John Martin: First Gospel Minister to Preach in Tennessee

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“Preach the gospel, die, and be forgotten.” — Attributed to Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf (18th century Moravian minister)

There are some figures in church history about whom we know very little, even though they accomplished very much. John Martin is one such person. It is believed that he was born in Virginia, in the early 18th century. He first appears in the records of the Hanover Presbytery for March 1756.

Mr. John Martin offered himself upon Tryals for the gospel Ministry, and delivered a Discourse upon Eph. 2.1 which was sustain’d as a Part of Tryal; & he was also examined as to religious Experiences, & the reasons of his designing the ministry; which was also sustain’d. He was likewise examined in the Latin and Greek languages, and briefly in Logick, ontology, Ethics, natural Philosophy, Rhetoric, geography and Astronomy; in all which his Answers in general were very satisfactory. And the Presbytery appoint him to prepare a Sermon on I Cor. 1.22-23, & an Exegesis [in Latin] on this Question, Num Revelatio Supernaturalis sit Necessarias? to be delivered at our next Committee.

At the following meeting he preached that sermon and presented his exegesis after which “The Committee proceeded to examine him upon ye Hebrew, and in sundry extempore Questions upon ye Doctrines of religions, and some Cases of Conscience.” Then he was required to deliver a sermon on Galatians 2:20 at the next meeting of presbytery and to give a lecture on Isaiah 61:1-3. Having done this successfully, he was then required to compose a sermon at the next presbytery meeting on I John 5:10, whereupon

The Presbytery farther examin’d Mr. Martin in sundry extempore Questions upon various Branches of Learning, and Divinity, and reheard his religious Experiences; and upon a review of ye sundry Trials he has passed thro’; they judge him qualified to preach ye Gospel; and he having declar’d his Assent to, and Approbation of ye Westminster Confession of Faith, Catechisms, and Directory…ye Presbytery do license and authorize him to preach as a Candidate for ye ministry of ye Gospel…and appoint ye moderator to give him some Solemn Instructions and Admonitions, with regard to ye Discharge of his office. [source: Ernest T. Thompson, Presbyterians in the South, Vol. 1 (1963), p. 69]

Martin was licensed to preach the gospel on August 25, 1756, and received a call to serve in Albemarle County, Virginia in April 1758. He was ordained to the ministry in June 1758 (various sources record the date as June 5, 7, or 9, 1758) at which time Samuel Davies preached the ordination sermon in Hanover, Virginia: The Office of a Bishop a Good Work. Thus, Martin was the first man ordained as a Presbyterian minister in Virginia. However, Martin declined the call to Albemarle, and instead was commissioned by an organization founded by Davies known as the Society For Managing the Mission and School Society For the Propagation of the Gospel to serve as a missionary to the Overhill Cherokee Indians in Tennessee. Later that year, he traveled as far as the Little Tennessee River and preached to the Cherokees there; however, without any significant success to report. However, in so doing, Martin became the first Protestant minister to preach the Gospel in the bounds of the state of Tennessee. His ministry there was supplemented by William Richardson (whose missionary journal still exists today in the archives of the New York Public Library). The efforts of both men were thwarted by language and culture challenges, but especially the commencement of hostilities in the French and Indian War. Also, when Davies left Virginia and took up his post as President of the College of New Jersey at Princeton in 1759, the missionary society that he had founded in Virginia fizzled out as well. Both Martin and Richardson departed from Tennessee and went on to settle in South Carolina. It is not known precisely where he lived, when he died or where he was buried. (See Richard Webster, A History of the Presbyterian Church in America From Its Origin Until the Year 1760 (1858), p. 674; George Howe, History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. 1 (1870), p. 267; Alfred Nevin, Encyclopedia of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (1884), p. 472; Samuel C. Williams, An Account of the Presbyterian Mission to the Cherokees, 1757-1759, Tennessee Historical Magazine (Jan. 1931); William W. Crouch, Missionary Activities Among the Cherokee Indians, 1757-1838 (1932); and A. Mark Conard, The Cherokee Mission of Virginia Presbyterians, Journal of Presbyterian History (Spring 1980).)

From the little that we know about Martin, we can ascertain that he was well-educated for the ministry, had a heart for missions, and was willing forgo a stable pastoral call in order to go where he believed he was most needed to preach the gospel. His pastoral career is a but a blip on the historical radar, but as the first Presbyterian minister ordained in Virginia, and the first to preach the gospel in Tennessee, he is worthy of remembrance.

