A humble tribute of pastoral affection : pronounced in the South Reformed Church, Thursday, February 1, 1877, in memory of Mrs. Thomas C. Doremus
Rogers, E. P. (Ebenezer Platt), 1817-1881
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One of her favorite hymns “ Jerusalem, my happy home,” was read by Rev. Dr We. M: cbaylor Rev. br WG miston offered a concluding prayer, after the following address, which was pronounced by her pastor, Rev. Dr. E. eMNOoeis: She was interred in Greenwood Cemetery on Friday, February 2, in the presence of her family, with a brief service by her pastor, and left in the care of her Lord, until the Resurrec- tion. A HUMBLE TRIBUTE OF PASTORAL AFFECTION PRONOUNCED IN THE ee isle POR Nr DD CH Wek Cr, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1877. In Memory of We MRS. THOMAS C. DOREMUS, BV REA Er ROGERS 2D. Digitized by the Internet Archive | in 2023 with funding trom Princeton Theological Seminary Library https://archive.org/details/humbletributeofp00roge SERMON. A BRIEF, but beautiful record of the life and death of one of the greatest men who ever lived on this earth, is that which the Apostle Paul has given us of the royal min- strel of Judea: “For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers.” Acts 13: 36. No long and elaborate eulogy could have said as much. What more noble life than to serve our generation by the will of God? What more blessed death, than to fall asleep. in Jesus, and be laid unto our fathers? What is this record indeed, but the same in spirit with those precious words which St. John has given us in the Revelation: “I heard a SERMON. voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, from henceforth! Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.” To entertain just and comprehensive views of the real end of life, and to pursue that end with industry, fidelity, and con- stancy, is the highest attainment of man. He needs the aids of heavenly wisdom to form the idea of a true life, and the help of divine grace, to embody the idea in practice. For want of these, how many have made an utter failure of life; have lived only as blanks or blots in the present, and died without one blessed memory of the past, or one anima- ting hope for the future. From the language of St. Paul, which so concisely yet so completely describes the history of David, we are warranted in de- claring that a life of large usefulness to others, from grateful and devoted love to the Lord Jesus Christ, is the only true, dig- nified, successful, and happy life; the only SERMON. 7 life which is worthy of man, or acceptable to God. : Nature and revelation unite ijn teaching us this lesson of work and usefulness. There is not a sunbeam which travels from the heavens, not a dewdrop which sparkles on the earth, not a rill which trickles down the rock, or hides itself beneath the wild-flower of the meadow, but has its ministry of beau- teous and blessed usefulness to the world. The evening breeze that murmurs through the lattice, and cools some sufferer’s fevered cheek, is fulfilling its law of work and _use- fulness, equally with the mighty wind which sweeps the fleets of commerce to their des- tined ports, or with those silent, but magnifi- cent forces of gravitation and magnetism, which guide those queenly barks of light which navigate the heavens on yonder shore- less sea. The smallest star has its appointed | place and work; and if for a single instant it should wander or rest, a disorder in the sys- tem would follow, which no astronomer could compute. The minutest particle of matter 8 SERMON. of which our globe is made is essential to the integrity and safety of the whole. Each has its place; each has its office; each ever obeys its appointed law of labor and useful- ness. And when we turn from nature to revela- tion, and study the greatest and most beau- tiful life which was ever lived on the earth, we find its record summed up in these sig- nificant words, “ Jesus of Nazareth, who went about doing good,” and whose ever-to-be- remembered words were such as the world never heard before, “ It is more blessed to give than to receive.” .When God. himself came down to dwell with men, they saw one who brought benedictions to the homes of the poor, healing to the bed of the sufferer, a smile to the cheek of the mourner, and tears of loving sympathy to the grave of the dead. “The common people heard him gladly,” when he said, “The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to min- ister, and to give his life a ransom for many ;” and the sad and heavy heart of a tried and SERMON. 