The Whole Sabbath Day is Holy: J.R. Crews

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An 1879 deliverance from the Presbytery of Roanoke (Virginia, PCUS) speaks to the importance of keeping the entire Lord’s Day holy, in contrast to those who might wish to keep only a part of it.

In the words of James Richard Crews, moderator of the Presbytery, as recorded in the September 17, 1879 issue of The Central Presbyterian:

The Sabbath is an essential bulwark of evangelical Christianity, without which, in its true scriptural sacredness, vital godliness cannot be maintained. In the beginning (Gen. ii:3) “God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.” It was republished from Mt. Sinai in a way the best suited to show its perpetual obligation, receiving the remarkable distinction of being “written with the finger of God” among the other commandments of the decalogue. It is impossible to give any reason for this, except that the fourth commandment is found upon the same moral and religious principles which underlie all the others, and is of like permanent force. The change of the day from the 7th to the 1st day of the week, under the New Testament, does not infringe in the least upon the fundamental principle of the commandment, the duty of devoting one-seventh of our time to rest and religious worship. But while it leaves in unabated force the original idea and aim of the institution, viz: by its recurrence every seventh day, to commemorate the creation and keep alive the knowledge and worship of God, at the same time, by it occurrence now upon the first day of the week, it serves the important end of celebrating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, “who was delivered for our offences, and was raised for our justification.”

Our Lord disallowed the pharisaical and unscriptural restrictions which the Jewish doctors had imposed upon the Sabbath, and has shown us that we should make it a cheerful and beneficent, as well as a holy, religious day. But when he declared that “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath,” (which has been so perverted, in the interest of Sabbath day amusements,) it were in the highest degree preposterous to suppose that he who came down from the skies to save men’s souls and bring them back to God, could have ignored and disregarded what is man’s chief characteristic and highest glory, -- not his animal, nor his intellectual, but his moral and religious nature. Mankind cannot do without the Christian Sabbath, because they cannot do without religion. And just here it is proper to remark, that in those countries where Sunday amusements are in vogue, Sunday work is also. Break down the sacredness of the day, and it becomes ultimately more a day of toil than a day of recreation, while vital religion disappears altogether. Dilute the Sabbath with worldliness, and you in the same proportion dilute and corrupt religion. Give one half of the day to secular thought, reading and chat, -- to mere worldly social converse and visiting, to say nothing of worldly business or travel, and you detract from the day more than one half of its holy influence. You endanger the whole. Because the wholesome impressions derived from the religious services of the morning are effaced and lost through the worldliness of the evening. The individual Christian needs the whole day, devoted to religion, in order to his own growth in grace. Misspent Sabbath evenings go far to account for the dwarfed growth of many Christians. Parents cannot afford to dispense with their Sabbath evenings for the religious instruction of their children, without which this sacred duty must be neglected. And the unconverted need to keep their Sabbath evenings, lest they “let slip” the “great salvation.”

Therefore, dear Christian brethren, recall that rule of Sabbath-keeping which you learned in your childhood, and both teach it to your children, and maintain it in your families – “The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days, and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God’s worship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy. This is but a just exposition of the commandment, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, *** wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”

Read the entire Pastoral Letter here, and may the whole Lord’s Day be kept holy, and thus may we be wholly blessed.

An "Exile Song" by an Eastern Shoreman: L.P. Bowen

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If you have visited, or lived on, the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia before, you may relate to the song of an “exile” who wrote Makemieland Memorials (1910). L.P. Bowen, who was born in Berlin, Maryland (1833), and ministered in Lewes, Delaware and Pocomoke City, Maryland, was noted for his biographical study of Francis Makemie, widely credited as the “Father of American Presbyterianism,” and who did much to confirm where Makemie was buried, and who discovered Makemie’s desk, which now resides at Union Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, was also a poet, as well as a homesick Eastern Shoreman. Bowen’s writings very often reflected his historical interests in early American Presbyterianism and its growth on the Eastern Shore, as well as his love for the land itself. He entered his eternal rest just shy of reaching the 100 years old mark, and his body was laid to rest in Marshall, Missouri, but a commemorative tablet in his hometown reads: “In memory of Rev. L.P. Bowen, D.D., June 5, 1833 - Apr. 8, 1933. A loyal son of Berlin, author, Poet, Historian, Preacher, Finder of Makemie’s grave.”

