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THE ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY

OP THR

SECOND PRESBYTERIAN

CHURCH

OF

CHARLESTON, S. C

Smyth Collec-Hon

LIBRARY

PRESBYTERIAN COLLEGE OF SOUTH CAROLINA

Se. S o-7^B

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Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2010 with funding from

Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation

http://www.archive.org/details/exercisesconneOOseco

THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH,

Founded 1809.

Photograph by Lanneau, Charleston, 1909.

I 809 I 909

EXERCISES

CONNECTED WITH

THE ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY

OF THE

SECOND PRESBYTERIAN

CHURCH

OF

CHARLESTON, S C.

THE DAQQETT PRTQ 00. OMASN. • C.

1910.

The Course of Exercises in Celebration

of the

Centennial Anniversary

of the

Founding of The Second Presbyterian Church*

P-

DURING the week beginning Sunday, May 2nd, in the year of Our Lord, 1909, the Congregation of the Sec- ond Presbyterian Church, of Charleston, South Car- olina, directed by its pastor, the Rev. John Keir Geddie Fraser, D. D., celebrated the One Hundredth Anniversary of the founding of that church.

These services of celebration began on Sunday, continuing through the week, and embraced in their course every depart- ment of the Church.

SUNDAY.

The opening service, on Sunday, May 2nd, at 11 A. M., was conducted by the pastor, the Rev. Dr. Fraser, to the introduc- tion of the speaker, the Rev. Dr. J. Thompson Plunkett, of the First Presbyterian Church, of Augusta, Georgia, a nephew of Dr. Thomas Smyth, former pastor of the Second Church, who delivered the Centennial Sermon. Dr. Plunkett dwelt with uncommon eloquence upon the essentially religious and spiritual character of the Presbyterian Church, its ancient organized system, and the distinctive tenets of Presbyterian- ism.

At 4 o'clock, in the afternoon, the scholars of the Sunday School, gathering in the adjacent school building, marched thence to the Church, where at 4:30 P. M., the Sunday School celebration was held. The especial features of the service were an Historical Sketch of the School, prepared by Mr. Richard W. Hutson, and an historical address, on Sunday Schools Past and Present, by Mr. Francis Fleetwood Whilden,

of Columbia. South Carolina, formerly a member of the Second Congregation, and for years efficient superintendent of the Sunday School.

At 8:30 o'clock, in the evening, a service of uncommon in- terest followed, the Historical Record of the Church being then considered in a paper compiled and delivered by the Hon. J. Adger Smyth, Leading Elder of the Church, and for over twenty years President of its Business Corporation.

On this day, May 2nd, there were no services at Westminster Presbyterian Church, that congregation having accepted the invitation of the Second Church* to join in their centennial services for the day. At the First, (or Scotch), Presbyterian Church, the senior congregation of the City, at 11, in the morn- ing, services were conducted by the Pastor, Dr. Alexander Sprunt, with celebration of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. In the evening regular service was omitted that the congrega- tion of the First Church might unite with the Second.

MONDAY.

On Monday evening, May 3rd, the Educational Work of the Church was emphasized, and the congregation were thanked explicitly by the official representative of the Southern Pres- byterian Church for their efficiency in this branch of church endeavor. The distinguishing features of the services were the address by Rev. H. H. Sweets, Secretary of the Churoh Board of Ministerial Education, and a review of the work done by the Ladies' Education Society of the Southern Presby- terian Church, prepared by Miss Sarah Ann Smyth, and read by Mr. Horatio Hughes, Jr.

TUESDAY.

Tuesday, May 4th, the services continued, considering the Missionary Activities of the Church. A very carefully compiled paper, by Mrs. Mary McD. Stickney, on the Missionary Work of the Second Presbyterian Church, was read by Mr. L. Cheves McCord Smythe. The Rev. J. 0. Reavis, D. D., Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Southern Presbyterian Church, made, also, one of the most inspiring addresses ever heard in a Charleston house of worship, discussing the world- field of the Southern Presbyterian Church. Dr. Reavis brought

First Pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church

of Charleston, S. C.

1809-1820.

From a Lithograph Portrait, published by W. Kennan, (date unknown), after the Original Painting by Thomas Sully, 1812.

to the congregation expressions of good will from the Execu- tive Committee of Foreign Missions.

WEDNESDAY.

On Wednesday night, May 5th, the congregation met as a social body in a reception at the Manse, in Pitt Street, and were received by the pastor, his wife, the elders and their wives, and several committees of reception, the Hon. J. Adger Smyth, J. N. Robson, W. S. Allan, Robt. E. Seabrook, John Robson, Edwin F. Miscally, Horatio Hughes; Mrs. Adger Smyth, Miss Sarah M. Robson, Mrs. W. S. Allan, Mrs. R. E. Seabrook, Mrs. John Robson, Mrs. E. F. Miscally, Mrs. Horatio Hughes, Mrs. R. W. Hutson, Miss S. A. Smyth, and the young ladies' com- mittee on reception, Misses Margaret Moffett, Martha E. Knox, Mary Brailsford, Cecile Edgerton, Amey Allan, Hattie McGee, Jane Prince, Fanny McNeill. J. Adger Smyth, Esq., acted as Master of Ceremonies; Mrs. R. W. Hutson as chairman of the refreshment committee.

The evening's particular ceremony was most picturesque, and unique in church annals: the lighting of memorial candles upon a large and singular cake: two broad layers superposed; upon the upper layer a model of the Second Presbyterian Church, in careful architectural detail, prepared by baker and confectioner; around this model circled seven candles memo- rial to the Church's Seven Pastors; and below, again encircling the church and the pastoral tapers, one hundred wax-candles, to represent the century of the Church's life. The candles representative of the Seven Pastors were in every case, where possible, lighted by the hand of a direct or collateral descendant of the pastor thus memorialized, or by some descendant of a contemporary church official or elder; thus Rev. Andrew Flinn was represented by Miss Susan Smyth Flinn, of Columbia, S. C, a great-grand niece; Rev. Dr. Boies by Miss Susan McGee, honorary; Dr. T. Charlton Henry by Miss Elizabeth Adger, honorary; Rev. Dr. Ashmead by his great-grand-daughter, Miss Margie Pringle; Rev. Dr. Thomas Smyth by Miss S. A. Smyth, his daughter; Dr. Gilbert A. Brackett by his daughter

Note: The original portrait by Thomas Sully, from which the lithograph by Kennan was made, is now in possession and care of John A. Dickson, Esq., of Morganton, N. C. ; it is the property of Mr. Andrew Flinn Dickson, Jr., a great- grand-son of Dr. Flinn.

Mrs Gertrude Brackett Fitzgerald, of Somerset County, Mary- land; Rev. Dr. J. K. G. Fraser, the pastor, by Mrs. Isabel C. Fraser, his wife. The one hundred candles, representing the years of the Church's activity, were lighted by young girls of the congregation: Misses Marian Miller, Lida King, Jessie Bolger, Bessie Meggett, Gertrude Frampton, Annie Frampton, Dora Howe, Hattie McGee, Cecile Edgerton, Elsie Warren, and Miss Annie W. McDermid. Pieces of this memorial cake were packed and forwarded to every member of the congregation who, by absence from Charleston, or otherwise, were unable to be present, either within the State, or beyond it.

Also in attendance were Rev. Dr. Alexander Sprunt, of the First, (Scotch), Presbyterian Church; Mr. Paul Langley, of Hal- ifax, Nova Scotia; Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Pringle; Mr. and Mrs. George W. Williams; Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Dillingham; Mrs. Richard H. Allan; Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Hanahan, Mr. John Faber.

THURSDAY.

Thursday evening, May 6th, the Business Corporation of the Church assumed its part of the celebration. The News and Courier of that date says : ' ' The Second Presbyterian Church has been a force for good and for morality in the community dur- ing the century of her life. It was deemed fitting that oppor- tunity should be given to all classes of people in the City to express their appreciation of her influence and of what she has done. ' ' To this end representatives of all forms of relig- ious belief were invited to speak to the Congregation; and a cordial invitation to attend was officially extended to all church-going citizens of the community, irrespective of creed. The Hon. J. Adger Smyth, President of the Business Corpora- tion of the Church, presided, introducing the speakers. The principal address of the evening was that of the venerable and venerated Dr. Charles S. Vedder, D. D., of the French Protes- tant, (Huguenot), Church of Charleston. On the part of other religious organizations of the community addresses were made by:

Rev. Alexander Sprunt, D. D., of the Scotch Church, representing the Presbyterian congregations of the City.

The Right Rev. W. A. Guerry, D. D., of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

Rev. M. G. G. Scherer, D. D., of St. Andrews' Lutheran Church, Wentworth Street.

Rev. Howard L. Jones, D. D., of the Citadel Square Baptist Church.

The Rev. Peter Stokes, of Trinity Methodist Episcopal

Church.

The Rev. G. S. Butler, of the Congregational, (Circular),

Church.

The Rev. Barnett Abraham Elzas, of Hasell Street Syna- gogue, representing the Jewish congregations of Charleston.

The Rev. C. M. Gray, of the Unitarian Church.

Dr. Vedder's reminiscent, feeling, and informal talk, filled with earnest emotion, deeply touched all auditors, and, in his account of a life-long friendship with Dr. Gilbert Brackett, there were few dry eyes in the Second Church congregation, — class-mates in young manhood, at Columbia, S. C, Seminary, as those two truly holy men had been, and of friendship con- tinuous and unbroken for forty-nine years.

Bishop Guerry, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, made an eloquent appeal for closer church relationship. Then followed in succession, the leaders of the various churches of the City; Lutheran, Jewish, Congregational, Methodist, Unitarian, Bap- tist and Presbyterian succeeding each the other, and extending the right hand of God-fearing fellowship to the Congregation. A letter from the Right Rev. Bishop Northrop, Cathedral of St. John, Charleston, regretting his unavoidable, necessary absence in New York City, was read at close of this unusual communion of creeds.

The News and Courier, of Friday, the 7th of May, said, con- cerning this service: "The exercises at the Second Presbyterian Church, last night, were of a character that cannot well be de- scribed. Possibly never in the history of the City has there been such a gathering of varied religious beliefs on a common ground. All churches of the City were represented, and united in their good wishes to the Congregation as they start on their New Century of Life. " " It is impossible to give a detailed account of the proceedings, or even to attempt to quote from the ad- dresses of the different ministers. All who were present felt that they were indeed on hallowed ground, and that the occa- sion truly marked a step forward to the better understanding of the different forms of faith, and their mutual co-operation."

8

FRIDAY.

Friday night, May 7th, at 8:30 o'clock, the Congregation assembled for services preparatory to the celebration of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper on Sunday morning, May 9th. The preparatory sermon was by the Rev. Wm. P. Jacobs, of Thornwell Orphanage, a former member of the Church Congre- gation and scholar in her Sunday School.

THE MUSIC.

At the close of the Centennial Week's exercises especial thanks were given Miss Virginia Tupper, organist of the Church, for the high standard of the music rendered, and to those of the regular church choir who faithfully shared in its effective pro- duction: Mrs. J. B. Lanneau, Mrs. Hampton Smith, Mrs. H. Shackelford, Mrs. W. L. Millar, Miss Janie Prince, Miss Louise Prince, Mrs. Twietmann, Mrs. John Bennett, Messrs. Benj. Aldret, W. Lawrence Millar, L. Cheves McC. S my the; and Mr. W. L. Lucas, assisting; as well as, also, to Mrs. C. B. Huiet, Mrs. Robt. Seabrook, Miss Katherine Moreland, Miss Whitney, and Mr. John Matthew, soloists, for their heartily appreciated assistance.

The hymns lor the opening service were selected by Dr. Plunkett with especial fitness to his topic; those for the other services were chosen with equal appropriateness by the Pastor, Dr. Fraser. The music for the Sunday School celebration was selected by the superintendant, T. Allan Legare, in conference with Miss Sarah R. Smyth.

THE CLOSE.

The Annual picnic of the Church Congregation and Sunday School was made part of the Centennial celebration, and took place, the following Saturday, May 15th, at Ingleside, those attending — 'twas a great number — being conveyed to and from the picnic-ground by special trains.

The celebration was brought to a fitting close on Sunday, May 16th, in a "post-centennial sermon" by Dr. Fraser. This service was of unusual significance as marking the close of exercises in celebration of one hundred years of a Church's religious course. In the previous services the congregation were asked to look backward over the pages of their past his-

tory; at this service the pastor exhorted them spiritedly to face the future, earnestly considering what lay before them in a New Century of Spiritual Activity and Life.

To this service, as to all services, all strangers in the City and members of other religious organizations were cordially invited and made welcome.

On the closing service the News & Courier of Saturday, May 15th, commented thus: "Since Dr. Fraser has had charge of this church he has won his way to the front rank of the preachers of the City. His sermons are always of the most thoughtful type, and he will doubtless now give his people fresh encouragement as they take up their work again for a New Century. ' '

THE COMMITTEES IN CHARGE.

The more than common felicity which characterized the several various exercises of the centenary week, is, for the great part, to be credited to the several Committees in charge, who had spent a year in perfecting their plans.

The personnel of these several Committees was as follows:

Men's Executive, No. I: — R. W. Hutson, R. M. Masters,

T. A. Legare, A. G. C. McDermid, W. W. Clement, W.

McL. Frampton, H. C. Robertson, Chas. P. McGee. Woman's Executive, No. II: — Miss Sarah Ann Smyth, Mrs.

Mary McD. Stickney, Mrs. J. G. Morris, Miss Amey N.

Allan, Miss Jessie Butler. Advisory Committee, No. Ill: — J. Adger Smyth, Augustine

T. Smythe, J. N. Robson, R, E. Seabrook, Geo. H. Mof-

fett. Horatio C. Holies, is^

The several members of the Congregation assigned the prep- aration of historical addresses shunned no labor, and the in- teresting facts established by their patient research are es- teemed to be of great value for reference and information in the future.

The general membership of the Congregation had done its utmost in preliminary, and laid its heart most cordially to the conducting work: the exercises thus were the result of a united Church's wisely and moderately directed activity.

It has been deemed expedient herewith to reproduce in full

10

all the historical papers prepared for this centennial occasion, and the addresses which in their material complete the fuller import and broader significance of the occasion, namely: Dr. J. T. Plunkett's Centennial Sermon; the Hon. J. Adger Smyth's historical sketch of the Church; Mr. R. W. Hutson's Sketch of the Sunday School; Mr. F. F. Whilden's historical address; Miss Smyth's review of the work of the Southern Presbyterian Ladies' Education Society; Mrs. Mary McD. Stickney's paper upon the Missionary Work of the Second Presbyterian Church and Dr. Fraser's Post-Centennial Sermon. Beyond these will be found enlisted, to complete the record of the Centennial year, the full official organization of the congregation, a statement of membership, and brief mention of minor, but noteworthy, because efficient, agencies in Church conduct: which, it is believed, completes the essential record of the occasion.

on.1

The Presbyterian Church*

Her History, Her Spirit, Her Teaching and Her

Characteristics,

Centennial Sermon by the Rev. J. Thompson Plunkett, D. D.,

of the First Presbyterian Church,

of Augusta, Georgia.

EXERCISES OF SUNDAY, MAY 2, 1909.

It is good to be here. It is good to stand on the splendid vantage ground of a hundred years of history, and, placing our eyes to the telescope of the Divine vision, look backward over the records of the century whose days have been but numbered. As we do so devoutly and earnestly, many wonder- ful things shall meet our view and our vision shall not be in vain if we are deeply moved to an abiding devotion to our risen Lord, and are stirred to greater activity in seeking to hasten the day of His glorious appearance.

The object of this gathering is to celebrate the centennial anniversary of this individual church, and I bring you con- gratulations upon your attainment of the venerable age of one hundred years, "while your bow still abides in strength." I congratulate you on having lived through the most important century since the beginning of the Christian era. The century which throbbed with the spirit of the years to come "yearn- ing to mix itself with life." The century just closed was crowded with records of inventions, discoveries and progress. One hundred years ago Eli Whitney was giving to the world his first cotton gin. Now myriads of improved mills ring with the hum of marvellous machinery and pulsating as if instinct with life. One hundred years ago Benjamin Franklin had but recently discovered electricity. Now that subtle agent lights our cities, delivers our messages at home and across the sea and turns the machinery of the world. One hundred years ago the United States was among the smallest nations of the earth, now it stands at the forefront, having eighty millions of population with an international influence reaching around the globe and able to dictate laws to the entire world.

12

It was a century of conflict between the forces of moral light and moral darkness. Its years were seared with violent out-breaks of forces natural and forces supernatural. In the early morning of that eventful century this communion was or- ganized and in all the changes of this one hundred years God has preserved this communion intact, and with assurances of His continued direction and blessing our hearts overflow with thankfulness, and we break forth into singing:

I love Thy Church, O God,

The house of Thine abode

The Church our blest Redeemer saved,

With His own precious blood.

We say from grateful hearts ' 'not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name be all the glory this day for Thy mercy and Thy truth's sake.' ' The recital of your record as a local Church is reserved for another and for a more skilful hand. My office is more general. In scanning the field for a fitting theme to introduce these centennial exercises, my mind's eye finally rested upon the Church herself. What more natural topic, what more timely subject for this hour's thought than The Presbyterian Church, Her History, Her Spirit, Her Teach- ing and Her Characteristics .

Presbyterian Church Government.

The word Presbyterian is descriptive of a form of church government. If I should attempt to state the distinctive principles of Presbyterian government in a single sentence I would say it is ecclesiastical republicanism. Republicanism is defined as being that form of government in which the exer- cise of Sovereign power is lodged in representatives chosen by the people. It is distinguished from monarchical govern- ment on the one hand and from democracy on the other. Re- publicanism, whether civil or ecclesiastical demands first, equality of condition. By which is meant, all men are equal by birth before the law of the Commonwealth. Second, that the laws are made by all the people acting through their repre- sentatives. Third, that none are elevated to any state in which they can legislate independently of their fellows. Fourth, that no hereditary rank is recognized. Without consuming time in amplifying these principles, let it be observed as distinguishing principles of Presbyterian government, 1st. That her govern- ment is by representatives chosen by the people in convoca-

13

tion assembled. 2nd. These representatives of the people, or presbyters or elders are of a single order, and are of equal authority in matters of rule. 3d. These presbyters or elders rule not singly, but in regularly constituted Courts. These Courts are four in number and are so graduated that ' 'all pro- ceedings of the lower Courts are subject to review by, and may be taken to a higher judicatory by general review and control, reference, complaint or appeal." Among this series of Courts the Session, constituted of the pastor and the presbyters or elders of the local church, is the lowest. To this Session is entrusted the spiritual government of the congregation. The Court of the Session is subordinated to a higher Court, called Presbytery, above the Presbytery again is the Synod, and above this again is the Supreme Court of the Church, called the General Assembly. Such, briefly, is the outline of the Presbyterian system of Church government; and in the princi- ples laid down it differs from all other forms of Church govern- ment and its Scripturalness has never been successfuly assailed.

Calvinism=Presbyterianism.

The Presbyterian system of doctrine, broadly stated, is Calvinism, and in this discussion I shall use the words Calvinism and Presbyterianism as synonymous, for in essentials the one is the other. Presbyterianism is essentially Calvinistic and Calvinism is essentially Presbyterian. As Presbyterians, we bear the name "Calvinist" proudly, not because John Calvin originated our doctrines, for we believe God is their author, but, because John Calvin, after Paul and Augustine, was their ablest expounder. The system of faith called Calvinism is not a statement of Calvin's belief alone. It was not born with Calvin, or even in Calvin's day. The links of the chain binding this system with the apostolic and pre- apostolic times are complete. In the valleys of Southern France, under the very shadows of the Italian Alps, we find the Waldenses. In history they claim descent from the apostolic age and decline to be called "Reformed" because, they say, "We have never been deformed." They claim as among their ancestors those Christians who fled from Rome during the persecutions of Nero, possibly some of the apostles themselves. Those intrepid freemen, those maintainers of the apostolic form, those martyrs for the truth, held the leading features of Presbyterian doctrine. Another witness through the dark ages for the scripturalness of Calvinism, is the Church of the Culdees in Scotland. Historians agree that the Scots were

14

taught Christianity by the disciples of the Apostle John. Their churches were called Culdee. The word being, most probably, a corruption of the Latin words "Culter Dei" — ' 'Worshippers of the true God. " Those Culdees are essentially Presbyterian. The same general system of faith was held by John Wickliffe, the "Morning Star of the Reformation," and also by John Huss and Jerome of Prague, his companions in faith and martyrdom. Of the great Reformers of the 16th century it is well known that Luther, Melancthon and Swingle were all distinctly Calvinistic in their teachings. Passing over to Great Britain we find Wishart, Cramer, Ridley, Latimer and Knox, and in short, all the Reformers of any name, both in North and South Britain, doctrinal Calvinists. Is it not re- markable that all the great and good men, who took the lead in the Reformation — men of different languages, habits and prej- udices; many of them absolute strangers to each other; men not merely in Geneva, but in Great Britian, France, Germany, Holland, Switzerland — all, with scarcely an exception, should become advocates in substance of that system which we de- nominate Calvinistic? The Presbyterian faith, which we hold, is no mushroom growth, no frail flower of a day, nor the ex- pression of a single mind cramped and prejudiced by existing conditions, but, like the gnarled olive tree of Palestine, its history has marked the centuries. It has seen human govern- ments rise, play their parts and pass away. "It is older than Grecian philosophy ; it saw the rise of the Roman Empire seven hundred and fifty years before Christ; it antedates Egyptian civilization, it reaches backward to the times of the Patriarchs, having its origin in the twilight of history."

It has borne the praise and blame of men and it has worn the martyr's wreath. From this recital it is seen that the Presby- terian Church is not the only ecclesiastical body that holds the Calvinistic system. None, however, will deny that friends and foes alike award to the Presbyterian Church, as its wreath of thorns or its diadem of glory, the distinction of being the world's leading representative of the creed of Calvinism. In this coronation we rejoice and we would gladly attribute it to the purity in which we hold the "faith once delivered to the saints," and the unflinching fidelity with which in every age we have been ready to champion and die for it.

The Westminster Epitome.

The doctrinal formularies of the Presbyterian Church are known as the Westminster Standards because the famous body

15

of divines that formulated them held their sessions in grand old Westminster Abbey. Their labors were accepted after deliberations that lasted over five years, during which time over twelve hundred sessions were held. They met in 1643 at a period in the world's history when the human intellect seems to have reached the zenith of its power. The era of the West- minster Assembly was the era of William Shakespear, of the translation of the English Bible, the era of Francis Bacon. It was a representative body called by the English Parliament, and was made up of one hundred and twenty-one divines, eleven lords, twenty commoners, from all the counties of Eng- land and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, with seven commissioners from Scotland. It was an elect Assembly, nor were they scholars and theologians alone. Among them were thinkers of various type, orators, statesmen, hymnists, saints, men in every way qualified to embody in symbols and institutions, the intense life of that marvellous spiritual revolu- tion which we call the Reformation. The doctrinal standards of the Church are the Westminister Shorter Catechism, the Westminster Larger Catechism and the Westminster Confession of Faith. They are not three creeds, they are but three state- ments varying in form and fulness and purpose of one and the same creed. Each is a complete epitome of the Presbyterian or Calvinistic system.

