Happy Thanksgiving From Log College Press!

November 25, 2020

(Receive our blog posts in your email by clicking here. If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)

This years marks the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrim Fathers’ arrival at Plymouth, Massachusetts, and we are now in our third year of the project to make the past come alive and give voice to Presbyterians from a by-gone era — known as Log College Press. At this time of Thanksgiving, we want to express how thankful we are for the saints who have gone before us and paved the way for Christians in 21st century America, and how thankful we are for you, our readers and supporters, who do so much to help make this project — as we trust — a blessing to the Church.

“The First Thanksgiving, 1621” by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris.

We are conscious that 2020 has been a hard and challenging year for America and the world. The year 1620, too, presented enormous challenges (and rewards) for Christians such as the Pilgrims. The Lord often brings judgments upon sinful people and nations, and yet always gives cause to be thankful. One striking message on this parallel working of God is J.R.W. Sloane’s God's Judgments, and Thanksgiving Sermons: A Discourse (1858). It was a time of financial distress for America, and war was brewing on the horizon. Yet, in the midst of judgment, Sloane found cause for thanksgiving and rejoicing, as well as for personal and corporate repentance.

God is more merciful than we deserve, and we can even be thankful that He chastises His people, calling them to return to Him, and not forsaking them utterly. As Ecclesiastes teaches us, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven…A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance” (Eccl. 3:1, 4). And as Martin Luther teaches, in this world we are called to joy while walking through a vale of tears: “We say, 'In the midst of life we die.' God answers, 'Nay, in the midst of death we live'" (cited by Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand, p. 290).

Thank you, dear friends, once again for all of your support for Log College Press. It means a great deal to us. We wish each of a very Happy Thanksgiving, and God’s richest blessings to you and yours.

A Dialogue Between D.L. Moody and W.S. Plumer - In Two Acts

April 13, 2020

(Receive our blog posts in your email by clicking here. If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)

In 1875 and 1876, on two separate occasions, a young Dwight L. Moody and an elderly William Swan Plumer, took the stage together to dialogue about questions concerning salvation. In these dialogues, or colloquies, it was Moody who, in the role of an anxious inquirer, posed questions which Dr. Plumer answered, as crowds listened attentively.

The first event took place at Wannamaker’s Grand Depot in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on December 31, 1875. Moody had already preached to an audience of twelve thousand on the text: “How long halt yet between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him” (1 Kings 18:21). As was his custom, Moody followed his sermon with an inquiry meeting. But this meeting was special because of its format and the guest speaker involved.

To set the stage further, as it were, we turn first to William R. Moody’s The Life of Dwight L. Moody, pp. 269-270, in which he quotes Dr. Henry Clay Trumbull thus:

The central figure on the platform that New Year’s eve was one whose appearance and bearing were most impressive. The Rev. Dr. William S. Plumer, then a professor of the Columbia Theological Seminary in South Carolina, and who nearly forty years before was moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, was a figure that would compel reverence and regard in any gathering. Massive in frame, towering in stature, venerable in appearance, with snowy hair and flowing beard, he suggested Michael Angelo’s Moses.
Mr. Moody was on this occasion represented, not at the teacher, but as the inquirer. Dr. Plumer stood out as the teacher, to whom the younger Moody came with his questionings of heart. Few men, if any, in the world better knew the anxious cravings and doubts of the inquiring soul than Moody, as he had met with them in his varied evangelistic labors. Few trained theologians could have more wisely and simply answered those inquirers than the large-brained, large-hearted, large-framed, venerable patriarch before whom Moody stood.
The whole scene evidenced the simplicity of trust in God as the sinner came to him through Jesus Christ, in his need and in his confidence. The theologian could give the answer that the anxious soul longed for. Mr. Moody and Dr. Plumer were at one in this interview.

Moody then introduced his friend and partner in this endeavor to the audience at nearly midnight with these words:

Here is the Rev. Dr. Plumer, of South Carolina. He is seventy-four years old. He has been living on borrowed time for four years. For fifty-five years he has been sitting at the feet of Jesus. I’m going to put him on the witness-stand, and question him before you all. Dr. Plumer, will you take the pulpit?

We have a transcript of this and a subsequent “colloquy,” and the text shows a back-and-forth dialogue that left a deep impression on its hearers. We are told that “It was a most impressive service. Many a soul seemed to feel himself the questioner, and to listen as for his life to the answer.”

Act 1 begins:

