Stonewall Jackson's 200th Birthday

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Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson was born 200 years ago on this day in history, January 21, 1824, in Clarksburg, Virginia (now West Virginia). Fatherless at the age of two, and an orphan by the age of seven, Tom Jackson went on attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and then served with distinction in the Mexican-American War. It was in 1849 that Jackson was baptized by an Episcopal minister. In 1851, he was appointed to the position of Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy, or Physics, and Instructor of Artillery at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. He also joined the Lexington Presbyterian Church that same year, and would later serve the church as a deacon. He also led a Sabbath school class for African-Americans in Lexington, both free and enslaved, in defiance of a state law which opposed literacy for slaves. He married his first wife, Elinor (“Ellie”) Junkin, daughter of George Junkin, in 1853, but she died shortly after giving birth to a stillborn child the following year. He married Mary Anna Morrison, daughter of Robert Hall Morrison, in 1857. The couple had one child who survived infancy, Julia Jackson, born in 1862.

The War Between the States led Jackson into service on behalf of his beloved Commonwealth of Virginia. He had remarkable success leading his men, including the famous “Stonewall Brigade,” in battles at Manassas (where he earned the famous nickname “Stonewall”), and throughout the Shenandoah Valley, rising to the rank of Lieutenant General. On May 2, 1863, he was shot by friendly fire at Chancellorsville, leading to the amputation of his left arm, after which his commander, Robert E. Lee, sent this message: “Give General Jackson my affectionate regards, and say to him: he has lost his left arm but I my right.” After pneumonia set in, Jackson passed away on May 10, 1863, and was later buried in Lexington, Virginia. Hunter McGuire wrote of his final moments on earth:

A few moments before he died he cried out in his delirium, "Order A. P. Hill to prepare for action! Pass the infantry to the front rapidly! Tell Major Hawks," then stopped, leaving the sentence unfinished. Presently a smile of ineffable sweetness spread itself over his pale face, and he cried quietly and with an expression as if of relief, "Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees"; and then, without pain or the least struggle, his spirit passed from earth to the God who gave it.

Jackson was a tremendously self-disciplined man, and lived by the Bible, and personal maxims, such as “You may be whatever you resolve to be”; “If you desire to be more heavenly-minded, think more of the things of Heaven and less of the things of Earth”; and “Duty is ours; consequences are God’s.” He was a modest man who, in the words of D.H. Hill, “would blush like a school-girl at a compliment.”

Stories of his faith abound, including this account from his wife’s 1892 biography:

This same friend once asked him what was his understanding of the Bible command to be 'instant in prayer' and to 'pray without ceasing.' 'I can give you,' he said, 'my idea of it by illustration, if you will allow it, and will not think that I am setting myself up as a model for others. I have so fixed the habit in my own mind that I never raise a glass of water to my lips without lifting my heart to God in thanks and prayer for the water of life. Then, when we take our meals, there is the grace. Whenever I drop a letter in the post-office, I sent a petition along with it for God's blessing upon its mission and the person to whom it is sent. When I break the seal of a letter just received, I stop to ask God to prepare me for its contents, and make it a messenger of good. When I go to my class-room and await the arrangements of the cadets in their places, that is my time to intercede with God for them. And so in every act of the day I have made the practice habitual.'

'And don't you sometimes forget to do this?' asked his friend.

'I can hardly say that I do; the habit has become almost as fixed as to breathe.' — Mary Anna Jackson, Life and Letters of General Thomas J. Jackson (Stonewall Jackson) (1892), pp. 72-73

Another comes from Brigadier-General John D. Imboden (CSA) and appears in 𝐵𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐿𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑙 𝑊𝑎𝑟, Vol. 1 (1887), p. 238:

I remarked, in Mrs. Jackson's hearing, 'General, how is it that you can keep so cool, and appear so utterly insensible to danger in such a storm of shell and bullets as rained about you when your hand was hit [at the First Battle of Bull Run/Manassas]?' He instantly became grave and reverential in his manner, and answered, in a low tone of great earnestness: 'Captain, my religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed. God has fixed the time for my death. I do not concern myself about 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡, but to be always ready, no matter when it may overtake me.' He added, after a pause, looking me full in the face: 'Captain, that is the way all men should live, and then all would be equally brave.'