This historic faith marks two fundamental postulates, God, a triune spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth; man, the creature made in the image of God, but fallen from his original state of innocence and blessedness into an estate of sin and misery. Corrupted by sin throughout his entire nature, ex- posed to the penalty of God's retributive justice and utterly and forever unable of himself to merit God 's favor or forgive- ness. Correlated with these, indeed, flowing naturally out of them, is God's gracious scheme of atonement and redemption, determined on in the Divine mind from all eternity, and de- veloped in the fullness of time by the sending forth of the Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a mediator between God and man, who moved by infinite love and compassion, took the place of those whom the Father had given Him and satisfied in His own person all the demands of the Divine justice against them. These, it holds, havingbeen from all eternity predestined unto everlasting life are called out of the world, regenerated by God's spirit, justified by faith in His Son, adopted into the divine family, sanctified by the indwelling spirit and kept by

16

the might and power of God against all the wiles of the wicked one, to eternal life. Such is Calvinism, such is Presbyterian- ism in broad outline. It lies in solution, as it were, in the Holy Scriptures. It is crystallized in the great reformed creeds. Its purest gem is the Westminster Standards found in the Catechisms and Confessions of Faith of that historic Assem- bly. Calvinism invites to the study of problems the most abs- truse and profound which ever engaged the minds of men. It does not deal with barren negatives. It is a bold, a positive, and a fruitful system. "It solves all mysteries; it resolves all doubts touching nature and its phenomena; touching man and his destiny by its bold assumption of one supreme and eternally inscrutable mystery."

The Great Traits of the Church.

The Presbyterian Church has been noted for certain great traits. Among them we notice:

First — Reverence for the Bible and the steady exaltation of its teachings. From the beginning, Calvinism has emblazoned upon its banner ' 'The Scriptures — the whole Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments — the very Word of God." As such they are the only infallible teacher of what man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of man.

The teachings of traditions, the decrees of councils, the imperfect readings of nature called science, it has with stead- fast insistence brought to the Scriptures, and according to their agreement with this standard have such deliverances stood or fallen. It demands no interpretation of God more God-like than God has been pleased to reveal; it demands no statement more Christian than Christianity or more Christ- like than Christ. Its single ambition is to be unflinchingly scriptural, faithfully mirroring the will of God as revealed in His word. Calvinism has no place or apology for expediency. It refuses to be led astray by philosophy. The West- minster divines were consummate masters of philosophy, but in all the Westminster Standards there is not a paragraph which affords a hint as to what philosophical school the Assembly favored. Dr. Fisher, of Yale University, says: "One prime characteristic of Calvinism is the steadfast, con- sistent adoption of the Bible as the sole standard of doctrine. " "We gratefully acknowledge," said the Wesleyan Methodist Conference in its address to the Presbyterian Alliance, "the faithful and unfaltering testimony which your Church has borne through her entire history on behalf of the divine inspi-

17

ration and authority of the Word of God." Said the Baptist Association in their greeting to the same body: "The Pres- byterian Church has been the magnificent defender of the Word of God throughout the ages." Above all others she has borne, bears now, and will continue to bear on her name the odium, and upon her person the blows provoked by and aimed at the Word of God. Humbly, yet proudly, she can say to her Lord: "The reproaches of them that reproached Thee fell on me." There are unquestionably hard sayings in the system, likewise there are hard sayings in the Bible. Some doctrines for which Presbyterianism stands are among the hard things to be understood, of which the Apostle Paul wrote: "This is a hard saying; who can bear it?" May it not be possible that it is because of its severe scripturalness that Calvinism never has been, is not, and never will be popular with a rationalistic, unregenerate world? The offence of the Word is as undying as the offence of the Cross.

Second Trait. Calvinism has always stressed the sover- eignty of God. Says Dr. Geo. P. Fisher, of Yale: "The pro- found sense of the exaltation of God is the key-note of Calvin- ism." The glory of the Lord, God, Almighty is its unifying, all prevading principle — the blazing sun and centre of the sys- tem. It adores God as the absolute and ever blessed Sover- eign worthy of love, worship and obedience, "who doth up- hold, direct, dispose and govern all creatures, actions and things from the greatest even to the least, to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness and mercy." As one has said, "In all places, in all times, from eternity to eter- nity Calvinism sees God." God's sovereignty is the lens through which Calvinism views all other facts. Beginning with the absolute sovereignty of God, the Calvinist deduces in a severely logical order all his beliefs. He reasons some- thing like this: "Granted that God is the absolute Sovereign over all his intelligent creatures, it would follow that He would make known His will to them. How He reveals him- self to other intelligences is not known, but to men it must be by a verbal revelation, and then, a written revelation, in order that it may be preserved to all generations. Thus we are given the necessary revelation and in connection therewith the dogma of inspiration. In the second place, this Sover- eign God, being necessarily wise, and having made all things for His own glory, would have a plan or purpose by which His sovereignty is exercised, and the ends of His creation insured, and so we have fore-ordination. Upon this point we contend

18

if there be a God who is and has always been acting upon an intelligent plan, of which He knew the end from the beginning — and there must be such a Being, or there is no adequate God — then all the difficulty alleged against sovereign, uncondi- tional predetermination goes to the ground. Futhermore, God being sovereign, and having permitted man, according to His eternal plan, to fall into sin, He has in accordance with the same comprehensive and perfect plan further determined either to save none or all or some of the human race. In the Scriptures, in which, as we have already seen, we have God's revealed mind and purpose, we find that from eternity He de- termined to save some through Jesus Christ, those whom He had given to Christ, and so we have election. That He did not determine to save all, signifies that He passed by some, and thus we have the doctrine of pretention.

Those whom He determined to save, He effectually called. His Spirit "working in them, convincing them of their sin and misery, enlightening their minds in the knowledge of Christ, renewing their wills and persuading and enabling them to em- brace Jesus Christ, freely offered to them in the Gospel." Final perseverance of the saints is simply the consequence of sovereign election to everlasting life."

Moral Distinctions.

From the Presbyterian's conception of the inspiration of the Bible and this estimate of God there follows certain deduc- tions. Among these, he holds that God, and God alone, is to be feared and obeyed. As a consequence of this conviction, there ever goes a keen appreciation of moral distinctions. Truth, justice, righteousness and holiness are felt to be of everlasting obligation. Calvinism is sometimes charged with being aus- tere, over-strict in its abstinence from worldly pleasure and standing aloof from various forms of indulgences. It is con- fessed that Calvinism is hardly such a system as a licentious or even a self-indulgent, superficial and God-rejecting age would delight in. This should not surprise us, Calvinism is too hum- bling to human pride and it calls for too much self-denial not to invite hostility from unregenerate men and from professed Christians who have little taste for things spiritual. But let us judge the tree by its fruits. What has been the acknowl- edged fruitage of this system? Froude declares that "The Cal- vinist abhorred, as no other body of men ever abhorred, all conscious mendacity, all impurity, all moral wrong of every kind so far as they could recognize it." Says he, "Whatever

19

exists, at this moment in England and Scotland of conscientious fear of doing evil is the remnant of the convictions which were branded by the Calvinists into the people's hearts." As illus- trating the type of character produced by Calvinism, Froude names "William the Silent, Luther, Knox, Melville, Admiral Coligny, Cromwell, Milton and Bunyan." "These were men," he says, "possessed of all the qualities which give nobility and grandeur to human nature — men whose lives were as upright as their intellects were commanding and their public aims un- tainted with selfishness— unalterably just where duty re- quired them to be stern, but with the tenderness of a woman in their hearts; frank, true, cheerful, humorous — as unlike sour fanatics as it is possible to imagine, and able, in some way to sound the key-note to which every brave and faithful heart in Europe instinctively vibrated." Presbyterianism has ever been pre-eminently associated with the spirit of prayer, of humble and deep devotion, and has been productive of holy living and active Christian benevolence.

Presbyterianism's Stand for Education.

From the very beginning John Calvin insisted on the estab- lishment of public schools . He did not believe that "ignorance is the mother of piety." Presbyterianism has been characterized by a high and persistent stand for popular education. Again in Scotland as early as 1558 John Knox urged that ' 'for the preservation of religion, schools should be universally erected in all cities and towns." Side by side with Calvinistic Geneva and Scotland in the educational vanguard stood Calvinistic Holland, responding nobly to the memorable words of John of Nassau, "You must urge upon the States General that they establish free schools." Common schools were established all over Calvinistic Holland and Scotland, and the Nether- lands, and the New England Pilgrims found them there and brought with them to America the same great system. Wherever those Pilgrims from Holland and Scotland settled in the wilds of the New World, there the school house was built beside the church. Unquestionably in America we are indebted for the common school to the stream of influence which flowed from Geneva as the fountain head, through Scotland and Holland to the American colonies. Not only so, but the early provision made in this country for higher education in the academies, "log colleges," and the great colleges is due largely to Calvinistic influence. The Pres- byterian Encyclopedia says, "Calvinism has been the source

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not only of the common school system, as it exists in our own country, but of almost every one of our earlier colleges and universities."

History shows that for three hundred years Calvinists were the leaders of education in this country and Europe. It must be confessed however, and sadly, that she who was first must now take the third place. At the present time the great Metho- dist and Baptist churches are outstripping the Presbyterian in this matter of education. On this memorable occasion I plead with our Mother Church that she hasten to renew her zeal in this great arm of Christian service. Self-preservation demands it; the solution of the vexed question, "Shall education be Christian or non-Christian?" is clearly involved. It is impera- tive because of the undeniable fact that Calvinism is adapted to introduce into education precisely those influences for which the hour calls, namely, a sound philosophy, a true teaching concern- ing God, a sound in doctrination concerning the majesty of the law, strong moral and ethical character , builded upon the convic- tion of the absolute sovereignty of God. In the light of our creeds, in the light of history and existing needs, a call, loud and strong and imperative, is sounded, that as a Church we take again the place of recognized and glorious leadership in the great work of education.

Presbyterianism Evangelistic.

Again, the Presbyterian faith , teaching so strenuously theim- mutability of the divine decrees, must by logic of that belief be- come evangelistic in its efforts. One of those decrees declared of old that the heathen shall be given to the Son for an inher- itance, and the uttermost part of the earth for His possession, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and that every tongue should confess that Jesus was the Lord to the Glory of God, the Father The history of missionary enter- prise in the world shows the evangelistic spirit has been from the beginning active and prominent in the Calvinist. In the sixth century, under the leadership of the Apostle of Cale- donia, there was established a college and mission station on the Island of Iona, "which sent out preachers all over Scot- land, to parts of Britain, France, Germany and Switzerland, doing more for three centuries to spread the knowledge of the Gospel than all other agencies combined." About the middle of the sixteenth century, we read that, "Calvinism en- tered Geneva, and in thirty years under the inspiration of her modern apostle, had founded a model Bible Church, trans-

21

formed the whole city, and crystallized a type of Christianity which became at once expansive and aggressive." Says Bancroft: "More benevolent to the human race than Solon, more self-denying than Lycurgus, the genius of Calvin infused enduring elements into the institutions of Geneva, and made it for the modern world a mighty agency for evangelization." "And while the Lutheran Reformation," writes another his- torian, "travelled very little out of Germany, Calvinism ob- tained a European character and was accepted in all countries that received a reformation from without, like France, the Netherlands, Scotland, and even England."

It made such marvellous progress in France, even in the face of bitter and relentless persecution, that "within sixty years after its introduction it had gathered more than two thousand congregations, some of them having five or six pas- tors each, and many of them numbering ten thousand com- municants."

It should not be forgotten that the oldest Protestant miss- ionary association in the world, excepting the Moravian brethren "received its charter from William the III, who was a Calvinist." The Church of Scotland was the first Church after the reformation to send forth missionaries under its own appointment. Missionary enterprise in this country received its earliest impulse in a college that was under the presidency of a Calvinist. The modern zeal in home missions was born in our mother Assembly, and by no other Church in propor- tion to its numbers is the missionary work more vigorously and successfully prosecuted at home and abroad than by our own and our sister Assembly at the North. The best proof of the evangelistic power of Calvinism is furnished in the sin- gle statement that the Calvinistic is the largest of all the Prot- estant faiths on the globe. This statement surprises many of our own people because they forget that many large organ- izations both in Europe and America, while being Calvinists, yet are not so styled. They may be called Waldenses, or Bo- hemian, or Dutch, or they may bear, as many of them do, nothing more than the title "Reformed," or "Presbyterian," but they are all one great family, all truly Calvinistic, and when the number of adherents of these different branches of the one family are enumerated it is ascertained that the Cal- vinistic is by far the largest Protestant communion in Christ- endom.

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Calvinism and Civil Liberty.

Finally, Calvinism has made a most important contribution to civil liberty. It has developed in those people with whom it has been a creed and life power, those intellectual and moral qual- ities without which a free government were forever impossible.

The most American thing in all America to-day is the Pres- byterian Church. A great historian says, "He that will not honor and respect the influence of Calvin knows but little of American Independence. ' '

Henry Ward Beecher says: "It has ever been a mystery to the so-called Liberals, that with what they have considered the harshly despotic and rigid views and doctrines of the Cal- vinists, that they should have always been the stanchest and bravest defenders of freedom. ' ' The result is not strange to the Calvinist himself, but it is rather the inevitable result of his principles.

Beginning with the postulate that all men are equal before the law of God, the inference is easy that all men are equal before the law of man, hence there emerges to view the great axiom of modern democracy, that all men are created equal and vested with certain inalienable rights. This conviction even among the humblest born who cherished it, developed a feeling of pride, a sense of dignity and worth that enabled them when occasion demanded to out-face the pride of nobles and kings. "It transformed the hind into a hero, and when the days of fighting came it filled the armies of Conde, of Wil- liam the Silent, and of Cromwell with yeomen, artisans and shopkeepers fit to stand before the chivalry of Europe." Another principle of Calvinism which has made an important contribution to civil liberty is its teachings concerning the freedom of conscience. "That God only is Lord of the con- science and hath left it free from the doctrines and command- ments of man, which are in anything contrary to His word or beside it in faith or worship. ' ' Calvinism has everywhere and always proclaimed, "Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." Froude says of this people during the trying times of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: "When all else had failed, when patriotism had covered its face and human courage had broken down, when intellect had yielded with a smile or a sigh, when emotion or sentiment had dreamed them-

23

selves into a forgetfulness that there was any difference be- tween lies and truth, then this slavish form of belief called Calvinism bore an inflexible front to illusion and mendacity, and preferred to be ground to powder like a flint rather than to bend before violence or melt under the oppression of tyranny of any sort, from any source. ' ' Tyrants have always and rightly regarded Calvinists as their natural enemies. King James I said at Hampton Court Conference: "Calvinism agrees with monarchy as well as God and the devil. ' ' To the great Calvinist, Melville, James said: "There never will be quiet in this country till a half-dozen of you Calvinists be hanged or banished." "Tush, sir," replied Melville, "threaten your courtiers in that manner. It is not within your power to exile God's truth." D'Aubigne says: "In England the seeds of liberty, wrapped up in Calvinism and hoarded through many trying years, were at last destined to float over land and sea, and to bear largest harvests of temperate freedom for great Commonwealths that were still unborn." To the Calvinists, "more than to any other class of men, the political liberties of Holland, England and America are due. ' '

John Knox and Liberty.

Who saved the liberties of England and Scotland ? Froude says, "John Knox to whose teaching they (the Scotch) owe their national existence." John Knox's co-laborers in sav- ing England and Scotland were almost without exception en- thusiastic Calvinists. The same author again says: "The Calvinists, know as Puritans, the Covenanters, the Round- heads, the Presbyterians, the Independents, when the people were abandoned to the lawless fury and wrath of their rulers, when they were ruthlessly plundered, murdered, and hunted like wild beasts from place to place, never deserted them; for five and eighty years they never wavered, but were always steady to the good cause, and always on the side of the people. ' ' "The battle of Boyne (1690) '" says a recent writer, "decided the fate of Protestantism, not only for Great Britian, but for America and for the world. Had William been defeated there, Protestantism could not have found a safe shelter on earth." Who fought this battle? On one side was James II, whom the poet Wordsworth calls the "vacillating bondsman of the

24

Pope." "The world has never seen such another army as that commanded by William of Orange. The entire Calvin- istic world was represented in it. They came from Holland, England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Prussia, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland, and it was to this sect that the English owe the whole freedom of their Constitution. ' '

A Calvinistic Revolution.

To the advanced principle, viz: "The foundation of authority in government is laid in the free consent of the governed." And when the Revolution came, it was the church bell on the Calvinistic Meeting House of Lexington that rung first the alarm and summoned the farmers of New England, who fired "that shot which was heard around the world."

The Mecklenburg Convention of May, 1775, was composed of twenty-seven staunch Calvinists, one-third of whom were elders in the Presbyterian Church. Bancroft says of this declaration: ' 'It was in effect a declaration of independence as well as a com- plete system of government." It is generallv believed that Thomas Jefferson's celebrated declaration is a recast of this Mecklenburg paper, which preceded it by more than a year. Moreover, the Continental Congress had its inception in a call sent out by the Calvinists of New York. Need I tell this audience that a large majority of those determined men, who immortalized themselves by signing the Declaration of Inde- pendence, were Calvinists? There is no more dramatic chapter in our history than the hour in the Continental Congress when it faced the issue of signing that immortal document. Con- gress hesitated. The country was looking on. Three million hearts were violently throbbing in intense anxiety, waiting for the bell on Independence Hall to ring. On the table lay the charter of human freedom in the presence of that able body of statesmen — there it lay with its clear-cut utterances, flinging defiance in the face of opposition. It was an hour when strong men trembled. There was a painful silence. In the midst of this silence, Dr. Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister, arose and uttered these words: "To hesitate at this moment is to consent to our own slavery. That notable instrument upon your table which insures immortality to its author, should be subscribed this morning by every pen in this house. He that will not respond to its accents and strain every nerve to carry into effect its provisions is unworthy the name of freeman.

25

Whatever I have of property or reputation is staked on the is- sue of this contest, and, although these gray hairs must soon descend into the sepulchre, I would rather that they descend thither by the hand of the executioner than desert at this crisis the sacred cause of my country . " That was the voice of John Cal- vin in Independence Hall, and it prevailed. The Declaration of Independence was immediately signed and then the old Liberty Bell rang out, and the foundation of the American Republic was forever and securely laid. The early history of our mother country is written large with Calvinistic spirit and Calvinistic deed. I cannot longer tarry upon this point, but let those who in their ignorance of their country's noblest heritage of blood, who find their cheap pleasure in denunciation of the Puritan and Blue Laws of the olden day, stand with me for a moment and look upon that monument which marks the char- acter of those illustrious sires. "On the brow of the hill over- looking the bay where the Mayflower was moored, and where the waters continue to beat in volleying thunders, or in musical laughter upon its sands there rises a colossal statue. On the four corners of the pedestal repose four figures, representing law, morality, freedom and education. There these should rest by right. But above these stands the erect figure of Faith. Thirty-six feet she rises from the foot, which rests upon a slate from Plymouth Rock. With one hand she grasps an open Bible, and with the other in graceful gesture she points the nation up to God. The only Book she opens to the eyes of the nation is the Bible. And so it should be." In these days of greed for gold, when men are lovers of ease and pleasure rather than lovers of God, it is well for us to take our children by the hand and stand for awhile beside the altars of our fathers' faith. It is well to look long and inquiringly into the faces of those God-fearing and tyrant-despising forefathers and learn the secret of their fortitude that braved every priva- tion, their endurance that mastered every trial, their courage that conqured every danger and handed down to us the price- less heritage of our country, our liberty, both civil and relig- ious. Yes, it is well for us to look into those strong faces of our Puritan, Dutch, Huguenot and Scotch-Irish forefathers, whose very virtues have become a by-word among the ignorant, and learn that the secret of character — of strong and enduring character — of character personal and national — is to build it upon the Bible. It is only the truth, when I say that the Bible holds the only true light by which we have been led in all our advances of liberty in the past; and, the Bible holds the

26

only true light by which we can make any progress in the cause of liberty in the future.

' 'God of our Fathers, known of old,

Lord of our far-flung battle line, Beneath whose awful hand we hold

Dominion over palm and pine; Lord, God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget, lest we forget.

' 'If drunk with sight of power, we loose Wild tongues which have not Thee in awe,

Such boasting as the Gentiles use; Or lesser breeds without the Law,

Lord, God of Hosts, be with us yet,

Lest we forget, lest we forget.

Sealed with the Blood of the Saints.

Fathers and brethern, I have presented you something of the genius (and the fruits of your historic Church; she is venerable with age, she bears without abuse the name of "mother Church." We may well honor those grand prin- ciples of our historic faith, securing as they do the unity of Christ's witnessing church under all dispensations, to the remote past and to the end of time and through the cycles of eternity. The Covenants of our communion have been sealed with blood; those primitive martyrs who were stoned, who were sawn asunder, were witnesses for the principles for which we stand to-day, they were hunted from crag to crag of their native mountains, were hurled by their persecutors over steep precipices and dashed in pieces on the rocks below. "They loved not their lives to the death for Christ and His crown." This old faith has come down to us with her vesture like that of her Lord, crimsoned with blood. The most illustrious martyrs, the most renowned confessors, the most valiant re- formers have been hers. "The King's daughter she is, all glorious within, her clothing is of wrought gold." Shall we not venerate her for what she has been; shall we not love her for what she is? On this anniversary occasion let us fling forth her incrimsoned banner freshly to the breeze. Let us with redoubled zeal prosecute her evangelistic work until her standards, raised in the name of her glorious Lord, shall wave victoriously from every mountain peak and every vale from the rising to the setting sun. Let us quit us like men, in our

11

endeavor to establish our scriptural faith in every centre of influence. Let us pray for an increased baptism of the Spirit. Let us gird ourselves for one mighty and sustained effort to establish, enlarge, and perpetuate the measure of influence of our faith throughout the world, while we wait the announce- ment, "Behold, the bridegroom cometh."

The Church's History Traced Through

the Century*

A Sketch read by the Hon* J. Adger Smyth, Sunday Night, May 2, 1909.

Looking backwards into the early history of this, "The Second Presbyterian Church," in a manual edited by the Rev. Thomas Smyth and published in 1838, we find the sermon preached by the Rev. Andrew Flinn, its first pastor, at its dedication on April 3, 1811. The subject was "God's Per- petual Presence In and Constant Watchfulness Over His Church." The text was from 2 Chronicles V. 20: "That thine eyes may be open upon this house, day and night, upon the place whereof Thou has said, that Thou wouldst put Thy name there."

After describing in most eloquent words the dedication by King Solomon of "a temple, the most magnificent and splen- did ever built by man," Dr. Flinn pictures the King, after reciting "the goodness of the Lord, and his faithfulness to his father, David, his soul being overpowered with Divine glory, bursting out into that wonderful prayer of which the text was a part."

