NEWTOWN. REJECTED OF MEN.
Since out of the Margaret Duncan Church, or "Church of the Vow", have
grown, it is believed, at least ten other churches, and since the
tradition of her ocean experiences has taken varied shapes and forms
in its transmission, we shall give a narrative which is probably the
most in accordance with fact.
Mrs. Margaret Duncan, on the death of her husband, a prosperous
merchant of Philadelphia, determined to visit old friends in
Stewartstown, Tyrone County, Ireland, in which she had been born. She
took with her her little grandson, who was to become the famous Dr.
John Mason Duncan. Returning across the ocean in the autumn of 1798,
the ship sailing from Belfast, Ireland, was loaded heavily with many
passengers, most of them poor emigrants, but had little cargo in the
hold. It is said that the captain had never crossed the Atlantic.
The compass was out of order, and with head winds and wet and foggy
weather, the voyage was dangerously prolonged. The passengers were put
on short allowance and there was no water. It is even said that in
a severe storm the captain and crew deserted the vessel. The people
suffered from agonizing thirst. They even talked of drawing lots to
see who should be put to death and give his own flesh as food to the
others.
Mrs. Duncan was then a woman between seventy and eighty years of age.
Late tradition says the lot was drawn and she drew it and expected to
be a victim. Mr. Chambers, though often referring to her experiences
on the sea, makes no mention of the lot or of this dire extremity.
Going into her cabin she gave herself to prayer, and vowed before God
that if He would avert the impending blow and in mercy save her life
and the ship's company she would forever consecrate herself and all
that she had to His service; that she would erect a church edifice for
the congregation of the Associate Reformed people in Philadelphia with
whom she worshipped, and that she would give and educate her little
grandson for the Gospel ministry.
Not long after this, rain fell, and the agonizing thirst of those
in the ship was relieved. Soon the shout, "sail ho" was heard from
the man aloft. A vessel hove in sight and rescued them all. The ship
entered the Delaware river and all reached Philadelphia in safety.
True to her vows, Margaret Duncan educated her grandson John Mason
Duncan to preach the good news of God. Dying Nov. 16th, 1802, she
left her money by will for the erection of a house of worship, which
she minutely described, specifying that it was to be of the Associate
Reformed communion. By various names, the "Margaret Duncan Church," or
"The Vow Church," or "Saint Margaret's Church," the brick edifice on
Thirteenth street near Filbert on the west side, stood until some time
in the fifties. I can remember as a little boy going to see the debris
of the ruins, the piled up old brick partially cleaned of mortar, the
dust and the broken bits of lime, and the great hollow place where the
cellar had been. In 1875, Mr. Chambers spoke of "the little church
where we worshipped so long.... It is a shame that the church was ever
destroyed. However it was torn down, and we have nothing more to do
with it".
His was the language of affection. As matter of cold fact, the "house
was of plain brick, without the least trace of ornament and for many
years was one of the gloomiest looking churches in the city. The
dimensions were fifty by sixty feet." The edifice was opened for
worship on the 26th of November, 1815. The dedication sermon was
preached by the son of the vow, and the grandson of her who made it,
Rev. John Mason Duncan. As before stated, Rev. James Gray, D.D., then
with Dr. Wylie at the head of a classical school in Philadelphia, also
took part.
Having been called to be the pastor of this church, Mr. Chambers
surveyed his field to see what resources there were for sustaining
permanent gospel work. He found no organized effort. There was no
prayer-meeting, no Sunday School, not a man to lead in public prayer,
and the three elders were all superannuated. The congregation was made
up of humble people, poor, hard-working, industrious, with only here
and there one among them who might be called rich; nor was there a
family in which family worship was held. It was necessary therefore
that the young man from Baltimore, who did not know ten people in
Philadelphia when he first arrived, should borrow two devout men,
Presbyterians, Wilfrid Hall and Hiram Ayres, to help him in meetings
for social prayer. He then made application to Mr. Hall for the use of
a room on Market street near what is now Seventeenth, in a district of
vacant lots. Very few people were then living west of Broad street,
and most of the streets now well known were not yet "cut through". He
knew not whether any one would come to the meeting called for prayer,
but God gave him a gracious surprise. When he arrived near the hour,
"there was scarcely a spot for a human being to stand on". There and
then began the Holy Spirit's workings which resulted in a whole family
of Christian churches.