Dr. Plumer — I was to give a year-text to this assembly. It is from the 73d Psalm: “Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee.”
Mr. Moody — Dr. Plumer, we often speak of “conviction.” What is conviction?
Dr. Plumer — Conviction is a clear persuasion that a thing is true. Religious conviction is a clear, settled persuasion of five things: First, That I am ignorant, and need instruction. Second, That I am guilty, and deserve wrath, and need pardon. Third. That my heart is vile, and must be renewed. Fourth. That my condition is miserable; I am “wretched and miserable and poor.” Fifth. That I am helpless; I am without strength; I can not save myself; I can not think a good thought without divine grace."
Mr. Moody — What is the use of conviction?
Dr. Plumer — The use of conviction is not to punish a man for his sins; nor is it to make him any better. The devils in hell have been under awful conviction for a long time, and not one of them is any better. The sole object of conviction is to shut up the soul to the faith of Jesus. The sole object of conviction is to bring the sinner to accept salvation by atoning blood.
Mr. Moody — Is any given amount of distress necessary to genuine conviction?
Dr. Plumer — Lydia seems to have had no dis tress; we read of none. God opened her heart, and she attended to the things spoken of Paul; but the jailer of Philippi would probably not have accepted Christ without some alarm. If you will accept the Son of God, you need have no trouble; there is nothing in mere trouble that sanctifies the soul.
Mr. Moody — Well, doctor, what is conversion?
Dr. Plumer — Glory be to God! there is such a thing as conversion. If there was not, everlasting chains and darkness would be our doom. To be converted is to turn from self, self-will, self-righteousness, all self confidence, and from sin in every shape, and to be turned to Christ. The turning-point in a man's conversion is his acceptance of Jesus Christ; then he closes in with Christ and gives Him all his confidence.
Mr. Moody — Why must a sinner come to Christ for salvation ?
Dr. Pumer — Because there is salvation in none else. All the angels in heaven and all the saints in heaven and earth can not save one sinner. He must come to the Saviour. I will tell you why. Here are quintillions of tons of atmospheric air: why does not that support life without your respir ing it? You must breathe it or you die. For the same reason you must make Christ yours, or you perish notwithstanding what He has done. The sight of a river will never quench thirst, and the sight of food will never satisfy hunger. You must come to Christ, and make His salvation yours.
Mr. Moody — Can a man be saved here to-night, before twelve o'clock — saved all at once?
Dr. Plumer — Why not? In my Bible I read of three thousand men gathered together one morning — all of them murderers, their hands stained with the blood of the Son of God. They met in the morning, and before night they were all baptized members of Christ. God added to the church in those days such as should be saved. If you are ever saved, there must be a moment when you accept Christ and renounce the world.
Mr. Moody — What is repentance?
Dr. Plumer — It is turning to God with abhorrence of sin and cleaving to Christ with purpose pf obedience. A man truly repents of his sins when he does not commit the sins he has repented of; therefore saving repentance always terminates in purity of life and in reformation. A thorough change of heart is followed by a thorough change of character.
Mr. Moody — How can I know that I am saved?
Dr. Plumer — By the fact that God is true. “Let God be true, but every man a liar.” If I accept Jesus Christ, it is not Mr. Moody's word, nor Mr. Sankey's, nor Dr. Newton's; it is the Word of the living God, whose name is Amen. “He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life.”
Mr. Moody — What if I haven't got faith enough?
Dr. Plumer — Glory be to God! if I can touch the hem of my Saviour's garment I shall be saved. A little faith is as truly faith as a great deal of faith. A little coal of fire in the ashes is as truly fire as the glowing heat of the furnace. Jesus says not, If you have great faith you will be saved, but “He that believeth shall be saved.” Oh! come and trust Him fully! Give Him all your confidence, and if your faith is not as strong as it ought to be, cry as the disciples did, “Lord, increase our faith.”

Interior view of the Roman Hippodrome in New York City.

A subsequent event took place on March 30, 1876 at P.T. Barnum’s Great Roman Hippodrome in New York City, the precursor to Madison Square Garden. Act 2 commences at 8 pm, following the conclusion of a convention.

At eight o’clock the house was filled, every seat being occupied, and hundreds standing. Mr. Moody, followed by Dr. Plumer, of South Carolina, entered. The usual devotional exercises were held. Mr. Moody then arose, and said: “The exercises of this evening will vary from those commonly had at this hour. I shall not preach, but shall call on Dr. Plumer to answer many questions of great importance; these questions relate to the way of life. Dr. Plumer has long been studying the Word of God. He will please take the stand.
Mr. Moody — Dr. Plumer, I am living in the world, with eternity before me. I am accountable to God; I have broken His law. What must I do to be saved?
Dr. Plumer — There is but one safe answer to that question. It sounds out from the jail at Philippi: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” Acts xvi. 31. That is the substance of all the Scriptures on this subject summed up in a few words.
Mr. Moody — Is faith in Christ essential to salvation?
Dr. Plumer — So says the Lord Jesus Christ: “He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” John iii. 18.
Mr. Moody — Many in the inquiry-room tell us that we are making too much of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Dr. Plumer — If they mean that we are making too much of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, that cannot be so; for He is All in All; the First and the Last; the Author and Finisher of Salvation; the one Mediator between God and man; the Prophet, Priest, and King of His Church. If they mean that we are making too much of faith itself, that cannot be so, unless we go beyond the Scriptures. The words faith and believe occur in the New Testament about five hundred times; and in a large number of cases salvation is clearly connected with believing. Jesus taught us this when asked, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” He answered, “This is the work of God that ye believe on the name of Him whom He hath sent,” and, “If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins.” John vi. 29; viii. 24.
Mr. Moody — Does our faith, or our want of faith, decide our relations to God the Father?
Dr. Plumer — The Scriptures so affirm: “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father;” “He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath the Father and the Son;” “He that hateth me, hateth my Father also.” I John ii. 23; 2 John 9; John xv. 23. No man can refuse to confess that Christ, the Son of God, is come in the flesh, without denying and dishonoring God the Father.
Mr. Moody — Is true faith wrought in the heart by the Holy Ghost alone?
Dr. Plumer — Paul says: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,” and so on; and, “No man can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” Galatians v. 22; I Cor. xii. 3. Elsewhere he says, “Faith is of the operation of God;" and John says, “Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God; and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God.”
Mr. Moody — Is there no substitute for faith in Christ Jesus?
Dr. Plumer — None whatever. The want of faith mars everything. I remember John Calvin thus puts it: “The annihilation of faith is the abolition of the promises.” Many Scriptures justify this remark. In the great commission given by Christ to the preachers of His Gospel, He says: “He that believeth not shall be damned.” Mark xvi. 16. These words are awſul, and they are true: “He that believeth not shall be damned;” so says the Son of God, our final Judge.

