoods into truths or convert half truths into whole truths. They stood /or the conscience untouched by the civil power. These thirty-three men had almost all New England against them, some of the Southern Colonies, the customs of centuries, the deliverances of councils and confessions of faith. Reformers like Martin Luther and John Knox, saintly men like Baxter, thought it a per- tinent doctrine. Our Baptist fathers stood there so quietly, planted their con- victions, and the whole world has come around to them. And to-day the truth has so won its way into the world's thinking that we are apt to underestimate the sublimity of their position.
They stood for the Church, its purity, its regenerate character. They were the custodians, the trustees of this teaching — the Church must be a regenerate body. They were dark times spiritually in our land when these three Churches were formed. In 1657, in New England, the half-way covenant was adopted. Under this all persons who had been baptized were regarded as Church mem- bers, but the Lord's Supper was withheld from them. But they could not stop here. If infant baptism admitted to the Lord's Church, why not also to the Lord's Supper? The distinction between the regenerate and unregenerate was ignored. Infant baptism took the place of personal faith in the Lord Jesus. Isaac Backus says : " New England was involved in darkness at this time that
32
might be felt." Gilbert Tennant wrote that " the body of the Clergy of that generation were as great strangers to the feeling experience of the new birth as was their predecessor Nicodemus." Fifty years after these Churches were founded, Jonathan Edwards was driven from his Northampton pastorate for insisting that none but the regenerate may come to the Lord's Supper. Min- istry and members were against him. These thirteen Baptist Churches, in 1690, were the only organized bodies in this continent that, with a clear voice, said, The Church of Christ is alone for Christ's saved people. What large truths were in their keeping ; and how w^ell they guarded them ! Not alone we, but every organized evangelical body in our land is indebted to these men for their steady and steadfast adherence to the truth of Christ. Let us then honor the men who, two hundred years ago, laid the foundations of our Churches. For the name of Baptist they cared not much ; for the principles that lay back of the name they cared everything. They were not fanatics or visionary men. They were men into whose minds certain large truths had come.
THE FIRST ASSOCIATION.
There was a longing for Church-fellowship — there was a longing for the en- largement of the Saviour's Kingdom. There was a demand and then there was a discovery. The Philadelphia Association was formed in 1707. This was the first organization of the kind in America. It was composed of five Churches — Pennepek, Piscataway, Middletown, Cohansey, Welsh Tract, Del. Dr. Samuel Jones, says :
"This Association originated in what they called general, and sometimes yearly, meetings. These meetings were instituted so early as IGSS, and met alternatively in May and September, at Lower Dublin, Philadelphia, Salem, Cohansey, Chester and Burlington, at which places there were members, though no Church or Churches constituted, except Lower Dublin and Cohan- sey. At these meetings their labor was chiefly confined to the Ministry of the Word and the administration of Gospel ordinances. But in the year 1707 they seem to have taken more properly the form of an Association ; for then they had delegates from several Churches, and attended to their general concerns. We therefore date our beginning as an Association from that time, though we might with little impropriety extend it back some years."
The formation of the Association gave a wonderful impetus to the spread of Baptist principles. The Churches had enlarging ideas, the strong helped the weak, a missionary spirit was developed. In our State, Churches sprung up in the following order, in the first century of our Church life:
33
Hopewell 1715 Pemberton 1764
Kingwood 1742 Upper Freehold .1766
Hightstown 1745 Mount Bethel 1767
Scotch Plains 1747 Lyons' Farms 1769
Morristown 1752 Manahawkin 1770
Eoxbury 1753 Pittsgrove 1771
Salem, (first) 1755 Tuekahoe 1771
Wantage, (first) 1756 Jacobstown 1785
Dividing Creek 1761 Northfield 1786
Knowlton 1763 Mansfield 1786
At the end of one century we have twenty-four Baptist Churches. In 1761, the first year in which the statistics of the Churches are printed in the Min- utes, the membership did not exceed 741, an average of fifty-seven in each Church. Of these first-century Churches, two, Hopewell first, and Kingwood, have lapsed into a smaller and less complete faith. Four have since dis- banded— Roxbury, Knowlton, Tuekahoe, Mansfield. Eighteen Churches are shining to-day whose lights were kindled from 1688 to 1788.
THE FIRST CENTENNIAL.
We insert here a table containing the names of the Pastors and members who, as Delegates, attended the Association, October 7th, 1788, with the mem- bership of the Church at that time :
Name of Church. Delegates. Memhership.
Middletown Samuel Morgan, Pastor 131
William Blair. Piscataway Reune Runyon, Pastor 145
Jeremiah Manning. Cohansey Robert Kelsay, Pastor 93
Providence Ludam,
Jonathan Bowen. Cape May No Pastor 63
Amos Cresse. Hopewell Oliver Hart, Pastor* 164
David Stout, Jr.,
Jediah Stout. Kingwood Nicholas Cox, Pastor 160
Joshua Opdyck, Jonathan Wolverton.
♦Absent.
34
Name of Church. Delegates. Membership.
Hightstown Peter Wilson, Pastor 221
William Covenboven,
Alexander M'Gowan.
Scotch Plains William Van Horn, Pastor 146
Robert Fitz Kandolph.
Morristown David Loofborrow, Pastor* 87
John Brookfield.
Knowlton David Finn, Pastor* 42
Salem Peter P. Van Home, Pastor 32
John Briggs,
John Walker.
Wantage Silas Southworth, Pastor* 74
Dividing Creek John Garrison, Pastor 43
New Mills (Pemberton) Samuel Jones 95
Upper Freehold Edward Taylor 45
Mount Bethel Abner Sutton, Pastor* Ill
Lyons' Farms Joseph Stevens, Pastor 15
Manahawkin No letter 31
Pittsgrove William Worth, Pastor 82
Hosea Snethen.
Tuckahoe.. Isaac Bunnel, Pastor* 03
Jacobstown Burgess Alison, Pastor 47
Ashur Cox.
Canoe Brook (Northfield) No letter 35
*Absent.
The Roxbury Church, with 47 members, was not represented tliat year. The Mansfield Church does not appear in the list of Churches belonging to the Philadelphia Association. The number of members in 1788 was about 1,900.
A SUMMARY.
Morgan Edwards gives the following summary of the Baptist cause in 1790:
Baptist Churches in Jersey who keep the first day 24
Members 2,994
Familiep, about 1,897
Souls (allowing five to a family), about 9,485
Ministers ordained 16
Ministers, licentiate 3
Ministers, probationary 3
Meeting-houses 31
35
THE MEN OF THE FIRST CENTURY.
Who were the men that led the Churches in the first hundred years? Among them were Rev. Thomas Killingworth, the first Pastor of the Cohansey Church, serving nineteen years until his death, in 1709 ; Rev. Nathaniel Jen- kins, Pastor at Cape May from 1712 to 17:>0; Rev. John Drake, the first Pastor at Piscataway, Pastor for fifty years until his death, in 1739; Rev. Benjamin Stelle, Rev. Isaac Stelle, Rev. Reune Runyon, Pastors at Piscataway, whose pastorates cover eighty years; Rev. Benjamin Miller, Pastor at Scotch Plains for thirty-four years until his death, in 1781 ; Rev. Peter Wilson, for thirty-five years Pastor at Hightstown ; Rev. Isaac Eatoti, for twenty-six years Pastor at Hopewell until his death, in 1774; Rev. Oliver Hart, Pastor at Hopewell for fifteen years until his death, in 1795; Rev. Abel Morgan, called the incompar- able, Pastor at Middletown for forty-eight years. Pastor until his death, in 1785. They were worthy men who were anchored in their positions, and yet they were men whose labors covered a large territory because they had large hearts. The diary of Abel Morgan mentions more than forty places where he preached and administered the Lord's Supper. Peter Wilson's field extended from Manasquan to Trenton. Rev. David Jones, when Pastor at Upper Freehold, went twice, by consent of his Church, to visit the Indian tribes in Ohio. Rev. Benjamin Miller, of Scotch Plains, went to North Carolinia to visit the Armin- ian Baptist Churches, " for the special purpose of instructing and reforming them.'' The leading Ministers constituted in themselves State Conventions and Home Mission Societies. The Association, year by year, provided supplies for vacant fields. All the Churches contributed their Pastors to this work. We owe a vast deal (under God) to the character of these early founders of Baptist institutions. None of the early men were college-trained men, but they were trained men. They knew God ; they knew the Bible ; they knew the old theology of Owen and Charnock and kindred men. They were men of clear mind and strong convictions. Abel Morgan could read Greek and Hebrew. Rev. David Jones studied theology under Abel Morgan. This was the Theological Seminary of those days. Of their writings we have two vol- umes of Abel Morgan — the Controversy with Rev. Mr. Finley on Baptism. Rev. David Jones was the author of five works. Discourses of Rev. Isaac Eaton and others have come down to us. They were mighty in the Scriptures, they were leaders of men. Benedict says : " In going over their histories I have been deeply impressed with the fact of their steady and uniform course in the midst of their privations, and of the convincing proof which it aflbrds of the intelligent and valuable materials of which they were composed. Probably the best solution of this singular but pleasing fact may be found in the extraction of most of the first settlers ; they were generally from Wales'
36
and brought with them all those excellent traits of character which are peculiar to the Cambrian people." We may thank God, on this Bi-Centennial day, for the good blood that the founders gave to Church life in the State. A. true Creed in Church building is worth a vast deal, but a true Creed embodied in a true personal character is worth a vast deal more. Such men were our spiritual ancestors.
WHAT THEY DID IN EDUCATION.
The first Baptist School in this country was established at Hopewell, N. J., in 175f). Isaac Eaton, the Pastor, was the principal. In the Minutes of the Philadelphia Association, October 5th, 1756, is the following: "Concluded to raise a sum of money toward the encouragement of a Latin Grammar School for the promotion of learning among us, under the care of Brother Isaac Eaton and the inspection of our Brethren Abel Morgan, Isaac Stelle, Abel Griffith and Peter P. Van Horn." In the building at Hopewell, part of which yet remains, was the beginning of all our educational enterprises. The influence of that school was quiet, but immense. Here was trained James Manning, first Presi- dent of Rhode Island College; here was trained Dr. Samuel Jones, for fifty-one years Pastor at Pennepek, the most influential Baptist in the Middle Colonies — himself a Theological Seminary for training Ministers; here was trained Dr. Hezekiah Smith, a graduate of Princeton, for forty years Pastor at Haverhill, Mass., the founder of thirteen Churches. Others were, David Jones, Dr. Isaac Skillman, Charles Thompson, John Sutton, David Sutton. That academy had a wonderful efi'ect upon the Churches in giving to them a common centre, in supplying Ministers, in awakening intellectual activity. It was a misfortune to our State, a calamity, that an academy was not maintained in the State. Its effects, through nearly one hundred and fifty years, would have been simply incalculable. We have many schools to-day, and larger; let us not forget to think of the modest academy in the frame building at Hopewell, and its unas- suming but noble principal, Isaac Eaton.
" How far that little candle throws its light." From 1778 to 1796 Dr. Burgess Allison had a school in Bordentown, of large influence. Here Rev. Peter Wilson, Dr. Horatio Gates Jones and many others were trained. To us the educational work of that day seems small. The Association, in 1769, has these words : " Received pleasing accounts from Rhode Island College — seven entered this fall." That was the contribution of the Baptist people in one year of young men to be trained. The great things of this day have come from the small things of that day.
37
DOCTRINAL POSITION.
The Churches were orthodox, Calvinistic. The doctrinal position of the early Churches might be represented by John Gill ; our doctrinal position by Andrew Fuller. They adopted Confessions of Faith. The Council called to heal the division in the Middletown Church in 1712, advised the Church to subscribe to Elias Reach's Pastor's Confession of Faith and Church Covenant thereto annexed. The deed of the Bordentown Church conveys the property to those " who are members of Christian congregations, baptized by immersion, upon profession of faith, and holding those wholesome principles contained in a Confession of Faith, set forth by the Ministers and Elders of above one hundred congregations in England and Wales, 1689." The Churches rested upon the same doctrinal basis with ourselves. The Philadelphia Confession of Faith> September 15th, 1742, is simply this old Confession with articles added on the singing of Psalms and the laying on of hands. The Churches had no limp theology, no new theology. Every word of their confessions, sermons, circular letters we might to-day make our own. Two hundred years have given us no new doctrines.
In 1781, upon the report of a Committee, of which Oliver Hart, Abel Morgan and James Manning were members, it was
" Resolved, Unanimously, not to admit any one who advocates universal salva- tion to the office of public teacher, or suffer any who avow the same to continue in the Communion."
They held to a Congregational Church polity. The Association refused to ordain to the Ministry. It said that belongs to the Church. They had Councils to settle disputes and give advice. One feature of the old Church polity has disappeared. The Ruling Eldership, a Spiritual office, distinct from the Dea- conship, held by all the Churches at first, dropped out about 1800. One Church in the middle of the second century introduced a plurality in the eldership. But the presence, in large quantities, of unsanctified human nature, compelled the Church to restore the single pastorate. A high standard of Church fidelity was expected. The Hightstown records, October 2d, 178-1, have this —
"And these male members that omit attendance upon the appointed days shall render an account for their not attending, at the next meeting."
The Flemington Church, October 3d, 1801, resolved that any members absent- ing themselves three successive times from Church meeting should be called upon to give a reason for thus doing. A high standard of Christian living was called for. In the Scotch Plains Church, 1748, it was
Resolved, " That any brother belonging to this Church and not praying in his family, shall be admonished ; and if he will reclaim, well ; and if otherwise, he shall be suspended."
38
Pastors and members sometimes departed from Scripture teaching. In 1788, the Cape May Church sent to the Association this query—" Whether a member who professes that Christ died for all mankind, and that every individual of the human race will finally be saved, ought to be excommunicated." The answer was— "Agreed that every such person, upon conviction, and after proper steps have been taken, ought to be excluded." Thereupon the Cape May Church excluded its Pastor. The early Churches watched carefully the beliefs of Pas- tors and members. The records show with what solemnity the act of excom- munication was regarded. Prayer preceded it, and prayer followed it. They held rigid views concerning baptism. In 1788, the Association— of which all the New Jersey Churches were members — in answer to the query respecting the validity of baptism administered by a person who had never been baptized himself, not yet ordained, made reply, "That we deem such baptism null and void." Cooperation among Churches of differing faiths did not prevail in these olden days to any great extent. Benedict says: "At that time the exchange of pulpits between the advocates and the opponents of infant baptism was a thing of very rare occurrence except in a few of the more distinguished Churches in the Northern States. Indeed, the doctrine of non-intercourse, so far as minis- terial services were concerned, almost universally prevailed between Baptists and Pedo-baptists." In 1734, the Middletown Church sent to the Association three queries —
" 1. Whether we may accept and take in a Minister of a different persuasion at our appointed meetings ? Answered in the negative ; unless the Church see cause, upon some particular occasions."
" 2. Whether it may not be more convenient for us to keep up our meetings, as usual, by reading the Scriptures, singing of Psalms, and prayer, than to admit men of different persuasions? Answered in the affirmative."
" 3. Whether it be justifiable for our members to neglect our own appointed meetings, and at their pleasure go to hear those differing in judgment from us? Answered in the negative. Heb. x, 25."
Simple in their Church polity, clear and scriptural in their doctrinal views, forcible in their utterance, earnest in piety, abundant in labors, they were spiritual ancestors of whom we need not be ashamed. Our spiritual fathers were men of deep piety. In 1795 the Cohansey Church sent to the Association this query : " Is it not pro er, from the consideration of abounding error, infidelity, lukewarmness, and decay of vital piety in the world and in the pro- fessors of religion, that a day of humiliation, fasting and prayer should be observed in our Churches? " Thereupon such a day was appointed.
39
BURIED QUESTIONS.
Some questions vexed them which do not trouble us. The question of lay- ing on of hands was a disturbing and dividing question. The Philadelphia Confession of Faith has these strong words : " We believe that laying on of hands, with prayer, upon baptized believers, as such is an ordinance of Christ, and ought to be submitted unto by all such persons that are admitted to par- take of the Lord's Supper." In 1790 a member joined the Middletown Church from the Upper Freehold Church because it did not practice laying on of hands. In 1809 the Cape May Church laid aside the practice. It continued at Piscata- way to some extent, until 1825. No Churches now observe it.
The question of marriage with a deceased wife's sister was a source of dis- turbance (in the second century) to one Church and an Association. The question has been laid away to rest.