These prayer meetings were begun, according to due announcement,
on the fourth Sunday in May. Their good influences were seen in
the immediate enlargement of the church audience. By the beginning
of July, there were four men ready to speak or lead in prayer. By
August 1st, over forty persons, many of them young men and women, had
declared their faith in Christ, and were ready for Christian work. Mr.
Chambers found a friend in Rev. Dr. Stiles Ely, a New England man, the
principal founder of the Jefferson Medical College, and editor of _The
Philadelphian_. From 1801 he had been pastor of the old Pine street
Church, and was at that time moderator of the Presbyterian General
Assembly. As Mr. Chambers was not yet ordained, Dr. Ely preached the
sermon and administered the Lord's Supper, when the new converts were
received.
As Dr. Chambers told the story in 1875, "The next move was for a
Sabbath School, and the marvel was with what eagerness they took hold
of it ... and carried it on with vigor, procured rooms and Sabbath
School scholars and teachers and entered their names, and we went on
and on from that very day after the institution of the prayer meeting,
and the consequence was that we very soon felt that God was with us".
When the people of the Ninth Presbyterian, or Margaret Duncan Church
on Thirteenth street, met together to vote a call to John Chambers, it
was under the care of the First Presbytery of Philadelphia. Of course,
therefore, the call must be approved at the regular meeting of the
presbytery, and only after the usual examination of the candidate.
Mr. Chambers came on from Baltimore, having accepted the call, and
began his work as pastor and preacher-elect on the 9th day, or second
Sabbath, in May, 1825. The presbytery was to meet in October in its
semi-annual gathering. By a strange coincidence this was at Newtown,
near the Neshaminy stream, in Bucks county, Pa.--the field of the
evangelical and revival labors of the ancestor of his betrothed, of
whom more anon. Was the young preacher's imagination busy with the
scenes of a century before?
The glories of autumn made lovely the landscape of this affluent
agricultural county lying along the bend of the Delaware, rich
in fruit, in Pennsylvania Germans, in English Quakers, and in
Scotch-Irish people. Its name, that of Penn's county in England,
is suggestive of the old world, and it is historically famous for
being on the line of Washington's march to his great victory over
the Hessians at Trenton, and through it part of Sullivan's men had
moved for the chastisement of the Iroquois tribes at Newtown, near
Elmira, N. Y., in 1779. Yet the historical associations uppermost
in the mind of the young licentiate must have been those with the
great-grandfather of his betrothed, who in this very region and near
this very house of worship, had labored with Gilbert Tennant in the
gospel.
The young minister's call and the letter announcing it, from the
hands of the elders of the Ninth Church, Messrs. Ross, Hogg, and
Reed, in the name of the congregation, was handed in to the assembled
authorities. No doubt the document was on genuine honest rag paper,
the only kind then known, and on a letter sheet, folded and dovetailed
together and closed with sealing wax or wafer, without an envelope,
directed on the outside and carried to him by stage coach. No doubt he
himself had to go to the office in Baltimore to get it. In compliance
with its request, the young licentiate's journey would be by stage
through Elkton and Wilmington to Philadelphia. From Philadelphia to
Newtown, twenty-seven miles northeast of Philadelphia, the route would
probably be up the well-known road crossing the Neshaminy Creek.
The young licentiate, accustomed to do his own thinking, appeared with
clean papers from the Presbytery of Baltimore, and asked that he might
be taken under the care of the First Presbytery of Philadelphia, with
a view to ordination and installation as pastor of the Ninth Church.
Nevertheless, although he might be punctual and his papers clean,
Dame Rumor had arrived before him. Several of her thousand tongues
had declared, and even asseverated vehemently, that John Chambers was
that strange, curious, and ever-changing thing called a "heretic."
Often that undefined thing is a babe thrust into the cradle, while the
orthodoxy of yesterday is turned out. A "heretic," as Saint Paul was
once called, even as Jesus was before him, is very apt to be crucified
to-day and glorified to-morrow. Indeed, "heresy" is almost as protean
and as undefinable as "orthodoxy" itself. We shall see what kind of
a "heretic" John Chambers was. His life for fifty years revealed the
reality.
