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Presbyterian Historical Society cornerstone laying, 1967.
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- speakerNew building for the Presbyterian Historical Society. We're delighted to have you here and to share
- speakerwith us and the joy and the happiness of this occasion. The invocation will
- speakerbe given by Professor Thomas A. Schaefer, who is Professor of Church History
- speakerin McCormick Theological Seminary of Chicago and a very
- speakeresteemed member on this Board of Directors of the Historical Society.
- speakerLet us pray. Oh, God
- speakerto move with thy people from old. And moved on to
- speakerestablish they church in this good land. We praise thee for the heritage
- speakerof faith to which we havefallen heir. Help us to realize that our very
- speakerpresence before thee this day represents
- speakerloving concern, wise planning and gracious giving.
- speakerAll in order that this portion of thy people may not forget whence they have
- speakercome and may be guided in the future as they learn from the past.
- speakerBy the presence of thy spirit with us and by thy blessing upon
- speakerwhat we do here, O Father, Do thou complete the joy
- speakerof all those whose labors have made this moment possible.
- speakerBy the laying of this stone and the construction of this building,
- speakermay we raise our Ebenezer that, in time to come,
- speakerour children and our children's children may join us in saying
- speaker"Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." Our prayer is in the name
- speakerof thy son, who is both the foundation and the head
- speakerof the corner of his Church. Amen.
- speakerI'm going to ask that you join me in this responsive reading from the scripture,
- speakeras you see taken book, First book of Chronicles, in the twenty ninth chapter.
- speakerBlessed be thou, Lord God of Israel, our Father, for ever and ever. Thine is the power, the glory, the victory and the majesty, for all that is in heaven and on
- speakerThine is the kingdom, Oh, Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Riches and honor come from thee and you rule over all.
- speakerIn they hand is power and might; in thy hand it is to make great,
- speakerto give strength unto all. And now, our God, we give thanks to thee and praise your glorious name.
- speakerBut, who am I, and what is my people that we should be able to offer so willingly after
- speakerthis sort. Fo all things come from thee
- speakerWe are strangers before thee and sojourners, as were all our fathers. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is none abiding.
- speakerOh, Lord, our God. All thisstore that we have prepared to build thee an house
- speakerfor thy holy name cometh of thine hand and it is all thine own. I know my God that you search the heart and ask for this witness
- speakerAs for me, in the uprightness of mine heart, . Most of my entire. I have freely offered all
- speakerthese things. And, now I have seen with joy thy people, which are present here
- speakerto offer willingly unto thee. O lord God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our ancestors, keep us forever in the hearts of your people
- speakerGlory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, it now and ever shall be world without end. Amen.
- speakerThe scripture lesson will be read by Mr. William O. Master, who is the Treasurer of
- speakerthe Board of Directors of the Historical Society.
- speakerOur Scripture reading is from Psalm eleven.
- speakerIn the Lord I take refuge; how can you say to me, "Flee like a bird to the mountains, for look, the wicked
- speakerbend the bow, they have fitted their arrow to the string, to shoot in the dark
- speakerthe upright in heart. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"
- speakerThe Lord is in holy temple; the Lord's throne is in heaven,His eyes behold, his
- speakereyelids test the children of men. The Lord tesst the righteous and and the wicked,
- speakerand his soul hates him that loves violence. On the wicked he will rain coals
- speakerof fire and brimstone. A scorhing wind shall be the portion of their cup. For the
- speakerLord is righteous. He loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.
- speakerReverend Dr Thomas S. Goslin of the Presbyterian Church of Doylestown will
- speakerlead us in prayer. Let us pray.
- speakerAlmighty God, the father of all truth, wisdom and
- speakergoodness, from whom all worthy thoughts do proceed. Bless us
- speakeras we lay this cornerstone and grant that the books and manuscripts
- speakerto be housed in this library, together with all the scholarly research
- speakerto be carried forward here may be greatly used by thee for the accomplishment
- speakerof thy holy purposes. Not only in our beloved
- speakerPresbyterian tradition, but also for thy coming great
- speakerchurch. Truly catholic, truly reformed, and truly
- speakerevangelical, so that this building long may stand as a symbol of
- speakerof our praise and adoration and our devotion to Jesus Christ,
- speakerthe light of the world and the head of the church. We acknowledge today, Oh
- speakerLord, that we build upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.
- speakerJesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. Amen. We
- speakerwere delighted when we found that Doctor G. Hall Todd, who is the pastor of the
- speakerArch Street church and our vice-president, could make the address on this occasion.
- speakerWe shall now hear from him.