The question of singing in worship was a subject of discord. It was only at the end of the seventeenth century that singing was introduced among English Baptists. In 1691 Rev. Benjamin Keach wrote a book called " The Breach Kepaired ; or, Singing of Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs Proved to be a Holy Ordinance of Jesus Christ." When the Second Church, in Newport, R. I., was formed, in 1656, among the reasons given by the twenty-one persons who founded it, for leaving the First Church, was that they disapproved of Psalmody which the parent community used. In 1710 a Church that had maintained a separate existence for twenty-three years, by reason of differences of opinion concerning Psalm-singing, laying on of hands, and the like, was merged into the Cohansey Church.
Morgan Edwards, writing of Kingwood Church, says: "During the minis- tration of Rev. David Sutton, from 1764 to 1783, there was a considerable stir in the Church relative to the rite of washing feet, but it could not be estab-' lished in a general way ; neither will it prevail until Christians be converted and become as little children, who do as the father bids them without remon- strating." It is probable that the Kingwood Church was leavened somewhat by contact with a Tunker Baptist Church established at Amwell, Hunterdon county, in 1738. This Tunker Church has now grown to three Churches, with a membership of 250.
In 1777 Abel Morgan was appointed by the Association to write an answer to the queries of this Church concerning the washing of feet. He says : " The Association are not so happy as to be universally agreed themselves." Abel Morgan, of the Middletown Church, practiced anointing the sick with oil. Morgan Edwards says: "I wish all Baptist Ministers were of Mr. Morgan's mind."
40
In the latter part of the century the Churches used Rippon's collection of hymns. In the second century, when the baptistery and organ were intro- duced, a few of the older members protested. Some would remain outside until the "wooden music " had ceased, and leave straightway after the sermon, as a testimony against instrumental music. For the most part, changes in mere circumstantials that do not affect principle have been acquiesced in. We have to-day no disturbing questions.
THE GREAT STRUGGLE.
During the first century of our Church life came the struggle for the Na- tional life. What the Baptists, as a whole, were and did we know from the words of Washington : " I recollect, with satisfaction, that the religious society of which you are members has been throughout America, uniformly and almost unanimously, the firm friends of civil liberty and the persevering pro- moters of our glorious revolution." We know the names of a few men, at least, who were leaders in forming the spirit of resistance and shaping the in- fluences that gave birth to the nation. Rev. David Jones was Pastor at Upper Freehold until 1775, when his outspoken views in favor of the rights of the colonists made him unpopular. He was chaplain in the army, at Valley Forge, under Wayne, until the surrender at Yorktown. He had the confidence of Washington. Hezekiah Smith, a graduate of Hopewell and Princeton, was chaplain in the Continental Army, serving with Washington and having his friendship. Rev. John Gano, a student of Hopewell, Pastor at Morristown, the most eloquent man of that day, in our ministry, is finely portrayed in Headley's "Chaplains and Clergy of the Revolution." Washington said: " The Baptist chaplains were the most prominent and useful in the army." Rev. William Van Home, who settled in Scotch Plains in 1785, had previously been in the army. A New Jersey Baptist Church gave to the Declaration of Independence its only Baptist signer. John Hart, of Hopewell, was our rep- resentative on that undying parchment. Of him Governor Parker said : " He was a consistent member of the old Hopewell Baptist Church. I am of opinion that John Hart had greater experience in the Colonial and State legislation of that day than any of his co temporaries, and that no man exercised greater in- fluence in giving direction to the public opinion which culminated in inde- pendence." The doors of the Flemington meeting-house were closed against a Minister because he was supposed to be in sympathy with the British. The diary and sermons of Abel Morgan show how the heart of himself and people were in unison with the drum-beat of the army. October 18th, 177(5, the dele- gates from the New Jersey Baptist Churches, meeting at Scotch Plains with the Philadelphia Association, passed the followieg resolution :
41
"The Association, taking; into consideration the awful impending calamities of these times, and deeply impressed with a sense of our duty to humble our- selves before God, by acknowledging our manifold sins and imploring His par- don and interposition in favor of our distressed country, and also to beseech Him to grant that such blessings may accompany the means of His grace that a revival of pure and undefiled religion may universally prevail ;
" Resolved, That it be and is hereby recommended to our Churches to observe four days of humiliation in the year ensuing."
Col. Asher Moore, of the Middletown Church, John Holme, Esq., and Col. John Holme, of the Salem Church, were men of note in the war of the Revolu- tion. In Sabine's "History of American Loyalists," containing 3,200 biogra- phies of men w'ho turned their backs upon our cause, only one was a Baptist.
On a Sunday at Hopewell in April, 1775, Col. Joab Houghton said to the men as they came out of the meeting-house, " Men of New Jersey, the red- coats are murdering our brethren in New England. Who will follow me to Boston?" It is said, " There was not a traitor or a coward in the Hopewell meeting-house that day, as every man stepped into line." Houghton fought until the end of the war.
When the Massachusetts Convention met to ratify the Federal Constitution it was violently opposed by the standing order, because it imposed no religious tests upon the officers of the government. The Baptist members of the Assembly succeeded in saving it by a majority of only 19 in a body of nearly 400 members. We may not forget that it was a man Jersey born and Jersey trained who largely contributed to that result. The man was James Manning. Our Baptist ancestors were true to Christ and to the country.
" Whatever record leaps to life They never will be shamed."
THE SECOND CENTURY.
The Churches were much weakened in members and spiritual power during the Revolution. Some of the Churches during this period became very much weakened. But even in dark times God did not desert them, for in 1776 Hopewell received 101 by baptism. With the dawn of the new century, with the coming of peace and order and a government, new life came into the Churches.
We insert here a table showing the relative increase of the Baptist denomi- nation in New Jersey, with that of the population, between 1790 and 1888 :
42
|
GROWTH OF THE DENOMINATION. |
||||||||
|
EACH PERIOD A DECADE. |
u 3 o |
B a. P3 |
1 |
o . •SS •3 u 0 ■" PL, |
c |
c 0 > 0 rt |
Wo 1^ |
|
|
1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1888 |
21 26 37 47 55 73 97 120 152 175 195 |
1,367 903 1,931 1,725 1,463 6,412 8,195 9,141 |
2,002 2,068 2,221 3,710 3,967 9,113 12,531 17.121 |
184,139 211,949 245,555 277,378 320,823 373,306 481,555 672,135 730,000 1,000,000 |
||||
|
" 2d |
27,810 33,806 32,020 43,249 52,489 116,249 182,480 107,905 270,000 |
66 1,153 439 257 5,156 3,408 4,590 7,379 7,756 4,200 |
5 |
|||||
|
" 3d |
11 |
|||||||
|
" 4th |
10 |
|||||||
|
« 5th |
8 |
|||||||
|
" 6th |
18 |
|||||||
|
« 7th |
24 |
|||||||
|
" 8th |
23 |
|||||||
|
" 9th |
12,190 '24,500 15,596 ,32,256 13 122 .<^fi4.'ifi |
32 |
||||||
|
" 10th |
23 |
|||||||
|
" llth(8y'rs). |
20 |
|||||||
|
' |
In the first century were formed twenty-four Churches. Four of these dis- banded, two abandoned the New Testament faith, leaving eighteen Churches as the result of the first century's work. In the second century two hundred and twenty -six Churches were formed ; of these forty-five have disbanded, three have gone from us, leaving one hundred and seventy-seven Churches as the result of the second century's work. We hope that all of these may live on until in the third century of Baptist work in the State. In 1701, the first year in which the statistics were reported, we have thirteen Churches, with a membership of 741. In the Minutes of 1879 is given a list of all the Churches formed in the State from the beginning up to that time. In the following table is a list of the Churches formed since 1879 up to the present time, with the date of the organization— twenty-five in number:
Elizabeth— Shiloh 1879
Camden — Tabernacle 1880
Rio Grande 1880
Atlantic City 1880
Florence 1880
Elizabeth— East 1880
Trenton— Berean 1880
Port Norris 1881
Bayonne 1882
Washington 1883
Key East 1883
Orange — Washington Street 1884
Shiloh 1884
Cramer Hill 1884
Greenwood 1885
Canisteer 1885
Bright Hope, Princeton 1885
Salem— Mt. Zion 1885
43
Riverton and Palmyra 1886 Montclair— Union 1886
Camden— Linden 1886 Atlantic City— Second 1886
Long Branch 1886 Bridgeton— Third 1887
Montclair 1886
In the early part of this century the Churches began to have larger thoughts. As their thoughts and desires grew larger they began to devise new methods of working. The Foreign Mission idea, the Home Mission idea, the Bible Society idea, the Tract Society idea, the Sunday-school idea, the Education Society idea, all these began to get hold of the Churches more and more, and began also to shape for themselves methods of working. These thoughts began to spring up everywhere. Before Judson finished his course at Andover, the Trenton Church, October 13th, 1810, passed this resolution: "Resolved, That a quarterly meeting be held for the spread of the Gospel, beginning the first Monday in January, 1811." The Salem Church mentions a Church Sun- day-school in 1819, though there had been a Union School before this. They began everywhere to be organized about this time. But let us not think that Robert Raikes first discovered the plan of caring for and training the young. The record-book of the Hightstown Church, December, 1751, has these words : " Concluded, that all Church members and others that find freedom to comply herewith, do endeavor to instruct their children in their Catechism in order to be catechized in the Church every second Sabbath in the month." The Home Mission Society took root among us, for our Churches from the very begin- ning had been caring for the neglected fields and for the Indians.
In 1778, while the Colonies were struggling for a national life, the Associa- tion took steps to form a fund " for the particular and express purpose of preaching the Gospel in destitute places, among the back settlements." The Churches were intent upon building up, also, a spiritual Commonwealth.
Women's societies find homes in our Churches, for home work and for mis- sion work. They are the daughters of those women who, over one hundred years ago, organized Mite Societies, and over fifty years ago organized Women's Prayer Meetings in our Churches. To-day every Church has a Sunday-school. Almost all have organizations for Home and Foreign Mission work. Mission Bands, societies for developing the younger members. We must grow upward toward Christ in holiness, outward toward men in numbers, inward among ourselves in efliciency, in quality.
DOCTRINAL DEFECTION.
The growth of the Mission spirit awakened in some Churches a decided opposition. In 1835 the Delaware River Association was formed as the repre-
44
sentative of the Anti-Mission or Old School Baptist Churches. Five Churches that had worked with us for years now left us — Hopewell First, King wood, Hopewell Second, Washington S. R., Hardiston. Two of these, Hopewell First and Kingwood, had been for a century active in Missionary Work. Hardiston has since died. The statistics of these Churches are as follows :
First Hopewell 206
Second Hopewell 20
Washington, S. R 10
Kingwood Gl
It is only a question of time how soon Churches of this kind must die. If they will not work with Christ, Christ will work without them. It is predes- tined of God that a Church that will not work must wither. If a Church will not give and grow, it will shrivel and become a corpse. The departure of these Churches has been the only time in the history of two centuries when the plow-share of separation has come between our Churches. The Churches have been a unit in affection and in doctrine.
We cannot realize, to-day, how widespread and how pervasive the anti-mis- sion influence was fifty years ago. Some of our strongest Churches narrowly escaped from its controlling influence. But men of God like Z. Crenelle, D. Dodge, Roberts, Webb, Smalley, Allison, fought it and, by God's grace, killed it. Four closed Baptist meeting-houses, at Jacksonville, Kingwood, Canton and Hopewell, show what a graveyard of Churches our State would have been if this narrow spirit had prevailed.
OTHER FORMS OF BAPTIST FAITH,
A feeling in favor of keeping the seventh day as the Sabbath was quite wide- spread at the beginning of the eighteenth century. In 1705 seventeen "mem- bers went out from the Piscataway Church, and founded the Sabbatarian Church at Piscataway. There are now four Churches of this faith in the State, with a membership of 690. A sect of Baptists, called by Morgan Edwards the Rogerene Baptists, came into the northern part of this State from Connecticut. Having maintained an existence for over one hundred years, they passed out of sight in the middle of the eighteenth century. They were Sabbatarian in belief. They were filled with a narrow protestantism that led them to protest against what they thought to be unscriptural by disturbing the public worship of religious bodies. They lived troublously; they died quietly.
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THE STATE CONVENTION.
A large factor in keeping the Churches of the State in fraternal fellowship, in maintaining orthodoxy in teaching, in founding Churches, in changing weakness into strength, has been the State Convention. An organization existed in this State as early as 1811, known as the New Jersey Baptist Mission Society. But something more efficient was needed, Tuesday, July 27th, 1830, at Hamilton Square, the representatives of ten Churches founded the State Convention. These Churches and delegates were as follows :
Hightstown John Segur and Thomas Allen.
Upper Freehold J. M. Challiss and Lacoste.
Flemington C. Bartolette and T. Barrass.
New Brunswick G. S. Webb and P. P. Runyon.
Sandy Ridge J. Lake and S. Hunt.
Trenton M. J. Rhees, G. Mott, D. Brister.
Nottingham Square W. Appleton and West.
Salem C.J. Hopkins.
Kingwood David Bateman.
Lambertville David B. Stout.
Let us not forget their names. They were men who had understanding of the times. They were men whose thoughts had a large horizon. At that time there were only fifty Baptist Churches in the State, with a membership of three thousand six hundred and thirty. Of these fifty there were but two Churches whose membership exceeded two hundred each, and ten whose membership was a fraction over one hundred each, while the remaining thirty- eight ranged from thirteen to ninety-eight members. Twenty-four of these were found to have a mere nominal existence, and must soon have inevitably lost their visibility had not this society taken them under its fostering care. Indeed, several of them were already so near extinction that every effort to save them proved abortive.
These founders of the State Convention were building wiser than they knew. At the present time we have —
58 Churches having over 100 members each.
|
28 |
' " |
200 |
|
15 |
' " |
300 |
|
8 |
" |
400 |
|
8 4 |
< « |
500 700 |
46
If, by some chemistry, it were possible to take from our State the work and influence of the State Convention in creating and helping Churches, what a fearful calamity would come upon us. It would unwrite the history and unmake the progress of the last fifty years. Of the one hundred and ninety- five Churches now in the State, about one hundred have been helped by the Convention. The money paid into the treasury to 1888 has been ?153,013.94, an average of $2,638.19 per year. At the beginning of this, the third century of Baptist work in this State, with the pillar of cloud leading to promised lands untrodden as yet by ourselves, it becomes us to dedicate ourselves anew to this work of State evangelization. We cannot hallow our Baptist fathers— the work they did, the truths they stood for— but we can dedicate ourselves afresh to this consecrated work, and we may thus hallow the future. The best monument we can build, on this day, is to build up the State Convention. Of the Churches in the State, 48 were formed before 1830 ; 147 have been formed since 1830, when the Convention was organized. This marked increase is largely due to the work of the Convention.
THE EDUCATION SOCIETY.
In connection with the building up of Churches, attention has also been given to the building up of men for the ministry. As early as 1769 the Asso- ciation expressed the following: "Our number of Ministers decreasing, and calls for them increasing, it is earnestly requested that our Churches will look among themselves for men of public gifts, and send them forth to preach the Gospel." Our fathers did not worship learning, neither did they despise it. February 12th, 1838, the New Jersey Baptist Education Society was formed. It has assisted over two hundred men in their studies for the ministry. It has received into its treasury nearly $75,000. The North Orange Church has expended for the same purpose about the same amount of money. The Edu- cation Society is an organized agency for transmuting money into manhood.
OUR SCHOOLS.
Along with the building up of Churches and Ministers has been the building up of Schools. Allusion has been made to the Academy at Hopewell. Acade- mies were founded at Plainfleld, 1834-1844, and planned at Salem in 1826 and 1852. They ended in failure. In 1830 the " Rittenhouse Manual Labor School " was founded at Sandy Ridge. It did good work while it lived. The School at Burlington, conducted by Samuel Aaron and H. K. Green, trained a number of men for the ministry. We have, to-day, two noble Schools, that would have
47
gladdened the heart of Isaac Eaton — Peddie Institute, at Hightstown, opened 1869; South Jersey Institute, at Bridgetoa, opened in 1870. They need, each of them, two hundred thousand dollars endowment. Give them this, and they will water and make green the next century — the next centuries.
THE MEN WHO DID THE WORK.
In the Minutes of 1879 is a table containing a list of all the men who labored in the State, in the ministry, from the earliest times to that year. At that time the number was slightly over one thousand. Many of these were large and efficient men, who wrought long and well; some were good men, but, apparently, not efficient ; a few were bad men, proving themselves such ; a few left us or were excluded for doctrinal unsoundness. The great mass of them were men of God. In the early years of our history the Minutes of the Asso- ciation warned the Churches, year by year, of men immoral in life or defective in doctrine.