Robert L. Dabney, who served as Jackson’s chief of staff during the War, wrote of his concern to uphold the Christian Sabbath, even to the extent of

His convictions of the sin committed by the Government of the United States, in the unnecessary transmission of mails, and the consequent imposition of secular labor on the Sabbath day, upon a multitude of persons, were singularly strong. His position was, that if no one would avail himself of these Sunday mails, save in cases of true and unavoidable necessity, the letters carried would be so few that the sinful custom would speedily be arrested, and the guilt and mischief prevented. Hence, he argued, that as every man is bound to do whatever is practicable and lawful for him to do, to prevent the commission of sin, he who posted or received letters on the Sabbath day, or even sent a letter which would occupy that day in travelling, was responsible for a part of the guilt. It was of no avail to reply to him, that this self-denial on the part of one Christian would not close a single post-office, nor arrest a single mail-coach in the whole country. His answer was, that unless some Christians would begin singly to practise their exact duty, and thus set the proper example, the reform would never be begun; that his responsibility was to see to it that he, at least, was not particeps criminis; and that whether others would co-operate, was their concern, not his. — Robert L. Dabney, Life and Campaigns of Lieut.-Gen. Thomas J. Jackson (Stonewall Jackson) (1866), p. 88

Jackson would be the first to acknowledge that he was a sinner, in need of the grace of Jesus Christ every hour. His list of maxims shows the kind of man he strived to be, and by all accounts from those around him, including his opponents, he was the model of a Christian gentleman, as well as a Christian soldier. We honor him two centuries after he entered this world in part because he was a heavenly-minded man who did much earthly good.

Log College Press and the Movies

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For those who enjoy the cinema, there are some interesting ties between American Presbyterians on Log College Press and the movies.

  • The 2003 film Gods and Generals, which tells the story of the War Between the States largely from the points of one military officer from the North and one from the South, features Stephen Lang who played Stonewall Jackson (Presbyterian deacon) and Martin Clark as Dr. George Junkin (Presbyterian minister, and Jackson’s father-in-law).

  • Francis J. Grimké and Matthew Anderson once had occasion to watch a film together - D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915). The movie is famous for its positive portrayal of the Klu Klux Klan, which Grimké noted in his review. He vehemently critiqued the film for its apparent effort to excite racial prejudice against African-Americans.

  • J.G. Machen was a Charlie Chaplin fan, according to D.G. Hart, who commented, writing in Defending the Faith: J. Gresham Machen and the Crisis of Conservative Protestantism in Modern America, pp. 164, 207:

The final issue that split fundamentalist and traditionalist Presbyterians concerned personal morality. In [James Oliver] Buswell's estimation this was the proverbial straw that would break the camel's back. Those in the church who sided with him, Buswell wrote (in what turned out to be his last letter to Machen), were concerned about reports that Westminster students used liquor in their rooms "with the approval of some members of the faculty." The use of alcohol, even in the celebration of the sacrament, he added, was "far more likely" to divide the church than "any question of eschatology." Buswell and other fundamentalists in the church were also "shocked" by leaders of the new denomination who defended "the products of Hollywood," a "useless,...waste of energy." Machen never responded to Buswell but his opposition to Prohibition provides a clue to his views on alcohol. In addition to opposing the expanded powers of the federal government that the Eighteenth Amendment granted, Machen also thought the Bible allowed moderate use of alcohol. This was also the position of the majority of faculty at Westminster who came from ethnic churches were the idea of total abstinence with American evangelicalism was foreign. As for Buswell's reference to Hollywood, Machen did enjoy going to the movies and commented favorably on Charlie Chaplin but did not make any remarks about film in his published writings.10

10. Buswell to Machen, December 4, 1936, MA. On Machen's fondness for movies, see, for example, his letters to his mother, May 14, 1913, March 11 and August 23, 1914, MA.