This statue marks the spot on Holdens Creek, Temperanceville, Virginia where Francis Makemie is buried.

Written in landlocked Missouri, this song resonates with all other “exiles” from the Eastern Shore. Here is “The Exile’s Song” by L.P Bowen.

Old Eastern Shore, dear Eastern Shore,
An exiled son of thine
Sends loyal greetings from afar
And loves to call thee mine
Land of the laurels and the pine,
Land of the spicy fox-grape vine,
Land where the water-lilies twine,
‘Mid maiden’s heart as pure
Fair Eastern Shore, rare Eastern Shore,
My fatherland, my Maryland,
My dreamland and my fairyland,
Delightsome Eastern Shore!

Old Eastern Shore, dear Eastern Shore,
The heart is sometimes sad,
And oft leans back to days of yore
A little barefoot lad;
Land of the oyster-banks and shad,
Land of the terrapin and crab,
Land where the welcomes make all glad—
With larders brimming o’er;
Fair Eastern Shore, rare Eastern Shore,
My fatherland, my Maryland,
My dreamland and my fairyland,
Delightsome Eastern Shore

Old Eastern Shore, dear Eastern Shore,
Thy glories I will speak
The Ocean’s sweetheart evermore
The bride of Chesapeake
The beaches and the smiling creek,
The curlew’s song, the osprey’s shriek,
I listen—teardrops course my cheek,
And recollections soar
Fair Eastern Shore, rare Eastern Shore,
My fatherland, my Maryland,
My dreamland and my fairyland,
Delightsome Eastern Shore!

Old Eastern Shore, dear Eastern Shore,
Loved by no feeble race
Ancestral blood distilling pure
From far Colonial days
Old Churches where our kinsmen praise,
Old graveyards where tradition strays,
Old homes where in life’s twilight haze
Skies smile with open door;
Fair Eastern Shore, rare Eastern Shore,
My fatherland, my Maryland,
My dreamland and my fairyland,
Delightsome Eastern Shore

Holdens Creek on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

Remembering Theodore L. Cuyler on His 200th Birthday

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Theodore Ledyard Cuyler was born two hundred years ago today in Aurora, New York on January 10, 1822. He was a graduate of Princeton University (1841) and Princeton Theological Seminary (1846). He served as pastor of the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, New York from 1860 to 1890.

In his ministerial career and lifetime he published many books, and around 4.000 articles in the press. It is has been said that he was the “Dean of the American Pulpit.” He was a world-traveler, and was friends with many notable leaders of the church and society, including Charles H. Spurgeon, William Adams, Eliakim Littell, Richard S. Storrs, Samuel H. Cox, Henry W. Beecher, Archibald Alexander, James W. Alexander, Joseph A. Alexander, Charles G. Finney, Benjamin M. Palmer, James McCosh, Horatius Bonar, Dwight L. Moody, President Benjamin Harrison, President Abraham Lincoln, William Gladstone, Thomas Guthrie, Thomas Binney, Albert Barnes, William B. Sprague, Stephen H. Tyng, and others, many of whom he wrote about in his autobiography, Recollections of a Long Life (1902).

He was noted for inviting the first woman to preach from an American Presbyterian pulpit — Sarah Smiley, a Quaker, in 1872 — while at the same time publicly opposing women's suffrage (see his 1894 pamphlet, “Shall Women Be Burdened With the Ballot?”). Cuyler was also a Unionist, an abolitionist, and a teetotaler.

Source: The American Monthly Review of Reviews, Vol. 25 (Feb. 1902), p. 153.