Among the leaders have been men like S. J. Drake, C. W. Mulford, Thomas Swaim, D. B. Stout, James M. Challis, Zelotes Grenelle, G. S. Webb, H. C. Fish. In the earlier part of the century were Rev. Henry Smalley, a graduate of Princeton, Pastor at Cohansey from 1790 to 1839; Dr. Samuel Stillman, after- ward the distinguished Pastor of the First Church of Boston, and Ebenezer Kinnersley, an associate of Franklin in his scientific discoveries, and Professor in the University of Pennsylvania.
Alongside of them have stood, pillar-like, men in the membership. P. P Runyon, D. M. Wilson, H. J. Mulford, S. Van Wickle, were men that enrich any State or Church that owns them. Whatever God may withhold from us in the next century, may He give us an abundant supply of wise-hearted men. Tennyson sings, "On God and God-like men we build." We need the same kind of foundations.
ASSOCIATIONS.
In the early years all of our Churches were members of the Philadelphia Association. In 1791, a number of Churches in Southern New York and North- eastern New Jersey were dismissed to form the New York and Warwick Asso- ciations. In 1811, fourteen Churches were dismissed to form the New Jersey Association.
In the following table is a list of the Associations, the date of their organiza- tion, the number of Churches at the time of their formation, with their present standing :
48
When Churches at Churches Member-
Name of Association. Organized. Organization. Now. ship.
New Jersey, (now West Jersey) 1811 14 29 5,251
Central...'. 1828 7 25 4,013
Sussex, (now North) 1833 4 51 7,515
East 1842 14 33 8,159
Trenton 1864 10 35 6,708
Camden 1887 29 30 5,747
At the present time all the Churches in the State are connected with each other in associational ties. The Associations are incorporated bodies, and carry on a Missionary work within their own boundaries.
A LOOK BACKWARD.
Two hundred years ago all the baptized believers on this continent could have found large accommodations in this meeting-house. Then they met in plain houses. One century ago not more than half of them were warmed with stoves. The meeting-houses were not large. One was only 24 by 21 feet. They oftentimes met in private houses. For forty-one years the Baptist saints at Hopewell met in private houses. They sometimes, Edwards says, met in barns. Masson, in his life of Milton, says : " This obscure Baptist congregation seems to have been the depository for all England of the absolute principle of liberty of conscience. It was, in short, from this little dingy meeting-house, somewhere in old London, that there flashed out first in England the absolute doctrine of religious liberty." We may say the same of these simple, unadorned old Baptist meeting-houses. They were not spacious or splendid, but they stood for magnificent truths.
At that time they had no school, no paper, no organization outside of the Church. Their principles were looked upon as visionary and seditious; but the world has moved on after them. They planted a principle that has grown so that a continent sits quietly under its shade. More than a century after our Churches were organized a Committee from the Philadelphia Association waited upon a Committee of Congress in October, 1777. John Adams said, "They might as well turn the heavenly bodies out of their annual and diurnal courses as the people of Massachusetts, at the present day, from their meeting house and Sunday laws." Time went on, and the world caught up to the thoughts of our Baptist fathers and followed their leadership. In 18U7 there was an esti- mated Baptist membership in this country of 122,500. To-day we report over three million baptized believers in our Churches, over four million in our land.
The reported valuation of Church and school property in the State is three million dollars; the yearly expenditure for Christ's work, over four hundred
49
thousand dollars. "We have schools and position and power and numbers. Above all these, we have obligation and opportunity. Our principles have taken root. Other evangelical bodies have been leavened by the teachings which we hold. As we look back, we can only thank God for the steadfastness of the men who went before us, and thank Him who made them and kept them.
A LOOK ONWARD.
In October, 1988, the Baptists of New Jersey will hold their three hundredth anniversary of the founding of this Church. Then we shall all be dead. The men of 1688, who laid the foundations, are dead. The men of 1788, present at the first centennial, are dead. The men of 1888— ourselves — will be dead in 1988. One urn would hold all that will be left of us. We owe a great deal to our ancestors. We owe a great deal to posterity. We must try to mold this third century by making our Churches more efficient now. We must mold the century by cultivating better Pastors and a better membership. May that third century witness a membership better trained in the Bible — every mem- ber studying it systematically ; every Church having trained lay Ministers ; every city organized for efi'ective city mission work ; every Association employ- ing Missionaries within its bounds ; every home enlightened by religious and denominational literature; every Church member converted into a partnership with all good agencies; every Church a source of light and healing and lead- ership for the community in which it lives. And to this end we must keep very close to the life and teachings of Jesus, the Christ. We must be unselfish, helping all good agencies, having large hearts and helping hands. We must aim at larger numbers. But we must not be content with numbers. Mere bigness is not greatness, it is simply opportunity. We must put so much of Christ into our lives and so much force into all our agencies for good that the millennium shall come with a quicker step.
We grew in days of persecution. Can we now grow in efficiency and main- tain purity in the days of prosperity ? Our numbers and position put us under bonds to enlarged fidelity and consecration. We need to enlarge the idea of Baptist orthodoxy so that it shall mean standing by the scripturalness and in- tegrity of baptism and the Lord's supper; the holding every revealed teaching of the New Testament ; the making each Church, in its own community, a power that makes for righteousness ; the filling up of every blank in the table for benevolence. Piety and practice must go hand in hand.
TWO HUNDRED YEARS' WORK.
We present here a table compiled by Rev. J. M. Carpenter, showing the statistics of the Churches of the State for the two hundred years past : 4
50
|
1 o a V |
ASSOCIATION. |
i 0. oa |
>< .a |
■6 o (5 |
>> Q |
j3 P |
c |
|
1707 |
Philafielphia |
5,14S| 468 3,526 1,044 1,029 143 26,113: 10,798 8,279 3.295 |
57 74 9 1,282 289 348 *541 207 20 |
1,441 1,349 444 12,120 4,005 4,840 11,089 2,944 160 |
831 724 127 5,029 1,882 1,?>00 3,292 1,492 78 |
341 |
|
|
1791 |
New York |
404 |
|||||
|
1791 |
Warwick, N. Y |
78 |
|||||
|
1811 |
Wes-^ |
3,045 |
|||||
|
1828 |
Central |
1,923 |
|||||
|
1833 1841 1864 |
North East Trenton |
8.677 18,752 6,455 394 689 |
4,181 11,117 2,500 163 |
2,882 5,002 2,267 |
|||
|
1887 |
100 |
||||||
|
79,062 |
33,709 |
2,827 |
38,392 |
14,955 |
16,042 |
According to these figures, as given in the Minutes, our menabership ought to be nearly ten thousand more than it is.
Nearly eighty thousand have been baptized. We have laid away about fif- teen thousand of our membership.
" Their bones are dust. Their souls are with the saints, we trust."
Would that we might truly say to-day that we present to the Lord Jesus Christ, at the beginning of the third century, for effective service, nearly forty thousand believers gathered into about two hundred organizations.
THE THIRD CENTURY.
Will the completed third century stop to think of us and our work ? Let us be content to work honestly and faithfully, knowing that He will not forget us. Nor will He allow others to forget us. When 1988 comes there will be over 150,000,000 people in our land. May the New Jersey Baptists of to-day, in their numbers, in their piety, in their effectiveness, be utterly insignificant when measured by their successors who shall gather at the next centennial. And may we, all of us who gather here in October, 1888, be found worthy in October, 1988, to join with Abel Morgan and John Drake and Thomas Killing- worth in singing "unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb be the blessing and the honor and the glory and the dominion forever and forever."
TUK -MOXUMKNT TO llKX. Al5EL MoKCi-VX.
Unveiled Oct. 30th, 18S8.
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51
Unveiling of the Monument.
The large audience then retired from the Church to the graveyard adjoining the Church, on the east side, facing the street, where one thousand or more of people were gathered to hear the services and witness the solemn ceremony.
This handsome monument is of Ouincy granite, and is erected to the memory of the Rev. Abel Morgan, A. M., the Revolutionary patriot, and for nearly half a centur}- (47 years) Pastor of the Mid- dletown Baptist Church, and the most prominent figure in the early annals of the New Jersey Baptists. It w^as erected by the free-will offerings from two hundred Baptist Churches throughout New Jersey, at the cost of five hundred dollars.
Beneath this monument lie the remains of Abel Morgan, taken up and removed from the old Presbyterian burial site, about a quarter of a mile east of the Church, from whence they were disinterred on Wednesday, October 24th, 1888, in the presence of William Mount, undertaker, George C. Marks, Charles Morford and some others, and thence taken to the Baptist Church, where they remained over night, and on Thursdaj^, October 25tli, 1888, were sacredly deposited in their last resting place, in the base of the monument. A really re- markable fact about them is that, though he had been dead 103 3'ears when the grave was opened, there lay the perfect skeleton of the deceased Pastor, though the coffin, clothing and everything else was gone. Every bone of the body was found.
52
The skeleton was that of a man about six feet in height ; the greatest length of skull was one foot ten and one-quarter inches ; the shortest length of skull was one foot seven and one-half inches, and the thigh bone measured nineteen inches. Thus the proof is given us that he was the large man who so discomfited the smaller man, President Finney, of Princeton, in their great debate on bap- tism, at Cape Ma}', the many long years ago, as recorded in histor3\
The inscription upon the monument reads :
In Memory of Abel Morgan,
Pastor of the Baptist Church of Middletown,
Who departed this life Nov. 24, 1785,
IN THE 73D YEAR OF HIS AGE.
His Life was Blameless —
His Ministry Powerful —
He was a Burning and Shining Light-
His Memory Dear to the Saints.
Erected by the Baptists of New Jersey, Oct. 30th, 1888.
The services of unveiling the monument consisted of — SI'NGl'NG—Amerzca " My Countrv 'Tis of Tiieu."
PRAYER, .^ By Rev. James W. Wilmarth,
Pastor of the Roxboroiigh Baptist Church, of Philadelphia, and Aloderator of the Old Philadelphia Baptist Association.
ADDRESS, By Rev. Wiluam V. Wilson,
Chairman of the Committee on the Monument.
53
•Address at i:ln\'eilinc|, . . By ReV. William V- Wilson,
ChairiJian of Committee oti Monument.
In honoring others who deserve honors, we honor ourselves. In this case it comes late ; but better late, it may be, than never. Happy for me, in the part assigned me in these Bi-Centennial services, that I need not go back into the doubtful, uncertain, conflicting and traditional. Happy, probably, if none of us had to go back in history beyond that chiseled on this unveiled monument. Happy, shall I not say, if the whole of the record on which we rely, prior to this period, had shared the fate of a past cremation, and thus left us to begin with the history of the good and great man of whom I am now to speak. True, our exercises would not be a bi-centennial in the full sense of that term, but they would go back far enough to reach the more certain and more mate- rial facts of the history of this ancient Church.
The evidence is full, clear and reliable that there was such a man as Abel Morgan, and that he was Pastor of this Church for very many years. One record says from 1739 to 1785 ; another, from 1748 to 1785. Both records agree that he died in 1785, and at the age of 72 years. Either gives a long pastorate. But the true measure of a preacher is not the length of his pastorate, whether longer or shorter, but what he really was and what he really did. Fortunately, we have the testimony from two sources, the pen anfl the chisel — what was written on paper, and what was engraven on stone— in attestation of the char- acter and work of Abel Morgan. And what is so desirable is, that these wit- nesses agree. If it be said that the engraved record, as we now find it, may not be as the original, because the kind of stone then in common use differed from what we now use, we have only to reply that the transcriber, whoever he was and whenever the work was done (for there is no knowledge of either), must have been wonderfully accurate, for it perfectly agrees with the written record. Hence, we have felt entirely safe in transferring it to our nen^ monu- ment. This inscription reads :
In Memory of Abel Morgan,
Pastor of the Baptist Church of Middletown,
Who departed ihis life
Nov. 24, 1785,
IN THE 73D YEAR OF HIS AGE.
His Life was Blameless —
His Ministry Powerful —
He was a Burning and Shining Light —
His Memory Dear to the Saints.
54
In these four sentences we have a noble testimony. It is grand! It is sublime ! Where the Minister of Jesus who could ask for more? Where is he who ought to desire less !
" His Life was Blameless." This is beautiful ! Nearer the Divine pattern than anything of which we can think. A prime element in every Gospel preacher. It is the perfectioij of Christian character. Somehow, we are apt to think it will not be attained until the coming of our Lord ! But here was one of whom it is affirmed that he had already attained to this superior excellence. Showing that it is within the reach of others — within the reach of all.
" His Ministry was Powerful^ He had power with God and with men. His preaching had a telling effect. He secured the attention of his hearers, en- lightened their minds, informed their judgment, convinced their consciences, and captivated their wills.
The Holy Spirit made him a chosen vessel to bring sinners into the Kingdom. Converts were multiplied by hundreds. We rightly judge he was a man of Prayer, of Faith and Hope ; and, like Barnabas, full of the Holy Ghost.
"He was a Burning and Shining Light." Another characteristic of the Bible's greatest Preachers, and one given by our Lord himself. He was a light — a gospel light — a reflection of the Sun of Righteousness. A burning light. All aglow with the fire of truth, love and zeal. "A shining light." A light seen- A light for others. Nothing in his character, walk, conversation, preaching, labors, to obscure it. It ever shone brightly, and shone constantly.
"His Memory Dear to the Saints." (Not Baptist saints alone, but saints in general, all the saints.) With such a character, such eloquence, such fervid zeal, such untiring devotion, so Christ-like, so benevolent and pure, so full of the Gospel — its love, sympathy and power — how could it be otherwise ? All the saints loved him. He was lovely and lovable. Grace — the grace of Christ — had made him so.
Faithful as he was to his own convictions of truth, and a firm defender of Baptistic views of doctrine and practice, his other qualities of mind and heart overshadowed everything else, so that saints of other communions loved him, equally with those of his own. As proof of this he found his burial place in a Presbyterian graveyard, where his remains have slumbered until now.
Do we not well to call to mind such a man, and such a Preacher? To rescue his record from oblivion and make it as really prominent and imperishable as we can ! If it ever be right and commendable to erect monuments in memory of the Ministers of Jesus, I think we are doing a good work to-day.
Where, upon all the monuments of the ages, or upon the unearthed and deciphered stones of the dead, will you find inscriptions equal in their simplicity, significance, feeling and grandeur to those of Abel Morgan ? Inscriptions made
55
not by his fancy or kindness, but by the Church, the community, Christians of every name — expressive of tlieir estimate of his character and work, their united testimony of him as a servant of the Lord Jesus. Surely we do not err in judgment when we say he takes rank in history with the greatest Preachers of our faith — Alfred Bennet, Adoniram Judson, Spencer H. Cone, William Staughton, Roger Williams. What w' ould not be the Ministry of our day if all who claim to be the servants of our Lord Jesus Christ, Preachers of the Ever- lasting Gospel, were like Abel Morgan ?
With such qualifications of mind and heart, were it possible, I would like to take out a new commission for a half century more ! But this cannot be, nor with many others treading close after me. But there are others here, younger Brethren, who, I hope, will catch the inspiration of this occasion and so conse- crate themselves anew to their chosen work that, in the after ages, when their tomb-stones are searched for, there may be found similar inscriptions to what we shall now see upon this monument.
A monument erected by the Baptists of New Jersey, without the sound of the saw or the hammer ; simply by the free-will offerings of the people. A monument under which, in a wonderful state of preservation, lie the remains of " the incomparable Abel Morgan."
56
Tuesday evening, at 7 o'clock, the Bi-Centennial Exercises were continued by a Service of Song.
The Commemoration Anthem, by Rev. Dr. Lowry, was repeated by request.
A General Conference on ' ' Historical Incidents ' ' and ' ' Happy Reminiscences," was opened by Rev. D. J. Yerkes, D.D., of Plain- field.
The following addresses are from the verbatim notes of Prof. J. N. Kimball, stenographer, New York.
57
9\ddress, .... By ReN?. 1). |. ferkes, ®.||).
Mr. Chairman, Brethren and Friends — Two hundred years ago this Church of Middletown was organized. There ought to be in our thoughts to-night an appreciation of the greatness of an event like this, which I think we do not always, nor, indeed, often feel. The facts by which a Church comes into existence are to us, in a certain way, common- place things, and so lose their significance. Two hundred years ago there were hereabouts a few men and women who believed in the Ivord Jesus Christ, and had been baptized into His name. They came together like the disciples at Jerusalem, with one consent, to worship God ; with one purpose, to serve Him and extend His kingdom. They took His Word as their rule of doctrine and practice. They called a man to minister to them by the Word, and in the administration of the holy ordi- nances of the divine appointment. These are the great and essential facts connected on the human side with the coming into existence of a Church of Jesus Christ. But back of these facts were the will and power of God. A Church does not come down bodily from heaven, and yet, as the rain and sunshine fall upon the earth, and life springs out ot the ground, spiritual power coming down into the hearts of men calls into existence a Church, builded upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, of which Jesus Christ himself is the chief corner-stone.
