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.

Log College Press Remembers Thomas Chalmers

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Who is Thomas Chalmers, and what was his significance to 19th century American Presbyterianism?

Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847) was a Scottish Presbyterian churchman and a leader of the Free Church of Scotland, founded after the 1843 “Disruption.” A man of many interests and gifts, he contributed much to the church and the community in which he served. He is known for his eloquent sermons, his voluminous and edifying theological writings, and for his “West Port Experiment” in Edinburgh (1844-1847). He died on May 31, 1847.

J.W. Alexander highly commended the sermons of Thomas Chalmers and Samuel Davies (Letters, Vol. 1, p. 74).

Charles A. Aiken, in his 1879 Tribute to Charles Hodge, wrote that

It was my high privilege to spend with Dr. Chalmers the last evening but one of his life, Saturday, May 28, 1847. At sunrise on the ensuing Monday, the cry rang through Edinburgh, Dr. Chalmers is dead! Not to go into the details of that memorable interview, let it suffice to say, as bearing upon the passage in the text, that I have never received a more cordial and hearty greeting than that with which, taking both my hands in his own, he welcomed me to Morning-side. He had returned from London only the day before, and spoke of himself as being in unusually good health. All the benevolence of his character came out in his genial smile. His courtesy, his affability, the tones of his voice, the graciousness and even warmth of his whole manner, as he talked with me of grave questions with which the Free Church Assembly, then in session, was likely to be agitated, and the kindliness with which, on my rising to leave, he pressed an invitation for us (the ladies of my party had remained at the hotel that evening) to breakfast with him, first on Tuesday and then on Monday morning — all this made a lasting impression upon me so grateful and so vivid that I cannot at all take in that disparaging estimate of his own social nature which I have quoted from his "Sabbath Readings."

While Chalmers lived, and after his death, American Presbyterians wrote often to him and of him. Below are just some of the writings available on Log College Press that concern Chalmers directly.

  • Archibald Alexander, The Works of Doctor Chalmers (1841) and Chalmers’ Mental and Moral Philosophy (1848);

  • J.W. Alexander, The Works of Doctor Chalmers (1841) and Chalmers on Education and Ecclesiastical Economy (1842) [“Chalmers’s experiential preaching and active social philanthropy were of special interest to Alexander in the urban ministry settings where he labored.” — James M. Garretson, Thoughts on Preaching & Pastoral Ministry: Lessons From the Life and Writings of James W. Alexander, p. 296, note 46];

  • Charles Hodge, An Earnest Appeal to the Free Church of Scotland, on the Subject of Economics (1847);

  • Clarence E.N. Macartney, Thomas Chalmers (1919);

  • James McCosh, A Tribute to the Memory of Dr. Chalmers, By a Former Pupil (1847);

  • Alexander McLeod, Review of Thomas Chalmers on Astronomy (1817) and Review of Two Sermons by Thomas Chalmers (1818);

  • James C. Moffat, Life of Thomas Chalmers (1853)';

  • John Holt Rice, August 14, 1819 Letter to Thomas Chalmers (1819, 1835);

  • Thomas Smyth, The Character of the Late Thomas Chalmers, D.D., LL.D. and the Lessons of His Life From Personal Recollections (1847-1848) in Vol. 3 of Smyth’s Works (1908); and

  • William B. Sprague, On the Life and Death of Thomas Chalmers (1847).

Some notable American Presbyterians were, presumably, named for the great Scottish churchman, such as John Thomas Chalmers and Thomas Chalmers Vinson.

Respect was directed both ways across the Atlantic. According to William B. Sprague, Chalmers thought of Samuel Miller’s 1831 essay on The Warrant, Nature, and Duties of the Office of the Ruling Elder as “the very best work that has been given to the church on that subject.” (A Discourse Commemorative of the Rev. Samuel Miller, D.D. (1850), p. 29). (An extract from Miller’s February 28, 1831 letter to Chalmers may be read in The Life of Samuel Miller, Vol. 2, p. 167.)