With many other questions, on both occasions, did Moody draw out from Plumer the “way of life,” that is, a gospel understanding of repentance and faith and salvation, as given to us in the Scriptures. The rest of the dialogue is given in Great Questions Answered: Two Colloquies Between D.L. Moody and Wm. S. Plumer (1876), available to read here. The drama of these two men, in the roles of anxious inquirer and wise teacher, in two different locations, is played out in that remarkable volume, and is well worth the read. Plumer acquitted himself with distinction in giving Moody and his 19th century hearers sound Biblical answers to questions of great importance, and readers of the 21st century will profit too by consideration of these dialogues.

Alexander Proudfit on our national danger and duty

April 9, 2020

(Receive our blog posts in your email by clicking here. If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)

In the midst of great national tribulation — in the form of fire, drought, crop failure, and an epidemic of influenza, as well as disunity and discord both in church and state — Associate Reformed minister Alexander Moncrief Proudfit preached two sermons on the day appointed by his presbytery (November 30, 1808) for “fasting, humiliation, and prayer.” The first, titled “Our Danger,” was based on Jer. 5:29: “Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this.” The second, “Our Duty,” was based on Amos 4:12: “And because I will do this unto thee; prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.”

Proudfit, Alexander, Our Danger and Duty Title Page cropped.jpg

Proudfit begins by stating the case:

This day was set apart for the solemn exercises of fasting, humiliation and prayer on account of the alarming aspect of providence to our country. We are not called merely to deprecate that wrath which apparently hangs over our nation; they are greatly mistaken who imagine that this should be our only, or even our principal exercise: we ought to be deeply impressed that our national offences are the cause of our national calamities; we ought impartially to examine what transgression on our part has kindled this hot displeasure; to acknowledge the righteousness of Jehovah in all the judgments with which we are threatened; to improve by faith the atonement of his Eternal Son as the only mean of our reconciliation; to return to him in the exercise of unfeigned repentance, and then earnestly to plead with an offended God that in the midst of wrath he would remember mercy.

As Erasmus Darwin McMaster also said four decades later in the midst of an 1849 cholera epidemic, Proudfit argues that “our national offences are the cause of our national calamities.” And as McMaster pointed to the sin of omission found in our national constitution (failure to acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as the true King of the nation), so Proudfit points to a Biblical duty (Ex. 18:21; 2 Sam. 23:2-4) to elect only God-fearing civil rulers, although our national constitution prohibits any such religious test for public office (Art. 6, Clause 3).

There is another evidence of public corruption which I dare not pass over unnoticed: I mean the obvious prostitution of the right of suffrage. In our free government the choice of all rulers either immediately or remotely depends on the people. This right of electing our own representation is the great privilege for which our fathers fought, and which is bequeathed to us, sealed with the blood of thousands; this is a privilege for which many of you fought, and for the purchase of which some of you bled: It is the full enjoyment of this right which distinguishes the citizen from the subject; which exalts the freeman in one country above the abject insulted, degraded slave in another country: But is not this right criminally prostituted among us? What is the primary qualification which is ordinarily fought in the candidate for public office? Do we attend to the admonition prescribed by Eternal truth, He that RULETH over men must be JUST, RULING in the FEAR of Jehovah? Have we pursued the maxim delivered by the wisest of men, and the most magnificent, prosperous of Princes, RIGHTEOUSNESS EXALTETH A NATION, and offered our suffrages for those who in private life were patterns of righteousness, and as rulers would probably use their influence for promoting it among others? Have we not more generally enquired, “where is the decided, ardent partisan; the man who will most zealously adhere to that political section to which we belong,” without regard to moral, or religious, or even intellectual qualifications? In the warmth of party-spirit have we not contributed to the advancement of those who were the known enemies of religion, and have allowed themselves in falsely slandering its ministers? On this day of humiliation as the messenger of the Lord of hosts, and as I desire to be found faithful to my trust when the storm is blackening over us, I bear my testimony against the promotion of unprincipled, immoral, impious men as a most aggravated iniquity in our land; and I believe, as firmly as I believe my existence, that without speedy and special repentance on our part, this insult to the Lord of hosts will bring wrath upon our nation, until both our ears will tingle. Has he not most solemnly forewarned us that, when righteous men are in authority the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule the land mourneth? Besides, the election of men to public office who are destitute of moral rectitude, is impolitic in the extreme, and puts in jeopardy our most important interests as citizens. Hear the sentiment of a reverend member who adorned our counsels during the struggle with Great-Britain; one in whom were united the eminent divine, the enlightened statesman, and the uncorrupted, ardent patriot. “Those who wish well to the state ought to choose to places of trust men of inward principle, justified by exemplary conversation. It is reasonable to expect wisdom from the ignorant; fidelity from the profligate; or application to public business from men of dissipated life? Is it reasonable to commit the public revenue to one who has wasted his own patrimony? Those therefore who pay no respect to religion and sobriety in those whom they send to the Legislature of any state, are guilty of the greatest absurdity, and will soon pay dear for their folly. Let a man’s zeal, professions, or even principles as to political measures be what they may, if he is without personal integrity and private virtue, he is not to be trusted. I think we have had some instances of men who have roared in taverns for liberty, and been most noisy in public meetings, who have become traitors in a little time.