Perhaps most significantly, Rev. Cuyler lost two infant children, as well as a 22 year-old daughter, and in the midst of his grief, he wrote God’s Light on Dark Clouds (1882), and other books and articles which spoke words of comfort to his readers. Many would say that the experiences he endured gave fruit to a spiritual comfort that only one who had walked through the valley of the shadow of death could comprehend and convey to others.

He died of bronchitis on February 26, 1909, in Brooklyn, New York, at the age of 88, and is buried at Green-Wood Cemetery.

Two centuries after his birth, we remember Rev. Cuyler with great appreciation, and invite our readers to explore his works which are available to read at Log College Press. A very prolific writer, we are still adding his works to the site, but there is much of great value to read even now. Though his name was often in the press of his day, he was a most humble minister of the gospel. A park in Brooklyn is named after him but he declined the erection of a statue in his honor. He once said, "A genuine revival means trimming of personal lamps." When remembering Cuyler, we give glory to the God who called him to the ministry, and we note that Cuyler’s legacy points us, even now, to Beulah-Land.

Two Letters on the Death of Mrs. Mary Augusta Palmer

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It was on November 13, 1888 — after 47 years of marriage to the Rev. Benjamin Morgan Palmer — Mrs. Mary Augusta Palmer entered into her eternal glory. The grief that her husband endured was tremendous. Among the many who wrote letters of condolence to him was the Rev. Theodore Ledyard Cuyler of Brooklyn, New York.

In his autobiography, Recollections of a Long Life, pp. 221-221 — which, while writing, he received news of the death of Rev. Palmer — he had this to say:

As my readers may all know, Dr. Palmer, through the Civil War, was a most ardent Secessionist, and as honestly so as I was a Unionist….Soon after my visit to New Orleans, my old friend was sorely bereaved by the death of his wife. I wrote him a letter of condolence, and his reply was, for sweetness and sublimity, worthy of Samuel Rutherford or Richard Baxter. As both husband and wife are now reunited I venture to publish a portion of this wonderful letter — both as a message of consolation to others under a similar bereavement and a s tribute to the great loving heart of Benjamin M. Palmer.

First, we turn to Rev. Cuyler’s letter, which can be read in Thomas C. Johnson, The Life and Letters of Benjamin Morgan Palmer, pp. 529-530:

176 South Oxford Street, Brooklyn, December 21, 1888

My Dear Dr. Palmer: I have just received, through the relatives of Mrs. Professor Rogers, the confirmation of the report that your beloved wife had been taken home to her rest and her reward. When I heard the report a fortnight ago I did not credit it — as I had seen no notice of it in the Presbyterian.

To you — my beloved brother! who know so well where the ‘Eternal Refuge’ is, and how to find the ‘Everlasting Arms,’ I need send no fraternal counsels. But my own dear wife joins me in heart-felt sympathy and our sincerest condolence.

I have known what it was to give up beautiful and beloved children — but the trial of all trials has been spared me; and to you the journey of your remaining days will be with these words on your lips.

‘Each moment is a swift degree
And every hour a step towards Thee.’

May the richest and sweetest spiritual blessings fill your soul — ever ‘unto all the fullness of God!’ And your ministry be most abundant in the Lord!

Please present our kind regards to your children and believe

Ever yours in Christ Jesus,
Theo. L. Cuyler

For Rev. Palmer’s letter in reply, we may turn to Rev. Cuyler’s autobiography again, pp. 222-223, or Johnson’s biography, pp. 526-527:

Truly my sorrow is a sorrow wholly by itself. What is to be done with a love which belongs only to one, when that one is gone and cannot take it up? It cannot perish, for it has become a part of my own being. What shall we do with a lost love which wanders like a ghost through all the chambers of the soul only to feel how empty they are? I have about me, blessed be God! a dear daughter and grand-children; but I cannot divide this love among them, for it is incapable of distribution. What remains but to send it upward until it finds her to whom it belongs by right of concentration through more than forty years?

