The name of Francis Makemie is well-known to readers of this site as "the Father of American Presbyterianism," and the historical record shows that he was influential in establishing the first presbytery in America, the Presbytery of Philadelphia, in 1705-1706.
The Hanover Presbytery, established in Virginia in 1755, is often thought by some to have been the first presbytery established in the Southern United States. However, an earlier presbytery was established in South Carolina, not connected to the northern branches of the American Presbyterian Church, in 1722-1723. Presbyteries consist of more than one man, but in this case, the man who was most influential in its founding, Archibald Stobo (d. 1741) is worthy of special mention here.
He was born in Scotland in the 1670's, and graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1697. As it happened, a plan for a Scottish colony in Panama at the Isthmus of Darien was developing, and ministers were needed for the colony, which was known as Caledonia. The first wave of ministers and settlers arrived there in 1698. Stobo, along with Alexander Shields and Francis Borland, was part of the second re-supply expedition, which arrived in 1699. While serving there, "Three of these ministers, Alexander Shields, Francis Boreland and Archibald Stobo, instituted the Presbytery of Caledonia, the first presbytery in the New World" (Jacob Harris Patton, A Popular History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, p. 89). "The first Presbytery organized on this continent was 'The Presbytery of Caledonia.'" (Benjamin L. Agnew, "When Was the First Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America Organized?").
He came with his family, and the expectation was that the second group of ministers would stay for a full year. However, Stobo's wife encouraged him to return home early, and so he was granted leave, and began the return voyage home on the ship, Rising Sun, in September, 1700. Stobo and his family and a few others disembarked after Stobo was requested to preach in town. That very night a hurricane of incredible intensity hit Charleston and sank the Rising Sun with over one hundred souls on board, none of whom survived. The story of that dramatic event is told in much more detail by George Howe, History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. 1, pp. 141-142; and Howe, The Early Presbyterian Immigration Into South Carolina, pp. 36-37. In time, Stobo made the decision to remain in South Carolina and forgo returning to Scotland altogether. He became the pastor of the church in Charleston that was "called at various times the Presbyterian, Independent, White Meeting [on account of the color of the building], and Circular Church [on account of the building's shape and design]...the 'Mixed Presbyterian and Independent Church'" (Daniel W. Hollis & Carl Julien, Look to the Rock: One Hundred Ante-bellum Presbyterian Churches of the South, p. 4). (This church today is known as the Circular Congregational Church. In Strobo's day, the congregation consisted of a mix of Presbyterians, Congregationalists and French Huguenots of Presbyterian conviction.)
"After serving this church for four years, he turned his attention to Protestant Dissenters in the countryside who were particularly strong in the region that stretched southwest of the Stono River to the Combahee. For the next thirty-seven years he was a tireless pastor among these people, establishing churches at Wilton Bluff at Adam's Run on the lower Edisto River, at Pon Pon further upriver, at James Island, and northwest of Charlestown, at Cainhoy among the New Englanders who settled there" (Erskine Clarke, Our Southern Zion, p. 43).
Stobo was "a man of decided character, and an uncompromising Presbyterian" (Ernest Trice Thompson, Presbyterians in the South, Vol. 1, p. 32). In 1706, he and 46 members of his congregation signed a covenant binding them to be "a Presbyterian congregation for ever in church discipline, doctrine and government, as set down in the Old Testament. That christnings, marriages and burials shall be among themselves, that their ministers shall come from Scotland, such as he, Mr. Stobo can comply with, that upon Sabbath days they shan't go to other places but the meeting or must meet among themselves rather than by gadding abroad for strengthening others vice and giving offence to one another" (Letter of Le Jau to Mr. Stubbs, dated April 15, 1707, cited in Charles Augustus Briggs, American Presbyterianism: Its Origin and Early History, p. lxvii). It was in 1722-1723 that the efforts of Stobo to unite the various local Presbyterian churches, many of which he planted, bore special fruit with the founding a presbytery (sometimes referred to as the Charles Towne Presbytery, at other times as the Presbytery of James Island). This was the first presbytery established in the Southern United States.
Thus, Stobo participated in the founding of the first presbytery in the New World (the Presbytery of Caledonia, in Panama, in 1699-1700; and the first presbytery in the Southern United States (Charles Towne Presbytery, or the Presbytery of James Island, in 1722-1723), and is a Presbyterian worthy to be remembered.
The Presbyterian's Hand-Book of the Church
In 1861, the Rev. Joel Parker (1799-1873) collaborated with the Rev. Thomas Ralston Smith (1830-1903) to publish The Presbyterian's Hand-Book of the Church: For the Use of Members, Deacons, Elders, and Ministers. It is a valuable contribution to the church, useful even today.
Overall, it is a guide to explain what Presbyterianism is, how Presbyterian congregations are planted, what duties are expected of church members, how families should strive to live, what are the duties and responsibilities of church officers, and what might be expected in church worship services.