These are a few of the curious and fascinating connections between Hollywood and American Presbyterianism to be found at Log College Press. As we say here, even in regards to culture:

THE PAST IS NOT DEAD. 
PRIMARY SOURCES ARE NOT INACCESSIBLE.
18TH-19TH CENTURY AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANS ARE NOT IRRELEVANT.

Some Pastors' Wives who were Prolific Writers

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The Child’s Story Bible [by Catherine Vos] was such a success that it sold more copies than all Geerhardus’s books combined. — Danny E. Olinger, Geerhardus Vos: Reformed Biblical Theologian, Confessional Presbyterian, p. 273

When we think of the most prolific or best-selling writers on Log College Press, names like B.B. Warfield, Archibald Alexander and Samuel Miller may come to mind. But some of the most prolific writers were often pastors’ wives, and, in some cases, as writers, out-sold their husbands. It is worth taking notes of some of their names and stories.

  • Isabella Macdonald Alden — The wife of Rev. Gustavus Rosenberg Alden, Mrs. Alden was the author of over 200 books, most written under the pen name “Pansy” (a childhood nickname), and contributed as a journalist and editor as well. Her literary fame was world-wide and she received much fan mail, responding to each letter individually. Rev. Francis E. Clark once said, “Probably no writer of stories for young people has been so popular or had so wide an audience as Mrs. G. R. Alden, whose pen-name, ‘Pansy,’ is known wherever English books are read.”

  • Charlotte Forten Grimké — Both before and after her 1878 marriage to Rev. Francis James Grimké, Charlotte was a poet, diarist and author of articles and essays. Her contribution to African-American literature is still greatly appreciated today.

  • Elizabeth Payson Prentiss — Mrs. Prentiss, author of Stepping Heavenward, was the wife of Rev. George Lewis Prentiss, author of her biography. Elizabeth wrote dozens of books, as well as poetry and hymns. Stepping Heavenward sold over 200,000 copies in the 19th century, and since a 1992 reprint was issued, at least another 100,000 copies have been sold.

  • Harriet Beecher Stowe — The wife of Rev. Calvin Ellis Stowe, Harriet is best known as the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. But she also wrote around 30 novels, plus articles and letters. She was a celebrity to many, infamous to others, but her writings were an important factor in the momentous events of 1861. Uncle Tom’s Cabin sold over 2 million copies worldwide by 1857 (5 years after its publication) and to date it has been translated into 70 languages.

  • Mary Virginia Hawes Terhune — Mrs. Terhune, wife of Rev. Edward Payson Terhune, was known by her pen name, Marion Harland. She was the author of many novels, short stories, cookbooks, books on etiquette and more. She gave birth to six children, three of whom survived into adulthood - all three became successful writers as well. Her autobiography contains many fascinating insights into the Presbyterian circles in which she participated in Virginia, such as her remarks on the anti-slavery convictions of Mrs. Anne Rice, wife of Rev. John Holt Rice.

Other prolific female Presbyterian writers, married (whose spouses were not ministers) or unmarried, include:

  • Pearl Sydenstricker Buck — Mrs. Buck, daughter of a missionary, Rev. Absalom Sydenstricker, and the wife of agricultural missionary John Lossing Buck (until they divorced) and Richard J. Walsh, is well-known for her liberal convictions and for her role in the upheaval that led to Rev. J. Gresham Machen’s departure from the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. Her 1931 novel The Good Earth won her a Pulitzer Prize, and in 1938 she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in recognition of her writings on China.

