"he hopes eventually to write a biography of Dr. Halsey"

c. 1962

Telegram from Sam and Dorothy Warr to Jesse Halsey

April 28, 1942

The Messenger | 1940

“The Skipper”

In Memoriam

The Rev. Jesse Halsey, D.D.

1882-1954

The sea was always in his eyes

As in his blood;

The English earth his heritage,

His sires, the skippers of proud ships

Out of Southampton’s

New World port

Two hundred years agone.

He lov’d the salt-tang’d air,

The restless, rolling water drew him

From a thousand miles,

Like tides upon his heart

Toward home and rest and peace.

His hands were seaman’s hands,

Busy, apt to any task

To build, to smooth,

To climb where few would dare,

To set a gentle flower,

To bind a wound,

To brush aside a tear,

To pray.

Like season’d oak, his heart,

Handwrought and mellowed,

Weathered fitting by the foul and fair;

He knew his craft—the hearts of men

And like his Master,

No stranger he to ax and plane,

Or storm-toss’d day,

The satisfying weariness of eventide;

His art—the ships he built—

The lives he sent out from his ways

Sound wrought and rigged,

To wrest and bring

A hard-won cargo safely home.

His heart a skipper’s Heart,

The Master’s Order, his;

And certain as a chart that fact

To all

Who signed on in his company.

No wonder to his mates,

The Master, satisfied,

Called out, “Cast off!”

And he obeyed.

By Samuel Gregory Warr

Assistant to Dr. Halsey, Seventh Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1940-1941.

Eulogy for John Vant Stephens | 1946

By Jesse Halsey

Our Mr. Valiant for Truth has crossed the river, and with all the trumpets sounding on the other side, the thoughts of our hearts and their vocal expression are but an echo of that approval that he has earned from our Lord, “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”

I am honored to speak a word at his funeral, especially as relates to his service to the Church at large through his ministry in our own Presbytery. Many who knew him before I did, report the same feeling one sensed immediately in Dr. Stephens, the talent and the spiritual quality that was the man. Long before I met him face-to-face, I had heard from his friends and colleagues concerning the “stuff” that was in him. He never failed; anything that he undertook he carried through to conclusion. With the high quality of mental and spiritual achievement that were his, he knew how to coin in proper phrase or resolution or friendly word, and pass on, his own spirit. He was the embodiment of the law and the gospel; a rare combination. Always, at the expense of himself, he served his Lord and the Church.

He was the leading personality in a relatively small denomination. In the beginning of the century, all his efforts were bent in the direction of union of his Church (The Cumberland Presbyterian) with the mother Church. He stood to lose everything, and like those commended by our Lord, he threw away his life to find it in the joy of a larger service. Having served as the State Clerk of his own denomination he became a clerk in the larger group, and merged his own person ad his own work enthusiastically in perfecting the Digest of our General Assembly (having finished that of his own). To this he devoted days and months of tedious and painstaking and (always with him) joyous labor, a service of love.

We owe to him in this Presbytery and to his colleague, Dr. Parr, a great debt for the spiritual quality that they brought to us from the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. With James H. Miller and James Clark, they brought into the U.S.A. church a great heritage of spiritual and intellectual quality that had repudiated one hundred years before some of the ultra strictness of the “second generation doctrines” that were never inherited from John Calvin. They brought back not “something new,” but something older than that which had become accepted tradition in certain sections of the U.S.A. church.

His work as a Stated Clerk in our Presbytery was a reflection of that larger and longer service that he rendered to his denomination in earlier years. When he felt himself slipping, on his own initiative he resigned (and possibly we were not too wise in accepting that resignation.)

He never lost the “spiritual glow” that comes from lasting and deep friendships. He carried on (beyond his physical abilities at times) a correspondence which is unusual as one grows older. You may remember your friends, but to include the younger generations—that is genius; the genius of real friendship!

