FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF
REVEREND MARTIN LEISEDER
MAY 2, 1962
When I found I was to
be the only speaker on this occasion, I thought it fitting that since Reverend
Leiseder has been your pastor for fifty years that I should speak for about one
minute on each year of his service here, with about five minutes for an
introduction, and another five minutes for a conclusion. I mentioned this
intention to Mrs. McIntyre and she said; "You do that and it will be the last
time you will ever be invited to speak in Etna. Just condense that hour's
remarks into about fifteen or twenty minutes and your audience will appreciate
it. Don’t you remember that old saying about the length of a sermon? There are
no souls saved after the first twenty minutes.”
It is not my intention
tonight to try to preach a sermon, but probably that old adage still has a
practical observance. Not that I would not have plenty of material for a one
hour's discourse, for you could write an interesting book about Reverend
Leiseder, and I hope that this vicinity can some time produce a person who will
do just that, but I have noticed from years of experience that a dining room
chair is not very comfortable once you quit eating.
I have here a small
notebook in which I have written down a lot of interesting things I want to talk
about this evening. I have written them because when you talk you are quite
likely to ramble and that takes up time and the dining room chairs get more
uncomfortable. However, when you read you cannot ramble and that saves time. So
since I will be attempting to crowd a one hour's talk into about fifteen or
twenty minutes, I have got to do some reading. I cannot very well talk about
your pastor without mentioning a little bit of the history of this church. Then
I will be through with my five minute introduction.
I realize that I am
speaking to the congregation of this church and that most of you are well
acquainted with its history. However, there are four outstanding events I would
like to mention very briefly.
First, that this church
was founded in the fall of 1849 by two local citizens, Jacob Von Ins and Daniel
Hieber. It had sixteen charter members and its charter name was “German
Evangelical Church of Centerville". We did not have an Etna until after the
Civil War. The church was organized as an independent church and not associated
with any particular denomination.
Second, since it was
not associated with any particular denomination, it had to secure its pastors
from an organized denomination, and as was perfectly natural, these pastors
tried to take this church into their own denominational organization, so in
order to avoid this, in 1852 the church was incorporated under a new Charter and
a new name: "Independent German United Evangelical Church". However, this did
not stop subsequent pastors from trying from time to time to lead the church
into one or another of the Lutheran Synods. These attempts were sometimes very
hard on the church and its membership, but it always resisted this change and
kept its independence.
Third, in 1912, fifty
years ago, this independent congregation was fortunate in securing as its pastor
a young man who was as theologically independent as your church, and mentally
more brilliant than any of the 14 pastors who had preceded him.
I am sometimes amazed
when I read history to see how carefully the plans of providence have been
worked out; how a certain man without his knowledge of it has been prepared for
some great undertaking. For example, Moses who should have been put to death as
soon as he was born, was adopted and educated by the royalty of Egypt. Then at
the age of forty years he had to flee into the great desert, and spend his next
forty years there, where he married the daughter of a desert ruler. At eighty
years of age God called him to lead his people out of Egypt and into that same
desert, and there for the next forty years he kept them alive in that desert
country so as to organize them into a nation capable of capturing their promised
land. Where in the world at that time was there a man so well prepared for that
task as Moses? God had been preparing him for that particular job for eighty
years.
Then again when Jesus
left his disciples here on earth, they were consecrated but unlearned men. None
of them had sufficient experience or education to organize a church or to
develop its doctrine, but years before that time God had been preparing the
apostle Paul for that very undertaking.
Here in Etna in 1912
was a little independent German speaking church. It was sixty-two years old, and
in those sixty-two years, it had had fourteen different pastors. Some of them
almost tore the church apart, but it had succeeded in keeping its independence.
In that year God sent it a pastor who could not only speak its language but
believed in that same religious freedom which the church had always maintained.
I understand when Reverend Leiseder left Germany in the year 1911 on his way to
be a missionary in Japan, he stopped off for awhile in the United States. What
the Japanese lost we have gained not only this congregation, but the entire
community of Etna have been most fortunate that Reverend Leiseder settled here.
