CHAPTER XXXII.

SHADOWS ACROSS THE SUNSHINE.

Pages  302-307

[Page 302]              

     It is a significant fact that in 1799 in the zenith of his labors and influence, there had come to Dominie Gebhard the "Proclamation of the President of the United States, John Adams, calling for 'a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer,'"  while in the closing months of his ministry, Oct. 18th, 1825, Governor Clinton issued his first proclamation for the observance of a public thanksgiving.  The fullness of days and of labors called for thankfulness both in church and State.

     In April 1825, the original large parish over which Dominie Gebhard had presided, was reduced still further in size by the withdrawal of the Hillsdale church, to which Claverack agreed.  A few days later the old Dominie passed in his resignation as the senior-pastor of the church, and the Dutch call which had [page 303] "remained unaltered, integer, as it stood" for nearly fifty years became null and void.

     The years were sapping the strength of the intrepid Dominie of the past, yet the letter to the Classis of Rensselaer asking to be relieved of this charge on account of advancing age and infirmities, rang also with a touch of the old undaunted spirit in its closing sentences which asked "that he might still be held a member of the Classis of Rensselaer, and be permitted to preach occasionally when invited, or administer the Holy Sacrament when his strength would permit" and was signed,

"Yours in the love of the Gospel,

"J. G. GEBHARD."

     The last of the grandchildren to be born in the old parsonage, and to be baptized by the old Dominie in December, 1824, was Charles William Gebhard, M. D., the writer's father.  Nine other children of the congregation received the rite of baptism at the old Dominie's hands the same year.  In the year of his resignation he performed twenty marriages, and two in the last year of his life, for that the life of this godly man was drawing to a close, was becoming apparent [page 304] to his old parishioners.  Preeminently a minister of the Sacraments, it is fitting that the last word that we have of an act of his on earth, should have been the administering of the Holy Communion.

     Dr. Currie, a child of the old church, writes, "I, who was kindly taken by the hand and encouraged by Mr. Gebhard when I resolved to devote myself to the work of the ministry, cannot forbear to revert to one scene in which that venerable servant of God was an actor, and which is vividly impressed on m mind.

     "It was the Sabbath, and the church had come together to remember Christ in the 'ordinance of the Holy Supper.'  Just before the elements were to be distributed, Mr. Gebhard came into the church, it is believed, for the last time.   As he opened the door every eye was directed toward him.  His gait was erect, but his countenance was wan.  He took his seat in the front of the pulpit and at the right of the table.  And as he sat there contemplating the scene before him, and doubtless anticipating with confidence and joy of heart the arrival of the moment, when he should be welcomed home to glory with the plaudit, 'Well done, good and faithful servant,' the peace [page 305' within was shadowed forth in the heavenly serenity which was depicted on his brow.  'He ate the bread and drank of the wine in remembrance of Christ.'  He arose in his place amid a profound silence, and delivered the last address which he ever made at the Communion table, or the the church to which he had ministered for more than half a century.

     "He spoke in the Dutch language, with earnestness, yet with deliberation, and in a manner such as became him, standing on the borders of eternity.  He seemed like one form the other world, who had just appeared to deliver a message from God and return.  And when I looked on him standing forth as the 'ambassador of Christ,' and remembered how often he had said, 'I would rather wear out than rust-out,' and saw the lamp of life then evidently flickering in the socket, I experienced sensations which for the time were overpowering, and cannot be described."

     On August 16th, 1826, this faithful servant of God passed to his reward.  The church books recording  his demise, add this resolution, "Resolved that the present minister and consistory of this church wear the usual badge of mourning on the left arm for eight weeks, [page 306] and that the pulpit be draped in mourning for six months."

     In the childhood of the author and compiler of these records, she often heard elderly people speak of having heard Dominie Gebhard preach, or his having married or baptized them or their ancestors, as a mater of self-congratulation, an honor attained.  Within the past year, two persons, one and old lady over ninety, another a granddaughter of a Quaker resident of Hudson, speaking for her grandmother, have made this same claim in the same manner, but with an explanatory sentence.  "We heard old Dominie Gebhard preach in our girlhood.  Of course we did not understand a word, but people went to hear him as they went to hear Beecher in later years."  That, then, was the clew to this apparent attainment, but with a difference.  Men went to hear Beecher that they might enjoy the brilliant thoughts of a mighty intellect.  Men and women went to hear the Dutch Dominie of Claverack, that they might see and hear a man whose personality had dominated nearly a whole County, for over fifty years.

     [page 307] The great work of his life may be read in the records of hundreds of family Bibles of Manors and farm houses, not only scattered through the old Claverack congregation and Columbia County, but carried  to the large cities, and over the prairies to the far west and into the sunny south, and with sailors across the sea.  He pleaded for heavenly blessings in baptism over the heads of five thousand children save seventy-six and solemnized nearly two thousand marriages.  Besides this, hundreds were welcomed to the communion of the church.

     Who can tell how far Dominie Gebhard's influence counted in the making of this nation, in heavenly blessings called down by their minister of the Sacraments, and also in the educational advantages brought with him from an older country, and showered generously on the infancy and youth of our new Republic!  The closing note of such a life is a glad one, with its obituary written long ago:

     "How beautiful upon the mountains are the fee of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that saith unto Zion, They God reigneth."