In particular, there are specific features of this handbook or manual that stand out:
The guidance given on how churches planted is basic, but nevertheless, rare and appreciated;
There is encouragement to build a congregational library, for the benefit of all;
Specific recommendations are made for the building of a pastoral library;
Recommended prayers for the use of families and ministers are provided;
Encouragement is given to parents and pastors to catechize children, using both the Westminster Shorter Catechism, and Joel Parker's three-part Initiatory Catechism;
Much practical application is offered for church officers to perform their duties efficiently and wisely, with an emphasis on the importance of pastoral visitation, congregational harmony, and a spirit of prayerfulness, and;
There is an overarching theme that the business of the church and the household is primarily aimed at the glory of God, the service and expansion of his kingdom, the saving of souls, and the love of the saints.
The practical wisdom brought to bear upon 19th-century readers is equally of value to 21st-century readers, whether you are a church member or a church officer. Download this work today, and take time to work through it. It will be a benefit to your soul.
A Personal Covenant
When Rev. Samuel Oliver Wylie of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, primary author of the Covenant of 1871, died, a document was found among his papers that shows that he made a personal covenant with the Lord while he was a seminary student. It was the practice that many of God's people in the past followed as well - notable examples include Philip and Matthew Henry, and Thomas Boston.
Thomas Sproull, writing S.O. Wylie's obituary, introduces Wylie's personal covenant thus:
"The following is a copy of a covenant found among his papers. From its date I learn it was entered into the second year that he was in the seminary, on a day observed by professors and students as a day of fasting and humiliation. I have a pretty distinct recollection of the exercises of that day, and of the solemnity of the occasion. It seems that he went to his lodging impressed with the services, and gave himself in this formal manner to God. Would that such exercises were still observed with similar results.
"Having spent this day as a clay of fasting, humiliation and prayer unto God, with an acknowledgment of sins, original and actual, all of which duties have been attended with very great imperfection, I, Samuel O. Wylie, desiring to be fully sensible of my ruined and helpless condition by nature, and believing that there is no way of salvation but through the covenant of grace entered into by the Father and the Son from all eternity, and made with the sinner in the day of effectual calling, do this evening of the twenty-fourth of December, 1840, enter into personal covenant with the Lord God of my salvation, which covenant is contained in the following words:
'1. I avouch the Lord to be my God and covenant Father, and give myself unreservedly to him, earnestly desiring to be recorded amongst the number of his sons and daughters.
2. I take the Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the adorable Trinity, to be my Saviour, confiding entirely in the merits of his death, both for justification and sanctiflcation. I do most solemnly engage to take him in his three-fold relation of prophet, priest and king, discarding all dependence upon the flesh and my own works of righteousness, each one of which in God's sight is inconceivably filthy and polluted.
3. I take the Holy Ghost, the third person of the Trinity, to be my sanctifier, relying upon his gracious operations for advancing the work of sanctiflcation in my soul, in enabling me to maintain a walk and conversation becoming the gospel.
4. In the strength of divine grace, I engage to live in a holy and habitual reliance upon God for all things pertaining to life and godliness, giving diligent attention to the means of grace as ordained by God for my good, promising to wait upon him in secret prayer morning and evening, to attend family, social and public worship, with submission to the courts of the Lord's house.
To the performance of these and all other duties, through divine strength, I solemnly pledge myself, calling to witness my sincerity in this transaction the persons of the Godhead and all holy angels.
In testimony whereof I hereunto affix my name, Samuel O. Wylie.
'December 24, 1840.'"
May 27, 1871: The Reformed Presbyterian Covenant of 1871
The Reformed Presbyterian Church of North American in its Directory of Public Worship teaches about the principle of covenanting:
"Covenanting with God is a solemn act of worship in which individuals, churches, or nations declare their acceptance of Him as their God and pledge allegiance and obedience to Him. Public covenanting is an appropriate response to the Covenant of Grace. The 'Covenant of Communicant Membership' is to be accepted by individuals who profess faith in Christ and unite with the Church. Ordinarily, such individuals are to give public assent to this covenant in the presence of the congregation. When circumstances warrant, churches and nations also may produce statements of responsibility arising from the application of the Word of God to the times in which they are made. Such covenants have continuing validity in so far as they give true expression to the Word of God for the times and situations in which believers live. (For a fuller discussion of vows and covenanting see Testimony, chapter 22 ['Of Lawful Oaths and Vows'], especially paragraphs 8 and 9.) Examples of such covenants are the Scottish National Covenant of 1638, the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643, and the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America’s Covenant of 1871."
On May 27, 1871, the Synod of the RPCNA, meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, entered into a solemn covenant and confession of sins before the Lord. The history of this event as well as the text of the Covenant itself is recorded by William Melancthon Glasgow in his History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of America. Glasgow notes concerning Samuel Oliver Wylie (1819-1883) that "He was the Chairman of the Committee which drafted the Covenant of 1871, and, with a few changes, was adopted as it came from his pen." The Covenant has six sections - section 5 is reproduced here. The history and full text of the 1871 Covenant (also known as the "Pittsburgh Covenant") from Glasgow can be read here.