- speakerThe eleventh Psalm, the third verse. If the foundations
- speakerbe destroyed, what can the righteous do? I shall put
- speakeron my hat so that those of you who desire will put on their hats. your hats. The celebrated London preacher
- speakerpreacher Joseph Parker once said, poor
- speakerindeed is he who has no yesterdays. One of the noblest Romans of
- speakerthem all of what to know what's happened before one was born
- speakeris to remain always a child. Today we laid the cornerstone of an edifice which
- speakerwill be devoted to the foundations, the yesterdays of our faith, and our church. This building
- speakerwill be consecrated to the preservation of the historic foundations on which our church
- speakerhas been built. To employ the title of a recent volume, dealing with historical
- speakerlibraries and museums of our country, we are to discharge
- speakerthe high office of being keepers of the past. In the
- speakeryear seventeen hundred ninety-one, the General Assembly appointed a committee whose purpose was
- speakerthe acquisition and preservation of the memorabilia of the then
- speakerrecently organized denomination. The chairman was no less a personage than
- speakerJohn Witherspoon, who had been a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
- speakerAmong others named with him was Ashbel Green, the author of a notable commentary
- speakeron the Westminster Confession of Faith and later the president of Princeton.
- speakerIt was at the same time, that in New England, Dr. Korean, the Reverend Jeremy Belnap, minister
- speakerof the Federal Street Congregational Church in Boston, formulated the plan for
- speakerthe organization of an antiquarian society, the first of its kind in the United
- speakerStates and which blossomed into the Massachusetts Historical Society. The
- speakerthe organization of the Presbyterian Historical Society was under the aegis of the
- speakerOld School General Assembly. It was on May twentieth eighteen hundred fifty-two
- speakerin the stately Second Presbyterian Church of Charleston, South Carolina, that the Society
- speakercame into being . Among the members of the church's congregation were the family of the theologian John L.
- speakerGiradeau, the mother and family of the eminent classicist Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve.
- speakerThe paternal grandmother of Henry Timrod, the poet, whose work is being
- speakerrecognized fresh in the present time. Timrod portrayed that picturesque city.
- speaker"Old Charleston looks from roof, and spire, and dome across the tranquil bay"
- speakerDr. John Maclean, who was then a professor and later became
- speakerthe president of Princeton University, or College as it was then known, presided
- speakerover the initial meeting. Elected as the original president was Dr
- speakerJames Hoge, scion of an old Virginia Presbyterian family, the
- speakerpioneer of Ohio Presbyterianism, the minister of the First Presbyterian Church of Columbus,
- speakerOhio, whose father, Dr. Moses Hoge, died suddenly at the General Assembly in Philadelphia and lies
- speakerentombed yonder in the old Pine Street Church. I am happy to announce that in our midst
- speakertoday is a a great great grandniece of
- speakerthe first president of the Presbyterian Historical Society. Dr. James
- speakerHoges's contemporaries portray him as of noble appearance, of native majesty, the best
- speakerstatesman of Ohio, a veritable book of reference to the legislators in Columbus, a presbyter whose preaching never
- speakerattracted a popular throng and gathered to him the learned and elite by reason of the profundity of his thoughts
- speakerthe fineness of his views, the strengths of his logic. Linked with Dr. Hoge
- speakeras officers in the newly formed society, among others, were Dr. Charles Hodge, the great Princeton theologian,
- speakerDr. Robert J. Breckinridge of Kentucky, also on a great theologian and
- speakerthe grandfather of the Warfields. Dr. William Buell Sprague, the author of
- speakerthe notable Annals of the American Pulpit. In his comprehensive historical address at the fiftieth
- speakeranniversary of the Society, Dr. William L. Ledwith, the librarian and who was then
- speakerthe minister of the Tioga Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, spoke of the guiding and the
- speakerbeneficient spirit, who more than any other was responsible for its growth,
- speakerSamuel Agnew, an affluent Philadelphia layman. Recognized as the virtual
- speakerfounder of the Society was the petition Dr. Courtlandt Van Rensselaer, then of
- speakerBurlington, New Jersey. The hymnologist, Dr. Louis F. Benson said we have been accustomed to look up to
- speakerhim as our founder, our progenitor, and we have thought ourselves well on. The saintly doctor Kayrie of
- speakerBrooklyn followed Dr. Van Rensselaer as the crown prince of Presbyterianism.
- speakerComing from the Dutch Reformed tradition, scion of the old Hudson River poltroon family, great-
- speakergrandson of Philip Livingston, signer of the Declaration of Independence, son of General Stephen
- speakerVan Rensselaer, the last poltroon, and of the War of 1800 closed, Courtlandt Van
- speakerVan Rensselaer has been pictured as a person of noble descent and finest culture and
- speakerpossessed of the historic sense. It is to his Old School Presbyterians
- speakerthat we owe the Presbyterian Historical Society. Very early in their history, they entered.
