Introduction to Sermon c1926
Delivered in Avondale Presbyterian Church by Jesse Herrmann
[Pastor | 1916-1928]
Matthew 5:17—“I came not to destroy but to fulfill.”
One of my most vivid vacation memories clusters around a
weekend spent in Southampton, Long Island. Southampton, as you may know, is a
so-called fashionable summer resort. It is a popular rendezvous for men with
millions. But in the midst of these ultra-modern externals you distinctly sense
an invigorating atmosphere reminiscent of other days. I know of no community of
its size in America that has more direct human and material contacts with the
Colonial period than Southampton. On Sunday, I preached in the oldest
Presbyterian church in America, founded in 1640—twenty years after the landing
of the Pilgrims. Many of the permanent families in Southampton today are the
direct descendents of these founding fathers. Hard by this town is the
Shinnecock Hills Golf Course, where an Indian caddie carries your clubs, for
close by is a government reservation for the ancient Shinnecock tribe.
A man must be exceptionally dull if his memory and emotions
are not stirred in a place where the Indian hut, the colonial house, and the
Millionaire’s mansion stand within a stone’s throw of one another.
But the experience that I treasure most, after a brief visit
to Southampton, centers in a home whose presiding genius is a gracious lady who
has rounded out more than eight decades of life. For over fifty years she had
been the uncrowned queen and the unmetered priestess of that whole
community—mother to the orphan, friend to the wayward, and delightful companion
for the young and old. In a remarkable way she gathers up in her character the fruitage
of the past, the opportunity of the present, and the promise of the future. In
perfect blend the three tenses mingle in her person.
Her home clearly belongs to the Colonial vintage. Much of
its furniture was built and carved by skilled ancestors. During her youth, in
the open fireplace, now an interesting museum, all the meals were prepared. But
these antiques stand in marked contrast with the furnishings of her mind. On
the table the latest books are
found. Unless compelled otherwise by the visitor her conversation is
geared exclusively to the present and the future. The windows of her soul are
ever open to the winds of God as they blow from the four corners of the modern
world. The roots of life are deeply embedded in the congenial soil of the past,
but every branch is n intimate contact with the fresh breeze of a new born day.
In the person of this delightful character I find a living
commentary on my theme: “Thinking backward and living forward.” Her life
illustrates what Jesus meant when he said: “I came not to destroy, but to
fulfill.” He came to reveal the beauty and to unfold the value of the old and
to build them anew into the living tissues of today and tomorrow. There is
supreme need in our day for skilled hands and broad-gaged souls who can sense
the permanent values in the past and weave them effectively and artistically
into a new garment fit for modern wear. Men and women who can think backward
and live forward.
The Jesse Halsey Manuscript Collection. Special Collections,
Princeton Theological Seminary Library.
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