An American Eyewitness to a Massacre: W.P. Mills at Nanjing

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Born on December 1, 1883, in Winnsboro, South Carolina, Wilson Plumer Mills, son of a Presbyterian pastor, went on to serve as an American Presbyterian missionary in China during a crucial and tragic episode that has been forgotten by some and will never be forgotten by others.

Mills’ extensive studies included course work at Davidson College, North Carolina (BA, 1903); the University of South Carolina (M.A., 1907); Christ Church College, the University of Oxford, where, as a Rhodes Scholar, he graduated with honors in theology (B.A. 1910); Columbia Theological Seminary, South Carolina (B.D., 1912); and Union Theological Seminary, New York (S.T.M., 1932). From 1912 to 1932, he worked for the YMCA in China; in that year Mills resigned from the YMCA, was ordained, and joined the Presbyterian Foreign Mission Board in Nanjing (then the capital of China).

When the Second Sino-Japanese War began in July 1937, Mills played an important diplomatic role as the Japanese prepared to occupy Nanjing. He attempted to negotiate a truce, and also suggested the creation of a Safety Zone to protect civilians. After the occupation, in November 1937, Mills was appointed vice-chairman of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone (later in February 1938, he became the chairman).

For his role in protecting the 250,000 citizens of the Nanjing Safety Zone (about 70,000 of which were dependent upon the committee for food and fuel), Mills received the Order of the Green Jade, the highest honor given to Westerners by the Chinese government. During World War II he was interned* for nine months in Shanghai by the Japanese, was repatriated in 1943, and returned to China the following year and stayed there until 1949. He worked for the Missionary Research Library at Union Theological Seminary in New York City until 1955, and died there four years later.

At Log College Press, we have available a set of letters which he wrote from Nanjing, mostly to his wife, which recount his personal experiences in the midst of what came to be known to the world as the “Rape of Nanjing,” a massacre by Japanese soldiers that resulted in the deaths of somewhere between 40,000-300,000 civilians, as well as barbaric atrocities, all of which became the subject of war crime trials after the end of World War II. His efforts to help arrange a truce are described in letters dated January 22/24 and January 31, 1938. The story of his eyewitness account of the Japanese occupation of the city and the reign of terror that existed is told sequentially in letters from January to March 1938. These letters, which with great effort were sent out through the American embassy, constitute part of the primary source material which documents a tragedy that is forgotten in many parts of the world, but whose painful memory is still borne by survivors and descendants of the massacre some 82 years later.

Reading this correspondence — which is mostly typewritten, but also contains handwritten notes — one is struck by the increasingly horrifying realization of just how evil the occupation became. Following initial reassurances to his wife about his personal safety, as the details were explained and anecdotes related over time, one can imagine how Nina must have felt and had cause to pray as she read his letters.

While one can read more about the awful details of this massacre elsewhere too, the letters by Mills reveal how one American Presbyterian missionary did what he could, in God’s Providence, to help those in need, and how he was able to relate the story to his family about what happened in installments while much of the world remained in the dark about the extent of the tragedy. To read a gripping story about a painful but important chapter in world history in the words of one who was there, visit his page here.

*Another Protestant missionary, Eric Liddell, was interned by the Japanese at Weihsien Internment Camp (site of an American Presbyterian mission compound) at Shandong, China from 1943 until his death in 1945.

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A letter from Caledonia, and more by Archibald Stobo

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As one of three ministers from Scotland who helped to promote the spiritual interests of the settlers who founded the colony of Caledonia, or New Caledonia, on the Isthmus of Panama in the late 1690s, Archibald Stobo and his colleagues dispatched a letter to the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland dated February 2, 1700 giving an account of the colony shortly before it was abandoned the following month. It was primarily authored by the famous Covenanter minister Alexander Shields, signed by each minister of the newly-formed Presbytery of Caledonia, and reproduced in Francis Borland’s account of what is now known as the Darien Scheme, or Expedition. We have added this letter to Stobo’s page on Log College Press recently. Also included by Borland is an extract from Stobo’s letter to Borland which briefly gives an account of the famous storm that caused Stobo to be stranded in Charleston, South Carolina, where he took up his home and embraced a life in America, never to return to Scotland. Alexander Shields also never made it home to Scotland, having died of the “malignant fever” at Port Royal, Jamaica in 1700 [this writer once lived there, but Shields’ grave is unmarked]. So Borland’s memoir of the Darien expedition is a most important resource.

These first-hand accounts from Stobo and friends are valuable to students of both church history and world history. As we have noted before, Stobo was involved in both the founding of 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.

Also of note on his page is the affidavit that he and Reformed Baptist William Screven signed in 1705 in case involving the Anglican suppression of Protestant dissenters in 1704, a subject which Daniel Defoe wrote about.

We know of additional writings by Stobo and hope to add more in the future. Meanwhile, take time to read of Stobo’s experiences in Caledonia and Charleston. He is a pioneer Presbyterian that we are glad to highlight here at Log College Press.

A poem for May Day by Boyd McCullough

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To celebrate the first day of May, we present a poem from Irish-American Reformed / United Presbyterian minister Boyd McCullough’s autobiography The Experience of Seventy Years (1895). The book is not yet on Log College Press, but it is a fascinating read and filled with his poetic verse. The following seems to be a tribute perhaps to the fragrant Trailing Arbutus (Epigaea repens), a flower of delicate beauty.

To a Wild Flower

Mrs. Margaret Cameron, of Bloomington Ferry, received anonymously a wild flower of rare beauty. She suspected that it came from her sister in Wisconsin. She pressed it and put it in her album and she desired a few verses to put in with it.

Little flower of beauty rare,
From Wisconsin’s woods you came,
With perfume you graced the air.
Trailing Love’s your pretty name.

In the merry month of May
To my door your way you found,
When the singing birds are gay,
’Mong the trees with blossoms crowned.

Not a word had you to say;
Not a message have you brought;
Yet a sister far away
Came at once into my thought.

Wildwoods are your chosen spot,
In the garden bed you die;
Thus true love, which glads the cot,
From the lordly dome will fly.

When to dust you shall depart,
As from dust your sprung.
Your remembrance in my heart,
Like a picture shall be hung.

Wedded bliss was once my share,
Soon my sky was overcast.
Still my heart retains with care,
Memories of the happy past.

Heaven has lent this precious boon
To the patient, trusting mind;
Earthly glories, fading soon,
Leave a sweet perfumer behind.

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J.R. Miller: Gather treasure for eternity

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From his devotional Morning Thoughts For Every Day in the Year, J.R. Miller reminds us today that there is a labor which is not of lasting profit to our souls, and that we should strive each day to work for that which is of eternal value.

APRIL 29

Work . . . for the meat which abideth unto eternal life.— John vi. 27.

BUNYAN gives a picture of a man with a muck-rake, working hard, scraping up the rubbish under his feet, not seeing the crown that hangs in the air above his head. It is a picture of many people in this world. They are toiling and wearing out their life in gathering rubbish out of the dust, not thinking of the divine gifts, the spiritual things, that are in Christ, and which they might have with half the toil and care.

“Bubbles we busy with a whole soul’s tasking;
’Tis heaven alone that is given away,
’Tis only God may be had for the asking.”

We ought not to spend our life in picking up things we cannot carry beyond the grave. If we are wise, we shall seek rather to gather treasures we can take with us into eternity. When we take Christ into our heart, we eat the meat which abideth unto eternal life.

A good reminder for us all in the middle of the work week.

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Three African-American Covenanter Ministers: A Tribute

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Today we pay tribute to three African-American Presbyterian ministers associated with Selma, Alabama. Each of these was also a part of the Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanter) Church of North America (RPCNA); two of them later joined the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS). The information we have about their lives is limited, but intriguing. Yet they were ground-breaking pioneers who are worthy of remembrance.

