A TRIBUTE TO REV. A. J. F. BEHRENDS, D.D.
SECRETARY C. C. CREEGAN.
I first became acquainted with Dr. Behrends when he was in Cleveland, and had a profound respect for him as a man, as well as one of the ablest preachers of our time. When I came to Brooklyn several years ago I was led to unite with his church. I can therefore speak from a personal knowledge of twenty-five years.
In the death of Dr. Behrends, who had served both as vice-president and member of the Executive Committee of the American Missionary Association, the Society, as well as the denomination of which he was one of the most conspicuous members, has suffered a great loss. Central Church, Brooklyn, where he ministered with distinguished success for seventeen years and where he was beloved by all, will feel the loss of this great and good man most keenly, but all the churches of his home city, where his voice was often heard and where his influence was so great, will mourn the departure of one of the greatest preachers of this generation.
Born in Holland, in the home of an humble Lutheran preacher, he came to this country with his parents when five years of age. While teaching school in his seventeenth year, near Portsmouth, Ohio, he was converted by the preaching of an obscure Methodist minister and at once decided to fit himself for the work of the ministry. Largely by his own efforts he worked his way through Dennison University, Ohio, graduating in 1862 in a class of three, all of whom became prominent clergymen. Three years later he completed his theological studies at Rochester Theological Seminary at the head of his class and was called at once to the pastorate of a large Baptist Church in Yonkers, N. Y., where he remained eight years. He was then called to the First Baptist Church of Cleveland, Ohio, where he won great distinction as a platform orator.
It was during this pastorate, which lasted only three years, that Dr. Behrends, after a great struggle, decided to resign from this strong church, where he was very popular, and enter another denomination. Six happy years were then spent in the Union Church of Providence, where he was recognized as one of the foremost preachers in the State and nation.
Dr. Behrends was a great scholar. It is the belief of those who knew him well that he was able to fill any chair in any of our theological seminaries. His services were in frequent demand for courses of lectures in our leading colleges and seminaries, and at least two of these courses have been put into book form.
While his services were often sought for on great occasions, such as the annual meetings of the A. M. A. and A. B. C. F. M., and similar gatherings, his best work was done in his own pulpit. His sermons were always prepared with the greatest care, and, except on rare occasions, were delivered without a note and with wonderful beauty of diction and irresistible logic to the audiences of two thousand cultured people who hung on his words every Sabbath and who regarded him, not without good reason, "the greatest preacher in America."
The secret of the great success of Dr. Behrends as a preacher was not to be found in his striking personality, nor in his musical voice, nor his profound scholarship, but rather in his strong faith in the Bible as the Word of God, as his only creed, and that Christ Jesus, the divine Saviour, is to win the whole world to Himself. From this belief he never wavered, and to him the preaching of the gospel to men and seeing them come into the kingdom was the joy of his soul.