"5. Rejoicing that the enthroned Mediator is not only King in Zion, but King over all the earth, and recognizing the obligation of His command to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, and to teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and resting with faith in the promise of His perpetual presence as the pledge of success, we hereby dedicate ourselves to the great work of making known God's light and salvation among the nations, and to this end will labor that the Church may be provided with an earnest, self-denying and able ministry. Profoundly conscious of past remissness and neglect, we will henceforth, by our prayers, pecuniary contributions and personal exertions, seek the revival of pure and undefiled religion, the conversion of Jews and Gentiles to Christ, that all men may be blessed in Him, and that all nations may call him blessed."
Of this section it has been noted: "We hail with delight one special feature of this Pittsburgh Covenant—its recognition of the obligations to missionary and evangelistic effort. There is particular allusion, it is true, to this duty in the Solemn League and Covenant, but it is entirely overlooked in subsequent renovations of it, or the Bonds of Adherence which the Churches, from time to time, have adopted. It is here brought out with a clearness and prominence worthy of its great importance. There is something touching in the express references to past shortcomings on this head. They furnish evidence that the men who framed and subscribed this Covenant are not moving in the mere groove of antiquated forms and traditions, but are alive and awake to the momentous responsibilities of the present hour" (The Reformed Presbyterian Magazine, Oct. 2, 1871).
The RPCNA entered into a briefer Covenant subsequently on July 18, 1954. But it was the Covenant of 1871 that signified a distinctly American application of the principle of covenanting within the RPCNA. Take time to read the six sections, and Glasgow's history of a special day in the history of Reformed Presbyterianism in America here.
David's Harp in Song and Story
The Joseph Clokey family associated with the United Presbyterian Church of North America has a long pedigree that is interwoven to various degrees with the Psalms of David. According to the Rev. Joseph Waddell Clokey, Sr. (1839-1919), his parents, the Rev. Joseph D. Clokey (1801-1884) (who served as moderator of the 1860 General Assembly of the UPCNA and was himself the son of another Joseph Clokey) and his wife Eliza (1808-1889), sang only the Psalms in public, family and private worship. Joseph Waddell Clokey, Jr. (1890-1960) would go on to become a noted composer of both sacred and secular music, as well as a professor of music. His [Jr.'s] adopted son, Art Clokey (1921-2010), was a pioneer in the field of claymation, whose characters include Gumby, and Davey and Goliath (Google honored him with a logo doodle on Oct. 12, 2011). (Art's son, Joseph Clokey, who also very involved in his father's work on Gumby, and Davey and Goliath, himself passed away on March 2, 2018.)
Joseph Waddell Clokey, Sr., meanwhile, authored a fascinating little book called David's Harp in Song and Story, which relates the value and history of the Psalms. Beginning with a series of encomiums on the Book of Psalms, Clokey goes on to trace their usage and appreciation through the centuries - among the Hebrews; within the early Christian Church; during the Dark Ages; within the Reformations of Germany, Switzerland, France, England, Scotland and the Netherlands; and among the American colonies, the New England Puritans, and the American Presbyterians.
Clokey, a UPCNA minister writing in 1896, after describing in fascinating detail the introduction and rise of Watts' hymnody within the American Presbyterian churches (he notes the first official recognition of this took place in a report by William Tennent and Aaron Burr, Sr. in 1753 and, although the Directory of Public Worship was amended in 1788 to allow for hymns, Clokey asserts that it was in 1802 that the PCUSA officially embraced Watts' hymns, and offers a heart-felt appeal to return to Biblical Psalmody in Presbyterian churches, albeit, in his preference, revised in more modern language than the 1650 Scottish Psalter:
"The author of this work—a pastor of more than twenty years in the Presbyterian Church, has witnessed with pain the 'Passing' of the Bible Psalms. Since the beginning of her 'Hymnal' era our Church has been at sea in the matter of her Psalmody. Her authorization of Hymn-Books means nothing to her congregations. For the first time in her history her authority over her Book of Praise is gone, and the people buy their hymn-books where they please.
The Hymnal of 1874 is already worn out, and the Assembly has sent forth a new one, doubtless to meet the fate of the former one.
The people of the Presbyterian Church, who love what is solid and majestic in their sacred songs, miss something in their modern Hymnals. As an old Psalm-singer, the writer would suggest it is the Bible Psalter we miss. Give us back the old Psalms, dressed in the attractive forms of these modern days, as they can be dressed; and winnow away several hundred of the hymns of our present collection, and the Presbyterian Church will do more to settle her churches in the matter of their Psalmody than will all the decrees of her courts.
It may not be out of place here for the author to suggest to the ministry of his own Church that, whilst they are endeavoring so zealously to maintain that form of doctrine which is given in the Old Confession of Faith, their efforts will prove worthless unless they see that the Psalmody of the Church breathes the same evangelical principles.
Few people read the Confession of Faith, but every week the thoughts and doctrines of our Hymns are sung into our ears and hearts; and the faith which will be held in the future will not be that of your Confession and Creed, but of your Hymnology.
At present, when the hymn-writers and hymn-collectors are so thoroughly imbued with the true doctrines of the Bible, nothing but good can result to the members of the Church. But a wave of decadence may sweep over the future Church, as it has often done in the past, when we may bitterly regret that we have lost control over the material of our Psalmody."