A Church of Christ, in all that characterizes it as such, has nothing in common with this world. It is divine in its origin, for every person who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ is born of God, and from on high. The supplies by which a Church is sustained come down from above. The aim of the true Church is the extension of the Kingdom of Heaven among men. The constitution of the Christian Church is written by the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost himself is the expounder and interpreter of the Word. The Minister that preaches is called of God, and endowed by the spirit of God for his work. You can make a Church in no other way than that which I have indicated. We have societies, and fraternities, and associations among men, with earthly aims ; you cannot make Churches out of them. We have religious organizations, mission- ary societies, Bible societies, tract societies and a variety of associations for moral and religious work, but let us never forget that these are not 5
■ 58
Churches of Jesus Christ. He has not committed to them the keeping of the ordinances of His house.
A true Church was organized here two hundred years ago, and since then other Churches have been organized, and are now holding forth the Word of Life. The history of these Churches, Brethren, has been the histor}' of our denomination in this State of New Jersey. What a won- derful history. A history that gathers its material from no field of conflict where nations have contended for mastery, from the records of no parlia- ment with its high debates, from the minutes of no congress of science ; its materials were wrought in the lives of men and women who lived the life of Christ on earth, and though unrecognized by the world and unwritten In' the world's historians, this history is written in the hearts of the saints of God, is known of Him, and kept in that Book of Remem- brance which He keeps for His people.
It is worth while for us to-night to think of the obligations we are xinder to the great and good men who made the history of these two hun- dred years. Man is the important factor in this world, and in the Church of Jesus Christ on its earthward side ; back of all human events and of all history is the man. His feelings, and thoughts, and plans, and cour- age and faith are the forces which shape and control its movements. In this nineteenth century we sometimes boast of its progress, as if we our- selves were the authors of its greatness, but our day and labor are linked with the past, and we have only entered into the labors of other men. We are glad to-night because of this history that has been recounted in our hearing, and we are thankful to God for what has been achieved, but how much and vastly more has been done by the men who have rested from their labors than by ourselves. If we build higher, it is only because we are building upon the foundations which they laid. These great trees that are about us did not grow so strong because the life of a single summer-time came into them. Thej^ have received growth and girth and strength from the life of many summers, and our denomination has not grown to its present proportions because of the little which we have done, but because there has come into it the power of the lives of the men whose names have been recalled by the papers read to-day. As we think of our prosperity, we think of these, our Brethren. Our pro- gress has not been evolved from nothing. It has been evolved largely from the toils and trials, the patience and fidelity, the hope, courage and faith of our fathers.
59
Someone has said, that ' ' Whenever God has a great thing to accomplish in this world there is a great man not far away ; " when He would bring His people up out of Egypt, there was a Moses ; when He would send the gospel to the Gentiles, there was the Apostle Paul ; when He would arouse Europe to a sense of papal corruption, there was a Luther ; when He would plant in Scotland the seed of evangelical faith, there was a John Knox, and when He would deepen the spirituality and break up the formalism of the Churches of England, there were the Wesleys and Whitfield ; and when God would stir the heart of the Christian Church with a spirit of missions, there was a Carey. And so the men who have gone before us and called of God, have wrought, and they live in the history we are repeating to-day. Emerson said, "The best history of the world is written in the biographies of its great and good men." The best history of these two hundred years is found in the lives of our fathers.
If we should mention the names of all these men, what a glorious galaxy they would make. While looking recently over the history of some of our old Churches, I was surprised at the number of notable men who have ministered to tbem. Of this Church were the " incomparable Abel Morgan," Samuel Morgan, Thomas Roberts (dear, loving old man, whom I knew in my childhood,) and David Stout. Of Piscataway Church, John Drake, Benjamin Stelle, Isaac Stelle, Reune Runj'an, James McLaughlin, Daniel Dodge, all men of blessed memory. Of Cohansey Church, Thomas Killingsworth, Robert Kelsay, Henry Smalley. Of Hopewell, Isaac Eaton, Oliver Hart, and John Hart, a layman and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Of Hightstown, John Car- men, Peter Wilson and Lewis Smith. Of Scotch Plains, Benjamin Miller, William Van Horn, Thomas Brown and John Rogers. Of Morris- town, John Gano, an eminent servant of Christ. Of Freehold, David Jones, a name of renown. Of Salem, Abel Griffiths, Peter Van Horn and Isaac Skillman. Of New Brunswick, Father Webb, Henry F. Smith ; and among the laymen of this Church, men like P. P. Runyan and S. V. Wickle. Of Newark, Daniel Sharp, William Hague, John Dowling, H. C. Fish, H. V. Jones and such laymen as D. M. Wilson, H. M. Baldwin and Morgan L. Smith. Of Paterson, Zelotes Grinnell and Rufus Babcock. Of Flemington, Bartollete and Mulford and Swaim. Of Somptown, Lebbeus Lathrop. Of Plainfield, Jacob Randolph, Daniel T. Hill (father of the President Hill, of Rochester University.) and Simeon J. Drake. Time fails to recall the names of others " who through faith subdued kingdoms,
6o
wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens."
But, Brethren, some of these stood near to us in point of time. They were, with us, fellow-helpers to the truth ; their hands clasped ours in brotherly greetings ; we looked into their faces when they were alive, and saw them when upon them was the paleness of death ; their presence, and looks, and words, and labors are imaged on our hearts, and are garnered with the most precious things our memories hold. First of all was the great patriarch of our tribe. Father Webb— how grand and good he was ! On one occasion a Brother said to me, after Father Webb had visited Plainfield, " Why, his grand old face is as good as any sermon." How we loved him, because he loved us all with such tenderness ! Zelotes Grinnell, clear, pungent, powerful as a preacher of the gospel, he could soar like an eagle, but was as simple as a child, with a heart as tender as a woman's, and yet bold as a lion ; a dauntless soldier of Jesus Christ, and he proved himself such when he fought the battle of truth against antinomianism, which threatened the Churches in the northern section of our State when he was a Pastor there. Henry C. Fish — how we miss the magic of his word and the inspiration of his spirit in these gather- ings ! Well endowed, he was an able Minister of Christ ; fully equipped, he was a good soldier of the cross, who fought the battle to the end, and fell upon the battle-field with the shout of victory on his lips. You will remember that he said, "When I am gone let there be no mournful strain, but let it be a pean of victory." Henry F. Smith, so abundant in labors — what a true-hearted Brother ! What a strong faith he had ! Becau.se he leaned so full}- upon God, and followed so entirely His Word, and leaned upon Him, and confided in His leadership. Robert F. Young — so gentle, and yet sti'ong in the elements of spiritual power ; a sweet, pure spirit who has found a home more genial than earth. And there were noble lay Brethren whose faces we were wont to see in these meetings of our convention. P. P. Runyan, a pillar in our spiritual commonwealth. D. M. Wilson, that stalwart Christian who presided for .so many years over this body. Morgan L. Smith, a Christian philanthro- pist. H. M. Baldwin, on whose face we seemed to see the brightness of the coming glory into which he has entered. S. V. Van Wickle and Hiram Deitz — beautiful in their lives and beautiful in their death, they
6i
were laborers together, with strong and willing hearts and hands. "The strong staff is broken, and the beautiful rod." There are some who are with us still, near the border of the land beyond us, upon whose heads the frosts of the coming winter are falling, and here to-night we would crown them with grateful recognition of their services to the cause of God [applause], and rejoice with them in their anticipation of the wel- come that awaits them. " Well done, thou good and faithful servant."
Brethren and friends, we have entered into the labors of these men, and our duty to God and men is to carry on the work they have left. If any of you have stood near the Cathedral at Milan, you remember the great heights from foundation to pinnacle. It is too vast to take in at a single view. The sight climbs upward from foundation to window, from window to clustering spires, from those to the great spire, and still upward till the eye rests on the cross that stands out against the clear blue sky of Italy. They tell us that this Cathedral was five hundred years in building. How many generations of men wrought upon it? Generations after generations toiled to uplift that cross which for centu- ries has been pointing toward the heavens. Our fathers laid foundation and built thereon. We are building on the work they did, and as they built— to lift the true Cross of Christ that men may see it, look and live. [Applause]. This hour is rich with sacred memories of the men and women who have gone before us. What a royal lineage we have in them ! By it there comes to us the true apostolic succession. [Applause.] Let us gather inspiration to-night from their example, and with added power take up and carry on this great work which God has committed to our hands.
Soon we shall have passed away. A little while the night will come, the harvest sickle will drop from our tired hands. Oh, that when we shall have finished our work, and others shall stand in these places to say a few words over us, grant that they may have this to say, that we did something for the honor of our blessed Master. Let us seek no crown but the crown we can lay at the feet of Jesus. Beloved, this is a memorial occasion, and let it be a day lik;e that in which Israel reared the memorial stones that all the people of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, and that we may fear the Lord our God forever. [Applause.]
62
Address, By JV|r. I homus Koberts,
Son of Rev. Thomas Roberts, who was Pastor of Middletown Baptist Church for Twelve Years.
I sometimes speak in public, but I have never stood as high above the congregation as I do now. Sixty-three years ago, before the memory of Brother Parmly, Middletown Church was tinctured with antinomianism — that is, they did not wish to do God's work — and some (not all) were opposed to Missions and Sunday-schools. Father did not oppose them directly, but he preached the Truth, and gradually wore away this spirit out of the Church, and in a little over a year's time he established a Sunday-school in the house that stood where this now stands. 'Squire Osborne was the Superintendent of that Sunday-school, and there are very few now living who were engaged in that work. Sixty-two years ago throughout this region, and possibly throughout the whole of New Jersey, but, at any rate, throughout this county, go into any person's house and you would be invited to take a drink of whiskey. At funerals it was provided, at weddings it was provided, and in this village there were two stores where rum was sold by the quart, two taverns where it was sold by the drink, and one still-house where it was sold b}' the barrel. At Westport there was a distillery, and in Chanceville there was a store where rum was sold by the quart, a tavern and a still-house. At Chapel Hill there was a tavern and a still-house ; on the place lately occupied by Col. Conover there w-as a still-house ; at Headen's Corner there was a store where rum was sold by the quart, and drank on the premises ; this side of it there was a still-house. Rum pervaded the whole community. About sixty-one years ago father, having consulted and examined the leading members of the Church and the community, preached a sermon from First Corinthians, loth chapter and 15th verse, "I speak as to wise men ; judge ye what I say," and at the close of the sermon a temperance pledge was signed by sixty-nine persons. [Applause.] Judge Paterson, the grandfather of the Assistant Clerk of this Church, was elected the President of that Temperance Society, and father's boys went from house to house in the evenings after they had done their daj^'s work, and got many young men and maidens to sign that pledge, and the consequence was that those who went by our house carrjung their little quart jug
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(which they used to call " Black Betty") in their hands were fain, in a short time, to conceal it in a little red handkerchief. [Applause pro- longed.]
From that time the cause of temperance prospered for fifty years, and then the Devil devised another plan, in his cunning, by which to destroy the souls and bodies of men. A brewery was established in Newark, and they sent out their emissaries through the country, and prevailed upon some person in almost every neighborhood to sell beer on commission, and wagons were provided to carry it in, so that they might stop at every house and sell to the women. This plan was designed to produce more evil, more danger, more destruction to the bodies and souls of men than ever the distilleries and rum-sellers of old times. Now, you are aware that last winter our legislators, in their wisdom, passed a law which was calculated in some places to prohibit, and in some places to restrain it where it could not be prohibited, and now these brewers are pledged to have that law repealed next winter. It seems to me it is the duty of every Christian philanthropist to go to the polls and vote so that it shall not be done. [Applause.]
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-AdJress, By ReV. 4\elsey Wal
^ Former Licentiate of the Church at Aliddletown , no7o in Philadelphia.
'"9'
Mr. Chairman, Brethren and Friends— I am glad of the opportu- nity of being present this evening, and of the privilege given me of say- ing a few words of congratulation to this Church on having arrived at its two hundredth birth-day. I believe I am the onlj' one now living that this Church has sent forth into the ministry. I was baptized into the fellowship of this Church April 3d, 1847, by the Rev. David B. Stout, who, as you heard to-day, was Pastor thirty-eight years, and my Pastor for about ten years. I was licensed by this Church to preach in the sum- mer of 1852, and in the fall of that year, in October, I went to Madison University. There are but few here to-night, few who are living, who were members of this Church at that time. Many of the members have passed away, and among them that sainted man of God, of whom you heard to-da3% Father Roberts. Many an encouraging word did he give me at that time. After five years of study, I was ordained to the Gospel Ministry in the city of Brooklyn, on the 28th of October, 1857, and became Pastor of the Grand Point Baptist Church in the seventeenth ward of that city. For more than thirty years, therefore, I have been trying to preach Christ in my htimble way, and the Lord has given me encouragement in my work in five pastorates which I have held during those years, three in this, my native State. I trust I have been mindful of the providence of God that has guided and protected me to this hour, and that permits me to be in this house of God to-night, where so many hallowed associations crowd upon my mind. It was here that I was a Sunday-school scholar, a teacher and, for a short time, superintendent. I remember to-night the familiar faces of many who were accustomed to gather with God's people to worship Him in this house of prayer. Many of them have passed away. Among those names come Roberts, WyckofFs, Stouts, Taylors, and others whom I might mention. Many of these have gone from their labor to their reward. I remember, also, the great awakening to which Dr. Parnily referred to-day. In the winter of 1850 and 185 1 there were two hundred and twenty-five baptized during that great revival. I remember that wonderful work of Christ among us in a prayer-meeting at one of the out stations of this Church, in Monmouth,
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where Brother Wilson is now, a prayer-meeting for two weeks, followed by two weeks of preaching by Bro. Stout. Those meetings for the two weeks preceding the preaching increased in interest from evening to evening until finally God opened the windows of heaven and poured out His abundant blessing in answer to prayers. As the small cloud rises out of the sea and spreads over the whole earth, sending its refreshing showers upon the long-parched earth, so, in answer to the prayers of those men and women of God, the cloud of mercy rose over us, and showers of blessings descended, refreshing the drooping faces of God's people and bringing many souls to Christ. Those meetings were intensely interesting. You have to-day heard the result of them, and I need not refer to them farther, any more than to say that there is a little discrepancy between my figures and those of Brother Parmlj' in regard to the baptisms on the occasion. There were eighty-three baptized iu thirty-three minutes, instead of thirty-eight minutes. I was present at that baptism, and I believe there were five deacons of the Church that led those candidates into the water to the Pastor and out again, while he remained at his post. Of these five deacons there are now but two living, Thomas Roberts, who has just spoken to you, and Deacon James Frost ; the others have crossed the flood.
There was an incident that occurred at those meetings that I want to refer to, to illustrate the importance of thoroughly preparing for the manifestation of God's power in the conversion of souls. One evening a Brother arose and said something like this: "I feel that if we want God's blessings we must take every stumbling-block out of the way. There is present in this congregation a person between whom and mj'self unpleasant feelings have arisen ; now (calling the person by name), will you meet me half way and settle this matter right here? " The answer came quickly back, " I will," and the person that spoke arose at the rear end of the house and walked up the aisle, while the other walked down the aisle until they took each other by the hand. Tears fell from their eyes and their bosoms swelled as they forgave each other, and all unpleasant feelings passed away. That act sent a thrill of gladness through the whole congregation, and that act was the means under God of leading the man who was asked the question to Christ and into the Church ; and not only that, but many others beheld in that act the royalty of the religion of Jesus Christ, and said, " We will go with you, for we believe that God is with you," and many came out upon the Lord's
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side That was a precious season of revival, and I remember it with joy and gladness to-night. I will not multiply words, but simply say that I wish to pay my humble tribute to the memory of this, my mother Church. I should be an unworthy son of such a mother if I were not willing to be here to-night and to give a few reminiscences, and my earnest desire is that heaven's richest blessing may rest upon this Church in Middletown in the years that are to come, as it has in the years that have passed.
67 Address, .... By Re\7. William H). Jlires,
Assistant to Pastor Thomas Roberts, and First Pastor of the Hohndel Baptist Church.