In closing the application of the words of the text to his church, Dr. Flinn adds: "My brethren, this is a solemn day to you. You have built a house for the God of your fathers. The history of your enterprise is short and simple. It origin- ated in no spirit of division or party rancor . With your brethren of the First Presbyterian Church in this city, you are at perfect peace, and they are at peace with you. The growing popula- tion of our city called for another place of worship. You heard the call. It united you as one man. Your brethren of other churches generously strengthened your hands, and here is the house you have built and offered to the Lord. May the God of your fathers bless you. He has hitherto prospered you, for this spacious edifice has been erected without the loss of either limb or life among the workmen.

29

"Brethren you have done much, but much more remains yet to be done. You have built a house for the Most High God! You must fill it with devout and pious worshippers. Let not your seats, left empty in this place of prayer, testify against you in the day of eternity that you have here neglected the offers of mercy and turned away from the ordinances of God! Come with your wives and children to this house, which you have built for the Lord, and here inquire for Jesus. He will meet you in this place and bless you. And when He shall come in the clouds of Heaven, with His own glory and the glory of His Father, may we all be received into His presence. Having finished our probation here may we all be translated to the temple not made with hands, where we who sow, and you who reap, shall forever rejoice together."

In the same manual are two discourses preached by the Rev. Thomas Smyth, the pastor, on the "History of the Second Presbyterian Church in Charleston, S. C." The first dis- course was delivered on April 3, 1837, on the occasion of the twenty-sixth anniversary of the church, from the text Haggai ii. 3: "Who is left among you who saw this house in her first glory, and how do you see it now?"

From this discourse we quote interesting facts. Says Dr. Smyth: "It is the duty of every Church and of the whole Church now to have on record for the perusal and advantage of those who may come after them, the history of their struggles, their victories, and their mercies. The older members of this church are fast passing away, and in a little while the places of the remaining few, who saw the rise, and have witnessed the progress of the church, will know them no more forever."

Presbyterianism in this State.

"Presbyterians were among the first settlers in South Carolina. In the year 1704, when there was but one Episcopal congregation in the whole province, the dissenters had three churches in Charleston. As early as 1690, the Presbyterians in connection with the Independents formed a church in Charleston, which continued in this united form for forty years. During this period two of its ministers, Revs. Messrs. Stobo and Livingston, were Presbyterians, and were connected with the Charleston Presbytery. After the death of the latter, twelve families seceded, and formed a Presbyterian Church on the model of the Church of Scotland. In 1790 this church, with three others near the city, were incorporated by the Legislature into the Presbytery of Charleston.

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"In 1808 this Presbytery consisted of five ministers and seven churches. The numbers of Presbyterians in Charleston increased so rapidly that the First Presbyterian Church was found insufficient to accomodate those who wished to worship there. The house was always crowded, seats could not be procured, except after long delay, and the pressing necessity for another Presbyterian Church became apparent. As early as 1804 this necessity was realized by Dr. Buist, then pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, and the erection of another church was approved and encouraged by him. The Rev. Mr. Malcolmson was engaged to preach and take charge, but he died in September, 1804, and the enterprise was then aban- doned. In 1809, however, the determination was finally car- ried into effect to enter upon the formation of the Second Presbyterian Church. On Wednesday evening, February 8, 1809, fifteen gentlemen assembled at the house of Mr. Thomas Fleming, and entered into an agreement to unite their efforts to secure a suitable building for a Presbyterian Church.

Their names were Benjamin Boyd, William Pressly, John Ellison, Archibald Pagan, George Robertson, James Adger, Samuel Robertson, William Walton, Caleb Way, John Robin- son, Alexander Henry, John Porter, Samuel Pressly, William Aiken, Thomas Fleming.

"At a subsequent meeting, held on March 6, 1809, a paper for the support of a minister was presented, when, by the sub- scription of a number of gentlemen in attendance of $100 each for two years, more than a sufficient salary being thus provided, a committee was appointed to request the Rev. Andrew Flinn to organize and take charge of this congregation with a salary of $2,000 per annum.

"Mr. Flinn having accepted this call, a meeting for the formation of the Second Presbyterian Church was held at Trinity Church on Monday evening, April 24, 1809, and committees were appointed to purchase a site for the erection of the church, and to obtain subscriptions."

Did time permit it would be interesting to record here the names of these various committees, and also of all who sub- scribed for the building, as they are all mentioned in this ser- mon. By May 16, 1809, the plan for the church was pre- sented by William Gordon, who was appointed to build, and entered immediately upon the work, an Act of incorporation having been obtained.

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In order that the church might be opened for the reception of Harmony Presbytery at its first session in Charleston, it was dedicated on April 3, 1811, by a sermon from the Rev. Andrew Flinn, its pastor, and formally connected with the ecclesiastical judicatories of the Presbyterian Church. This was the first session ever held in Charleston of a Presbytery connected with the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States.

The Church is Built.

Although great liberality was shown by the founders of this church, its cost far exceeded both their expectations and their means. The treasurer's account in April, 1812, showed that the sum of $55,548 had been expended, and that a large ad- ditional amount would still be needed to carry out the plans and pay the debt incurred. Strenuous efforts were made to raise the amount, but notwithstanding, in June, 1816, it ap- peared that the sum of $31,156.25 was still due. Though gradually reduced, in April, 1823, a debt of $23,485 was still hanging over the church. A plan was then adopted of trans- ferring the whole property, and the temporal jurisdiction of the church, to an association, who would assume the debt as their own, engaging, however, that the Confession of Faith, as authorized by the General Assembly, should ever be the rule of government and discipline of the church. This plan was adopted in August, 1823, and in April, 1824, the committee re- ported that all the debts of the church had been paid. The original trustees, in whose names the titles of the church property was conveyed to this association, were Messrs. Wil- liam Smith, John Robinson, James Adger, William Aiken and Richard Cunningham. In the words of Dr. Smyth: "Thus was this beautiful temple, at the cost of more than $100,000, finally erected and delivered from all incumbrances by the energy, union and concerted liberality of its founders. The spire alone remained unfinished, but we hope in due time it will arise to its destined summit, with its silent finger pointing to the skies, and thus like a pyramid of fire burning heaven- ward give increased beauty to the building and another orna- ment to our city."

Like most churches, apparently from its very first organiza- tion, the income never seems to have been sufficient to cover all its necessary expenses, even though most judiciously and economically administered.

32

Raising the Preacher's Salary.

In the minutes of the standing committee in April, 1813, we find that the clerk reported that the salary of the minister had not been fully paid, and that at least $1,000 was then due him. On motion, by a unanimous vote, the president was authorized to discount a note of the corporation in the bank for a sum sufficient to pay all the indebtness of the church, a custom fol- lowed for many years. As the end of each fiscal year ap- proached, the month of April saw the president and the treas- urer anxious and worried, because they could not make "both ends meet." Then a special committee used to be appointed each year to visit the congregation and collect enough to pay the deficiency. It was always a difficult and unsatisfactory task, and a specially onerous one to the committee. In 1887 the objection was raised to this committee plan that they could not visit every member of the congregation, and thus the opportunity to assist in freeing the church from debt was offered to only a few members, and generally to the same persons every year. The old plan was, therefore, discarded and a new one adopted. On a Sabbath morning in May, pre- viously agreed upon, after the annual meeting of the corpora- tion and with the approval of the session, a special collection was taken up immediately after the close of the sermon to raise the amount needed to cover the deficiency of the past year. The president of the corporation made a short statement of the financial condition, and every member of the congregation was urged to give something, even the children "did what they could," and in all these years since this plan was adopted, the whole amount needed has been promptly raised, even when on more than one occasion the sum necessary was $1,800.

In 1833, it having been found after several years' experience, that the immensity of the church auditorium caused unnatural efforts on the part of the pastors to fill it with their voices, and that even then many of the congregation could not hear the preacher, a series of alterations were decided upon. The ceil- ing was lowered, the floor raised and a part of the main audi- ence room cut off to form the inside vestibule, and the room up- stairs so long used as a Sunday-school room.

For a long time weekly lectures by the pastor were delivered at the private houses of the members, but in January, 1820, the corporation authorized the session to procure a temporary building for a suitable lecture room. A lot of land was leased on Blackbird's alley (Burns' lane) at $50 a year, and a lecture room erected on it by the efforts of the ladies at a cost of $700.

-*."■. '"in

*«•

P

^r

^7

Pastor 1823-1827.

From a Copperplate Engraving on India Paper in possession of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Columbia, S. C.

33

In 1835, however, it was determined to erect a more sub- tantial building in Society street, and on Sabbath evening, March, 1837, it was dedicated in the presence of a crowded and deeply interested audience.

The Pastors.

The Rev. Andrew Flinn, D. D., was the first pastor. He was called in February, 1809, installed in April, 1811, and died February 24, 1820, having served as pastor for about eleven years.

/'@tr2/£&huw ■'fate*

The Rev. Artemus Boies, the second pastor, was elected in April, 1821, but resigned in May, 1823, having been pastor about two years.*

The Rev. Thomas Charlton Henry, the third pastor, was elected in November, 1823, and installed in January, 1824. He died October 5, 1827, having been pastor for four years.

In February, 1829, the Rev. William Ashmead was called, and accepted in March, and was installed in May of the same year. He went to Philadelphia, with the intention of return- ing with his family, but his health, always delicate, gave away, and he died in Philadelphia, December 2, 1829, having been pastor about six months.

After Mr. Ashmead 's death the church sat in her widow- hood for several years, having the pulpit filled by different ministers, but especially by her tried friend, the Rev. Mr. Gildersleeve.

The Rev. Thomas Smyth was just graduating from Prince- ton Seminary when he received an invitation to supply the pul- pit of this church for the summer, and entered upon his minis- terial labors here in 1831. In 1832 he received a permanent call, but was not installed until December, 1834. He died in 1873, having, as he said, consecrated all his energies to this church, his first love, as his long and useful ministry of over forty years began and ended with her. He declined many complimentary calls from the college, the seminary and the

* Despite every endeavor, no portrait of Rev. Artemas Boies, nor of the Rev. Wra. Ashmead could he discovered; Mr. Boies' signature alone was recovered from the old sessions' hook, but of Mr. Ashmead not even an authentic signa- ture was obtained.

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editorial chair, saying: "I am determined to live and die with my people." Probably more than one thousand members were added to the church during his ministry, at least thirty of whom became ministers of the Gospel.

In May, 1871, the Rev. G. R. Brackett, D. D. was called, and in 1872 installed as pastor, an office he filled to the entire satisfaction of a united and loving people until his death, in December, 1902, a period of over thirty years.

The Rev. J. Keir G. Fraser was called as pastor on February 22, 1903, and installed March 22, 1903, and' still fills most acceptably the sacred office, having supplied the pulpit since August 1, 1902.

In 1874 it was found that a new roof was needed for the safety and preservation of the Church, and $6,000 was raised in a time of great financial stringency for that purpose. The ladies of the church contributed $1,800 of that amount.

Cyclone and Earthquake.

In the great cyclone of August 27, 1813, this church sus- tained great injury, but in the greater cyclone of 1885 it re- ceived but little damage compared with other churches in our city. In the memorable earthquake of August 31, 1886, this church was damaged to the extent of about $6,000. Through the generosity of friends both North and South it was speedily repaired. On August 27, 1893, it again suffered severely from the cyclone of that day. The building was completely unroofed on the north side, the pews and organ deluged with water and the entire ceiling so damaged as to necessitate its removal. The cost of the repairs was $3,300, less the insurance of $1,800. The work was undertaken immediately and on November 26, 1893, Divine worship was resumed in the renovated church. In July, 1908, the entire church building was repainted and repaired and the Sunday school renovated, at a cost of about $2,000, and by January 15, 1909, the entire amount of these improvements had been paid in full.

A singular coincidence occurs in the pastorates of the three ministers serving as pastors to the three Presbyterian churches in Charleston, almost contemporaneously.

The Rev. John Forrest, D. D. was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, known as the Scotch Church.

The Rev. Thomas Smyth, D. D., was pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, known as Flinn's Church.

The Rev. W. C. Dana, D. D. was pastor of the Third Pres-

35

byterian Church, known as the Central Presbyterian Church. Each of these distinguished ministers served their respective churches as named above for over forty years, and in each case they were never pastor of any other church.

The Communion Service Preserved.

The silver Communion service still used in this church was the gift, as we are informed, of Mrs. John Robinson, the daughter of Mr. Stephen Thomas, who was the first treasurer of this church, being elected in 1809. The chest containing the Communion service was kept in the family of one of the elders. After the war between the States it was taken care of by Mr. C. N. Averill, and afterwards by Mr. J. N. Robson for many years.

When the city was shelled during the war the chest contain- ing this silver was sent to the Rev. George Howe, D. D., in Columbia, for safety, but in some way he was not informed of the contents of the box, and along with probably less val- uable packages it was placed in one of the store rooms on the premises. Dr. Howe's house was not destroyed in the great fire that ravaged the city, nor was it plundered, as many others were. It was some time, probably a year or more, after the close of the war that Dr. Howe examined several packages in this store room, and among them this box. Finding that it contained the Communion service of the Second Presbyterian Church of Charleston, in perfect condition he at once for- warded it to the Rev. Dr. Smyth, its pastor. When used for the first time, more than a year after the war had ended, Dr. Smyth told the history of its remarkable preservation and restoration and offered a special prayer of thanksgiving.

Two glorious and striking features most forcibly present themselves as we review the history of this church. Its miss- ionary spirit. Its wonderful work in educating young men for the ministry.

As it has been arranged for separate papers to give in de- tail the history of the work of this church in both these fields, at this time, we will speak very briefly of either.

Foreign Missions.

Foreign missions have always occupied the supreme place in the hearts of this people, and the largest amount in our yearly benevolent collections has always been given to this cause.

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No minister has ever been more thoroughly imbued with the missionary spirit than Dr. Smyth, When pursuing his col- legiate studies in Ireland, he expected to enter the missionary field himself, but was compelled to relinquish his earnest de- sire by the failure of his health. Just on the point of starting on a missionary tour in Florida in 1831 he was arrested by the invitation to supply this pulpit. In 1832, sometime be- fore his installation, he organized our Juvenile Missionary Society, and began the publication of a juvenile missionary paper. No doubt others present here besides the writer recall the quarterly meetings of this juvenile society, which were held in the lecture room on Society street, and were always largely attended and extremely interesting. Each member of the Society was furnished with a card for collections with spaces for the names and amounts given by each contributor. There was a prize book offered to the one whose card show- ed the largest amount, and great exertions were made to win it. Exhibitions of idols and other curiosities from heathen lands were shown, short talks were made, and Major R. C. Gil- christ, then little more than a boy himself, kept us little fellows wildly excited by the machines of his own make that were shown by him, such as railroad engines that made steam and pulled cars, fire engines that made steam and threw a stream of water, etc.

Helped to Educate Ministers.

The Ladies' Education Society was organized by the Rev. A. Boies in 1821, and has continued its work ever since. It has aided about seventy-seven students in their theological studies and raised over $40,000. No human brain or pen can compute the wonderful results of their self-sacrificing labors. Not until this noble band of earnest workers are all finally gathered into that glorious congregation, that no man can number, who, with palms in their hands, their robes washed white in the blood of the Lamb, are swelling that magnificent volume of song, as they join in praise and thanksgiving, will they know what they have accomplished, as their crowns sparkle with the many stars they have won for their Maker.

This church has always manifested a deep and affectionate interest in the religious instruction of the colored people. They formed a large part of its membership, and filled the north gallery of the church. In a manual of this church pub- lished in 1854 we find the names of its members, both white and colored, from the year 1811, showing 790 whites and 236 oolored, or a total of 1,026.

The Colored Members.

Of that number there were then alive, and members in 1854, 399 whites and 204 colored, or a total of 603.

In this manual published in 1854 there is the following no- tice for the colored members:

"Besides the services held at the Second Presbyterian Church on which colored persons should attend, and the Com- munion service, in which all the colored as well as the white members are expected to participate, there are special services for colored persons at the church in Anson street under the ministry of the Rev. J. L. Girardeau as follows: On Sab- bath. 1. Sunrise prayer meeting. 2. Regular service, in- cluding preaching at 10.30 A. M. 3. Regular service with preaching at usual afternoon hour. 4. Sabbath school im- mediately after afternoon service. 5. Prayer meeting, Mon- day evening. 6. Tuesday evening, instruction of those wishing to join the church. ' '

Dr. Smyth was accustomed to prepare special sermons for these colored members, besides holding appropriate services during the week, and as a pastor to minister to their spiritual needs, especially in sickness or sorrow. He was a warm sup- porter of the Zion Colored Presbyterian Church, of which the Rev. J. B. Adger was the first pastor, followed by the Rev. J. L. Girardeau. The valuable church building on Calhoun street, built largely by the white members of the Second Presbyterian Church, and still called the Zion Presbyterian Church, is held in trust to this day by a board of trustees, and is still gratuitously furnished to the colored people as a place of worship for Presbyterians.

The Lord's Supper.

Up to the time of the war, (1861) the communicants de- siring to partake of the Lord's Supper, left their pews and sat on benches at tables placed along the aisles of the church, the tables being covered with long, white cloths. The white mem- bers occupied the tables first, and after they were seated, and the pastor had given the elements into the hands of the elders, they passed them reverently to the members at the tables. Sometimes it was necessary, after those first seated had been served, for them to retire, and a second installment of white communicants to be seated, and to be served by the elders.

As stated above, this church had a large number of colored members, who were divided into classes, each class in charge

38

of a colored man of good repute, who was called a class leader. He was responsible for the behavior of each of the members of the class, and reported to the session of the church any mis- demeanors or unworthy conduct on their part, and they were disciplined by order of the session. On the morning of Com- munion Sunday these class leaders distributed to each member of his class, who was considered worthy, a token, which was a small medal like a coin, with the picture of the Second Pres- byterian Church stamped on it.

These tokens were handed by the class leaders to the col- ored communicants as they came down from the gallery to take their places at the same tables from which the white com- municants had just retired. After they were seated, the white elders passed round and collected the tokens, so as to be sure that only those entitled to be present, had come forward. Then the colored members were served by the white elders with the same bread from the same silver platters, and with the same wine from the same silver goblets. These colored communicants then remained seated during the pas- tor's address in closing the service, and after the benediction slowly and reverently dispersed. .

Originally these tokens were distributed to the white members at the preparatory service on Saturday afternoon, just pre- ceding the Communion Sunday, or if any one was not then present, they could be obtained from one of the elders. On the Sabbath they were collected by the elders after the commu- nicants were seated. This custom, as to the white members, was discontinued in 1830, but was continued with the colored members until the war in 1861.

Until this period, (1861) a sweet toned bell hung in our steeple, and was rung on the Sabbath a half hour before each service, summoning the congregation to worship. The ori- ginal bell was cracked in ringing an alarm of fire, but a new bell was placed in the steeple in 1850, being the gift of Fleet- wood Lanneau, Esq. It was taken down, as^were the bells in all the other churches, including the beautiful chimes of St. MichaePs, and sent to Columbia, and given to the Govern- ment to be cast into cannon.

Sunday School Organized.

The Sunday school of this church was organized in the year 1818, by Mr. and Mrs. George E. Hahnbaum. It was the second Sunday school organized in the city of Charleston. It

ifflBl^ffiPtiSluiinn

O^A/^

Pastor 1831-1873.

From an Engraving, by W. & A. K. Johnston, Edinburgh, frontispiece to Dr. Smyth's "Unity of the Races," published by Johnstone & Hunter, Edinburgh, 1851.

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has long been under the control of the session of the church, and has proved itself indeed "the nursery of the church." For many years the pastor has been present at its sessions, lecturing on the lesson to the adults of the congregation, thus realizing the idea, so long advocated by Dr. Smyth, of having the afternoon service ' ' a teaching service for the whole church. "

In 1881, the need of a new and more convenient Sunday school building, which had long been felt created so much interest that steps were taken to raise funds for the erection of such a building. A society was organized called the Sun- day School Workers, composed almost entirely of the ladies and children of the Sunday school and congregation, and in a few years they had raised about $3,000. This so stimulated the men of the church that very soon the present Sunday school building was completed and dedicated in May, 1887.

The building and lot cost about $12,000, and the entire amount has been paid in full, long ago.

The following ministers assisted Dr. Smyth at different pe- riods of his ministry, when he was disqualified by infirmity from discharging the more active duties of the pastorate. Their faithful labors are held in grateful remembrance to this day:

The Rev. Henry M. Smith, D. D. The Rev. D. L. Buttolph, D. D. The Rev. James McDowell, D. D. The Rev. Hampden C. DuBose.

Jubilee Service.

A programme was arranged by Dr. Smyth with the appro- val and co-operation of the session, the deacons and the cor- poration of the church for the jubilee services in commemora- tion of the fiftieth anniversary of the dedication of the church to be held in May, 1861. A circular was prepared in 1860 stating this desire, and proposing that the celebration con- sist of a protracted meeting, say of nine or ten days, commen- cing on the 2d of May, 1861; of services of different kinds each evening, discourses and short papers or addresses from minis- ters and laymen who had in any way been connected with this church; of a Sunday school celebration; of the creation of a memorial fund, and of the publication of a memorial vol- ume. This circular was signed by the following joint commit- tees:

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Session— The Rev. T. Smyth, D. D., R. C. Gilchrist.

Deacons — W. J. Smith, William Dewees.

Corporation — C. H. Simonton, T. G. Budd, James Dilling- ham, W. J. Johnson. Geo. H. Moffett.

This joint committee approved an elaborate programme of the proposed celebration, prepared by the pastor. It provided for the inviting of some twenty-five ministers, connected at different times with this church, to take part in the services, and special days and topics were assigned to each of them. Services were to be held every evening except Saturday, and on Friday evenings there were to be social gatherings and re- freshments. One evening was to be devoted to a musical festival to be held in the church under the management and supervision of the choir, and to the reading of a history of the choir. Other similar services were to be held on the other evenings .

The platform provided for the following purposes:

1 . The erection of a monument to the founders of the church.

2. A memorial subscription to the church fund.

3. A collection to complete the steeple and erect a library.

4. A collection for parochial schools.

5. A collection for a parsonage.

6. A collection to erect a lecture room.

The first plan was to have these services commence on the Sunday nearest the3d of April, so as to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the dedication of the church, which took place on the 3d of April, 1811. It was therefore determined to have this celebration on Sunday, March 31, 1861. The ser- vices on that day were adapted to commemorate this dedication. The pastor (Dr. Smyth) preached appropriate sermons, both in the morning and in the afternoon. In the evening Mr. Fleetwood Lanneau delivered an historical address, giving a full and comprehensive review of the history of this church to a large and attentive audience.

War Times.

Fort Sumter was bombarded, burnt and captured on April 13 and 14 succeeding, and war having commenced very short- ly afterwards, probably fifty men connected with this congre- gation were from time to time summoned to the camps and batteries on the Islands adjacent to our. city.

