Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-04-06
OUR NEW YORK LETTER
REV. M. c. PETERS OF THE BLOOM
lNGDALE REFORMED CHURCH.

He Claims to BE the Inventor of the
Sermon Prciudc-IIis Discourscs Al
ways on Timely TOpics-An Anec-
dotc or Two.
NEW YORK, April Ii Special. The
Rev. Madison c. Peters. pastor of the
Bloomingdalc Reformed church, who has
been one of the most prominent pulpitecrs
in all New York ever since he came here
and whose recent efforts against the at
tcmpts of the trolley companies to put four
tracks through Amsterdam avenue havo
attracted some attention, will be 40 before
this year has rolled by. He has been a
New Yorker for about ten years, and hard
ly week has passed in that time without
his being compimcntcd by more or less
newspaper attention.
This is partly because he is n forceful
speaker, of course but moro because he
invariably selects timely, practical topic
when planning his weekly sermon. Ho
might almost be termed Il journalistic
preacher, from his habit of touching upon
things that are uppcrmost in men 5 minds
ON Sunday mornings, and the appropriate
ness of the phrase as applied to him is en-
HANGED by the unconventional methods of
treatment which he always employs.
4 Prelude Preacher.
Moreover, as claimed by him and his
friends, he WAS the first of all New York
preachers to preface tho regular sermon of
each sunday morning with a short talk
even moro timely than the discourse and
known rs prelude. Other preachers in
New York, noteworthy the Rev. Thomas
Dixon, have made use of similar intro
ductory talks, but Mr.. Peters says they
arc all infringing on his patent. Some of
his friends are inclined to resent the in
fringement. but not so Mr.. Peters. He
probably realizes the truth of the provorb
that imitation is the sinccrest flattely'
more completely than his friends do and
that, while the form Of his service may be
followed, the essence of his talk, the
thoughts which are back of it, cannot be
copied. 1t is the judgment Of some Of his
most ardent admirers that, although he
makes very skillfu use of the prelude idea,
he would be as much Of a pulpit winner
without it as with it.
AS critic of current events and critic
of public men who do not perform their
duties as he believes they should, the Rev
Madison G. Peters is almost as severe as
DR. Parkhurst ever was. Last winter,
whom the streets were snow cloRgcd, he
had much to say of Street Cleaning Com
missioner McCartncy's methods and even
gave it out cold in the public press that u
citizens sweeping brigade ought to be
formed both that the pavements might be
properly cleaned and that work could be
furnished to the unemployed. DR.. Peters
went so far at that time as to say that he
had a good mind to take broom in his
own hands and head an independent pave
ment cleansing force.
Mr.. Peters In the Pulpit.
Madison G.. Peters is a PENNSYLVANIA
by birth. He had to work his way through
the schools they say, and was successfully
a student of Muhlcnberg cOllSEe Allen-
town, Pa. Franklin and Marshall col
legc, Lancaster, Pa, and the theological
department of the Heidelberg university,
Tiiiin, o. He was born into the Reformed
church, SO to speak, and his first pastorate
was in that denomination, but he swung
over to the Prcsbyterans for his second and
retained it all through his third, in the
service of tho historic Cottonwood
Street" Presbyterian church Of Philadel-
phia AS pastor there he enjoyed the dis
tinction Of speaking weekly to the largest
Protestant congregation in Philadelphia.
When he came to New York, he swung
back to tho Reformed church, though it
must be said that the beliefs of the Bloom
ingdale church are remarkably liberal,
and its membership is made up of persons
formerly protesting almost every form Of
Protestant Christianity.
In spite of the unconventional and out
spoken nature of his sermons, he breaches
in "A gown. On the whole, it may be well
that he does, for it may be said without
any intentional disrcspect to him that
without his vestments and clad in ordinary
garb he looks quite AS much like a COM
mercial man as a preacher. He is above
the middle height in person, though not
so tall as the Rev. Thomas Dixon, and
well built. His features are almost regu-
lar and he handles himself with Judgment
and self possession. In November, 1897,
Mr.. Peters delivered a eulo9y on the late
Henry George, Of whom he was great ad-
mirer, in which many proicssed to find u
close resemblance to the Rev. Eliphalet
Motifs eulogy on Alexander Hamilton
The deadly parallel test showed n
mighty close resemblance, too, but tho
Two eulogics were not identical, and the
newspaper that printed it was not reward
ed by any falling off in the Peters popu-
larity.
Big Hold on Young Men.
The edifcc of the Bloomingdale Reform
ed church is one of the handsomest in this
town of handsome churches. 1t is situat-
ed at the Boulevard and Sixty eighth
street and is as exceptionally spacious as
beautiful, yet it is not infrequcntly too
small to contain all who appear at its
doors. Sometimes literally hundreds of
would be auditors are unable to get in and
an unusually large portion of the church
membership is made up of young men.
Possibly a part of the congregation may
be attracted by the music which certainly
is excellent-being second to none in the
city, as a matter of fact. Among the
ministers of his own denomination Mr..
Peters is held in as great affection as he
appears to be by the members of his con-
grcgation. At all events, his brother pull
piteers always speak enthusiastically OF
him and, when talking among themselves,
frequently allude to him as the boy
Naturally enough, Mr. Peters receives
many notices In the newspapers that are
not wholly complimentary Few may
properly be termed disrespectful but some
Of them come close to the verge. How
ever, since he is apparently pretty well
balanced man, it might be expected that
he would invariably have passed these al
lusions lightly over but the contrary has