The public breaking of the Sabbath is another provocation of the Lord leading to our national danger, says Proudfit.

Again, is not the holy Sabbath, that rest which is ordained for the people of God; that institution which is calculated to secure health to the body, no less than happiness to the soul; that institution which is a lively memorial of the resurrection of our crucified Lord, and furnishes a constant pledge of our own resurrection, is not this day openly prostituted without a blush, and without remorse? Is it not profaned by some in idleness and amusements; by others in unnecessary visits, and by many in the deliberate prosecution of their secular employments? Is not the peaceful worshiper often interrupted and insulted as he repairs to, or retires from the temple of his God, by the wanton transgressors of that sacred institution? And does it not render our guilt more aggravated, and expose us to severer vengeance, that this profanation of the Sabbath is permitted in part by public authority? Our Legislature has explicitly provided that no man “removing his family, or household furniture” shall be detained on that day. Does not this toleration virtually make void the command of Jehovah who had enjoined, TAKE HEED TO YOURSELVES, AND BEAR NO BURDEN ON THE SABBATH DAY, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. Have we not reason to fear that the Lord God, provoked by our impiety, will execute upon us the vengeance denounced against the nation of Israel, I will draw out a sword after you, and make your cities waste. Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths as long as it lieth desolate, and ye shall be in your enemies country; even then shall the land rest and enjoy her Sabbaths.

For these and other corporate sins which are enumerated, Proudfit attributes the visitation of God in widespread appearances of the pestilence, and other scourges upon the land.

Has not a Holy God often plead his controversy with our land by a fearful pestilence? Receiving its commission from on high, has not this scourge gone abroad through our country, and visited in their turn our cities from the northern to the southern extremities of the union? In its hostile career has it not desolated for a season the sanctuaries of God; driven from their abodes thousands of our citizens, and mingled in sudden promiscuous ruin the babe, the youth and the hoary head?

The warning of impending national judgment comes from both the word and providence of God, says Proudfit.

The great God warns the wicked by his word, raising up messenger after messenger; by his providence, inflicting lesser judgments as a mean of reclaiming and saving them from more awful visitations. He thus proves to the satisfaction of every rational spectator, that he is merciful, and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth; that he has no pleasure in temporal destruction of nations, or in the everlasting ruin of individuals, but would rather that both should repent, and return and live.

And thus, he chose the Amos text in order to prepare his hearers to “meet” God in the way of his visitations by personal and corporate repentance and reformation.

Where is there any evidence that either our mercies or our judgments have proved effectual for reclaiming or reforming us? Are the living oracles more generally read, or more deeply revered? Is the sanctuary attended now by those who formerly lived in the neglect of its ordinances? Are the praises of God resounding now in houses, where that celestial melody was formerly unheard? Is the holy Sabbath more conscientiously sanctified through our land, or does the power of Godliness shine more illustrious in the lives of those who possess the form? Is the charge of pride, extravagance, injustice between man and man, and ingratitude to the God of our mercies less applicable now than in years that are past? Nay, has not the tide of our impiety and profligacy risen with the tide of our prosperity, and when the divine hand has been stretched out for our correction we have not seen it, neither have we trembled under these displays of the majesty of Jehovah. Is such the fact, beloved brethren, then I cannot address you in language more appropriate than the admonition of the prophet to his nation, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.

God is slow to anger and rich in mercy, says Proudfit, and therefore delights in the repentance of sinful men and nations.

The dealings of a sovereign God toward individuals and nations obviously correspond. He spares the particular person notwithstanding numerous provocations; he affords him the means of repentance, and the offers of life; he alternately alarms and allures; he tries him now with mercies, then with judgments, before he gives commission to cut him off as utterly incorrigible: And such also is his conduct toward nations in general. He admonishes them for their impiety; he forewarns them now by his messengers, again by the movements of his providence of calamities that are approaching; he executes one threatening as a mean of awakening them to repentance, and saving them from other and severer scourges: He thus entreated with the old world one hundred and twenty years by the ministry of Noah; he thus reproved the cities of the plain by Lot as his messenger, before it turned them into ashes, making them public monuments of his vengeance. With what long-suffering did he expostulate with the nation of the Jews before he finally marked them out as the people of his wrath? How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboim? My heart is turned within me: my repenting are kindled together. And upon their partial reformation in the days of Samuel, of Asa, of Josiah he immediately suspended the execution of his judgments, and wrought salvation in their behalf.