Probably for this reason, or perhaps with the hope that the many ministers who had agreed to take part in the celebration

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but found it almost impossible to be present earlier, the fur- ther celebration was postponed to Sunday, May 5, 1861 . How- ever these ministers were still unable to be present, as almost every one felt called upon, either to go with our troops as chaplains, or to join the home guard companies. In this old book are letters giving these reasons for their inability to take part in the jubilee services and expressing great regret from the following clergymen: The Rev. Arnold W. Miller, the Rev. D. L Buttolph, the Rev. C. A. Stillman, the Rev. W. J. McCormick, the Rev. A. Flinn Dickson, the Rev. S. H. Dick- son, the Rev. J. E. White, the Rev. A. M. Small, the Rev. W. B. Corbett, the Rev. W. Flinn.

The record shows, however, that continued services were held on Sabbath, May 5, 1861, specially adapted to the semi- centennial celebration. The pastor (Dr. Smyth) preached in the morning from the text: "Ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, a jubilee shall that year be to you." In the afternoon the Rev. Dr. E. T. Buist delivered an excellent discourse, and in the evening the Rev. J. B. Girardeau gave a most interesting address, containing his personal recollections of this church, its Sabbath school, revivals, pastors, etc.

Among the men of the church who were absent in camp was Major R. C. Gilchrist, the superintendent of our Sunday school. The intended festival for the children could not be carried out. Indeed, butter had become very scarce and almost impossible to get, while cake, ice cream and candies were so costly as to be out of reach.

So also with the expected protracted services. The absence of the ministers rendered them impracticable.

Says Dr. Smyth, "I hope the next jubilee will be celebrated under more propitious circumstances, under the halcyon reign of that peaceful, prosperous and united Confederacy, for which we are now imperilling life, sacrificing comfort and security, and living in hourly anticipation of the worst possible evils."

The continued services, as stated in the following notice from the Charleston morning paper, took place on Sunday, May 12, 1861.

Jubilee Celebration — Second Presbyterian Church.

"The Rev. J. L. Girardeau will repeat, in the above church to-morrow morning, at the usual hour of morning service, the discourses prepared by him on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of this church, in accordance with its request.

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In the afternoon there will be service for the children. In the evening a reunion meeting will be held, service commenc- ing at 8 o'clock. On this occasion many papers will be read, including recollections of Dr. Flinn, memoirs of the Rev. Mr. Boies, histories of Glebe Street and Zion churches, recollec- tions of the revival in 1836, etc."

The Rev. J. L. Girardeau delivered an admirable discourse in the morning, his own people being present, and the congre- gation being a very large one.

The services for the children were held in the afternoon, and in addition to the white children, there were about 300 colored children in the gallery. Many hymns were sung, the first being one written for the occasion by Mr. Fleetwood Lanneau. Then Dr. Smyth preached a sermon specially adapted to the children. In the evening the Rev. Messrs. J. L. Girardeau and Pickens Smith were with the pastor in the pulpit, and took part in the services and in the reading of the following papers:

1. Recollections of Dr. Andrew Flinn, by the Rev. Mr. Woodridge.

2. Memoir of the Rev. Artemas Boies, by the Rev. Mr. Woodridge.

3. History of Glebe Street Church.

4. History of Zion Church.

5. Recollections of the revivals of 1835 and 1836, by the Rev. Charles Stillman.

On Monday evening, May 13, 1861, the choir had prepared an attractive programme of some sixteen chants and hymns, the names of which are all given, and Mr. Fleetwood Lanneau was ready to deliver an address, containing "Reminiscences of the Choir," when suddenly a most violent thunder storm, accompanied by a whirlwind of dust and rain swept over the city and effectually prevented the gathering of an audience, and that part of the celebration was indefinitely postponed. On Sabbath, June 2, 1861, the Rev. Ferdinand Jacobs preached two sermons, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon, which he had prepared for the Semi-Centennial, and which Dr. Smyth reports, he had then with others to be inserted in the memorial volume they expected to publish, but this cher- ished wish was never carried into effect.

In the old minutes of Sessions running from 1852 to 1867, from whose records the facts given herein about the Semi- centennial, or jubilee services were taken, are found some very touching incidents.

W

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At the last Communion held in this church on May 11, 1862, no elders of this church were present, nor did they have in use their own Communion service, as it had been sent to Col- umbia for safety.

The pastor, (Dr. Smyth) says: "A very sad and solemn season. Elders Harrall, Enslow and Stillman, from Glebe Street Church were present with their Communion service, as ours had been removed, and the communicants occupied the pews, as the table linen had also gone."

On this occasion, and the preceding Communion, the col- ored communicants occupied the back pews, and communed at the same time as the whites.

It is also recorded that at a meeting of the Court of Dea- cons, held near the end of May, 1861, it was ordered that all disposable funds on hand should be invested in Confederate bonds.

The Manse.

That this Second Presbyterian Church now owns a comfort- able manse for the residence of its pastor, is owing to the zeal and devotion of two young ladies who were members of this church.

Some years ago a Manse Society was organized by Miss Mar- garet and Miss Agnes Adger, the first of whom afterwards became Mrs. W. S. Manning, and the other Mrs. H. E. Rave- nel, and a manse fund started. For various reasons, chiefly because of the marriage and removal to Spartanburg of both these ladies, the congregation seem to have lost interest in the manse question, and nothing was done about it for some years. The manse fund, however, that had been collected by these two ladies was watched over and cared for by Mr. H. E. Ravenel, in whose hands they had placed it.

On January 13, 1904, the corporation of the church was notified by Mr. A. T. Smythe that there was then a fund, consisting of the amount collected by these two ladies, which with accrued interest, amounted to $2,178.53, and had been increased by recent collections to $2,433.65, and that this sum was available for the purchase of a manse for the Second Pres- byterian Church.

On motion a committee of five to. devise and work for this object and report again to the corporation was appointed by the president, consisting of Messrs. A. T. Smythe, Hall T. McGee, R. E. Seabrook. J. W. Robson and W. S. Allan.

On May the 2d, 1904, this committee reported progress to

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the corporation, and the whole matter was referred back to the same committee.

On January 16, 1905, the committee reported to the corpo- ration that two of their numbers, Messrs. Smythe andMcGee, had purchased for $3,800 a convenient house, No. 49 Pitt street just below Calhoun street. They desired it, however, understood that if the corporation did not wish to accept the property, the sub-committee was ready to hold it as their own. On motion the corporation unanimously accepted the property, No. 49 Pitt street for a manse, costing, with repairs, taxes, etc, $4,721.93 and returned their thanks to Messrs. Smythe and McGee.

In May, 1905, the president reported to the corporation "that the manse fund" amounted to $2,685. The chairman of the special committee, Mr. A. T. Smythe, reported that in accordance with the resolution adopted by the corporation, January 16, 1905, the property, No. 49 Pitt street, had been purchased for a manse for the Second Presbyterian Church. They had arranged with the Carolina Savings Bank to borrow $2,000 on a mortgage of the house and lot, to cover balance of the purchase money and the repairs. At the meeting res- olutions of sincere thanks to Mrs. Manning and to Mr. and Mrs. H. E. Ravenel for their devoted services in raising and caring for the manse fund for so long a time were unanimously adopted.

About a year ago this bond and mortgage of $2,000 was paid in full by two members of this church, and the manse is now free from all incumbrances.

To the ladies of the Manse Society of the church is due the success of this enterprise, as they responded always to every call for money to pay interest on the mortgage, insurance, etc. At the earnest request of the corporation it is hoped that they will still have the care of the property.

The Church Choir.

Among the interesting old papers read recently is an address delivered by Mr. Fleetwood Lanneau, entitled "Recollections of our Choir." He tells us that Mr. James Badger, was our first chorister, and conducted the singing on the day the church was dedicated, with the assistance of several leaders of the other church choirs, four of whom were still living at the time of the Semi-centennial in 1861. One of them Mr. Guerry, succeeded Mr. Badger as our chorister.

In those days the leader of the church choir discharged also

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the duties of the sexton. The valuable and most indispensa- ble assistance of female voices was unknown at the time this church was dedicated, and but little attention was paid to the study of vocal music. The l)elp of a few male singers was all a leader could obtain to make up a choir, and not unfrequently he alone would be competent to read music correctly, or sustain an independent part. Mr. Badger was a competent and enthusi- astic chorister, holding weekly meetings at his residence for instruction and rehearsal. Mr. George E. Hahnbaum, the first superintendent of our Sabbath school, was another en- thusiast about the promotion of church music, and a valuable assistant to Mr. Badger. In 1822, Mr. Badger resigned the leadership of the choir and Mr. Guerry was elected to that office and served for two years, being succeeded in 1824 by Dr. Nash.

It was at this time that the violincello was introduced into the choir. Quite a number of the congregation were old- fashioned in their views about the services of the church, and not favorably disposed to the introduction of instrumental music. We have heard that on one Sunday morning, when the choir, gathered in the gallery, they were surprised to find the violincello securely locked to one end of the gallery with a chain and padlock, and the bow fastened firmly to the other end of the gallery. No one knew who had thus practically, but effectually, protested against instrumental music, but there was no plajdng of the violincello that Sunday, or for several Sundays thereafter.

Mr. Nash resigned in 1826, and was succeeded by Mr. Wheel- er, who served until 1828, when Mr. Roe took charge of the choir for several years, but left to be organist of the First Pres- byterian Church.

Mr. Thomas R. Vardell and Mr. Fleetwood Lanneau were then appointed to jointly conduct the singing until the ensuing anniversary, at which time the offices of clerk and sexton, heretofore united, were divided, and conferred upon different men. Mr. Lanneau was elected clerk and Mr. Vardell was elected sexton. These two gentlemen led the singing for sev- eral years, while Mr. Biglow played the violincello. Mr. Lan- neau having resigned, Mr. Vardell was elected clerk, and dur- ing his entire administration the performance of the choir was most pleasing and satisfactory to the congregation. He died in 1848.

At the next anniversary Mr. William G. Vardell was chosen clerk and conducted the singing for many years. Just before

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the meeting of General Assembly in this church, in May, 1852, Dr. Honour was appointed chorister. About this time a melodeon was introduced to help in the choir services during the session of this Court of the Church. Dr. Honour for many years continued the leadership of the choir, and great satis- faction and praise for their devoted and satisfactory services belong to all connected with the choir, but especially to the ladies, who had so long and so efficiently contributed to this delightful and inspiring part of Divine worship. Shortly after this the organ was installed, and has continued ever since to lead our singing.

Domestic Missions.

We have already spoken of the zeal and liberality of this church for foreign missions, but it was equally as active in the cause of domestic missions. Besides frequent mission schools and enterprises in the northeast and northwest por- tion of our city which were largely supported by the subscrip- tions and personal labors of its members, including Ebenezer Church, there were two church organizations in our city that owe their origin to the Second Presbyterian Church.

We find that in November, 1846, the Rev. A. A. Porter was engaged as a temporary supply for our pulpit. For some- time it had been felt that there was need and room for another Presbyterian Church in our city, and this suggestion met the cordial approval and support of the Pastor, the Session and the congregation of the Second Presbyterian Church. In March, 1847, a special committee of the session, consist- ing of Elders J. M. Caldwell, William Harrall, William Adger and John Caldwell, were appointed to obtain subscriptions to secure a permanent place of worship for the new Presbyte- rian Church, with the Rev. A. A. Porter as its pastor. In July, 1847, this committee reported they had raised $10,205. This church was located on Glebe street, and was formally organized in May, 1847, with the full sanction and hearty God- speed of the Second Church. At a meeting of its Session in July, 1847, three of its ruling elders, Messrs. J. M. Caldwell, William Harrall and John Caldwell, with other valuable mem bers, in all thirty-seven persons, were dismissed at their own request to join and form the Glebe Street Presbyterian Church. The relation between these two churches continued from the first most cordial, and the records show that they united fre- quently in Communion services at one or other of these churches.

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At a meeting of the Session of the Second Presbyterian Church, held in May, 1847, a church for colored people was formally organized, with the Rev. John B. Adger, a returned missionary from Asia Minor, as pastor, under the name of the Anson Street Presbyterian Church. At a subsequent meeting of the Session, on May 9, 1848, forty-eight colored members of the Second Presbyterian Church were dismissed to join the Colored Presbyterian Church on Anson street. The Rev. J. L. Girardeau succeeded Dr. Adger as pastor of this colored church, and under his ministry the church grew rapidly, with a large increase of colored members, and later on with a white membership also. In April, 1858, quite a number of the white communicants of the Second Church were dismissed to join this Zion Presbyterian Church, of which Dr. Girardeau was pas- tor. Shortly after this, largely by the liberality of the mem- bers of the Second Church, the lot was bought and the building erected on Calhoun steret, which is still held by trustees for use in worship of colored Presbyterians.

To-day.

To-day the Second Presbyterian Church starts off upon her second century.

She is arrayed in as fresh and shining garments as when one hundred years ago she came fair and beautiful from the builder's hands.

Her debts have all been fully paid. The salaries she pro- mised have all been promptly settled.

She goes forward unhesitatingly into the unknown future trusting in that covenant-keeping God, who has graciously fulfilled His promises made to our fathers to be the God of their children and their children's children; who has so faith- fully guarded and preserved this magnificient temple amid the raging of storm and cyclone, the roar of shot and shell, the exposure to conflagration, the devastation of earthquake and the vicissitudes of the years just ended, relying upon that same love and devotion from the third and fourth generation of the descendants of her founders and builders who labored and made willing sacrifices for her a century ago.

The Work of the Church Among the

Children*

An Historical Sketch of the Sunday School of the Second Presbyterian Church, of Charleston, S* C.

Compiled and Read by Mr. Richard W. Hutson.

EXERCISES OF SUNDAY, MAY 2, 1909.

The Sunday school of the Second Presbyterian Church of Charleston, S. C, was organized in the year 1818, by Mr. and Mrs. Geo. E. Hahnbaum. It was the second Sunday school organized in this city.

Mr. and Mrs. Hahnbaum were both members of the Con- gregational (or Circular) Church, of Charleston, and they had about two years previous, started, in connection with that Church, the first Sunday school in the city. This attracted the attention of some of the members of the Second Presbyterian Church and an invitation was extended to Mr. and Mrs. Hahn- baum to start a school there They consented, and organized it in 1818.*

The first Superintendent of the School was Mr. George E. Hahnbaum himself, Mrs. Hahnbaum being his assistant. It was organized as distinct from the Church, and was not at that time under the direction of Session. For this and other reasons Rev. Dr. Andrew Flinn, pastor of the Church, at first opposed it regarding the work as too secular in its nature. But he soon became convinced of its usefulness, and was ever after- wards its zealous supporter. He preached a sermon to the children on the first anniversary of the school.

The first meeting place for the school was in the south gal- lery of the Church, which then afforded ample accommoda- tions for all attendants.

*A Sunday School Union Society was formed September, 1819, though there were Sabbath schools in the Circular Church in January, 1817, in the Second Church in 1818, in the Archdale Street Church in July, 1819, and an Association had existed in 1816 — History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Rev. George Howe, D. D., vol. II, p. 229.

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After the school was firmly established, Mr. and Mrs. Hahnbaum returned to the Circular Church and to their work there. This was about the year 1822, and the Rev. Bazil Gildersleeve was elected Superintendent of the School, which office he retained for seventeen years. In the year 1838, we find from the Manual of the Church then published, that the Assistant Superintendent of the School was Mr. Chas. S. Simon- ton. Dr. Gildersleeve taught the Female Bible Class. Mrs. Isaac Johnson was the female superintendent with Mrs. Ann Cald- well as assistant. Miss Susan Ruberry was teacher of the In- fant Class, and James W. Stillman, Secretary, Librarian and Treasurer. There were thirteen male teachers, as follows: Messrs. John Vardell, C. S. Simonton, D. W. Harrison, C. P. Frazer, Robert L. Church, Robert Tweed, Wm. P. Levy, John Pascoe, G. W. Patterson, John Dewees; Rev. B. Gildersleeve, Female Bible Class, C. J. Sparks, Assistant Teacher; Thomas R. Vardell, Male Bible Class. The female teachers were twelve in number, as follows: Miss Margaret Bennett, Miss Hannah P. Raymond, Miss Susan Vardell, Miss Eliza Auld, Miss Gardenia Gibbs, Mrs. S. Robertson, Miss Phillippa Burney, Miss Susan D. Adger, Miss Mary A. Stillman, Miss S. Anthony, Miss Susan Bell, Miss Ursula Nell. There was also besides a Sabbath school held for colored persons, after the morning service.

Great Prosperity.

Dr. Gildersleeve resigned the office of Superintendent in 1839, when Mr. Thomas R. Vardell was elected. He con- tinued in office until his death in 1850, and under his manage- ment the school flourished. During the revival of 1846 one hundred and thirty from the Sunday school joined the Church. Mr. Vardell was a great singer and paid special attention to the music of the school.

About this time Miss Susan Vardell became the teacher of the Infant Class, and remained in charge of it for many years.

Some now connected with the Church may remember being her pupils. In 1850, on the death of Mr. Vardell, Mr. W. H. Beach, a gentleman from the North, was elected Superintend- ent and served until his removal from the city two years later. Mr. Beach was also a good musician and paid great attention to the music in the school. The school was very prosperous during this administration, the attendance often reaching the three hundred mark.

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Under the Session.

At this time the rules for the government of the school were changed, and the school was placed under the direct control of the Session, an Elder acting as Superintendent. In April, 1853, an elder, Mr. William Adger, was elected Superin- tendent with Major Gilchrist as assistant. The School then numbered forty teachers, with over three hundred scholars on the roll One thousand volumes were added to the Library and properly catalogued. Mr. William Adger died in New York in December, 1853. The next year Major R. C. Gil- christ was elected Superintendent with Mr. James Dilling- ham as assistant, both gentlemen being elders of the Church. The female superintendents were Mrs. Isaac Johnson and Miss Susan D. Adger. The Secretary and Treasurer was Mr. William Dewees; the Librarians, Mr J. Ellison Adger and Mr. A. McD. Brown. The Male Bible Class teachers were Messrs. A. F. Browning and Charles H. Simonton, and the Female Bible Class teachers were Mrs. Thomas Smyth and Mrs. S.J. Robinson. The Infant Class teachers were Misses C. Johnson and GraciaLanneau. Mr. Dillingham served as Assistant Superin- tendent until his death about 1864, when Mr. C. N. Averill was elected in his place. The school continued under the charge of Major Gilchrist, assisted by Mr. Averill, for thirty years. During that period the attendance was large and regular, and there were many additions to the Church from among the scholars. The position of female superintendent, with its duties of taking the census of the school, and looking after its general order and welfare, was continued after the war, and Miss Anna Simonton filled that position very acceptably for many years. The office was discontinued for a long time, then revived again in 1894, when Miss Sarah Annie Smyth was elected. In 1883, both Major Gilchrist and Mr. Averill re- signed. For some time the school was without any regular superintendent but the exercises were carried on under the efficient charge of Mr. F. F. Whilden. Special mention should be made of the devoted labors of Mr. A. R. Stillman who was elected Superintendent and consented to fill the office for a limited term.

Erection of Sunday School Building.

In January, 1885, Mr. Augustine T. Smythe was elected Superintendent, Mr. F. F. Whilden, Assistant, Mr. Hall T. McGee, Secretary and Treasurer and Mr. John W. Robson,

Pastor 1872-1902.

Photograph by Austin, Charleston, S. C.

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Assistant Secretary and Librarian. Miss Gracia Lanneau having resigned her charge of the Infant Class which she had held, with great acceptance, for thirty }rears, Mrs. Mary S. Whilden was elected her successor, assisted by Miss Mary Whilden and Mrs. Sarah Gardner. Mr. J. Adger Smyth took charge of the Male Bible Class and Mrs. G. H. Moffett, Miss Jane Ann Adger and Mrs. Mary R. McD. Stickney of the Female Bible Classes. As early as 1881 it became obvious that the school was out growing its quarters, and a "Sunday School Society," made up chiefly of Sunday school members, was formed with the object of procuring funds for the erection of a new and convenient building. The first President was Mrs. Mary T. Robinson who was called away in the midst of her devoted labor. She was succeeded by Mrs. James Allan who prosecuted the work with equal energy and zeal. In November 1881 a lot was purchased and in May 1887 the present Sunday school building was dedicated.

Pastor's Adult Class.

The pastor, Rev. G. R. Brackett, D. D., assumed the office of teacher, and, the night services being suspended, began to lecture on the Sunday school lesson to the adults of the congre- gation. The pastor's class room accommodates about seventy, and was usually well filled with members of this congregation and strangers. These changes in the organization and manage- ment of the school were due to the practical wisdom and ad- ministrative ability of the Superintendent, Hon. A. T. Smythe. The singing was led by a gifted and enthusiastic vocalist, Mr. F. F. Whilden and the orchestra was conducted by an accom- plished musician, Mr. Laurence Reynolds. In October, 1893, Mr. Smythe was compelled to resign on account of his health. The following December Mr. Hall T. McGee, who for eight years had discharged the duties of Secretary with great fidelity, also resigned.

A School With National Reputation.

Mr. F. F. Whilden was then elected Superintendent, Mr. J. W. Robson, Secretary and Mr. Robt. A. Smyth, Assistant Secretary; Miss S. A. Smyth, Assistant Female Superintend- ent. Infant Class Teachers Mrs. Mary S. Whilden, Assistants Miss Lillie Carrere, Mrs. Sarah Gardner; Male Bible Class, J. Adger Smyth. Female Bible Class, Mrs. E. H. Moffett. Dur- ing the incumbency of Mr. Whilden the school flourished and

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grew in numbers and usefulness. The music was a conspicu- ous feature of the service. The school had a national reputa- tion. On one occasion the Rev. Dr. Moses D. Hoge of Rich- mond, Virginia, visited the school and remarked that he had heard a great deal of it, but that the half had not been told. After a useful and practical administration of four years, Mr. Whilclen resigned to accept the position of Field Secretary of the State Sunday School Association of S. C.

In 1897, Mr. James Allan, Jr., was elected Superintendent, the other officers continuing the same as under Mr. Whilden. Mr. Allan's administration was comparatively a short one, but during that time the school maintained the record it had made for efficiency and zeal in the work of training the youth of the church. Mr. Allan resigned on account of his removal from the city, and in July, 1901, Mr. T. Allen Legare, a great- grandson of the first Treasurer of our Church, was elected Superintendent, Mr. L. Cheves McCord Smythe, Assistant Superintendent, Mr. Jno. W. Robson still holding the position of Secretary and Treasurer. In 1907 Mr. Robson became Honorary Secretary after an active service of twenty-four years, when Mr. John Frampton was elected Secretary with Mr. Hall T. McGee, Assistant. Several important features have been added to the work of the school during Mr. Legare 's administration, among which should be mentioned the Cradle Roll, the Home Study Department, and the Missionary De- partment.

Cradle Roll and Home Study.

