Sabbath Day Thoughts — “From Saranac Lake to Mzuzu” Matthew 14:22-33

On Friday evening, July 25, 1890, the First Presbyterian Church of Saranac Lake, New York celebrated an organizing service in a brand-new church building. It was so new, in fact, that there were no windows; and instead of pews, the worshippers were seated on simple plank benches. Seventeen people—thirteen women and four men—with the Rev. Richard McCarthy, signed their names to a new leather-bound Session book, below the words, “We the undersigned original members organized as the First Presbyterian Church of Saranac Lake, N.Y. subscribe our names as a memorial of the occasion and as a pledge of our Christian fellowship.” 

In celebration of the one hundred and thirty-sixth birthday of the First Presbyterian Church of Saranac Lake, today I’ll be sharing stories from the history of our church.

“The White Plague”

Like many institutions in Saranac Lake, the “White Plague” of tuberculosis played a powerful role in shaping our church as people from around the world flocked to our mountain village to seek Dr. Trudeau’s cold air cure.  The lives of a number of our earliest pastors were touched by the disease. Our second minister, Rev. Henry A. Lewis, who served the church from 1893-1894, came to Saranac Lake in the company of his wife who suffered from TB. In 1895, young Rev. Armitage Beardsley came to our church fresh from seminary and promptly contracted tuberculosis.  By July 1897, Beardsley was too ill to moderate the session. In a touching, hand-written note dated Sept. 2, 1897, the young minister resigned. He died within two weeks and the ladies of the church draped the pulpit in black as a memorial. Our fifth, Rev. Dr. Edwin H. Dickinson, also came to town in the company of a sick spouse. Mrs. Dickinson died in the church manse in March of 1903. One of our longest serving ministers, Rev. Hiram Lyon, who served at the height of the TB days from 1927-1937, first came to Saranac Lake in 1925 to cure after his graduation from Union Seminary in NYC.  Lyon’s experience as a patient inspired him to make care and visitation a core component of the church’s ministry.  He was the driving force in the hiring of Miss Christine Burdick, our parish visitor, who made as many as 2,000 visits to TB patients each year from 1928—1932.

Of course, our membership was also profoundly affected by the “White Plague.”  Many TB patients became church members, even if they never set foot on church property. Session minutes of 1897 relate that two elders went to the O’Malley Cottage to receive a Miss Fletcher into church membership. Elders and pastors took communion out to shut-ins. Poor boxes to benefit the “sick poor” were stationed at the rear of the church to help patients in need. Many members worked in the cure industry. Some owned cure cottages. Some drove taxis.  Some were tray boys and girls. Many were health care professionals. 

TB doctors played an important role in governing the church.  The first doctor to affiliate with us was Dr. E.R. Baldwin in 1895, a graduate of Yale, who was one of Dr. Trudeau’s closest colleagues. He was soon followed by Dr. Hugh Kinghorn, a pillar of the church until his death. By 1949, we had six doctors serving as active elders on session: Doctors Kinghorn, Bellaire, Merkel, Mitchell, Woodruff, and White. Dr. Karl Merkel was especially remembered for his “generosity, gruff kindness, and impatience.” He would frequently leave a meeting before it was over if he had morning commitments. One evening, the elders were engrossed in church business during a session meeting when a loud bell rang at 9PM. Dr. Merkel retrieved his alarm clock from under the table, stood up, and “quickly left amid peals of laughter.”

“Women’s Work”

When our church was founded in 1890, American women were thirty years away from having the right to vote, and so it should come as no surprise that women were likewise unable to vote or hold elected office in the church. Yet women were a powerful behind-the-scenes force in shaping our congregation.  They raised money, supported missions, studied the Bible, and cared for the church building and the manse. The Women’s League, organized in the first decade of our church, was charged in 1897 by the Board of Trustees with assuming “care of cleaning and heating the church ‘til further notice.” When US women won the vote in 1920, the church was slow to follow. Instead in 1920, the Trustees’ minutes note, “Ask the ladies to get up some entertainment to help defray our debt.” The same year, the women provided for refinishing of the church floors and prepared food for the annual meeting and dinner at a cost of $0.50 per person.

In 1928, the church finally resolved to elect three women to serve as Trustees of the church, overseeing matters of care for the building. At one of those early meetings, the women Trustees voiced their discontent with the status quo. “It has been brought to my attention,” stated Miss Gertrude Hugo, “that it is not the sexton’s duty to keep the church clean and dusted, but that the women’s organizations had assumed that responsibility. Why should they?”

Our first women elders Gertrude Woodruff and Julia Norton were elected in 1958, twenty-nine years after our denomination had approved the right of women to hold that office.  Perhaps the session was inspired to change by the first ordination of women as Presbyterian pastors in 1957.  Although our first women elders served on session and prepared communion, they were not permitted to serve communion until the 1960’s when Evelyn Outcalt became the first woman to bravely go forth with the bread and the cup.  Evelyn recalled that not everyone was happy. On the first communion Sunday, one female parishioner indignantly said, “I don’t like it!” and refused to accept the plate as Evelyn tried to serve her. I wonder how that woman would feel about a woman in the pulpit nowadays.