For Proudfit, our duty as a people is clear. From danger incurred by our sinful ways, the only remedy is to return to the Lord by means of repentance and reformation, and to make him our refuge in times of calamity.

All should prepare for this event, by fleeing without delay to Jesus-Jehovah as their city of refuge. He is a hiding place from every storm, and a covert from the tempest…We ought to prepare for meeting our God by awakening to greater diligence in the discharge of every duty, and abounding more eminently in the work of the Lord. When the tumult of war is heard, and the enemy appears in view, the prudent soldier instantly arises; he collects his armor; he fastens every part of it in its proper place; he arranges himself in order for battle, and thus stands ready every moment for the arduous onset: When a storm is expected on the ocean; when the clouds collect and blacken; when the distant thunder is heard and the lightnings begin to blaze around, the vigilant mariner takes the alarm, and makes the requisite preparation. Such should be the christian’s conduct when the judgments of Almighty God are commissioned to pass through a nation. Of whatever kind the calamity be, whether war or famine, or pestilence; on whatever that he esteems precious the assault may be made, whether on his liberty, or religion, or life, he should aim at standing prepared; at shaking off his spiritual sloth; at having his lamp carefully trimmed and replenished with oil, from Jesus Jehovah the anointed one, burning with the purest flame; he ought to become more fervent in prayer; more edifying in his conversation; more sincere in repentance for his own iniquities, and the iniquities of the nation with which he is connected; more abundant in all the duties which are incumbent upon him as a man and a Christian. This is the best possible preparation for all the calamities of life. To all such the Lord God will become a little sanctuary when the sword of his vengeance is drawn, and his wrath consumes a guilty land. The angel spreads his pavilion around the pious Lot, when the cities of the plain are turned into ashes; the houses of the Israelites were passed over without injury, when the first born was slain in every family of the Egyptians, and the minister of justice never disclosed his commission against Jerusalem, until a mark was set upon the forehead of the men that sighed and cried for all the abominations that were done in the midst of the land. The providence of God has even miraculously interposed for the protection of his faithful followers; he has proved a wall of fire around the individual, the families, the settlements that have cleaved to him in the hour of general apostacy.

Proudfit’s concluding remarks are in fact a prayer that echoes today:

O Lord, thou sittest upon the floods, thou sittest king forever, look with a compassionate eye, on our guilty miserable world, and shorten these days of calamity; proclaim to every scourge that has desolated our earth, it is enough, stay thine hand; may the thunder of war expire; may the sword of slaughter return to its scabbard, no more to be bathed in the blood of man; let not nation any longer rise up as the destroyer of nation, but may the peaceful banner of Messiah wave in triumph around the globe; hasten the period when creation shall become one sanctuary, and men of all kindreds one assembly, in doing homage to the God of Israel. Amen, even so come LORD JESUS.

Samuel Miller and the Yellow Fever

April 6, 2020

(Receive our blog posts in your email by clicking here. If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)

In keeping with a recent theme of exploring pastoral responses to epidemics centuries ago, which includes examples by men such as Ashbel Green, George Dodd Armstrong, Benjamin Morgan Palmer, E.D. McMaster, Francis J. Grimké, and William Marshall, we turn now to the story of Samuel Miller and his experience with the yellow fever in New York City.

In March 1798, from the nation’s capital (Philadelphia), U.S. President John Adams issued a proclamation declaring May 9th of that year to be a national day of “solemn humiliation, fasting and prayer.” An outbreak of the dreaded yellow fever had again struck Philadelphia, and New York City as well, and the need for fasting and prayer was widely recognized. On the appointed day, among those who delivered sermons was Ashbel Green in Philadelphia (Obedience to the Laws of God, the Sure and Indispensable Defence of Nations - not yet available to read at Log College Press) and Samuel Miller in New York (A Sermon Delivered May 9, 1798, Recommended by the President of the United States to be observed as a Day of General Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer). Miller affirms in his sermon that:

TO notice the dispensations of Providence, to examine their connexion, and to trace, as far as possible, their design, are among the most important duties of man. Through the medium of these dispensations God exhibits his own glories and our duty to us; and, of course, to neglect them is to incur the character and the guilt of those who do not regard his work, neither consider the operations of his hands.

Miller did indeed notice the events connected with the outbreak in his city as shown in the journal he wrote on his birthday later that year.

October 31, 1798. Never have I had more occasion to bless God for the return of my birth-day than now. I have just passed through the most awful scene of epidemic sickness and mortality that I ever witnessed. The Yellow Fever has been raging in the city for more than two months past. From the middle to the 25th of this month was the most mortal time. Though the city was deserted by, perhaps, two-thirds of its regular inhabitants, more than two thousand persons fell victim to the disease. I remained with a brother — a beloved brother — a practitioner of medicine — a bachelor as well as myself. We were both mercifully borne through the raging epidemic without any serious attack. Our housekeeper died of it, and I attended her funeral between midnight and day. To attempt to describe the scenes of mourning and horror which this epidemic presented — I dare it. The task transcends my power of expression. I preached every Sabbath; but only a few attended public worship; and I know not that any sensible — certainly no conspicuous — good was done (Samuel Miller, Jr., The Life of Samuel Miller, D.D. LL.D., Vol. 1, p. 118).

