Archives of the Evangelical Congregational Church

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06/14/2019

Progress! Yesterday, our new Spacesaver mobile storage system was installed; and today, archivist Rev. Jonathan Brown began the process of transferring boxes of church records into our brand-new archives space. In this video, take a look at how smoothly the shelving units glide!

One of the smaller but important collections we hold contains the papers of Rev. Hiram Henry Duth (1848-1881), an Evange...
03/20/2019

One of the smaller but important collections we hold contains the papers of Rev. Hiram Henry Duth (1848-1881), an Evangelical Association preacher from Illinois. Owing to illness, he often had to take a year off from the pastorate, and he died of tuberculosis at just 33. But behind him, he left assorted manuscript sermon outlines and talks.

In the message shown here ("Is It Well With Thee?"), taken from 2 Kings 4:26, Rev. Duth exhorts his hearers to reflect on the condition of their souls and their lives. But as the last paragraph reveals, the occasion for the message was actually the funeral of an infant. Below, read Rev. Duth's sermon:

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Let me assist you in answering the question, “Is it well with thee?”

If so, it is different with you from what it once was. It cannot be well with the person who is in his natural, unconverted state. It cannot be well with for the soul to be in darkness, in disease, in fetters, in guilt, under the sentence of death, exposed to everlasting ruin. Now, this is the state of every person who is not changed by the grace of God.

Are you a child of God's family? Look at the prodigal ready to famish; look at him then clothed, with the ring of reconciliation, and at the festive board. Every believer is a child of God. He resembles God. He loves God. He fears God. He serves God. If it is well with you, you have a sure title, and a bright hope of a better world. Some persons never think of another world, – care nothing about it. Death, to them, is a step in the dark. The Christian knows, by a conviction of faith in God's word, that there is a better world. He acts upon the direction of Gospel; embraces the offer of God's grace; looks and hopes.

Let me urge the question upon a variety of persons present.

Professor of religion, is it well with you? Is your profession the title page of the contents of your heart? Have you the root of the matter? Have you a pacified conscience? Are you truly the better for your religion? Is religion greatly bettered by you?

Young person, is it well with you? Do you fear God in youth? Do you cleanse your way by taking heed of God's word? Do you flee the scenes of dissipation and folly? Do you daily pray, “My Father, be thou the guide of my youth”?

Parents, is it well with you? Have you a strong, impregnable wall around your family? Is the God of Israel your defense? Is God Supreme near? Have you an altar, – is the voice of praise heard in your family?

Inquirer, is it well with you? “Oh,” you say, “I wish it were,” – you are mourning and distressed. Well, it is well with you, – God says so. “Blessed are they that mourn,” – Publican found it so.

Sinner, is it well with you? It cannot be. “Say to the sinner it shall be ill with him.” It is not well with him now, and it shall be worse hereafter. But it may be well with you, “if you repent,” &c.

Is it well with the child? Applying this to the scene before us today, we answer, in the language of the text, it is well. All children are saved through the merit of Jesus. Don't grieve, dear friend, on account of its departure. The tender bud is now blooming immortal. Saved from the ills of this cold world, not exposed any more to the snare of sin and vice, but is in the bosom of the One who said, “Suffer little children to come unto me,” &c.

Over a century ago, a large number of United Evangelical preachers sat down in the grass at Waldheim Park to get this pi...
03/11/2019

Over a century ago, a large number of United Evangelical preachers sat down in the grass at Waldheim Park to get this picture taken.

Left to right:
Front row - J. T. Layton; E. R. Hart; W. H. Christ; J. W. Slack; Mr. Johnson the pianist; J. D. Kistler; E. L. Ramer; and J. W. Henninger the song leader

Middle row - D. G. Reinhold; A. W. Warfel; W. J. Scheiffly; A. B. Saylor; H. M. Wengert; F. E. Erdman; G. W. Marquardt; D. P. Longsdorf; and C. W. Heffner

Back row - J. S. Heisler; A. M. Sweigart; E. S. Woodring; G. A. Maurey; S. K. DeBinder; G. W. Imboden; C. D. Huber; G. H. R. Dellecker; and C. H. Mengel

(Two of the back-row preachers would later serve as EC bishops - do you know which ones?)

What else do we have in the archives?Here's a receipt showing what future bishop Rev. William F. Heil paid in December 1...
01/08/2019

What else do we have in the archives?
Here's a receipt showing what future bishop Rev. William F. Heil paid in December 1897 for dental care. He pastored a church in Reading, PA at the time, and his dentist there was Dr. Harry L. Cleaver. About 31 years old at the time - nine years younger than 40-year-old Rev. Heil, his patient - Cleaver had earned his DDS degree at the University of Pennsylvania just two years before.

Rev. Heil evidently needed some attention - in just a week's time, he got five cavities filled and two teeth pulled. (And, yes, during the Sunday between fillings, he still managed to preach two messages.)

How much did the pastor have to pay for all that? $3.00!

Know your Edwins!On the right, you'll see Rev. Edwin S. Woodring. Born in 1872, he was licensed to preach when just 22 ...
08/21/2018

Know your Edwins!

