BIOGRAPHY: Dr. Theodore Ledyard Cuyler; Brooklyn, Kings co., NY
surname: Cuyler, Mathiot

submitted by W. David Samuelsen
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A HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND FROM ITS EARLIEST SETTLEMENT TO THE PRESENT TIME 
BY PETER ROSS, LL. D. 
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY NEW YORK AND CHICAGO
COPYRIGHT. 1902

THEODORE LEDYARD CUYLER, D. D., L.L. D.

     Emerson has written:

"Knowest thou what argument thy life To thy neighbor's creed has lent ?"

     The influence of man is immeasurable by any of the known standards of
the world, but its potency is no less marked, and the New England pact and
philosopher, writing alone the same line, has said again that every individual
in greater or less degree, but always to some degree, leaves an impress upon
the life of every one whom he meets. If this be true, and the great minds of
all ages acknowledge that it is so, then the question propounded centuries
ago, "Am I my brother's keeper?" is answered. It is this everlasting truth of
the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God that has led to the religious
work of the world.

     The stamp designating true nobility of character must ever find its
ineffaceable tracery on the brow of one who sets himself apart from "the
madding crowd's ignoble strife" and dedicates his life to the uplifting of his
fellow met A more than supertidal investigation is demanded when one essays to
determine the mental struggle and the spirit of unselfish devotion that must
animate the man who gives all that he has and all that he hopes to be to
service in the great vineyard of life, seeking reward only in that realm
"where moth and rust do not corrupt and where thieves do not break through and
steal." Preparations for and labors in the priesthood are perforce exacting,
demanding an ever ready sympathy, a broad intellectuality and unswerving
fidelity. Scoffing, cynicism and careless irreverence would often be silenced
if only the inner life of those who minister in holy places might be laid open
for inspection. Honor is due and honor will be paid when once there comes a
deeper understanding of the truth.

     We are led to this train of thought through study of the life record of
Dr. Cuyler, who from early manhood has devoted his labor, his thought and his
energy to the uplifting of his fellow men, and whose name and work forms the
most important chapter in the history of the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian
church, of Brooklyn. He was born in Aurora, New York, January 10, 1822, and
from Huguenots and Hollanders, who came to the shores of the new world at an
early day, he traces his descent. Members of the family were particularly
prominent at the bar. His grandfather practiced with success in Aurora for
many years, and his father, B. Ledyard Cuyler, also attained to an eminent
position in the legal profession, but he died at the early age of twenty-eight
years. The care of the son fell to the mother, a lady of strong Christian
character, who had marked influence upon the life of her son. She always
cherished the hope that he might enter the ministry, and a little pocket Bible
which she gave him he learned to read when four years of age. Other relatives
of the family hoped that he would become a lawyer, believing that he could
attain distinction in that profession, and, while he had the mental ability to
become eminent therein, he determined to enter a calling that led him into
dose contact with his fellow men, his services proving of the greatest good to
those with whom he was associated. At the age of sixteen he became a student
in Princeton College and three years later was graduated with high honors. The
following year was spent in Europe, where he formed the acquaintance of Thomas
Carlyle, William Wordsworth and Charles Dickens, and his visits to those
celebrated English writers are among the most pleasant memories of his life.
Travel broadened his knowledge, and his mind was stored with many interesting
reminiscences of the sights and scenes which he viewed when abroad. Upon his
return his father's family again urged him to become a member of the bar, but
his mother's influence and other agencies in his life were stronger. When a
young man he was asked to address a meeting in a neighboring village. Several
inquirers professed belief that evening, saying that the young man made the
way so plain. This brought to him a recognition of his influence and power,
and he resolved to devote his activities to the cause of the Master. His
preparatory studies for the ministry were pursued in the Princeton Theological
Seminary, where. on the completion of a three-years' course, he was graduated,
in May, 1846.

     His first ministerial services after being licensed to preach was as
supply in the church at Kingston, Pennsylvania, where he remained for six
months. Not long afterward he accepted the charge of the Presbyterian church
in Burlington. New Jersey, where his labors were so successful that it was
felt be should be employed in a broader field. Accordingly he left Burlington
to take pastoral charge of the newly organized Third Presbyterian church in
Trenton, where he remained until the summer of 1853. in May of that year he
received a call from the Shawmut Congregational church, in Boston, but
declined it and accepted a call from the Market Street Reformed Dutch church,
in New York city, where he felt his field would be broader and more congenial
by reason of the greater demands it would make upon him. His work there at
once attracted public attention. His earnestness, his clear reasoning, his
logical arguments and his brilliant gifts of oratory attracted large
audiences, and his work among young men was particularly successful. For seven
years he continued as pastor of that congregation, and in 1860 entered upon
his important work in connection with the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian
church, of Brooklyn. The exodus from New York to Brooklyn was beginning to be
felt about this time, and the need for better church accommodations in the
latter city had long been so pressing as to engross the attention of many
earnest Christians. A conference on the subject was held May 16, 1857, by a
number of gentlemen connected with Dr. Spear's "South" church. and it was
decided to form a "new-school" church. Soon after its organization Professor
Roswell D. Hitchcock, of the Union Theological Seminary of New York. supplied
the pulpit, and during his ministry there the church society, first numbering
but forty-eight souls, increased so rapidly that the little brick chapel was
found inadequate to contain the audiences. It was a season of spiritual
awakening all over the land, the revival of 1858, - and Park church, for such
was the name by which it was then known, shared in the general improvement and
met the demand upon its accommodations by building an addition. In January of
the following year, 1859; Professor Hitchcock resigned and was succeeded as
pulpit supply by the Rev. Lyman Whiting, of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Six
months later he also resigned, and for an additional six months the
congregation was without a regular minister.

