William T Catto

“ Being a new enterprise or effort in the face of older and established organizations, our wonder if any should cease, when I say that the people took considerable time to weigh well its claims before they gave in their adhesion to it: they could not be blamed for this caution, when we reflect that it is wise and commendable to weigh well in every point of view every proposition made as a matter of faith and practice, and in the light of reason and revelation pass judgment upon it before we decide to make it the object of our faith—the rule of our life. ”

“ God commands you to go forward; why stop to complain, why to lament and say O Lord, look upon us in our low estate; oh, pity our condition; help us in our leanness? Moses did this very thing. God said to him Why cryest thou to me? command the people that they go forward. And now if you would succeed, work—work while you pray; for God will help no man, nor any church that will not help themselves.
If we would insure success we must first be diligent in what our hands find to do; we must make progress if we desire the church to prosper, and to travel in the greatness of her strength ”

“ There are times in the history of a church, as there are in the life of individuals, when afflictions and discouragements enter into all their arrangements, prostrating their energies, and often filling the soul with anguish and despair. True, it sometimes happens that they are as dark clouds that flit across the Christian's sky, and hide for a time the brightness of his sun. ”

“ Gloucester was not only a faithful man in his pulpit, but out of it; he visited extensively among his people, not only among his own followers or members, but wherever he could find access. The poor, the lowly, the outcast found in him an adviser, a friend. In this he was the reformer as well as the Gospel minister. He became, so to speak, all things unto all men, that by all means he might save some. He had the peculiar gift of entering into the feelings of the people. ”

“ This I conceive to be the true Christian view entertained, whether it relates to the giving an aim to the beggar in the street, or sending across the wide ocean, through missionary labors, the Gospel of the Son of God to the daily perishing heathen, or the raising of a congregation of religious worshippers, building a church edifice for the service of the Most High, or any enterprise whatever where Christian effort is required; unless the above element predominates, and enters into all of our actions, our efforts will, to every honest mind, be divested of its most intrinsic value. ”

“ Righteousness through it must be established, truth maintained, justice advocated, mercy pleaded; love, free, full, universal love to all, among all, contended for, with a zeal and fervor and sincerity that should know no abatement; to this end every available means must be used, every effort made; hearts and heads and hands of men must be enlisted to work out the redemption of the world; sin of every kind, cast, or color must be destroyed; against them all the church must fight, though it be against principalities and powers or spiritual wickedness in high places ”

“ And what is true of us as office bearers is true of the individual member—for we are after all members, one of another, all one in Christ, all journeying along the same pathway in life; we have the same hopes and fears, the same common enemy to fight, the same conflicts within us and without, the same aim and end in view, the same heaven in prospect, the same God to serve, and withal the same road to travel to reach our journey's end. ”

“ And will not every friend of virtue and good order among the whites, lend his aid in promoting this good work? Are we not bound by every consideration, of justice, of charity, of humanity, and of self-interest, to give our best assistance towards civilizing and reforming this numerous and increasing class of inhabitants? And what means so effectual for this purpose as the faithful preaching of the Gospel? ”

“ Alexander has earned for himself the name of a Christian philanthropist. Our church honors him as its patron and advocate—indeed, as its founder—and he will ever live in their memories as one of the noblest specimens of the Creator's production of a Christian and gentleman. ”

“ There is therefore an obligation upon every Christian professor, a necessity of going forward in every calling, whether of faith or practice; to make progress—plain, unmistakable progress, such as will be seen, felt, and acknowledged by all. These should be so plain as to mark the Christian in his life and efforts to advance the interest of humanity and the glory of his God. ”

“ Particularly is this command good in the Christian man's life. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. Every professing Christian must grow in grace and in knowledge—knowledge of himself, of his God, of his obligations to the world around him, and as to matters of faith grow therein. Paul says—"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." ”

“ Waiving every other subject that has a bearing upon this precious and necessary command of our Lord, we take up the church as one of the most interesting and important institutions of public concern. The Church in all of its branches, considered in their individual organizations, however widespread it may be, in whatever part of the habitable globe located, is one harmonious whole, forming a unit, a oneness, with Christ as its head. ”

“ I do not deny that God does exercise a moral government in the church, but that government is one so ordered in wisdom as to preclude the possibility of an error in its administration or in its results; but it is not in confusions and strife, for God's government is like himself, of order, as he is of love; and when, therefore, there are seen contentions and strifes in the church, the God of this world, and not the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, has gotten by some means among the people, and sown these tares therein. ”

“ In a new organization such as the one I am now treating on, there cannot be much wonder that discordant elements among them should exist, and it can be seen, also, that no small amount of wisdom and prudence, as well as grace, is required to govern and guide a congregation thus constituted; still it is true, that if men would consult God's will and word, more than they do their own predilections and passions, none of these things could possibly exist. ”