  • Martha Farquaharson Finley — The author of the Elsie Dinsmore series and many more novels, Ms. Finley was a descendant of Samuel Finley and of Scottish Covenanters. Of the Elsie Dinsmore series, it has been said that it was “‘The most popular and longest running girl’s series of the 19th century,’ with the first volume selling nearly 300,000 copies in its first decade, going on to ‘sell more than 5 million copies in the 20th century.’”

  • Grace Livingston Hill — Niece of Isabella M. Alden, and daughter of Rev. Charles Montgomery Livingston and Mrs. Marcia B. Macdonald Livingston, she was a popular writer of over 100 books on her own, but also compiled the Pansies for Thoughts of her aunt, and they collaborated on other works as well.

  • Julia Lake Skinner Kellersberger — The wife of medical missionary Eugene Roland Kellersberger, both served the Presbyterian mission to the Belgian Congo. Mrs. Kellersberger wrote many books based on her experience, including a noted biography of Althea Maria Brown Edmiston.

  • Margaret Junkin Preston — Known as the “Poet Laureate of the Confederacy,” Mrs. Preston was the wife of Major John Thomas Lewis Preston, a professor of Latin at the Virginia Military Institute; the daughter of Rev. George Junkin; and the brother-in-law of Stonewall Jackson. Her literary productions were many, and she was a beloved poet of the South.

  • Julia McNair Wright — A very popular writer of books for children, including historical novels and introductions to science, and more, Mrs. Wright (wife of mathematician William James Wright), was a remarkable author, whose works were translated into many languages. Her The Complete Home: An Encyclopedia of Domestic Life and Affairs, Embracing all the Interests of the Household sold over 100,000 copies.

These brief notices show that there are a number of popular women Presbyterian writers from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Their bibliographies are lengthy, their legacies in some cases enduring to the present day, and their impact has been culturally significant. The work of adding all of their published writings is ongoing and in some cases far from complete at the present. We hope to make much more progress with each of these writers. The corpus of their literary productions is a real treasure.

Uncle Jack's martyrdom: "I am not afraid"

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When John Walker Vinson arrived as a Southern Presbyterian missionary at Sutsein, North Kiangsu, China on February 4, 1907, he soon met a young lady already stationed there, Miss Jeanie deForest Junkin, daughter of Rev. Ebenezer Dickey Junkin and grand-daughter of Rev. George Junkin. He would come to be affectionately known to younger missionaries as “Uncle Jack,” but meanwhile was immediately smitten by the sight of this young lady, who became his wife a year later. They had six children, but only three survived to adulthood. Both Jack and Jeanie experienced severe health problems, and in 1923, Jeanie passed away soon after giving birth to a daughter.

Some years later, Jack, following an operation in Shanghai, nevertheless made a 30-mile trip from his station at Haizhou to the little country town of Yang- Djia-Gee, where he often ministered to the saints who lived there, some of whom he had baptized previously. While he was staying at the Christian Chapel there, a bandit army 600-strong arrived, captured many of the town’s inhabitants, and Jack as well. After learning what had happened, government forces were dispatched to deal with the crisis.

E.H. Hamilton, in his account of Vinson’s life and death, describes what happened next:

The bandit chief, realizing the perilous situation, came to Mr. Vinson, and asked him, “Do you want to go free?”

“Certainly,” came the reply.

“All right. If you will write a letter to the general of that army, and get him to withdraw his troops, I will let you go free,” said the bandit chief.

“Will you also release all these Chinese captives you are holding?” the missionary asked.

“Certainly not,” answered the bandit chief.

“Then neither will I go free,” said Mr. Vinson; and although the bandit chief was livid with rage, and vehement in his threats, the frail man before him was adamant.

