"Christ"s way was much rougher and darker than mine, Did Christ, my Lord, suffer, and shall I repine?"
Again, another qualification in a ruling elder is wisdom. "Be ye wise as serpents," said Jesus, "and harmless as doves." Are all these professing Christians wise? Are all elders wise? Are all ministers wise? Dr. Bonar says:
Be wise and use thy wisdom well.
_Be what thou seemest._ Live thy creed; Be what thou prayest to be made.
Lift o"er the earth the torch Divine, Let the great Master"s steps be thine.
Blessed words these. Who can read them without thanking G.o.d for such words and such men, that our kind Father above raises up to instruct us in these things that pertain to our everlasting well-being? For all well-being is the result of _well-doing_ in time and in eternity.
Who is a wise man, and endued with knowledge among you, let him show, out of a good conversation, his works with meekness of wisdom. This meekness of wisdom Elder Knowles preeminently possessed. The psalmist says, concerning such: "The meek shall inherit the land. And shall delight themselves in abundance of peace. Strike, said Diogenes, to his instructor, Antichenes, the philosopher; but you will find no staff so hard that it will drive me away from your school. I love you, and I have made up my mind to suffer anything for the sake of learning." This yearning desire on the part of the true elder after fitness for his office, ought to be willing to bear reproach for the sake of Him who died, that we might live. There is great wisdom displayed in bearing the Cross meekly for Jesus. If we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him.
It is a blessed thing to suffer in love for Christ. To bear injustice and conquer. Herein is consummate wisdom displayed. "If ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envy and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy" (James iii. 14-17).
But the wisdom of the elder now lying before us in the coffin was displayed not only in his meekness, but in his _gentleness_ of disposition.
His wife used to say, "Why, he is just like a child. So gentle and peaceable. So easily intreated." I remember quoting that hymn at the prayer meeting:
I want to be like Jesus, Meek, lowly, loving, mild; I want to be like Jesus-- The Father"s holy child.
And at the close of the meeting he shook me warmly by the hand, and the sentiment in the stanza seemed to give him unspeakable pleasure.
Once more, another qualification for the eldership that our deceased brother possessed, was, _that he had a good report from without_. (See 1 Timothy, iii. 7.) Our dearly beloved was not only highly esteemed for his work"s sake by the members of the churches and the various pastors, as their letters in this volume testify, but his walk and conversation was such in the outside world, that his fellow-workmen, and those who lived in the same house with him, and had opportunity to know him, learned to revere and love him. You know the eyes of the world are constantly watching the Christian. I notice on the casket to-day a lovely bouquet of flowers, and I read on the card: "Presented to James Knowles, by the printers where he was for years employed."
This is, certainly, a token of esteem to the memory of him with whom they were long so affectionately a.s.sociated.
In every professional life there are daily occurrences that try men"s tempers. But by the grace of G.o.d, our brother was enabled to adorn the doctrine of G.o.d, our Saviour, and to live unspotted from the world. As all elders have to mingle more with the world than a minister, how essential it is that the outside world should see that their walk and conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Christ.
Again: another qualification of an elder, is, that "he should be a _prayerful man_." Our brother had all through life cultivated a spirit of prayer. This "is the Christian"s vital breath." It was his habit to shut himself up in his room, and pour out his soul in earnest supplication to G.o.d. He prayed in his family, as well as in the church.
He had secret prayer. "And thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet?" said Jesus. Oh, the power of prayer is marvellous. He prayed audibly. And his wife used to say of him: "He pleads with G.o.d as one _pleading for his life_."
When he became so weak that he was unable longer to testify for Christ on his death-bed, his loved ones bending over him, and putting their ears down to his lips to catch his last articulations, they heard him praying, not for himself, but for Allen Street Presbyterian Church and its minister.
Lastly, an elder ought to cultivate the habit of _systematic beneficence_ for the support of the Gospel. This, our brother was constantly in the habit of doing. He remembered the injunction, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." It is worthy of observation that, during the three years during which his son was out in the late war, he paid monthly the pew rent for his boy during his absence, until at last his pastor would not allow him to do it longer.
Oh, that all of our office-bearers and church members would feel it their duty to give largely and in a worshipful spirit to the cause of their Redeemer, as the Lord has prospered them.
Blessed are such dead who die in the Lord; they rest from their labors, and their works do follow them.
Man cannot cover what G.o.d can _reveal_. Says the poet Campbell:
"Tis the sunset of life gives me mystical lore, And coming events cast their shadows before.
Their works do follow them. Where? On to the judgment. Where selfish ambition and avarice will be exposed in its true light. Where "man"s inhumanity to man" will be thoroughly scrutinized. For the books will be opened, and we will be judged according to our works.