Directions for Observance of the Lord's Day
In his Brief Compend of Bible Truth (1846), pp. 191-193, Archibald Alexander gives five directions to guide the Christian in the proper observance of the Lord's Day, or Christian Sabbath, which merit repeating today.
"1. Let the whole day be consecrated to the service of God, especially in acts of worship, public and private. This weekly recess from worldly cares and avocations, affords a precious opportunity for the study of God's word, and for the examination of our own hearts. Rise early, and let your first thoughts and aspirations be directed to heaven. Meditate much and profoundly on divine things, and endeavour to acquire a degree of spirituality on this day which will abide with you through the whole week.
2. Consider the Lord's day an honour and delight. Let your heart be elevated in holy joy, and your lips be employed in the high praises of God. This day more resembles heaven, than any other portion of our time; and we should endeavour to imitate the worship of heaven, according to that petition of the Lord's prayer — 'Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.' Never permit the idea to enter your mind, that the sabbath is a burden. It is a sad case, when professing Christians are weary of this sacred rest, and say, like some of old, 'When will the sabbath be gone, that we may sell corn, and set forth wheat?' As you improve this day, so probably will you be prospered all the week.
3. Avoid undue rigour, and Pharisaic scrupulosity; for nothing renders the Lord's day more odious. Still keep in view the great end of its institution; and remember that the sabbath was instituted for the benefit of man, and not to be a galling yoke. The cessation from worldly business and labour is not for its own sake, as if there was any thing morally good in inaction, but we are called off from secular pursuits on this day, that we may have a portion of our time to devote uninterruptedly to the worship of God. Let every thing then be so arranged in your household, beforehand, that there may be no interruption to religious duties, and to attendance on the means of grace. There was undoubtedly a rigour in the law of the sabbath, as given to the Jews, which did not exist before; and which does not apply to Christians. They were forbidden to kindle a fire, or to go out of their place on the sabbath; and for gathering a few sticks, a presumptuous transgressor was stoned to death. These regulations are not now in force.
As divine knowledge is the richest acquisition within our reach, and as this knowledge is to be found in the word of God, let us value this day, as affording all persons an opportunity of hearing and reading the word. And as the fourth commandment requires the heads of families to cause the sabbath to be observed by all under their control, or within their gates, it is very important that domestic and culinary arrangements should be so ordered, that servants and domestics should not be deprived of the opportunity of attending on the word and worship of God which this day affords, by being employed in preparing superfluous feasts, as is often the case. The sabbath is more valuable to the poor and unlearned than to others, because it is almost the only leisure which they have, and because means of public instruction are on that day afforded them by the preaching of the gospel. If we possess any measure of the true spirit of devotion, this sacred day will be most welcome to our hearts; and we will rejoice when they say, 'Let us go unto the house of the Lord.' To such a soul, the opportunity of enjoying spiritual communion with God will be valued above all price, and be esteemed as the richest privilege which creatures can enjoy upon earth.
4. Whilst you conscientiously follow your own sense of duty in the observance of the rest of the sabbath, be not ready to censure all who may differ from you in regard to minute particulars, which are not prescribed or commanded in the word of God. The Jews accused our Lord as a sabbath-breaker, on many occasions, and would have put him to death for a supposed violation of this law, had he not escaped out of their hands. Beware of indulging yourself in any practice which may have the effect of leading others to disregard the rest and sanctity of the sabbath. Let not your liberty in regard to what you think may be done, be a stumblingblock to cause weaker brethren to offend, or unnecessarily to give them pain, or to lead them to entertain an unfavourable opinion of your piety.
5. As, undoubtedly, the celebration of public worship and gaining divine instruction from the divine oracles, is the main object of the institution of the Christian sabbath, let all be careful to attend on the services of the sanctuary on this day. And let the heart be prepared by previous prayer and meditation for a participation in public worship, and while in the more immediate presence of the Divine Majesty, let all the people fear before him, and with reverence adore and praise his holy name. Let all vanity, and curious gazing, and slothfulness, be banished from the house of God. Let every heart be lifted up on entering the sanctuary, and let the thoughts be carefully restrained from wandering on foolish or worldly objects, and resolutely recalled when they have begun to go astray. Let brotherly love be cherished, when joining with others in the worship of God."
The World Was His Audience
Thomas De Witt Talmage (1832-1902), the son of a missionary to China, began his pastoral career in (what is currently) the Reformed Church of America before joining the Presbyterian Church. He went on to become world-famous as a preacher, with newspapers reprinting his sermons and numerous volumes published all of which were read by an estimated 30 million readers in his day. His sermons were commended by Charles Spurgeon, and his ministry was compared to that of both Spurgeon and George Whitefield.
But his first sermon almost didn't happen after the manuscript he had written for it slipped under a sofa just at the appointed time for him to deliver it. He recounts the story in his autobiography T. De Witt Talmage As I Knew Him (this volume was edited with concluding chapters and published posthumously by his third wife), pp. 19-21:
But the first sermon with any considerable responsibility resting upon it was the sermon preached as a candidate for a pastoral call in the Reformed Church at Belleville, N.J. I was about to graduate from the New Brunswick Theological Seminary, and wanted a Gospel field in which to work. I had already written to my brother John, a missionary at Amoy, China, telling him that I expected to come out there.