• Lewis Johnston, Jr. (1847-1903) - Johnston was the first African-American ordained to the ministry in the RPCNA, on October 14, 1874, as learn from his entry in William Melancthon Glasgow’s History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America (see also Glasgow’s The Geneva Book) and William J. Edgar, History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, 1871-1920, p. 57. His father also served as a ruling elder with him at the RPCNA congregation in Selma. He founded Geneva Academy (soon renamed Knox Academy) in Selma, Alabama on June 11, 1874. An educator, a court clerk, a newspaper editor and publisher and a published poet as well as a minister, his death was widely noticed in the newspapers, including John W. Pritchard’s The Christian Nation for June 3, 1903. The following was written by Edward P. Cowan, Secretary of the Board of Freedmen (PCUSA). Tragically, four of Johnston’s sons were later killed in the Elaine Massacre of 1919.

Rev. Lewis Johnston, a member of White River Presbytery and principal of Richard Allen Institute, of Pine Bluff, Ark., died on the morning of March 7th 1903.

Mr. Johnston was born in Allegheny City, Pa., December 12th, 1847. His parents were Presbyterians and they brought him up in the fear of God in that faith. He finished in the public schools at an early age and enlisted in the army. At the close of the war he received an honorable discharge, after which he returned home and entered Geneva College, near Bellefontaine, Ohio. After finishing his college education he entered the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Allegheny City and finished his course there in four years.

His first two year’s work as a missionary was at Selma, Ala. Leaving there, he went to Pine Bluff, Ark., where he spent twenty-five years in active and earnest service, teaching for several years in county and city schools. After that he commenced a missionary school, which grew so rapidly that with the good people of Pine Bluff a school building was erected. At that time his work was under the care of the Southern Presbyterian Church. The school continued to grow until friends of the work were compelled to provide a larger building for its accommodation. By this time his work had been transferred to the Board of Missions for Freedmen.

During the years of his ill health he only failed to preach one Sabbath. He did much for his race and worked for the Master even to the last day of his life. He leaves a wife and seven children to mourn his loss. The citizens of Pine Bluff of both races paid marked tribute to his memory. “He being dead, yet speaketh.” [The Assembly Herald, Vol. 8, No. 5 (May 1903), p. 201]

The Richard Allen Institute was founded in 1886 by Rev. Lewis Johnston and his wife, Mercy.

• George Milton Elliot (1849-1918) - While Johnston was the founder and first principal of the Richard Allen Institute (named for Richard Allen, another secretary of the Board of Freedmen, PCUSA), Elliot served as its third principal. Born near Isle of Wight, Virginia, he later studied with Johnston at Geneva College and at RPTS. He also ministered in Beaufort, South Carolina; and founded the St. Augustine Industrial Institute in St. Augustine, Florida, serving as its first principal; among other travels and accomplishments. He was also one of the founders and a President of the Alabama State Teachers Association. Nathan R. Johnston considered Elliot to be a good friend and provides interesting anecdotal information about him, as well as his portrait, in Johnston’s autobiographical work Looking Back From the Sunset Land: Or People Worth Knowing. In one instance, N.R. Johnston speaks warmly of Elliot’s 1888 address to the ASTA where we know, from other sources, that Elliot told his audience: “Teachers, you are the shapers of thought and the molders of sentiment, not of this age and of this generation alone, but of ages and generations to come. You are making history by those you teach….You are the few that are moulding the masses.” biographical details are given to us in Glasgow’s History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America and The Geneva Book, and in Owen F. Thompson’s Sketches of the Ministers of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America From 1888 to 1930, but Edgar sums up the story (p. 108) of Elliot, who began with the RPCNA, but later joined the PCUS.

The first pastor of the Selma RP Church was George Milton Elliot, a black man born in Virginia in 1849 and a graduate of Geneva College in 1873 and of Allegheny Seminary in 1877. Pittsburgh Presbytery ordained him in 1877, and he was installed as the pastor of the Selma RP Church that year. Elliot had already become Principal of Knox Academy in 1876, so he oversaw both the church and the school in their earliest days. In 1886, Elliot resigned both positions and became a missionary in different locations in the American South for the rest of his life, working with the Presbyterian Church.

• Solomon Ford Kingston (1860-1934) - In addition to tributes about Kingston from the pens of Rev. J.M. Johnston, Rev. R.J. McIsaac, and Rev. W.J. Sanderson which appeared in the May 23, 1934 issue of The Covenanter Witness, Kingston’s biography is told in Thompson’s Sketches and in Alvin W. Smith, Covenanter Ministers, 1930-1963. Further details are given in Glasgow’s The Geneva Book, and in David M. Carson, Pro Christo et Patria: A History of Geneva College, which includes pictures of Kingston and informs us that as a student there he was “a noted athlete and a talented entertainer” (p. 27). Thompson begins:

S.F. Kingston, son of [Benjamin] and Betty Kingston, was born in October, 1860, near Selma, Alabama. His parents were born in slavery and were uneducated. They were members of the Baptist Church. He united with the Reformed Presbyterian Church at Selma, Alabama, in 1877, under the pastorate of the Rev. Lewis Johnston. He attended Burell Academy, Knox Academy and Geneva College, graduating from the latter in 1885. He entered the Reformed Presbyterian Seminary in Allegheny (now North Side Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania, in 1888 and completed the course in 1891. He was licensed to preach the Gospel by Pittsburgh Presbytery April 9, 1890, and was ordained to the Gospel Ministry by the same Presbytery at Wilkinsburg on March 27, 1891. He was appointed to work in Selma, and took up work in that Mission as Stated Supply. Later a regular Gospel call was made upon him by the congregation and on May 13, 1903, he was installed pastor over that congregation by a Commission of Illinois Presbytery. He resigned from that charge in 1927, and has been employed since by organizations engaged in social and charitable service. He was born a Baptist and united with the Reformed Presbyterian Church as a young man. He spent two years in Birmingham, Alabama, as City Missionary. He also taught two years at Greensboro, Alabama. In 1893 he was united in marriage with Miss Anna Rose Patterson of New Brighton, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Kingston died March 1, 1922, at Selma, Alabama, her home.

Smith concludes Kingston’s biographical sketch:

S.F. Kingston, whose biographical sketch appears in Thompson's Sketches of the Ministers up to the year 1930, when that volume was published, was in that year living in Selma, Alabama, and was employed by organizations engaged in social and charitable service. He had resigned his charge as pastor of the Selma congregation in 1927, after having served the Lord and the church in the Southern Mission about thirty-six years. During the years which followed his resignation, there was no letting up of his interest in the advance of Christ's kingdom. He departed this life on March 28, 1934.

Edgar adds the following concerning Kingston (p. 108):

The second pastor of the Selma RPC was Solomon Kingston. The son of illiterate slaves, Kingston joined the Selma congregation in 1877 at age seventeen, attended Knox Academy, finished Geneva College in 1885, and graduated from the Allegheny RP Seminary in 1891. His wife, Anna Rose Patterson from New Brighton, Pennsylvania, conducted Sabbath school at Valley Creek, and their daughter was principal of the East Selma School for a time. Kingston was stated supply in the Selma RPC from 1891-1903 and then its officially installed pastor from 1903-1927, for a total of thirty-six years in Selma.

These three men did much to teach and preach the gospel, and advance the kingdom of God in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Their names are not widely known, but they should be. It is wished that more was known about them, but taking what we have, we give God the glory for their place and part in church history. Let us remember and appreciate their labors for God’s glory. Their legacy in Selma endures.

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Van Rensselaer's Calendar for Every Year

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In 1841, the Episcopal Bishop of New Jersey, George Washington Doane, published a pamphlet titled The Rector’s Christmas Offering, in which he expounded upon the meaning of the liturgical calendar as employed by his church. Soon thereafter, a response appeared — one of several directed towards the High Church views of his neighbor — by Cortlandt Van Rensselaer, Sr. (under the pseudonym, “a Presbyterian”) — representing the Presbyterian view of the liturgical calendar, which is undergirded by the Second and Fourth Commandments: it was titled Man’s Feasts and Fasts in God’s Church (1842). He took the bishop to task for intruding upon the simplicity of Biblical worship — as marked by 52 (on occasion 53) holy Sabbath days per year, rather than a host of (approximately 120) man-made holy days intermixed with God’s own divinely-appointed day of rest. Appended to his pamphlet is a calendar which sometimes makes the rounds on social media even today (occasionally modified to reflect the current year).

Van Rensselaer’s calendar for 1842.