9 sorrowful race has always responded to those other gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” We are warranted then in believing that the best and noblest life which can be lived by man, is a life spent in serving our gener- ation by the will of God, and that the most blessed death is after such a life to fall asleep in Jesus, and be laid unto our fathers. Such a life, and such a death, we are here to commemorate to-day. We have come to this House of God, where for thirty years our departed sister loved to worship with the church of which she was fifty-three years a member, not to praise her, not to utter any elaborate eulogy or fulsome pane- gyric over her sleeping dust. The closed lips within that casket would almost open to rebuke us, did we attempt anything in such glaring contrast to her own character, and to the spirit of her life. We come to bury, not to praise her. MHer life is her eulogy, 10 SERMON. and her record is on high. All that we shall attempt, will be to present a_ brief sketch of her long and consecrated life, for the glory of God, and for the instruction, comfort, and stimulus of all who would be “followers of those who through faith and patience have inherited the promises.” And the propriety of this in her case, will be acknowledged by us all. She was born in this city, and was connected with a dis- tinguished ancestry both in this state and New Jersey. With the exception of a few years, her entire life has been spent in New York, and that life, protracted beyond the limits of threescore years and ten, though it was the life of a modest and humble-minded Christian woman, who illustrated very beau- tifully and faithfully all the domestic virtues within her own household, who was one of the most faithful of wives, the most tender of mothers, was a life of broad and large public utility; identified with many beneficent insti- tutions; spent in good works affecting the best interests of the city, the church, and the SERMON. world; devoted to plans and agencies for the instruction of ignorance, the relief of pain, the amelioration of the lot of the prisoner, the comfort of the sorrowful, and the salva- tion of the lost. And the field of her judi- cious schemes, her wise, practical counsels, her large contributions, and her thoroughly consecrated personal labors for more than fifty years, was not merely her own city or country, but it was the world itself. The simple enumeration of the different societies and institutions with which she was con- nected, of some of which she was the founder, and in all of which she was a constant and indefatigable worker, will show how wide was the sphere of her thought, her sympathy, and her devotion. Nearly fifty years ago, her young heart became fired with zeal for the Christianizing of the classic land of Greece, and the mis-. sionary work so long and so faithfully pros- ecuted there by her life-long friend, Rev. Dr. Jonas King, was largely due, both in its inception and progress, to her interest in the |e SERMON. work, and her efforts, contributions, and prayers. But the spiritual destitutions of distant lands, even at the early day when so much of romance was connected with foreign mis- sionary work, did not make her forgetful of pressing and practical needs athome. Many years ago, she interested herself deeply in the work of Christian visitation and instruction among the inmates of our city prisons. For years, she gave a portion not only of her week- day labors, but of her precious Sabbath rest, to those neglected souls, visiting them in their confinement, reading to them the com- forting words of Holy Scripture; leading — them to Christ as their deliverer from the bondage of sin; and helping them wisely and efficiently towards a better life, when their term of imprisonment was ended. She was President of a most useful association, whose special work was to help women, when re- leased from prison, to become respectable and worthy members of society. Forty years ago, she became one of the SERMON. 13 founders, and the President, of the mission at Grand Ligne in Canada, with which, as many of you remember, Madame Feller was so long connected. And it was a beautiful illustra- tion of her broad catholic spirit, that although the denomination chiefly concerned in this work was diverse from that with whose creed and polity she was identified, yet her zeal, her labors, and her contributions, were freely and largely given to its prosecution. Yet still finding room in her warm and generous heart for the little ones at home, we learn that she soon became one of the foun- ders, and was the Vice-President of “ The Nur- sery and Child’s Hospital,” one of the most benevolent and useful institutions in this city. And still finding time and sympathy for the sick and suffering of her own sex, she with other wise and devoted friends, under- took the work of establishing the ““ Woman’s | Hospital” in this city, which, with its stately and commodious pavilions, replete with every arrangement for the comfort of their in- mates, its staff of able and scientific medi- 14 SERMON. cal attendants, its accomplished nurses, and the appliances for physical relief, religious consolation, and social enjoyment, gathered within its walls, will long be one of her no- blest monuments. How constant her efforts, how wise her plans; how able her executive and administrative labors for the establish- ment of this noble institution; how frequent her personal visitations to its beds of suffer- ing ; how tender and consoling the sympathy she gave to its patients, and how, to the very last day of her active life, all these labors and sympathies were given, no word of ours can adequately describe. In the grateful hearts of hundreds of her suffering sisters the record is engraven, never to be effaced. “The Woman’s Union Missionary Soci- ety,” for Christian work among women in heathen lands, a work which has grown in extent and importance in an astonishing de- gree under her supervision as President, owes its existence very largely to her. Our own “Female Bible Society,” our “City Tract and Mission Society,” ‘“ The SERMON. 