Plymouth's Fourth

Fifteen Congregational ministers sat in old Plymouth Congregational Church, Brooklyn, last week and solemnly listened to the quizzing of newly resigned President James Stanley Durkee of Howard College about his faith. As solemnly he answered them; called the Bible "a library of 66 books," no one having been written in any relation to the others, each bearing the stamp of its time and reflecting the varying "excellences and limitations of its author"; said of the Gospel: "It is not a narcotic to superinduce numbness or oblivion to the wrongs of this life. It is a trumpet blast echoing along the horizons of the world, challenging to combat every evil, every sin, every wrong." This man was a worthy successor to Henry Ward Beecher (incumbent 1847-87), Lyman Abbott (incumbent 1888-99) and Newell Dwight Hillis (incumbent 1899-1924)* as pastor of Plymouth Church, decided the fifteen quizzing ministers. Forthwith, they installed him--Plymouth's fourth pastor since its establishment in 1847.

*In 1924 Dr. Hillis suffered a nervous breakdown, which forced him to end his 25-year pastorate. Since then he has been pastor emeritus.