Now after fifty years we can look back and see the evidence of God's guiding
hand in giving us this remarkable pastor.
A few moments ago I
said there were four historical events in this church which I wished to mention,
first, the founding of the church in 1849; second, its incorporation as an
independent church in 1852; third, the coming of Reverend Leiseder in 1912. Now
the fourth is another charter change in the year 1929. In that year under the
leadership of Reverend Leiseder the church's charter was again changed, and its
name also changed to The First Congregational Church of Etna, and it also at
that time became associated with the National Council of Congregational
Churches.
I understand that in
that denomination each Congregational Church is free to determine its own
doctrine. If you don't properly understand that word "doctrine", it means "what
you believe",
I have been teaching a
bible class here for a good many years. The doctrine I preach is Presbyterian.
My father was a Presbyterian minister. He insisted that I learn certain
theological principles, some of which I have not forgotten. Father's church gave
a bible to each of the young people if they would learn and recite the shorter
catechism. I never got one of those bibles. I could get by the Ten Commandments
and the Sacraments in pretty good shape, but I always got bogged down on
Effectual Calling, Justification, Adoption and Santification.
I have never heard that
Reverend Leiseder ever found any fault with what I attempted
to teach the young men
of his congregation, even if I did go very light on Effectual Calling,
Justification, Adoption, and Santification.
Your pastor and your
church have been a real part of this community. During the early thirties this
locality suffered greatly in the great depression. This church not only
contributed its financial share for the relief of those in distress along with
the other local churches in this vicinity, but Reverend Leiseder took the
initiative in forming the Etna Relief Organization and undertook the job as its
relief agent. The services of this organization covered the entire community.
Your pastor’s job was so extensive as to require almost his full time for two
years, and most of his time for another three years. He did this job with little
or no publicity, and I doubt if he received any pay for it.
In 1936 came the great
flood on St. Patrick's Day. The Allegheny River rose to a height of forty-six
feet, ten feet better than it had ever been before. This church threw open its
doors to families who were flooded out of their homes. It was soon filled with
flood refugees. Then came the awful fire on Union Street where nine of our
citizens lost their lives, and many were burned and injured. I remember coming
to this church the next day. It looked like a field hospital during a war. The
injured were lying on beds and cots on the first floor of the church building
and were being attended by a staff of doctors and nurses brought here by your
pastor, who was supervising the whole operation. For weeks after the flood he
was everywhere, night and day, and was looked upon by everyone as the community
leader in the rehabilitation of the Borough.
I cannot recall when I
first met Reverend Leiseder. It seems I have always known him. When he was being
installed as your pastor in the spring of 1912 I was a student in Grove City
College, and the only Etna I had ever heard of at that time was a volcano in
Italy. I came here in the fall of 1915 to start the Etna High School.
My college roommate and eight or ten
other students who had been in college with me were all attending the Western
Theological Seminary on Ridge Avenue, North Side, so I spent my weekends at that
seminary. In the summers I attended the Law School at the University of
Michigan. In June, 1917, I entered the Army and didn't get back to Etna until
January, 1920. While in school work here, I had heard quite a lot about Reverend
Leiseder, but I am not sure that I ever met him. I understood all of the
religious services of this church were conducted in German, and I didn't
understand German, so I never attended any of them. My intimate acquaintance
with your pastor has been since January, 1920, a brief period of forty-two
years.
There have been a lot
of changes in the last fifty years. In 1907, my father's church in Dayton
celebrated its 100th Anniversary. At the services held on that occasion there
was one automobile, but the remaining transportation was by horse. In 1932 the
church celebrated its l25th Anniversary, and at that service there was one horse
and buggy. All the rest were automobiles. I was there again in 1957 at the 150th
Anniversary and I really expected somebody to drop down in a helicopter but the
weather was bad and no one appeared. At that time I predicted that at the 175th
Anniversary in 1982, most if not all of the automobiles there would be without
wheels. That will probably be true.
In the last fifty years
even our language has changed. A long distance operator used to be "Central".