The following year, Miller was in a position to preach a sermon of thanksgiving: A Sermon, Delivered February 5, 1999; Recommended by the Clergy of the City of New-York, to be Observed as a Day of Thanksgiving, Humiliation, and Prayer, on Account of the Removal of a Malignant and Mortal Disease, Which Had Prevailed in the City Some Time Before. In this sermon, Miller called for joy at the relief New York had begun to experience as the horrors of the epidemic were abated to be tempered with trembling (Ps. 2:11). The voice of the rod had spoken, calling many to repentance, but now people were called upon to refrain from careless security, and forgetfulness of the awfulness of what had just transpired. They were called to give renewed appreciation and thankfulness to the mercy of God. Miller gave a detailed account of the number of deaths, including churches affected. Of the more than 2,000 fatalities which he noted, almost two hundred members from his own United Presbyterian Church alone were taken during the recent plague from August to November 1798. He notes the wisdom of many who left New York for safety.

It is pleasing to find, that the scruples which were formerly prevalent and strong, against flying from pestilence, are now entertained by few. There seems to be no good reason why those who consider it sinful to retire from a place under this calamity, should not have the same objection to flying from famine, from the ravages of fire, or from war, which are equally judgments of God. And yet those who reprobate the former, never think of condemning the latter. In fact, if it be criminal to retire from a city in which the plague rages, it must be equally criminal to send for a Physician, or to take medicines in any sickness; for they are both using means to avert danger to which the Providence of God has exposed us [Jer. 21:6-9]. It is hoped, therefore, if Providence should call us to sustain a similar stroke of affliction in future, there will be a more general agreement than ever, in the propriety of immediate removal; and that all will escape without delay, who are not bound to the scene of danger, by special and indispensible ties. Had all the inhabitants of New-York remained in the city, during the late epidemic, probably four or five times the present number, on the lowest computation, would have been added to the list of its victims. As every diseased individual or family adds force to the malignity of the atmosphere, it appears that the most benevolent principles conspire with the selfish, in prescribing immediate and general flight.

Miller’s son notes in his biography:

The city had, in 1798, somewhere about fifty thousand inhabitants. At least half of these fled from the scene of pestilence. Of the twenty-five thousand left, more than two thousand were swept into the grave between the 1st of August and the 10th of November. From the two Collegiate churches one hundred and eighty-six persons died, and Mr. Miller was himself twice slightly affected with the disease.

As Miller concluded his message, he called for his hearers to make good use of the affliction sent by God in His providence:

I cannot, however, dismiss the subject, without seriously asking, each individual in this audience, how they have profited by the solemn dispensation of Providence which they have lately passed through? Brethren, have you been led by this affliction to consider your ways; or has it left you more hardened? Have you been brought by it to repentance, love, and new obedience; or has it made you more secure, careless, and deaf to the voice of heaven? Have you come out of the furnace purified and refined; or more full of dross and corruption than before? Did none of you make vows and resolutions in the day of adversity? And are these vows remembered and fulfilled, or disregarded and forgotten? Have you turned from your evil way, and put away the accursed thing from the midst of you; or is all that guilt which drew down the judgments of God, still resting in its dreadful weight upon you? My hearers, these are not vain questions, they are even your life. Let me entreat you to answer them without partiality and without evasion; for they will be speedily asked before a tribunal where all things will be naked and open before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
When I look round this populous city, which was, a few weeks since, clothed in mourning, and contemplate the criminal dissipation, and the various forms of wickedness, which have so soon taken the place of those gloomy scenes, I am constrained, with anxious dread, to ask — Shall not God be avenged on such a people as this? Shall he not send greater judgments, and yet greater, in an awful succession, until we either be made to hear his voice, or be utterly consumed before him? Do not hastily imagine, from this strain of address, that because we have been lately afflicted, it would be my wish to see every innocent amusement discarded, and the gloom and sadness of the pestilential season, still remaining upon every face. By no means. To lighten the cares, and to dispel the sorrows of life, indulging in occasional and innocent amusements is at once our privilege and our duty. But do we see no other than innocent amusements prevailing around us? Are the lewdness, the blasphemy, the gaming, the unprincipled speculation, the contempt of Christian duties, and the violation of the Christian Sabbath, so mournfully prevalent in our city and land — are these innocent? Then were the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah innocent. Then are the impious orgies of infernal spirits harmless in the sight of God.
Upon each of us, then, as individuals, there is a task incumbent — the task of personal reformation and personal holiness. If it be true that one sinner destroyeth much good; it is equally true, that the fervent prayer, and the exemplary virtue of a righteous man avail much. Remember that if there had been ten righteous persons in Sodom, God would have spared the city for their sake. On the same principle, be assured, that every righteous person in a community adds to its security, and renders it less probable that Jehovah will visit it with consuming judgment. Let those who are strangers to religion, therefore, be entreated, if they regard their own welfare or that of their country, to return to God with penitence and love through Jesus Christ, and to walk before him in newness of life. Sinners! every hour that you continue impenitent, you not only endanger your own souls, but you add to the guilt of the community of which you are members. Awake from your fatal dream! Behold, now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation! To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. And let the people of God be persuaded, in these solemn times, to grow more watchful, diligent and holy. Christians! You are the salt of the earth. The importance of your example and of your prayers is beyond calculation. If there be any who have an interest at the throne of grace, and who are encouraged to repair to it with an humble boldness, it is YOU. If there be any who are under special obligation to rouse from their lethargy, and to profit by the late awful dispensation, it is YOU. Let the present season, then, form a new era in your spiritual life. Be sober and watch unto prayer. Sigh and mourn for all the abominations that are done in the land. For Zion’s sake do not be quiet, until the righteousness go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.