One may read Van Rensselaer’s position in his own words here, but the calendar speaks for itself.

It is noteworthy that when Bishop Doane passed away in 1859, it was his neighbor, Van Rensselaer, who stepped up to deliver his funeral sermon. It is found in his Miscellaneous Sermons, Essays, and Addresses, published posthumously in 1861, in which he prefaces his remarks:

Providence often summons a person to the performance of duties, which would otherwise more naturally have devolved upon others. Living In Burlington, by the side of Bishop Doane, I felt called upon to notice his death. My own stand-point varies from that of some others. I shall have no personal controversy with any who differ from me. God is the Judge of all.

The backstory for this calendar is helpful to bear in mind as it has a context in which its author strenuously argues for simplicity of Biblical worship, and later demonstrated graciousness in honoring his opponent on this very subject with a funeral sermon commending the Bishop’s virtues while acknowledging their differences. If this is your first look at the calendar, consider what Van Rensselaer has to say in regards to the liturgical calendar. If you have seen it before, but without context, now you know the rest of the story.

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Retirement With Jesus: A meditation by George Burrowes

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In solitude, meditation with Christ is sweet. George Burrowes, renowned commentator on the Song of Solomon, and poet, has written a meditation on this very topic, from his volume of poems titled Octorara, A Poem: And Occasional Pieces (1856).

Retirement With Jesus

There will I give thee my loves. — Song vii.12.

Come to this tranquil shade
Of forest boughs in spring’s rich freshness wove;
And on this turf with early flowers inlaid,
Bring filled with fervent love,

The censer of the heart;
And offer sacrifice of praise and prayer,
To Him whose Holy Spirit doth impart
Peace calm as this pure air.

Here are no rolling wheels,
No mammon’s pomp, nor envy, strife, nor jar;
Unfelt the din of life around us steals,
Like the dull waves afar.

From Salem’s crowds at even,
To the lone mount was Jesus e’er withdrawn;
There, with no voice to hear, he poured to Heaven
His prayer at early dawn.

There does he linger yet,
Revealed to faith’s pure eye, to meet and bless
Souls who, for his blest smiles and voice, forget
Earth’s phantom happiness.

When rosy morning fills,
In heaven’s dewy borders, her golden urn,
And bright her altars on the eastern hills,
With balmy incense burn;

When pensive eve doth gaze,
With wondering silence, on the starry throng,
That crowd the darkening courts of heaven, and raise
Their full adoring song;

Then haste, my soul, to meet
This confidential Friend, where none intrudes;
Feel Mary’s joy, while falling at his feet
In these blest solitudes.

Here, speaks He face to face,
With our o’erwhelmed and gladdened souls; our heart
He gathers to his bosom; and his grace
In melting streams imparts.

The hidden manna here,
Our spirits find by more than angels given;
And brighter than on Tabor’s mount, appear
O’erpowering gleams of heaven.

In this divine retreat,
Where breathes the fainting soul reviving air,
The spirit healthful grows, and feels it sweet
Its toils and woes to bear.

And when my soul alone
Must pass away from earth, through death’s dark shade,
He whom my heart has here so frequent known,
Will meet me with his aid;

And gathered in his arms,
A trembling lamb, my trusting soul he’ll bear
Safe through death’s terrors and the grave’s alarms,
His home in heaven to share.

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A chat with Charles Spurgeon about some Log College Press commentaries

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For today’s post, we have decided to consult with renowned English Reformed Baptist minister Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) to seek his opinions regarding some of the commentaries available to be read at Log College Press. He is the author of a book published in 1876 which is a most helpful evaluation of Bible expositions [from which his responses are given] covering a full spectrum of writers from different backgrounds. The scope and depth of his knowledge in this area is respected by all, and so we present his remarks for consideration to our readers.

Log College Press: Thank you for joining us today. We have high regard for your love of God’s Word, and the faithful exposition of it. We know with what high esteem you hold such expositors as John Calvin, Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole, John Trapp, John Gill and others. We too value standing on the shoulders of those who have gone before us in regards to our understanding of what the Bible teaches. Our focus at Log College Press is on American Presbyterians who have labored to expound upon the Bible or portions thereof. We wanted to seek your opinion regarding particular authors. We begin with some Princeton expositors. How would you rate Joseph Addison Alexander on the Psalms?

Charles H. Spurgeon: Occupies a first place among expositions. It is a clear and judicious explanation of the text, and cannot be dispensed with.

LCP: That is high praise. It seems that Charles Hodge also thought highly of J.A. Alexander as a Biblical commentator. What did he have to say about Alexander on Isaiah?

CHS: Dr. Hodge says of the author: "I regard Dr. Joseph Addison Alexander as incomparably the greatest man I ever knew—as incomparably the greatest man our Church has ever produced." He wastes no space, but gives the essence of exposition.

LCP: And your thoughts on J.A. Alexander’s commentary on the Gospel of Matthew?

CHS: Dr. Alexander's last work. He died before it was quite finished. It is complete to Chapter XVI. Its value is great.

LCP: What about his commentary on the Book of Acts?

CHS: In all respects a work of the highest merit.

LCP: Turning to Dr. Charles Hodge himself, what are your thoughts on his commentary on Romans?

CHS: Hodge's method and matter make him doubly useful in commenting. He is singularly clear, and a great promoter of thought.

LCP: As we continue down the list of New Testament expositions by Hodge, what about First and Second Corinthians?

CHS: The more we use Hodge, the mare we value him. This applies to all his commentaries.

LCP: And Hodge on Ephesians?

CHS: Most valuable. With no writer do we more fully agree.

LCP: What is your opinion of another LCP author who served as pastor of the Presbyterian church in Princeton, New Jersey, James Madison MacDonald, who wrote on Ecclesiastes?

CHS: Thoroughly exegetical, with excellent "scopes of argument" following each division: to be purchased if it can be met with.

LCP: What are your thoughts on John Miller’s exposition of Proverbs?

CHS: This author's interpretations are new, and in our judgment very far removed from accuracy. Certainly the old interpretations are better in many ways. His theory that the' Proverbs are spiritual and not secular will not hold water. He needs reading with very great discrimination: if read at all "Too great innovation" is the author's own suspicion of his work, and we quite agree with him, only we go beyond mere suspicion.

LCP: Here is a controversial name. Albert Barnes. What do you think of him?

CHS: Albert Barnes, say you, "What, do you think of Albert Barnes?" Albert Barnes is a learned and able divine, but his productions are unequal in value, the gospels are of comparatively little worth, but his other comments are extremely useful for Sunday School teachers and persons with a narrow range of reading, endowed with enough good sense to discriminate between good and evil. If a controversial eye had been turned upon Barnes's Notes years ago, and his inaccuracies shown up by some unsparing hand, he would never have had the popularity which at one time set rival publishers advertising him in every direction. His Old Testament volumes are to be greatly commended as learned and laborious, and the epistles are useful as a valuable collection of the various opinions of learned men. Placed by the side of the great masters, Barnes is a lesser light, but taking his work for what it is and professes to be, no minister can afford to be without it, and this is no small praise for works which were only intended for Sunday School teachers.

LCP: Thank you for those thoughts. What would you say about Barnes on the Psalms, specifically?

CHS: Thoroughly good. Using these notes constantly, we are more and.more struck with their value. For the general run of preachers this is probably the best commentary extant.

LCP: And Barnes on Job?

CHS: Exceedingly good. One of the best of this author's generally valuable productions. The student should purchase this work at once. as it is absolutely necessary to his library.

LCP: There are also some Southern Presbyterian expositors to consider. What is your opinion of T.V. Moore on Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi?

CHS: A capital book. Most useful to ministers.

LCP: What about William Swan Plumer on Romans?

CHS: Plumer is a laborious compiler, and to most men his works will be of more use than those of a more learned writer.

LCP: And your thoughts on Plumer’s commentary on the Psalms?

CHS: A huge volume, compiled from such works as were accessible to the author in the United States. Full of instructive comment, but not very original, or remarkably learned.

LCP: What is your opinion of Francis Smith Sampson’s commentary on Hebrews?

CHS: A respectable production, but we know many which we value far more. As a set of lectures to a college class these comments would be of great value, but the author did well not to print them, although it was natural and fitting that his surviving colleague [Robert Lewis Dabney] should do so.