1s Presbyterian Home for aged Women,” in each of which she was a Manager, and “ The House ” of which she was President, all widely recognized as among the most useful of our benevolent institu- tions, are all witnesses to her zeal and labors. Less than a fortnight ago, she was present at the “School of Industry,” and gladdened the hearts of the children by distributing to them their little prizes. and School of Industry, Indeed her love for little children was one of the marked and lovely traits of her char- acter. She could always enter into their youthful tastes and pursuits, and when she was most engrossed with large and responsi- ble undertakings, she would find time to plan for the amusement and delight of her young friends. Many a boy and girl, and especially the children of missionaries, has had occa- sion to thank her for the time and the money © which she freely expended in various ways dear to childish hearts, for their gratifica- tion. During the late civil war in this country, 16 SERMON. Mrs. Doremus was largely engaged in benev- olent activities for the soldiers, especially for the sick in the several hospitals in and around the city which she visited constantly, minis- tering like an angel of mercy, without dis- tinction, to the sufferers from both armies, and equally loved and revered by all. Such were some of the public Christian labors, in which fifty years of this saintly woman’s life have been spent. And her con- nection with all these institutions was not merely nominal or honorary. She was an indefatigable and conscientious worker in them. In raising funds for their establish- ment, in the expenditure of those funds, in providing daily supplies for their use, in at- tending with equal wisdom, and fidelity upon large or small concerns, she showed a skill in conception, and a vigor in administration, which are rarely united in one individual. Her powers of physical endurance in the prosecution of her incessant and varied labors were wonderful. With a peculiarly delicate and feeble physical organization from her girl- SERMON. 17 hood, she put forth an amount of energetic labor, she bore a degree of fatigue, she ac- complished an amount of brain, heart, and hand work, which would have taxed to the utmost, the strongest frame and the most active brain, among the other sex. Her la- bors were prosecuted at early dawn, and up to the deeper shadows of the night; in the intensest chill of winter, and the burning heats of summer. She was known all over this city. Her slender form in later years bowed beneath increasing infirmities, her quick and resolute step so expressive of her unconquerable resolution, and her deathless energy, have been familiar everywhere among us for half a century. The office of the banker, the warehouse of the merchant, the bureau of the city official, the crowded cen- tres of trade, the halls of justice and legisla- tion, and the piers where the shipping lay, were as familiar with her presence, as the Managers’ room of Christian institutions, the homes of the poor, or the courts of the House of God. Almost every omnibus- 18 SERMON. driver and car-conductor knew, and the rudest of them all treated her with courtesy and reverence. No one of all the dwellers in this city will be more missed from its streets, as none could be more missed from all that is connected with its best welfare. Yet all these public and incessant duties and labors in the care of this Christian woman, were thoroughly consistent with exem- plary fidelity to the obligations of her own household and of this church of Jesus Christ, of which she was one of the oldest members. I do not propose to draw aside the veil which hangs before the hallowed recesses of the family circle. I only say that “her children rise up and call her blessed: her husband also, and he praiseth her.” She hath done them ‘good, and not evil, all the days of her life.” - It is sufficient tribute to her character in these prime relations, to say that husband and children were always in sweet accord with her in her Christian labors, and to express the assurance that when the work of all is done, the family SERMON. fe) will be an unbroken household “in the Fa- ther’s house.” But as her pastor, I can testify to her fidelity to her covenant with this church. Her place in the sanctuary and the social meeting was never vacant, save for impera- tive providential reasons. She loved God’s house and worship too well, willingly to be absent from them. And her example in this regard, with her feeble health, and her numberless duties and labors, down to the last days of her life, is one which many may imitate, with great profit to themselves and increased usefulness to the church. If now, we ask for the secret of all these labors and this fidelity, we find it in that grace of God which inclined and enabled her, very early in her Christian course, to consecrate herself. unreservedly to her Lord and Saviour. To serve her generation, by the will of God, was her single aim; the one absorbing idea and purpose of her life. She never lost sight of that. Her youth, her riper years, her evening-days of