During the night, the bandits, who were surrounded, attempted to break out and escape. They incurred heavy losses, and around 125 of the 150 prisoners managed to escape. Because of his condition, Jack was not able to escape, nor was he able to walk as the bandits fled the area with him and the other remaining captives. Hamilton continues:

A little girl, the daughter of a Chinese evangelist, was one of the captives of the bandits. The child afterward told how she had seen and heard a bandit trying to intimidate Mr. Vinson. She said the bandit pointed a gun at Mr. Vinson’s head, and said, “Aren’t you afraid?”

“No, I am not afraid,” came the answer.

And again, “I’m going to kill you. Aren’t you afraid?”

Once more the man of God replied, “NO, I AM NOT AFRAID. If you kill me, I will go right to Heaven.”

It was then that Jack was shot and killed, and beheaded.

Hamilton writes that “In his death Jack Vinson preached to more people than he ever had at one time in his life.” He also proposes to ask the reader a question, one that in various forms many believers have faced through the ages.

What would you do if you were held captive by a gang of ruthless bandits, and one of them came up to you— while your hands were bound—and pointing a pistol at your head, said, “I’m going to kill you. Aren’t you afraid?”

That was not a hypothetical question to Jack Vinson. It was grim reality, in North Kiangsu, China, November 2nd, 1931. What he did, and the reply he made, have both thrilled and strengthened the people of God in many lands. And by his answer he has earned a place alongside:

Queen Esther — “If I perish, I perish.”

Nehemiah — “Should such a one as I flee?”

Paul — “What are you doing weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned, but even to die at Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus.” (Acts 21:13. RSV)

Martin Luther — “Though every tile on every roof in Worms be a demon, yet will I go there.”

And David Livingstone — “Who am I that I should fear? Nay, verily, I will take my bearings tonight, though they be my last.”

For Jack Vinson looked his tormenter in the eye, and calmly answered, “No, I am not afraid. If you kill me, I will go right to heaven.”

A poem that Hamilton wrote within minutes of hearing the news of the tragic but glorious death of his friend, Jack, reminds us of the saying of Ulrich Zwingli (who died in battle): “Not to fear is the armor.”

Afraid? Of what?
To feel the spirit’s glad release?
To pass from pain to perfect peace.
The strife and strain of life to cease?
Afraid—of that?

Afraid? Of what?
Afraid to see the Saviour’s face,
To hear His welcome, and to trace
The glory gleam from wounds of grace?
Afraid—of that?

Afraid? Of what?
A flash—a crash—a pierced heart;
Darkness—light—Oh, Heaven’s art!
A wound of His a counterpart!
Afraid—of that?

Afraid? Of what?
To enter into Heaven's rest,
And yet to serve the Master blest,
From service good to service best?
Afraid—of that?

Afraid? Of what?
To do by death what life could not:
Baptize with blood a stony plot,
Till souls shall blossom from the spot?
Afraid—of that?

In times of trial, we are thankful for the testimonies of saints who have faced life-or-death questions before and honored Christ with all of their being to receive an eternal reward. Read the full story of Vinson’s life here.

No God in the Constitution

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The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God (Ps. 9:17).

A concern of many 19th century Presbyterians regarding the American Constitution is that it omits any reverent acknowledgement of God Almighty. The failure to honor the God of nations in our national charter was noted in a previous post highlighting the remarks of George Duffield IV and George Junkin. Today’s post highlights a remark attributed to Vice-President Alexander Hamilton. The omission of God in the U.S. Constitution was noticed by Presbyterians even outside of the Covenanter Church (which from the beginning of America’s founding as a nation until the 1960’s held to the position of political dissent) very early in American history as we shall see.

Appended to Thomas Smyth’s 1860 sermon The Sin and the Curse are comments regarding this defect of the U.S. Constitution.

No God in the Constitution

“The name of God does not occur in the Constitution which they framed, nor any recognition of Divine Providence.”

As a fitting accompaniment to an article in last week’s Observer, of which the closing period forms an appropriate title to still another item of history, connected with the same subject, some of your readers wil be, perhaps, interested in an extract or two from one of the many Congratulatory Addresses presented to President Washington on his election as First President under the new Constitution, with his reply.