LCP: A. Moody Stuart has given an opinion of George Burrowes on the Song of Solomon. Can you remind us of what he had to say?

CHS: Mr. Moody Stuart says — “The excellent work of Dr. Burrowes is specially fitted to remove the prejudices of men of taste against the Song of Solomon, as the medium of spiritual communion between the soul and Christ. We welcome it as a valuable contribution to us from our transatlantic brethren.”

LCP: Thank you, sir, for your time and valued opinions. To our readers, we would add that we have a number of additional commentaries to consult here. The love of the God’s Word leads to an appreciation of faithful expositions thereof, and while not all commentaries are equal in value, we are pleased to continue building this page as one of many resources for students of the Scriptures here at Log College Press.

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A reminder from John H. Agnew about the importance and blessing of family worship

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In times when many churches are closed, the temptation exists to neglect other duties of worship beyond corporate, such as family and private worship. John Holmes Agnew’s words about the blessings of family worship on the Lord’s Day serve as a good reminder that we ought not to neglect family worship on the Christian Sabbath, especially when families themselves may not be able to assemble in public.

In his 1842 volume A Manual on the Christian Sabbath, he paints a picture evocative of The Cotters’ Saturday Night, which highlights just how important and how special family worship is - especially on the first day of the week.

The Sabbath is the poor man's friend. It scatters joy and gladness over his path. To him it is the bursting of a bubbling fountain in the scorching desert—the green spot on earth's wilderness where his eye rests with pleasure, the rising of a star like that of Bethlehem, to point him to the place of peace!

On other days he may be cheerless, and perhaps alone; but on this, his eye sparkles with delight while he gazes on the little family circle, and his heart glows with new pleasure as he looks around upon the children whom God hath given him, and enjoys a day's communion with the wife of his bosom (p. 119).

He continues his sketch of family worship on the Sabbath day as it ought to be for all:

But leaving the pulpit, go into the domestic sanctuary, and witness there a scene which has sent gladness into many a heart, and has done more for the morality of this nation, than all her public schools, or legal enactments. See the father of a family, the paternal shepherd, gathering his little flock around him, making them to lie down in green pastures, and beside the still waters. See him in the midst of those whom his heart loves, open the sacred pages, and call their attention to the story of Joseph, and the goodness of Joseph's God — then point them to the babe of Bethlehem, the man of sorrows, the persecuted and dying, yet meek, submissive and benevolent Jesus ; and while he tells them that their sins were the nails and the spear, which fastened him to the cross, and opened the veins of his body; that he left heaven to die thus for them, you may see one and another catching his words with listening ear, and weeping tears of sympathy. Yes; and you may follow them out into the shadows and realities of life, and you will find that an impression has been made by the familiar instruction of the fireside, which has restrained them from the haunts of wickedness, and probably led them into the church of God (p. 126).

Agnew’s Manual is a wonderful book to read on the Lord’s Day, and his reminder about the value of family worship is very timely. Take time to peruse this delightful work, and to profit from his words of wisdom.

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P.P. Flournoy's address at the Old Tennent Church

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Almost 120 years ago, on June 14, 1900, Presbyterians assembled at the Old Scots Burying Ground in Marlboro Township, New Jersey and at the nearby Old Tennent Church for the unveiling of the “Presbyterian Historical Monument,” built near the place of John Boyd’s burial to commemorate the first first Presbytery in America. The details of this event can be found in the 2nd (1904) edition of Frank R. Symmes, History of the Old Tennent Church.

The “Presbyterian Historical Monument” at the Old Scots Burying Ground, Marlboro, New Jersey.

Addresses were given by several ministers and others, among whom was Parke Poindexter Flournoy, who spoke on the topic of “Presbyterians Before First Presbytery.” We have touched on this chapter of history before in a previous post titled The First Hundred Years of American Presbyterian History. Rev. Flournoy’s address was reprinted in the July 11, 1900 issue of The Central Presbyterian, and it has been added to his page on Log College Press recently.

His address, which is not lengthy, focuses on two ministers (Francis Doughty, Jr. and Matthew Hill) and three ruling elders (William Durand, Nianian Beall, and William Stevens). These are pioneers of American Presbyterianism that student of church history should know, although there are gaps in our knowledge of the details of their lives. Flournoy gives credit to Charles Augustus Briggs for the invaluable historical research he did in bringing to light, for example, Matthew Hill’s correspondence with Richard Baxter, adding that “Before Dr. Briggs took another path, he was a most efficient investigator of the facts of early American Presbyterianism.” Doughty and Hill predate the arrival of Francis Makemie, who is known to history as “the Father of American Presbyterianism” and, in fact, helped pave the way for his successful labors along the East Coast, and specifically, on the Eastern Shore of Virginia and Maryland.

Flournoy tells us in his concluding remarks:

… we have seen that there were Presbyterians before the first Presbytery; and I would claim the unseen foundation stones beneath the soil as the memorial of the long unknown, and still but little known, ministers, ruling ciders and good people who laid the foundation on which the first Presbytery was builded — for Francis Doughty and Matthew Hill, the faithful and earnest ministers; for William Durand, Ninian Beall and William Stevens, the ruling | elders; and for the “loving and willing people” of whom Hill tells, and for those companies of French [Huguenots, or] Presbyterians, the fellow-countrymen of Calvin, among whom were my own ancestors, who endeared such cruelties on the blood-stained soil of France, and contributed so largely to the establishment of civil and religious liberty in free America.

Take time to read this 120 year-old address by Parke P. Flournoy and learn more about the early American Presbyterian pioneers who helped lay the foundation for America’s first Presbytery in 1706.

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Fisher's Blind Milton

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Great art often begets more great art. Creation itself, that wonderful theater of God’s glory (a term used by John Calvin), of course, has inspired many scenic paintings. The poetry of the Bible has inspired poets for millennia. And the story of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden inspired John Milton to compose the epic poem Paradise Lost (1667), which he did while blind, dictating the lines to a group of amanuenses, including his own daughters. This historical fact, in turn, has inspired a number of painters to capture that moment, including Mihály Munkácsy’s Blind Milton Dictating Paradise Lost to his Daughters (1878).

This remarkable visionary work of art in turn inspired African-American Presbyterian minister and poet Samuel Jackson Fisher. In his volume of poetry titled The Romance of Pittsburgh or Under Three Flags, and Other Poems, there is one composition which pays tribute to both Munkácsy and Milton. And that is today’s verse for consideration.

MILTON DICTATING PARADISE LOST AND HIS DAUGHTER
(Munkacsy's Picture)

Blind are his eyes, yet can his great soul gaze
Through the past ages to the far-off days;
He sits in darkness, 'mid the present world.
Yet sees God's throne, and Satan downward hurled.
His the rapt vision of man's blessedness.
Of wedded love, life's crown of happiness;
The toil so sweet, the life without a fear,
Days without weariness, and eyes without a tear.
And as he sings of that lost Paradise
His face illumed as glorious visions rise.
She who would pen this bright, celestial story
Forgets her task amid that vanished glory;
Listening to him whom thoughts divine inspire,
She dreams of Eden and the sword of fire.

Oh, happy eyes! though closed to this world's light,
Yet gaining thus the higher, heavenly sight.
Teach us the power, when in life's darkened room,
To look beyond the anguish and the gloom:
Like thee, to fill the soul with visions blest.
And seeing God, upon His Word to rest;
Help us to see, though joys be here denied,
The Paradise where hearts are satisfied

The last two lines echo as a meditation and a prayer for us today:

Help us to see, though joys be here denied,
The Paradise where hearts are satisfied

The vision of Blind Milton begat the vision Munkácsy, which begat the vision of Fisher. May we enter into that vision to behold, by faith in Jesus Christ, Paradise through this vale of tears.

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

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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.

Dwight L. Moody (c. 1870).

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?

Dr. William Swan Plumer

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.

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W.D. Ralston: Jesus Sang Psalms

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And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives (Matt. 26:30).

And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me (Luke 24:42).

It is a simple truth, but one which is often forgotten or overlooked, that Jesus in His earthly ministry sang the very Psalms that speak so clearly of Him.