Nevin's Presbyterian Encyclopedia

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There are some wonderful modern dictionaries and encyclopedias of Presbyterianism (D.G. Hart & Mark Knoll’s Dictionary of the Presbyterian and Reformed Tradition in America [2005], and Donald K. McKim’s Encyclopedia of the Reformed Faith [1992] come to mind). But in this writer’s view, though somewhat limited in usefulness to the modern student of church history by its late 19th century date of publication, still nothing compares to the magnificent Encyclopedia of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, Including the Northern and Southern Assemblies (1884) by Alfred Nevin.

Alfred Nevin’s Presbyterian Encyclopedia.

It is a treasure that spans over 1,200 pages, and includes many illustrations, and also Henry C. McCook’s Historic Decorations at the Pan-Presbyterian Council: A Lithographic Souvenir, a collection of beautiful tributes to the people and places of the First and Second Reformations which were a highlight of the 1880 Pan-Presbyterian Council. The Encyclopedia itself is full of biographical sketches of noted Presbyterian ministers, and articles on different aspects of church history, in rich detail.

Noted contributors to Nevin’s Presbyterian Encyclopedia include B.B. Warfield, Charles A. Stillman, A.A. Hodge, James C. Moffat, W.A. Scott, Sheldon Jackson, Henry Van Dyke, Sr., J. Aspinwall Hodge and others.

Title page.

We at Log College Press often return to this volume as we work to expand our knowledge of American Presbyterianism and make accessible the men and women and their writings which are reflected therein to all. Take note of this remarkable resource for your own studies of church history and biography, which is available to read online at the Alfred Nevin page.

William Traill's Advice

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When Col. William Stevens wrote to the Presbytery of Laggan in Scotland in 1680 requesting that a godly pastor be sent to minister to the faithful on the Eastern Shore, that call was answered first by William Traill (1640-1714), and soon after, by Francis Makemie. While Makemie is known to history as the “Father of American Presbyterianism” for his pioneer ministry and labors to establish the first Presbytery in America, William Traill is far less known than he should be today. He was the brother of Robert Traill, the famous Scottish Covenanter, and served as clerk and as a Moderator of the Laggan Presbytery. Robert addressed his noted letter on Justification to his older brother, William. Both Robert and William, as well as their father, suffered persecution; William, having been imprisoned for preaching in Ireland, came to America after his release from prison in 1682, where he ministered to the people of Rehoboth, Maryland, possibly serving as their first pastor, until his return to Scotland in 1690.

Today we consider an extract from some spiritual counsel written by William Traill for a private lady in 1708, which was abridged and republished in 1841 under the title “Necessary and Excellent Advice About Some Duties.”

Follow Christ, by taking up the cross that he has appointed for you , and by faith lean upon him for strength and succour, to bear you up under its burden from day to day. Observe your daily deficiencies and short-comings, and press forward that you may know more of the spirit, life, and power of every duty. Keep constant watch against your easily-besetting sins, and take heed that, by a sudden surprisal, they do not prevail against you. Particularly inquire whether you are not tempted to unbelief, and calling in question almost every truth — whether you are not sinfully jealous of the love of God to your soul, after the multiplied evidences of his care — whether affected diffidence, impatient haste, rash and uncharitable censures of others, are not found in your heart— whether you regard the proper season for every duty, and daily labour to “redeem the time" — whether in circumstances of difficulty you ask yourself, what would my Lord and Saviour have done in this case? and do likewise whether you mind his own blessed rule, “Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you , do ye even so to them .” Learn to remember your latter end, “to die daily" — adventure upon nothing but what appears to be your duty, both lawful and seasonable, and such as you would adventure upon, if you had but a day to live.

Read the rest of his spiritual counsel here, and take note of this remarkable pioneer Presbyterian who helped pave the way for the planting of the Presbyterian Church in America. More about Traill can be found in L.P. Bowen’s The Days of Makemie (1885) and Makemie and Rehoboth (1912); J.W. McIlvain, Early Presbyterianism in Maryland (1890); C.A. Briggs, American Presbyterianism (1885); Alfred Nevin, History of the Presbytery of Philadelphia (1888); among other records of pioneer Presbyterianism in America.