Chalmers was beloved by both Scottish and American Presbyterians, and many others. We remember him today as we recall his entrance into glory nearly two centuries ago. Read more about him, starting with Moffat’s Life of Chalmers, and the tributes to him by James McCosh, Thomas Smyth and William B. Sprague.

American Presbyterians in Europe

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St. Augustine, when he speaks of the great advantages of travelling, says, that the world is a great book, and none study this book so much as a traveller. They that never stir from home read only one page of this book. -- John Feltham, The English Enchiridion (1799)

Like many today who might be itching to travel again, American Presbyterians in the 19th century also sought the benefits of a long voyage, and Europe was one particular favorite destination. Among the life experiences of authors found at Log College Press, trips to Europe are a recurring theme, and our Travelogue page highlights this.

The letters, journals, books and poetry that resulted from such trips are a valuable historical record of life on one side of the pond as viewed through the eyes of residents from the other side. In today’s post, we take a closer look at these memorials of their experiences.

  • James Waddel Alexander — J.W. Alexander traveled to England, France, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland on a six-month tour of Europe in 1851. He met Adolphe Monod in Paris. Later, in 1857, he returned to Europe and met Charles H. Spurgeon in England, and Thomas Guthrie in Scotland, while also visiting France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium. His reports on these travel experiences are recorded in Forty Years' Familiar Letters, and also in James W. Garretson, Thoughts on Preaching & Pastoral Ministry: Lessons from the Life and Writings of James W. Alexander.

  • Joseph Addison Alexander — J.A. Alexander spent a year in Europe (1833-1834). Time was spent in England, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy. From diary extracts given in H.C. Alexander’s The Life of Joseph Addison Alexander, we learn many fascinating details about the people he met, and the poems he wrote, inspired by his European travels.

  • Henry Martyn Baird — Baird spent much of his childhood in France and Switzerland, and then after graduating from the University of New York, lived in Greece and Italy during 1851-1853, and studied at the University of Athens. Besides his many written studies of the French Huguenots, he authored Modern Greece: A Narrative of a Residence and Travels in that Country (1856).

  • Robert Baird — Baird visited Europe many times as recorded in H.M. Baird’s biography The Life of the Rev. Robert Baird, D. D. (1866). Baird himself wrote about his travels in Visits to Northern Europe (1841) and Old Sights With New Eyes (1854). His travels also enabled him to write with personal knowledge about Protestantism in Italy.

  • John Henry Barrows — Barrows’ world travels, detailed in A World Pilgrimage (1897), included England, France, Germany, Greece and Italy.

  • Robert Jefferson Breckinridge — R.J. Breckinridge was appointed by the PCUSA General Assembly to serve as its representative in Europe, leading to a trip to England, France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. His travels are detailed in Memoranda of Foreign Travel (1839 and, in 2 vols., 1845).

  • George Barrell Cheever — Cheever’s journey though the French-Swiss Alps is recorded in Wanderings of a Pilgrim in the Shadow of Mont Blanc and the Jungfrau Alp (1848).

  • Theodore Ledyard Cuyler — Cuyler’s travels through England, France, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Greece, and the Czech Republic, are recorded in From the Nile to Norway and Homeward (1881).

  • George Duffield IV — Duffield’s travels were published in the Magazine of Travel during 1857, and later republished in Travels in the Two Hemispheres; or, Gleanings of a European Tour (1858).

  • Henry Highland Garnet — Garnet traveled to Europe in 1851, including England, Ireland Scotland and Germany. His speeches from some of those locations are found here.

  • Stephen Henry Gloucester — Gloucester, pastor of the Lombard Street Central Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, visited England and Scotland in 1847-1848. The record of his trip, and letters which he wrote home, can be found in Robert Jones, Fifty years in the Lombard Street Central Presbyterian Church (1894).

  • Charles Hodge — From 1826 to 1828, Hodge traveled to Europe, studying in Paris and and wrote a handwritten journal of his experiences (primarily in Germany) available to read here. See also A.A. Hodge’s The Life of Charles Hodge for more on these travels, including letters written to home.

  • Alexander McLeod — McLeod visited England and Scotland in 1830. His experiences are recounted in Samuel Brown Wylie’s Memoir of Alexander McLeod (1855). Wylie’s own trip to Europe in 1802-1803 is also discussed in this volume.