William David Ralston in his Talks on Psalmody in the Matthews Family (1877) reminds us of this truth.

When Jesus was here upon earth he sang these Scripture psalms. We find him speaking of them as the Book of Psalms, and we read that he, in company with his disciples engaged in singing, and we are driven to the conclusion, that the songs they sung were these psalms of David, because we have not the least evidence that any other sacred songs were then in existence. We know that the psalms were then sung in God's worship, and we have no evidence whatever, that any other sacred songs were sung, or were in existence. In Matth. xxvi. 30, we read, "And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives." Expositors of the Bible tell us that this hymn was a Jewish hallel which is a portion of the psalms, namely, the cxiii and cxviii inclusive. I am clearly convinced that if our blessed Savior sung any songs when here on earth, they were the psalms, and surely we ought to prize them, because he sang them. If they were good enough for him, ought they not to be good enough for us?

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Noah Webster and Log College Press, Cross-Referenced

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Noah Webster is well known for his American dictionary, first published in 1828. Not only did he identify the meaning of 70,000 entries in two volumes, but often he would reference sentences from the Bible, or classic literature, to provide examples of usage. Some of the usage sources provided came from Log College Press authors. In the introduction, he specifically alludes to such Presbyterian writers as John Mitchell Mason, David Ramsay, and Samuel Stanhope Smith; but there are others too.

A sampling of almost 50 references to Log College Press authors in the ground-breaking 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language is shown below, along with additional information about the specific writings cited by Webster. Some of the quotes are quite memorable, and the sources in general indicate something of the evangelical reading done by Webster himself.

Abandon – “Wo to that generation by which the testimony of God shall be abandoned.” – Dr. Mason * This quote may be found in the introduction to John Mitchell Mason’s The Christian’s Magazine, Vol. 1 (1807).

Abrahamic – Pertaining to Abraham, the patriarch, as Abrahamic Covenant. -- Mason * John Mitchell Mason says in his essay on the Church of God, in Works, Vol. 2, “That the church of God, his visible church, taken into peculiar relations to himself, by the Abrahamic covenant, subsists without injury through the change of dispensation and of members.”

Advocate – “The idea of a legislature, consisting of a single branch, though advocated by some, was generally reprobated.” – Ramsay, Hist. Carolina. * This quote appears in David Ramsay, History of South Carolina, Vol. 1.

Alternation – Alternate performance, in the choral sense. – Mason * The term “alternation” appears in John Mitchell Mason’s review of Henry Hobart’s Apology for Apostolic Order and Its Advocates in Vol. 2 of The Christian’s Magazine (1809).

Appreciate – “Lest a sudden peace should appreciate the money.” -- Ramsay * This quote appears in David Ramsay, History of South Carolina, Vol. 1, where, speaking of currency inflation during the American War of Independence from Great Britain, Ramsay writes: “The sanguine, flattering themselves with the delusive hopes of a speedy termination of the war, were often induced to sell lest a sudden peace should appreciate the money, in which case it was supposed they would lose the present opportunity of selling to great advantage.”

Boatable – Navigable for boats, or small river craft. -- Ramsay * The term “boatable” appears in David Ramsay, History of South Carolina, Vol. 1.

Burning – “The burning plains of India.” – S.S. Smith * In An Essay on the Causes of the Variety of Complexion and Figure in the Human Species (1810), Samuel Stanhope Smith writes, “While the spirit of fanaticism carries the sun-burnt Saracen to the North, the love of war, and of plunder transplants the Tartar from the snows of Scythia to the burning plains of India.”

Climatical – “limited by a climate.” – S.S. Smith * Also in his 1810 Essay, Samuel Stanhope Smith writes, “To those who can satisfy themselves with regard to the communication of these properties, the transmission of climatical or national differences ought not to appear surprising.”

Conscience – “Conscience is first occupied in ascertaining our duty, before we proceed to action; then in judging of our actions when performed.” – J.M. Mason * This quote is derived from John Mitchell Mason’s essay On the Formation of a Good Conscience in Vol. 1 of The Christian’s Magazine (1807), in which he states: “I begin by remarking, that the scriptures, at tending to the operations of the human mind, ascribe a twofold agency to conscience. The first is occupied in ascertaining our duty before we proceed to action ; the second in judging of our actions, after they have been performed.”

Delegation – “The duties of religion cannot be performed by delegation.” – S. Miller * In the first of his Letters Concerning the Constitution and Order of the Christian Ministry (1807), Samuel Miller writes, “Religion is the common business of all men. Its duties cannot be performed by delegation.”

Deter – “A million of frustrated hopes will not deter us from new experiments.” – J.M. Mason * John Mitchell Mason, in his sermon on The Gospel for the Poor (Works, Vol. 3), says: “An irresistible law of our being impels us to seek happiness. Nor will a million of frustrated hopes deter from new experiments; because despair is infinitely more excruciating than the fear of fresh disappointment.”

Distributable – “That may be distributed; that may be assigned in portions.” – Ramsay * The term “distributable” appears in David Ramsay, History of South Carolina, Vol. 2.

Dogma – “Compliment my dogma, and I will compliment yours.” – J.M. Mason - This quote appears in John Mitchell Mason’s essay On Liberality in Religion in Vol. 1 of The Christian’s Magazine (1807).

Error – “Charge home upon error its most tremendous consequences.” – J.M. Mason * This quote appears in John Mitchell Mason’s essay On Religious Controversy in Vol. 1 of The Christian’s Magazine (1807).

Exquisite – “The most exquisite of human satisfactions flows from an approving conscience.” – J.M. Mason * This quote appears in John Mitchell Mason’s essay On the Formation of a Good Conscience in Vol. 1 of The Christian’s Magazine (1807).

Grade – “While questions, periods, and grades and privileges are never once formally discussed.” – S. Miller and “When we come to examine the intermediate grades.” – S.S. Smith * The former quote is derived from Samuel Miller, Letters Concerning the Constitution and Order of the Christian Ministry (1807): “While questions respecting priority, and grades, and privileges, are never once formally discussed, only occasionally alluded to, and then in a manner so indistinct and cursory as to show that they were considered as objects of inferior moment.” The latter quote is from Samuel Stanhope Smith’s An Essay on the Causes of the Variety of Complexion and Figure in the Human Species (1810).

Guise – “That love which is without dissimulation, wears not the guise of modern liberality.” – J.M. Mason * In his essay On Liberality in Religion in The Christian’s Magazine (1807), John Mitchell Mason writes: “That ‘love’ which is ‘without dissimulation,’ wears no such guise.”

Habitual – “Formed by repeated impressions; rendered permanent by continued causes; as, an habitual color of the skin.” – S.S. Smith * Samuel Stanhope Smith refers to “an habitual colour of the skin” in An Essay on the Causes of the Variety of Complexion and Figure in the Human Species (1810).

Humanity – “It is a debt we owe to humanity.” – S.S. Smith — This is taken from Samuel Stanhope Smith’s An Essay on the Causes of the Variety of Complexion and Figure in the Human Species (1810): “It is a debt which we owe to humanity to recognize our brethren in every class of men into which society is divided, and under every shade of complexion which diversifies their various tribes from the equator to the poles.”

Identify – “Every precaution is taken to identify the interests of the people, and of the rulers.” – Ramsay and “Paul has identified the two ordinances, circumcision and baptism, and thus, by demonstrating that they have one and the same use and meaning, he has exhibited to our view the very same seal of God’s covenant.” – J.M. Mason * The first quote appears in David Ramsay, History of South Carolina, Vol. 1. The second quote is derived from John Mitchell Mason’s essay on the Church of God in Works, Vol. 2: “He [Paul] has, therefore, identified the two ordinances: and thus, by demonstrating that they have one and the same use and meaning, he has exhibited to our view the very same seal of God's covenant, under the forms of circumcision and baptism respectively.”

Idol – “An idol is any thing which usurps the place of God in the hearts of his rational creatures.” – S. Miller — This quote comes from Samuel Miller’s 1826 sermon The Evidence and Duty of Being on the Lord's Side.