- speakerThey embraced in their officiary, distinguished representatives of other branches of
- speakerthe Reformed faith. Among them, their separated brethren of the New School Assembly, such as Albert Barnes,
- speakerthe controversialist and commentator of Philadelphia, Henry Boynton Smith, who came into an evangelical
- speakerfaith from Unitarianism and who was the great Christocentric theologian of Union
- speakerSeminary in New York. Thomas Harvey Skinner, the translator of the homoletician
- speakerBinet [A. Binet of Lausanne] and a professor at Andover and Union. Other presidents included, Joseph T. Cooper, the patriarch
- speakerof the old United Presbyterian Church, James Renwick
- speakerWillson Sloan, minister of the Third Church of the Covenanters in New York, an early president of Geneva
- speakerCollege and the father of the Columbia University historian, William Milliken Sloan. In eighteen hundred
- speakerninety eight, the Society turned their attention to and honored as guest speaker the magnificent
- speakerand versatile Dutch theologian and later Prime Minister Abraham Kuypers. At
- speakerthe time when roles spoke of our nation as being disinherited of elves, and William Dean Howells
- speakerwrote of our unmemoried land, all antecedents in this society were both
- speakerdeserving and making history. The Society had many striking and intimate associations with the foundations
- speakerand continuing drama of Americana. Dr. Van Rensselaer, while supplying a pulpit in Washington, ministered to President
- speakerWilliam Henry Harrison on his deathbed and officiated at his service in his mourning household in the executive mansion. Dr. Robert Jefferson Breckinridge,
- speakeranother original vice-president, was the son of the Attorney General, presided over the Republican convention in Baltimore, which nominated Abraham Lincoln
- speakerthe second time. Dr. Charles Hodge was named, was married to Sarah Bache, the great-grandaughter of Benjamin Franklin.
- speakerDr. Henry C. McCook, long the President of the Society, noted as an entomologist,
- speakeras well as a student of heraldry, was one of the famous fighting McCooks of Ohio
- speakerduring the Civil War. An original director was the theological professor
- speakerDr William McKendree Scott, [McCormick Seminary] who was the father of General Hugh L. Scott, the chief of staff of the
- speakerUnited States Army. Into the New York manse of Dr J. R. W.
- speakerSloan, there stormed the mob during the draft riots in
- speakerNew York in the year eighteen hundred sixty-three. And find in the archives is the
- speakermanuscript sermon delivered by Dr. Phineas Dinsmore Gurley [Pastor Washington, DC, New York Avenue Presbyterian Church] at the obsequies of Abraham
- speakerLincoln in the White House. It is fitting that our archives should find their handsome repository
- speakerin this city, which witnessed the birth of the nation and the birth of our organized
- speakerdenomination. Indeed Lombard Street is not without its signifcance for Presbyterians,
- speakerfor it was here and in this immediate neighborhood, as his family Bible attests,
- speakerthat Doctor Archibald Alexander, later founder of Princeton Seminary, lived. Here, his illustrious sons were born. One of those sons, the Honorable William C.
- speakerAlexander, the governor of New Jersey, was an original vice president and director of the society.
- speakerBelfast native, Dr Thomas Smythe, who was the eloquent minister
- speakerof the Second Presbyterian Church in Charleston when this organization had its inception and
- speakerwho is said to have possessed the most extensive private theological library in America,
- speakerin one of his addresses, which is quoted in his autobiography, cites these lines from
- speakerRobert Southey. "My library, my days among the dead are
- speakerpast. Around me I behold, where'er these casual eyes are cast, the
- speakermighty minds of old. My never failing friends are they, with whom I converse night and day. My
- speakerthoughts are with the Dead. With them, I live in long past years.
- speakerTheir virtues love. Their faults condemn. Partake their hopes and fears. From
- speakertheir lessons seek and find instruction with an humble mind."
- speakerBut this will not merely being a place for research. It is also a place where students
- speakerwill come to seek light and wisdom from history on the
- speakerissues of the contemporary scene. As Winston Churchill, the grandnephew of
- speakertwo Presbyterian ministers observed, "Without a sense of history. no man
- speakercan understand the problems of our time." Speaking at the fiftieth anniversary
- speakerof this Society, Dr. Henry Van Dyke said, our motto should be
- speaker"Gather up the fragments that nothing be lost." In such a place as this
- speakercentral depository, guarded against the fire that consumes and the
- speakerfolly that forgets, equally acceptable to all who have an interest in them. The
- speakersacred silent witness to the struggles and the sacrifices, the heroism and the
- speakerfidelity of our fathers, the faith may be assembled, of our
- speakerfathers in the faith. May be assembled in security and kept in honor,
- speakerfrom this hall moving memories, filled with the quiet and filled with delightful studies, as from the shrine
- speakerof knowledge, sainted by service, the voice of history may speak to us in clear
- speakerinsightful tones, recounting the true stories of our race,
- speakerour country, our church. And, putting us in mind of the practices
- speakerdeliverances and rewards of Almighty God, lest we forget. Lest we forget.
