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Editorial Note: Our guest writer today is Tom Sullivan, who for 36 years has served as The Narrated Puritan at Puritan and Reformed Audiobooks, and also serves as a research assistant for Dr. Sam Waldron, President, Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary.
Nathan Strong, was born in Coventry, Connecticut; ordained on Jan. 5, 1773; and served as pastor of the First Church, Hartford, where he remained until the close of life, Dec. 25, 1816.
This church received its fame from its first pastor Thomas Hooker, the Puritan founder of the Colony of Connecticut. It was known in Strong's day as the North Presbyterian Church in Hartford.
In 1798, Strong became the chief organizer of the Connecticut Missionary Society. Two years later, he became the principal founder and editor of The Connecticut Evangelical Magazine, which was also at that time a new departure, and which was destined to continue through fifteen volumes.
From an article in the Christian Spectator for 1833: “The plan of this work originated with Dr. Strong, and the labor of conducting it devolved chiefly on him. It was continued fifteen years, and amounted to as many volumes.” The first seven volumes were titled The Connecticut Evangelical Magazine (1800-1807); the next eight were titled The Connecticut Evangelical Magazine; and Religious Intelligencer (1808-1815).
Christian periodicals had long found their usefulness in England, but the reason for it not known in the Colonies was supposed that there was not enough material to keep the magazine interesting. However, at the beginning of the 19th century numerous revivals had been reported not only in local assemblies, but at the College of New Jersey under the presidency of Ashbel Green, and Yale College under the presidency of Timothy Dwight.
In the first editorial, Strong wrote, “The late wonderful outpouring of the Holy Spirit and revival of experimental religion, in large districts of the American Church will furnish much matter for publication to delight the hearts satisfy the benevolence of the children of God. There has not hath been so great and extensive a work of divine grace in this land since the years 1742 and 1744.”
Another goal of this magazine was to report on “the wonderful spirit of missions to heathen people, and to our new and scattered settlements on the borders of the wilderness…” The timing of this was providential for the magazine was started at the same period that the “Great Revival of 1800” had just started in Kentucky under the pastoral charge of James McGready (1763-1817). It was to Nathan Strong that Archibald Alexander wrote in January 1802, including correspondence from George A. Baxter, concerning a report on that notable revival.
From the Annals of the American Pulpit, Vol. 2, p. 36, William Sprague wrote: “It may be doubted whether he ever rendered a more important service to the church or to the country, than in the part which he took in establishing and sustaining the Connecticut Missionary Society.”
In 1801, he was honored with the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the College of New Jersey. A eulogy written from Thomas Robbins upon his death:
Dr. Strong was, for many years, my neighbor and intimate friend. I had an opportunity of observing him and there is perhaps no man who has departed, in respect to whose character I have a more definite and well considered opinion. [As the end of Strong’s mortal life approached] I remember to have been present on one occasion, when a neighboring minister put to him the question, “Are you ready to go yet?” and he replied, — “Yes, tomorrow, if God pleases."
Such was the piety of this long-time minister of God’s Word, founder of the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine.
