Dr. Poulson's Good By

New York, 1895

HIS FAREWELL WORDS SPOKEN IN THE METHODIST CHURCH.

Timely Expressions that Will Linger in the Hearts of His Congregation — A Union Service and a Reception in His Honor — A Case of Silver for Mrs. Poulson.

The Rev. Dr. Thomas L. Poulson preached his farewell sermon as pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church in Jamaica on Sunday morning. He took his text from Second Corinthians, XIII: 11 — "Finally brethren." He spoke as follows:

This chapter is the language of Paul in the conclusion of his second epistle to the Church at Corinth. It is appropriate to the circumstances under which we are assembled on this occasion. We have met for the last day in a public church service in the relation of Shepherd and flock. It becomes our privilege therefore to exhort you in the affectionate words of the Apostle. We desire to improve the opportunity by calling your attention to that peculiar feature in our economy as a church by which the pastoral office of the speaker in this charge is to be dissolved.

It is pacific. It is not the result of discontent on the part of the minister with his people nor of displeasure of the people with the minister. In other systems of church polity such separation is often occasioned by unrest or dissatisfaction in one or both of the parties.

It is anticipated. It is known beforehand, by contract. It is therefore expected. We are thus prepared for it. We mutually agree to it. Other systems have no legal limit to the engagement between pastor and church, and therefore its termination is often unexpected and strained. Ours being for only one year at a time, with the privilege of five, the change can be amicably effected at the end of any annual term.

It is disinterested. The change is really made by extraneous authority, and not by the pastor or the society. So that the responsibility of the transfer of appointment is lifted from the shoulders of both the charge and the incumbent, and therefore more likely to be free from any suspicion of selfish or unworthy motive on the part of the directly interested parties in the case.

It is mutually afflictive. Both preacher and people usually regret it. This objection is often urged against our system by others. Persons say, "We do not like this frequent changing, for just as we become well acquainted with the pastor and his family, we have to part with them." We sometimes feel this way ourselves, and doubt the wisdom or propriety of the plan. If the method has not very great advantages in other directions, this objection is cogent and serious.

ADVANTAGES OF THE SYSTEM.

It is therefore our purpose to glance at some of the advantages of the system. There are others than those we notice; but we consider only the salient ones.

It is the primitive and scriptural mode. Itinerancy was practiced by the priests and prophets of the ancient church from the very beginning. Christ and the Apostles itinerated. On this point there can be no question.

It always provides a field and a supply. Each minister has a place and each charge a minister. It is not always so with other systems. In them are numerous vacant pulpits and unemployed ministers. But under our system the churches always have pastors, and ministers always have places.

It furnishes each locality with the greatest variety of style and talent. Variety is evidently God's order. This essential spice is found everywhere and in all things. Men are naturally fond of novelty. Observation teaches that churches tire under a long continued pastorate. By the itinerant system a constant variety is maintained. Our preachers are new all the time. Sons of thunder and sons of consolation thus alternate. Once in a while it affords a weak place the benefit of a strong man whom it could not otherwise secure. It wields an influence which is more effectual in reaching all classes in a community. No one minister can hope to attract and profit all the people. Hence many attend the ministry of one who will retrain from listening to preaching of a different style. Each minister is usually profitable to a certain class of hearers. Thus, in course of time, by the itinerancy, all are more likely to be reached and suited.

It energizes the ministry. An itinerant preacher has no time to lose in a given place. Knowing he can stay but a limited time, he is more apt to go to work promptly and earnestly. Chalmers said: "Methodism is Christianity in earnest." The world generally admits the itinerant ministry to be the most earnest, active and laborious.

This method is calculated to promote a more faithful and fearless presentation of the truth. An itinerant preacher, not being dependent on the local church for his appointment is not tempted to the same degree as a minister in other circumstances, to shrink from the performances of his duty from fear of the critical and fault finding. Those who are dependent for place and living on the choice of the societies which they serve, naturally have more reason to respect the captious preferences and predilections of their parishioners, in assailing worldliness and in besieging consciences.

As a rule periodical changes in the pastorate add greatly to the success of the ministry. A new arena often imparts renewed vigor to one's powers. All things being equal, the minister is more successful by occasionally entering new fields. If he were to labor with the same people all his life, he could not possibly accomplish the measure of results he may achieve in a briefer time, by changing once in a while. It avoids the possibility of dull and listless monotony in tone and treatment. It is a remarkable record for a settled minister to receive in church membership five hundred persons in ten years, or a thousand in twenty years. But it is not an uncommon experience for an itinerant minister to average one hundred a year. We have known one Methodist preacher to receive on probation over three thousand in thirty years. It seems as if this result could not have been wrought under any other system.