Improvable – “A scarcity of improvable lands began to be felt in these colonies.” – Ramsay * David Ramsay, in his History of South Carolina, Vol. 1, writes: “Notwithstanding the vast extent of territory contained in the provinces of Virginia and Pennsylvania, a scarcity of improvable lands began to be felt in these colonies, and poor people could not find vacant spots in them equal to their expectations.”

Initiating – Introducing by instruction, or by appropriate ceremonies. – J.M. Mason * John Mitchell Mason refers to the “initiating seals” of circumcision and baptism in his essay on the Church of God, Works, Vol. 2.

Irregeneracy – Unregeneracy. – J.M. Mason * John Mitchell Mason defines the Scripture phrase “uncircumcision of your flesh” as “uncircumcision put for the state of irregeneracy” in his essay on the Church of God, Works, Vol. 2.

Irresistable – “An irresistible law of our nature impels us to seek happiness.” – J.M. Mason * As noted above, John Mitchell Mason, in his sermon on The Gospel for the Poor (Works, Vol. 3), says: “An irresistible law of our being impels us to seek happiness. Nor will a million of frustrated hopes deter from new experiments; because despair is infinitely more excruciating than the fear of fresh disappointment.”

Non-Episcopal, Non-Episcopalian – Not episcopal; not of the episcopal church or denomination…. – J.M. Mason * The term “non-episcopal brethren” appears in John Mitchell Mason’s Essays on Episcopacy in Works, Vol. 2.

Non-Essential – Non-essentials are things not essential to a particular purpose. – J.M. Mason * In Catholic Communion, Works, Vol. 1, John Mitchell Mason writes: “To draw the line of distinction between the essentials and non-essentials of our most Holy Faith, it at all times a delicate and difficult task.”

Obligate – “The millions of mankind, as one vast fraternity, should feel obligated by a sense of duty and the impulse of affection, to realize the equal rights and to subserve the best interests of each other.” – Proudfit * The precise quote given has not yet been located by this writer, but there is a similar quote found in Alexander Moncrief Proudfit, Practical Godliness in Thirteen Discourses on the Duties of the Closet, and Family, and Sanctuary (1813), Sermon 9: “By inferring that there is an intimate connection between man and man, and that each is obligated to aim at promoting the perfection of the whole.”

Perdition – “If we reject the truth, we seal our own perdition.” – J.M. Mason * This quote appears in John Mitchell Mason’s essay On Religious Controversy in The Christian’s Magazine, Vol. 1 (1807).

Pestilence – “Profligate habits carry pestilence into the bosom of domestic society.” – J.M. Mason * This quote appears in John Mitchell Mason’s introduction to The Christian’s Magazine, Vol. 1 (1807).

Philosophy – “True religion and true philosophy must ultimately arrive at the same principle.” – S.S. Smith * This quote appears in Samuel Stanhope Smith’s An Essay on the Causes of the Variety of Complexion and Figure in the Human Species (1810).

Putrescible – That may be putrefied; liable to become putrid; as putrescible substances. – Ramsay, History. * David Ramsay, History of South Carolina, Vol. 2: “The daily removal of putresicble substances lessens the evils of impure air, but is inadequate to the purpose intended.”

Recallable – That may be recalled. - Ramsay * The term “recallable” appears in David Ramsay, The Life of George Washington (1807).

Reconciliation – “Reconciliation and friendship with God, really form the basis of all rational and true enjoyment.” – S. Miller * Samuel Miller stated this in his 1826 sermon The Evidence and Duty of Being on the Lord’s Side.

Redeem – “The mass of earth not yet redeemed from chaos.” – S.S. Smith and “He could not have redeemed a portion of his time for contemplating the powers of nature.” – S.S. Smith * Both quotes are derived from Samuel Stanhope Smith, An Essay on the Causes of the Variety of Complexion and Figure in the Human Species (1810).

Republicanize – To convert to republican principles; as, to republicanize the rising generation. -- Ramsay * David Ramsay, in his History of South Carolina, Vol. 1, utilizes the phrase “to republicanize the rising generation.”

Savagism – “The state of rude uncivilized men; the state of men in the native wildness and rudeness.” – S.S. Smith. Walsh. * Samuel Stanhope Smith uses the term “savagism” several times in An Essay on the Causes of the Variety of Complexion and Figure in the Human Species (1810).

Scene – “The shepherds, while watching their flocks upon the plains of Bethlehem, were suddenly interrupted by one of the most sublime and surprising scenes which have ever been exhibited on earth.” – W.B. Sprague * This quote comes from William Buell Sprague’s “Right Hand of Fellowship” at the 1825 ordination of Congregational minister William C. Fowler.

Scepticism – “Let no despondency or timidity or secret skepticism lead any one to doubt whether this blessed prospect will be realized.” – S. Miller * This quote appears in Samuel Miller, A Sermon, Delivered in the Middle Church, New Haven, Con. Sept. 12, 1822: at the Ordination of the Rev. Messrs. William Goodell, William Richards, and Artemas Bishop, as Evangelists and Missionaries to the Heathen (1822).

Semi-deistical – Half-deistical; bordering on deism. – S. Miller * The term “semi-deistical” appears in Samuel Miller, Letters Concerning the Constitution and Order of the Christian Ministry (1807).

Skirt – “Savages – who skirt along our western frontiers.” – S.S. Smith * This quote comes from Samuel Stanhope Smith, An Essay on the Causes of the Variety of Complexion and Figure in the Human Species (1810).

Stationary – “Not advancing, in a moral sense; not improving; not growing wiser, greater or better; not becoming greater or more excellent.” – S.S. Smith * The term “stationary” is used in Samuel Stanhope Smith, An Essay on the Causes of the Variety of Complexion and Figure in the Human Species (1810).

Unbending – Unyielding; inflexible; firm; applied to things; as, unbending truth. – J.M. Mason * The term “unbending” appears in John Mitchel Mason’s pastoral resignation speech, which is in his Works, Vol. 4.

Uncovenanted – Not promised by covenant; not resting on a covenant or promise. – S. Miller * The term “uncovenanted” appears several times in Samuel Miller, Letters Concerning the Constitution and Order of the Christian Ministry (1807).

Unquestioning – Not calling in question; not doubting; unhesitating. – J.M. Mason * The term “unquestioning” appears in John Mitchell Mason’s essay on the Church of God, Works, Vol. 2.

World – “There may be other worlds, where the inhabitants have never violated their allegiance to their Almighty sovereign.” – W.B. Sprague * This interesting quote comes from Sprague’s 1826 sermon on The Mediation of Christ the Ground of the Believer’s Triumph, in which he states: “I do not deny that purposes were answered in the Divine administration by the death of Christ, which have never yet been revealed to us; purposes, it may be, even more magnificent than those which relate to our own redemption. There may be other worlds than ours within the dominions of Jehovah, where a spirit of rebellion has been manifested, and the benefits of Christ’s death enjoyed. And there may be other worlds still, where the inhabitants have never violated their allegiance to their Almighty Sovereign, in which the revelation of this wonderful fact may serve as a mirror to reflect the brightest of the divine glories. But it is not with other parts of the system that we are so immediately concerned. The death of Christ, for aught we know, may exert an influence of some kind or other, wherever there are intelligent beings; but in respect to ourselves, and the world to which we belong, there is no room for doubt.”

This snapshot from Webster’s 1828 Dictionary, cross-referenced with Log College Press, provides insight into what Webster read and drew upon to help codify, as it were, the English language in America. It represents another avenue of influence by 19th century Presbyterian writers that is not widely recognized, but nevertheless is profound.

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Alexander Proudfit on our national danger and duty

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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 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.

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Meet Jonathan Cross: The pioneer colporteur of the Alleghany mountains

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Do you know what a “colporteur” is? It is a someone who “peddles” or hands out books, newspapers, tracts, etc. - especially, in 19th century America, religious tracts, books and Bibles. Jonathan Cross (1802-1876) was one such colporteur, who worked for the American Tract Society for over two decades. He wrote about some of his experiences in western Virginia as “the pioneer colporteur in the Alleghany mountains” in Five Years in the Alleghanies (1863).