It was several decades later that Miller’s sermons on The Duty, the Benefits, and the Proper Method of Religious Fasting (1831) were published. They contain his mature thought on the duty to join prayer and fasting, with repentance, especially in times of public calamity. These sermons have been reprinted by various publishers over the years, and they continue to testify to a duty to which God’s people are called in their proper season (see the Westminster Larger Catechism #108 on the duties required by the second commandment). According to Miller, Christians and indeed all human beings, have a duty to give heed to the voice of God in his providential mercies and afflictions, and to answer that call appropriately, by repentance, fasting, thankfulness and renewed personal reformation and holiness. The experience and teaching of Samuel Miller has great value today in the midst of such providential dealings of the Lord in the United States and the world. Read Miller’s writings on these matters both on his page, and in the biography written of him by his son, Samuel Miller, Jr.

HT: Ryan Bever

National judgments call for national repentance: E.D. McMaster

March 18, 2020

(Receive our blog posts in your email by clicking here. If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)

Erasmus Darwin McMaster (sometimes spelled MacMaster) [1806-1866], son of Gilbert McMaster, was a notable leader in the Presbyterian Church In the United States of America (PCUSA). Raised in a Covenanter (Reformed Presbyterian) home, he had occasion once to speak of his thankfulness to God for such a heritage as a child of the covenant, along with his ecumenical (in the best sense of the word) desire to see all branches of the Church united as one:

God gave me my birth as a Presbyterian; and I am not ashamed of my ecclesiastical lineage. Without any invidious disparagement of other families of the great Christian commonwealth, I reckon the Presbyterian to be some of the best blood in Christendom. At any rate, the fact that I am born such, is in the predicable of inseperable accidents. I can’t help it. As I was born, so I expect to live and to die, a Presbyterian; - unless God should in mercy, before that event come to me, hasten the day, earnestly hoped for by all the good, when the watchmen upon the walls of Zion shall see eye to eye, and together lift up the voice; and when, as there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all, so there shall be visibly, as there is spiritually, but one body; and all these party names shall be sunk in the one catholic and glorious name, The church of the living God, the ground and pillar of the truth [Inaugural Address as President of Miami University, Ohio, 1845].

Born in Mercer, Pennsylvania, McMaster served the church in many ways - as pastor of the Ballston Centre Presbyterian Church in Ballston, New York (1831-1838); President of Hanover College, Indiana (1838-1845); President of Miami University, Ohio (1845-1849); Professor of Systematic Theology at the Presbyterian Seminary in New Albany, Indiana (later McCormick Theological Seminary) (1849-1858); and later, again, as Professor of Systematic Theology at the same seminary when located in Chicago (1866). More about his remarkable life can be found in L.J. Halsey’s A History of the McCormick Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church (1893); and in W.M. Glasgow’s History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America (1888), who wrote that “He was confessedly one of the great men of the Presbyterian Church in America….As a scholar, theologian and preacher, he was of the first rank.”

In 1849, a cholera epidemic was raging throughout the United States. Not long after former President James K. Polk died of the disease in June, President Zachary Taylor declared a national day of fasting and prayer to be observed on August 3, 1849. E.D. McMaster, in his final days as President of Miami University in Ohio, preached a sermon that day titled Impending Judgments Averted by Repentance. In that sermon — based on Jeremiah 18:1-10, 17 — he speaks not only of personal and family repentance needed, but also corporate and national repentance called for, before the Lord. And, further, McMaster argues that the Lord has promised in His Word mercy, rather than judgment, for those who do personally and corporately repent.

At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them (Jer. 18:7-8).

Because to the Lord Jesus Christ, as a reward for his faithfulness, is given, in his mediatorial office of King, authority over all things (Matt. 28:18), all families, all nations, all societal associations, which are created and established by God, are encompassed under that authority, and have a duty to “Kiss the Son” (Ps. 2:12), that is, to confess subjection and loyalty to Him. This is the argument made by McMaster.