life, were all 20 SERMON. consecrated, \Nith an inflexible purpose, an indomitable energy, and an unwavering per- sistence, she worked for Christ. When the infirmities of declining years came upon her, and her attenuated frame seemed ready to sink at every step, she went resolutely on, spending and being spent in the Lord’s ser- vice. When God blessed her with ample means, her gifts were as large as her labors were abundant. And when these gifts of money were Providentially restricted, she gave still, what was more precious than gold; she labored the more abundantly, and ex- pended her time, her talents, her sympathies, and her prayers, with a lavish hand and a loving heart. It is not too much to say, that all that she was, all that she had, all that she could be, freely and to the very last, she laid as a humble offering at her Saviour’s feet. Her hospitable, refined, and elegant home was always open to God’s servants, without distinction of creed, or country, or race. Her generous, catholic spirit embraced all who were the Lord’s, and were doing the Lord’s SERMON. work, and all such were welcome to her heart and her home. Sincerely attached to her own church, she ever felt and manifested a true and generous Christian affection tow- ard every division of the visible church, and cordially recognized, in every disciple of Je- sus, a sister or a brother. Especially was this the case in respect to all who were engaged in the missionary work. No ship could sail from this port bearing any of God’s servants to their dis- tant field beyond the sea, that she was not there, laden with valuable gifts for their com- fort, to bid them farewell. And when any of these devoted laborers came back to re- cruit their wasted energies, she was among the first to meet them wherever their vessel landed, in the early dawn or the sombre evening, to welcome them to their native land, and carry them to the generous shelter and hospitalities of her own dwelling. Prob- ably no one individual of our age had such an extensive acquaintance with the foreign missionary field, all over the world, and SERMON. numbered so many. of the workers in this field, as personal friends. Thus did this Christian woman illustrate the one great idea of her life, wsreserved con- secration to Christ and his cause. Thus did she serve her generation by the will of God. Humble and modest in her appreciation of herself and her efforts, almost impatient of anything like compliment or eulogy, for fifty years she trod the same path of well-directed, energetic, constant, and self-denying work in her Master’s service. That work was re- deemed from the character of drudgery, and exalted into positive enjoyment, by her lofty views of personal obligation to Christ, and her high sense of the honor of being a co- worker with Him in the great errand which brought him to this world. To tread in his footsteps, to follow his example, to advance his glory, to bless those for whom he died, was the great aim and inspiration of her life. And she was always cheered and sustained by a kindred spirit in her household. Her husband, her children, her sisters, her brother SERMON. 23 who went hand in hand with her to glory, all sympathized with her in her work, and were her ready helpers. And outside of her own family circle, she always attracted to herself, and to the various objects in which she was interested, the best and noblest of our Christian society. Her associates in the various departments of benevolence, and in the many institutions with which she was connected, have always been those of either sex who are among the choicest treasures of the church and the state. On which of them will her mantle fall? And now having been permitted to pass the allotted term of human life, having seen her dear children, some gathered into heaven, and the others distinguished and useful on earth; having served her generation by the will of God, having filled and adorned a wider sphere of Christian usefulness than has been allotted to any one individual in our day; having labored actively, wisely, faithfully and successfully for her Lord, and her fellow- creatures for more than half a century, she 24 SERMON. has at length fallen asleep in Jesus, and for the first time vests from her labors. It was well said by one of her nearest and dearest kindred, that her epitaph was written eigh- teen hundred years ago, by St. Paul, when he described to Timothy the characteristics of a faithful Christian woman : “Well reported of for good works; she hath brought up children; she hath lodged strangers; she hath washed the saints’ feet ; she hath relieved the afflicted; she hath dili- gently followed every good work.” 1 Tim. HS 10: No one who. knew her will question the perfect appropriateness of these inspired words. Her summons home came in an unexpect- ed and painful form. A sudden fall just within the threshold of her dwelling, which inflicted very severe injury upon her weak and wasted frame, was the immediate occa- sion of her death. The summons found her ready. She would have toiled on patiently, lovingly, faithfully still, if it had been the SERMON. Lord’s will, for she had long known no will but His. But now, she was ready to go. “ Fesus, send the charwot,’ was her dying cry. The chariot was ready, and not