“The Church Bell”

You may have noticed the bell that hangs in the tower at the side entrance of the church. The bell was made by Meneely & Company of West Troy, New York (now Watervliet).  Our church bell is inscribed with the words of Mark 16:15, “Go Ye Into the World and Preach the Gospel to Every One.”  It also has a dedicatory inscription, “Presented by Col. Elliott F. Shepard New York City August 18, 1891.”  Col. Shepherd, a New York City publisher, was an early benefactor of the church. 

It is estimated that the bell weighs about 2,000 pounds, a heavy load for our small wooden sanctuary and its elegant original belfry.  For many years, the church bell was rung each Sunday morning at the beginning of worship.  A long rope hung from the belfry down through a hole and onto the open front porch of the church.  In 2010 at our 120th anniversary, older church members still remembered boys out on the “porches” ringing the bell with much enthusiasm on Sunday mornings. 

By 1937, members had begun to express concern about the size of the bell and the stability of the church’s belfry. That year, an architect was hired to inspect the belfry and offer a report to the Trustees. If any further action was taken, it is not recorded in the session minutes. Eight years later in 1945, the belfry was reconstructed to provide better support for the bell. The original belfry was a “two-story,” open structure. The belfry was shortened to one story and the structure was reinforced. 

The weight of the bell continued to compromise the structural integrity of our small wooden sanctuary. Members began to notice that the walls had moved, pushed out of square by the weight of the bell. It was feared that, eventually, the belfry and bell would collapse, crashing down through the roof of the sanctuary. When the porches were enclosed in 1965, it was proposed that the bell be moved to a cement pad on the front lawn of the church. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough room. The church needed fourteen more inches of churchyard to satisfy the village code.  In 1967, the bell was removed from the belfry and placed in storage with Maddens. In 1969, the session voted to give Col. Shepard’s bell to North Country Community College where it remained in storage for seven more years.

In 1976, at the initiative of the Presbyterian Women, a plan was enacted to retrieve and house the bell in a wooden tower at the side entrance of the church.  A fund was established in memory of David and Miles (Mickey) Ferree, the late sons of Elder Anna Ferree.  Elder George Schaefer managed the project, and Dick Grebe designed the tower. By October 1977, the project was complete. The tower was dedicated in a service of worship, followed by a reception with cider and donuts. The bell was rung by all.

“Many Missions”

From our earliest years, the church was interested in foreign mission. In 1896, the Women’s Missionary Society was formed by fifty women, each pledging $0.02 a week in mission giving.  By the turn of the century, our Women’s League was supporting Presbyterian Missionaries in India and China. In 1920, the church accepted partial responsibility for the salary of Dr. Winfield Scott Dudgeon, who taught at Ewing Christian College in Allahabad City in northwestern India. The college was founded in 1902 as a joint venture of the Presbyterian Church and the British East India Company. The church’s commitment to Dr. Dudgeon was $1,200 each year, which in today’s world would be about $17,000. That’s no small commitment.

Dr. Dudgeon earned his doctorate at the University of Chicago and married his hometown sweetheart from Iowa—Grace Evans. The two itinerated to India in 1912 where they had two children. Dr. Dudgeon was a botanist. He taught biology at the college and established the first laboratory course in botany in all of India. He was the founder and first president of the Indian Botanical Society. He trained and mentored India’s leading botanist of the 20th century, Pontaman Maheswari. Between 1928 and 1930, Dudgeon served as the acting president of the college.

In a letter to the church from the same period, he described his vision of himself and his colleagues as academics and ambassadors of Christ in Hindu-dominated northwest India, saying, “Surely India needs Christ. Politically where else can unity be found; socially where else can relief be found for the degraded and neglected; individually where else can the burdened soul find relief from sin and its consequences?  I can only say that we are striving to maintain a college at such a high scholastic level that young men will continue to be attracted in large numbers and that when they do come to us, we endeavor to persuade them to take Christ as their Savior.”

Dr. Dudgeon had a scheduled visit to Saranac Lake planned during his sabbatical year in 1932. Sadly, he never had the opportunity to meet the members who had so fervently supported him with prayers and gifts. He died suddenly, shortly after returning to America.  He was forty-five years old.

Our passion for foreign mission persists. Over the past two decades, we have supported the itineration of the Hellers at the Mzuzu Crisis Care Nursery in Malawi, the outreach of Grace Chiumia and Sam Chirwa through the Women of Grace Widow’s Fund, the educational efforts of the Malawi Early Literacy Fund, and the work of Rev. Tyler Holm and Dr. Rochelle Holm to equip pastors for ministry and to improve access to clean water and sanitation in Malawi. Each year, our Christmas gifts to Africa—received for the benefit of the Marion Medical Mission—provide the life-saving gift of clean water to remote villages in Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia. Many missions, indeed.

Please join me in prayer. Almighty God, as we celebrate our 136th year of ministry, we remember your steadfast love for us, made known in your Son, Our Lord Jesus. Today we dedicate ourselves anew to the way of Christ, remembering where we have been and anticipating with joy the many years to come; in Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.

Matthew 14:22-33

22 Immediately he made the disciples get into a boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. 25 And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. 26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

28 Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” 29 He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”