I was met by Dr. Ward at Newark, New Jersey, and taken to his house. Sabbath morning came. With one of my two sermons, which made up my entire stock of pulpit resources, I tremblingly entered the pulpit of that brown stone village church, which stands in my memory as one of the most sacred places of all the earth, where I formed associations which I expect to resume in Heaven.
The sermon was fully written, and was on the weird battle between the Gideonites and Midianites, my text being in Judges vii. 20, 21: 'The three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal; and they cried. The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon. And they stood every man in his place round about the camp; and all the host ran, and cried, and fled.' A brave text, but a very timid man to handle it. I did not feel at all that hour either like blowing Gideon's trumpet, or holding up the Gospel lamp; but if I had, like any of the Gideonites, held a pitcher, I think I would have dropped it and broken that lamp. I felt as the moment approached for delivering my sermon more like the Midianites, who, according to my text, 'ran, and cried, and fled.' I had placed the manuscript of my sermon on the pulpit sofa beside where I sat. Looking around to put my hand on the manuscript, lo! it was gone. But where had it gone? My excitement knew no bound. Within three minutes of the greatest ordeal of my life, and the sermon on which so much depended mysteriously vanished! How much disquietude and catastrophe were crowded into those three minutes it would be impossible to depict. Then I noticed for the first time that between the upper and lower parts of the sofa there was an opening about the width of three finger-breadths, and I immediately suspected that through that opening the manuscript of my sermon had disappeared. But how could I recover it, and in so short a time? I bent over and reached under as far as I could. But the sofa was low, and I could not touch the lost discourse. The congregation were singing the last verse of the hymn, and I was reduced to a desperate effort. I got down on my hands and knees, and then down flat, and crawled under the sofa and clutched the prize. Fortunately, the pulpit front was wide, and hid the sprawling attitude I was compelled to take. When I arose to preach a moment after, the fugitive manuscript before me on the Bible, it is easy to understand why I felt more like the Midianites than I did like Gideon.
Besides an exercise in humility, what lesson did Talmage learn?
"This and other mishaps with manuscripts helped me after a while to strike for entire emancipation from such bondage, and for about a quarter of a century I have preached without notes—only a sketch of the sermon pinned in my Bible, and that sketch seldom referred to."
A taste of his eloquence is found in the story above. Among his numerous published sermons, many can now be found on his author page and our Sermons page at Log College Press. Of Talmage, Spurgeon said: "His sermons take hold of my inmost soul. The Lord is with the mighty man. I am astonished when God blesses me but not surprised when He blesses him."
The Masters Painted for Joy
After the death of William Rogers Richards, in 1910, a volume of extracts from his sermons was compiled by Abraham Van Doren Honeyman, with the assistance of Mrs. Richards, titled The Truth in Love: From the Sermons of William R. Richards (1912). It is a daily devotional that spans a whole year.
The devotional reading for today (April 27) includes a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson.
That which costs is also that which well repays the cost. So it is doubtless true, as a distinguished writer of our day has said, that 'the old masters painted for joy and knew not that joy had gone out of them;' while, on the other hand, the first great master of Christian song also said truly of his greatest poem, that it had 'made him lean for many years' [Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, Canto XXV].
The Christian rule for us all in our daily occupation is to do every piece of work not merely so that it will look well done, but so that it will be well done. For we are God's servants, and God sees things, not as they seem to be, but as they are.
The American Sabbath One Century Ago
Echoing a line from William Cowper ("When nations are to perish in their sins, / 'tis in the Church the leprosy begins), the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States once affirmed: "Let us beware brethren: as goes the Sabbath, so goes the church, as goes the church, so goes the nation" (1948). The same ecclesiastical body stated in 1933: "This nation cannot survive unless the Christian Sabbath is observed."
With that principle in mind, in 1905, a fascinating volume was published by the National Reform Association, which was authored by Richard Cameron Wylie (1846-1928), a Reformed Presbyterian minister and long-term lecturer on behalf of the NRA, with an introduction by NRA President Sylvester Fithian Scovel (1835-1910), a Presbyterian minister and also President of Wooster University, regarding the state of the Christian Sabbath in America, along with the Biblical rationale for its public and civil establishment therein: Sabbath Laws in the United States.
Beginning with a look at the colonial history of Sabbath laws in America, Wylie goes on to analyze the status of each states (there were 45 in 1905) and territory within the jurisdiction of the United States. This detailed study is followed by the Biblical grounds for the need to uphold the Fourth Commandment in modern American civil legislation.
A documented study of this sort, authored by those who themselves advocated public and civil Sabbath-keeping, is rare to find. This particular volume, which precedes the efforts of the National Football League to largely dismantle US Sabbath laws beginning as early as the 1920's, provides a snapshot of the spiritual state of the country in 1905, just over one century ago. It is a window into the soul of America's past, and worth prayerfully comparing with America's present.