There are few living today of his contemporaries and his “fellow soldiers” in other years. We have heard him tell on occasion of how, as a boy, he carried the brunt of family responsibility for his father who espoused the Union cause and went at Lincoln’s first call, and who, years afterwards, came back, not recognized by his own son when he met him at the gate.

It seems as one reviews this wonderful life, that from the first to the last, in every appointment, he has accepted it at the Hand of an always Beneficent Providence, trusting and unafraid. John Stephens was the faithful servant of his Lord Jesus Christ, who said, “It is better to minister than to be ministered unto.” Like his Master, “first he wrought and afterwards he taught.” In all things he adorned the doctrine of God, our Saviour.

This is not the time to recount, except in our own hearts, the debt of gratitude that we feel toward hi and toward God, in the gift of this life. Its blessing, its example, his contagious spirit, his thoroughness in his work that shamed us in our shabbiness; his deep purpose, his unfailing zeal, his enthusiasm, his words of good will and encouragement, and his meticulous care in the performance of every duty—for these we thank God.

We here echo, “Well done, good and faithful servant,”—with all the trumpets sounding for him on the other side!

Let us pray.

Almighty God our Father, in whose hand our breath is and whose are all our ways, we acknowledge Thy great goodness in this finished life. We desire to thank Thee for the friend whom Thou has now called from our earthly fellowship and we rejoice in the hope of immortality.

For this good man who, like his Master, went about doing good, the law of kindness on his tongue, we thank Thee. For his good counsel and brave testimony, for what he was and what he did; the things that he said; the texture of his mind and heart; the touch of his sympathy, his wise and ready help—for all we render our thanksgiving.

O Thou Whose best gifts come to us in human form, Whose love came to us incarnate in Christ, we thank Thee for Thy servant, John Stephens, and we ask that we, in our day and generation, may in some measure, in his spirit, adorn that same doctrine and follow the same Christ.

To God’s gracious mercy and protection we commit ourselves yet again, with the whole family of God in Heaven and on earth: The Lord preserve our going out and our coming in from this time forth and even forevermore. Amen.

Courtesy of The Jesse Halsey Manuscript Collection, Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries, Special Collections.

“The Skipper”

Southampton Press, Thursday, Jan. 21, 1954

In Memoriam

The Rev. Jesse Halsey, D.D.

1882-1954

The sea was always in his eyes

As in his blood;

The English earth his heritage,

His sires, the skippers of proud ships

Out of Southampton’s

New World port

Two hundred years agone.

He lov’d the salt-tang’d air,

The restless, rolling water drew him

From a thousand miles,

Like tides upon his heart

Toward home and rest and peace.

His hands were seaman’s hands,

Busy, apt to any task

To build, to smooth,

To climb where few would dare,

To set a gentle flower,

To bind a wound,

To brush aside a tear,

To pray.

Like season’d oak, his heart,

Handwrought and mellowed,

Weathered fitting by the foul and fair;

He knew his craft—the hearts of men

And like his Master,

No stranger he to ax and plane,

Or storm-toss’d day,

The satisfying weariness of eventide;

His art—the ships he built—

The lives he sent out from his ways

Sound wrought and rigged,

To wrest and bring

A hard-won cargo safely home.

His heart a skipper’s Heart,

The Master’s Order, his;

And certain as a chart that fact

To all

Who signed on in his company.

No wonder to his mates,

The Master, satisfied,

Called out, “Cast off!”

And he obeyed.

By Samuel Gregory Warr

Assistant to Dr. Halsey, Seventh Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1940-1941.

"This will officially end my very happy pastorate"

  December 4, 1941

The Seventh Presbyterian Church

East Walnut Hills, Cincinnati

Jesse Halsey, minister

Dear Friends and Parishoners:

“For your fellowship in the Gospel, from the first day even until now, I thank my God on every remembrance of you, being confident of this very thing, that he who hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ.”

“And this I pray: that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.”