On the right, you'll see Rev. Edwin S. Woodring. Born in 1872, he was licensed to preach when just 22 years old by the very first conference of the United Evangelical Church, the same year he graduated from Muhlenberg College. Serving churches in Illinois and Pennsylvania, overcoming numerous personal tragedies and the battles of divisive church politics, and founding the School of Methods at Waldheim Park, he eventually in 1926 was elected the second bishop of the Evangelical Congregational Church. The very name of 'Evangelical Congregational' was chosen under his leadership, to stress the movement's twin convictions about doctrine ('evangelical,' as "maintaining the Fundamental Faith of Protestantism in its simplicity and purity") and polity ('congregational,' in that "authority and power must and does come from the congregations" rather than being "vested in a few").

On the left, you'll see another Edwin Woodring - a third cousin to the bishop's father - who settled near Allentown shortly before the future bishop began attending school there. Only, this Edwin, nearly half a century older, had a different story. After traveling to Indiana and Iowa and gaining a reputation as a skilled hunter, he raised a family, only to fall into the grip of delusion. Abandoning his wife and six children, he fled back east, where he lived as a hermit in a shanty he built in the woods outside Allentown. Living off the land, he built an assortment of inventions - allegedly including an automobile, years before the Model-T was available - while proclaiming himself a prophet and predicting a coming religious war. He went on to identify himself as the reincarnation of both Elijah and John the Baptist, and according to some reports was sighted wandering the country roads wearing a crown of thorns for effect. He died in the final year of World War I, which he insisted was the fulfillment of his prophecy. Contrary to his other prophecies, however, he did not ascend bodily into heaven like Elijah.

Two Edwin Woodrings - very different people.
Know your Edwins!

Even bishops can get fooled!In the mid-1920s, Bishop William F. Heil (the first bishop of the Evangelical Congregational...
02/14/2018

Even bishops can get fooled!

In the mid-1920s, Bishop William F. Heil (the first bishop of the Evangelical Congregational Church) engaged in ministry at the Lehigh County Prison, Allentown, where he formed a friendship with a young inmate named Joseph C. Carrol, a veteran of the First World War.

On April 24, 1924, Carrol had been convicted, along with Harvey Fahringer, for the murder of Albert Wenrich four months earlier (December 29, 1923) during a hold-up. Nevertheless, once imprisoned, Carrol seemed a model prisoner, and he made a strong impression on welfare workers and, apparently, on Bishop Heil, who wrote to him on July 6, 1925, as follows:

"Ever since reading the account of your trial in which some of the incidents in your experience which accounted in a large measure for the wrong course which you had chosen, were detailed, we experienced a large degree of sympathy. This became a feeling of sincere interest when I met you personally and was permitted a little more of your life. There is much that is wonderful in your experience and illustrates how in the wisdom and mercy of God, we are led in ways that are strange in order that we might learn the way of wisdom and peace. ... There is much in your present attitude and conduct that excite my admiration. Your thoughtful interpretation of your experience, your cheerfulness and confidence, your ability to fellowship with yourself and good literature, your freedom [from] bitterness against the law, your intelligent planning to make something worthwhile of yourself, and your realization of the presence of God in your life. I have observed these in you and am very glad to have discovered them. ... Goodness of character is the product of sincere effort coupled with the grace of God. You understand this and are leading a life of prayer and I confidently predict that you will not only recovery a good name but you will be a good man."

Two months and eleven days later, on September 17, 1925, Carrol wrote a glowing reply to Bishop Heil and his wife Emma:

"I cannot find words to express the pleasure I felt on receiving your kind thought of me. I am most glad for this blessed privilege of writing you in His most precious name. I am thoroughly happy and am constantly enjoying His blessed fellowship. I need hardly say that I spend a great many happy hours in some very beautiful seasons of prayer. Just my Lord and I. This, of course you know, is the key to my own soul's happiness."

Bishop Heil continued to attend services at the Lehigh County Prison - for instance, on January 31, 1926, he was present at a 'Scripture Alphabet Service' at which Carrol and another inmate (Lucy Stewart) recited a litany of Bible verses, and Heil "expressed the hope that what they had done would be a blessing and help to them during their entire life."

But the 'model prisoner' had other plans. After a lengthy string of preparatory efforts, the appointed day arrived. During the night of Saturday, July 10, 1926 (or during the earliest hours of the following morning), Carrol exited his cell - and not through the door. Using a table knife and an old pair of shears (which he cobbled together into a makeshift saw), he had "removed the stone work and mortar, twelve inches thick, from the wall between his cell window and its ceiling. With the improvised saw he removed a footwide board that obstructed his progress, cut a hole in the tine roof, and escaped" using a braided silk cord, Allentown's "Morning Call" newspaper reported the following Monday.

The warden, Erwin F. Schaffer, decried him as "one of the slickest characters we ever had here," while lead detective Jacob H. Nixon added, "I am convinced that he is thoroughly bad." Prison guard John Shive was discharged following Carrol's successful prison break. County commissioners soon offered a $500 reward for Carrol's return.

But Joseph C. Carrol was never found.

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