Mr. Preside;nt — It really vSeeraed to me when our excellent and eloquent Brother Yerkes was speaking that for me to follow him would be very much like talking of war in the presence of Han- nibal, or lighting a taper with which to see the sun. I felt if I said anything at all it must be just a few blunt, simple words with refer- ence to my own experience as an assistant Pastor of this Church, and the first Pastor of the Church at Holmdel. Fifty-three years ago, in attending a board meeting of the New Jersey Baptist State Convention at this place, it was my privilege to form some acquaintance with the Baptist congregation of Middletown. At that time they owned two church prop- erties, a meeting-house in this place, of which this is an enlargement and improvement -decidedly so — and a meeting-house and parsonage at Baptisttown, now Holmdel. Elder Thomas Roberts was their worthy Pastor, and they were worthy of his faithful pastoral care, which they had enjoyed for almost a dozen years. He was accustomed to preach in the upper and lower houses alternately, and also at other points in the township of Middletown, which was then about twice as large as it is now, including, as it did, the township of Holmdel, and he preached at still other points in the county of Monmouth, which was then much larger than now, embracing what is now Ocean county. Thus his field was a very large one, the harvest was great, and the laborers were few, and it was not surprising that both Church and Pastor felt that there was need of at least one additional laborer ; but to one it was a genuine sur- prise that they selected the man they did to fill that place. That was in the winter of 1835-6, most memorable for the great fire in New York, and for the greatest snow-fall, in quantity and depth, that we ever saw, con- tinuing away on in the month of May. I say that during that winter a meeting of the Church, held in the upper house, arranged to invite a certain j^oung man to assist Pastor Roberts for the time being, until arrangements already commenced could be perfected to organize a Church at the upper house. That call is still extant, and is in the hands of Brother Case, who will, perhaps, read it to you as quickly as possible.
[Letter read by Mr. Case, as follows] :
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Holm DEL, March 9th, 1836. Dear Brother Hyers — Agreeable to arrangement, the Baptist Church at Middletown convened in Church meeting in the upper house this day, and discussed the subject of calling a Minister to take the pastoral care of the flock in this branch of Zion. The result of our deliberation was a unanimous vote to call and invite you to become our Pastor, and Mr. John W. Holmes and myself appointed a committee to write to you. We therefore, by the request and in behalf of the Church and congregation, do most affectionately invite you to become our Pastor, and have the oversight of our spiritual and eternal interests. Our numbers are not great here, but the means are ample if the Lord open the hearts of the people, and we feel a confidence that we shall, with the aid and blessing of our Heavenly Father, be able to feed our Shepherd, and many have already determined to put the shoulder to the pecuniary chariot and move it forward to the amount of three hundred dollars and the use of the glebe or parsonage, and think that a support can be provided for you. You will please to come or write soon, and we pray the Lord of Israel may bless both you and us, and increase our faith and our members, and to His name shall be all the glory.
Most affectionately yours,
THOH. FARDON, JOHN W. HOLMES. To Bro. William D. Hyers.
Direct to Bro. John Taylor, Holmdel, Monmouth Co., N. J.
In due time this call was presented, accepted, and your humble servant entered the Middletown field the first of April, 1836, taking possession of the parsonage and preaching in the upper house and at different neigh- borhoods from three to seven miles distant. After a lapse of five years, a Church was constituted, of which it was my privilege to be Pastor for a period of ten years. Before the Church was organized, however, it was my privilege to baptize some into fellowship of the Middletown Church as the CO- Pastor of Minister Roberts ; one, I am happy to say, is here to-night.
The stipend of that call, j^ou will notice, was three hundred dollars and the use of the parsonage. After the second year it was increased to four hundred dollars. Still, you say, that was a very meagre salary, and so it seems to me, in view of the salaries of the present day, and especialU' in view of what the same Church is doing for Brother Case (but the\' are probably doing no more than he needs, no more than they are able to do) ; nevertheless, if you consider that the cost of living then was all of one- third less than it is now, and the, to me, memorable fact that the people were ever mindful of the welfare of their Pastor— they did not stop at
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what they were pledged to do, but were ever th nking of their Pastor, and ever mindful of his wants, and tried to make him comfortable and happy, if possible. I bear them witness in this presence to-night, never, in any pastorate that I have occupied, never, from that day to this, have I been more comfortably and more happily situated than I was there. [Applause.] Moreover, we used to preach to them the Pauline doctrine, " Now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord," and by the grace of God they were enabled to maintain a good degree of steadfastness in the Lord, and by that same grace we tried to live in pastoral work, and so we continued to live, unitedly, harmoniously, lovingly and prosperously and happily, until the failure of health on the part of the one required a separation. During the first year of the pastorate of the Holmdel Church, Elder Roberts voluntarily resigned his charge of the First Church of Middletown and retired to the State of New York. Brother D. B. Stout, of Lambertville, was called to succeed him, and he, like his predecessor, was a man full of faith, and full of the Holy Ghost. I recall with great pleasure his genial and Christ-like spirit. I remember well his plaintive voice in song and in prayer, in pleading with men to be reconciled to God. I remember how we labored, each with his respective Church, pleasantly, delight- fully, and how we labored evangelically in all the country round about, for there was then no Church at Marlboro, there was no Church at Middletown Point, now Matawan, there was no Church at Ke3^port, there was no Church at Port Monmouth, there was no Church at High Point, there was no Church at Red Bank, Eatontown and Long Branch, and at many other points in the county of Monmouth where now there are strong, live and growing Churches. So we had a wide field of labor, and so we labored together, and God blessed our efforts. I think of that dear Brother now with the sainted Roberts and INIorgan, whose monument we unveiled to-day, and many of the Pastors of this Church and of other Churches in this county and elsewhere. I think I see that dear Brother with them and with the prophets and apostles and the saints and the martyrs, with all the parents and children, all the husbands and wives, all the brothers and sisters, and with all who have died in Jesus and are blessed. I think of him with that blood-washed throng, celebrating the bi-centennial of our denomination in this State, at the marriage supper of the Lamb in heaven. "And what a narrow sea divides that heavenly- land from ours ! " It will not be long. Brethren, before we shall pass over, one by one, and we shall shine in that heavenly company.
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Beloved, it was a great privilege to live in those far-back days, and to labor when there was so much simplicity and Godly sincerity; but it is a greater privilege to labor in this last half of the nineteenth century, and to me it is a great privilege that I have been permitted to live more than three-quarters of this century, and to recall the rise and progress of most of the great improvements that have come during the centur}^ such, for instance, as the use of steam for travel and transportation and for manu- facturing purposes, electricity for the transmission of news and for illumination, and the great improvements in implements to lighten and save labor in all the industrial pursuits of life, in the great improvement, the multiplication and eflSciency of schools and colleges, and books and papers and periodicals and lectures, and all the facilities for enlighten- ment and education. I think especially of the great improvement in the Sunday-school work, and in the number and efficiency of the Churches and the Ministry, and the number and appointments of the Church build- ings. I remember distinctly when all the Churches in New Jersey were like angel visits, few and far between. I remember, not more than fifty- five years ago, at the date of my licentiate, a liberally educated Minister in the State of New Jersey was certainly an exception to the rule, in fact, I do not recall in the State, fifty-five years ago, more than three or four college graduates. My time is up, I think, and I shall speak no longer. Say not why were the former days better than these, for in this thou dost not inquire wisely, for the simple reason that the former days were not better than these. There is a march of mind and progression of the age, and the cause of our Emmanuel is progressing, it is advancing, and I rejoice to-day in what our eyes see and what our ears hear. I feel proud to-day in looking over this assemblage and seeing so many of the Brethren well educated for the work they have to do, and I thank God that I was permitted once more to meet with them, and may His benedic- tion rest upon all.
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Address, By Res?. T- S- grifpths,
Pasto)- at Hohndel.
I want first to express my feelings of gladness and thankfulness to Brother Parmly and Brother Eaches for the papers they have presented to-day. For about twenty years I have been delving among the Baptists of New Jersey, and a little outside, and I want to say that you may be grateful, and thankful, and congratulate yourselves, too, upon the cor- rectness, so far as I am able to know, of these historic papers. It has taken away from me the necessity of my making any allusions to items of history of which I had thought. I am a Baptist, and this history pleases me because it is Baptist history. I am the eighth generation of my family that have been ofiicers in a Baptist Church. I don't know how many more of 3'ou can say that; and my son, who is bearing office in the Church of which he is a member, is the ninth. I do not think anything would hurt me more than that either of our children should be anything else than Baptists, just what I believe the Lord has made them. The tradition of our family says they have been Baptists since the Gospel was first introduced into Wales, and I should not be surprised if it was true. I would not exchange such a record for the best patrimony the world can furnish— take the whole of it. [Applause.]
Years ago they used to have the yearly meetings, of which you have heard. The yearly meeting at Middletown was held at the upper house, and some have asked why these meetings were held there. In the early days there was a kind of jealousy between Baptisttown and the village here. In those early days they had the militia trainings, and these men made arrangements that these yearly meetings should be held up there and the militia trainings in Middletown; that explains how it happened. These old-time folks were wonderfully interesting people, and we know a great many happy things about them. It is over forty years since my first settlement in Monmouth county, and so I have been brought in con- tact with a great many people. I remember one day in Holmdel I was out on the street, and an old gentleman came along, he was very old, and he asked me, "Are you the Pastor of the Church here?" "Yes," I replied, and I inquired his age, and he said he was past eighty years of age, and then began to talk about his conversion and the Church and
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about Middletovvn, this village, and then spoke of his mother. He said, " My mother lived down between Middletown and Nut Swamp, some four or five miles from the village, and one Saturday morning we started at very near daj'light to go to Middletown (" upper house ") and attend the great yearly meeting. We were going to walk. My mother was a widow. ' ' Think of it, this widow walking some twenty-four miles to go to the Church of God with her child! And he went on to describe that walk which led him to God. And on Sunda}- morning he heard the sermon, and after the sermon came the baptism, and the tears began to come down the old man's face, and said he, " Right there, when I saw that beautiful baptism and those people going down into that water, the spirit of God came down upon me, and from that day to this I have known Christ." And then he said he and his mother walked back. Now, it gives you an idea how intent these people were, how loving they were, and wh}^ the present stock is so good. [Applause.]
And here is another illustration of the care God has taken of this Church. Brother Stout succeeded Brother Roberts, and right behind his name was the name of Mr. Gobel. He was a taking man, a popular man, and you have little idea how he permeated the whole commu- nity, save where here and there a Brother would stand up and rebel. Well, he was right behind Mr. Stout, and some of the Brethren were taken very much with Mr. Gobel. When the Church extended Brother Stout that unanimous call, he had another call — a unanimous call — from Salem, and the question came up. What was he to do, go to Salem or to Middletown ? Had he gone to Salem, Mr. Gobel would have come here. How many are there here to-night who do not feel sure of what the outcome would have been ? How many of you know about Jacksonville ? He became Pastor there, but it is as silent as the grave, a house as large as this, and a congregation that on Sabbath morning usually filled it as this congregation fills this house. Brother Stout went in there one day as we were driving by, and looked about the spacious house and said, " Brother Roberts preached the opening sermon, and the house was packed, but, oh, how long it is since the voice of the living Preacher has been heard here!" I don't know, but it is dead. And, Brethren, we had not been here to-night if that man had come here. I have no manner of doubt that this house would have been as silent as the grave had he come here, but God came to Brother Stout, turned him here, and here he has been the instrument of that great work. And I
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want to relate a pleasant incident of Brother Stotit. You would not think him a very humorous man, but he had a great deal of humor in him. One day at a Board meeting in Camden a certain Brother, advanced in years, but whose locks were as black as the raven, and presented all the appearance of youth that were possible, w^as making a speech, a very earnest speech, and said, among other things, "Why, Brethren, I am a Baptist dyed in the wool." Brother Stout leaned over to me and whispered to me, " Brother GriflQth, don't he mean a wool-d3'ed Baptist ? " These were good men, and I have a great deal to say about them, but the time has elapsed.
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■Address, By ReV. W- W- S-ose,
The Present Pastor ot HoliUitel.
]\Ir. Chairman, Brethren and Sisters — I do not intend to occupy five of the ten minutes allotted to me, in order that an opportunity may be given others to speak.
Reference has been made here to-night to the letter I was permitted to read. A few weeks ago a Brother died in the membership of the Holm- del Church Henry GifFord — who told me that he was present at the meeting when Brother Hires was called. Father Roberts presided, and urged the Brethren of the Church to invite some one to assist him because of the great amount of work to be done. He urged the people to separate into two bands, and offered to give thirty dollars out of his own pocket to support the man who should be called.
A number of the jNIiddletown Pastors have lived at Holmdel. Samuel Morgan, the successor of Abel Morgan, lived in the first parsonage. Elliott, King and Roberts lived in the second parsonage, which was torn down in 1882 to make room for the present commodious edifice.* So we feel that the statement that has been made this afternoon, that the history of the upper (Holmdel) congregation runs parallel with that of the lower (Middletown) congregation, is true.
It was in the bounds of the upper congregation that the first Baptist Sabbath-school in this State was established, at the home of Mrs. Ann B. Taylor, about two miles from Holmdel, in the 3'ear 1816. In the year 18 1 8 it was transferred to the Church edifice, where it has since remained. The Holmdel Church has always taken a strong position on the subject of Temperance. It has also taken a strong position with regard to Mis- sions, and the contributions of that Church will compare favorably with those of any other rural Church of the same size in the State of New Jersey. It has also always taken a strong position on the question of Christian education, and many families have liberally patronized our own institutions of learning, and contributed largely to these institutions, especially Peddie Institute. Only a few weeks ago two of the members
♦Benjamin Bennett, who was Pastor twenty-three years, and at one time a member of Congress, is buried back of the Holmdel Church edifice.
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of that congregation paid $10,000 into the hands of William V. Wilson, Treasurer of Peddie Institute, to establish a library building at Peddie Institute. They are very modest people, but others will call this building the Longstreet Library Hall. [Applause.]*
The Holmdel Church has never been afflicted with any views of new theology, or with false views of the nature of the Church and its ordi- nances. The good old doctrine that was preached there more than two hundred years ago is still vigorously maintained. [Applause.] We join with you in this Bi-Centennial with great delight, and we hope that those who meet two hundred years hence to celebrate may see at that time a mighty advance of the principles we so truly love. [Applause.]
* The road between Holmdel and Middletown has been trodden by the feet of Baptist evangelists earlier than any other road in the State.
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Address, By ReV. 3. JM. &rpenler,
( The Oldest Baptist Aiinister in A^ezu yersey.)
[The Rev. O. P. Eaches yielded his time and place to Brother Carpenter, in view of Brother Eaches' address in the afternoon.]
When Zelotes Grinnell was a child he was one of a large family of brothers, living in Delaware county, New York State, and one evening in the winter-time his father sent several of them out to bring in wood for the open fire-place. He was a little fellow, but he went out with the rest. They all shouldered their wood—strong boys they were — and went in, and Zelotes, my Pastor, said to me : " I went in without anything, and when I came into the house my father said, ' My son, how is it you have come in without any wood ? ' ' Well, father, I could not find an}- thing I could carry.' ' Well,' said the old man, ' were there not any chips in the yard?'" He related that incident to me as an inducement to inculcate in the minds of young men the habit of trying to do something, no mat- ter how small, in the cause of the Master. I have been gathering up chips while I have been listening to the Brethren. I feel. Brethren, that we are on historic ground to-night. We have assembled here on this occasion for a three-fold purpose ; first, to celebrate the Bi-Centennial of the Church of Middletown, its two hundredth anniversary ; secondlj', the unveiling of the monument to Abel Morgan, and, third, to attend to the business of the fifty-ninth anniversary of the New Jersey Baptist Aid Convention. These are three objects for which we have gathered here on this occasion.