even that, which bore the ancient prophet of Israel over the rainbow arch to his home in the skies, bore a more saintly soul into the presence of the Lord! The presence of this vast assembly in this House of God to-day, the allusions which are made in our public journals, the general expression of sorrow which breaks out on every side as the intelligence of her death is more widely diffused, show how great is the sense of loss which pervades and oppresses the public mind. The best men and women in this city and this land are in mourning to- day, for her whose dust reposes so peacefully at this altar of God. But it is not only here that the heart-felt tribute is paid to her mem- ory. In the homes of the poor; in the hos- pital ward, where the sick and the suffering are bearing their lonely burdens; among widows and orphans; in asylums for the 26 SERMON. aged, and homes for the friendless, one name to-day is on every lip, one precious memory is in every heart. And this great cry of sin- cere grief which rises all over the land, will be wafted to other lands. It will be echoed on the plains of distant continents, and among the islands of the sea. In the seclu- sion of the Zenanas of Calcutta, the dusky daughters of India will repeat her name, and mingle her memory with their praises and their prayers. Manya warm tear will be shed, many a loving word will be spoken in remem- brance of her, in their distant homes in China and Japan, by God’s faithful servants who have been cheered by her loving words and deeds, and always remembered in her prayers. The workers for Jesus in many lands will thank God for her life and labors. Being dead, she will still speak to them words of comfort and inspiration. And though her lowly grave will be here, among her own kin- dred, her blessed memory will go, and her lasting monument will be reared, wherever the name of Jesus is honored; wherever SERMON. 27 faithful men and women are toiling to ad- vance his kingdom, and add fresh jewels to his crown, To those who have been associated with Mrs. Doremus in Christian work, this is a solemn hour. Your counsellor, your helper, your friend, has left your companionship and walks in the paradise of God. She sees the King in his beauty. She abides in the land where the inhabitant shall no more say I am sick, and where God’s own hand wipes every tear away. You remain to complete your earthly work, and to be ripened for your rest. Remember the words which she spake to you, while she was yet with you. Learn more thoroughly the one great lesson of her life, how to “serve your generation, by the will of God.” Rise to the point of an unre- served consecration of everything to Christ. “Be ye faithful unto death, that ye may re- ceive a crown of life.” Dear Mrs. Doremus! my kinswoman, my parishioner, my friend! who never spoke to me anything but cheering and instructive 28 SERMON. words, who never looked on me but with kindly eyes, who was ever to me a true “ Mother in Israel,” Farewell! And now, rising above the feeble utter- ances of earth’s friends, better than all that we can give, this poor tribute of our praises and our tears, I hear a voice from heaven saying unto me, “Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth! Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them!” Amen, and Amen! EXTRACTS OF SERMONS. ——_¢——_—. ALTHOUGH many clergymen throughout the land gave the wonderful life of Mrs. Doremus as an illustration of their sermons, the written account of but few were secured. Extract from a sermon preached by Rev. Dr. Rylance, rector of St. Mark’s church, New York, on Sunday morning, February 4, 1877. THE FAITHFUL DEAD. Within the brief compass of a week, two saintly souls have left the fellowship of the faithful on earth— Mrs. ‘Thomas C. Doremus and Mrs. Henry Anthon— whose names were as ointment poured forth to thou- sands in this Christian community. One of them, “the first to go,” did not properly belong to our own special household of faith.... Such was the catholicity of her spirit, indeed, and the broad and varied sphere of her Christian activity, that scarcely any one section of the church could claim her as its own. She merged all 30 SERMONS. other distinctions in that of Christian, her influence be- ing felt and acknowledged in almost every branch of an evangelical Christianity. Her life was a long con- secration to love and to good works. Her private min- istrations in the homes of poverty and affliction might have taxed the strength and occupied the time of one wholly given up to such a calling. But in addition to such service, she gave herself laboriously and _persis- tently to many larger enterprises of Christian charity, in planning and founding and fostering asylums and hospitals ; while she bent herself most strenuously to the work of succoring and extending missions to the heathen, specially in the vast and populous fields of the remoter East. And many are the soldiers of the Cross, who, returning from campaign life in India or in China, or the islands of the South sea, have found in the home of Mrs. Doremus a warm hospitality, with refreshment of spirit, while here to recuperate their wasted health and energy. Deep and intense were the esteem and sorrowing affection manifested by the vast congregation which gathered on Thursday last to pay the final tribute of love to all that was mortal of that noble woman ; and many minds must have been moved to the reflec- tion which I uttered to myself as I turned away from the scene. “ Better such honor than all the splendid pomp and pageantry which grace the funeral rites of royalty.” Truly, “ Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord; for they rest from their labors, and their works do follow them.” By the traditions and customs of the church, the SERMONS. 