Page 52OUR SUNDAY SCHOOL Until 1845 there were so few children in town that the Methodist and Presbyterians held their Sunday School jointly in the old school house. After the Methodist organized their own Sunday School about that time, we have no record of any Presbyterian Sunday School organized by our church until we find the following item under date of February 9th, 1854: “The Session resolved upon the reestablishment of the Sabbath School assuming the appointment of its officers and the supervision of its management”. In the statistical record of our church hereafter inserted, it will be noted that the Sunday School had reached a membership of 225 by the year 1860. It has not quite doubled in the last eighty years.
We are all familiar with the expression that the Music Department is the “War Department” of every Protestant Church. It was therefore refreshing to me to read on Page 185 of the old Session Minutes a resolution which is fairly summarized as follows: The Moderator stated that Brother Wallace had tendered his resignation as chorister which was accepted by the Session and a resolution was adopted to the effect that “whereas Brother Wallace had for a long series of years conducted the music in our church with great acceptableness to the congregation and without any pecuniary compensation, doing it as a labor of love and sparing no effort or pains to improve the performance of this part of the divine service, the Session would therefore take this opportunity to express their thanks to him for the interest he has always manifested and the efficiency with which he has conducted this part of the service. He was only out of his position for two months when we read the chorister had resigned, whereupon it was resolved that Brother J. H. Wallace be invited to accept the position of choriste.r
In 1872 you either attended church regularly or you were suspended for contumacy. The Session record makes note of the following fact: “A letter was received ...
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... from Mrs. . . . . . . . . . . giving her excuse for absence from church which was not sustained and on motion she was suspended until she repents”.
Recently our congregation decided to elect ruling Elders for a definite period of time. It is therefore interesting to note that on May 10th, 1875, our Session record makes note of the fact that Sections 7 and 8, Chapter 13, of the Form of Government has been recently amended relating to the time of service in the eldership and that the amendment had been adopted by a large majority of presbyteries. Therefore the entire session consisting of Brothers Stein, Bridgman, Little, Horton, and McCampbell, “with earnest and prayerful desire for the peace and prosperity and large usefulness of our church in every department of Christian life and work, and with the hope that it may be promoted by our united action as a session, do herewith avail ourselves of the privileges granted to us as ruling Elders.” In short, they resigned. The congregation thereupon reelected Brothers Stein and Little and elected Dr. J. M. Robertson, for the term of three years and further passed a resolution: “Resolved that the church do now and hereafter elect ruling elders for a limited time in the exercise of their duties officially according to Chapter 13, Section 8, of our Form of Government as lately amended”. This resolution remained in full force and effect until sometime in 1884 when it was dropped until our recent action above noted.
Going back to where Reverend Belden’s historical sermon leaves off, we find that he was succeeded in office by Reverend John Armstrong D. D. in 1864. He seems to have been a very able business man. Mr. Hubbard’s history informs us that he took an active interest in the organization of Parsons College at Fairfield, Iowa. While nothing is said in the session records about his resignation, we found in the archives a letter dated June 30th, 1874, which I feel should be made a matter of record. I therefore set it out in full.
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“To the 1st Presbyterian Church of Muscatine, Iowa. My dear Brothers & Sisters in Christ,
For reasons stated in the church on last Sabbath a week, I tender to you my resignation as pastor, and ask you to unite with me in a request to Presbytery to dissolve the pastoral relations at the end of the present quarter,--the last of July.
Deeply conscious of my imperfections, permit me at this time to express to you my great gratitude for the many tokens of confidence, kindness, and affection that have been manifested by you during the almost ten years that God has permitted me to labor among you. And though our relation is to be changed, I trust that our Christian fellowship shall ever continue.
My earnest prayer is that God may continue to bless you, and far more than in the past, and that harmony, mutual forebearance and brotherly love may ever dwell among you.
Your pastor,
JOHN ARMSTRONG”With this letter is a long explanation written on loose leaves by the session citing the causes that lead up to the separation. It seems that Dr. Armstrong had asked for an increase in salary, and upon conferring with this congregation, the session found them unwilling to do so, and also found some expressions of dissatisfaction because Dr. Armstrong, his mind occupied with other things, had failed to notice a few over-sensitive members of his congregation when he met them on the street. This memorandum shows that the session very much regretted the separation. Dr. Armstrong was very generous about it. The first year he was here in 1864, he had only received $417.00 of his salary; the next year only $783.00; leaving the church in debt to him in the sum of $800.00 The third year they stepped his salary up to $800.00. The last year he was here they paid him his full salary of ...