The Cradle Roll has for its purpose the linking of each child to the Sunday school from earliest infancy to the time it enters the Infant Class. The Home Department extends the influence of the Sunday school to the older members of the, family, and keeps them in actual touch and sympathy with the Sunday school, Miss M. A. Timmons is the Superinten- dent and Dr. Sarah Allan, Miss S. P. Bliss, Mrs. E. F. Mis- cally, Mrs. M. P. Shaw, Mrs. J. S. Riggs and Miss Amey N. Allan are the Visitors in charge of this Department. Mr. A. Geo. McDermid is Secretary in charge of the important work of the Missionary Department, which has for its object the inculca- tion of the Missionary spirit in the children, aiming to give them an intelligent appreciation of their responsibility toward both the Home and Foreign field. The organization of these Departments places the school in the front rank of progressive Sunday schools and the selection of the officers in charge in- sures the success of each department.

$3

Present Sunday School Organization.

The Infant Class is ably managed by Miss S. R. Smyth, who succeeded Mrs. Whilden in that responsible position. She is admirably assisted by Miss E. J. Adger and Miss Florence Bolger. The Young Men's Bible Class under Mr. W. S. Allan, and the Young Ladies' Bible Class under Miss S. A. Smyth are well attended.

Dr. Fraser conducts a teaching service for the benefit of the older members of the congregation, while the other classes are faithfully conducted by the following teachers:

Mr. J. N. Robson, Miss Helen Mclndoe.

Mr. J. M. Frampton, Miss Fannie McNeill.

Mr. E. A. Fripp, Miss Mary Braileford.

Miss Mattie Knox, Miss A.N. Allan.

Mrs. J. K. G. Fraser, Miss Jessie Bolger,

Mrs. Stickney, Miss Lillie Fogartie.

Miss J. A. Prince, Miss Janie McCormick.

Miss M. C. Mustard, Miss Eva McNeill.

Miss Marion Steinmeyer, Miss Susie McGee.

The music with Miss Jennie G. Rose as the efficient organist, and Mr. Aldret, Mrs. Walker, Mrs. Robinson and others as the choir, forms an inspiring and enjoyable part of the regular Sunday school service. The Library is in charge of Mr. Colin McK. Rose, assisted by Mr. Chas. Steinmeyer, and these officers have for a number of years faithfully discharged their duties.

Missions and Charity Work.

The offerings of the school are applied alternately each Sunday to the cause of Foreign Missions and the support of the school. This custom has been in vogue for somej time. On the Sunday before Christmas the offering is set apart for the Thornwell Orphanage of Clinton, S. C.

A praiseworthy custom, which has been indulged in for many years, is the making of Comfort Bags containing useful articles, such as needles, thread, buttons and the like, and a Bible, and these are given through the Port Society here, to the sailors of the various ships which come to this harbor. The Word of God is thus sown as seed to the four corners of the earth.

Too much praise can not be given to Mr. Legare and Mr. Smyth and the faithful corps of teachers associated with them

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in the work of the school. This band of Christian workers realize that the Sunday , school is essentially a training school for life, and their aim is to present the principles of the re- ligious life in such a way as to make that life attractive and desirable, to make practical application of the weekly lessons, and thus impress upon the plastic minds committed to their care the fact that religion has to do in largest measure with every-day-living, that creed should be crystallized into con- duct in order to be effective.

Let us work and pray that the future of our school may never prove unworthy of its inspiring past, that the coming century like the one now gone into history may always find it in the front rank of those efficient agencies having for their aim the spread of Christ's kingdom in the earth.

Sunday Schools: Past and Present*

An Historical Address Made by Mr* Frank Fleetwood

Whilden, as a Portion of the Exercises of

Sunday Afternoon, May 2, 1909,

This is our birthday anniversary and we are eighty-seven years old today. Many happy returns of the day, and may God richly bless you all with health and strength to do many years of successful service in this school and His Kingdom. How old you are getting to be and with the growth of each year comes the added responsibility of experience and better organization and methods.

What means this gathering today? Why is this grand edi- fice crowded? Men have left their business, the mothers and wives their household duties. Why the answer is clearly in evidence before us. It is the children.

In the times before Christ, children had rather a small place and were not much cared for. A picture I have of an East- ern School, shows the teacher with a large rod or stick, to de- mand control by fear. Today the Sunday school is managed entirely by love. Christ said "Suffer the little children," the Jews around him said "Keep them away." Christ hon- ored childhood, and today the nation is looking more care- fully to the training of the children, both in temporal and re- ligious matters.

One of the finest gatherings I have attended in years, participated in by the wisest, best and most influential men of this great country, was in the interest of the children, and today we are all looking to the very best for the children.

Let us go back a century or more and compare the Sunday school then with the Sunday school of the present day. Let us look at what may be called the birth of the Sunday school, and see how the work was commenced and how it has grown in a century and one quarter.

Robert Raikes

The name of Robert Raikes is as familiar as many house- hold words, but few know of his life and struggles to put on

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foot his great movement, that was destined under God to rev- olutionize the world.

Robert Raikes was born in 1706, the son of a printer in Glou- cester.

Let us look at a man rather tall, and comfortably stout, stylish in appearance, attired in a dark blue coat, but colored fancy waistcoat and silver and gold buttons, cambric frills and ruffs, nankeen knee breeches, white silk stockings, low quar- tered shoes and large silver buckles, a gold-headed cane. He wore a brown wig with a double row of curls and a three-cor- nered hat.

He was a man of gay and joyous temperament, a kind and affectionate husband and father. He was a good business man, steady, methodical and very tenacious of purpose. Kind- ly and benevolent, and withal a touch of vanity, that some- times marks the self-made man.

He was the proprietor of the only press in a large district for many years and thus was brought in contact with people with literary tastes and those who were socially far above him.

His attention was at first drawn to the deplorable condi- tion of the prisons, and he put forth efforts for a number of years to make a better condition of affairs for those who were confined in them, many of whom were poor men put there for debt, and in this work he came in contact with the lower element of society, that formed a continual procession ripe or ripening for the gallows.

He concluded their condition was due largely to ignorance and idleness and that reformation could be secured by re- straint and instruction. Sometime about 1780, after varied experiments and much meditation it came into his mind to attempt the problem through the children.

Gloucester was the seat of the pin industry and child labor was largely employed. On Sunday the children who had toiled through the week were turned loose to riot in all sorts of vice, filthy, degraded, with the pitiable slum-born look written all over their faces, these were the conditions that met him on the streets of the Cathedral town.

Robert Raikes at Gloucester.

In 1780 at the age of forty-four years, he began the experiment which he pursued without publicity for three years, to see what discipline and instruction would do for this neglected class.

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His start was in "Sooty Alley" where he got twelve boys and paid a poor woman a shilling (24c) a day to teach. Raikes was greeted on the streets at times, ' ' Here comes Bobby Wild Goose and his ragged regiment."

At the end of three years he was very well satisfied with his experiment and the great scheme of popular education began slowly to mature in his mind. Through his newspaper "The Gentlemen's Magazine" he began to secure the interest of such men as Wesleys and Whitefield. On November 3, 1783, we can call the birth of the Sunday school, as a perma- nent movement. In 1784 there were five schools in Glouces- ter with 77 boys and 88 girls, and as a mark of civilization the girls were allowed to wear bonnets.

The schools were under the management of a Board and the rules were prepared by Raikes, as was also a Text-book, called "Reading made easy," they were to be used in the Sunday school as well as the day school. The movement soon be- came popular and in four years there were 250.000 scholars in the school of the Kingdom of England, and the improve- ment in the morals of the children and the decrease of crime was remarkable.

In 1784 John Wesley wrote "Perhaps God may have a deeper end thereto than men are aware of. Who knows but what some of these schools may become nurseries for Christ- ians."

Robert Raikes retired from business in 1802. He had lived to see his original company of twelve boys grow to an army of a quarter of a million, and the movement which he originated, adopted in Wales, Scotland, Ireland and also America, an experiment which now looks so simple and so humble as that of trying to lure these ragged children of wretchedness to a church service and paying some poor woman a shilling a day to teach them, resulted not only in a marked improvement in morals among the children of Gloucester but gave to the 19th Century and the world the most potent instrument for moral and religious advancement, to be passed on to the 20th Century for a development beyond the dreams of the most sanguine.

Robert Raikes died in 1811, seventy-five years of age, after an illness of only one half an hour. The children of his own school followed his body to the grave, singing Sunday school hymns as they went. Thus closed the great life which God had ordained as an index to a work which was destined to win the world for Christ.

58 Coming near home.

The Rev. John Wesley took charge of Christ Episcopal Church at Savannah, Ga. on the 7th of March, 1736. His most important work in the parish was the establishment of a Sunday school under the Superintendence of Mr. Delamotte. This church can justly claim to be the leader in Sunday school work in America, for this Sunday school says Bishop Stevens, was organized nearly fifty years before Robert Rakes organized the scheme of Sunday instruction in his Gloucester, England school, and so years before the first Sunday school was es- tablished on Mr. Raikes' plan in New York.

The Sunday School of the old Independent Presbyterian Church of Savannah, Ga., was organized in 1804, 105 years ago. This school was organized during the life of Robert Rakes, whether from direct suggestion or personal influence we do not know. In the Sunday school building there is an oil painting of Raikes said to have been presented by himself to the school. The celebrated Lowell Mason was superintend- ent of this school during the early part of the last century, and during his administration the school began meeting on Sundays, prior to that time it met on Saturday.

On a tombstone is found the following:

"Mrs. Mary Lake held Sunday school in the block house at Marietta, Ohio, from 1791 to 1795."

This was the first school in Ohio, and one of the first in the United States.

In Charleston.

The first Sunday school in Charleston and the first in the State, was started by Mr. and Mrs. Geo. E. Hahnbaum, in the Circular Church (old White Meeting) in 1818. For sometime they were the only teachers, but the movements gradually grew in favor and the school increased in number, but was never very largely attended for the first few years of its existence. Mr. Hahnbaum was a German by birth and education, and married a Charleston lady who greatly assisted him in his work. For five years and until 1822 this was the only Sunday school in Charleston.* In that year by the request of the officers of the Second Presbyterian church, Mr. Hahnbaum assisted in organizing a Sunday school in that church

* Withjregard to the year of the establishment of the various pioneer Sunday schools in Charleston, see data from Howe's History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, quoted in a foot note, appended to the address by Mr. Hutson, page 48.

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and superintended it until it was in running order. This school has been blessed with great success in its work. We look back in 1887 and see the long line of its superintendents beginning with Jno. Hahnbaum, Basil Gildersleeve , Thos. Vardell, Wm. Adger, W. H. Beach, C. N. Averill, R. C. Gil- christ, Aug. T. Smythe, F. F. Whilden, T. Allen Legare, W. S. Allan, of this number Smyth, Whilden and Allen Legare are still living and working.

Later on other schools sprang up. Mr. Hahnbaum was the pioneer in this work and his efforts have signally blessed for now every Church has its Sunday school. Mr. Hahnbaum was a sweet singer and singing was made a feature of the ex- ercises. In those days all the hymns were from the Church hymn book. The teaching was directly from the Bible and Church Catechism. Later on a book of questions was in- troduced and though now out of date, was a most excellent book for Sunday school use. It was in use by all Sunday schools for nearly seventy years, and the early religious in- struction in the Sunday school is associated with the little blue question book.

Marvellous Progress and Change.

Robert Raikes' school started with three features, all of which were soon done away with. First, the paying of teach- ers. Second, instruction in the rudiments of learning, such as spelling and reading. Third, limiting the Sunday school to the lower classes only.

It is interesting to compare with today what was estimated in 1827 as the cash value of contribution of Sunday school teachers. At 33 cents a Sabbath, the established rate at which teachers were first paid, today, at the same valuation the Sunday school officers and teachers of the International field are contributing $26,717,210, and think of the voluntary ser- vices of men and women today, that no amount of money could buy. This work like all great movements met with severe opposition. As late as 1820, in a town in Connecticut a young girl gathered a class in the gallery of a church; when discovered she was forbidden by the pastor and church authori- ties on the ground that she was desecrating God's day and God's house, and the pastor told her to leave, and spoke of the party as "You imps of Satan, doing the devil's work."

See the wonderful change in 50 years. For in 1876 Dr. Horace Bushnell, perhaps the greatest moulder of theological thought in the 19th Century said "Now I have come to see

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that the work of the Sunday school is the greatest work in the World. Sometimes I think it is the only work." Since 1876 four Presidents of this great nation, Grant, Hayes, McKinley and Roosevelt, have from the Presidential chair written special messages of counsel and encouragement to the Sunday school workers of this land. God in His wise Providence has ap- pointed two great bodies, organized for the purpose of further- ing His Great Work, among the children.

One is the American Sunday School Union, which has for its special object the establishing of Sunday schools in destitute places, with men sent out well equipped in heart and mind to do this special work and who have been greatly blessed, and much success met with, and today churches are found all over the land, as the outcome of the organizing of a Sunday school in what was once a destitute territory.

The other great body is the International Sunday School Association, which arranges for the organization of all schools into Conventions and Institutes and have them taught and trained for better work. One organizes and assembles, the other teaches and trains.

The modes of teaching have been wonderfully improved, originally it was to memorize parrot fashion, a large number of verses of scripture, without understanding anything of what they said. Today we still have the memory system but confined to a few verses with each class, having a teacher to explain and illustrate what the children learn.

In 1872 the Uniform lessons were adopted and this made possible a steady improvement in Sunday school literature, both in book and periodical, as an aid to the Bible, for Officers, Teachers and Pupils. Today the whole world is studying the same lesson, from the same passage of God's word.

We find that in 1832 the first National Sunday School Con- vention assembled in New York, of 28 States and Territories then, 14 were represented by 220 delegates. Compare this with the Convention of 1905 at Toronto, when Central America, Cuba, Hawaii, Mexico, Montana, Philippines, Porto Rico, and England and all over the United States, over 3,000 de- legates were present, and representing in the world 262,131 Sunday schools, 2,426,888 teachers, 22,730,323 scholars, or a grand army of 25,614,916 enlisted in this great army, of which, Jesus Christ is Commander in Chief.

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Our Work is Boundless.

Truly we have a goodly heritage. Let us go into the average well equipped Sunday school of today, we find firsthand fore- most in the work, the pastor, with his loving care and guiding hand, and spiritual influence. The school is thoroughly organi- zed in its own building, with Superintendent, Assistant, Secre- tary, Treasurer, Librarian, Ushers, Teachers and large number of pupils, oftentimes spirited singing, accompanied with instruments. Add to the joy of the praise service, black- boards, charts, models and a Bible in the hand of each scholar, makes the study of the word, at once entertaining as well as instructive. The hour for meeting is fully occupied, and passes quickly, making an earnest desire in the hearts of those attending, to have another session as early as possible.

The work of school does not cease on Sunday, but is dilli- gently pursued all through the week, by officers and teachers and Home Department, and cradle roll workers, with miss- ion bands and boys' brigades, all making jovous in the love of God.

It is a high honor in the world today to be enrolled in this mighty army which contains some of the mighty men of our land. In a class next to the one I teach each Sunday is one of the high officials of our State, while veterans, with one coat-sleeve empty, who have fought for their country, are now proud and happy to fight for the Prince of Peace, against the armies of Satan.

I have listened to men of high rank in both business and pro- fessional life as they taught the word to eager listeners. With great occasions as Ptally Day, Decision Day, Anniversary Day, there is a constant stimulus, an eager looking forward to, an incentive for higher and better work, and more punctual attendance .

Go with me as we visit the up-to-date Sunday school, be- ginning with its cradle roll, and going by regular gradations up through to the Home Department where we find the ' ' Shut In's" and the enfeebled all at work. The Sunday school of today is the whole church studying the Bible. You and I are a part of this organized army. Some have more im- portant duties than others, some lead, others follow, but the responsibility of Teachers, Leaders and Scholars is all the same. What will we do for its success?

The Educational Work of the Church*

Historical Review of the Work of the Ladies' Educa- tion Society of the Second Presbyterian Church.

Compiled by Miss Sarah Ann Smyth.

EXERCISES OF MONDAY, MAY 3, 1909.

The Ladies' Education Society of the Second Presbyterian Church dates back to the earliest years of the Church's ex- istence.

The work of education was carried on at first in connection with "the Congregational and Presbyterian Association" of the city. This connection existed in 1815 and continued until 1821, six years.

The congregation of this Church, having grown and strength- ened, under the fostering care of their first pastor, now realized its own powers and abilities When Mr. Boies became pastor, after Dr. Flinn's death, he felt it advisable that the women should form their own Education Society, distinct from the general Association to be called the Second Female Education Society. The meeting to organize was held, and about fifty ladies were present. They withdrew from the older Associa- tion, in a friendly, harmonious manner; many members of the other congregations while remaining in the older Society en- couraged this new enterprise by joining it as well, some of them becoming life members

Mrs. Alexander Black, wife of one of the founders of the Church, was elected president; Mrs. Samuel Robertson, vice- pre ident, and Miss Elizabeth Robertson, secretary and treas- urer. Four directresses were appointed, their duty being to cut out and prepare the work for the members. When finished the work was sold by the directresses and the money placed in the treasury.

A constitution was drawn up, the first article designating the name, Second Female Education Society of Charleston.

Second Article, the object of this Society: To assist in educa- ting some pious, promising young men of talent, preparatory

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to a course of theological studies or in maintaining them at the Theological Seminary at Princeton, which students shall be from the State of South Carolina, unless none such can be ob- tained, and then to be selected from any other State the Society shall approve.

Third Article: This Society shall meet weekly; each meeting shall be opened with reading the Scriptures; one of the members shall read during the meeting some appropriate and instructive book, that reader to be appointed monthly; the meeting to be closed with prayer The other articles of the constitution refer to the duties of officers, to their election, etc.

The meetings were to be held weekly, on Thursday morning from 11 until 2 o'clock. The dues to be one dollar yearly. The payment of ten dollars constituted one a life member.

The minutes of those early meetings show the deep earnest- ness of the members, and their regular attendance. Mr. Boies took great interest in the work, and often met with the ladies — encouraging by his presence and sympathy, and as- sisting in the correspondence necessary in choosing a suitable beneficiary.

Assistance to Students for the Ministry.

Mr. LeRoy Davis, from South Carolina, applied for assist- ance to the Society. After much discussion as to his claims, and those of another candidate from Virginia, it was decided to take Mr. Davis as their beneficiary, and in December, 1822, he complied with the requirements of the constitution by re- porting to Princeton Seminary. He finished his theological studies in 1825, being under the care of the Society for four years, and receiving from them in that time the sum of six hundred dollars.

In 1824 it was deemed best, the amount raised yearly by the Society not being sufficient to enable a student at Princeton to meet all expenses, that this money should be sent to the Board of Education of the General Assembly, to be used by their agent, the Rev. S. S. Davis, in assisting needy theological students. This plan was adopted and continued for ten years, and the amount sent to the board was $2,030.

In the meantime the Synods of South Carolina and Georgia determined to build a Theological Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina, which was opened for students in 1830. This was a cause of great rejoicing and great benefit to the young men of the South. It necessitated, however, a change in the constitution of this Society, which in 1832 was necessarily

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modified to meet the new conditions. At the same time the name was changed to the Female Education Society of the Second Presbyterian Church.

Article II was changed to read thus: "The object of this Society, as auxiliary to the General Assembly's Board of Educa- tion, shall be to assist in educating pious young men for the Gospel ministry, preference being always given to those who are natives of our own State, and also to the Theological Semin- ary of our own Synod." After this the beneficiaries of this Society usually attended the Seminary at Columbia.

Work: Social and Serious.

Anniversary meetings were always of great interest, and were well attended, The pastors of the Church met with the ladies, and after the business was attended to and reports read, addressed them in words of commendation, stimulating and urging them to greater efforts.

The weekly meetings of the Education Society were of great benefit to the women of the Church, not onby because of the work done there, and the more serious matters discussed and provided for, but as pleasant social gatherings, where they learned to know and appreciate each other. Occasionally they were visited by strangers in the city, ministers from other places, who were brought to their meetings by their pastor. As may be imagined these visits were most interesting and en- couraging.

But, in spite of all this prosperity and enthusiasm, we see by the records that, as is always the way in societies, there were periods of depression, just such as we ourselves meet at times. We need not, therefore, feel discouraged or envious of our mothers, but only realize that, like them, we must persevere and overcome indifference and misfortunes.

While it had been generally the habit to meet at the homes of different members for quite a long period the Society met in the parlor of the Charleston Orphan House. At least one of the members still remembers that, as a child, she was taken there regular y to make herself useful by threading the needles for the old ladies.

"The Society Basket."

The office of directress continued in 1837, when a change was made in the manner of selling the work. It had become quite a hard task for the directresses to dispose of the work, and yet the income of the Society depended largely on these sales.

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The use of the basket began and a reliable person was employed, and a small percentage paid on the sales. This plan and the use of the basket has been a feature of the Society ever since.

An Historical Legacy.

In 1855 an active and liberal member, Miss Sarah Arms, died leaving a portion of her property, one thousand dollars, to the Society, to be used in educating young men for the ministry. This legacy was known as the Arms' Legacy. The amount was invested and only the interest used. We quote from the annual report of the treasurer, November, 1873: "During the war between the States, as a matter of course, the principal had to be invested in Confederate bonds, and, as we supposed, therefore, was all lost. We have recently heard this was not entirely so. The executors of Miss Arms' will did invest five hundred in one bond, which was lost The other five hundred dollars was held by another gentleman, Mr. Robert Adger, who has told us lately that he still has it in his possession, and with the interest accruing, which he is willing to pay, it has increased to an amount more than the original one thousand dollars. This sum he holds subject to our order, and as we supposed it would be deemed best to allow it to remain with him. Efe will continue to pay us the lawful interest, and we can draw from him every year seventy dollars."

This amount of one thousand dollars was paid over to the treasurer in 1881, and placed in the Germania Savings Bank in Charleston, S. C. The interest thereof is used yearly when necessary to make up the full amount to defray our pledges.

The Society also received a legacy from Miss Annie R. Rob- inson of one thousand dollars. This amount was not paid over until 1907 and owing to some legal difficulties the Soci- ety received only $737.56. The members of the Society de- cided to invest this sum and to add the yearly interest until the amount reaches one thousand dollars. (The amount has increased to $825.63.) Then as with Miss Arms' legacy to use the interest.

Liberality of the Men of the Church.

While this has been a woman's society, it has never been neglected by the men of the Church. Their donations, from the earliest beginning of the work to the present time, have been continued and generous. By their liberality we have been enabled to meet all calls upon the treasury, and to

66

keep up all obligations entered into. We have never failed in promises to a beneficiary.

Immediately after the war in 1869, when the Society was again taking up its work, Mr. J. N. Robson came forward, and offered to contribute two hundred dollars a year. This timely aid inspired the members with renewed courage and determination to push on.

Officers and Members.

Mrs. T. Charlton Henry, wife of the Rev. Dr. Henry, was the second president of the Education Society, with Mrs. John Robinson as vice president, and Miss Elizabeth Robertson secretary and treasurer. Mrs. Henry continued in office un- til after the death of Dr. Henry in 1828.