The itinerancy has been an evident benefit to the church at large. Other denominations were planted in this country with the Colonies. Some came here with them. Whereas Methodism is just a little over a hundred years old in the United States, and yet it outnumbers any of the others. We have more members, more churches, and more property. We are supposed to be the most wealthy, as well as the most numerous. This phenomenal growth is doubtless due largely to the itinerancy. If, with so recent a beginning, we have done so much, what may we not do in the future, if faithful to our opportunities? THE OBLIGATIONS IMPOSED

This state of things imposes certain obligations. The church should not expect or require the same methods from all ministers. It is well that we are not all alike in manners and methods. Each minister has his peculiar personality, talent and way of working, which for the most part constitute his efficiency. All are proficient in some things, but not always in the same things. Some excel as pastors; others as preachers. Some understand business and manage the temporalities successfully; others can only attend to the spiritual interests. Some build up believers, but do not extensively awaken the unsaved; others the reverse. Some are expert in all departments, but rarely.

Let every minister be content with his own God-given weapons, cultivating and using them to the utmost. Let the church be satisfied with the pastor as he is, for the term of service for which he is appointed, in order that he may be at his best. Form no unfavorable opinion from first impressions. Sometimes this has been done, with subsequent regrets. Become acquainted with the pastor and his family as soon as possible. Go see them. Do not wait for them to call on you. Treat them considerately. Never speak evil of your minister. This injures you and the church. He will hear it and it will make him unhappy, and necessarily curtail his usefulness. If you have any fault to find with him, tell him to his face, kindly and privately.

If the pastor is but a man, as we believe, treat him as you do other men, and expect no more of him, from a human view-point. Sustain him in his plans. Some one must be leader. You have made him such. He is therefore the rightful captain. Follow him in lines of work, as well as in his school of instructions. Work with the pastor, and not against him. How is he to succeed without your help? A drawing minister is not more important than a drawing and holding church.

THE DUTIES ENJOINED.

Be perfect. Not absolutely, but relatively. This world and its inhabitants are sin-scarred, and cannot possibly be absolutely perfect until all the wounds are healed, which will not be while the reign of evil continues. The best human characters who have ever lived were imperfect in judgment and conduct. We cannot hope for better results. But we may be, we must be, as Christians, perfect in submission to God, in faith, in motive, and in love. Christ came into this world to make perfect men, so far as possible under fleshly trammels. The work of the ministry is declared by Paul to be to so preach, warn and teach, "that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus."

Be of good comfort, that is be contented, be animated, be encouraged, be strengthened. Cultivate an optimistic disposition. A hopeful spirit fringes every cloud with silver. Do not conclude that the world and the church are going to atoms because Tammany rules, or because there is so much wickedness in high places. The world is better to-day, and the church sways a wider and more potent sceptre than ever before. The great Proprietor himself declares that "all things work together for good to them who love the Lord." What more could be desired to make a man comfortable, even in adversity? The famous author, Samuel Johnson, once said that "where there is no hope there can be no endeavor." Then be stimulated to heroic effort to be useful, and thus insure happiness along the way.

Be of one mind. Adopt Augustine's wise motto, "In essentials unity; in nonessentials liberty; in all things charity." The strength of union is proverbial. However divided as to methods, be indissolubly united in soul-saving. Let the one prime object of the church's existence be uppermost in your minds, and cement you into inseverable oneness of aim and action. Such unity makes the forces invincible.

Live in peace. The whole warring world is sailing peaceward. Shall the church anchor in the offing? Peace means quietness, tranquility and harmony, the very opposite of strife, anger and confusion. Peace in the church includes two indispensable factors, affectionate union among the members and confidence in the standard-bearers. All differences must be settled by peaceful arbitration. Paul reveals the secret of the prevalence of this temper among the membership, when he counsels the individuals to "let the peace of God rule in your hearts." In the announcement of the advent of the founders of the Christian system, the sacred historian declares that the crowning effect of that transcendent event would be "on earth peace."

Pursuing the course thus plainly outlined will insure the unfailing presence of the God of love and peace, which is essential to the successful prosecution of a religious life.

REFLECTIONS UPON THE SITUATION.

To-day ends five years of service in this charge by the present pastor, the longest term hitherto held by any predecessor in this pulpit. While these eventful cycles have not been so fruitful as we desired and hoped, still they have not been altogether in vain in the Lord. We have had the pleasure of witnessing many conversions at these altars, and of holding effable communion in this sanctuary with the people of God. We do not recall a word or act during our pastorate here which was not prompted by a sincere desire to promote the welfare and salvation of the church and community.