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... $1,000.00 and he liquidated the debt by the simple process of donating it to the church. As already noted above, he spent the rest of his life in the service of Parsons College which he very materially aided financially, both personally and as its financial agent, for many years.
Dr. Armstrong was followed by Reverend Dalrymple during whose service 25 were added on examination; 18 on certificate; and the total membership increased from 143 to 160. The amount raised for local church from $1925 to $2150.
When Reverend Dalrymple resigned, the Clerk of the Session, Philip Stein, was appointed a committee to recommend his successor. Many of us remember Mr. Stein. He was a member of our Session from 1859 to the date of his death in 1908. He served the church as Treasurer for forty-three years. If ever a man sought and had the guidance of the Holy Spirit, I always felt that he had it and these letters reveal the fact. Without setting them out completely, I will quote extracts here. Under date of October 8th, 1877, Mr. P. Stein received a letter evidently in answer to an inquiry, from C. O. Waters, a former Elder of our church, written from Chicago, in which he says: “I have known Reverend. . . . several years. Known his public, private and domestic history and our personal relations have always been friendly. I can speak of him without either prejudice or partiality. I feel neither. The dear, old Muscatine Church has made an escape for which it should thank God. I am not sure but a season of special thanksgiving would be appropriate. He is a good preacher and a man of prepossessing appearance but he would have ruined the church in two years. He might have done it in less time. I can say no more upon the subject in a letter.”
He speaks briefly of some other candidate, then mentions Reverend J. H. Barnard of Kankakee, Illinois, who is disposed to make a change for strictly private reasons, and says: “I call your attention to him only because of...
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... the interest I feel in a church which will always be more to me than any other church on earth. Mr. Barnard has not the imposing personal appearance of Mr. . . . . . . . . . . but he is a better and more popular preacher. He will please your congregation better. You can raise more money for him. I believe that as a preacher he excels any preacher of any denomination that has ever been in Muscatine, and though not very tall physically he is far ahead of any man who ever stood in your pulpit. He supplied our pulpit this summer during part of Dr. Pattons absence in Europe and all our people were enthusiastic in his praise. He is a man whom you will like better and better everywhere the longer and the more you know him. I know you cannot find one who in all respects will suit you as he will. He need not go to Muscatine unless he choose. While other inviting fields are before him I have turned his face to you. For your sake I hope you will secure him promptly.”
Reverend Barnard evidently lived up to his advance notices as many of the older members of our church can testify. That this was the unanimous verdict of the entire congregation is shown by the resolutions adopted at their meeting on January 6th, 1884, in which they stated: “That we, the members of his church and congregation, do hereby express our heartfelt regret at the severance of the ties that have so long bound us together; that we greatly appreciate his ministry among us and in the community; that we are indeed grieved to lose so efficient a minister and so faithful a pastor.”
On March 26, 1884, the congregation voted unanimously to call Reverend Samuel H. Parvin to supply the pulpit for one year. During his first year 39 were added on examination and 11 on certificate. He continued to serve and served very able and satisfactory until September 1899 when he presented his resignation as pastor and asked that a meeting of the congregation be called to unite with him in requesting the Presbytery to dissolve the pastor relation—which was done. What our community as a whole thought of him was very well expressed in a newspaper clipping dated 1912, which we here quote:
“The many friends of Rev. Parvin who for many years served as pastor of the First Presbyterian church in this city, will be interested in the news conveyed in a clipping from a newspaper in Perry, Okl., where Rev. and Mrs. Parvin have resided since leaving here, more than a dozen years ago. Rev. Parvin had decided to leave the Perry pastorate and return to Muscatine to make his home, but his parishioners were so earnest in their pleading, that he reconsidered and decided to remain with them. In a letter received by Joseph Biles, an uncle of Mrs. Parvin, the pleasing news was conveyed that Rev. and Mrs. Parvin will visit in Muscatine this summer for some time, Rev. Parvin having been given a vacation through the months of July, August and September. Their many friends will be glad to see them again.”
It was a shock to all of us who knew him to read in our church calendar on the morning of June 21st, 1914, the following item:
“Word was received ten days ago of the death of Rev. Samuel H. Parvin, of Perry, Okla. For fifteen years—from 1884 to 1900—he was the honored pastor of this church. During his ministry here he endeared himself to a large number of people, both inside and outside the church of which he was pastor. Dr. Parvin is gone but not forgotten. He has left us, but his work abides. There are many who can rise up and call him blessed. “I heard a voice from heaven saying, write: Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth. Yea, saith the spirit, that they may rest from their labors; for their works follow with them.” May the kind Heavenly Father sustain and strengthen and keep Mrs. Parvin in her hour of sorrow—such is our prayer.”