Pre-eminently is it true, that when God establishes a people, either as a Church, or as a nation, or as an aggregation of individuals bound together in the various relations of the society of comity, and associations of business and of pleasure, under peculiar advantages, especially in respect to the knowledge and means of the true religion, he claims a peculiar property in and dominion over them, that they shall subserve the interests of his kingdom….
And is not this equally true of us as a people? Has not God established us under peculiar advantages? I cannot wait to recount all his gracious dealings toward us, in our origin, in all the circumstances connected with our planting as a people, the achievement of our independence as a nation, the establishment of our institutions, political, ecclesiastical, and social, and the manifold blessings which, with so bountiful a hand, he has poured upon us through our whole unexampled career of prosperity. It is not true that God has signally marked us out by the bestowment of peculiar advantages, physical, intellectual, moral, social, political, and religious; especially in the possession of Christianity in its truest and purest forms, untrammeled by the commandments and ordinances of men? Surely must we say, he hath not dealt so with any other people. And is not all this that he may claim a special and peculiar property in and dominion over us as a people, and as a Church in the nation, that in all the different characters, capacities, and relations which we sustain, we shall exist, shall live, shall spend our being and be spent, in carrying through our own land and over the earth the triumphs of that heavenly reign by which the world shall be reclaimed to God, and to true happiness, honour and glory? Confused and mistaken ideas about the peculiar nature of the Israelitish Theocracy, so common even among writers of reputation, may perplex the minds of the ill-instructed and undiscriminating, and strengthen the hands of the wicked in seeking to deny and cast off the dominion of God and his Anointed. Other men will do as they choose, will believe as they choose, about this. For one, I believe and assert, that God’s Christ is as truly this day king of Ohio as he was ever the king of Judea; as truly the king of this whole Confederacy of States as he was ever the king of the twelve tribes of Israel. Say who will, “Who is Jehovah, that we should serve him? who is lord over us?” — who will, “We will not have this man to reign over us:” Jehovah, he is God; and this is the will of the Father, that all men honour the Son even as they honour the Father.
III. When a people peculiarly favored of God, especially in respect to the knowledge and means of the true religion, by a departure from God into sin are failing to accomplish, in the promotion of his kingdom, the end for which he has raised them up, then the destroying judgments of God are impending over that people.

McMaster goes on to discuss distinctions between the chastening of the Lord intended to correct and destroying judgments.

It is of these calamities, which are the execution of Heaven’s vindicatory justice, God’s destroying judgments because of sin, that we here speak. These, we say, are impending over a people, who, peculiarly favoured of the Lord, turn away from him, transgress his law, refuse his dominion, and so are failing to accomplish, in the promotion of his kingdom, the end for which he has raised them up. Much more is this so, if such a people are, not failing merely to accomplish the end for which God has planted and built them up, — but acting in opposition to that end; setting themselves to counterwork, to thwart, as much as in them lies, to defeat that end….
The plan and obvious principle upon which God proceeds in this is, that Jehovah is God the Lord; he has made all things for his own glory; and he will have service of his creatures, or he will reject and cast them away; he will have fruit of the work of his hands, or he will destroy it. So we are taught in the parable of the fig-tree; If it bear fruit, well: if not, cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? Such is the method in which God deals with a sinful people.

After laying out the principles by which God deals with nations in particular, McMaster brings home the point that the people of Ohio, and the the people of the United States, who — having been established by God under peculiar advantages, especially in respect to the knowledge and means of the true religion,” and been the recipients of the gracious blessings of God in so many ways — were at that time experiencing the effects of the dreaded cholera, were called upon “as a people, in all relations, individual, domestic, social, political, ecclesiastical, explicitly, truly, and practically to recognize both God and his Christ, and to enter into and prosecute that which is the appointed end of our being as a people.”

McMaster highlights in this sermon the fact that the Constitution of the United States, by a great and grievous omission, neglects to honor God and, specifically, Jesus Christ, as King over this nation. He also highlights the prevailing (at that time) sin of slavery that both existed and was allowed by that same Constitution. He further raised the question of the morality of the Mexican-American War. But especially McMaster addressed the prevalence of idolatry and superstition across the land and in the churches of 19th century America. Taking no delight in pointing out the sins of his own people, McMaster nevertheless implored his hearers to consider how blessed they were, and how greatly they had, as a people, departed from the commandments of the Lord, and how great their need of repentance was that a great and weighty judgment, which was hanging over their heads at present, might yet be averted.

…the Rule according to which God deals with a people in such a case is; that Repentance shall avert his threatened judgments; perseverance in disobedience to his voice shall upon them his judgments in sure and terrible destruction….
This turning of a people to God must be by them in all the different characters, capacities, and relations which they sustain, and in which they have sinned in departing from him. Individuals in concerns private and personal, families in concerns domestic, churches in concerns ecclesiastical, states and nations in concerns political and national, — all, — all, in their several places, capacities and relations, must return unto Him whose they are, and who claims an absolute and unlimited property in and dominion over them, and yield themselves in their whole being to receive the law of God in Christ, and to promote the ends of his kingdom. In this course there is safety. It is no where else to be found. God is, indeed, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. But he is God, and his honour he will not suffer to be taken from him.

The rod of his anger is a voice calling to America today, and it did in 1849. It calls us to repentance, corporate and personal, and such repentance is the only means by which we may find refuge from distress - in the ark of God, which is Jesus Christ. McMaster’s 1849 sermon is not a short read, but it is a valuable exposition of Biblical principles and analysis of a situation not unlike that which America faces in 2020. Take time to study this call to repentance on every level with prayerful consideration. God is indeed glorified in the repentance of his people, for true repentance on the part of his people, as a rule, leads to mercy on the part of our gracious God.

Blog