Mrs. Gibbs held the office for two years, with Mrs. Isaac A. Johnson as vice president. In December, 1831, Mrs. John- son was elected president, and continued so, with the excep- tion of two years, until 1840, when Mrs. Thomas Smyth, who had been secretary and treasurer since 1830, was elected pres- ident. Mrs. Samuel Robertson, who had been vice president when the society was organized, was re-elected to that office and Miss Susan D. Adger was secretary and treasurer. These ladies continued in office until their removal by death. Mrs. Robertson in 1893, and Mrs. Smyth and Miss Adger the same year, 1884, each having been in office fifty years.

The history of the Society during this long period was most remarkable. The list of members increased to 150 active members in 1846. The meetings were large and enthusiastic and the amount of work, subscriptions and donations multi- plied.

It is interesting to note that during the war the Society con- tinued to hold its meetings until 1863, but was obliged then to stop, as the members were scattered.

In 1884 Mrs. G. R. Brackett became president, and Miss Jane A. Adger secretary and treasurer. Miss Adger died in 1889, when Miss Sarah A. Smyth was elected to fill her place as secretary and treasurer.

After the death of the Rev. Dr. Brackett, in 1903, Mrs. Brackett left the city and resigned her office.

Mrs. J. Ellison Adger, daughter of a former president, Mrs. Isaac A. Johnson, was elected president and served until her death, in 1905, with Miss S. A. Smyth as secretary and treas- urer.

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On the death of Mrs. Adger, Miss Sarah A. Smyth was elected president and treasurer, and Mrs. J. E. Edgerton vice presi- dent. Mrs. Edgerton remained in office two years when she declined re-election. Miss Elizabeth J. Adger took her place, and thus inherits the work, not only of her mother, but of her grandmother.

The present officers are Miss S. A. Smyth, president and treasurer, and Miss Elizabeth J. Adger, vice president. Miss Adger has charge of the basket and its supplies.

To return to the earlier records :

Assistance- Given to Men of Mark.

The Education Society continued until 1836 to send its funds through the Rev. S. S. Davis, agent of the General Assembly's Board of Education, to be used as he deemed best. Then two young men of the congregation expressed their determi- nation to study for the ministry, and applied to the Educa- tion Society for assistance, neither of them having finished his college courses. These appeals aroused the zeal and interest of the members, and, being encouraged by their pastor, Dr. Smyth, they determined to undertake the support of these young men, instead of contributing through the General As- sembly's Board. One of the students was Dr. Charles A. Still- man. He was under the care of the Society for seven years, passing through both college and seminary. Dr. Stillman was connected with the Tuscoloosa Theological Seminary for negroes, and accomplished a good work there.

The long list of names of those who have been connected with the Education Society is most remarkable and interesting. Many have become men of mark in the church, ministers of prominence, missionaries in the foreign field, professors in col- leges. A few mav be mentioned besides Dr. Stillman in 1839. Dr. William Flinn in 1842, Wm. L. Hughes in 1844, Dr. David L. Buttolph in 1859, assistant pastor with Dr. Smyth; Dr. William P. Jacobs, Dr. Hampden C. DuBose, 1869, now in China; Drs. Jerry Witherspoon, J. William Flinn, James J. Chisolm and on and on, until seventy names completed the roll. Seventy-seven young men assisted by the Education Society. Six missionaries in the foreign field. Of this entire number fifteen have been from our own congregation.

In a report read by the then secretary, Miss Margaret M. Adger, (Mrs. Thomas Smyth) at an anniversary meeting, she writes: "Who can calculate the amazing results of these labors of love. A single soul is worth more than a world. And how

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many souls may we not hope will be saved through the instru- mentality of these already sent into the field. Add to these the probable number that may be brought to embrace the Gospel and be prepared for the Kingdom of Heaven by their labors; how vast the amount. And when we look again at the influence which these, in their turn, will exert upon others, who can calculate the result. Looking forward to the Judg- ment Day, we behold a vast multitude whom no man can num- ber, before the throne of God and the Lamb, who have been brought there instrumentally by the humble labors of this Society. In that day will any of us regret the little sacrifices we may have made in this good cause? <, Will we regret the instrumentality we may have had in the salvation of souls? Let us press forward with renewed ardour in the noble work and remember the promise is 'they that turn many to right- eousness, shall shine as the stars forever and ever.'

Eighty Years.

We date the age of the Education Society from the year 1821, although the members were connected with the Congre- gational and Presbyterian Association from 1815, which makes this Society eighty years old. And, during all these years it has never deviated from the one object for which it was or- ganized. During that time there have been seven hundred and six names of members on the roll, and the amount raised in those years has been $40,791.50.

BENEFICIARIES OF THE EDUCATION SOCIETY

Before the War

1822-1825, J. Le Roy Davis 1824-1835, Rev. S. S. Davis 1829-1836, F. Gibert 1834-1836, Jas. L. Cozby 1836-1844, Chas. A. Stillman 1836-1840, Wm. J. Johnson 1840-1842, George C. Logan 1841, Thos. L. McBryde

1842-1845, Wm. Flinn 1843-1846, Henry Newton 1844-1846, Wm. L. Hughes 1845-1846, S. S. Gaillard 1846-1847, John McLees 1847-1849, Joseph Porter

1847-1849, Wm. Haddin 1847-1852, J. Evans White 1847-1853, Wm. J. McCormick 1847-1855, Robert Small 1847-1855, Arthur Small 1853, Wm. Green

1854-57, 1858-60, Robert W.

McCormick 1854-1857, E. O. Frierson 1855-58-59, To Theological Seminary, Columbia, S. C. 1855-1859, A. P. Miller 1856, Thomas E. Smith

1857-1859, David C. Buttolph

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1857-186,1, Madison Duncan 1857-1863, George J. Porter 1859-1862, Robert M. Ander- son

1860-1862, Mr. Blackford 1860-1862, J. B. Mack 1861-1864, Wm. P. Jacobs

Total, to Thirty Students, from 1822 to 1864 $ 22,132. 00

After the War

1869-1873, Theological Semi- 1896-

nary, Columbia, S. C.

1869-1870, Hampden C. Du- 1897-

Bose

1870-1873, C. E. Chichester 1898,

1873-1874, Jerry Witherspoon 1898,

1874-1875, J. William Flinn 1898- 1876-1877, James J. Chisolm

1877-1880, Chas. M. Shepard 1898-

1880-1881, Theological Semi- 1899-

nary, Columbia, S. C. 1900-

1882-1884, Edwin Muller 1901-

1882-1885, J. R. Howeston 1902-

1882-1884, M. M. Hooper 1903-

1883-1886, J. H. Lumpkin 1904- 1884-1887, B. A. Wilson

1884-1887, Saml. P. Fulton 1904-

1885-1888, W. C. Alexander 1904-

1887-1890, Neel L. Anderson 1905-

1887-1889, Jas. A. Bryan 1905, 1888-1891, George G. Mayes

1889-1892, W. O. Shewmaker 1906-

1889-1891, Luther A. Oates 1906-

1891-1893, S. M. Rankin 1906-

1892-1893, J. M. Wells 1906-

1892-1896, J. M. Mecklin 1906-

1893-1895, E. R. Leyburn 1907

1894-1897, John H. Grey 1908

1895-1897, Hugh R. Mur- 1908

chison

Total, to Forty-seven Students, from 1869 to 1908

$ 18,839.50

Total Assistance, from 1822 to 1908, to Seventy-seven

Students, (Fifteen Church Members) $ 40,971 .50

1898, Hervey McDowell, Jr.

1900, Frank H. Ward- law

R. C. Bell

S. W. Brown

1899, Duncan W. Doug- las

1900, H. Maxcy Smith 1902, T. F. Haney

1901, Alexander Martin 1904, L. W. Brown

1904, J. J. Brown

1905, Palmer C. DuBose

1906, Warner H. Du- Bose

1906, P. H. Moore 1905, J. B. Branch 1908, J. R. Rowan

Student Room, Col- umbia Seminary

1908, A. T. Bridgeman

1909, T. J. Hutchinson

1907, C. B. Yeargan

1908, J. B. Coker

1907, J. C. McPheeters

1908, Yosip Benjamin W. H. Hamilton W. J. Roach

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The several contributed amounts to the Theological Seminary at Columbia have been by simple cash gift, to the Seminary's Contingent Fund, after the War, and to the Students' Room, gifts at Dr. Mack's discretion, and for use of needy students; the assistance to students at large is not confined to the State alone, aid having been extended most willingly, to the extent of the Society 's means, to students in Alabama, North Carolina, Louisiana, Princeton, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

The Missionary Achievements of the

Church*

Historical Sketch of the Missionary Work of the Second Presbyterian Church.

Compiled by Mrs. Mary McD. Stickney.

EXERCISES OF TUESDAY, MAY 4, 1909.

In a lecture at Westminister Abbey on the day of interces- sion for missions in 1873, Professor Max Muller classified the religions of mankind as missionary and non-missionary, the former were alive, the latter were dying or dead. A classifica- tion, says Sir Alfred C. Lyall, which was not based on an un- important or accidental characteristic, but rested on what was the very heart-blood in every system of human faith.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, we are told, the whole Church, both at home and abroad, "was engaged in diffusing the light of the Gospel," "Societies were formed numbering multitudes of subscribers." Missionary reports were everywhere distributed and young men aspired to the work. Gary and his associates were in India and the Judsons in Burma. It was during this time that the Second Presb)r- terian Church was organized. Into such an atmosphere as that she came. Charleston being then a commercial centre of im- portance was in a position to realize the needs of the East, and early exerted herself to assist the missionary effort in India. Since early in the century the Congregational and Presbyterian denominations, worked together, it has been difficult to find many separate efforts of either denomination at the beginning. The records speak of a school in India called the Charleston School, and of the Juvenile Heathen School Society, which had branches in all the Sabbath schools and in some of the day schools and young ladies' seminaries. The female Missionary Society sent $170 in 1819 and an individual $100. In 1822 T. Fleming, President of Second Church, and others gave $184 to Foreign Missions. In 1828 The Female Missionary Society

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of the same church gave Si 10 and the Female Auxiliary $120. These items taken from the reports of the American Board indicates the direction of this church's effort at that time.

Although Foreign Missions occupied so much of the atten- tion of christians in the early part of the 19th century, Do- mestic Missions were not neglected. It was a work which engaged the attention of the Presbyteries and the Synod from the first. The destitutions within their own bounds and the aborigines on their own borders were subjects of anxious thought. The General Assembly in 1800 appointed the Rev. Jas. Hall Missionary to the Natchez for several months. The Synod of the Carolinas sent the Rev. Messrs. J. H. Bowman and William Montgomery to accompany him. Dr. Howe says hardly any domestic Missionary effort of this last century has been covered with greater success or awakened a deeper interest than in this department of Christian effort.

The Missionary Society of the Synod of South Carolina.

The Assembly remitted to the Synod of the Carolinas the matter of sending Missionaries into the destitutions within their own bounds and to the remote Southwest, and in 1819 The Missionary Society of the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia was organized for that purpose. Among its officers we find names of interest to this church. The Recording Secretary was Rev. T. C. Henry who afterwards became her pastor. The Rev. Andrew Flynn and William Pressley among the managers, Pastor and Elder.

As has been said the Synod of the Carolinas had the care of the destitutions within her own bounds and of the remote South- west.

The missionaries were of two kinds, pastors temporarily withdrawn from their charges, and licentiates who were to preach, and if possible, to congregate the people and begin churches. Dr. Flinn himself had been appointed by the Com- mission to this work just previous to his call to Second Church, a church which has ever held missions as an important expres- sion of her spiritual life. She has earnestly, even anxiously striven to sustain those who go forth to preach the Gospel to every creature. Princeton Seminary advised, if it did not re- quire, its licentiates to itinerate in the South, taking their instructions from those appointed by the Synod of the Caro- linas to whom the matter had been left by the General Assem- bly.

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The writer has been struck by the number of men afterwards prominent in the Church who began their careers as mission- aries .

City Missions.

In addition to the Foreign and Domestic Missionary efforts were the City Missions. The Charleston Bible Society was or- ganized in 1810. The Religious Tract Society was formed in 1815. In the same year The Congregational and Presbyterian Union Female Association for assisting in the Education of pious youth for the gospel ministry was formed. In three years it had raised and expended over $5,000, and founded a Scholarship in Princeton Seminary. In 1818 the Marine Bible Society was formed and the Female Domestic Missionary So- ciety was established to provide and support Missions in the City of Charleston. Alfred Wright was their first missionary. He was afterward missionary to the Choctaws; Aaron War- ner was their next missionary. A preaching place was provided and committees of invitation assisted the missionary in his work. The Rev. Joseph Brown was their missionary the same year. He directed his attention to the seaman preaching at Mariner's Church, and laboring elsewhere during the week. The Marine Bible Society supplied Bibles; Bethel Union lent its aid. In January, 1823, Mr. Brown came under the auspices of the Charleston Port Society. In parting with the ladies he recommends a mission chapel in some central spot and a perma- nent missionary, and points out a new field for their labors. An earlier missionary was the Rev. Jonas King, who was with them from November, 1819, to May, 1820. He, too, had preached to seamen, visited Sunday schools, found his way in Jewish families, attended the Orphan House, Alms House and Marine Hospital. "The formation of the Society," says he, in his report May, 1820, "I hail as the appearance of a star over this city like that at Bethlehem." The Rev. Jonas King had been ordained with the special view of laboring among seamen at the same time Rev . Alfred Wright was ordained with a view to his joining the school at Elliot under the Rev. Cyrus Kingsburg.

The Congregational and Presbyterian Missionary Society for promoting the interests of religion which had existed for some time, changed its name to The Congregational and Presbyterian Missionary Society of South Carolina. In 1818 they employed the Rev. Henry White. They also wanted to engage Messrs. King and Smith as Missionaries for destitute parts of South Carolina and to support Rev. Mr. Kingsburg as their Mis- sionary among the Choctaws.

n

The Juvenile Missionary Society.

The Second Presbyterian Church had been for some time without a settled pastor, when in 1831 the Rev. Thomas Smyth, studying at Princeton College, was invited to visit them. While a student in London Mr. Smyth had offered himself to the London Missionary Society, but not being considered sufficiently robust his hope was disappointed. In an address delivered before a meeting of the friends of Sunday schools, in the Wentworth Street Baptist Church, he says, "when I was first led to cherish the hopes of the Gospel, the first field in which I attempted to exercise and develop the principles of true piety was the Juvenile Missionary Society."

Mr. Smyth was an enthusiastic believer in missions. Realiz- ing that what is learned in childhood becomes the habit of riper years, he very early in his ministry began urging on the congregation the duty of educating their children in the value and need of missions. To this end the Juvenile Missionary Society was formed. The meetings were to be held quarterly at the Depository, in Chalmers street. To further the interest of the Society a little magazine was published called the Missionary Paper. Cards conveniently ruled were distributed to such of the children and teachers as wished them, on which was entered the amounts they gave or collected from family or friends. The cards were to be returned with the amounts at the quarterly meeting, when, by the presence of parents and friends, singing, interesting talks and the exhibition of curiosi- ties from heathen lands, the meeting was to be made as much of an occasion as possible to encourage the children.

Very respectable sums were collected. A copy of the little magazine lies before the writer, dated June, 1833. Inside the cover is the treasurer's report for the preceding quarter:

A church collection. . . .$ 31.56 The Gentlemen 's Mis- sionary Society 108.00

Collection handed in. . . 187.23

$ 326.79

700 Copies of the Mag- azine were printed and paid for 22.00

700 Copies for the

succeeding quarter. . . 22.00 Small expenses 50 $ 44.50 $ 282.29

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Which, by the vote of the Society, was given for the missions in China. Here began the work of Second Church in China. The next quarter $206 was voted to India. The contents of the magazine embraced letters from mission- aries, articles descriptive of the country, the ways of the people and the lives of the missionaries in foreign lands; in short, any- thing which would give information or excite interest. Years after the minutes of Session record a committee appointed to canvass, and later the magazines are ordered distributed where they will do the most good, on the principle that when there is no information there is no interest.

In 1834 we find recorded a legacy from Ed. Ogier, $20.

Ten years later Session is found taking it into consideration how the subject of missions can be brought more fully to the attention of the Sunday school. Dr. Smyth preaches a sermon to the teachers and scholars, at which a good degree of interest is manifest.

In 1848 Maria Moore, a colored member of the Church and widow of R. Moore, transferred eight shares of Bank of South Carolina stock for the purpose of assisting the Foreign Mission- ary Society in Africa, interest on which was tp be given to Mr. Catto as long as he labored there and maintained his Christian character.

In June, of the same year, Session having taken into con- sideration the duty and advantage of bringing up the young, in the spirit and practice of missionary effort, and considering the difficulties which have been found in securing the attend- ance of children and of parents and teachers at any hour during the business day, resolved that an hour of the Sunday-school on Sabbath once a quarter be devoted to services appropriate to the mission cause. An interesting programme was pre- pared. The money collected was to be given for the support of mission schools.

In 1849 a deed, legally executed by the Hon. Mitchell King and recorded, gave, by Maria Moore, widow of R. Moore, by whose request the donation is made, three lots of land, the in- come from which is to be appropriated to the advancement of foreign missions.

The clerk of Session was ordered to transmit their thanks to Maria Moore for her very valuable and generous gift. The Missionary Society still reaps the benefit of the bequest. Not only is the amount of interest a considerable help in increasing the Society's usefulness, but it serves as a rallying point for

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slackened energies, a point from which to take courage and go on. In 1851 Samuel Mick is to join the Church in South Africa.

Rev. John B. Adger in Smyrna.

In 1833 the Rev. John B. Adger, a member of Second Church, offers himself at the close of his theological course, pursued at Princeton Seminary, to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. While awaiting his appointment, the Southern Board of Missions sends him as agent to represent the cause in the Synod of the Carolinas. During his tour he visited sixteen churches and collected upwards of $2,400.

Being appointed to Armenia, with his wife and five other missionaries, he sailed from Boston for Smyrna, where he ar- rived after sixty-four days. Mr. Adger 's work was to be the care of the presses and the translating of the New Testament as soon as he had acquired the language. There was an ancient Armenian New Testament held in high repute among scholars, but in Mr. Adger 's day the language had so changed through the admixture of foreign words, few could read it. The Armenians are a scattered people, living all over Asia. It was felt that if they could be evangelized these groups would be centres to diffuse the light of the Gospel. There was also published a magazine of useful knowledge, Pilgrim's Pro- gress, an abridged copy of D'Aubigne's History of the Refor- mation and tracts or pamphlets suitable for advancing the cause. Mr. Adger had taken with him a copy of a catechism the Rev. C. C. Jones had used in his work in Liberty County, Georgia. As soon as his Armenian translator saw it he was urgent to have it translated for use among his own people, which was done, largely, not literally.

The missionary loved his work. After laboring happily for twelve years he came home for a year, He had had a bad attack of smallpox, made a slow recovery, and was left with his eyes much weakened, a serious handicap for one much of whose work was correcting proof.

Religious Instruction of the Negroes: Zion Church.

In 1847 circumstances connected with the American Board of Foreign Missions having compelled Mr. Adger to give up his return to Smyrna, his attention was drawn to the religious condition of the negroes in Charleston. In Dr. Smyth's church were some three hundred members . "I often looked at them as they sat in their gallery," writes Dr. Adger, "and felt how far

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preaching to his white congregation went over their heads. At length my resolution was taken to devote myself to the religious instruction of the negroes. ' ' Mr. Adger laid the matter before the Session and made the proposition to be their pastor, the Sunday school teachers from Second Church continuing their work. Such a proposal under existing conditions required serious consideration. However, it was all finally arranged and the basement of the Second Presbyterian Church Lecture Room fitted up for their exclusive use.

This was a domestic mission on a larger scale than usual, the second of its kind in the city. Later, a church was built on An- son street. After six years of most successful work, Mr. Ad- ger's eyes failing, he was obliged to resign, and was succeeded by the Rev. Ferdinand Jacobs, who served as pastor for two years.

In May, 1853, the Rev. John L. Girardeau was invited to take charge and accepted. Mr. Girardeau was a powerful preacher and under his pastorate the congregation soon out- grew its building. A lot on Calhoun street was secured and the largest auditorium in the city was erected, called by the negroes Zion Church. This work continued to increase and prosper until the beginning of the war. The property, hay- ing been given for the use of the colored Presbyterians, is held by a trustee, and is still used by that denomination.

Activity Before the War.

In 1848 a mission work among the whites in the upper part of the city, which was called the Neck, was undertaken by the Session of the Second Presbyterian Church. A colporteur was employed and supported for the purpose of visiting among the people and distributing tracts and other religious matter.

While it has been shown that great activity in the work of Foreign and Domestic Missions prevailed, and some of the many ways in which the Second Presbyterian Church showed her earnestness and zeal in the cause have been detailed it is impossible to give the full amount contributed owing to the fact that no report of the beneficiaries of the Church was made to the Assembly before 1836, since the distribution was in the hands of private societies, in distinction from boards, which afterwards took charge and still do. We find in 1860 the Church began to prepare for her semi-centennial, which was to take place in 1861. The records are made for twenty-three years and show that:

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For Home Missions $ 9,096.00

For Foreign Missions 14,546.00

Total of $23,642.00

had been contributed.

The Foreign Missionary Society.

It was 1869 before the Church again took up the support of foreign missions and has continued in her effort to the present time. There does not seem to have been any organized soci- ety for the purpose until the coming of the Rev. Mr. Houston from China in 1876. Mr. Houston had been a missionary for some years and his health failing, Mrs. Houston, who was also a missionary, brought him back to America in the hope that the home climate would prove a cure. During his stay in America he and Mrs. Houston embraced every opportunity to present the cause of missions particularly in China.

The needs and the opportunities of that great nation so appealed to the friends of missions in the Second Presbyterian Church that, in January, 1876, the forming of a society was discussed. The following week it was organized by Dr. Brack- ets

Mrs. G. R. Brackett, president.

Miss S. D. A. Smyth, secretary and treasurer.

Miss M. C. Adger, recording secretary.

The meetings were to be held monthly in the Lecture Room of the church. The plan of exercises was simple, varied to first suit the circumstances . The first meeting was held in March and, as had been the custom more than forty years before, the children and youth were encouraged to take an interest in the Society.

At the end of the year the treasurer, in the first annual re- port, January, 1877, notes that the membership had increased from 30 to 147, and that the amount collected was $230— $225 of which had been sent to Dr. Leighton Wilson, chairman of the Southern Board of Foreign Missions, for the support of one teacher and four scholars in Mrs. Randolph's Boarding School for Girls in China. At the start they had told Mr. Houston that they would try for $100, and were greatly rejoiced to have more than doubled the amount, particularly considering the political excitement and financial distress of the time. After the reports Mr. J. N. Robson, who was present, made an earnest appeal in behalf of Mrs. DuBose's Boarding School in

79

Soochow, which was in danger of being closed by the Board for lack of funds, proposing that if the Society would give Mrs. DuBose $100 he would pledge the Sunday school for $150. After discussion the proposal was accepted.