Now she is “Operator”. People
used to die of Consumption. Now it is
TB. When I was in school people who had a lot of energy, drive and backbone were
said to have gumption. Today they have enterprise. We used to travel on a train
and get off at the depot. Now we travel on the Limited or the Special and get
off at the terminal. When I was a boy Fanny was a little girl's name.
Fifty years ago when a
man came home from work and took off his shoes he put on his slippers. Today he
puts on his loafers. It used to be when a man deserted the Army or Navy he was
known as a deserter. Now he is only A.W.O.L. I recall when we had flying
machines, and then they became aeroplanes. Now they are jets. When we traveled
we used to carry a suitcase containing underwear, garters, etc. Now we carry a
weekender with shirts and shorts. Some time ago when we were tired at home we
curled up on the lounge. Now it is the sofa. Some of you can remember when you
used to get a poke of candy. Now it is a sack.
In clothes a shirtwaist
has become a blouse, the corset has become a girdle and a lavaliere has become a
pendant. The pantry has been lost in the modern kitchen. We don’t have economic
panics anymore. They are now recessions. Bad boys are now juvenile delinquents,
and old folks are senior citizens.
Within the last few
years there have come such amazing things as radio, television, radar, diesel
locomotives, rayon, nylon, sulfa drugs, penicillin, bookkeeping machines,
electronic computers, high octane gasoline, power and sound in moving pictures,
jet planes, dozens of new antibiotics and atomic energy. Very few things in the
world remain stable anymore. Everything is subject to rapid change. If I were
asked to name one of the most stable objects that I know of in this world I
would probably name your pastor. In the forty-two years I have known him he has
not changed much physically, and we all know he has not deteriorated mentally.
When I see him on a Sabbath morning marching up to the pulpit with the spring in
his step of someone not over twenty-one years old, and see him read the
scripture lesson and the various written announcements without using any
glasses, and hear him speak and sing with a strong and resonant voice, I cannot
help but think of the description of Moses in the last chapter of the Book of
Deuteronomy where it says that he was one hundred and twenty years old, yet his
eye was not dim nor his natural force abated.
As a congregation you
people have been extremely fortunate that Reverend Leiseder has considered
himself dedicated to you and your church. I have always thought he would have
been appreciated more if he had taken up a professorship in some college or
university. He has a mind capable of teaching almost any subject on the
curriculum, and he certainly would have been a popular man on any faculty, but
he prefers to stay with you even if you have not been able to pay him nearly as
much as your School Board pays its first grade school teacher.
However, Reverend
Leiseder, you did get one most lucky break by coming to Etna, and that is
probably enough to balance all the troubles and disappointments that you ever
had here. In September, 1917, you won as your bride a charming young lady of
this church, Miss Sarah Sutter. I am confident she has turned out to be
everything you hoped for, and I would be remiss if I did not say that this
congregation has also benefitted greatly by your marriage to Mrs. Leiseder.
To conclude, I notice
that it has taken fourteen ministers to pastor this church for its first
sixty-two years. You have now been here for fifty years, and I will not be
surprised if you equal the entire record of the other fourteen pastors. You have
already covered the pastorates of twelve of them and now you only have two to
go: Reverend Ernst and Reverend Wagner. We
all expect you to make it. Then you can retire to your farm and enjoy yourself.
You will have worked for us long enough.
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We believe |
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In the
authority of evidence: |
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In the
supremacy of intelligence: |
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In the
leadership of competence: |
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In the validity
of freedom: |
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In the goal of
commonweal. |
Sung to Beethoven’s 9th
Symphony Ode to Joy
Thou art giving and
forgiving, Ever blessing, ever blest,
Well-spring of the joy
of living, Ocean-depth of happy rest:
Thou our Father, Christ
our Brother, All who live in love are Thine;
Teach us how to love
each other, Lift us to the joy divine.
Mortals, Join the
mighty chorus, Which the morning stars began;
Father-love is reigning
o’er us, Brother-love binds man to man.
Ever singing march we
onward, Victors in the midst of strife;
Joyful music lifts us
sunward,
In the triumph song of
life.
Amen.