“The First Presbytery of the Eastward,” in their “Address to George Washington, President of the United States, after many pious congratulations, &c., proceed thus:

“Whatever any have supposed wanting in the original plan” [of the Constitution], “we are happy to see so wisely provided in its amendments; and it is with peculiar satisfaction that we behold how easily the entire confidence of the people, in the man who sits at the helm of government, has eradicated every remaing objection to its form.

“Among these we never considered the want of a religious test, that grand engine of persecution in every tyrant’s hand: but we should not have been alone in rejoicing, to have some explicit acknowledgment of the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent, inserted somewhere in the Magna Charta of our country, &c., &c.

“October 28, 1789.”
…
The venerable Dr. [John] Rodgers once met Alexander Hamilton, soon after the adoption of the Constitution of the United States and said to him, “Mr. Hamilton, I am grieved to see that you have neglected to acknowledge God in the Constitution.” Hamilton replied, “My dear sir, we forgot to do it.”

George Duffield V also took note of the reported conversation between John Rodgers and Alexander Hamilton in The God of Our Fathers: An Historical Sermon (1861).

Hamilton said to Dr. Rodgers, “Indeed, Dr., we forgot it!”

In the same sermon Duffield quotes the words of John Mitchell Mason:

“That no notice whatever should be taken of that God who planteth a nation, and plucketh it up at his pleasure, is an omission which no pretext whatever can palliate. Had such a momentous business been transacted by Mohammedans, they would have begun, “In the name of God.” Even the savages, whom we despise, setting a better example, would have paid some homage to the Great Spirit. But from the Constitution of the United States, it is impossible to ascertain what God we worship; or whether we own a God at all. * * Should the citizens of America be as irreligious as her Constitution, we will have reason to tremble, lest the Governor of the Universe, who will not be treated with indignity by a people, any more than by individuals, overturn, from its foundation, the fabric we have been rearing, and crush us to atoms in the wreck.” — Works of J.M. Mason, D.D., Vol. i., p. 50.

Hamilton’s biographer Ron Chernow, when speaking of the story of Hamilton’s quip about forgetting God, says: “One is tempted to reply that Alexander Hamilton never forgot anything important” (Alexander Hamilton, p. 235). James Renwick Willson would concur.

There is no acknowledgment of Almighty God, nor any, even the most remote, token of national subjection to Jehovah, the Creator. It is believed, that there never existed, previous to this constitution, any national deed like this, since the creation of the world. A nation having no God! In vain shall we search the annals of pagan Greece and Rome, of modern Asia, Africa, pagan America, and the isles of the sea — they have all worshipped some God. The United States have none — But here let us pause over this astounding fact. Was it a mere omission? Did the convention that framed the constitution forget to name the living God? Was this an omission in some moment of national phrenzy, when the nation forgot God? That, indeed, were a great sin. God says, “the nations that forget God, shall be turned into hell.” It was not, however, a thoughtless act, an undesigned omission. It was a deliberate deed, whereby God was rejected; and in the true atheistical spirit of the whole instrument, and of course, done with intent to declare national independence of the Lord of hosts (Prince Messiah's Claims to Dominion Over All Governments; and the Disregard of His Authority by the United States, in the Federal Constitution (1832), p. 25).

A critique of the U.S. Constitution by two 19th century PCUSA ministers

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While the U.S. Constitution was largely approved of by the Presbyterian Church of the 18th and 19th centuries (it is perhaps not a coincidence that the Synod of Philadelphia and New York, meeting in Philadelphia at the same time the Constitution Convention was meeting in the same city in May 1787, proposed amendments to the Westminster Confession of Faith, including to the chapter on the Civil Magistrate, which were approved of in 1788), there were some notable Presbyterian critics of our national charter.