There are autobiographical details in most of his published writings, but we turn to the History of the Presbyterian of Washington (1889) for a brief biographical sketch of this interesting pioneer, who late in life, after having served as a ruling elder for many years, became a Presbyterian minister. Rev. Jonathan Cross

Was, for about six years, a member of our Presbytery. He was born in the year 1802, in Beaver County, Pa. At the age of twenty years he became a Christian, and afterwards was made a ruling elder. His burning zeal led him to enter the service of the American Tract Society, in which capacity he labored for many years, chiefly in West Virginia, in the double work of distributing evangelical literature and of winning souls by personal appeal and prayer. It was his great success in this line of service that led him to his entrance into the ministry late in life. In 1866, at the solicitation of that godly man, Samuel Ott, Esq., he came to his only pastoral charge, the Third [Presbyterian] Church of Wheeling [West Virginia], when that church was at the point of disbanding; but great success and increase marked his work until 1872, when ill health compelled him to retire. He died at Newark, Ohio, December 18, 1876, aged about seventy-four years. In many place he is remembered as an earnest evangelist.

Elsewhere in this volume we learn that Cross was ordained as a ruling elder on September 2, 1832; and he was installed as a pastor on December 16, 1866; until his pastoral charge was dissolved on February 4, 1873.

Cross is known to students of the Westminster Shorter Catechism for his 2-volume Illustrations of the Shorter Catechism, for Children and Youth (1864). In the preface to this work, we are told that Cross had memorized the Shorter Catechism by the age of six. But his heart was not changed by God’s Holy Spirit until he became a young man, and then he became zealous to share the gospel of God’s grace with others, and the Catechism was for him a valuable tool as a Sabbath School teacher. He was experienced in the expositions of the Catechism by John Brown of Haddington, John Willison and that which goes by the name of “Fisher’s Catechism.” But he felt the need for another tool to help teach children the truths of the Bible - thus, his Illustrations of the Shorter Catechism was born.

As a colporteur for the American Tract Society (Superintendent of Colportage for Virginia and North Carolina), Cross reported the following summary of his work in 1866:

In other parts of Western Virginia, after a great deal of labor you may find a few persons who can read; then they are furnished with books, and a Sunday-school is started by them, which becomes the means of the formation of a church. That is the work of the colporteurs. They go there and plant a little seed, and by the blessing of God it increases and prospers.

I could tell you many instances of such things. We generally found the people very ignorant, and in huts and cabins which the foot of a religious man had never entered. Here we scattered the seed; and the publications of this Society were placed in their hands.

In North Carolina, under my own supervision, one hundred thousand children were gathered into Sunday-schools; and I know of no other agency which is so well calculated to meet the wants of our destitute population as the Tract Society.

Cross and other colporteurs did much to promote education in the backcountry, as he tells us in an 1851 colportage report to the American Tract Society.

In many instances families were found, numbering from five to twelve persons, who did not know a letter of the alphabet; they wanted no books, of course. The colporteur would open some book, read a passage, and exhibit some of the pictures. The eyes of the children would sparkle; ‘Mother, get me that book — I want to learn to read it.” What mother can resist such an appeal? The book is bought, or received as a gift. In a little time the child is in school. Such an occurrence as the above has been very common in the experience of our colporteurs.

The labors of Cross and other colporteurs in 19th century America did much to bring the word of God, and many edifying religious books and tracts, to people who would not otherwise have received them. Is there a place for colporteurs in 21st century America? We do not wish to see Jehovah’s Witness tracts spread abroad, but the online work of Log College Press is perhaps akin to what pioneer colporteurs did two centuries ago in that we make accessible to many, through the internet, godly literature which might otherwise lay obscure and unconsulted in libraries. For this opportunity, we are grateful to the American Tract Society, its colporteurs, the Presbyterian Board of Publication, the Presbyterian Historical Society, librarians, and the staff of Internet Archive, Google Books and many other institutions, including the PCA Historical Center, and others, for their labors in making possible what we at Log College Press do. And so, in remembering the work of Jonathan Cross, we also aim to carry it forward.

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Samuel Miller and the Yellow Fever

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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

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Dabney on 'The Happy Service'

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Among the collection of manuscript army sermons preached by Robert Lewis Dabney which we have at Log College Press (courtesy of Union Seminary in Richmond, VA) is one preached in August 1861 at Centreville, Virginia titled “The Happy Service.” It is based on the words of Jesus from Matthew 11:28:

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

In this sermon (which was republished by Sprinkle Publications as a stand-alone booklet), Dabney offers some counsel to those who might chaff at these simple, yet profoundly true words of our Lord and Christ.

Although Jesus was not clothed in kings’ garments when He uttered those words — words which even a Roman Emperor could not utter in truth — yet as both man and God, He was and is able to fulfill the promise given.

First, Our Peace is to be found in embracing Christ and his service by faith…

Who is this, then, that calmly stands up and announces to his dying race this audacious proposal? “Come one, come all, to me; and I will give you rest.” Is this the Nazerene, the carpenter’s son; the man who “had not where to lay his head”? How dare he pledge to suffering mankind, he, in his beggary, a relief which Caesar, upon the throne of imperial Rome, with all the legions of her armies bowing to his sceptre, and all the nations of the civilized globe pouring their tributes into his royal treasury, would not presume to undertake?…

Be assured, my brethren, that the holy Jesus would have been incapable of using this language had he not been conscious that he was not only man, but God. It was because he could claim: “I and my Father are one”; “It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell.” “He hath set him at his own right hand in heavenly places, and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church.” Unless the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, and infinite attributes of omniscience and omnipotence, he cannot give peace to mankind. But he is both God and man.

Dabney continues by highlighting the apparent paradox of finding rest in taking a yoke.

Second, We read assurance of our peace and blessedness in Christ in the nature of the yoke which we are invited to receive. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”

Here, again, there appears to the unbeliever a still greater paradox; he is invited to look for rest in assuming a yoke! It is when the yoke is unbound and the wearied ox is released to follow his own will pasture-ward, that he finds rest. So the perpetual delusion of the unbeliever is, that he can find his preferred happiness in the emancipation of his soul from the dreaded restraints of Christianity, and in this alone….

But I repeat, no man is free, or can be; all who do not bear the yoke of Christ, groan under that of sin and Satan. Such is the testimony of the Scriptures. “Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin.” “Thou art in the gall of bitterness, and the bond of iniquity.” They are “taken captive by the devil at his will.”…These are but instances of the pinching of Satan’s yoke.

…it is not apathetic indolence or sensual ease which Christ promises, but rest for the soul. It consists of peace of conscience, harmony of the affections, and the enjoyment of legitimate and ennobling exercise for all the powers….He who bears the right yoke, or, in other words, has assigned to him the proper activities, is the man who truly enjoys his existence.

Then Dabney reminds us that Christ is the very “Lamb of God,” meek and mild to His beloved children. This is He who promises rest.

Third, We may expect rest under the yoke of Christ because of the character of our Master. “He is meek and lowly in heart, and we shall find rest unto our souls.” He is a gentle, kindly, tender master. A merciful master makes an easy service. His benevolence makes him watchful of the welfare of his servants, and considerate in dealing with their infirmities. His lowliness of heart ensures that he will never sacrifice the happiness and lives of his subjects in reckless and ambitious enterprises. He is not a tyrant to drag his wretched subjects, like an Alexander, or a Tamerlane, through frozen wilds and burning wastes, and to pour out their blood as a libation to the idol of his fame. He is the prince of peace, whose sceptre is truth and meekness and righteousness, and whose law is love. To his own people, he is the “Lamb of God,” who loved them and gave himself for them. How, then, is it possible that he, in regulating the lives and services of his ransomed ones, should impose on them any other law than one which conduces to their truest well-being? To dread the yoke of Christ is guilty mistrust and unbelief….

If, then, we would find rest to our souls, let us learn to imbibe the temper of the meek and lowly Jesus, and to bear his yoke with that devoted spirit with which he fulfilled his Father’s will in living and dying for us.

Among Dabney’s concluding remarks, he summarizes what is offered here by Christ to sinners. Let sinners and saints consider the blessedness of embracing and entering into Christ’s promise.