31 word “saint” has been lifted into a position of exclusive preéminence. But if ever the designation was deserved, in ancient or in medizval times, it may as fitly be con- ferred upon the two godly women, in recognition of whose faithful labors, I have presumed to utter this feeble tribute of affection. Few worthier names could be added to the long and lengthening list of those to whom we may apply the words of my text, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” OEE Extract of a sermon preached by Rev. T. T. Munger, at East Hartford, Conn., Feb- ruary 4, 1877, on the text, “She hath done what she could.” The completest illustration of what I have been speaking of, of which I have read, or ever heard, is found in the life of the noble woman who was buried last Thursday in the city of New York, Mrs. Thomas C. Doremus. At her funeral were gathered many of the clergy of the city, for all venerated her and knew her life and work. I cannot forbear reading, as the best enforcement of my discourse one of the many pub- lic notices which have appeared, as it will convey to you something of  Wm. M. Taylor, D. D., pastor of the Taber- nacle church, New York, February 4 and 18, 1877. But I must not speak as if this attention to the ser- vants of the Lord were altogether one of the “lost arts” among us. Only last week the grave closed upon one whose slender form and earnest face with its glory halo of snow-white hair were not unknown within these walls, and whose life was consecrated to just such offices of kindness as that which the Shunamite performed for Elisha. Her house was seldom without some mission- ary guest, and every laborer in the vineyard of the Master was welcomed by her for his work’s sake. I have known her to travel miles alone, through the win- try streets to secure some advantage for a Turkish stu- dent. She was the last to bid the missionary farewell on the deck of the departing vessel, and the first to greet him on the wharf when he returned. Her proph- et’s chamber was seldom empty, and though she is not written down among the millionnaires of the city, she died the wealthiest woman in the community, for she took her riches with her. Let the memory of Mrs. Doremus be an inspiration, my sisters, to you all; and if none of you may hope to wear her mantle as a whole, let each strive to secure a portion of it, that of you too some future Paul may say, “She hath been a succorer of many and of myself also.” SERMONS. 33 Extract of a sermon preached by Rev. Henry Winter Syle, at St. Ann’s church, New York, May 13, 1877. Others there are of whom the world knows, whose record the church will not willingly let die; men and women active in every good work, regardless of self, thinking only of the Saviour’s honor, and doing with their might whatever came to their hands... Mrs. T. C. Doremus was a lady who made one of the loveliest of Christian homes a centre of Christian activity, reaching out to the ends of the world, gird- ling the globe with love, and carrying sunshine through- out this great city where she dwelt, from the highest class to the lowest. Wherever her name was heard, it was received with blessing—the blessing of him that was ready to perish, the blessing of the sister woman on the banks of the Ganges, as well as of the Hudson, the bless- ing of all that love the ord—for all these did she love. And with all her ceaseless, unsparing exertions for others, far and near, her own home lost none of the charms springing from her gracious headship. Every trifling household care was heeded, every wish noted or imagined by her watchful mother-heart was assiduous- ly gratified, of all under her roof, down to the mission- ary’s little child, welcomed there for a night ; for herein she saw work for God, as much as in the founding of a hospital for the suffering of her own sex, or the presi- dency of the “Woman’s Union Missionary Society for Foreign Lands.” MEMORIAL SERVICE. A memorial service was held by the “Woman’s Union Missionary Society,” in honor of their late beloved and lamented President, Mrs. Thomas C. Doremus, April 3, 1877. The Rev. E. P. Rogers, D. D., her pastor, presided, while her other warm and esteemed friends, the Rev. Drs. S. H. Tyng, S.I. Prime, Wm. Ormiston, and H. M. Scudder, delivered the following addresses on different portions of her life-work. ADDRESS OF REV. s. Hi [TYNG rp, D) I shall speak on this occasion of the home-life of our venerated friend, Mrs. Doremus, the late President of the Woman’s Union Missionary Society; and although I feel it a privilege to speak of her whom I have known so many years, yet I almost wonder that the ministry were admitted to any share in this occasion, so admirable a “memorial” of that glorified life having already ap- peared in the magazine she loved so well—the March number of the “ Missionary Link.” I feel that this little book which I hold in my hand is so complete, and MEMORIAL SERVICE. 