The National Reform Association
A movement that began among 19th century American Reformed Presbyterians, and included support from many other various Protestant denominations, was known as National Reform. This movement sought to promote the national recognition of the crown rights of King Jesus within the U.S. Constitution by the amendment process, and hence, it also came to be known as the Christian Amendment movement.
Meeting were held by interested parties in Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania in 1863, but the National Reform Association was officially founded on January 27, 1864, in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, although its origin is traced to an 1861 resolution adopted by the Lakes Presbytery of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA) calling for the U.S. Constitution to be amended “to acknowledge God, submit to the authority of his Son, embrace Christianity, and secure universal liberty.” The organization’s original name was the National Association for the Amendment of the Constitution, but it was changed to the National Reform Association in 1875.
It is reported that members of the NRA actually met with President Abraham Lincoln before his death in an effort to advance their goals with his support. “A large and influential Committee was appointed to wait upon President Lincoln for an official endorsement of the work proposed by the Association. He responding said that in as far as he had opportunity to understand the purpose of the Association, he heartily favored it. Some time previous to this a number of Christian men had waited upon Mr. Lincoln and had requested of him the accomplishment of two measures. First, the abolition of American slavery, and second, the adoption of a suitable recognition of the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Constitution of the United States. To a few of the men who were on the Committee of the National Reform Association he privately said, ‘Gentlemen, in your former visit you requested of me two things. During the first term of my administration I was able to secure your first request. It is my hope that during my second term I will be able to secure your second request.’” (David McAllister, Christian Civil Government (1927), p. 24)
The list of early Presidents, officers and members include notable names such as William Strong (U.S. Supreme Court Justice and Presbyterian ruling elder); Archibald Alexander Hodge (Presbyterian minister); Charles Hodge (Presbyterian minister); Joshua Hall McIlvaine (Princeton Seminary professor); James Renwick Wilson Sloane (Reformed Presbyterian minister and Reformed Presbyterian Theological School professor); Thomas Patton Stevenson (Reformed Presbyterian minister); and Sylvester Fithian Scovel (Presbyterian minister and president of Wooster University); among other representatives and members from the Protestant Episcopal Church and other backgrounds, including Methodist and Baptist bodies.
The official publication of the NRA, The Christian Statesman, was founded by T.P. Stevenson and David McAllister in 1867. Proposed amendments to the U.S. Constitution received significant popular support in the latter half of the nineteenth century, resulting in the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives, which tabled the proposal in 1874, and in hearings before Congress in the 1890s and 1910s.
Over time, a number of issues have been the focus of the NRA’s labors, beyond its primary goal of advancing a Christian amendment to the US Constitution acknowledging national submission to the Lord Jesus Christ, including Sabbath laws, religion in public schools, pro-life concerns, and other matters of interest to those who hold to Christ’s mediatorial kingship over both church and state.
It is this fundamental doctrine of Christ’s mediatorial kingship over all things, publicly avowed by the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, and affirmed by many Reformed and Presbyterian ministers and churches in America over the years (Francis Robert Beattie, Alexander Craighead, Robert Lewis Dabney, Samuel Davies, Robert James Dodds, Robert James George, David McAllister, James Calvin McFeeters, Alexander McLeod, Gilbert McMaster, Alfred Nevin, Benjamin Morgan Palmer, William Swan Plumer, William Sommerville, David Steele, Thomas Patton Stevenson, James Henley Thornwell, Geerhardus Vos, Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, James McLeod Willson, James Renwick Willson, Richard Cameron Wylie, and Samuel Brown Wylie, are among such men represented at Log College Press), that undergirds the mission of the National Reform Association.
Who can forget the profound words of A.A. Hodge, in particular, on behalf of the "crown rights of Jesus"?
"And if Christ is Lord of lords and King of kings, if he is really the Ruler among the nations, then all nations are in a higher sense one nation, under one King, one law, having one interest and one end. There cannot be two laws for Christians—one to govern the relations of individuals, and the other the relations of nations. We must love our neighbor-man as ourselves, so the Master says; therefore we must love our neighbor-man as our own. The rivalries, jealousies, antagonisms and cruel wars between nations are all hideous fratricidal contests and satanic rebellions against Christ our common King. How miserably small and narrow and selfish is the form of so-called patriotism which our poor children are taught is so great a virtue, in comparison with that holy, uplifting passion which comprehends all nations as inseparable parts of the one living universal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! Suppose your enterprise in the great competitions of manufacture and trade surpasses theirs, and you grow rich and gild your palaces with the spoils of their poverty; suppose your sinews of war or your personal prowess and valor surpass theirs, and your empire grows great out of the ruins of their commonwealth,—what are you, after all, but the betrayer of your brother's peace or the destroyer of your brother's life and the disloyal render of the body of your common Lord? Alas, that we have yet to learn that the so-called code of honor among nations is just as mean and vulgar a thing as the code of honor among individuals!