Dr. Brackett then addressed the Society, congratulated them on having exceeded their own expectations, and encour- aged them to go forward in the work.

In the second annual report it is learned that by the sale of some Chinese embroideries, donations and subscriptions, the amount raised is $251. Of this amount there was sent to Dr. Leighton Wilson for the use of Mrs. Randolph's school $150 and to Mrs. DuBose's school $100.

In May, 1878, appears the entry in the Society minutes 30 cents, a gift from a Society of little girls, called "The Little Gleaners." The next we hear of the Little Gleaners is a gift of $4.50 and again of $6.

Support of Mrs. DuBose's School in Soochow.

At the suggestion of Dr. Wilson the Society, in 1878, assumed the entire charge of Mrs. DuBose's school. This meant the raising of $350, of which the Sunday school would give $100.

In consequence of this Mrs. DuBose began a correspondence with the Society. She wrote very interesting letters and by her graphic descriptions helped to keep the Society interested in its undertaking, and even the $35 extra asked for the en- larging of her school room came without trouble. In her re- ply she gave an account of a Chinese Christmas tree and en- closed an original letter from a little Chinese boy, translated by herself, thanking the Society for the increased comfort of the school room. When the children heard her story they were anxious to contribute and made up a package of gifts, which was sent.

May, 1880, a united meeting of the Missionary Societies of the Presbyterian Churches was held in Glebe Street Church. The Rev. Dr. Adger, twelve years missionary to the Armenians, addressed the meeting, also Dr. Leighton Wilson and the Rev. Allan Wright, an Indian. The congregation was very much interested in the latter, who told of the missionary who came to them many 3'ears before, and how he had taken that mis- sionary's name, Wright, and was himself a missionary.

Assisting Miss Safford's Work Among Women.

In 1884 came Miss Safford, the Soochow missionary. She made a most touching appeal for those sisters on the other side

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of the world, that to them, in their darkness and misery, might be sent the comfort of a hope beyond the grave. Very soon after Miss Safford's visit Dr. Davis met with the three Presbyterian missionary societies and gave them much information on the methods and results of the work in China . In his address he menr- tioned, to the surprise of many, that after twelve years of ser- vice, Dr. DuBose was still living in an unsanitary Chinese house. He told also new things of Miss Safford's wonderful work among the women, which so aroused the sympathy of the Society that $70 were immediately raised in order that she might secure the stereopticon she so much desired. Owing to the conditions existing in China it became necessary that a home for the single lady missionaries in Soochow should be secured. Mrs. Josiah Sibley, of Augusta, Ga., undertook to raise the full amount from the missionary societies of the Southern Church. This Society keenly alive to the need and import- ance of the plan, readily furnished S300. So great was the enthusiasm of the societies that, in a very short time $3,145 was collected, sufficient to have the home built at once. Miss Safford became the first inmate and it continued to be her home for the remainder of her life.

In January 1887, Miss Loula Smythe was elected president and Miss Sarah R. Smythe, secretary and treasurer. Mrs. DuBose 's school was still the object of the Society's care.

In 1888 the Missionary Society in the Orphan House donated a large box of fancy articles to be sold, the proceeds to be added to the funds of this Society, proving how deeply interested all were in the cause of missions.

Miss Essie Wilson Sent to the Foreign Field.

Miss Essie Wilson, a member of the Sunday school and of the Missionary Society, determined to offer herself for the foreign field in China. In May this Society and Sunday school claimed the privilege of her support. Miss Baldwin, of Staun- tn, Va., gave the necessary outfit and the first year's salary. It was not, therefore, until 1889 that the Societ}^ became responsible for Miss Wilson. The tie thus formed has strength- ened and the love grown through all the following years. For three years after Miss Wilson's arrival in China she was an assistant in Mrs. Randolph's school in Soochow. In 1892 Miss Wilson married the Rev. Francis Price, a missionary of the Southern Church on the field. After their marriage they opened the mission at Sinchang. The amount now required for Mrs. Price's support was $400. Having $225 in hand over

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the required amount, this was sent to Mrs. Price direct to use as she saw fit, part of which she expended in fitting up a dis- pensary, which proved of great assistance to her in her hospital work. The Society later on enabled her to buy a house boat, capable of carrying twenty people. With it they followed the canals which everywhere cross the country, and were thus enabled to penetrate into the outlying districts, extending the work as would not otherwise be possible.

The Junior Missionary Society.

In 1899 Mrs. S. G. Stoney, the president, was obliged to resign, and was succeeded in office by Miss Susan Smythe, who was in turn succeeded by Mrs. George C. McDermid as president. During her presidency new methods were tried to increase the interest and attendance of the members, which proved eminently successful.

In 1907 on the resignation of Mrs. McDermid, Mrs. Fraser, wife of Rev. J. K. G. Fraser, pastor, was elected to the office.

In 1900 two young ladies of the Church were found willing to make the first experiment in a Junior Missionary Society. After a year Mrs. S. G. Stoney and Miss Amey N. Allan con- tinued the effort. It is now firmly established under the supervision of Miss A. N. Allan, and has been the means of educating the younger members of the church in the work of missions.

The Forward Movement.

At the Missionary meeting in July, 1907, the Rev. Mr. Fraser addressed the Society and introduced the Rev. Mr. Coit, who was on waiting orders for Korea. He had been appointed by the Board of Foreign Missions to present the Forward Move- ment to the societies and churches at large. After an inter- esting talk on Korea, Mr. Coit explained the object of the Forward Movement and urged the Society to adopt it. In November Mr. Coit again visited Charleston and preached in the Second Presbyterian Church, and then presented the cause of the Forward Movement with such force and clearness that the deepest interest was aroused, each one feeling the cause to be his own. The result was that, in connection with the Mis- sionary Society, the Church undertook the support of two missionaries. At a meeting of the board of deacons the gen- tlemen decided, instead of forming a committee in the church, as the other churches do, to leave raising the amount to the Missionary Society.

82 Home and Foreign.

Though the Church from its earliest history had been giving through the Sunday collections to the cause of Home Missions, there had never been a specific organization to undertake this work until December, 1906, when Dr. Morris, the secretary of the Board of Home Missions, came for the purpose of stirring up interest in this cause. The strenuous life incident to es- tablishing a home in a new country left the settler with little thought and less time to take the initiative in estab- lishing places of worship. To supply this need the Home Miss- ionary department of the board was organized and for this cause asked the aid of the older churches. The Second Church agreed to undertake the support of one missionary for a year. It was not deemed necessary to form another Society, but to have the foreign and home departments work in unision, having the same presiding officer and the same secretary, but two treasurers. The plan has proved successful and the Society has succeeded in fulfilling its pledges for the past two years and has no reason to fear for the present year.

During all the years of the Society's existence there have been frequent visits from missionaries, who have placed before the home people such vivid pictures as only eye-witnesses can present. Through these eyes we have looked on Japan, on China, on India, on Persia, on Armenia, on Italy, on France, on Brazil, on Mexico and on our Indians of the far West. Among the host of names that might be mentioned are Mrs. Francis Price, the DuBoses, Miss Kemper, Miss Davison, Mrs. Randolph, Miss Safford, Mr. Painter and Dr. Reimer

In looking back over the one hundred years of Missionary effort of this church, the difficulty of an exact summing up is realized, when we find how closely the early years of her life and givings are bound up in those of the Congregational and Presbyterian Associations. It is not until 1836 that any thing definite can be found. Even then figures may not be as full as could be wished. From the General Assembly's minutes it is learned that from 1836 to 1861 (42 and 53 no report) and from 1869 to 1908 inclusive, there was given $53,437 to the cause.

In closing a particularly interesting talk before the Missionary Society of this church, the Rev. Mr. Graham said; "It is your work. We are there, but you send us and are responsible. ' '

Note: By request of the Advisory Committee a sketch of the Junior Missionary Society was prepared by Miss Amey N. Allan, and an historical account of the Moore and the Arms' Funds, by Mr. J. N. Robson, as information contributory to Mrs. Stickney's review. Letters and records from various sources, Dr. Roberts, of the Northern Church, Dr. Chester and Dr. Law, are likewise to be acknowledged with hearty thanks as sources of information.

Pastor 1903-19. . .

After Photograph 1909, by Holland, Charleston, S. C.

Post-Centennial Sermon.

Preached in the Second Presbyterian Church of Charleston, S» C

By the Pastor, the Rev* J. Keif Fraser, D. D.

SUNDAY, MAY 16, 1909.

Philippians, III, 13-14: — "One thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the calling of God in Jesus Christ."

This is the favorite metaphor of the great Apostle. It is one of the many figures which he borrowed from the games, and athletic contests, which, at that time, were in fashion all over the Roman world. Sometimes he referred to the brutal, bloody Roman prize-fight, as when he spoke about fighting the good fight, or about buffeting his own body. Oftener, however, he had in mind the games and races of the Greeks, when there came before his vision the runners and the chariot- eers, whirling past, in their strenuous endeavor to be first at the winning post. He liked to compare Christian life to one Of these races; because it was into these things the young men of that day flung themselves with all the energy and enthusiasm of youth. These games, fortunately, were free from those demoralizing traits which the money element introduces into our modern American games. The prize was really of no in- trinsic worth at all. It was, often, only a handful of leaves woven into a crown, which St. Paul, you remember, called the "corruptible crown" because it so quickly faded away. And the runners, moreover, were not professionals; they were not paid for their services; they were a*mateurs; and they came from the best families of Greece.

These games must have had a wonderful effect on the youth of that day — not only physically, but morally. There many

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a young, indolent Greek, who would otherwise have been dawdling his life away in vicious pleasures, would be taught the fundamental lesson of temperance and self-control. And many a man, who at other times seemed incapable of the least exertion, or of suffering any kind of hardship, would put his name down for these contests — and it was as if a new man had been born into him — a man of iron endurance, capable of the most splendid enthusiasms. There was nothing quite like it, so far as I know, elsewhere in the ancient world.

So the great Apostle liked to draw figures of the Christian life from these things. He admired all that energy and de- termination and tenacity of purpose; only he wished that it might all be brought over, and given to a higher service — as, I feel sure, you and I often wish to-day. We think, that if only one-half, or even one-fourth of the strength expended by young men, in this City, on our public games, could only be brought and laid at the Master's feet, for His service, what a glad day it would be for all of our churches, and what a mighty push forward would be given the wheels of the Kingdom of God.

Now you will understand that here the Apostle has the foot- runner in view; and you can picture him for yourselves as the apostle saw him: with body bent forward, all the brain power in front, eyes so intently fixed on the winning-post as to be utterly oblivious to everything behind him. He hears nothing but the shouting of the spectators and the beat of his own heart urging him on. And so on he goes, never looking back, ever pressing forward, until the end. And this, says the Apostle, is the correct attitude for all who have been called to the Christian life: "Forgetting the things which are behind, I press on toward the goal."

Before we go further let us try to get a general conception of what the Apostle means by his figure as applied to the Christian life. If I am not mistaken, what he means is this — that the Christian life begins, continues, and ends in a looking up and a pressing forward: it begins with shame, afterwards to be oblivion, for the past, and with hope for the future, in utter dissatisfaction with everything that has been done, and an eager longing and striving for the better things that are to be. It begins in this way, and it goes on in this way to the very end. It makes no difference whether you are far advanced in Christ-

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ian life, or have only just come into it, or are not in it yet at all — this is the attitude for you. The Apostle, you note, ap- plies it to himself: "This one thing I do. " Paul was a mature Christian when he wrote these words. The Epistle to the Philippians was written just before the end. For at least thirty years he had been living a life of Christian endurance and heroism such as the world had never seen before. If there was one man in all the Church, or in all the World, who had a right to look back upon those thirty years with a feeling of complacent satisfaction, surely that man was Paul; yet he flings it all behind him as not worth considering, as just a dead thing, only a sort of stepping-stone on which to mount to things higher. This was Paul's philosophy, always and every- where. It runs like a silver thread through all his letters. And he got this in the way we are all to get it — by beholding Christ; because, when Jesus came into this world, became in- carnate, and set before us the perfect man — the ideal man — the man divine— it seems to me that what he intended to do was to make this world utterly dissatisfied with the manhood which had been lived and exemplified up to that time, and to set it striving after the higher manhood that he had realized. It seems to me that this is the inevitable effect which Christ has upon everyone who looks upon Him with steadfast eyes. He makes us ashamed and impatient of everything we have, so far, done, and been, and He sets us striving after the higher ideal which He exemplifies. The motto of our life becomes this — can become only this: "One thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal."

This is the general thought. Let me, now, very briefly, give it a three-fold application:

I. It applies to nations. Some one has called Paul "the Apostle of the Western World. ' ' And the designation is correct. Paul had an Eastern training, but a Western mind and a West- ern outlook. And this he got directly from his interpretation of Christ. The Western world has pre-eminently the spirit of what we may call dissatisfaction with all past attainments, however great, and a ceaseless, untiring pressing forward. All Christian nations have this, more or less; and they have it, it seems to me, exactly to the extent to which they are Christian ;

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so much so that the non-Christian nations are entirely without it. Without exception these nations are content to stand still, stagnant, immovable, decaying. You say, ' ' There is one excep- tion to this; is there not — Japan?" Japan, as yet, is not a Christian nation; yet it is moving rapidly forward. Japan is busily engaged in an imitation — or, perhaps, I ought to say, an adaptation — of our Western ways, of our sciences, our machinery, our civilization generally. Japan is appropriating the fruit and branches, while rejecting the root and trunk; for mark — the very root and trunk of our civilization is our religion. Japan is saying, "We will take all that you have except your religious faith;" which is about the same as saying "We will take the body without the thought which keeps it going, animates it." Japan is moving forward on an atheistic basis; and nobody who has read history can have any hope for such a nation. If it ac- cepts our religion, if it accepts the religion of Christ — as I be- lieve it will, if you and I are faithful to the missionary obliga- tion— all will be well. But if Japan rejects this religion, the nation will take its place among the nations of the past. Either this, or it will be the one, the only, exception to the rule in the history of the world.

Think of the other non-Christian nations — China, Africa, India, (so far as it is not affected by Christian influences), — they are all exactly as they were 2000 years ago, or they have gone back, and, some of them, a long way back. China was, at one time, in the very fore-front of the world's civilization. You know where it is to-day. True, in China, to-day, we see signs of a great intellectual awakening, a result of Christian in- fluences; and we hope that China will become a Christian kingdom and take her place among the advancing nations. But you all know the history of China as a non-Christian empire — and know that until yesterday she was a carcass with the eagles gathered around her.

The people of India were at one time a strong, a virtuous people. With the exception alone of that Young India which has felt, directly or indirectly, the influence of Christ, they have fallen into mental indolence and apathy.

The Mohammedan nations, a thousand years ago, far sur- passed the Christian nations in their knowledge of the arts and sciences; but they have lost it all.

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And the point of it all is this: — these nations have either stood still or gone back, because they have lived upon their past, gloried in their past, and found all perfection in their past. They have had their eyes behind, while Christian na- tions have gone on from stage to stage, increasing in intellect- ual gifts, and moral qualities, and commercial greatness be- cause they have had burnt into them, far deeper than they knew, this great Christian Pauline thought: that nations ad- vance in so far — and only in so far — as they forget the things which are behind, and stretch forward to the things which are before. And more than this: it is significant that the Christ- ian nations which are the most progressive are without excep- tion the nations of the Reformation, the Protestant nations which took St. Paul as their great interpreter of Christian truth next to the Master Himself; while the Catholic nations, like Spain (to take an extreme instance), which never regarded St. Paul as more than a second-rate Apostle, and never troubled themselves with the study of his teachings, have, for the last four centuries, had their eyes at the back, and have been stead- ily declining.

Here then we have the one condition of progress. All history emphasizes it: For a nation, or a society, or a city, to look back and live in the past is to dig its own grave. While grate- ful for all that was of good in the past, it must remember that there are better things in the future; that a richer life and a still nobler manhood are awaiting it in the days to come. Na- tions advance always along these lines — ' ' Forgetting the things which are behind I press on toward the goal."

II. Let me now in very simple words apply this truth to our individual life. I can think, this morning, of just three classes of people. They may or they may not all be represented here; but this motto of the Apostle is true of them all:

First — there is that very large class of people who have be- gun badly and continued badly up to the present. Their life has simply been a blundering and a sinning all the way through. It may be I am speaking to some such persons, this morning; if so, I wish to say to you there is no hope for you whatever, unless you can, in some way, leave all that wicked past be- hind you, and, in a way forget it. The first thing to do is to

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repent of it sincerely, to take a last look at it — a look of loathing and of shame — then, carry it to the all-forgiving feet of Jesus, and leave it there. And, when you have done this do not think of it again, unless you are forced to do so; above all things, don't talk about it. When I hear a man on a Christian plat- form telling what a big sinner he has been, raking up all the dirty, nasty past, and dwelling upon it with a sort of half-ex- ulting glee, smacking his lips unctuously as if he rather liked the taste of it, it always makes me feel as though he were not far removed from being a big sinner still. If a man is striv- ing after God and goodness he will want to think as little as possible of an evil past; and he will not talk about it unless he is forced to do so. If he has sincerely repented him of it, and renounced it, and got it covered with God's great mercy, there is no use brooding over it any more. If God has cast your sins into the depth of the sea, it is not for you to fish them up again. Come away from the cemetery where your sins lie bur- ied. Don't disinter them; they smell vilely. Come away, to the uplands, where the sweet, pure breath of Christ may play, ay, may blow freely around you: forget the things which are behind.

There is a second class. I hope there is no one of them here, this morning: so far as I know, there is not. I refer to that class who look back upon the past, not with any of the disturbed feelings just indicated, but with a kind of satisfaction. They have had a clean record so far as the world knows; they stand high in public esteem ; they have been diligent and industrious, and are respected by everyone. They know this, and it grati- fies them. They are always shaking hands with themselves, saying inwardly to others, " Walk so as ye have us for an ex- ample." Now, so far as I know, there is no one here, this morning, who belongs to this class: but, if there is, let me say to you, lay hold of that self-conceit of yours, my brother, my sister, and strangle it, or it will kill all the good there is left in you. I tell you there is hardly one, no: there is not one of us, here, this morning, who has ever done a single thing worthy of the Christian name, or fit to lay at the bleeding feet of Him who gave up everything for us. Our past is no better than the scribbling of a child. Let us tear it up, and throw it into the waste-basket! Let us forget the things which are behind; they are not worth boasting.

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But — there is a third class — and I know there are many of them here, this morning — people who look back upon their past Christian service, not with feelings of gratification, nor a feeling of satisfaction, but just the reverse. They feel that their efforts have all been so feeble, their growth so slow, their fail- ures so many, that they are truly disheartened when they think of it all. The message to these, — to you, my friends, — is the same — ' 'forget those things which are behind. " It is not good for any man, hopeless of amendment — it is not good for Christ- ians— to brood morbidly over past failures. If done too much it is discouraging, demoralizing, paralyzing; it makes a man fear to attempt new things, because he feels sure that he will fail. Do not let your failures drag you down. Ignore them; start again, trusting in the strength of Christ, and He will sur- prise you with unexpected victories. So, to all and every one of us, comes this word, this morning: " Forgetting the things behind I press on toward the goal."

III. I have left myself but a few moments to speak of the third application of the text, and yet only a few moments are needed.

We have here what always has been, and always must be the watchword of the Church in all its spiritual warfare and en- deavor:

No Church, however glorious its past, ever assumes any at- titude other than that which is expressed in the word "For- ward. ' No living Church sighs to bring back anything from the days of the past; it is, on the contrary, always praying for new, and better, things. There are people who are constantly sighing for the glorious days the Church had, in some time, long ago, when it was all one body, and there were no divisions, and no sects, when people all believed the same things, and worshipped according to the same form, and when all loved one another — which, by the way, they never did. My friends, I have no sympathy whatever with those people who believe that the golden days of the Church were in the Fourth Century, or the Third Century, or any century that lies behind. What was there even in the first century that you and I, and all, do not possess, to-day, in this Twentieth Century? "Ah! there was the Master, working miracles.' " you say. But listen: " Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. ' '

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"But," you say, "the apostles were there, doing their won- drous works." That same mighty Spirit which gave them all their wonderful gifts, we have with us still. The golden days, I tell you, are always in the future; the Church is ever pressing on toward the goal, away from that dead uniformity which some would bring back, and, through all divisions, to that spiritual oneness which is in Christ. It is pressing on, from worldiness, commercialism and apathy, to Christ-like conduct and a higher service, and to larger conquests for the risen Redeemer.

There are signs of these things all about us. I believe there are young people in this church, to-day, who will not taste death until they see something like a new Kingdom of God upon the Earth.

This must be the spirit of every Christian Church that would do the Master's work with any prospect of success; and if there are any persons here, this morning, who have fallen into the way of thinking that this Church has seen its best days, that there is nothing for us now but to go jogging along and simply to hold our own — if there are any here, to-day, who have a thought of this kind, I want to say to you, smother it; tram- ple it; get rid of it; because that way lies stagnation, creeping paralysis, and death. Forget the things which are behind, and stretching forth unto the things which are before, press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling!

"And may the God of Hope fill you with all joy and peace, in believing that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost."

Amen.

The Pastor*

The Rev. J. Keir G. Fraser, D. D.

The success of these Centennial Services was so largely due to our Pastor, not only in the suggesting and planning but also in the execution of these plans, that a short sketch of his life is most appropriate and fitting in this memorial volume.

The Rev. J. Keir G. Fraser was born on August 31st, 1864, on Prince Edward Island, Canada. His father, the Rev. Allan Fraser of Alberton, Prince Edward Island, died when Dr. Fraser was only five years old. His grand-father, on his mother's side, was the Rev. John Keir, D. D., Professor of Theology in the Presbyterian Seminary at Halifax, Nova Scotia, and one of the Fathers of the Canadian Church.

Dr. Fraser, our Pastor, received his early education at Prince of Wales College, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. He entered Dalhousie University, at Halifax, in 1885, and graduated there, in 1889, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He pursued his theological studies at the Presbyterian Semin- ary of Montreal, and graduated with honor, in 1891, as the gold-medalist of his class. He then took a post-graduate course in Theology at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City, giving special attention to the Old Testament and Semitics, under Dr. Francis Brown, the eminent Old Testament scholar, and received from this institution the degree of Bache- lor of Divinity. At the close of his course at Union Seminary, he spent some time travelling in Europe, visiting several of the German Universities. The degree of Doctor of Divinity was later conferred upon him by the Presbyterian College of South Carolina.

Soon after his graduation from the Seminary in Montreal, he was ordained, on Aug. 26th, 1891, being called to his father's church at Alberton, Prince Edward Island, where he ministered for seven years. Then for a year he supplied the pulpit of St . James' Church, Charlottetown, during the absence of the Pastor as Chaplain of the Canadian Regiment in the Boer War.

