Monmouth weekly herald. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1854-1860, 1855-05-02
Must the Old Tennent Church be
DESTROYED?

1t would seem, according to an article in the
Democrat, supported by the ever-wagging
tongue of Madame Rumor, that the Church of
the battle-ground the church in which the al
most Elijah-like TENNENr preached and prayed,
and the glowing tongue of WHITFIELD told the
rians Baptists, Congregatonalsts, and Meth
odists, alike venerate as one of the first out
posts of Christianity, when it commenced its
crusade aginst heathenism and infdelity in the
Western World, and to which numerous pill
grimages are made from afar-is, now, after
having withstood the storms of time, and es-
capped the destructive energies of war; to be
pulled down by the sons of those who once de-
lighted to worship in its courts, and who are
now quietly sleeping in its shade. Everything
hallowed by connection with the far off past,
seems destined to fall before the spirit of
change, commonly, though (often) wrongfully,
called progression, which actuates the present
generation. Few things that our revolutiona-
ry fathers touched, and handled, and looked
upon, now remain to us. One by one they
pass away. Yet, we did hope, that this
cold Church" would remain unmolcsted.
Did it perpetuate the remembrance of any
thing unholy or disgraceful, we would say, let
Heels Us BV VIII TIE s sEf5E 5 f0fsf times II
brings us in contact with the pious among our
ancestry. AS we stand and look at it, the
mind glides back to the Sunday mornings of
'76, when the God-fearing for miles around,
assembled to join their prayers in behalf of
Washington and his handful of heroes, battling
the legion minons of Britain Before us,
slow-paced and solemn, passes the band Of
weeping parishioners, following the sainted
TENNENr to his sacred resting place. And
again we see happier scene, when the young
Woodruff is made shepherd of the shepherd
less flock. Who can name all the emotions
that fill the soul when one thinks of the scenes
that have TRANSFERRED in, and about that "Old
Church What sermons have been preached,
what prayers offered, what psalms sung, in the
old house! What alterations of joy and sor-
row, hope and fear, have swept DER the souls
of those who hundred years ago worshipped
there, as one moment they by faith caught
glimpse of heavens hills, and the next saw all
their prospects obscured by the clouds of sin
Why should this venerable old church be torn
down? Is it delapidated! Repair it then,
and let it stand until the touch Of time shall
effect its destruction, and let it not be destroyed
by man. Is it too old to echo the minister's
text" Take heed how ye hear;0 and cannot
the word of God be preached with power noao
from its sacred desk? Then let silence reign
while Gods spirit Speaks in the " still small
voice" Do the fashion and refinement of the
present day require finer church in which to
display themselves Then let such q one be
built; but let the old one remain as memento
of the good old times that are gone, nerer to
return-as a monument of the faith of our
fathers, which sustained them in times that
tried mems SOULS" and as voiceless, though
ever-eloquent pleader for the principles for
which Washington drove the hireling enemy
from its sacred presence.