And if Christ is really King, exercising original and immediate jurisdiction over the State as really as he does over the Church, it follows necessarily that the general denial or neglect of his rightful lordship, any prevalent refusal to obey that Bible which is the open lawbook of his kingdom, must be followed by political and social as well as by moral and religious ruin. If professing Christians are unfaithful to the authority of their Lord in their capacity as citizens of the State, they cannot expect to be blessed by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in their capacity as members of the Church. The kingdom of Christ is one, and cannot be divided in life or in death. If the Church languishes, the State cannot be in health, and if the State rebels against its Lord and King, the Church cannot enjoy his favor. If the Holy Ghost is withdrawn from the Church, he is not present in the State; and if he, the only "Lord, the Giver of life," be absent, then all order is impossible and the elements of society lapse backward to primeval night and chaos.
Who is responsible for the unholy laws and customs of divorce which have been in late years growing rapidly, like a constitutional cancer, through all our social fabric? Who is responsible for the rapidly-increasing, almost universal, desecration of our ancestral Sabbath ? Who is responsible for the prevalent corruptions in trade which loosen the bands of faith and transform the halls of the honest trader into the gambler's den ? Who is responsible for the new doctrines of secular education which hand over the very baptized children of the Church to a monstrous propagandism of Naturalism and Atheism ? Who is responsible for the new doctrine that the State is not a creature of God and owes him no allegiance, thus making the mediatorial Headship of Christ an unsubstantial shadow and his kingdom an unreal dream?
Whence come these portentous upheavals of the ancient primitive rock upon which society has always rested? Whence comes this socialistic earthquake, arraying capital and labor in irreconcilable conflict like oxygen and fire? Whence come these mad nihilistic, anarchical ravings, the wild presages of a universal deluge, which will blot out at once the family, the school, the church, the home, all civilization and religion, in one sea of ruin ?
In the name of your own interests I plead with you; in the name of your treasure-houses and barns, of your rich farms and cities, of your accumulations in the past and your hopes in the future,—I charge you, you never will be secure if you do not faithfully maintain all the crown-rights of Jesus the King of men. In the name of your children and their inheritance of the precious Christian civilization you in turn have received from your sires; in the name of the Christian Church,—I charge you that its sacred franchise, religious liberty, cannot be retained by men who in civil matters deny their allegiance to the King. In the name of your own soul and its salvation ; in the name of the adorable Victim of that bloody and agonizing sacrifice whence you draw all your hopes of salvation; by Gethsemane and Calvary, — I charge you, citizens of the United States, afloat on your wide wild sea of politics, There is Another King, One Jesus: The Safety Of The State Can Be Secured Only In The Way Of Humble And Whole-souled Loyalty To His Person and of Obedience His Law." (A.A. Hodge, Popular Lectures on Theological Themes, pp. 284-287)
While Eph. 1:21-22 is considered by many to be the locus classicus showing Christ’s mediatorial reign over all things (sometimes Matt. 28:18 too), McAllister argues from several other Scriptural passages thus in Christian Civil Government, p. 158:
"The Scriptures Teach that Christ is Ruler of Nations
1. Jesus Christ as Mediator, has all power and universal dominion committed to him, which must include authority over nations.
MATTHEW 28:18. – ‘And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.’
JOHN 5:22, 23. – ‘The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son; that all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent him.’
ACTS 10:36. – ‘Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all.’
1 CORINTHIANS 15:27. – ‘He [the Father] hath put all things under his [the Son’s] feet.’
PHILIPPIANS 2:9-11. – ‘God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.’"
William O. Einwechter, “The Judgment is God’s” in Explicitly Christian Politics: The Vision of the National Reform Association (1997), p. 81, writes:
“The Judgment is God’s: Christ’s Reign
According to the Old Testament prophetic Scriptures and the New Testament revelation, the statement that the ‘judgment is God’s needs to be further defined to declare that in this age of fulfillment ‘the judgment is Christ’s.’ This declaration concerning the Lord Jesus Christ reflects the fact of His current mediatorial reign over the nations. At the time of the resurrection and ascension, the Lord Jesus Christ was invested with all authority in heaven and earth and given dominion over all the nations. The Father has committed all judgment to the Son who presently rules at His right hand. Let us briefly consider three important biblical texts that lead to the conclusion that now the judgment is Christ’s."
Einwechter (a Reformed Baptist mininster and former vice-president of the NRA) then goes on to discuss Psalm 2, Psalm 110 and Daniel 7 and how these particular passages teach that Christ, in his mediatorial office of king, has unlimited scope of authority and dominion over all things.
The current mission statement (2017) of the NRA includes this statement:
“In order to honor the commandment of Scripture to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord over the nations of the earth (Psalm 2:7-12; Matt 28:18; Eph 1:20-22; Col. 2:10; Rev 1:5; Rev 11:15) and to progress with fulfillment of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20), the mission of the National Reform Association since 1863 has been to work with political leaders, pastors, and lay leaders to promote reformation in government and society, and to secure an amendment to the United States Constitution modifying it as needed, particularly in its Preamble and First Amendment, to recognize Jesus Christ as King and Supreme Governor of the United States. The wording of the new Preamble would be proposed as such:
WE, THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES, recognizing the being and attributes of Almighty God, the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures, the law of God as the paramount rule, and Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Savior and Lord of all, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves and to our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Thus, from the mid-19th century to the present, the NRA, organized with both Reformed Presbyterian leadership and ecumenical support, continues to testify on Biblical grounds that the United States has an obligation to acknowledge the kingship of Christ and to submit to his mediatorial reign over the nations. To read more about this organization and its principles, please consult 1) George Price Hays, Presbyterians (1892), pp. 420-421; 2) Robert Ellis Thompson, A History of the Presbyterian in the United States (1895), pp. 280-283; 3) David McAllister, Christian Civil Government (1927); 4) James H. Moorhead, Princeton Seminary in American Religion and Culture (2012), pp. 227-228; and 5) Explicitly Christian Politics: The Vision of the National Reform Association (1997).