Most famous was RPCNA pastor James Renwick Willson, who was burned in effigy in Albany, New York for the preaching and publication of his sermon “Prince Messiah's Claims to Dominion Over All Governments; and the Disregard of His Authority by the United States, in the Federal Constitution” (1832). Many objected to his argument that Christ and His law should be recognized in the U.S. Constitution, and others objected to his questioning whether George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were in fact Christian.

But Willson and the RPCNA generally were not alone in their concerns about the most fundamental principles embedded in the U.S. Constitution.

George Duffield IV (1794-1868) was a PCUSA pastor who preached an 1820 sermon titled "Judgment and Mercy: A Sermon, Delivered...On the Day of 'Humiliation, Thanksgiving, and Prayer.'" In this sermon he identified mercies granted by God to the United States, as well as particular national sins which incurred God's judgments. His grandfather, by the way, was a chaplain for the Continental Congress.

There is one [sin] strictly national, that commenced in the adoption of the federal constitution, which is the want of an acknowledgement in it of a Supreme Being, and of a divine revelation. Although an eminent Judge of a neighbouring state, one of the guardians of that constitution, has happily decided, that it is assumed in it, that the United States are a christian nation, and Christianity the religion of the country, yet, that all important engine of our national prosperity, is, in form at least entirely atheistical. Undoubtedly it were a great sin, to have forgotten God in such an important national instrument, and not to have acknowledged Him in that which forms the very nerves and sinews of the political body. He had led through all the perils of the revolutionary struggle, and had established us in peaceful and plentiful security, and then, to have been forgotten, in the period of prosperity, certainly demerited his rebuke. Therefore hath the voice of his providence proclaimed, and even still it sounds in our ears, I did know thee in the wilderness in the land of great drought. According to their pasture so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me. Therefore I will be unto them as a Lion: as a Leopard by the way will I observe them. Hosea, 13, 5–7.

Another sin for which we suffer, is a want of due respect, to the moral and religious qualifications, of those that are elevated to offices of trust and power. The question is too seldom asked, 'have such the fear of God before their eyes?' while on the other hand the sole inquiry instituted is 'will they suit and seek the interest of my party.' By the fear of the Lord, saith Solomon are riches and honour, Prov. 22, 4, as He himself had found it, and the fear of the Lord is not only the treasure of an individual, but forms in rulers, the chief permanent security of national wealth.

His proof texts for the second proposition were 2 Sam. 23.2-3 and 2 Chron. 19. Here he is addressing Art. VI, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution.

Another prominent critic of the U.S. Constitution, who nevertheless famously sided with the Union during the War which split both the nation and the mainline American Presbyterian church, was George Junkin, Sr. (1790-1868), father-in-law to Stonewall Jackson (and also a character in the 2003 movie Gods and Generals), published The Little Stone and the Great Image; or, Lectures on the Prophecies Symbolized in Nebuchadnezzar's Vision of the Golden Headed Monster (1844), in which he wrote (pp. 280-281):

The grand defect in the bond of our national union is the absence of the recognition of God as the Governor of this world. We have omitted — may it not be said refused? — to own him whose head wears many crowns, as having any right of dominion over us. The constitution of these United States contains no express recognition of the being of a God: much less an acknowledgment, that The Word of God, sways the sceptre of universal dominion. This is our grand national sin of omission. This gives the infidel occasion to glory, and has no small influence in fostering infidelity in affairs of state and among political men. That the nation will be blessed with peace and prosperity continuously, until this defect be remedied, no Christian philosopher expects. For this national insult, the Governor of the universe will lift again and again his rod of iron over our heads, until we be affrighted and give this glory to his name.

These comments by prominent 19th century American Presbyterians who were outside of the RPCNA reveal a remarkable inter-denominational alignment in their understanding of the relationship between church and state, one that is not well-remembered in the 21st century, an age which does not give much consideration to the concept of “national sins,” but which is nevertheless worthy of notice.