  • James Clement Moffat — Moffat recounts his experiences in the summer of 1872 in Song and Scenery; or, A Summer Ramble in Scotland (1874).

  • Walter William Moore — Moore recounts his experiences in England, Scotland, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands in A Year in Europe (1904, 1905).

  • James W.C. Pennington — The “Fugitive Blacksmith’s” s travels to England, Scotland and Germany are detailed in Christopher L. Webber, American to the Backbone: The Life of James W. C. Pennington, the Fugitive Slave Who Became One of the First Black Abolitionists. He was the first African-American in Europe to be awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity.

  • Samuel Irenaeus Prime — Prime’s travels were recorded in Travels in Europe and the East: A Year in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, 2 vols. (1855, 1856).

  • Joel Edson Rockwell — Rockwell’s journey through France, Germany, Italy, England, Scotland and Ireland is chronicled in Scenes and Impressions Abroad (1860).

  • William Buell Sprague — Sprague writes in the preface to his Visits to European Celebrities (1855), “In 1828, and again in 1836, I had the privilege of passing a few months on the continent of Europe and in Great Britain. In both visits, especially the latter, I was more interested to see men than things; and I not only made the acquaintance, so far as I could, of distinguished individuals as they came in my way, but sometimes made circuitous routes in order to secure to myself this gratification.” See also his Letters From Europe, in 1828 (1828).

  • Thomas De Witt Talmage — A world traveller, Talmage wrote Great Britain Through American Spectacles (1885); From the Pyramids to the Acropolis: Sacred Places Seen Through Biblical Spectacles (1892); and The Earth Girdled: The World as Seen To-Day (1896).

These are some of the men at Log College Press who spent time in Europe, and their writings often tell us about life abroad, and often inspired them in various ways, just as travels inspire us. It is human nature to want to travel, and if we are limited in our ability to do so at present, we can at least turn to others who have done so and be inspired by them.

The Princeton Book

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When Charles Hodge entered into glory in 1878, it seemed that one chapter in the history of Princeton had closed, and a new one was beginning. The following year, a memorial in honor of Hodge, Samuel Miller and the Alexanders was dedicated at Miller Chapel, and a book was published to commemorate the occasion, The Alexander Memorial (1879), of which we have written before. Today’s post concerns another volume published in 1879, The Princeton Book, “by officers and graduates of the college,” which is a remarkable and comprehensive look at the history and scope of Princeton’s legacy.

The Princeton Book Title Page smaller.jpg

The Princeton Book has recently been added to our Compilations page. It is a volume filled with information about the founding of Princeton, both the college and the seminary, its relationship to church and state, the courses of study and activities conducted at Princeton, including science and athletics, the layout of the campus, the cemetery, the surrounding town, and much more. Each section is written by those with experience and knowledge of the topic, and a love of the institutions represented. It is a valuable snapshot in time (complete with many photographs and maps), as well as a look backward in time to inform readers of a rich heritage that belongs to Princeton and its people. The table of contents below will help today’s reader to better understand what this remarkable volume is all about.

I. Historical
History of the College of New Jersey by William Henry Hornblower
College Presidents by William A. Packard
Princeton and the Church by Henry J. Van Dyke
Princeton and the State by Henry J. Van Dyke
Princeton and Science by S.B. Dod
Princeton and Literature by William M. Baker

II. Organization
Course of Study in the Academical Department by James McCosh
The Faculty by Addison Atwater
The Treasurer by William Harris
The Librarian by Frederic Vinton
Commencement Day by Henry Alfred Todd
The American Whig Society by H.C. Cameron
Cliosophic Society by Melancthon W. Jacobus
The Philadelphian Society by John Thomas Duffield
The Nassau Hall Bible Society by George Sheldon
The St. Paul’s Society by Arthur B. Turnure
Class Meetings and Alumni Associations by George W. Sheldon