Under date of June 21st of that year, we find the following resolution spread on the Minutes of the Session:
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“A Memorial Service was held this morning in memory of the Rev. S. H. Parvin, who was pastor of this church from April 1884 to Sept. 1899, and who died at N. Yakima, Wash., June 14, 1914. Rev. J. B. Rendall preached a very appropriate sermon from the text “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.” At the conclusion of the sermon the following resolutions prepared by a com. previously appointed, were adopted by a rising vote. There was a large attendance at the service, the Masonic brethren (Knight Templars) attending in a body.
‘Whereas. It has pleased our Heavenly Father who doeth all things well, to remove from the church below to the church triumphant, the Rev. Samuel H. Parvin, and whereas the Rev. Samuel H. Parvin spent fifteen of the best years of his life from 1884 through 1899 as pastor of this church, and
Whereas, during that time he greatly endeared himself to the people of this city, both inside and outside of the church, always abounding in the work of the Lord, visiting the sick, comforting the sad, cheering the faint, ministering to the needy, edifying and building up the saints, burying our dead and magnifying the name of his Master by the life he lived among us:
Therefore, be it Resolved, 1st that we bow submissively to the divine will; that we record our appreciation of his faithful service and christian influence while here; that we ever shall cherish his memory and profit by his christian example.
2d. That we extend to his wife and daughter our heartfelt sympathy and commend them to the tender care of a loving Heavenly Father;
3d. That these resolutions be spread on the minutes of this congregation, and that a copy of the same be sent to the bereaved family.’
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On motion, these resolutions were unanimously adopted by a rising vote.
E. H. KING, Clerk.”Reverend Joseph Elliott was called in the fall of 1899. Our first Session meeting, after he arrived, was on December 21st, 1899. I find it difficult, almost impossible, to write of our last five pastors and their services to our church and community as a cold blooded historian should write. The writer had been absent from this church being in school for several years. When I came back after graduating from law school, Reverend Elliott took me under his wing. I spent almost every Thursday evening after prayer meeting in his private study. I wonder now how he found so much time to waste on me. As a boy I admired Mr. Parvin; as a young man I learned to love Mr. Elliott; and I have loved every one of our pastors from that day to this. So if personalities creep in, please pardon it. This I do know and state as a fact, that before ever Mr. Elliott came to this town, he had climbed the three steps and attained an amazing spiritual development.
In the Clerk’s annual report for the year 1906, he states:
“Another year has passed away in our church history, and in reviewing the events that have occurred during that time, we are led to reflect upon what it has been to us.
We believe that the same old feeling of trustful and placid indifference prevails amoung our people that have been so characteristic of us in the past. There seems to have been no especial effort or awakening as far as any spiritual movement is concerned. Our membership shows a slight increase. Four of our number have passed to their eternal rest. Six have been dismissed to other churches. In material matters, substantial and beautiful repairs have been made on our church building and...
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... other repairs are urgently needed. Our organ needs an overhauling to make it useful, and the lecture room presents a crying need of renovation. I do not hesitate to say, that if the living room in our homes showed so dilapidated and sooty appearance, we would move out on short notice, or else rise in our might and clean up and overhaul it until it presented a respectful appearance.
Our finances are dangerously near the border line of a deficit. I find that 170 families have contributed during the year to our finances representing 258 members. As we have 324 members, it leaves 66 who seem to have no financial interest with us. Whether they have any spiritual interest is unknown, I am include to doubt if any exists.”
Here is expressed the discouragement that all who have the responsibility of the spiritual and financial progress of the church sometime feel. I cannot resist the temptation to here make a comparison between his report for the year 1906 and our own records for the year 1942. Our last report shows that we had 741 members. Only 399 representing 183 families contributed financially. Simple mathematics show that in 1906 only about 20 per cent failed to contribute financially while our report shows that 46 per cent of us so failed. Those who give nothing can get little or nothing. They are to be pitied and prayed for, not resented or censured. They simply do not understand the scientific inevitable law of compensation. In their blindness they fail to heed the warning or avail themselves of the promise of 2 Corinthians 9:6 and Matthew 6:19 and 20.
I am glad to note that as is always the case in the work of the church “Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.” In 1906 our Clerk was discouraged but the following year we had the greatest revival of spiritual interest that ever hit this town.
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