In regard to the first of these, I will touch upon Abel Morgan. When he was born, in April, 1713, there were but four Baptist Churches in the State of New Jersey. Cape May Court House had been organized a 3-ear prior to his birth. When he was two years old the fifth Church of the State of New Jersey was organized. That was the old Hopewell Church, in 1 715. Those were the only Churches in existence in the State of New Jersey of the Baptist denomination. The old Kingwood Church was organized about four years after he came into the State, in 1742. The Middletown Church followed in 1745, and its constituenc3' went from this Church, the first. I believe, that this Church sent out. Time rolled on, and in 1785, on the 24th of November, I believe, Abel Morgan went to
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his reward. When he died there were twenty-two Baptist Churches in this State. The last of the twenty-two was organized just five days before his death— Jacobstown, organized the 19th of November, 1785. Abel Morgan was a wonderful man. You have heard a great deal about him, and it is unnecessary for me to repeat anything in reference to his general history. He left his impress upon the Baptist element of New Jersey, which is what every Baptist ought to do. We should leave our impress upon those who are coming after. We have made progress. I came into this State fifty-two years ago this fall, upon the anniversary of this convention in 1836, in Plainfield. I received a welcome, although an entire stranger. But four Ministers in the State had ever seen me, and I went to Plainfield without any expectation of entering into the service of the convention. While I was looking around Plainfield, being a stranger in the place, the Pastor of the Church (Brother Hill) came to me and said, " They want you at the Board meeting." I said, " What do they want?" and said he, "Go and see." So I went. Father Dodge was then the Pastor of the only Baptist Church in Newark, was the President of the Board. After my introduction. Father Dodge said to me, ' ' The Board have concluded to give you an appointment for six months at Schooley's Mountain, if you are willing to accept it." It took me by surprise, and I sat a few minutes and reflected upon the magnitude of the calling to which they had appointed me to enter in the service of the Board, and finally I rose and said to them, " Brethren, you are all strangers to me, and I am a stranger to you ; if you have sufiicient confi- dence in me to give me this appointment, I will go." From that time I have been in the service of the Board in some capacity for fifty-two years. First a Missionary, then a member of the Board, then its Secretary for seventeen years, and then a traveling Missionary and general agent to collect funds, until I have reached where I am. I am rejoiced to meet you to-night, but I feel saddened when I think of those that are gone. Harrison, Hopkins, Rogers, Dodge, Grinnell, and a number of others have passed away. Of the ordained Ministers in the State of New Jersey when I came here in 1836, there are but three living. One of those is here to-night, and has spoken to you, another is Brother T. C. Truesdell, and the other is Charles C. Park, now living in Ohio. All three, I believe, are my juniors slightly. Thus we are passing awa3^ The ques- tion often arises, " Our fathers, where are they ? " One generation passes and another comes. But God our Father, Jesus our Redeemer, has been
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preaching His ministry from the day of His ascension until the present time, and when one generation of Ministers passes away another genera- tion takes its place.
One more thought in closing, for I need not detain you further, and that is, Brethren, we live to make our impress, and that is in perfect keeping wuth the order of the Saviour, who lived in part to make an impression of Himself upon the minds of His disciples. If you read the writings of the New Testament through, you will find that one great object of the divine calling was that one generation should leave its impression upon the one that followed it. What impress are we leaving ? We know something about that which our fathers have left upon us, and upon the communities in which they have lived. I am reminded of an incident related in Bridgeton a few years ago, when I was traveling for the convention. I made my headquarters at the house of a man whose primary object in life was to make money. One evening as he came in I said to him, " You have had a day of fatiguing labor to-day ? " " Yes," said he, "I have had." "Well," said I, "don't some of the men that you trust with your money go back on you ? " " No," said he, '" I never had a man go back on me in my life." " How's that ; in your line of business men generally complain more or less of losing money by the men whom they trust ? " "I will tell you," said he, " You know up at Cohansey Henry Small labored for forty-nine years, and ministered to the Baptist Church there?" "Yes; what of that?" "And at Fair- town," said he, " four miles below, on the way to Cedarville, there was a Presbyterian Minister by the name of Ethan Osborne ; he was Pastor there for sixty years. Now, when a man comes to me on business, and I know he has been under the ministry of Henry Small or Ethan Osborne, I know I am safe." [Applause.] Thus you see, my Brethren, the impress which the faithful Minister leaves upon the community in which he lives. Oh, that we, as Ministers, could carry about with us wherever we go these evidences of our divine calling, of the sacredness of that calling, and of the responsibilities of that calling in the communities in which we live, and the influence which we exert on those around us, so as to leave a favorable impress upon the public mind, how much more good would we do than we are doing at present.
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^^Jdress, gy Re\?. S. A ^nowlton,
Pastor of Upper Freehold.
Middletown Church is the mother of several Churches, one of which is the Upper Freehold Church. Perhaps, two or three hundred years hence, unsagacious historians may arise and, with wonderful sagacity, having found documents that have lain hid or a key to those still extant, prove that the Middletown Church and all her daughters were due to William Penn — the first leader that came over from Amsterdam. At any rate, one thing is certain : the old Middletown Church has never refused to own her daughters, and the daughters have never refused to own their mother. I understand that in the last half of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth, there was preaching in that section where our Church is situated ; but for fifty years it was simply a preaching station. In the year 1766 there were a sufiicient number of Baptists there to form a Church. The first Pastor was the Rev. David Jones, and, as you have heard to-day, he remained with that Church about nine years. From 1775 to 1S22 there were seven different Pastors. The j-ear 1822 was the beginning of a new era for that Church. A timid young man, who had been to Princeton only for a few days, reflecting that during his course of study scores might be lost, came, providentiallj^, as he thought, and preached at Upper Freehold. After candidating, which is a sort of Barnum's museum with a scriptural text and a live lion on exhibition, he was called to the pastorate. The Church stipulated to give him one hundred dollars for his stipend for the first year ; but as all stocks and promises are fluctuating, the hundred dollars became fifty. The Pastor thought it impossible to live on such a meagre salary, and went to Salem and invited a young XoAy to help him do the impossible. [Laughter.] They lived happily and comfortable on fifty dollars a j^ear.
On a certain occasion, while preaching at a place called Cream Ridge, as was the Pastor's custom, he announced his text in accordance with the times and season. He took for his text, and announced to the people, " Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe." One man away back in the " amen corner " cried out : " Dominie, the harvest is past on this side of the ridge." Every square inch of wind was taken out of the Pastor's sails for a few seconds, but, recovering himself, he said : " Your harvest
8o
may be passed, but God's harvest is not passed until all His wheat is gathered into His garners, and the chaff is burned with unquenchable fire."
In those days it was the custom, you understand, for the people to come in wagons, and to use their chairs as seats in the school-house or house where they worshipped. On one occasion a newly-married man came in. He had left his coat at home during the warm weather, but he took his seats out of the wagon, and gave one to an old man and sat down in the other. The preacher arose and announced his text : " Friend, how camest thou here, not having a wedding garment?" The newly-married man looked around and saw that there was not a single person in the congre- gation without a coat except himself, and jumping up he grabbed the old man, and clutching his chair said : " Give me my chair ; he means me !" And the last seen of that man on that day he was riding down the road, his two chairs keeping tune to his wagon.
That Pastor remained there some sixteen years. He enjoyed a constant revival for nine years, and baptized during his stay over three hundred persons. He remained with that Church and in that section of the country for sixteen 3'ears, coming with all his earthly goods packed in a small chest, and went away with fifteen Pennsylvania wagon loads of goods, four children and one wife. [Laughter.]
I might mention some of the other Pastors that have been there, but will simply refer to one or two. A newly-fledged theological student came, and he used to take fifteen to thirty minutes in expounding Greek texts and a better rendering of King James, and finally, as one man expressed it, he used to bring out all the Greek roots from Homer down to the Apocalypse. This rooting in the garden of the Lord became terribly monotonous, and he received his walking ticket. [Laughter.] There are three Churches, I think, gone out from Upper Freehold — Jacobstown, Bordentown and Freehold. There have been several revivals, the largest being in the ministration of William D. Hires, from whom you have heard this evening. I have been in New Jersey but little over a year, but I must say to you I have found the Baptist cause progressing. I have found warm hearts and excellent people, and I have begun to think that the Baptist cause in New Jersey can be compared favorably with any section of this country.
I have begun to think that the Baptist denomination is a great order, especially in this country, separating those rivers which flow northward
8i
into the frozen region of Unitarianism from those which flow southward into the malarial district of the New Theology. I have begun to think that the Baptist denomination is the Nile of North America ; as the Nile, by its annual inundation, leaves its deposits upon the fertile valley of Egypt, so, now and then, the Baptist denomination has left its sediment- ary deposit in the other and lesser denominations. If there is any good held in solution by the Baptist denomination, the quicker it is deposited the better.
One thing I can say in behalf of the Upper Freehold Church : during one hundred and twenty years it has never been affected; it has proven true and sound in the faith once delivered to the saints. If I can con- jecture anything for the next one hundred and twenty years, it will remain as sound as it has been during the past one hundred and twenty. [Applause.]
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Address, By ReV. $. K @
e)Cter,
Pas/or at Keyport.
I presume bj' this time we are beginning to feel quite rested. [Laugh- ter.] We certainly have a grand illustration to-night of the patience and perseverance of men. It is said that the mind of man is like a jug, it can hold only so much, but I sometimes think that it is best represented b}- a rubber jug. [Laughter.] Unfortunately forme, I cannot dwell upon any very touching or inspiring reminiscences, because my memory goeth not back to those ancient days ; but, iu anticipation of this service, I have been led to look at the record of our Church, and I therein find that on August the 5th, 1840, a council was convened on the banks of the bay in Keyport for the purpose of forming a certain number of believers into a Baptist Church. The Moderator of that council was David B. Stout, and the clerk W. D. Hires. Samuel Sproul presented the object for which the council was convened, the doctrines held, confession of faith, and then a number of letters were presented, the majority of them by members of the Middletown Church. Of these nearly all have passed away ; but two or three remain. After listening to this statement and these letters, it was voted that they approve of their organization into what was to be known as the Third Church of Middletown. That Church is now known as the Keyport Baptist Church, and I come here to-night to bring the greetings of that Church to the members of this. After listening to the masterly address of our Brother, I feel that it is a high honor that has been conferred upon me, that I am permitted to stand here as the repre- sentative of the Church of Jesus Christ. I congratulate this Church on the gracious providence that has marked her past history — that to-day she is in existence among the Churches of Jesus Christ with an honorable and worthy name. I congratulate this Church for all the good that has been accomplished, and on the number of Churches that have gone out from her. I congratulate ourselves, as members of the Church in Kej'port, that we, as one of the children of this Church, are permitted to be here to-night, and to enjoy with you, not only to-night but throughout the day, this grand occasion. This is peculiarlj^ fitting on our part. You will readily see, from the dates I have given you, that the Kej'port Bap- tist Church is very near its semi-centennial. Would time permit, I might
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cite some material facts that would be gratifying to the Mother Church. I might dwell upon the grand influence the Keyport Church has had upon the community in which it is placed, in a material way ; the influ- ence outside, in all the educational movements that are correcting and purifying the intellectual tone and status of the people ; the influence it has had in a moral way, and perfecting the social relations of life, and, most of all, I might dwell upon the spiritual work that that Church has wrought, the number of souls that have been saved, the spirit of gener- osity that has been developed, the grand record that Church has achieved in helping forward the Kingdom of Christ on earth, so that this, our Mother Church, might look with pride and gratulation on what her child, under God, has wrought.
On August 5th, 1890, we will celebrate our semi-centennial, and then we hope to have realized some of the desires of our hearts, in having a new organ in the house, in having the edifice changed and everything put in proper condition — then we hope, as we start out to complete our two hundred years of history, that we shall be so blessed of God in the coming 3^ears of our existence, that we may present to the world even a grander record than 3'ou, our INIotlier, can present to-da}'. Meanwhile, ma}' we not hope that ties that were formed nearly fifty years ago, and were then so close and fraternal, will continue to be so between mother and daugh- ter in the years to come ; that our interest in each other shall be cordial, fervent and helpful, that we shall pra}^ for one another, and unitedly labor for the glory of Him whose name we bear, whose we are and whom we serve.
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'^Address, By ReV. 3. 4\. JManning,
Pastor at Red Bank.
Mr. President— I am not going to give 3-011 very many reminiscences or make a long speech. I am very glad to be able to stand here to-night and tender my congratulations to this people. I am thankful that I have been permitted to be a Pastor of two of the daughters who have gone out from this Church, and I am very glad that these services have taken the form they have taken. As nobod}-, possibly, will say it for me, I will say that I had a big hand in this thing.
I want to congratulate this Church upon its prosperity. She has better clothes to-day than some of her children. Just compare this house of worship with some other houses of worship I might refer to, and go down and see where Brother Jones lives, and look at the places where vSome other of the Pastors about here live, and in every direction I want to congratulate this people upon their conveniences of life and activity, and upon their prosperity. And there is another thing I want to refer to. I do not call to mind where there is another Baptist Church which has set about and accomplished so grandly a celebration of this kind, and I am glad, for the sake of the Baptists, that it has been accomplished. If Abel Morgan had been a Methodist, in nearly every Church in this com- munity there would have been a memorial tablet or colored glass window ; or if he had belonged to the Episcopal Church, it would have been the same, but, because he was a Baptist, he had to wait one hundred and three years before we saw the necessity that there should be a monument erected to his memory. I want to say to you that I regard this time as one of the greatest I can call to mind. This afternoon there was a beau- tiful and touching scene presented. Here was this grand man who had gone one hundred and three 5'ears without a monument ; but 3-ou selected for the orator of the occasion a man who has built his own monument, for as long as Peddie Institute shall stand, William V. Wilson will have a pile of bricks erected to his memor3^
Now and then I get a little weary and faint of heart, because I feel that the young men in our Churches are not like their fathers— not as strong, perhaps -but while we are here to revere the memory of Abel Morgan, I say it with reverence and with thankfulness that there are just as grand
85
men here to-night as there were in his day, and I regard it as one of the greatest of privileges to be identified with the men whose names have been mentioned here, living and dead, and being part and parcel of the great Baptist Church, and while I congratulate the Brethren here, I see no reason why this Church should not go on increasing in strength and prosperity and power.
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•Address, By Rev'. 3. ^. Boyes,
Pastor at Navesink and Atlantic Highlands Churches.
I shall certainly not detain you long, as I have but recently come into the State of New Jerse}-, and during that time have been seriously ill, which has prevented my looking up the matter, as I certainly should have otherwise done.
I will briefly present a few facts. The Navesink Church was a Mission- ary station of the Rev. Thomas Roberts' twenty-two years ago — that venerable man of whom you have heard so much to-night ; he was form- ing these outposts around this place, and he there began to proclaim the truth, in the school-house and in any other place he could get. High Churchism and Antinomianism strongly prevailed at that time in that place, but, feeling the importance of the commission, and alive for the souls that he saw perishing, he was not at all shaken in the effort, and, hence, prevailed strongly in this place. Intemperance was also rampant. We have heard to-night a temperance society was organized here, but the first temperance society, so far as I know, was formed over there, and called the High Point Temperance Society. After awhile Father Roberts resigned, and the Rev. D. B. Stout became Pastor of this Church. Brother R. A. Leonard, a former member of this Church, and a very active member, one whose name will no doubt bring up to many of you his life and association, joined with the Rev. Mr. Stout in proclaiming the truth in what was then known as Riceville. Thej^ held meetings at that time in the woods or in any place they could get, and the result was they presented the glorious truth of Jesus Christ, and by the power of God many were convicted of sin and of judgment and became converted to this faith. This resulted in a permanent service being held in what was then called Riceville, held in the public school-house afternoons in the summer-time, and evenings in the winter. After awhile the school- house became too small to hold the congregation that gathered there to hear the Gospel as it fell from the lips of Brother Stout, and they con- cluded to erect a Church edifice. So far as I understand it, this was erected as a Missionary outpost, with no organization as yet, but simply a Chapel where they could get more fully and effectually the preaching of the Gospel of Christ. After holding these meetings for some time in
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this place, on account of the distance from this Church and the seeming needs of the community, it was decided to organize a Church, and steps were taken in the year 1S53 for this purpose, and they organized what was called the Second Middletown Church. I have heard that name mentioned in connection with the Holmdel Church, but the Church was organized in Riceville and called the Second Middletown Church, having fifty-five members, and if I should read over their names, how many reminiscences would it bring to many here ! It was a strong Church, although it had but fifty-five members. There have been many Pastors! but the first after its organization was the Rev. Mr. Wilson, this man who has been so feelingly referred to, and is so worthy of our grateful appreciation. He was Pastor of this Church for one year, after which Father Roberts, the venerable Father Roberts, staunch Baptist Preacher that he was, whose life and work plays such an important part in the history of this Church. He labored there for four years, and during that time twenty-four were united with the Church. Following him was the Rev. E. D. Fron ; following him the Rev. M. B. Harris, 1862 to 1867 ; following him the Rev. J. J. Baker, then Charles T. Douglass, then the Rev. Mr. Lee, and now lately your humble servant, who feels very much impressed with the work. There are about two hundred members of this Church at this time, and we devoutly worship God, and endeavor to pro- claim the truth so dear to us all.
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•Address, .... By ReV. William V- Wilson,
Pastor of A^ezv Monmouth Church.