HT: Matthew Vogan

Joseph Wilson's Presbyterian Historical Almanac now at Log College Press

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In 1859, one of the great historical and biographical contributions to the American Presbyterian Church was first published in Philadelphia by a young man named Joseph M. Wilson. Over the next decade, The Presbyterian Historical Almanac, and Annual Remembrancer of the Church became a very well-respected and indeed invaluable resource for the church of his day and for future historians.

There is some irony in the fact that this publisher of Presbyterian literature who did so much to memorialize the lives and contributions of others is shrouded in biographical mystery himself. In fact, some of his publications have been attributed erroneously to another Joseph M. Wilson who lived from 1838 to 1902. We believe that Wilson was born in Philadelphia in 1822. We are not sure when he died, but it does not appear that he published anything after 1868.

Operating from his place of business in downtown Philadelphia, during a very active span during the 1850s and 1860s, among the titles that Wilson published were:

  • Alfred Nevin, Churches of the Valley: or, An Historical Sketch of the Old Presbyterian Congregations of Cumberland and Franklin Counties, in Pennsylvania (1852);

  • Joseph H. Jones, The Attainments of Men in Secular and Religious Knowledge, Contrasted: A Sermon (1854);

  • Richard Webster, A History of the Presbyterian Church in America (1857);

  • Cortlandt Van Rensselaer, A Discussion on Slaveholding with George Armstrong (1858);

  • Stuart Robinson, The Church of God as an Essential Element of the Gospel (1858); and

  • Cortlandt Van Rensselaer, God Glorified by Africa: An Address Delivered on December 31, 1856 (1859).

Source: S. Austin Allibone, A Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors (1908), Vol. 3, p. 2781.

Source: S. Austin Allibone, A Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors (1908), Vol. 3, p. 2781.

At Log College Press, we are delighted to report that Wilson’s magnum opus, The Presbyterian Historical Almanac, and Annual Remembrancer of the Church, in ten volumes, has been uploaded here and is available for your perusal. We have often consulted these volumes as a valuable source of historical and biographical information. Wilson aimed at unity of the church, and his almanac spans all the main branches of American Presbyterianism. Not only ecclesiastical reports and updates — rendered during a critical period of time — and biographical sketches are found therein, but also portraits and illustrations of great interest.

What Wilson wrote in 1868 (the year of reunion) is a fitting summary of his goal in producing this Almanac and Remembrancer:

The main object of the work from its commencement has been to place upon permanent record the current history of every branch of the Presbyterian Church. To show that these Annual Chronicles meet the wants of those who are intelligently active in advancing the interests of Presbyterianism, I refer to what has already been accomplished:

I. Over five hundred and fifty Acts and Deliverances have been fully recorded, also —

II. Many judicial cases involving questions coming within the purview of Ecclesiastical Law.

III. Full accounts of various organizations, whereby the Church carries on its benevolent operations.

IV. Histories of Churches and Theological Seminaries,

V. Statistics of Churches, Boards and Committees.

VI. Lists of Ministers, giving the names and post-office of every Presbyterian minister in the world.

VII. Biographies of Presbyterian ministers who have died during the period covered by the publication of the Almanac, numbering between twelve and thirteen hundred.

VIII. Manses, being comfortable homes for Presbyterian ministers, free of rent, have been constantly urged upon the Church, and this subject is pre-eminently worthy of serious and active consideration.

IX. Libraries for Manses and Periodical Associations have been pleaded for and their importance demonstrated.

X. Statistical Tables, valuable as well as interesting.

The Almanac has also labored for the reunion of the Church; which, owing partly to the strong protesting element among Presbyterians, was divided into at least thirty branches, ranging in numbers from fourteen ministers up to twenty-eight hundred; and, though belonging to the same household of faith, the thin partitions thus erected tended to keep them apart.

In the Almanac these branches were brought together, and as the members thereof examined the "Records" — it was a bond of mutual sympathy to know that they all contended for the truth with the same zeal — were as keenly alive to the necessity resting upon them to extend the blessings of Christianity in our own and in foreign lands — to provide for the religious instruction of the children — to educate the rising ministry — to guard the declining years of the aged and infirm ministers, and tenderly care for the widows and orphans; and though thus engaged in advancing the interests of our common Christianity, and though one in spirit and believing in one Lord, one Faith and one Baptism, they were not organically one.