Note: The author of this post serves on the Board of the National Reform Association as Secretary and Treasurer.
To Catch Sight of the Ineffable Vision
Have you visited the Compilations page at Log College Press recently? We are adding special volumes by multiple authors as we can. One such gem that is very much worth downloading and studying with care is the 1909 Calvin Memorial Addresses.
In May 1909, the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) assembled in Savannah, Georgia, to honor the 400th anniversary of the birth of the French Reformer, John Calvin. It was on this occasion that a gavel was presented to the Moderator of the General Assembly. That gavel was made from a timber of wood obtained from the tower of the St. Pierre Cathedral in Geneva from which John Calvin preached. It was a fitting tribute to a man whom we admire because he, it seems, had "caught sight of the ineffable Vision." In the Calvin Memorial Addresses delivered on that occasion, B.B. Warfield (1851-1921) gave a description of Calvinism and what it means to be a Calvinist, a description that resonates a century on:
"The Calvinist, in a word, is the man who sees God. He has caught sight of the ineffable Vision, and he will not let it fade for a moment from his eyes—God in nature, God in history, God in grace. Everywhere he sees God in His mighty stepping, everywhere he feels the working of His mighty arm, the throbbing of His mighty heart. The Calvinist is therefore, by way of eminence, the supernaturalist in the world of thought. The world itself is to him a supernatural product. not merely in the sense that somewhere, away back before all time, God made it, but that God is making it now, and in every event that falls out. In every modification of what is, that takes place, His hand is visible, as through all occurrences His “one increasing purpose runs”. Man himself is His— created for His glory, and having as the one supreme end of his existence to glorify his Maker, and haply also to enjoy Him for ever. And salvation, in every step and stage of it, is of God. Conceived in God’s love, wrought out by God’s own Son in a supernatural life and death in this world of sin, and applied by God’s Spirit in a series of acts as supernatural as the virgin birth and the resurrection of the Son of God themselves—it is a supernatural work through and through. To the Calvinist, thus, the Church of God is as direct a creation of God as the first creation itself. In this supernaturalism, the whole thought and feeling and life of the Calvinist is steeped. Without it there can be no Calvinism, for it is just this that is Calvinism....But let us make no mistake here. For here, too, Calvinism is just Christianity. The supernaturalism for which Calvinism stands is the very breath of the nostrils of Christianity; without it Christianity cannot exist. And let us not imagine that we can pick and choose with respect to the aspects of this supernaturalism which we acknowledge—that we may, for example, retain supernaturalism in the origination of Christianity. and forego the supernaturalism with which Calvinism is more immediately concerned, the supernaturalism of the application of Christianity. Men will not believe that a religion, the actual working of which in the world is natural, can have required to be ushered into the world with supernatural pomp and display. These supernaturals stand or fall together....This is what was meant by the late Dr. H. Boynton Smith, when he declared roundly: 'One thing is certain,—that Infidel Science will rout everything excepting thoroughgoing Christian orthodoxy. . . . The fight will be between a stiff thoroughgoing orthodoxy and a stiff thoroughgoing infidelity. It will be, for example, Augustine or Comte, Athanasius or Hegel, Luther or Schopenhauer, J. S. Mill or John Calvin.' This witness is true....Calvinism thus emerges to our sight as nothing more or less than the hope of the world."
William B. Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit - A Biographical Classic
William Buell Sprague’s (1795-1876) Annals of the American Pulpit (9 vols., 1858-1869) is one of the great classics of biographical church history. If you enjoy reading biographies of early American Presbyterians, Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopalians, Congregationalists and more, you have just discovered a gold mine. Sprague was comprehensive in his scope, thorough in his research, judicious in his selections, and eloquent and edifying in his discourses. Solid Ground Christian Books has republished his volumes on the Baptists and Presbyterians. The whole set, now available online to read at Log College Press, is as follows:
Annals of the American Pulpit, Vol. 1 (Trinitarian Congregational)
Annals of the American Pulpit, Vol. 2 (Trinitarian Congregational)
Annals of the American Pulpit, Vol. 3 (Presbyterian)
Annals of the American Pulpit, Vol. 4 (Presbyterian)
Annals of the American Pulpit, Vol. 5 (Episcopalian)
Annals of the American Pulpit, Vol. 6 (Baptist)
Annals of the American Pulpit, Vol. 7 (Methodist)
Annals of the American Pulpit, Vol. 8 (Unitarian Congregational)
Annals of the American Pulpit, Vol. 9 (Lutherans, Reformed Dutch, Associate, Associate Reformed, Reformed Presbyterian)