Friends and Brethren — It seems to fall to in}- lot to bring up the rear. I think I must have been born out of due time. [Laughter.] It is per- haps appropriate that I should make a few remarks, although I very much regret that I am called upon to do so at so late an hour. I have had rela- tions with this Church that perhaps no other Brother has. I have mar- ried three of her daughters — I was going to say the first husband of two and the onlj' husband of one. I was ordained in this Church, and there have been times when it looked a little as though I should form a marriage connection with her. [Laughter.] If it had not been for the exceeding great love I had for one of her daughters, I do not know what might have been, and if I should live fifty years longer and she should have another period of widowhood, I don't know but it might be. [Laughter.] Of course, I feel very tenderly connected with this people. I have been working on your borders all the days of my life, forty-seven years, just as long as Abel Morgan worked in Middletown have I been in this town- ship, and on the borders of this Church. It seems unnecessary that I should dwell upon my labors — my good Brother, the senior deacon of my Church, gave you a pretty good idea of what they are. I hope for good results from this gathering, that our hearts shall be cemented more and more. I think there is the best of feeling between us and the mother of the third daughter — shall I call her— and that we heartily rejoice in her prosperity ; I certainly do.
I think of the number of years I have lived in this county, in this town- ship of Middletown, beginning at Kej^port in 1841, the first Pastor there, laboring there until it was necessary that something should be done — they had outgrown me or I had outgrown them, I don't know which, and I had to leave. I then sought a connection with the second daughter. I was there awhile, and I don't know but it would have been a permanent connection, but another child was born near my own dwelling and I thought it best, perhaps, that I should go there. So 3'ou see what my labors have been. If I had had the spirit, the mind and heart of Abel Morgan, whose memory we celebrate to-day, what might I not have done? I say to you, young men who are going on in the ministr}', working
and toiling — catch this spirit, this inspiration of to-da}-, and from this time on live and labor as he did, and the resnlts of your labors will be seen in the coming days. I have been a many-sided man, and have not given my service as perhaps I should have done. I have been a layman and a preacher, and toiled out from home, far and near, and maybe in the final recounting I have done something in training up this Church to what it now is, that good may come to the denomination, but there are times when I think that if I had only cut loose from everything else and given my whole time and attention to the ministry in every respect — though I never failed to preach, never gave up in any sense — I might have made a mark higher than I have done. A preacher of this town, now gone, on one occasion said to me, " Brother Wilson, if 3'ou give your whole time to the ministry you will make a greater impression in the county of Monmouth than anyone made before," and I think sometimes if I had done this I would have made a different record from what I have made, and yet in the lines of labor in which I have operated some good may have been done.
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Mr. Buchanan read the following letter from Rev. T. E. Vas- sar, D.D., formerly Pastor at Flemington and at the South Church, Newark, now of Kansas City, Mo., and member of the Bi-Centen- nial Committee, but who left for the West before our grand cele- bration :
413 Landis Court, K.\nsas City, INIo., Oct. 22d, 1S88.
Dear Brother Hopping How I would like to be at old Middletown next week ! In spirit I shall be there, joying and rejoicing with you all, but in\' hands and feet must be at work out on the banks of the Missouri.
Of course I have not the memories of a lifetime hanging about the old Church as you and man}' others have, bvit m}- acquaintance of sixteen years abounds in pleasant recollections and associations ; and, as if I were still a New Jersey Baptist, I congratulate you on this record of two hundred 3'ears. Oliver Wendell Holmes has humorously said :
" Little of all we value here Wakes on the morn of its hundredth year Without looking and feeling very queer."
Your Church, however, is surely an exception to the witty poet's rule. It wakes on its two hundredth anniversar}- without looking at all queer. Its house of worship is a little better than it was in Abel Morgan's day ; its roll of members is a little longer ; its resources are a little larger, but the old gospel that Abel Morgan preached is preached among you still, and the ordinances are kept as Abel Morgan kept them, and as the INIaster gave them centuries before. If the men and women of 168S were to come back, they would quickly recognize their descendants of 1888, and would bless God that the old banner they lifted was floating still. May that banner be kept lifted till your fields have ceased to yield, and your orchards to bloom and fruit.
Of course you will have a good time at the Bi-Centennial. You cannot help having a good time on such historic ground, and with such services. May the Lord's banner over 3'ou be love, and we all be present at that gladder gathering, when they shall come from the east, and the west, and the north, and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God.
With congratulations to the Church, and greetings to all the dear brethren so often met in the past, I am,
As ever, yours, ^_ ^_ VASSAR.
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Slosing Sonc], - " 0od be With fou till We JMeet Aqain."
God be with you till we meet again ! By His counsels guide, uphold 3'ou, With His sheep securely fold 3^ou ;
God be with you till me meet again !
Chorus.
Till we meet ! till we meet ! Till we meet at Jesus' feet ; Till we meet ! till we meet ! God be with you till we meet again.
God be with you till we meet again ! 'Neath His wings securely hide you, Daily manna still provide j^ou ;
God be with you till we meet again I — Cho.
God be with 3'ou till we meet again ! When life's perils thick confound 3'ou, Put His loving arms around you :
God be with 3'ou till we meet again I — Cho.
^enediotion and ^Adjournment.
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On Wednesday morning, October 31st, the "New Jersey Baptist State Convention ' ' commenced its regular business, and continued throughout the day with its various interesting reports.
On Wednesday afternoon the Annual Sermon before the State Convention was preached by Rev. H. C. Applegarth, of New Bruns- wick, and the Annual Sermon before the Education Societ}^, by Rev. G. E. Horr.
Wednesday evening, addresses were delivered b}- Rev. William RoUinson, on " Some Eessons from the Past," and by Rev. James T. Dickenson, of Orange, on "The Duty and the Hope of the Hour."
OBITUARY REPORT, BY DR. W. H. PARMLY.
ADJOURNMENT.
Rev. E. EVERETT JONES, A. M.
Present Pastor of the Midoletov/n Baptist Church.
if ft jf t*H^7f-H;T^'it
:L';ilJ!t r.
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Comments of the Press.
The following accounts of the anniversaries of the New Jersey Baptist Education Society, the New Jersey State Convention and the Bi-Centennial of Middletown Church, are taken from The Neiv York Christian hiqiiirer and Mataiuan Journal (N. J.), and are published in this volume as indicative of what the press thought and said of the exercises.
THE NEW JERSEY ANNIVERSARIES.
[From The New York Christian Inquirer, November 8th, 1888.]
October 30. — Your correspondent since returning home has thrown away some portion of his notes written while attending the anniversaries of the New Jersey Baptist Education Society, the New Jersey Baptist State Convention and the Bi-Centennial of the Middletown Church. In view of the enthusiasm roused by the meetings, no suggestions or criticisms would be entertained by your readers. For it must be conceded that New Jersey has witnessed a notable gathering.
The Education Society was in session when the delegation from New- ark and vicinity arrived. The Church of Middletown was filled to over- flowing ; something more than the meeting of the Education Society' must have called them together. The decorations tell the story. On the pulpit there are two century plants, on one side of the pulpit, wrought in fresh green leaves, is the number 1888, on the other, in the brightest of autumnal foliage, 1688. Rev. O. P. Eaches, D.D., Secretary, read his report, which stated that the Society had aided thirty-one young men who are preparing for the ministry, and had received the sum of ^^2,200 on contribution, beside a legacy of 12,500. The officers of last year, W. H. Parmly, D.D., President, and O. P. Eaches, D.D., Secretary, were re-elected. These ofiicers, as delegate and alternate, were appointed to attend the next session
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of the Baptist Education Society in May. A committee of seven, includ- ing the Secretar}', were appointed to consider the wisdom of making such changes in the charter of the Society as will enable it to extend its aid to young women who are preparing for missionar}^ work. A large number of delegates favored immediate action ; probably a majority would have directed the committee to secure the change at once, but they 3'ielded to the conservative part3-. New Jersey seldom changes her methods.
The Rev. R. F. Y. Pierce then made the first of the four addresses upon the programme. The subject given him was, " How are we to secure the right material for an effective ministry ? "
Three excellent addresses followed. Rev. Addison Parker told vis " How are we most effectively to help them?" i. e. students for the min- istry. He urged men to come into relations of sympathy with the students. "If you haven't got a student in your Church, then borrow one." Bro. Parker made a happy allusion to Squire and " Robert Elsmere," who admitted that babies were necessar}-, for otherwise the human race would not continue. This allusion furnished Dr. H. K. Trask, of the South Jersey Academy, with his topic. Said he in substance: " Pas- tors are sometimes asked to instruct their people in relation to the interme- diate state. Many students for the ministry are in the intermediate state when they come to us. You care for them before they come and after they leave. Pray make some provision for them while they are with us. Don't expect these babies to exist forever in the intermediate state, but help us to get them out. The race of ministers cannot exist without you do this." Dr. John Green, of Peddie Institute, preceded Dr. Tra.sk. I\Ien demand, he said, that education should be practical. "Education is the full development of a human being in the three capacties of the ph3^sical, intellectual and the spiritual." Only the Christian school aims at development in all these capacities. You cause a young man to run a great risk when you place him in an atmosphere where they seek to develop the intellect and forget Christ.
Both Dr. Trask and Dr. Green are practical men. If that is the demand, they supply it. They know the value of minutes, they cut short their remarks, though to our loss, so that the session adjourned nearly on time.
Dinner was served in the temperance hotel near by. Fully seven hun- dred people dined there. Not more than one hundred and twentj^-five could be served at one time. The rest waited, however, with commend- able patience until their turn came.
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The Bi-Centennial and Memorial Exercises oe the Middletown
Church.
Afternoon Sessioti.
The State Convention last year voted to meet in 1888 with the Church of Plainfield. This resolution was changed to accept the invitation of the Middletown Church to meet with them at the time of their Bi-Centennial.
The Pastor, Rev. E. E. Jones, prepared us by his warm words of wel- come for the good things to follow. The President of the Convention, Mr. F. W. Ayer, after making his own appropriate address, introduced " a young man from Jersey City, who, when a boy, went out from this Church to prepare for the ministry." And our venerable friend, Dr. W. H. Parmly, arose. No one better than Dr. Parmly could tell the story of the Middletown Church, especially the scenes of which he had been an eye witness.
What a mighty work of grace was that which came upon the Church in 1 85 1. Dr. Parmly declared that probably 500 persons were converted in the neighborhood. Eighty-two were baptized on one occasion by the Pas- tor, Rev. David B. Stout. Following Dr. Parmly came the singing of the Bi-Centennial Hymn, written for the day by Rev. Robert Lowry, D.D.
A cousin of the Rev. Abel Morgan is yet living ; he is the well-known Hon. Horatio Gates Jones. He was introduced, and what he said was well worth the hearing. Abel Morgan was for nearly half a century Pas- tor of the Middletown Church. The history of this mighty man, as it was told during the afternoon, proved that his memory merits the title, which all the speakers of the day delighted to quote, —the Incomparable Morgan.
" Two hundred years of New Jersey Baptist History." This paper, by the Rev. O. P. Eaches, D.D., will be published in the Minutes of the Con- vention. All who read it will agree that New Jersej' has a man equal to an occasion.
Plant a Bible, said Dr. Eaches, and a Baptist will spring up ; bring Baptists together and they will organize a Church of Jesus Christ. Fifty years before Washington was born the Baptists of New Jersey organized Churches, confident that in time the whole world would heed their claim that the Church of Christ should consist only of Chri.st's people. Our early Baptist preachers were Home ^Mission Societies and State Conven- tions in themselves. One Pastor did mission work in North Carolina,
96
another labored among the Indians. New Jerse3^ led the Baptists in edu- cation. In our school at Hopewell, Manning and James were trained. For two hundred years we have had no new doctrines. In polity we have taken no departures. Heroic measures of discipline were often enforced.
Dr. Baches consented to wait till evening before finishing his address. The programme of the day provided for the unveiling of the monument to the memory of Abel Morgan, for nearly half a century Pastor of the Middletown Church. This monument had been erected by offerings from the Churches of the State. When we left the Church we could not suppress an exclamation of surprise at the size of the crowd outside. It filled the little church-yard and thronged the road. One man had climbed a locust tree, and in the barn-loft opposite was the ubiquitous amateur photo- grapher. Dr Wilmarth led in prayer. The Rev. W. V. Wilson made the address. Bro. Wilson could be heard far beyond the vast throng. But did he not forget to draw the line when stating that Morgan should take rank with Luther, Calvin and Knox, and with Bunyan and Paul ?
It was quite dark when we sat down to supper. Outside the hotel the throng, waiting patiently in the darkness and cold, began to sing. Probably the horizon of many was bounded by the supper table, but we heard the swelling chorus, " In the sweet by-and-by."
Eve) ling Session.
The Church was early filled. After the devotional exercises, Dr. Baches resumed. The history of the anti-mission controversy was given. He outlined the career of the State Convention and of the Bducation Society, which he said is a society for changing mone}- into men.
" Historical Incidents ' ' and ' ' Happy Reminiscences ' ' was the next order of the evening. Rev. D. J. Yerkes, D.D., was the first speaker. Churches are born from above, hence their obligations are great. Our obligations are increased because of the men who have labored here. ' ' Here preached the Rev. Thomas Roberts, that dear, loving man whom I knew in my childhood." We have had a galaxy of the faithful in this State, Father Webb, Zelotes Grenell, Henr}^ C. Fish, H. F. Smith and others. Through these men conies the true apostolic succession.
Mr. Thomas Roberts was introduced. He is the son of that Pastor to whom Dr. Yerkes referred, and is now in his eighty-second j-ear. "Six- ty-two years ago Churches were somewhat opposed to Missions and Sunday-schools ; father preached the truth, and in a little over a year's
97
time established a school. Sixty-two years ago throughout this portion of the State every one invited their visitors to take whiskey ; it was pro- vided at funerals and weddings. Father preached a sermon and at the close the temperance pledge was signed by sixty-nine persons. Before this time people carried their little jugs openly, but now, when they went by our house they were forced to conceal their jugs in a red handker- chief" Several in the audience laughed. The dear old man looked at them with wonder. What did they mean ? The political allusion began to dawn upon him, and the house roared.
Rev. Kelsey Walling followed. He was licensed by this Church to preach the gospel. Among other things, he remembered that during a revival a brother in this Church publicly sought reconciliation with his neighbor. The neighbor was led to Christ by this example, and the influence was widespread.
Revs. Wm. D. Hires, T. S. Griffith and W. W. Case had served as Pas- tors the " Twin-Sister" Church of Holmdel, the last mentioned still con- tinuing in that relation. They each made ten-minute speeches. Bro. Griffiths told of a woman and her son who walked twentj'-four miles to hear the gospel ; her son was converted that day while witnessing the ordinance of baptism.
Bro. Baches was called by the President, but he gave his time to Rev. J. M. Carpenter, another of our venerable men. He knew two preachers of the State of whom a business man said to Bro. Carpenter: "I am ready to give unlimited credit to any man who has been under the train- ing of either." Brethren Knowlton, Dexter, Manning, Boyes and Wil- son are Pastors of the respective Churches which were organized by mem- bers who went out from "Old IMiddletown." Of course the committee had invited these brethren to speak, and inasmuch as the IMiddletown Church had employed a stenographer to report what the}' might sa}- for publication in the memorial volume which the Church will publish, they had to speak, though the audience was silently crying for mercy. It was twenty minutes to eleven o'clock when the benediction was pronounced.
The State Convention.
October 31.— The State Convention began its regular session on Wednesday morning, but not on time. Six people in the house when the hour came for opening the services. No one could complain, as many delegates who were cared for by hosts living miles away did not retire
98
before midnight. How could they return by nine o'clock the next morning ?
After Psalm 92 was read and prayer offered, the report of the Committee on Foreign Missions was, in the absence of Rev. S. C. Dare, read by the Secretary. Brethren F. A. Slater reported on Home Missions, A. R. Dilts on Bible Work, and M. V. McDuffie on the Publication Society. The Rev. W. W. Case presented the report of the Committee on State Work. He reported a substantial progress in all work, and an increase of at least |i,ooo in contributions. The number of baptisms for the whole State had not been figured up when the report was read.
The Secretary, Rev. J. C. Buchanan read the report of the Executive Board. This stated that twentN'-nine Churches had received aid from the Convention during the year, and 120 persons had been baptized by the Missionary Pastors. The financial condition had improved. The Board received a legac}^ of $500 in cash, and a mortgage of $2,000 ; the Board deemed it wise to keep the mortgage as an investment, hoping in time to receive other funds, the interest of which would be sufiicient to sustain a State Missionary. The contributions in cash were $5,826.90 ; disburse- ments, $5,412.21 ; cash on hand, $414.69.