The influence exerted by the Almanac, however, in thus placing Presbyterians together in the same volume, naturally leads earnest and thoughtful members of the Church to the consideration of the question. Shall these divisions continue? — to which there is but one reply, viz.. Reunion. That work has begun. In the Almanac will be found the union of the Associate and Associate Reformed, forming The United Presbyterian Church of North America; The Presbyterian and the United Presbyterian, forming the Canada Presbyterian Church; The Synod and the Free Church of Nova Scotia, forming the Presbyterian Church of the Lower Provinces of British North America; and this latter body with the Synod of New Brunswick; the Presbyterian bodies in Australasia; The Presbyterian Church in the United States with the United Synod. In all these cases the "Basis" of "Union" is fully recorded, and in this volume will be found reunion indications distinct and significant; and so the work goes on; and will not every one join in the prayer of our Saviour, as given in the seventeenth chapter of the Evangelist John, and earnestly strive for the time when UNITY shall be the blessed condition of The Presbyterian Church throughout the world?

Now 21st century readers at Log College Press can take advantage of this invaluable ecclesiastical resource. Read Wilson’s Historical Almanac and Annual Remembrancer as a labor of love for the unity of the church, and these volumes will reward you well.

At the border of Immanuel's Land: Last words of John H. Rice

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The following instances, in which some of God's dear ministering servants, as representatives of many of 'like precious faith,' when they reached the borders of the river between them and Immanuel's land, glanced at the hills and heard something of the harmony and inhaled the fragrance blown across, are replete with interest, and should not fail to be read with profit. — Alfred Nevin, How They Died; or, Last Words of American Presbyterian Ministers (1883), pp. 11-12

Among the stories told by Nevin of faithful ministers whose last words still echo today is that of John Holt Rice (on p. 44). But for a fuller account of this particular story, we turn to the memoirs of Dr. Rice, first professor of Union Theological Seminary (then located at Hampden Sydney, Virginia), by William Maxwell and Philip Barbour Price.

As they describe “the last scene,” it was Saturday evening, September 3, 1831, and 53 year-old Rice was laying on his sick bed in agony. Many had visited him that day, and all knew that the end was near. A little bit of opium was administered to him to ease the pain. He spent time in silent prayer. Then, in Price’s words,

About 9 o'clock, rising suddenly, he threw his arms around the neck of Mrs. Rice, and with a clear, bright eye beaming with heavenly joy, exclaimed, "Mercy is — " The last word died upon his lips. "Was it ‘great’?" said Mrs. Goodrich. "No," replied Mrs. Rice, "it was a longer word." In the dim twilight of receding consciousness the dying Christian perceived that he was not understood; and, lest he should fail in the delivery of his last testimony, with great exertion, recovering his strength, he exclaimed, "Mercy is triumphant."

His head fell upon his bosom, and the words "he is gone" were uttered around the room.

Dr. Horton gently released his arms and laid him upon his pillow, and with a few more signs of breathing he expired.

Thus did he exchange “this mortal coil” for Paradise. And so entered into glory a man whose passion for spreading the gospel in Virginia and around the world was surpassed by none. Of him it might well be said, “Do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel?” (2 Sam. 3:38) While his earthly remains were laid to rest at the cemetery of his beloved seminary, his hope was in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, whose mercy indeed is triumphant over all.

Rice, John Holt gravestone photo.jpg

Stepping Heavenward at Log College Press

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Even in the 21st century, Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Payson Prentiss constitutes one the most beloved spiritual classics in print today. It comes from the pen of a 19th century American Presbyterian writer, who left a legacy of literature for young ladies, in particular, which has recently been added to Log College Press.

The daughter of the famous Congregationalist minister Edward Payson, and later the wife of Presbyterian minister George Lewis Prentiss, at the age of 12 Elizabeth made a profession of faith at the Bleecker Street Presbyterian Church in New York City.

She returned to New York City in 1851, but within a year, she lost two of her children. The sufferings in her life inspired her writings. As she once said, “Much of my experience of life has cost me a great price and I wish to use it for strengthening and comforting other souls.” This quote comes from The Life and Letters of Elizabeth Prentiss, published by her husband. Alfred Nevin, in the Encyclopedia of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, tell us that “Her memoir…is one of the most beautiful of religious biographies.”