III. Buildings
Nassau Hall by John P. Campbell
Dickinson Hall by Edward D. Lindsey
The College Chapel by Lyman Hotchkiss Atwater
The College Library by Frederic Vinton
The Halsted Observatory by Stephen Alexander
The Working Observatory by C.A. Young
The Museum of Geology and Archaeology by Arnold Henry Guyot
The Gymnasium by Allan Marquand
Witherspoon Hall by William Harris
Reunion Hall by William Harris
East and West Colleges by William Harris

IV. The School of Science
The John C. Green School of Science by Henry B. Cornwall

V. The Theological Seminary
The Theological Seminary by George T. Purves
Library of the Theological Seminary by Wm. H. Roberts

VI. The Town
The Battle of Princeton by James C. Moffat
The First Church by Lyman Hotchkiss Atwater
The Princeton Graveyard by William Brenton Greene, Jr.
Tusculum by William Brenton Greene, Jr.
Morven by Bayard Stockton
Prospect by Bayard Stockton
Trinity Church by Bayard Stockton
Ivy Hall by Bayard Stockton
The University Hotel by William Harris

VII. Miscellaneous
On the Campus by Henry J. Van Dyke, Jr.
College Oratory by Simon J. McPherson
The Princeton Journals by Henry F. Osborn
Glee and Instrumental Clubs by Alfred L. Dennis, Jr.
History of Base Ball by Wilton Merle Smith
Foot-Ball by David Stewart
Athletic Notes by Allan Marquand

VIII. Statistics by William B. Scott
I. Statistics of Professions of Graduates
II. List of Presidents and Professors

Those interested in the history of “the legitimate successor of the celebrated ‘Log College’ at Neshaminy, Pennsylvania, and of several other schools of the prophets” (Henry Van Dyke), will find much in this volume to reward their study. The Princeton Book is a valuable resource indeed and can be read here.

The Story of a Dedicated Life

The story of American Presbyterian missionary to India Joseph Owen (1814-1870) is a fascinating and inspiring tale. It is told in a biographical sketch by William Rankin, Jr. in Memorials of Foreign Missionaries of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. and in a full-length biography by James Clement Moffat ("his earliest and dearest friend"), The Story of a Dedicated Life.

Born in Bedford, New York, Joseph Owen completed his undergraduate studies and theological training at Princeton. In 1840, after being appointed a missionary in the service of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, he sailed to India by way of Boston, Massachusetts, and around the Cape of Good Hope. He would spend the next 28 years of his life serving the Presbyterian Church in Northern India, in Allahabad. His commitment to the missionary cause of Jesus Christ was rock solid, but the pains of separation from family and friends were deep. 

"Dedication to missionary work had become a part of himself. It had ceased to be a question before his mind. As such it had been closed up long ago, never more to be opened. It was the decree of God for him. He knew that it would cost self-denial. But his mind was made up for self-denial. What it would cost was no longer to be considered. He had summed up all that when he gave himself to the Lord. Nor was this separation from all he loved most dearly upon earth designed to be temporary. In his view it was final. The devotion of himself was without reserve. It was to live and die in his work" (Moffat, p. 8).

While in India, besides his preaching endeavors, he also completed an edition of the Old Testament in Hindi, and commentaries on Isaiah and the Psalms in the Urdu language (as a student at Princeton in Biblical literature and Oriental languages "he earned the highest commendations of Dr. Joseph Addison Alexander"). He married twice during his time in India, and when his course was finished, he left behind two children as well. In 1869, he determined to leave India for a short time in order to visit Europe and America with a plan to return to India to spend the remainder of his days. It was in Edinburgh, Scotland, however, before ever returning to America, that he became sick with dysentery and ultimately passed away on December 4, 1870, in the presence of Dr. Robert S. Candlish. He conveyed his final warmest regards to the flock he left behind in Allahabad: "Tell them to be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, not seeking merely after worldly advancement, but seeking first the service of Christ." "Tell them that I have never for a moment regretted that I went as a missionary. I only regret that I was not more faithful."

So closed the chapter on a dedicated missionary servant of the Lord Jesus Christ whose name is barely known today, although it is written in the precious Book of Life. Get to know his story in the writings of Moffat and Rankin because it is the story of an ordinary man who performed extraordinary service for the kingdom of God in the land of India.