But now remember the blessed truth already established from the Scripture: that when a believing soul embraces the cross, Christ “crucifies the enmity thereby”; that he engages to take away the stony heart out of our flesh and give us a heart of flesh; that when he reconciles God to us by his atonement, he also reconciles us to God by our effectual calling, and sheds abroad his love upon our hearts. Then, as the regenerated sinner considers this amazing love and condescension of a Redeemer God, stooping to death to rescue him from unutterable ruin, a new-born gratitude conspires with adoration for his excellences, and he begins to say, “I love him because he first loved me.” Then the love of Christ constraining him becomes the spring of a joyful obedience; and he sings with devout delight, in the language of David, “O Lord, truly I am servant: I am thy servant and the son of thy handmaid. Thou hast loosed my bonds.” This is the way, O sinner, the yoke is made easy and the burden light! Cannot you apprehend it?

On the Lord’s Day, when the Son of God rose from the dead to conquer death and sin, and loose us from the bonds of iniquity, may His promise of rest to all those who take on His yoke by faith be an encouragement to you who are weary. Dabney’s sermon reminds us that it is a “Happy Service” indeed to be one of Christ’s precious saints walking His holy ways.

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Resources on Revival

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Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved (Ps. 80:19).

Times of chastening by the Lord are sometimes followed, in the mercy of God, by an outpouring of the Holy Spirit drawing God’s people closer and granting times of spiritual refreshing, reformation and revival. James W. Alexander notes that it was the economic collapse of 1857 that brought people to their knees which then led to a revival in New York City, and that such is often the case after “visitations” like the pestilence. It is helpful to study those periods of revival in the past, from the Reformation itself to the Great Awakening and others such times in history. At Log College Press, we have a great deal of literature for you to prayerfully consider regarding this topic.

The Reformation - James W. Alexander, The Reformation in Hungary and Transylvania; Henry M. Baird, Theodore Beza: The Counsellor of the French Reformation, 1519-1605; The Protestant Reformation and Its Influence, 1517-1917; Thomas C. Johnson, John Calvin and the Genevan Reformation; William C. Martyn, The Dutch Reformation; B.B. Warfield, The Theology of the Reformation;

The First Great Awakening - Samuel Blair, Account of the Revival of Religion; William Tennent, Jr., An Account of the Revival of Religion at Freehold and Other Places in the Province of New-Jersey;

The Kentucky Revival of 1800 - George A. Baxter, January 1, 1802 Letter re: the Kentucky revival; Lyman Beecher, Letters of the Rev. Dr. Beecher and Rev. Mr. Nettleton on the "New Measures" on Conducting Revivals of Religion; William Speer, The Great Revival of 1800;

The Princeton Revival of 1814-1815 - Ashbel Green, A Report to the Trustees of the College of New Jersey: Relative to a Revival of Religion Among the Students of Said College, in the Winter and Spring of the Year 1815;

The Baltimore Revival of 1823-1824 - William C. Walton, Narrative of a Revival of Religion, in the Third Presbyterian Church, of Baltimore: With Remarks on Subjects Connected With Revivals in General;

The New York City Revival of 1857-1858 - James W. Alexander, The Revival and Its Lessons; Samuel I. Prime, The Power of Prayer, Illustrated in the Wonderful Displays of Divine Grace at the Fulton Street and Other Meetings in New York and Elsewhere, in 1857 and 1858, Five Years of Prayer, With the Answers, Fifteen Years of Prayer in the Fulton Street Meeting, and Prayer and Its Answer: Illustrated in the First Twenty-Five Years of the Fulton Street Prayer Meeting;

The 1904 Pittsburgh Revival - Austin H. Jolly, The Pittsburg Revival;

Lectures, letters, reviews and sermons on revival - Daniel Baker, A Series of Revival Sermons and Revival Sermons (Second Series); John Breckinridge, Sprague on Revivals; and William B. Sprague, Lectures on Revival (included are letters by Archibald Alexander, Samuel Miller, Ashbel Green, Moses Waddel and many others).

Secondary Sources - In our Secondary Sources page, see Joel R. Beeke, Forerunner of the Great Awakening: Sermons by Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen; Richard J.J. Chacon and Michael Charles Scoggins, The Great Awakening and Southern Backcountry Revolutionaries; Linford D. Fisher, The Indian Great Awakening: Religion and the Shaping of Native Cultures in Early America; Wesley M. Gewehr, The Great Awakening in Virginia, 1740-1790; David Harlan, The Clergy and the Great Awakening in New England; Thomas S. Kidd, The Great Awakening: A Brief History With Documents and The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America; Perry Miller and Alan Heimert, The Great Awakening: Documents Illustrating the Crisis and Its Consequences; Kimmy Nelson, The Great Awakening and Princeton; Lisa Smith, The First Great Awakening in Colonial American Newspapers: A Shifting Story; and Marilyn J. Westerkamp, Triumph of the Laity: Scots-Irish Piety and the Great Awakening, 1625-1760.

There is much of value in these writings that not only speaks to the time periods from which they originated, but also to us today. We also have sermons, letters and more from some of the great preachers of the First Great Awakening, such as Samuel Davies and Gilbert Tennent. Take time to study this body of literature, and learn more about God’s dealings with his people, especially in the outpouring of His Spirit for the reviving of His saints.

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A Virtual Tour of Princeton Cemetery

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William H. Foote once wrote of Moses Hoge (Sketches of Virginia, Second Series, p. 373):

He also visited Princeton College, which, in 1810, had conferred on him, in company with his friend, Mr. [Archibald] Alexander, the degree of S.T.D.; and passed a few days with Dr. Alexander. A cold easterly rain was falling the whole time of his visit. He examined thoroughly the condition of the two institutions, the College and the Seminary, with reference to the two in Prince Edward. He rejoiced in the extended influence of his friend Alexander, and [Samuel] Miller the co-laborer. He could not refrain from a visit to the grave-yard to meditate by the tombs of [Aaron] Burr, [Sr. and Jr.]; [Jonathan] Edwards, [Samuel] Davies, [John] Witherspoon, and [Samuel Stanhope] Smith. As he tarried in that hallowed spot, the bleak wind pierced his diseased frame, and hastened his descent into the valley of death. His heart was elevated as he went from grave to grave, and read the epitaphs of these Presidents of College and teachers of Theology; and his body under the cold rain was chilled in preparation for his own resting in the silent tomb. The conversations of Hoge and Alexander those few days, had there been a hand to record them, laying open the hearts, as by a daguerrotype, of men of such exalted pure principle, so unselfish and so unlike the mass of men - what simplicity of thought, benevolence in feeling, and elevation of piety! -- but there was no man to pen what all men would have been glad to read. Mr. Hoge took his seat in the Assembly - but his fever returned upon him, of a typhus case, and by means of the cold caught in Princeton, became too deeply seated for medicine to remove. He bowed his head meekly to the will of the Head of the Church, and fell asleep in Jesus, on the [5th] of July."

Of the Alexander family, A.A. Hodge once said (Henry Carrington Alexander, The Life of Joseph Addison Alexander, Vol. 2, p. 583):

Of this one great family, A. A. Hodge once said, “I never go to Princeton without visiting the graves of the Alexanders – father and sons – and I never think of them without having my poor staggering faith in God and in regenerated humanity strengthened. Let us uncover our heads and thank God for them.”

Princeton Cemetery is comparable to Westminster Abbey or Bunhill Fields, where so many godly saints are buried - John F. Hageman described it as "the Westminster Abbey of the United States." The number of Log College Press authors who have been laid to rest here is numerous; included are Archibald Alexander, James W. Alexander, Joseph A. Alexander, Aaron Burr, Sr., Samuel Davies, A.A. Hodge, Charles Hodge, Samuel Miller, B.B. Warfield, John Witherspoon, and so many more.

For those who are unable to visit Princeton Cemetery in person, or who wish to revisit the cemetery virtually, take a tour of this special place online here. See where the past Presidents of Princeton (including Jonathan Edwards, Sr.) are buried, along with a President and Vice-President of the United States, and many other luminaries with Princeton connections. This writer has spent many hours touring the grounds, including a visit to the grave of Charles Hodge on the 140th anniversary of his entering into glory. We can all be thankful for the technology to be able to revisit Princeton Cemetery, especially in a time of isolation.

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