Take time to read her famous classic, as well as her other writings, which are available here. See the publications of her husband here.

19th Century Bible Study Questions from A-Z

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The right question makes all the difference in the world - and not just in Jeopardy. The best interviewers, whether on TV or on podcasts, ask the best questions - the most insightful, the most difficult, the ones that make their subject squirm, or laugh, or angry, or transparent. Knowing the right questions to ask of a person, or a text, usually means the difference between understanding and ignorance.

In 1884, the Encyclopedia of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America was published by Alfred Nevin. The following questions were included in it, as a guide for reading the New Testament in particular, but can be applied to the whole Bible. Helpfully, they are listed in alphabetical form. Keep these handy wherever you read and study God’s word.

In the study of the New Testament, and of the gospels especially, we need to inquire and compare. The inspired writings are infinitely rich in truth, and each verse is so connected with the rest that an intelligent inquirer may easily extend its investigations from one passage over the whole of Scripture. Without attempting to exhaust topics of inquiry, we mention the following :

A. What analogies between sensible and spiritual things may be here traced ?

A1. What prophecy is here accomplished? where found? when written? what rule of interpretation is illustrated?

B. What blessing is here sought or acknowledged, or promised, and why?

C. What custom is here referred to ?

C1. What trait of character is here given? good or bad? belonging to our natural or our renewed state? what advantages are connected with it?

D. What doctrine is here taught? how illustrated? what its practical influence ?

D1. What duty is here enforced, and how? from what motives ?

D2. What difficulty is here found in history or doctrine? how explained?

E. What evangelical or other experience is here recorded?

E1. What example is here placed before us? of sin or of holiness? lessons?

F. What facts are here related? what doctrine or duty do they illustrate? do you commend or blame them, and why ?

G. What is the geographical position of this country, or place? and what its history ?

H. What facts of natural history or of general history are here referred to or illustrated?

I. What institution or ordinance is here mentioned? On whom bindling? what its design? what its connection with other institutions?

I1. What instructions may be gathered from this fact, or parable, or miracle?

K. What knowledge of human nature, or want of knowledge, is here displayed?

L. What lofty expressions of devotional fervor?

L1. What Levitical institute is here mentioned? why appointed?

M. What miracle is here recorded? by whom wrought? in whose name? what were its results? what taught?

N. What is worthy of notice in this name?

P. What prohibition is here given? is it word, or thought, or deed it condemns?

P1. What is the meaning of the parable here given? what truth as to God, Christ, man, "the kingdom," is taught?

P2. What promise is here given? to whom?

R. What prophecy is here recorded? is it fulfilled? how? when?

S. What sin is here exposed?

S1. What sect is here introduced? mention its tenets.

T. What type is here traced?

T. What threatening? when inflicted?

U. What unjustifiable action of a good man? what unusual excellence in one not pious?

W. What woe is here denounced? what warning given? against whom, and why?

X. What is here taught of the work, character, person of Christ?

X1. What sublimity of thought or of language is here? what inference follows ?

The Pastor in the Sick-Room by John D. Wells

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John Dunlap Wells (1815-1903) was licensed to preach the gospel in 1842, and graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1844, learning, as he reports, "at the feet of Dr. Archibald Alexander, Dr. Samuel Miller, Dr. Charles Hodge and Dr. Joseph Addison Alexander, all of blessed memory." In his 61-year ministry as a pastor, he attended "hundreds" of sick beds and death beds, and acquired a store of wisdom that is shared both his The Last Week in the Life of Davis Johnson, Jr. (1861), and, most especially, in the three lectures he delivered at Princeton in 1892 and which were published a year later under the title The Pastor in the Sick-Room. 

In this latter volume, which is permeated with compassion for the suffering and the lost, Wells distinguishes between the sick bed and the death bed, while also emphasizing the connection between body and mind, and the need to deal lovingly and wisely with the whole person in all their circumstances. In the context of his discussion of death-bed conversions, he also recounts famous last words by various Christians (in a fashion similar to Alfred Nevin's How They Died; or, The Last Words of American Presbyterian Ministers). 

For those who minister to the sick and suffering and dying, this book will serve as an encouragement to do so in love and with compassion for the bodies, minds and souls of those in the greatest need. "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me: (Matt. 25:34-36).

Note: This was originally posted on March 6, 2018 (slight edits have been made in today’s post).