     About this time Dr. Cuyler was offered the pastorate, but the outlook of
his own church was then so promising that he declined the call. Shortly
afterward, however, the Dutch church began to falter in its project of
planting its new edifice in the new and growing part of the city, With keen
foresight Dr. Cuyler anticipated the rapid change that was soon to transform
unpopulated districts of Brooklyn, and believed that it would prove a splendid
field for Christian labor. It was then he took into consideration the offer of
the pastorate of the Park church, He visited the Fort Greene section of
Brooklyn, and then informed the committee which waited on him that if their
congregation would purchase the plot at the corner of Lafayette avenue and
Oxford street and erect thereon a plain edifice large enough to accommodate
about two thousand people he would accept the call. It seemed a great
undertaking for the little congregation, with its membership of only one
hundred and forty people, but the committee agreed to the proposition, and
within ten days the purchase of the land was effected, at a cost of twelve
thousand dollars. At an additional cost of forty-two thousand dollars there
was erected a splendid stone structure, modeled after Beecher's church and
having also the same seating capacity. Work was commenced on the new edifice
in the fall of 1860, and on March 12, 1862, the completed church was
dedicated. This was practically the work of Dr. Cuyler, who, in April, 1860,
was formally installed as pastor.

     He entered upon his work with an enthusiasm born of strong
determination, firm convictions and noble purpose. His brilliant oratory soon
attracted the attention of Brooklyn citizens, and his forceful utterances,
showing forth the divine purpose, appealed to the understanding of all
thinking people. The church grew with marvelous rapidity, and as rapidly as
possible Dr. Cuyler extended the field of his labors. In 1866 there were more
than three hundred additions, and he felt that its growing strength justified
the establishment of a mission. Accordingly, in Warren street, the Memorial
Mission School was organized. the direct outcome of which is the Memorial
Presbyterian church, now one of the strongest and most prosperous in that
section of the city. The Fort Greene Presbyterian church also had its origin
in one of Dr. Cuyler's mission, schools, which was established in 1861, with a
membership of one hundred and twelve. The Classon Avenue church is also
another direct branch of the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian church - and who
can measure the influence of this work? In the twenty-five years following its
incorporation Dr. Cuyler's congregation contributed seventy thousand dollars
to city missions, and its gifts as reported for the year 1888 exceeded
fifty-three thousand dollars. The Sunday-school, the Young People's
Association and the various charitable and benevolent organizations became
important adjuncts of the church work The church membership in 1890 was nearly
twenty-four hundred and the Sunday-school numbered sixteen hundred, ranking
the third largest in the general assembly.

     With all these extensive and important undertakings under his
supervision Dr. Cuyler also did the work of pastor as well as of teacher and
leader, and perhaps no man in the Christian ministry has ever more endeared
himself through the ties of friendship and love to his parishioners than he.
One who knew him well said of him; "He mingles freely and happily with his
people. His feelings are ardent and sympathetic, his conversation is fluent
and interspersed with illustration, anecdote, lively metaphor and felicitous
quotations, - so that he united the gifts which elicit friendly feeling,
promote freedom of social intercourse and bind a pastor to his people by the
innumerable threads of friendly intercourse, rather than by one cable of
profound and distant reverence. Hence, he combined in an unusual degree
success in pastoral labor with success in preaching. He teaches his people
quite as much out of the pulpit as in it. He seeks to make his church an
organized band, 'who go about doing good,' in working sympathy with the poor
and outcast. He also diffuses a zeal, lengthening the cords and strengthening
the stakes of their own influence. Dr. Cuyler is accessible both in parlor and
in the pulpit. One is sure of hospitality at church as well at at home."