“ When will they see eye to eye? When the Saviour was born in Bethlehem, the song of the angels as heard by the wise men, was, "Glory to God in the highest—peace on earth, good will to men." When Jesus had grown from a babe to a man, and finished the work he came to do as sung by the angels, and was about to return into the heavens from whence he came, he left this blessed sweet gift to his precious and dear followers, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. ”

“ Thus we account for the seeming tardiness of a great increase in a short space of time. As it is in nature so in grace: it is not the torrent of rain, as it comes pouring from the clouds, deluging the earth with its rushing waters, that invigorates, revives, strengthens, and vivifies vegetation, but rather the gentle shower or the soft falling dew that accomplishes this end, and to these agents in nature we more hopefully look for blooming fields, in their freshness and beauty so cheering to the eye and grateful to the heart. ”

“ As individuals we must go forward upon the broad bosom of this ocean life and contribute our something towards the press of interests that impels forward: who moves not will be pushed aside, or irresistibly borne forward, uncared for and unhonored: we all must struggle in this race of active life, and add our quota to the universal use. The command is a good one, Go forward, and wise is the man who obeys it. ”

“ Gardner and the elders; to presume it, would argue but a very shallow insight into human affairs, and I am yet to learn from the present constitution of things by which we are surrounded, if there can be any situation in life clear of embarrassments, troubles and cares. The church is no exception, and though we should expect peace, prosperity, love, and harmony to prevail, considering the use, the aim, and the end of it, observation, if not experience, shows that to some extent, at least, these desirable ends are scarcely attained. ”

“ The injury which has been done to this race of people by tearing them away from their friends and native country, and subjecting them and their posterity to a heavy yoke of bondage, cannot now be fully repaired; but that which was originally a crime of the most crying injustice and oppression, may, under the direction of a gracious Providence, prove eventually to be a blessing of the first magnitude, by bringing them in reach of the Gospel of Christ. But let us as far as it can be done, by acts of benevolence and charity to these people, wipe away the stain of our injustice ”

“ Believing there is enough in the King's treasury, we throw ourselves at the feet of those with whom he has intrusted it, in hopes of receiving aid to finish a house which will stand as an eternal monument to the glory of God, the honor of the Christian religion in this place, and finally, we trust, will prove a blessing to many souls. ”

“ Holding in common with all Presbyterian Churches their distinctive doctrines, which they are devotedly attached to from a conscientious belief of their Scriptural validity, as well also as Christ as its head, God blessed forevermore, and all his ministers as one in Him, and among whom none may claim any superiority over another, for all are brethren, Jesus himself the elder brother—the chief and only Bishop of the Church universal. ”

“ Go forward, as a command from the mouth of God, is worthy of our deepest consideration, and should be regarded as worthy of all acceptation by a nation, a community, a sect, or a church, and should by the individual man, in his life, practice, example, faith, grace, knowledge, wisdom, truth, and holiness. ”

“ We believe, from the life he lived, the death he died, that he has entered into that rest that remains for the people of God. Such was the increase of members that joined the church, and the press of business upon the pastor and elders, that it was found necessary, about this time, to seek out a man upon whom some of the growing wants of the church might be apportioned. Such a man was found in the person of Mr. Jessie Turner, then a young man of deep piety, sound judgment, and possessed of a large share of discrimination, qualities necessary to constitute an efficient elder. ”

“ But in all such cases, I repeat, God's direction must be sought, and not a step taken until it shall appear clear as a sunbeam that such are the leadings of Providence. Such, perhaps, may be the reasons we can best produce why these calls were not accepted, and why the church remained so long without a pastor.
It is not to be presumed, in a city like Philadelphia, a city of churches, and where there are so many enterprises, influences, and engagements of every color and description, that a church without a regularly installed minister, can hope to retain its membership. ”

“ The restraints of civil law are acknowledged to be salutary and necessary, and the influence of public opinion on the conduct of men is not to be despised; but after exhausting all our ingenuity in planning schemes of reformation, the preaching of the Gospel will maintain its importance, as the most successful and only effectual means of producing radical reformation among men. But in speaking of the good effects of the Christian religion, it would be unpardonable to confine our views to the present world. ”

“ With many, the doctrines of the Presbyterian Church eere in bad odor, and they failed not to make capital of it; others were "careful for none of these things." So it can be perceived that it required a man of no ordinary nerve and large share of the grace of God in his heart to battle with and overcome these opposing forces. Mr. Gloucester was the man for the occasion and the time; opposition could never deter him from duty; if God was for him, he cared not who was against him; in Christ lay all his strength and hope of success. ”

“ This degraded state of manners cannot justly be attributed to any national inferiority, but must be entirely ascribed to the circumstance of a great part of them having so lately emerged from a state of abject slavery calculated to paralyze every noble faculty of the mind, and extinguish every moral sentiment; but every day furnishes us with increasing evidence, that the African race is not inferior to the inhabitants of the other quarters of the world, either in the natural endowments of the understanding or the heart. ”