In that great and awful day when the great white throne is erected, and when the heavens shall be removed as a scroll, when it is rolled up; and every mountain and island shall be removed out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the princes, and the chief captains, and the rich, and the strong, shall hide themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains; and they shall say to the mountains and the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him who sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of His wrath is come: and who is able to stand?
Oh, let us remember that now broken hearts can be healed by the power of the Gospel of Christ. Their works do follow them. Yonder? Yes! Here?
Yes! The salutary influence for good by the consistent life of our elder can never be lost or forgotten.
We lay our brother"s body to-day in Cypress Hills Cemetery, but his spirit hovers o"er us.
This tenement of dust is empty, but Jesus says: "I am the resurrection and the life."
We have deep feelings to-day, for we realize that we have lost a friend. No more. "G.o.d bless you, my brother, in your work." No more shall we see you at the prayer-meeting. Farewell, dear elder and co-worker. We say farewell but not forever. "We shall meet beyond the river."
And G.o.d grant
That we may stand before the throne, When earth and seas are fled; And hear the Judge p.r.o.nounce our name, With blessings on our head.
G.o.d"s voice, by this solemn dispensation of His providence, speaks loudly to us all. May our faith in G.o.d be greatly strengthened. May our love for perishing souls be made more deeper and _stronger_. May G.o.d help us to go out into the streets and lanes of this wicked city, and constrain them to come in, that His house may be full.
And G.o.d grant that this deep affliction which this church has sustained may be the means, in the hands of the Spirit, of constraining us to have more earnest and believing prayer, for the manifestation of His power to save unto the uttermost. That Jesus may see, of the travail of His soul, and be abundantly satisfied.
To the bereaved son and daughters, and grandchildren, who are left behind, let me affectionately commend you to the unchanging love of Him who sympathized with the sorrowing sisters of Bethany. Put all your trust in His dear name. Serve Him from day to day, by reading His blessed Bible, and holding sweet communion with Him, by prayer and supplication, that at last when G.o.d shall call for you to leave this stage of action, you may go to meet your dear ones in the happy home above, and sit with them at the "marriage supper of the Lamb."--AMEN.
CHAPTER VI.
A BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE ALLEN STREET PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
How lovely is thy dwelling-place, O Lord of hosts to me, The tabernacles of thy grace, How pleasant, Lord, they be.
"Glorious things of thee are spoken, O city of G.o.d." This saying can be emphatically applied to the above church, for the living truths proclaimed from her pulpit have saved and sanctified many sons and daughters, and clad in the beauteous garments of Prince Immanuel, have gone forth to other churches and to other lands, to lead thousands to the same Saviour that they had found.
Let us glance at its origin.
While Christ is the head of the Church, the tried corner-stone elect and precious, yet his members are the living stones, and have built up a spiritual house unto the Lord. The portion of "Zion" to which we have reference, originated on the corner of Catharine Street, near Madison Street. It was duly organized on Wednesday, May 28, 1819.
The seal of the church is an open Bible, and the words _Holy Bible_ upon it, with the inscription surrounding it: "_Allen Street Presbyterian Church_."
The location of the place of worship was changed to Allen Street in 1823.
The Rev. Ward Stafford was appointed by the New York Female Missionary Society, who n.o.bly toiled, and was succeeded by the Rev. William Gray.
During the first year of its history, twenty-one members were added to the church-roll, and as an expression of her unfeigned grat.i.tude to G.o.d for this mark of kindness she became the mother of the same number of ministers of the Gospel, who were called and commissioned, and who have courageously proclaimed the unsearchable riches of Christ, in distant parts of the country. Among them was the present pastor of the Church of Sea and Land, Rev. Dr. Hopper. It is worthy of observation that this church has been able to pay its running expenses by voluntary contributions.
In a historical discourse delivered by Rev. George O. Phelps, he says:
"It is a source of untold satisfaction in this day of presumptuous spires or burdensome church debts, that the Allen Street Presbyterian Church has no such enc.u.mbrance--not one dollar of mortgage rests upon it; that at the close of each fiscal year, by means of the voluntary system, and the kindly aid of friends interested in the prosperity of the church, and the maintenance of the preached word in this part of the city, all obligations are fully discharged.
"For this, we most heartily thank our G.o.d to-day, whose favor is thus constant.
"True as it is, that this church can be regarded at no period as among the affluent--as there are those to-day who expend more for church music than our entire congregational expenses, so there have ever been those who could drop into the treasury of a single board, in a single year, more than all our contributions to benevolent objects during fifty years, we hope it may be equally true that we have been most definitely, spiritually p.r.o.nounced.
"Whatever may be said of her ecclesiastical loyalty, the evidences are numerous of fervent loyalty to Christ, in doctrine, in the word preached, in influence exerted, in means used for the extension of His kingdom, and of consequent fidelity to man touching questions of social and of national importance.