What's New at Log College Press? — September 1, 2023

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Dear Friends,

As summer draws to a close, we wish to give an update on what’s been happening at Log College Press. Our virtual shelves are filling up with old Presbyterian books, articles, poetry and manuscripts. We recently reached a milestone of sorts - there are now over 20,000 works available to read at Log College Press.

In a year of celebration and remembrance, we have previously paid tribute to John Witherspoon’s 300th birthday (Feb. 5, 1723); Thomas Murphy’s 200th birthday (Feb. 6, 1823); the 100th anniversary of Robert P. Kerr’s passing (March 25, 1923); the 250th anniversary of Joseph Caldwell’s passing (April 21, 1773); the 150th anniversary of William H. McGuffey’s passing (May 4, 1873); A.A. Hodge’s 200th birthday (July 18, 1823); the 150th anniversary of Gardiner Spring’s passing (Aug. 18, 1873); the 150th anniversary of Thomas Smyth’s passing (Aug. 20, 1873); and we are looking ahead to the 300th birthday of Samuel Davies (Nov. 3, 1723). These anniversaries are reminders of the rich heritage of American Presbyterianism, and how these men have contributed in their own ways to shaping our history. As we like to say, there is no time like the present to study the past.

Meanwhile, to return to the here and now, members of the Dead Presbyterian Society have special access to certain features on this website, which include the Early Access and Recent Additions page, as well as the DPS quote blog, and the Log College Review. We wish to draw your attention to notable works of interest that have added recently.

Some highlights at the Early Access page:

  • Samuel Davies, Travel Diary (1753-1754) — A kind and helpful supporter of our work noticed that some handwritten manuscript journals have been digitized by the Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, including Davies’ diary which covers a portion of his trip to Great Britain to raise funds for the College of New Jersey (Princeton).

  • William Henry Foote, Journal (3 volumes, 1794-1869) — This is a remarkable manuscript journal (written in beautiful penmanship) which covers almost the entirety of Foote’s life, and includes newspaper clippings, family history, ecclesiastical records (some pertinent to the founding of the Presbyterian Church, C.S.A.), and much more.

  • Francis Alison, Peace and Union Recommended (1758) — A notable sermon preached by an Old Side divine at the opening of the synod at which the Old and New Sides were reunited.

  • David Bostwick, Self Disclaimed and Christ Exalted (1758) — A powerful sermon on the words from John 3:30: “He must increase but I must decrease.”

  • Jonathan Dickinson, A Sermon, Preached at the Opening of the Synod at Philadelphia, September 19, 1722 (1723) and A Vindication of God’s Sovereign Free Grace (1746).

  • Samuel Finley, The Curse of Meroz; or, The Danger of Neutrality, in the Cause of God, and Our Country (1757) — A notable patriotic sermon preached during the French and Indian War.

Some highlights at the Recent Additions page:

On the Log College Review:

  • Reviews by Jonathan Peters: Review of Francis R. Flournoy, Benjamin Mosby Smith: 1811-1893 (1947) [2023], and Review of William E. Thompson, In Stonewall’s Long Shadow: James Power Smith, Aide de Camp (2020) [first appeared in The Confessional Presbyterian 18 (2022)].

Meanwhile, please feel free to browse the many resources available to our readers in print and in digital format. We appreciate hearing from our readers if they find matters needing correction, or if they have questions about authors or works on the site, or if they have suggestions for additions to the site. Your feedback helps the experience of other readers as well. Thank you, as always, for your interest and support. Stay tuned for more good things to come.

Andrew W. Blackwood: How Christ Enables Me to Solve My Problems

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The noted Presbyterian preacher and homiletics professor Andrew Watterson Blackwood (1882-1966) was a tireless worker for Christ. But twice in his life he was sidelined by “nervous breakdowns,” the first of which occurred while he was studying at Princeton. Later in life, he wrote an account of the lessons learned from those experiences. It appears in Jay E. Adams, The Homiletical Innovations of Andrew W. Blackwood, pp. 42-43.

HOW CHRIST ENABLES ME TO SOLVE MY PROBLEMS

In 1905 I suffered a nervous and physical breakdown, which lasted almost a year. In 1936 I had another breakdown, much worse, which kept me from teaching and preaching for a year and a half. Partly through a kind physician who loved the Lord, I regained health and strength of body and mind. During the past 18 years the Lord has enabled me to carry a full-time load as a professor, to conduct divine services almost every Lord’s Day in the past few years, and to write 18 books, 15 of them for ministers, and all 15 still on the active list. Now I am four years beyond the seminary’s age of retirement, and still He gives me work to do, with strength to do it, day by day, and peace of heart.

So I gladly accept an invitation to testify, not in a spirit of boastfulness, but of gratitude. As our late friend and neighbor Albert Einstein once told Mrs. Blackwood, with reference to his work in science, “I have nothing but what I have received.” He was thinking about greatness in the eyes of men; I am giving thanks for goodness from the hand of God….

…Gradually the Lord has taught me how to live from day to day, as ever in His sight. He has been teaching me what I should have learned as a young minister. Once I asked an older man, active and honored in state and church, “How is it that in a day, a year, or a lifetime you can do more work and better work than any person I have ever known?” He smiled as he told me, “My Lord taught me a long while ago to live without worry, work without hurry, and look forward without fear.” That sounds like Philippians 4:6, 7.

Looking back, I can see that apart from physical causes my breakdowns came from my shortcomings and failures, due no doubt to ambition. I had not learned to live and work and hope in the spirit of my older friend. Neither had I gained mastery over despondency, insomnia, and related disorders, which ought to have no place in a life where the Spirit dwells. I had not even learned how to deal with my body as my father, a horse-and-buggy doctor, took care of his team, and as I, a typical Scotsman, try to take care of my automobile. I do not mean that I ever drank, or abused my body in various other ways, but that I suffered from stress and strain, self-imposed, with resulting worry and waste. Friction in my soul!

Now as I look forward the sunset years I trust that I shall keep on learning how to live day by day, as ever in His sight. With Paul I hope that I shall always feel able to say, “for me to live is Christ”; and with Browning, “The best part is yet to be.” “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood .and righteousness.” Hence I look forward to the unseen world with peace, with hope, and with more than a few foretastes of heaven’s joy. I hope, too, that I shall not meet my Lord with empty hands and a broken heart.

Andrew W. Blackwood