35 the mind and heart that prepared it is so inspired, that having taken away the ground on which we stand, we have nothing else to do, but veil our faces in modesty and diffidence. Beyond a doubt we are celebrating a very unusual and very remarkable character. Although it might pos- sibly be thought it was a character too much external and too widely spread out to be permitted to embrace all the extent of female usefulness and female respon- sibility, yet I am persuaded the more we have been acquainted with this remarkable child of God, the more we have known of her whole history, the more we have been permitted to look at its manifestations, so much the more we have been compelled to come to the con- clusion that there was nothing neglected, there was no private necessity or welfare in the least degree sacri- ficed. It is perhaps forty years now since I first made the acquaintance of this daughter of the Almighty. Forty years taken off of her life and mine, would bring us back to the middle of our maturity. I have known her during that time with more or less minuteness, having been not only her friend, but also pastor to some mem- bers of her family. To speak of a woman’s work at home is a subject I cannot undertake. I really know no limit to it. ~ With- out dropping from the seriousness of this subject, I will say that woman was made to perfect the condition of man. I am not here to utter flattering words, nor am I here to fear the full exercise of praise and admiration to divinely appointed and select instruments of useful- 36 MEMORIAL SERVICE. ness in the family of God. The whole church of Christ in our modern circumstances, and above all in our American condition, involves so much of female influ- ence, female discretion, good temper, and usefulness, that there is no place in it in which Christian woman is not in her sphere. Everything that is, is from a woman’s hand. It is not possible to exalt a woman’s work at home. Everything at home is in her hands. A mother’s influence is an influence that lives to eternity. Seventy years ago my beloved mother was taken from me, and yet these seventy years the influence of that mother has been the commanding, guiding, and con- trolling influence of my whole career. I could afford to give up almost anything external better than I could afford to give up the power of my beloved mother’s memory, though she has been seventy years in glory. I sometimes seek in my old age a communion with her, in just such conversation as we had then. I think it is impossible that that mother could have forgotten me. The boy she loved, the boy upon whose cheek her tears of affection dropped, cannot have been forgotten. It may be a fancy, if you please, but it has been my fancy all my life, that my mother has followed me wherever I went; has been with me in every condition, and I have no doubt is permitted to be conscious of all the Lord has been pleased to do with me, and by me. Woman’s work at home is to sanctify man. It is to bring up an image after the Lord’s glory. It is to set up a dominion other than which there is none more effective, and to extend an atmosphere other than which there can be none more wholesome. ‘This remarkable MEMORIAL SERVICE. 37 and blessed woman, Mrs. Doremus, never neglected her home affairs, and yet she seemed to take part in every good work. You scarcely attended a meeting for reli- gious purposes, that she was not there. You scarcely listened to an appeal for public beneficence, that she was not there. But in her private character, as one saw who visited her home, there was that always which manifested the woman’s work, and its conscientiousness. ‘There was very little of pretence about her. ‘There was a good deal of decided opinion, which was inherited from her venerable mother of whom it would be impossible to speak in tones of too much regard. For never in my experience have I seen a nobler exemplification of the Christian virtues than in her, whom we all loved to call “Grandma Haines.” Her children have all been useful and commanding in their influence, and in their ability to bless. We trace them in their various walks; they are but reproductions of their mother. Is not every- body, after all, in habits of life, a reproduction of the mother? Is it not the mother that makes the home, and sanctifies the house? We cannot dispute that fact, and as for undertaking to assail the influence of woman, her ability, her opportunities, her potentiality, with which through divine providence she is gifted, nothing but the most vulgar mind would attempt it. Now, this is not a subject of which under any circumstances we can afford to speak lightly. Dear friends, a pastor long occupied in his work can never entertain any but the most exalted views of female religious character. Fifty- seven years of ministerial work have only served to ex- 38 MEMORIAL SERVICE. tend my views of this character and the blessedness that comes with it. With all the opportunities I have had, I do not know that I ever saw a thoroughly corrupt woman. Ido not know that I ever saw a woman that was uninfluenced by a degree of religious meditation. 