     For thirty years Dr. Cuyler remained as pastor of the Lafayette Avenue.
Presbyterian church and then voluntarily severed his relations therewith. He
addressed his people in the following words on Sunday. February 2, 1890:
"Nearly thirty years have elapsed since I assumed the pastoral charge of the
Lafayette Avenue church. In April, 1860, it was a small band of one hundred
and forty members. By the continual blessing of Heaven upon us, that little
flock has grown into one of the largest and most useful and powerful churches
in the Presbyterian denomination; it is the third in point of numbers in the
United States. This church has now two thousand three hundred and thirty
members. It maintains two mission chapels, has one thousand six hundred in its
Sunday-school, and is paying the salaries of three ministers in this city and
of two missionaries in the south. For several years it has led all the
churches of Brooklyn in its contributions to foreign, home and city missions,
and it is surpassed by none other in. wide and varied Christian work. Every
sifting in this spacious house has its occupant. Our morning audiences have
never been larger than they have this winter. This church has always been to
me like a beloved child. I have given to it thirty years of hard and happy
labor, and it is my foremost desire that its harmony may remain undisturbed
and its prosperity may remain unbroken. For a long time I have intended that
my thirtieth anniversary should be the terminal point of my present pastorate.
I shall then have served this beloved flock for an ordinary human generation,
and the time has come for me to transfer this sacred trust to some one who, in
God's good providence, may have thirty years of vigorous work before him and
not behind him. If God spares my life to the first Sabbath of April it is my
purpose to surrender this pulpit back into your hands, and I shall endeavor to
co-operate with you in the search and selection of the right man to stand in
it. I will not trust myself to-day to speak of the sharp pang it will cost me
to sever a connection that has been to me one of unalloyed harmony and
happiness. When the proper time comes we can speak of all such things. and in
the meanwhile let us continue on in the blessed Master's work and leave our
future entirely to His all-wise and ever loving care. On the walls of this
dear church the eyes of the angels have always seen it written. 'I, the Lord,
do keep it, and I will keep it night and day.' It only remains for me to say
that after forty-four years of uninterrupted ministerial labor it is but
reasonable for me to ask for relief from a strain that may soon become too
heavy for me to bear."

     A feeling of the greatest sorrow was manifest throughout the
congregation. Many of the people then in the church had grown up under his
active pastorate, and it was almost like a death knell to them as they heard
his words. On the 16th of April, in the church parlors, a farewell reception
was held, on which occasion a purse of thirty thousand dollars was presented
to Dr. Cuyler - one thousand dollars for each year of his service as pastor.
The gift indicated in unmistakable manner the love which his congregation bore
for him. However, his friends were not limited to his own congregation, for
through his writings he has become known throughout the civilized world and
has many admirers among those who have been helped by his earnest and
inspiring words. He has been a constant contributor to the religious journals
of the country, including the Christian Intelligence, Christian Work, The
Watchman, Christian Endeavor World, Evangelist and Independent. He has
prepared about four thousand articles for the press and has written
seventy-five tracts, many of which have been republished in the English,
German and Australian newspapers. In 1852 he published a volume entitled Stray
Arrows, containing selections of his newspaper writings. He is the author of
eighteen published volumes, of which Cedar Christian, Heart Life, Empty Crib,
Thought Hives, Pointed Papers for the Christian Life, God's Light on Dark
Clouds and Newly Enlisted have been reprinted in England, where they have had
a large sale. The Empty Crib was published after the death of a beloved boy,
nearly five years of age, and the subsequent loss of a beautiful and
accomplished daughter was the occasion of his writing that marvelously
touching production entitled God's Light on Dark Clouds. In addition to the
works mentioned he is the author of the following: How to Be a Pastor, The
Young Preacher, Christianity in the Home, Stirring the Eagle's Nest and other
Sermons and Beulah Land. A selection from his writings, entitled Right to the
Point, has been published in Boston. Six of his books have been translated
into Swedish and two into Dutch.

     To a man of Dr. Cuyler's nature the needs of the world have been ever
manifest and have elicited his most hearty, earnest and devoted co-operation.
The great benevolent movements and reform measures have received his aid, and
he has labored earnestly in behalf of the Young Men's Christian Association
mission schools, the Children's Aid Association, the Five Points mission and
the Freedmen, while his work in the National Temperance Society has been a
most potent influence in promoting temperance sentiment among those with whom
he has come in contact as teacher and preacher, He has served as president of
the National Temperance Society of America. In 1872 he went abroad as a
delegate to the Presbyterian Assembly in Edinburgh, Scotland. on which
occasion he won the warm friendship of many eminent Presbyterian divines of
Great Britain. His friends have been drawn from the most cultured and
intelligent and have ever been an affinity between such. These include
Spurgeon, Gladstone, Dean Stanley. Dickens, Carlyle, Weal Dow, Lincoln, Horace
Greeley and John C. Whittier.

     In 1853 Dr. Cuyler was united in marriage to Miss Annie E. Mathiot, a
daughter of the Hon. Joshua Mathiot, a member of congress from Ohio. Her
labors have ably supplemented and rounded out those of her husband. She has
been in hearty sympathy with him in all of his church work and in his efforts
for the uplifting of man, and in a no less forceful, but in a more quiet way,
her influence has been exerted for the benefit of God's children. Since his
retirement from the ministry Dr. Cuyler has devoted his time to preaching and
lecturing in colleges and to literary work. A monument to his splendid
accomplishments is found in the Cuyler, chapel of the Lafayette Avenue
Presbyterian church. which was named in his honor by the Young People's
Association of that organization in 1892. A large mission church, seating one
thousand people and erected in 1900 by the Lafayette Avenue church, in Canton,
China, is named the Theodore L Cuyler church.