The time appointed for the annual sermon had passed by just one hour. In thirt}' minutes we would have to adjourn. Rev. G. E. Horr sug- gested that he could read the report of the Committee on Temperance at this juncture, and thus provide time for the sermon in the afternoon. This was very courteous of Bro. Horr. He also was appointed to preach in the afternoon and the audience would sureh' be wearied before he began.
Mr. Samuel Colgate spoke on the importance of taking care of our Church documents. He urged that the history of the past two hun- dred years proved the need of the effort he was now making in this direc- tion. His address made a great impression. Fewer Church minutes will be used for lighting fires.
The Committee on Temperance presented the report. A little breeze was expected, and we escaped it by a very narrow margin. The adjourn- ment, however, gave the opportunity for prolonged discussions outside.
Afternoon Session.
Bro. C. li. Jones led in praj'er. The Committee on Place and Preacher reported that we meet in Salem, and that J. T. Dicken.son preach the sermon. A discussion followed on the relation of our denominational
99
societies to our Convention. A committee appointed to consider this matter had recommended that each of our three societies have fifteen minutes in which to present their appeal ; a substitute was offered doing away with the reports. In the midst of the discussion the order of the da}' was called. After singing and pra3-er the annual sermon was preached by the Rev. H. C. Applegarth, from Acts i: i— "The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, until the daj^ in which he was taken up."
The work of Christ continues ; the worker is the same, the method is changed. He works now through the Church. This fact determines —
I. The function of the Church . («) To body Christ forth to view. (<&) To witness for Christ, if) To be the medium for the manifestation of His glory. " In a word, the Church is to continue with persistent effort and increasing fervor, simply to preach and teach Jesus the Christ."
II. The obligations involved, (a) Loyalty to Christ, (d) Debtorship to the world, by reason of what she has received for the world, (r) Spirit- uality, (d) Humility.
III. The inspiration of the Church, (a) The Lordship of Christ, {b) Relationship to Christ, {c) The memories of the dead.
Is it necessary to say that the sermon was a masterly one ? What the Convention thought of it was indicated by the fact that when the President put the motion requesting the sermon for publication in the Minutes, there came back from the house the heartiest "aye" that this assembly has heard.
The Treasurer, Asa Suydam, read his report. It was voted to accept it. Some minor business was transacted, and then Brother George E. Horr preached the annual sermon before the Educational Society. The text was Jer. 12 : 5. "If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses.? And if in the land of peace, wherein thou tru.stedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan ? " Theme : Lesser difficulties a prepa- ration for greater. Society is not favorable to the gospel. Greater trials will come upon the Church. The ministry must be prepared for these trials. What shall our preparation be .? The highest possible culture is demanded, the best of discipline is needed. Above all, absolute depend- ence on the Holy Spirit. Brother Horr spoke as a prophet. There was a deep experience and a ring of conviction in all he said. It was a pity all the people did not wait to hear this excellent discourse.
lOO
The State Convention resumed its session. Brother Griffiths led in prayer on behalf of Rev. Isaac C. Wj-nn, D.D., who for months past has been dangerousl}- ill.
The resolution to give fifteen minutes only to our denominational societies was finally passed.
It was voted that hereafter a space of time not exceeding two hours should be given to our Missionary Pastors in which to present the tidings from their fields.
Wednesday Evening Sessioyi.
Some of the best wine has been saved for the last of the feast. The very bones of Brother J. T. Dickenson's skeletons are almost as good as the life which he knows so well how to put on them. Is there not genius displayed in this plan of his ?
"A four- fold vision for a many-fold success."
1. A vision of New Jersey as related to other States.
2. A vision of Baptists as related to other denominations.
3. A vision of strong Churches as related to the weak.
4. A vision of Christ as related to all Christian work.
Rev. Wm. Rollinson, D.D., speaks on "Some Teachings of the Past." The past is the great teacher, its problems are solved, i. The might of moral courage. 2. The invincible pause of truth. 3. The strength of the Church lies in its acceptance of truth, in its developments both social and spiritual.
The obituary report of Dr. W. H. Parmly closes the Convention.
\V. F. T.
lOI
THE BAPTIST ANNIVERSARIES.
Two Hundredth Birthday of the Baptist Church oe Middle- town, N. J.
[From the Matawan Journal, Matawan, N. J., November 3d, 1888.]
Tuesday and Wednesday, October 30th and 31st, were wonderful days in the annals of the old Revolutionary village of Middletown. Long years before the Colonies thought of asserting and fighting for their independ- ence from the yoke of Britain, a little hamlet sprung into existence in the rich heart of our county, and* our ancestors called it Middletown. And in this little village, not grown much larger even now, though recently inspired with a new life, there was built two hundred years ago a Baptist Church. Before the organization of this society, however, there was Baptist preaching in a dwelling at or near Holmdel, and he field of original work of the Pastor at Middletown embraced the area from north and east of Middletown to Holradel, of about twenty miles diameter.
It was therefore fitting that the Baptists of New Jersey should hold their anniversaries this year with this old ante-Revolutionary Church, the original building which stood on the site of the present one having been a witness to the line of advance or retreat of the armies that made us a nation by defeat of the one and triumph of the other.
IMPROVEMENTS.
As preparatory to the Bi-Centennial, under the inspiration of the new Pastor, Rev. E. E. Jones, marked improvements have been made to the edifice and its surroundings. An additional piece of land has been pur- chased at the west side of the Church, and on the rear of this new lot have been erected sheds for the accommodation of twenty-four teams, so that the farmers who drive in for service will no longer have to expose their animals to inclemency and cold. A baptistery has been added to the rear of the Church, the walls and inside wood-work have been painted, and other changes made. And yet the exterior enclosure remains of shingles, and the modern and antique commingle in attractive harmony.
EXPRESSIVE EMBLEMS.
The handiwork of art had united with the products of nature to give added attraction to the interior of the Church for this Bi-Centennial occa-
T02
sion. Down the wide coltimns that fronted each side of the recess where the pulpit stands were the typical figures that mark the two centuries of the Church's existence. The figures "1688" were made with the har- mony of vari-tinted sere leaves of autumn down the left-hand column, while down the right-hand column the figures "1888" were worked in evergreen. On each side of the pulpit stood two large and handsome century plants, telling of the two centuries of Church life, while yellow chrysanthemums were formed in bouquets, and the ivy vine trailed from each of the two pots that held the century- plants.
Tjiesday Morning.
The first session was the anniversary of the Education Society, and was opened at 9:30 with devotional services, conducted b}- Rev. W. H. Parmly, of Jersey City, President of the Society.
At ten o'clock the session opened for general business, reports from officers, etc., after which Rev. R. F. Y. Pierce, of Mount Holly, made an address on "How are we to secure the right material for an effective min- istrj^?" Rev. Addison Parker, of Morristown, followed with a ver}' forci- ble address on "How are we most effectively to help them?"
After brief but excellent addresses by Dr. John Greene and Dr. H. K. Trask, the morning session closed.
During the rece.ss, the delegates and friends were entertained with a bountiful and excellent collation, provided by the ladies of JNIiddletown and vicinity, and spread in the temperance hotel near the Church.
Memorial Services. Afternoon. The session was opened at 2:30 with a service of song, conducted by Mr. II. Gulick, of Brooklyn, who had charge of all the singing of the day. vSelections of Scripture were then read bj- Rev. J. K. Manning, of Red Bank, and prayer was offered for the prosperity of the Church and of Christianity in general. The choir and congregation then sang the hymn —
Lord, we come before Thee now,
At Thy feet we humbly bow ; O, do not our suit disdain ;
Shall we seek Thee, Lord, in vain ?
I03
Rev. E. E. Jones, of the local Church, Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements, reported the programme for the da}-, and followed it by a most genial and happy address of welcome, referring to the occasion that brought them together on that soil made sacred b\' the religious memories of two hundred years.
Mr. F. W. Ayer, of Camden, President of the Convention, then delivered his annual address. He took a retrospect of the fifty-nine years since the Convention was organized, and the great work that had been done, and charged upon those present that upon them rested part of the responsi- bility for what the Church shall be a hundred 5'ears to come. He urged faithful work in all departments of the Church, whether the societj'^ have a Pastor or have none ; the individual obligation is the same.
The following Bi-Centennial Hymn was then sung, written for the occa- sion by Rev. Dr. Robert Lowry, to the tune Uxbridge :
O Lord, Tliou art our living head ;
What precious grace our life has crowned ! We seek Thy courts with reverent tread,
And stand as if on holy ground.
Two hundred years! O, who can tell
The battles fought, the victories won ? Though men who bore the standard fell,
They passed it on from sire to son.
Our feet are where tlie fathers trod,
Our lips recount their deeds of love ; As ihey were true to Truth and Gotl,
So we will follow them above.
All blessed and triumphant they
Who dropped the sword for palm and crown ;
The godly cease : but we to-day
Take up the work which they laid down.
Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place
In all the generations gone; Ujihold us, till we see Thy face
When breaks on earth the heavenly dawn.
I04
A historical sketch of the Middletown Baptist Church was then read by Rev. W. H. Parmly, of Jersey City. It was ver}- interesting, and the facts that had come under the personal knowledge of the venerable Doctor, who in early life was a member of the Church, made it increasinglj' so. He took up the several pastorates from about 1712, and spoke of the records of pastoral work as found in the old Church-book, dwelling at some length upon the great work of Rev. Abel Morgan, who was the Pastor from 1738 to 1785.
After his paper, Rev. Dr. Sj^mmes, late Moderator of the Synod of New Jersey (Presbyterian), was called upon to offer prayer, after which the following Commemoration Anthem, also composed b}^ Rev. Dr. Lowry, was sung by the choir :
For thou, O God, has heard my vows:
Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear Thy name.
Thou wilt prolong the king's life ; and his years as many generations.
He shall abide before God forever:
O prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him.
So will I sing praise unto Thy name forever.
Mr. Horatio Gates Jones, of Philadelphia, a relative of the late Abel Morgan, and who had brought with him an oil portrait of the former Pas- tor, was then introduced and spoke of the work of his ancestral rela- tive, and his great joy at the privilege of being present at this memorial service.
After singing the hymn commencing —
" Kindred in Christ, for His dear sake, A hearty welcome here receive ; May we together now partake
The joys which only He can give," —
Rev. O. P. Baches, of Hightstown, began the reading of a very interest- ing paper on "Two Hundred Years of New Jersey Baptist History," but the lateness of the hour encroaching on the time for the unveiling of the monument to Rev. Abel Morgan, compelled him to leave most of his paper for the evening session.
The audience then retired from the Church to the yard, where Rev. Wm. V. Wilson, of New Monmouth, read a biographical sketch of Rev. Abel Morgan, whose remains had been taken from an adjacent graveyard and
I05
buried on the east side of the Baptist Church, and a handsome granite monument erected to his memory bj' contributions from 200 Baptist Churches in New Jersey. It was a really remarkable fact that, though he has been dead one hundred and three years, when the grave was opened a few weeks ago there lay the perfect skeleton of the deceased Pastor, though the coffin, clothing and flesh were gone. The inscription on the monument reads :
In Memory of Abel Morgan,
Pastor of the Baptist Church of Middletown,
Who departed this life Nov. 24, 1785,
IN THE 73D YEAR OF HIS AGE.
His Life was Blameless —
His Ministry Powerful —
He was a Burning and Shining Light —
His Memory Dear to the Saints.
At the conclusion of the biography the song "America " was sung, the monument unveiled, and the afternoon's service clo.sed with the doxology and benediction.
Evening.
After a collation many of the delegates from a distance returned to their homes, but those who remained and tho.se from the village and country crowded the Church in the evening. After a service of song Rev. Mr. Eaches finished reading his ver^^ interesting and historically valuable paper.
The rest of the evening was chiefly occupied in addresses by former Pastors, or Pastors of Churches that have grown out of the Middletown Baptist Church. Among others, the venerable Thomas Roberts, of New Monmouth, whose father was many years Pastor at Middletown, spoke in brief and feeble, yet excellent words, of his early recollections, espec- ially of the temperance work in the days when a man's whiskey jug was called " Black Betty," and when men drove all the way from a distillery in Newark j^eddling liquors. 8
io6
The service closed with the h3'mn, "God be with 3^011 till we meet again."
Wed7tesday.
The morning session was chief!}' occupied with reports from the several Committees, on Missions, etc.
Rev. F. A. Slater, of Matawan, Chairman of the Committee on Home Missions, made the following report :
"The work of Home ^lissions, wisely and efifectuallN- performed, means North America for Christ ; and North America for Christ means the open- ing of a great living fountain, to which not onl^- the nations of the earth may come and be healed, but also from whence shall issue streams of the water of life to every people on the face of the earth.
" God has placed us just where the great migrating streams of humanitj' converge. Looking toward the east, we see the Papal lands pouring across the Atlantic into our great valle3^s ; and looking toward the west. Pagan people are coming to us from the Pacific.
" No other country, sa3's a recent writer, which represents republican liberty and religious Protestantism, is accessible from all sides or offers space to accommodate immigrants. We have a continent capable of hold- ing more than twice the present population of the globe. We lie between Europe and Africa on the one hand, and Asia on the other. This area, that is also an arena of civilization and Christianization, is ours, and the nations are looking down on us as from the corridors of some vast, world- wide Colosseum.
"God meant that emigration should drift to our shores from both sicjes, and the streams of humanit3^ from every nation under heaven, are pour- ing into our land like floods, aggregating half a million annually. They are filling our valle3'S and covering our hill-sides.
"To evangelize these vast numbers and prepare them for Christian citi- zenship, is the work of Home Missions, to a ver3^ great extent. Let us look at what the society is doing. And for information we look chiefly to the admirable and comprehensive report presented at the Washington meeting in May last.
"' Matters of special note,' sa3's Secretar}- Morehouse, 'are the com- pletion and occupancy of the INIission headquarters in the city of Mexico, the enlargement of our work in that Republic ; the completion, at an expense of more than $20,000, and occupancj' of the Chinese Mission
loy
headquarters in San Francisco ; the securing of a larger amount than usual for Church Edifice work ; the appointment of an additional Super- intendent of Missions for a new Western district ; the appointment of a District Secretary for the Southern States ; the beginning of Mission Work among the Poles and the Bohemians of this country', and the adop- tion of a new School for the Indian Territory. A number of Churches have become self-supporting, thereby enabling the Society to take up new fields in the West. In general, the year has been characterized b}- efiicient service and prosperity.
" ' The Society's operations have been conducted during the past year in 45 States and Territories ; also, in Ontario, INIanitoba, British Columbia, Alaska, and three States of the Mexican Republic. The whole number of laborers, supported wholly or in part, has been 743 ; being 65 more than last 5-ear.
" ' Among the foreign population there have been 161 laborers ; among the colored people, the Indians and Mexicans, including teachers, 217, and among the Americans, 355. Sixty new stations have been taken up the past year. Two of these are among the Indians, one among the Chinese, two among the colored people, nine among the foreign population, two among the Mexicans, and the rest among our own people.' "
" The report further cries aloud : ' The great stress on Home Missions is undiminished. Indeed, it may be said to be greater now than during the two or three preceding 5'ears.*
" In view of all these things, and a great deal more that might be said, we are to-daj' confronted with such Home ^Mission problems as are pre- sented to the Christian Church in no other land.
" And now, what are we Bapti.sts of New Jersej' going to do about it ? Are we willing, as true men and women of God, to stand in our lot and place, and undertake faithfully to perform our part of the great work which the Master makes ready to our hand, or ignobly refuse, and allow others to do it, and rejoice in the Divine approval, of 'Well done, good and faithful servant, inasmuch as ye have done it unto these, ye have done it unto me ; enter ye into the J03' of your Lord. ' "
The chief subject in the afternoon of general interest was the annual sermon before the Education Societj', by Rev. G. E. Horr.
In the evening, addresses were made b}' Rev. Wm. Rollinson and Rev. James T. Dickinson.
io8
Baptist Convention Notes.
There were about 1,500 persons present at the memorial services on Tuesda}' afternoon.
The present Church edifice was built on the site of the old Revolution- ary Church in 1832.
Among the relics exhibited of the late Rev. Abel Morgan were his quaint old spectacles, and the sun-glass through which he would con- verge the sun's rays to kindle his lint for starting the fire, before the good days of friction matches.
Rev. Abel Morgan lived between Middletown and Red Bank. He was never married, but supported his widowed mother, who kept house for him, and the old chair in which he sat in his study was exhibited at the Church.
One of the Baptist preachers, over 100 years ago, of this Baptist Society, was Rev. John Bray, a far-off relative of the editor of the Maiaiva7i Journal.
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