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Coming south in search of a milder climate, he supplied the pulpit of the Second Presbyterian Church, at Charlotte, North Carolina, for seven months, during the absence of the Pastor. He supplied the pulpit of the Second Presbyterian Church of Charleston, South Carolina, from August 1st, 1902, during the illness of the Pastor, the Rev. Gilbert R. Brackett, D. D., who died in December, 1902. Dr. Fraser was called to the regular Pastorate February 22nd, 1903, and was installed March 22nd, 1903. Dr. Fraser is now Chairman of Presbytery's Committee on Ministerial Relief and also of the Examining Committee on Ancient Languages and Scripture Originals. He was mar- ried, on Sept. 23d, 1903, to Miss Isabel Jane Clark, of Alberton, Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Dr. Fraser is an earnest and thorough student, a profound thinker, an attractive and impressive preacher, bringing only "beaten oil" into the sanctuary. His ministrations as a Pastor are most acceptable to his people, and his influence, especially over the younger members of the Congregation, has been marked, and continues to increase. At almost every quarterly Communion Season the Master of the Vineyard has set the seal of His approbation on our Pastor's labors and ministrations by adding new members to the Church upon profession of their faith. Our people are united, and look forward to constantly increasing prosperity under the guid- ance and leadership of this Under-Shepherd, whom, they be- lieve, has been sent them by the Great Head of the Church in answer to their earnest prayers.

Official Organization

Of

THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH:

May, 1909.

PASTOR.

REV. J. KEIR G. ERASER;

Residence, 49 Pitt Street, the Manse.

Phone No 972.

CHURCH TREASURER.

Hall T. McGee, Jr., 152 Rutledge Ave.

STANDING COMMITTEE.

President, J. Adger Smyth; Vice-Pres., H. C. Hughes;

Secretary, R. E. Seabrook; W. S. Allan, R. W. Hutson,

T. A. Legare, J. W. Robson,

H. C. Robertson.

ELDERS.

J. Adger Smyth, J. N. Robson,

Augustine T. Smythe, R. E. Seabrook,

J. W. Robson, E. F. Miscally,

W. S. Allan, H. C. Hughes, Clerk.

DEACONS. Chairman, R. W. Hutson; Secretary, W. W. Clement;

G. H. Moffett, R. M. Masters,

R. A. Smyth, W. McL. Frampton,

C. McK. Rose, John Frampton,

Treasurer, L. C. King.

SUNDAY SCHOOL.

Supt., T. Allen Legare; Asst.Supt., L.Cheves McC. Smythe; Sec, John Frampton; Asst.Sec, Hall T. McGee, Jr.; Honorary Secretary, John W. Robson;

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Libr'n, Colin McK. Rose; Asst. Libr 'n, Chas. F. Steinmeyer, Jr. ;

Organist, Miss G. J. Rose; Clarionette, Eugene Prince;

Precentor, W. Laurence Millar, Jr.

Young Men's Bible Class, W. S Allan;

Young Ladies' Bible Class, Miss S A Smyth;

Primary Department, Miss S R Smyth; Miss E. J. Adger, Miss W. W. King .

Teachers.

J. N. Robson, Miss Florence Bolger,

L. C. King, Miss Helen Mclndoe,

E. A. Fripp, Miss Fannie McNeill,

Miss J. A. Prince Miss Mary Brailsford,

Miss Mattie Knox, Joe M. Frampton,

Mrs. J. K. G. Fraser, Miss A. N. Allan,

Mrs. Stickney, Miss Jessie Bolger,

Miss Julia Haesloop, Miss JA\y Fogartie,

Miss M. C. Mustard, Miss Janie McCormick,

Miss Eva McNeill, Miss Susie McGee.

THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S CLUB.

President, W. W. Clement; Vice-President, J. W. Collins;

Secretary, Miss Marion Seabrook; Treasurer, H. T. McGee, Jr.

Chairmen of Committees:

Devotional, John Frampton; Membership, T. A. Legare;

Musical, W. L, Millar; Ch. Ext'n, H. C Hughes;

Personal Work, R. H. King; Visiting, Miss A. N. Allan;

Mis'n Study, Miss 0. Eiserhardt; Social, Miss M. E. Knox.

EDUCATION SOCIETY.

President and Treasurer, Miss S. A. Smyth; Vice-President, Miss E. J. Adger.

95

MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

President, Mrs. J. Keir G. Fraser; Vice-President, (Foreign^ Miss E. J. Adger; Treasurer, (Foreign) Mrs. John Bennett; Vice-President, (Home) Miss W. W. King;

Treasurer, (Home) Mrs. J. G. Morris;

Corresponding Secretary, Miss Jessie Bolger;

Recording Secretary, Miss 0. Eiserhardt.

OFFICERS OF THE JUNIOR MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

President, Robert Schroder;

Vice-President, Miss Agnes Warren ;

Recording Secretary, Miss Beulah Warren;

Corresponding Secretary, Miss Olive Murray;

Treasurer, Miss A. N. Allan.

THREADNEEDLE SOCIETY.

President, Miss Jessie Bolger;

Vice-President, Miss G. Frampton;

Secretary and Treasurer, Miss May Steinmeyer.

THE MANSE SOCIETY.

President, Miss Sarah R. Smyth;

Vice-President, Mrs. H. D. Shackleford;

Secretary-Treasurer, Miss Mattie E. Knox.

USHERS.

W. W. Clement, Chairman; John Frampton, Colin McK. Rose,

John King, Hall T. McGee, Jr.

SEXTON.

Charles Artope, 11 Norman Street.

COMMUNICANTS

of

The Second Presbyterian Church,

J909.

Adger, Mrs. Wm. (Margaret H.) Allan, Mrs. Amy Allan, Amy N. Allan, Wm. S. Allan, Mrs. Susan J. Allan, "Richard H. Adams, Mrs. Margaret Adger, Elizabeth J. Adger, Jane E. Atkinson, Mrs. A. S. Adams, Eliza E. Addison, Mrs. F. Rice Aldret, Benjamin Q. Aldret, Mrs, Eva F. Allan, Dr. Sarah C. Aldret, Edna Haynes Adams, Pauline Aldret, Mamie C. Aldret, Joseph E. Allan, Mrs. Ida V. Ayers, Mrs. Hattie Petit* Anderson, Mrs. Hannah

Bennett, Mrs. Susan S. Brackett, Mr". Louise Bailey, Mrs. Mary Bailey, Elvira Brailsford, Mary Bee, J. Samuel Bee, Mrs. F. Ardie Bee, Lilly E. Beekman, Mrs. Janie B. Bliss, Eliza R. Bliss, Sallie P. Butler, Wm. Enston Butler, Mrs. Ella J. Butler, Hannah E.

Butler, Catherine E. Butler, Jessie A. Blakeley, Elizabeth L. Blakeley, Laura P. Bolger, Mrs. Florence Bolger, Florence Bolger, Jessie Bee, Mrs. Annie Bush, Catherine Baynard, Mrs. Annie L. Butler, John W. Butler, Mrs. Lillie V. Bennett, Mrs. Bertha Miscally Burn, Mrs. Mary Steinmeyer

Cargill, Mrs. Adelaide Castillo, Mrs. Janie Chreitzburg, Eugenia Collins, Humbert M. Collins, Mrs. Louisa A. Cochrane, Samuel Carrere, Alma Carrere, Susan Carrere, Lilian Connor, Mrs. Mary Collins, H. Preston Collins, Mrs. Alice Jennie Collins, Louise Collins, Charlotte Corby, Mattie B. Campbell, Mrs. Victoria 0. Chubb, James Edward

Day, Zenobia

De Hay, George C.

Dolive, Mrs. Mary Happoldt

Donaldson, Mrs. Annie

Duncan, Mrs. Agnes

97

Eiserhardt, Osalien Edgerton, Mrs. J. E. Edgerton, Cecilia C. Eager, Elizabeth

Falconer, James C. Falconer, Mrs. Elizabeth Fogartie, Elizabeth G. Fogartie, Mrs. Eliza G. Fogartie, Lily L. Frampton, Louise H. Frampton, Mrs. Hattie Frampton, John Fraser, Mrs. Isabel Clark Frampton, Mrs. Anna M. Frampton, W. McLeod Frampton, Annie M. Frampton, Gertrude Frampton, Joseph M. Fripp, E. Allan Frampton, Win. Horlbeck Frampton, Joel Freeman, Mrs. Mamie Framp- ton

Glen, Wm. B. Glen, Mrs. Jennie I. Grant, Colin McK. Glover, Mrs. Ottilie V. Grimke, Mrs. Sarah T. Grimke, Mary S. Glover, Charles W. Grimshaw, Florence Gelzer, Mrs. Annie Frampton

Holmes, Mary Harvey, Mrs. Edith Holmes, Mrs. Josephine Hughes, Horatio C. Hughes, Mrs. Julia G. Hamlin, Elizabeth Hutson, Richard W. Hutson, Mrs. Myrtle J. Howe, Mrs. Hunter, Mrs. Lily Happoldt, Mrs. Frances Hisch, Rebecca Hunter, Cleo Taylor Hard, Mrs. Susan E.

Hanahan, Edward J. Hanahan, Mrs. Rena F. Heyward, Mrs. R. D. Holloman, Mrs. I. C. Heyward, James Hughes, Horatio, Jr. Howe, Dora Hartnett, Mrs. Corinne Corby

Irving, Agnes K.

Jervey, Mrs. Alice G. Jenkins, Edward Q. Jenkins, Mrs. Sarah Jordan, Mrs. Beulah Maule

King, Christopher W. King, Richard Hayne Knox, Martha E. Kauffner, John A. Kauffner, Mrs. Gertrude A. King, Eliza Cheves King, Langdon Cheves King, Samuel Keckeley, Emma King, Mrs. Sarah J. Kennedy, Mrs. Caroline E. Kilpatrick, Mrs. Sybil C. King, John King, E. Swinton King, Wilhelmina W. Kennedy, James F. King, Julian

Keys, Robert Thompson King, Mrs. Louise Robinson

Legare, Edward f. Legare, Mrs. Catherine Legare, George Q. Legare, T. Allan Legare, Mrs. Lily M. Lockwood, Mrs. Ella Legare, Mrs. Mary F. Lanneau, Gracia Lamble, Wm. J. Lamble, Mrs. Margaret Larrissey, Mrs. Lunz George R. Lunz, Mrs. Minnie W.

98

Legare, Ferdie Islar Ladd, Thos. N. Ladd, Mrs. Rosa P. Ladd, Mabel 0. Ladd, Edith C.

Marshall, Mrs. Ann * Mustard, Mrs. Caroline Mustard, Minnie Mustard, Lilian Martin, Archibald Martin, Mrs. Sarah Motte, Annie P. Maule, Mrs. Rosalie L. Masters, Raphael M. Morris, Mrs. Josephine Millar, Mrs. Elizabeth Millar, Theodore D. Millar, W. Lawrence, Jr Miscally, Edwin F. Miscally, Mrs. Barbara L. Mather, Lizzie G. MofTett, George H. Moffett, Daisy Meggett, Mrs. Mary. Meggett, James Meggett, Williams W. Morrow, Mrs. Jeanette Mather, William Mather, Lizzie G. Meggett, Mary Murray Meggett, Cecile Westmore Masters, Agnes Gertrude Millar, Marion F. Meggett, Elizabeth Clement Meaeher, Mrs. F. E. Mitchell, James Murray Millar, Mrs. Lawrence, St.* Muckenfuss, Mrs. Pauline R. Martin, Mrs. Mary C*

McGee, Susan T. McGee, Mary C. McGee, Harriet W. McCormack, Mrs. Mary J. McCormack, M. Janie McClure, John B., Sr * McClure, Lily McCarrel, Robert

McCarrel, Mrs. Esther C. Mclndoe, Mrs. Agnes Mclndoe, Helena Mclndoe, Agnes McGee, James W. McDermid, George C. McDermid, Mrs. Jessie McNeill, Mary E. McDermid, Robin M. McNeill, Mrs. Snusan McNeill, Fannie McNeill, Mrs. Barbara McNeill, Eva McNeill, Mary McClure, John B., Jr. McGee, Arthur P. McGee, Hall T., Jr. McNight, George Glen

Nohrden, Mrs. Florence Neil, Agnes Neil, Mary Neumann, Daisy Nohrden, Lucile

Oswald, Mrs. Mary T.

Percival, Mrs. Jessie A. Prince, Mrs. Rebecca Prince, John Prince, Jane A. Prince, Maud Percival, Edward W. Prince, Louise E. Petit, Arthur Washington Petit, Mrs. Mattie Louise Picquet, Susan. Picquet, Lucille Percival, Gertrude Picquet, Isabella

Quigley, Janie Quigley, John G. Quigley, Mrs. Addie

Robertson, Mrs. Mamie Robertson, Harry C. Roberts, Mrs. Eliza Q.* Riggs, Mrs. Martha

99

Roberson, John W. Roberson, Mrs. Lily Rose, Mrs. Elizabeth Rose, Colin McK. Rose, T. Donald Rose, Margaret G. Rose, Gertrude J. Robinson, Mrs. Jane Robinson, Jean Richardson, Mrs. Victoria. R. Rumley, Mrs Sarah L. Rumley, Jessie E. Robson, Mrs. Helen H. Reeves, Robert Reeves, Mrs. Robt. Roumillatt, Mrs. Rosaline Robson, J. N. Robson, Sarah M. Robson, John W. Robson, Franklin E. Robson, John Raymond Reynolds, Harry F., Jr. Revnolds, Henry P. Reynolds, Mrs. H. P.

Simmons, Mr.?. Sarah E. Smith, Carrie Smyth, J. Adger Smyth. Sarah R. Smyth, Robert A. Smyth, Sarah Ann Smythe, Augustine T. Smythe, L. Cheves McC. Smythe, Augustine T., Jr. Schroder, Mrs. Anna M. Stoney, Mrs. Louisa C. Steinmeyer, Chas. F. Steinmeyer, Mrs. Carrie Smith, Fannie I. Seabrook, Robert E. Seabrook, Mrs. Annie Stickney, Mrs. Mary R. McD. Shaw, Mrs. Martha

Shaw, Mary Edith Shaw, Susan N. Simmons, Mrs. Sarah E. Shackelford, Henry D. Shackelford, Mrs. Annie R. Simonton, Mrs. Anna M. Steinmeyer, Marian Smith Steinmever, Charles F., Jr. Shokes, 'Mrs. Cleo Estelle Stuart, Mrs. E. F. Steinmeyer, Carrie Mae Schroder, Charles Schroder, Robert Duryea Stuart, Mary F. Silcox, Mrs. Agnes Miscally

Timmons, Margaret A. Taylor, Janie Temple, Alice E. Tyrrell, Lottie

Verdery, Mrs. Beulah R. Veronee, Maggie May Veronee, Mrs. Maggie Vernon, Mrs. Janie Day

Wright, Mrs. Hannah McC. S. Whilden, Mrs. Sarah D. Whilden, Drucie Whilden, Lizzie C. Wilson, Caroline Whilden, Mrs. Mary L. Wragg, Mrs. Martha M. Warren, Mrs. Ada A. Wright, Janie D. Wright, Mrs. Elizabeth C. Wright, Harold E. Warren, Elsie Warren, John Hertz Warren, Beulah King Williams, Mrs. Kate Aldret

Zeigler, Mrs. Robert

Note:— All names followed by * are those of communicants whose death occurred during the Centennial year, 1909.

100

THE SUNDAY BULLETIN.

Among the efficient agencies of Church conduct instituted during the ministry of the present pastor must be noted the issue and distribution throughout the congregation, every Sunday, at morning service, of a regularly published bulletin of current events, comprising the daily order of liturgical ser- vices and of worship, a careful provisional calendar of congre- gational activities and events for the coming week, and a standing reference-list of the complete official organization of the Church, which for the interest of the future, is reproduced in these pages.

Second Presbyterian Church

CHARLESTON, S. C

^% ^* ^?*

(ORGANIZED 1809)

t^* t^* t^*

MINISTER, REV. J. KEIB G. FRASER, D. D.

FOREIGN MISSIONARIES : Mrs. P. F. Price, Dongshang, China; Prof. E R. Sims, Cardenas, Cuba.

HOME MISSIONARY: Rev. C. E. Robertson, Lawton, Oklahoma.

Enter into His gate with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise.

We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Thy House.

First page of weekly Bulletin.

101

The Ritual in ordinary is as follows:

Whosoever thou art that enterest this Church leave it not without

a prayer to God for thyself, for him who ministers,

and for those who worship here.

Sunday, April 10, 19 — .

ORDER OF MORNING WORSHIP.

ORGAN PRELUDE.

THE DOXOLOGY — (The congregation standing)

CALL TO WORSHIP.

INVOCATION, followed by the Lord's Prayer (in unison.)

SELECTION.

RESPONSIVE READING, Psalm.

HYMN.

SCRIPTURE LESSON.

PRAYER.

OFFERTORY— (followed by brief Prayer) Organ Solo.

HYMN.

PRAYER — Intercessions.

SERMON.

PRAYER.

HYMN.

BENEDICTION.

ORGAN POSTLUDE.

CALENDAR FOR THE WEEK.

SUNDAY, 11 A. M.: Service and Sermon.

" 4, 4:30 or 5 P. M. according to season: Sun-

day School service. 8 P.M.: Young People 'a Club. MONDAY, 8:15 P. M., at stated interval: Court of Dea-

cons. " 8:15 P. M., monthly: Session.

TUESDAY, 4, 4:30 or 5 P. M., according to season; sec- ond Tuesday of each month: Thread-Needle Society, at members' residences. WEDNESDAY, 4:30 P. M.: Mid-week Service.

THURSDAY, 12 M.: Education Society; at members' res- idences.

FRIDAY, 4, 4:30 or 5 P. M., according to season; first

Friday of each month: Missionary Society, general, at the Manse. 8:15 P. M., quarterly: Preparatory Service.

SATURDAY, 4, 4:30 or 5 P. M., according to season: Junior

Missionary Society; at officers' residences.

102

Here follows a Typical Weekly Bulletin of Information, selected at ran dom, as an example :

We welcome to our Church to-day the Rev. J. W. LafTerty of Summerville, who will conduct the service this morning and also give the lecture this afternoon. Let us pray that his visit to us may bring with it a Divine blessing.

The Pastor is in Summerville to-day where he has gone to visit one of our homes in which there is sickness. To-morrow he goes to Estill to attend the Spring meeting of Charleston Presbytery.

The offering this morning (through the white envelopes) is for "Our Church Poor." Next Sunday this offering goes to "General Assembly's Home Missions" — the support of our Home Missionary in Oklahoma. It is hoped that all will con- tribute generously to this important cause.

The annual meeting of the "Presbyterian Home" Society will be held on Monday at 5 P. M. in the lecture room of West- minster Church.

In the absence of the Pastor on Wednesday afternoon the mid-week service will be conducted by a minister of one of the City Churches. It is hoped there will be a large congregation to meet him.

The session at its meeting on Monday evening received the report of contributions to Benevolent and Missionary causes for the year ending March 31, 1910. The report was very en- couraging and the congregation is urged to press on to still higher attainments in this grace of giving during the coming year. All of the causes to which we contribute have for their aim the advancement of the kingdom of Christ and only as we give them our generous support do we fulfil our mission as a Church of Christ. The congregation is asked to remember that these offerings must all be made by envelope as the loose collection on Sunday morning goes to our own congregational expenses. Separate envelopes are furnished for Foreign Mis- sions and everyone is urged to take a set of these envelopes for the new Church year and subscribe and contribute a certain sum each week:

' ' Upon the first day of the week let everyone of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him. ' '

FOR INFORMATION OF THE PASTOR.

Write Name and Address of Persons, check the square con- taining Information, detach and deposit on Collection

Plate.

new -issues Children Removed to

not in S. S. above address

STATEMENT

OF

The Receipts and Expenditures

OF

The Second Presbyterian Church,

FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING MAY I, 1910.

The effort was made during the two closing years of the end- ing century to make up by deficiency collections an amount large enough to put the Church building in thorough repair, and to pay off all indebtednesses, that the New Century might be begun with a church in as good repair as it was in the year of its erection, and with no debt out-standing. That this was successfully accomplished, and more, is discovered by examin- ation of the appended full financial statement for the first year of the oncoming century:

1909. CR.

May 1 . By Balance in Carolina Savings Bank .... $ 328 24

By Pew Rents, amount collected during

year 1 480 91

By Yellow Envelopes, collected during

year 1 374 19

By Loose Collection, collected during year 301 38

By Deficiency Collection, collected during

year 25 00

By Increase Income of Church, from L.

C. King 19 21

By Church Fees, received from Funerals

and Marriages 70 00

By Choir Fees, received from Funerals

and Marriages 7 50

By Sundav School, received from

L. C. King, Treasurer $97 03

Young People's Club 8 75

Home Department S. S 5 30 111 08

By Fund Perpetual Care Grave Yard, In- terest on Bonds and Bank Deposit.... 32 03

104

DR.

To Sunday School Paid Expenses during

year S 104 63

' ' Rev. J. K. G. Fraser, paid him salary 2 000 00 ' ' Church Fees, paid fees for Weddings

and Funerals 52 00

Choir Fees, paid fees for Funerals 5 00

Repair Account, repairs during year. . . 77 83

« i

n it it

<<

To Expense Account —

" Printing Centennial Program $ 13 00

" Printing Treasurer's Report 4 00

" Printing Calendars 92 50

" Sundry Printing 3 50

" Printing Yellow Envelopes 20 00

" Printing White Envelopes 20 00

Sign Cards 3 50

Delivered Yellow Envelopes 2 50

Advertising N. and C. and E. P 38 50

" Church Record Books 5 75

" Tornado Insurance, on Manse 17 00

Balance due Pres. Exp 11 01

Pulpit Reading Desk 12 66

" Gas Bills 18 78

" Water Bills 16 98

" Wood and Coal 50 90

" Rubber Hose 10 00

" Postage, Ice and Sundries 25 90

Organist 200 00

Care of Organ 37 50

" Bellows Blower 72 00

" Music 8 85

" Sexton 300 00

" Care of Grave Yard 43 65

" Treasurer's Commission 157 82

$1 186 30

Balance in Carolina Savings Bank 323 78

S3 749 54 S3 749 54

By Balance in Carolina Savings Bank .... $ 323 78

HALL T. McGEE, Jr., Treasurer.

it (t

105

BENEVOLENT COLLECTIONS,

Foreign Missions $1 206 00

Assembly's Home Missions 332 00

Local Home Missions 474 00

Colored Evangelization 91 00

Ministerial Relief 147 00

Education 310 00

Schools and Colleges 39 00

Sunday School Extension and Publication 21 00

Bible Cause 13 00

Assembly 's Home 26 00

Poor Fund 262 72

Orphans' Homes 224 00

Presbyterial Expenses 45 00

$3 190 70 H. C. HUGHES,

Clerk of Session.

RECAPITULATION.

Corporation $ 3 421 30

Benevolent Collections 3 190 72

$ 6 612 02

Now, may God's mercy abide with us ever! and may the on- coming century be, if possible, even more full than the past, of truly inspired work for the salvation of men and to the everlasting glory of God! Amen.

PRESBYTERIAN COLLEGE LIBRARY SMC 285. 175 7 Se2 SBTA

Exercises connected with the one hundred

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