Next Sabbath morning, December seventh, we will celebratethe Holy Communion together. Mr. Williams and Mr. Warr will assist me in theservice. At the close, I will, by order of the Presbytery, “declare the pulpit vacant.” This will officially end my very happy pastorate of over twenty-eight years. For unnumbered kindnesses to me and to mine, I am deeply grateful. You have been an ideal Church; may you always continue so to be and so to do.

Next Sunday evening at eight o’clock, the Reverend Clayton Williams will be installed as pastor by a committee of Presbytery. Dr. Joseph Sizoo of St. Nicholas’ Church, New York, will preach the sermon. A large congregation will be present to greet the new pastor who comes to undertake the ministry of The Gospel in this, the Church of our united love and devotion.

May God bless you and bless your new minister. He will receive at your hands the same generous and loyal support that you have always accorded his predecessor who, though he always remains your true friend, must now sign himself for the last time as

YOUR MINISTER

Jesse Halsey

"Outside the Inn"

Seventh Presbyterian Church Pulpit To Be Vacated December 7

The Enquirer, Cincinnati
Saturday, November 29, 1941

NEW PASTOR IS TO TAKE CHARGE
On Same Day In Unusual Series of Ceremonies.

Dr. Jesse Halsey To Be Succeeded
By Rev. Clayton E. Williams
Of Sewickley, PA

Seventh Presbyterian Church will be the setting for an event unique in the history of Presbyterianism in Cincinnati on Sunday, December 7. On that date Dr. Jesse Halsey, who has been pastor there since Palm Sunday, 1913, will sever his pastoral relationship and "declare the pulpit vacant" at the morning communion service. At a special evening service will welcome the new pastor, Rev. Clayton E. Williams, who will be installed at that time and who immediately will assume full pastoral charge. Rev. Mr. Williams will assist Dr. Halsey at the morning service.

Seldom, if ever, in the history of the churches of the local Presbytery has the outgoing minister severed his connection with the church on the same day that the new minister was to be installed. The friendly cooperation of Dr. Halsey, Rev. Mr. Williams, and officials of Seventh Presbyterian Church has made several possible arrangements for such an auspicious occasion.

Rev. John H. Cowan, Moderator of the Presbytery of Cincinnati, will preside and propound the constitutional questions at the installation service Sunday night.

TO OFFER INVOCATION

Rev. Samuel G. Warr, assistant pastor of the church, will offer invocation, Rev. Lester E. Kemper, Kennedy Heights Presbyterian Church, will lead the responsive reading. Standish Meacham, elder of the church, will read the Scripture, and Dr. Earl R. North, Executive Secretary of the Presbytery, will offer the prayer.

Rev. Joseph R. Sizoo, pastor of St. Nicholas Collegiate church of New York City, will deliver the sermon. Dr. Halsey will give the charge to the people, and Rev. William T. Paterson, Norwood Presbyterian Church, will give the charge to the pastor.

Dr. Halsey, who is taking over the chair of pastoral theology and liturgics at the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Chicago, will leave with his family for Chicago December 8. In addition to his work at the seminary, he will act as supervisor of the students' time and be their "trouble shooter" in helping them to work out the theories that they have learned in the classroom. He and his family reside at 846 Chalmers Place in Chicago.

MANY YEARS IN CITY

Nationally known as a Presbyterian leader, Dr. Halsey has been identified with many important church, civic, and philanthropic organizations throughout his many years in this city.

Rev. Mr. Williams, who served the American Church in Paris, France, for many years as assistant pastor and as pastor, brought his family to this country after the occupation of Paris, then returned to unoccupied France where he did refugee work last spring. As he was not allowed to return to his church in Paris, he again returned to the United States, and has been residing at Sewickley, PA.

Son of a Presbyterian minister, Rev. Mr. Williams was born in Peoria, Ill., on May 28, 1894. He attended Butler College, Indianapolis, the University of Paris, and Western Theological Seminary. He served with the Army Y. M. C. A. in France in 1917-18 and received a commission in the air service. He was ordained to the ministry in Indianapolis in September, 1925.

"Seldom, if ever, in the history of the churches . . ."