Within that little company gathered at Newtown there was, in the
language of old times many a "heresio-mastix" or scourger of heresy,
and a majority of the ministers present were already pre-determined
to "hereticate" the young licentiate, who had already made the bounds
of the little brick church on Thirteenth street too small to hold his
hearers. Nevertheless our sympathies go out to all church bishops,
whose duty it is to show that sudden popularity is no proof of fitness
or character.
It developed during the examination that the head and front of the
young man's offending was his belief in the Bible as an all sufficient
rule of faith and practice. In this position, he was confirmed by
the fact that the Westminster standards, the Confession of Faith,
the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, teach that the Bible is the only
infallible rule of faith and obedience. These all unite in declaring
that the Scriptures are "given by inspiration of God to be the rule
of faith and life", "the rule of worship", the only rule of faith and
obedience; which teach "what man is to believe concerning God, and
what duty God requires of man", and form "the rule given us of God to
direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him."
In a word, to an independent thinker, loyal to the Bible as the word
of God, as John Chambers was, the Westminster standards contain their
own _reductio ad absurdum_ to any one who puts creed, catechism, or
confession above the Holy Scriptures, or who makes certain parts, or
even a collection of parts, greater than the whole. Mr. Chambers,
using his own words, believed that nothing could exceed infallibility,
and was therefore satisfied with the infallible rule of the
Scriptures. There was not then the freedom of faith, and the liberty
of private interpretation of Holy Scripture and the Westminster
symbols that is now happily the rule in the Presbyterian churches. The
fault, if fault it were, was not solely on the young man's part.
The eyes of the "fathers and brethren" were opened and the "heretic"
stood revealed. One of the members, the Rev. Dr. Ely, then proposed
that the moderator should ask Mr. Chambers whether at the time of his
licensure he subscribed to the Confession of Faith. He answered that
he did not. When the second question was proposed, "Are you prepared
to do so now?" he answered firmly, "I am not".
A motion was then made by Dr. Ely that Mr. Chambers and his papers be
referred back to the Presbytery of Baltimore, and that the pulpit of
the Ninth Church be declared vacant. Rev. Messrs. Patterson and Hoff
were appointed a committee to perform the duty.
On Thursday evening of the same week, which was the regular evening
for the weekly lecture, the committee of the Presbytery, which had met
at Newtown, appeared at the church.
Although there were no telegraphs in those days, it was quickly
known in Philadelphia, and to all the people of the Ninth Church,
that Mr. Chambers, the man whom they had learned to love, had been
rejected by the Presbytery. The preaching of the young minister had
already resulted, under God, in a deep and strong religious interest.
Consequently there was a large attendance and not a little excitement
in the little brick edifice, so much so, indeed, that some of the
congregation had quietly resolved to put the committee out in the
street should they attempt to go into the pulpit.
Punctuality with the young pastor had already settled into what proved
to be a life-long habit. He was at the church in good season. Finding
the committee already there, he explained to the two men the situation
and told them what the consequences would be if they attempted to
fulfil their mission. Happily, however, both gentlemen being more
concerned with the coming of the kingdom of God than about obeying
the letter of their orders, did indeed go into the pulpit, but it was
at the request of Mr. Chambers, who made them his firm friends for
life. When there they co-operated with him, assisting to conduct the
services, and not a word was said about the pulpit being vacant. Thus
God, through his servant, quieted the Irishmen, and then and there
magnified this man who had a genius for friendship and was an expert
peacemaker; all of which was for the coming of the kingdom and the
good of souls.
As days passed by, the people of the congregation, realizing that if
they wanted to have a minister they would have to be an independent
church, took prompt action. After due notice had been given, a
congregational meeting was held. By a vote of four to one the people
declared themselves independent of all church courts, with only Christ
as their Master. By another vote, equally large, they resolved to
retain John Chambers as their minister.
The minority, led by Mr. Moses Reed, one of the elders, withdrew,
and in a room on Race street organized themselves as the Ninth
Presbyterian Church. In the law suit that followed, the seceders won
their case. With the edifice, given up in 1830, went the possession of
the small burying ground on Race street, above Nineteenth, in which
sleeps the dust of the Ross family and the father of the renowned
soldier's friend, Miss Anna Ross, whom defenders of the Union from
1861 to 1865, and the survivors of the Grand Army remember so well. In
the writer's memory her name and face are not forgotten, for she was
his Sunday School teacher.