18 July 1858 A.D. Princetonian Prof. Charles Hodge’s Funeral Sermon for Rev. Jacob Jones Janeway
Archivist. “July 18: Rev. Jacob Jones Janeway
[1774-1858].” This Day in Presbyterian History.
18 Jul 2014. http://www.thisday.pcahistory.org/2014/07/july-18-3/.
Accessed 18 Jul 2014.
July 18: Rev. Jacob Jones Janeway [1774-1858]
There is much that can be learned from funeral sermons
for great men, particularly when delivered by great men. Of course, all men are
sinners, and none are great in or of themselves. They are made great by their
service to a far, far greater Lord and Master, and it is for their service that
we value their lives, as examples of those who gave all glory and praise to the
one triune God. Here, the Rev. Charles Hodge delivers the funeral sermon for
his long-time friend, the Rev. Jacob Jones Janeway, a distinguished
19th-century Presbyterian.
A Fond Tribute for a Dear Brother in Christ.
FUNERAL
SERMON
BY THE REV. CHARLES HODGE, D.D.
BY THE REV. CHARLES HODGE, D.D.
FRIENDS
AND BRETHREN:—We have assembled to pay our last tribute of respect to a
venerable servant of God. After a life devoted with singular simplicity of
purpose to the service of his Master, he descends to the grave with a
reputation without a blot, followed by the benedictions of hundreds, and by the
respectful affection of thousands. A long, prosperous, happy and useful life,
has been crowned with a truly Christian death. “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. Let me die the
death of the righteous and let my last end be like his.”
Rev.
Jacob J. Janeway was born in the city of New York, Nov. 1774. He pursued his
academical studies in Columbia College, and graduated with distinguished honour
in that institution. His theological education was conducted under the late
venerable Dr. Livingston, so long the ornament of the Dutch Church in America.
He was ordained in 1799, to the sacred ministry, and installed as an
associate pastor with the Rev. Ashbel Green, D.D., over the Second
Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. In 1818, he was chosen Moderator of the
General Assembly, and for many years acted first as Chairman of the Committee
of Missions, and afterwards as President of the Board of Missions, an office
which he filled at the time of his death. In 1813, he was elected a Director of
the Theological Seminary at Princeton, an institution in the origin of which he
took an active part, and continued through life one of its most faithful and
important friends. He was elected Vice-President of the Board of Directors, and
after the death of Dr. Green, was made President of the Board. He was elected a
Trustee of the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, in 1813, and at different
times served in that capacity thirty-three years. He continued to serve as
Pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia until 1828, when he
was chosen by the General Assembly to fill the Chair of Didactic Theology in
the Western Theological Seminary at Allegheny, Pennsylvania. After resigning
that position he was called to the Pastoral office of the First Dutch Reformed
Church in this city, in 1830, and in 1833 was made Vice-President of Rutgers
College. After his resignation of that office, he devoted his time to the
general service of the Church, labouring assiduously in the Boards of Foreign
and Domestic Missions, and in the oversight of our Theological and Collegiate
Institutions, and in the use of his pen as long as his strength lasted. The
numerous offices to which he was elected by the choice of his brethren,
and his long continuance in those offices, are proofs of the high estimation in
which he was held. These were chaplets placed on his brow by those who knew him
best, and they were sustained there by the reverent hand of affection, even
after he had become, from the infirmities of age, too feeble to bear their
weight. Well may his children and friends contemplate such a life as this with
tender reverence, and with sincere gratitude to God. As they gather round his
tomb, the voice which each hears in his own heart, Well done good and faithful
servant, is only the feeble echo of that plaudit with which his purified spirit
has been already introduced into the joys of the Lord.
The
extensive and long continued influence exercised by our venerated father, the
numerous and important offices which he filled, are sufficient evidence of the
estimate placed on his abilities and learning by those with whom he acted. He
was eminently a wise man. A man whose judgments were clear and decided, and
whose advice always carried with it peculiar weight. His remarkable placidity
of temper, his amiable and courteous manners, his uniform regard for the feelings
of others, carried him even through the severest conflicts without a scar. So
far as we know, he never gave offence or made an enemy. His integrity was
unimpeachable. He was truthful, frank, and honest. Always open in the
expression of his convictions, no man was ever in doubt where he stood, or
which side he occupied on any question of doctrine or policy. He was
utterly incapable of chicanery or manoeuvring. He never attempted to
attain his objects by any underhand measures. The end and the means were always
openly announced and publicly avowed. As a preacher, Dr. Janeway was
instructive, earnest, and faithful. As a pastor, he was indefatigable in his
attention to the young, the sick, the afflicted and the inquiring. His zeal for
sound doctrine was one of the most prominent traits of his character, and had
much to do in determining the whole course of his life. His zeal was not
unenlightened bigotry, but arose from the clear perception of the importance of
truth to holiness. He was satisfied that the salvation of men and the glory of
God were dependent on the preservation of the gospel in its purity. He was
therefore always on the alert, always among the foremost in opposing every form
of error. For this fidelity he is to be had in grateful remembrance. A more
consistent man is not to be found in our long-catalogue of ministers.
Consistent not only in the sense of being constant in his opinions, but in the
correspondence of his deportment with his professions and with his social
position and official station. There was nothing worldly in his spirit, or
ostentatious in his mode of living. He was an exemplary Christian gentleman.
God preserved him from those cancers of the soul, covetousness and avarice,
which often eat out the life even of men professing godliness. He was a large
and generous giver. It is believed that he regularly gave away the one-fifth of
his income. All our benevolent operations can bear witness to the
liberality and constancy of his benefactions. All that we have said, however, might
be true; our revered father might have been thus amiable and upright as a man,
thus consistent and irreproachable in his life, thus zealous for the truth, and
thus generous in his benefactions, and yet come far short of what he really
was. That which was the groundwork of his character, that which elevated his
virtues into graces, was his deep, unaffected piety, not the religion of
nature, not merely devout feelings excited by a consideration of the greatness
and goodness of God, which so many mistake for Christian experience, but that
love of God which flows from the apprehension of his glory in the person of his
Son, and from the assurance of his love as manifested in Christ to the guilty
and the polluted. Dr. Janeway was not only a religious man, but a Christian, a
penitent believer in Christ, living in humble fellowship with God and with his
Son our Saviour; living therefore not for himself but for Him who died for him
and rose again.
He
fought a good fight, he kept the faith, and henceforth there is laid up for him
a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give him at
that day. Christian brethren, how can we better employ the few moments
which we are permitted to spend around the coffin of this faithful soldier of
Christ, than in meditating on the nature and reward of that conflict which he
so long sustained, and which, by the grace of God, he brought to so joyful an
issue ?
To
read the remainder of Dr. Hodge’s funeral sermon, click here.
Words to Live By:
Christians love the gift of life as received from the Lord, yet we welcome the approach of death as that which has been conquered by an all-victorious Savior. To die in Christ is to enter into His presence. To die apart from Him is to enter into an endless misery.
Christians love the gift of life as received from the Lord, yet we welcome the approach of death as that which has been conquered by an all-victorious Savior. To die in Christ is to enter into His presence. To die apart from Him is to enter into an endless misery.
“By
this faith, a Christian believes to be true whatsoever is revealed in the Word,
for the authority of God Himself speaking therein; and acts differently
upon that which each particular passage thereof contains; yielding obedience to
the commands, trembling at the threatenings, and embracing the
promises of God for this life, and that which is to come. But the principal acts of saving faith
are accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification,
sanctification, and eternal life, by virtue of the covenant of grace.”
—Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 14, paragraph 2. [emphasis added]
—Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 14, paragraph 2. [emphasis added]
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