Page 47MINUTES OF SESSION In reading the Minutes of our Session covering a period of one hundred years page by page we found many more interesting and suggestive items that we can insert here. It has been a process of elimination and one hardly knows what to eliminate. Of course the most noticeable thing is that the Session always opens and closes with a prayer by the Moderator or some member of it. Another matter we noticed was that when our Session consisted of four members or less, they were nearly always all present at every Session meeting. Present members of the Session, please take notice—the writer included.
The founders of our church were sticklers for the law of the church and for its discipline. When a member was admitted on examination, it meant a real examination. For example in Rev. Stocker’s paper bound book appears the following item under date of November 18th, 1848; “Certificates of the following persons were presented (naming them). C. P. Hastings expressed some hesitation in receiving all the doctrines of our standards but on conversing on the subject the Session found his objections arose from want of knowledge of the contents of the “Confession of Our Faith.” When I read this, I wondered...
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... how many members of our church outside of the Young Married Peoples Class were in the same fix. That class probably knows more about our Confession of Faith than most of us because they have been discussing it with Dr. Schneider for the last year.
We also note that at the very next meeting of the Session held on December 26th, 1848, “Dr. Charles P. Hastings and Jane, his wife, having applied for dismission from this church on the grounds of their exception to some important articles of our faith and the mode of conducting our meetings of social worship, it was
Resolved that the Clerk be authorized to grant them certificates stating the reasons for their asking a dismission.”
Evidently it did not take Mr. Hastings long to become familiar with our Confession of Faith and he still took exception to it.
We have already made note of the fact that the first Presbytery in Iowa and the first Synod of Iowa were organized in Muscatine, then Bloomington. Under date of November 8th, 1850, we notice the following:
“The Presbytery of Iowa at their session in Washington in October last petitioned the Synod of Illinois for a division of the Presbytery, which petition was granted, erecting a new Presbytery embracing all the Territory within the state lying North and East of the Iowa River, to be called the Presbytery of Cedar and fixing Muscatine as the place, and Nov. 8th (this day) as the time of holding the first meeting.
Agreeably to the above there was a very full attendance of Ministers & Elders.”
The whole secret of the attitude of the church and its session towards the membership is revealed in the phraseology which they used in accepting people into the church. On Page 24 of the original Session Minutes, we find:
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“The following persons presented certificates of membership to the satisfaction of the session. All of whom were received into full communion and recommended to the watchful care and fellowship of this church.”
Those words “watchful care” meant just what they said in those days. From that time on until Rev. Armstrong’s pastorate in 1864, the Minute Books are full of items like the following:
“Certain rumors are afloat concerning . . . . . . . . . . that he has frequented a Billiard Saloon and has attended and participated in a public ball. Therefore be it resolved that a committee of two be appointed to talk with him upon this subject and also of his irregular attendance at church. Unanimously adopted.”
And the following: “It was ordered that the Clerk cite . . . . . . . . . . . .on his return to the city to appear before the session to be dealt with as prescribed in the Book of Discipline, Chapter 3;” and again on May 28, 1852, “The session having considered the case of . . . . . . . . . . . . and he not appearing as cited, Ordered that he be again cited and that the citation be accompanied with a notice (Book of Discipline, Chapter 4, Section 13) that the session besides censuring him for his contumacy will after assigning some person to manage his defense proceed to take the testimony in his case as if he were present;” and closes as follows: “September 27th, 1852. Mr. . . . . . . . . . . . .who had been twice cited to appear and due time having been called given Mr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . to appear, he refusing to do so, the session appointed Elder James S. Horton to manage his defense and proceeded to issue the case as if he were present. Common fame and all members of the session concurring in the accusations, etc., be it Resolved for the sake of the purity of the church that he be excluded from the church for his contumacy and neglect of ordinances until brought to repentance. Be it further resolved that...
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... the Moderator, the case demanding it, make a public announcement of censure from the pulpit on the next Sabbath.”
Another man was charged as follows:
“1. That being in company with a party which made an excursion to Rock Island & Davenport on the last Fourth of July, you were guilty of engaging in the dance.
2. That your conduct was otherwise characterized by an excitement and disorder, inconsistent with Christian propriety, and inducing the conviction that you were under the influence of strong drink.” Appended to this charge were the names of eight or nine witnesses. Only one of them appeared at the hearing. The accused appeared with two very reputable witnesses. The accused frankly admitted that he danced, “but declared himself unconscious of any moral delinquency as he did not view dancing as wrong. Being inquired whether he was not aware of the sentiments of the Church on the subject, he confessed that he was, and further that he had been previously admonished by Mr. Baird in regard to his connection with a dance in a small party upon a former occasion.” The first charge was therefore sustained but the second charge was not sustained, it appearing that he had not been drinking anything stronger than lemonade flavored with light wine. It was therefore ordered that he present himself at the regular church services the next Sunday morning to submit to admonition and censure from the pulpit, and further “whereas we have reason to apprehend that he may fail to submit himself to the admonition thus appointed, it is further ordered that should he fail to be present or to communicate to the session some good and sufficient reason for his absence, he shall be de facto suspended from the communion of the church until such time as he shall manifest penitence.”
Note; He never did and was finally excommunicated rather severely in the following language:
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“Resolved, That the said . . . . . . . . be and he is hereby declared to be excommunicated from the church of Christ and is held by us henceforth to be no better than a heathen and a publican.”
These investigations and trials were held for every imaginable cause ranging from simple neglect of the Ordinances of God in the Sanctuary to the conviction of crime of adultery by the Civil Courts and some other offense, the evidence of which was kept “in retentis,” including assault and battery, selling intoxicating liquors and driving a wagon load of produce on the road to Iowa City on the Sabbath day. Yes, they were strict in those days and incidently they kept their sessions busy. One wonders how they found time to make their living. For instance on January 30th, 1859, we find that the Session “Resolved that we will hereafter visit for the purpose of religious conversation and prayer all the acceptable members of this church at least twice every year and that at our next meeting the names of such members be for that purpose distributed among the members of the session.” and at the next session, “According with the resolution of January 30th, the bounds of the congregation be divided and assigned at follows:
First District to comprise the new city limits and country assigned to Elders Horton and Parvin.
Second District: All old city limits west of Iowa Avenue assigned to Elders Nealley and Waters.
Third District: All old city limits East of the Iowa Avenue assigned to Elders Little and Hoyt.”
And when the members of the church continued to absent themselves from the regular Sunday services or failed to pay their pro rata share of the pastor’s salary, a special committee was appointed “to urge them to greater diligence in the matter and remind them that their neglect is contrary to the word of God and in violation of their obligations assumed by them when admitted to this church and injurious to the cause of Christ.”
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