- speakerIf the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do? The
- speakerOld School Presbyterians, who laid the foundations of this institution,
- speakerin the consciousness that nations and churches can be victims of
- speakeramnesia, a plight they sought to prevent, were inspired by a philosophy of
- speakerhistory. It was a philosophy rooted and grounded in their Calvinistic
- speakercreed, which was based solidly upon the Bible as their only
- speakerinfallible rule of faith and practice and in the Westminster Standards.
- speakerUnlike other philosophies of history, it was animated by hope. Their creed
- speakerenunciated to them the confidence that God, his history, sovereign law.
- speakerThat, in the process of the ages, He is working out His eternal plan.
- speakerThat, He is bringing all things to pass for the consummation of His own glorious
- speakerpurpose. And, that he will ultimately, as St. Paul says in the Epistle
- speakerto the Ephesians, sum up all things in Christ. Other foundations
- speakercan no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
- speakerIn that strong conviction, and with that faith living still,
- speakerencompassed by a great cloud of witnesses, from our storied Presbyterian
- speakerpast, we now engage in this significant settlement.
- speakerAt
- speakerthis time before we actually go through the ceremony, I would
- speakerlike to present to this audience the distinguished Philadelphia architect, to
- speakerwhom we are indebted for the design of this building, Mr. G. Edward Rumbaugh, would you step forward?
- speakerHe is right here. He is a man who has steeped
- speakerhimself in Presbyterian. Not only Presbyterian, but
- speakerI should say Philadelphia history and tradition and he's delighted when we were
- speakerin the running, when we were able to secure his services for the design of this building.
- speakerI would also like to present to you the head of the construction firm
- speakerJohn S. McQuade firm, John S. McQuade, Jr. of the construction of the building
- speakerAnd, of course, one of Philadelphia's leading contractors. We're delighted to have him.
- speakerHe also I should say is a member of the board of directors of our own Historical Society.
- speakerSo, we're glad that he can be with us also. The two men will assist
- speakerMr. Thompson [Thompson, William P.] and me, and our Secretary. Where is he? Right
- speakerhere, Dr James Hastings Nichols of Princeton Theological Seminary faculty, who
- speakeris the secretary of our society. I would also like to present to you, as he is present and
- speakerhasn't found the way around the back somewhere. Mr. William B. Miller, who is our
- speakerassistant secretary. Bill step forward just a minute here and be recognized.
- speakerBill is the man who stays on duty in the office of the Historical Society
- speakerand is the manager of that office, as well as our Assistant Secretary. All
- speakerright now. We can have Professor Nichols
- speakercome here and deposit some of what is going to be deposited. I think he is now going to put the
- speakershoebox in the stone. little lead box
- speakergetting ready to switch things. The Stated Clerk [Thompson, William P.] will
- speakerput in the stone. The first copy of the Scriptures,
- speakerthe Constitution of the United Presbyterian Church,
- speakerproposed Book of Confessions
- speakerThe constitution and bylaws of our society.
- speakerThe last annual report of the society.
- speakerThe last issue of the Journal of Presbyterian History.
- speakerA brochure about the building. And, a film of the
- speakerspecifications for the structure.
- speakerThe order of service and a copy of prayer, which you heard
- speakerat this service and a series of mint coins of
- speakerthe current year. Could we pose a picture of that?
- speakerFitting for it, of course [long period with no speaking into microphone]
- speakerYes, Jim ought to share in this one. He's right here. Right
- speakeryou ought to have him. This is like
- speakertoo many cooks spoil the broth.
- speakerthink. I think each of you gentlemen
- speaker[background noise]
- speakernow our ceremony will be closed by the pronouncing of the benediction by doctor S. Carson Wasson,
- speakerwho, as you see from your bulletin is the president of the Presbyterian
- speakerMinisters Fund. He also is the chairman of the campaign fund
- speakercommittee for this building. And so we're delighted to have him also have a part. [Wasson] Our
- speakergracious heavenly father, we thank Thee for the joy of this occasion,
- speakerits solemnity and yet its gladness. And, we pray that what we have
- speakerdone here, and what we will continue to do here, may prove to be a beacon
- speakershining in this world. And, that here we may serve both God and
- speakerman, the church, and above all, our Lord Jesus Christ. And now,
- speakermay the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