Pardonable pride naturally swells the breast of one who is permitted to contemplate any great service he may have been enabled to render his fellowmen. Who can fully appreciate the complacency that must have possessed Wellington at Waterloo, or Washington at Yorktown, or Grant at Appomattox? Sir Christopher Wren will never be forgotten while St. Paul's Cathedral survives. Michael Angelo will be remembered by lovers of art while the ceiling of Sistine Chapel endures. The name of Franklin will appear high on the roll of fame while the lightnings of heaven continue to play about the habitations of men. But the delicate duty of chiseling character and directing destiny of individual men is infinitely above the sublime importance of purely temporal achievements, and its issues will appear when the glory of civilizations shall have forever faded from the memory of man. The imperishable names of Paul, Chrysostom, Wesley and Simpson, as character builders, will be heralded in the New Jerusalem endless ages beyond when the material mound and monument builders of earth shall have been long since forgotten.

We had rather be the instrument under God of saving one soul from death than to have been the designer of the superb Brooklyn Bridge, or to have been the author of the immortal Proclamation of Emancipation. If our ministry here has assuaged a sorrow, or eased a pain, or lightened a burden, or healed a wound, or comforted a heart, or saved a soul, then our monument shall stand above the magnificent shafts that commemorate earthly valor and virtue, when they shall have crumbled in the fires of the last day. We are content that the invisible results of these years, which cannot be tabulated by human arithmetic, shall be properly credited in the archives of Heaven, as incorruptible treasures laid up in that unfailing Savings Bank.

This spiritual work is not confined to the moral renovation and eternal reward of the individual who may be rescued. A saved soul means something here and now for the betterment of this world, a better citizenship, broader culture, more important discoveries, more useful inventions, sweeter family life, purified society, abolished poverty, and every other thing that makes for human improvement and refinement.

We count it an inestimable honor to have been favored with the privilege of laboring in this vineyard. Around open graves, in chambers of sickness, at the marriage feast, by the family altar, in the worshipping congregation, friendships have been formed which shall never be broken. From the paradise of memory of these hours we shall never be evicted by the relentless landlord, Time. We leave you at that mile stone, where the poet's sentiment is true,

We have a room where no one enters,
Save ourself alone,
There sits a blessed memory on a throne,
There our life centres.

Let it ever be known that this church is not in any sense a mere guild for social and literary purposes, but a divine institution for the spiritual conservation of society. Nor is it simply a cult for the delectation of its members, but an aggressive force for the moral uplift of humanity, to antagonise everything that is impure and hurtful to men, and to advocate and enforce the Christian religion in all its multifold applications to the regeneration of the race, as the sovereign remedy for the intolerable ills of life. Those whose names are on its roster have voluntarily assumed the responsibility of active service in the irrepressible conflict that is inevitably waged between its avowed principles and vice in all forms. May it continue, both individually and collectively, as an uncompromising challenge to the audacious encroachments of sin, whether in private or public.

"Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like to that above.

"When we asunder part,
It gives us inward pain,
But we shall still be joined in heart,
And hope to meet again."

There was a union service in the evening as a compliment to Dr. Poulson, whose relations with the pastors and people of all churches have been exceedingly pleasant. There were addresses by the Rev. Mr. Hobbs of the Presbyterian church, the Rev. Mr. Daniels of the Baptist church, and the Rev, Mr. Tilton of the Reformed church. There was special music for the occasion. Mrs. E. J. Johnson of Hollis sang a solo, "Abide With Me." Mr. Taylor rendered a cornet solo, "Angels Ever Bright and Fair." J. Fletcher Watts presided at the organ.

Monday evening a parting reception was given to Dr. Poulson in the chapel. There was a large attendance. There were addresses by Colonel Fleming, Rev. J. Howard Hobbs, B. Frank Wood, John C. Acker, Joseph H. Stansbury, and Charles S. Tabor. Clifton Clerke sang a solo, Henry Clerke and George W. Burnham rendered a duet, and Dr. Poulson brought the exercises to a close with a few parting words.

Mrs. Poulson was presented with a case of silver by the Ladies' Aid Society and the Epworth league.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, April 5, 1895, p. 8.

Note: The paragraph that starts with "Be of good comfort..." says "be contended" instead of contented. That doesn't sound right to be, but I'm noting it here in case it's some kind of old usage of language that has actual meaning in the context.