The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-10
DR.. JOHN HALL RESIGNS
NOTED NEW YORK DIVINE sURREN-
DERs HIS PAsTORATE.
For over Thirty Years I'm Charge OF
Church-Sketch of His Career.

ishioners heard it with deep emotion. He has
held the place since Nov. 3, 1861
The Rev. Or. Hall has been for over q
quarter of a century one of the most promi-
nent divines in the Presbyterian Church.
He was born in Armagh Ireland, in 1929.
and is of Scotch lineage. He was pre-
cocious scholar, entering the College of Bel
fast in his thirteenth year, and 1t is not
without significance, in a study of his SER
monzing to mention that he was during his
educational training frequently a Hebrew
prizeman, so that a well-grounded scholar
ship underlies his earliest studies in the
Scripture. In 1852 he became pastor of the
First Presbyterian Church IN Armagh. and
in 1858 he was advanced to the pulpit OF
st. Mary's Abbey Chul ch In Dublin In 1867
he visited the General Assembly Of the
Presbyterian Church in the United States
as delegate from the corresponding body
in Ireland, and such was the impression
which grew out of these official relations
that before the expiration of the same year
he had received, and accepted call from
the Fifth-avenue Society, of New York,
the negotiations having been conducted by
cable communication. He had already en-
| Joyed the unique distinction of an honorary
| appointment by the Queen to a commissions
| erShlp OF education in ireland.
Dr. Hall entered on his work Nov. 81, 1867,
| III the old church at Nineteenth street and
curing these thirty years a steady and Wig
orouS growth has followed his ministration
! In all its departments. He is now nearly
| seventy years old. Fourteen years ago a
! writer said of him: He is tall burly in
| HSure, suggesting the athlete rather than
the pletlst, and enjoys a physique built up
| IN generous yet symmetrical proportions.
his eyes are blue, vivacious and beaming
| Win klndhness and at times genial humor.
ne pfeacnes in gown and bands. His voice
| is low, rich and musical in quality, yet so
modulated and managed that it catches and
| holds attention and is easily heard in every
| part of his church. His words come DELHI
! erately yet with the candid simplicity of an
innocent, great-hearted life, in which intel
lectual arts ana refinement clearly take the
seconu place. Inc congregation are
| straightway hushed TO reverent attention
ana while the speaker never wastes or
tribes with word, each word seems TO
| invest loving welcome in the hearers, so
sincerely in sympathy are speaker and peo-
| pie. familiar hymn is read with much
| tenderness and JUNCTION. The organ gives
out the tune; hymn books rustic in every
| pew, the tenor precentor takes up the
melody, and the solemn fervor of the great
voIume OF song brings to mind the tradi-
| tons or the old Covenanters at their simple
| devotons; The pastor reads chapter from
the Old testament and almost every one
finds the place and follows his expressive
delivery, word by word. The conventional
| long prayer is discursive, and surcharged
| with the special purpose of the mornings
ministry. Another hymn follows in which
everybody JOINS heartily, and the full voiced
S1RpleLC dlOuSSS SIlOl1OIlS OF SOlGmnltY rare
ship:
The text is short, epigrammatic in form,
| easily remembered The sermon seems to
| send down a tap root far and firmly into
| the great underlying verities of personal
| social and national life Its growth and
development are rather indigenous in type
| Inc germlnal impulses are ethical and
! moral and its direction objective with a
| sturdy urgency towards the shaping of life
| and character. There is marvellous fer
| tility and abundance of resource, for the
| soil is rich and inexhauStible and the meth
DDS pursued are nodded by an instructive
| and certain intelligence. The preacher keeps
| steadily in range of the people, touching
| their needs, temptations and opportunities
| with quick, tender solicitude, and at all
| points is too fondly wrapped up in the inn
| mediate pressure of such personal minis
| try to indulge in ideaisms or the mere
| elegancieS of compositions; yet the firmly
| braced argument, which is felt rather than
| seen, its easy, irresistible growth, the dense,
| richly hard quality of his words and the
unconscious harmony of an occasional par
agraph, bear witness of a sensitive culture
| and a splendid intellectuality But the doc
| tor is greater and stronger at the heart
| than at the head, and the glowing humanity
| that pulsates through his utterances is
| something nobler and more precious than
| the cold scintillations and auroral flashes of
| scholarship and philosophy. Ii is said that
| his sermons are carefully written and then
| left in his study when he enters the pulpit.
| Any sketch of this distinguished preacher
must be incomplete which fails to note the
healthy, wholesome temper that character
ICES his discourse. While, technically
strict theolOgian of his school and unSWerV-
ingly accepting its traditions, there is
fine flush of optimism that brightens his
methods. Indeed not infrequently touch
| of grim humor or of homely Illustration rip
plies on the surface Of his thought, heart
throb of that single touch of nature which
makes the whole world kim He is indefati-
gable as a worker; often breaches three
times on Sunday; exercises important
trusts and an unchallanged influence in the
counsels of his denomination, and finds time
to enter into the humanitarian and purely
social issues of the day.
This pen portrait of DR.. Hall and his
methods was made when he was hfty-four
years old. He has now begun to show the
effects of age but Presbyterians nope ne
may continue in health and be able 10 give
his wise counsels to the church. For the
last fifteen years no great question mas
come before the General Assembly in which
he has not given advice
The Fifth2avenue Presbyterian Society.
of which DIR. Hall was the head so long,
dates back in its history to the first society
lished in 1907. A colony from this society.
comprising many of the most celebrated
families of that period. organized new
church in 1907 and built their house OF wor-
ship in Cedar street between Nassau and
Liberty. In the old list of pewholders may
be read the names of Archfbald Gracie,
James Lenox, Stephen Whitney. II. Auchin-
Gloss w. Goldman. DIR. Hosack, j. Hyslop,
J. Aspinwall. the Strongs and Elisha Coit:
In 1884 the then uptown movement carried
the society to Duane and Church streets,
whence a further removal to Fifth avenue
and Nineteenth street look place III 1907.
In 1875 the society. after another and prob
ably final concession to the push OF trade,
worshiped for the first time in the mag
nficent sanctuary where the same avenue
is crossed by Fifty-ffth street. The con-
gregation fills the church. which provides
two thousand sittings. The building, with
its chapel cost 81, 10000 The material is
brown stone and the architecture a freely
modified Gothic, and the spire for SYM
metry and effectiveness may be ranked
with that of Trinity Church and that or
Holy Trinity Church on Brooklyn Heights.
The interior is q frank attempt to subord-
nate the limitations of proper Gothic
church to the sole and supreme one of an
auditorium or assembly room, where the
pastor is himself liturgy and evangelist.
The attempt is successful although the
lines worry the eye and the floors seem TO
subside at first like the unsteady deck Of
a ship But every individual commands a
perfect view of the pulpit and preacher,
and the absence OF columns and pillars,
and the fine management of the ceiling
cure absolutely perfect acoustic effects,
the gentlest tones of the preacher are dis
tinctly audible throughout the immense In
terror Spacious galleries encirce the four
walls the organ and pulpit completing the
gan case and pulpit are of the same ma
teriai. The effect, therefore. IS cheerful
and inviting, and under the great elongated
skylight and pleasantly toned windows an
all pervading harmony of light and color
is secured. An enormous organ fills the
western area, and the loft for the choir
which consists of a single precentor-is
worked out into rejecting canopy above
the pulpit platform just underneath
Tf40uGauda are Trvino IT