I will not speak, my brother, of my pain — let that be; it is the discipline of love, having its fruit in what is to be. But I will tell you how a gracious Father fills this cloud with Himself — and covering me in it, takes me into His pavilion. It is not what I would have chosen; but in this dark cloud I know better what it is to be alone with Him; and how it is best sometimes to put out the earthly lights, that even the sweetest earthly love may not come between Him and me. It is the old experience of love breaking through the darkness as it did long ago through the terrors of Sinai and the more appalling gloom of Calvary. I have this to thank Him for, the greatest of all His mercies, and then for this that He gave her to me so long. The memories of almost half a century encircle me as a rainbow. I can feed upon them through the remainder of a short, sad life, and after that can carry them up to heaven with me and pour them into song forever. If the strings of the harp are being stretched into a greater tension, it is that the praise may hereafter rise to higher and sweeter notes before His throne — as we bow together there.

How poignant these words are, by he who was encircled by a rainbow, and what a tribute not only to the devotion of a husband, but also to the love of two precious saints. As Rev. Cuyler intended — who himself wrote God’s Light on Dark Clouds, after the loss of two infant children and a 22 year-old daughter, and many other words of comfort — may these words of wisdom and solace be an encouragement to others who have known grief and loss.

New Year's Wishes From Log College Press

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“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." — Ps. 90:12

At the close of 2021, we at Log College Press wish to thank you, our dear readers, for your support and encouragement.

In years past, we have highlighted New Year’s sermons and meditations by Samuel Davies, Francis James Grimké, Benjamin Morgan Palmer, Henry Augustus Boardman, George Barrell Cheever, Elias Harrison, Erskine Mason, Gardiner Spring and others. This year we turn the spotlight on a message from Thomas DeWitt Talmage: Standards For the Measurement of Life: A New Year’s Sermon (1899).

How do evaluate or measure our mortal existence? That is a question for all of us, and an appropriate one at the close of one year and the beginning of another. Based on the text from Genesis 47:8 (“How old art thou?”), Talmage asks us to consider whether we are using a good standard to measure our time spent on this earth. As he notes, there are wrong ways to measure our time, and a right way. There are some, he says, who measure their years by the money they make, or the joys or sorrows they experience. “They say, ‘The year 1866, or 1870, or 1898 was wasted.’ Why? ‘Made no money.’” But hear how Talmage concludes the matter.

I remark again: there are many — and I wish there were more — who are estimating life by the good they can do.

John Bradford said he counted that day nothing at all in which he had not, by pen or tongue, done some good. There have been men who have given their whole life in the right direction, concentrating all their wit and ingenuity and mental acumen and physical force and enthusiasm for Christ. They felt in the thrill of every nerve, in the motion of every muscle, in every throb of their heart, in every respiration of their lungs, the magnificent truth: “No man liveth unto himself.” They went, through cold and through heat, foot-blistered, cheek-smitten, back-scourged, tempest-lasht, to do their whole duty. That is the way they measured life — by the amount of good they could do.

Do you want to know how old Luther was; how old Richard Baxter was; how old Philip Doddridge was? Why, can not calculate the length of their lives by any human arithmetic. Add to their lives ten thousand times ten thousand years, and you have not exprest it — what they have lived or will live. Oh, what a standard that is to measure a man’s life by? There are those in this house who think they have only lived thirty years. They will have lived a thousand — they have lived a thousand. There are those who think they are eighty years of age. They have not even entered upon their infancy, for one must become a babe in Christ to begin at all.

This is a good day in which to begin a new style of measurement. “How old art thou?” You see the Christian way of measuring life and the worldly way of measuring it. I leave it to you to say which is the wisest and best way.

As 2021 comes to an end, and we look ahead to 2022, we encourage our readers to consider Talmage’s message about how we measure our days, and to meditate upon the words of the Psalmist above. We are excited about the growing number of resources available at Log College Press to aid in the study of spiritual devotion, the Christian life, church history, Christian biography and much more. And we are grateful for the input of all those who continue to support and encourage us in our endeavors. May the Lord bless richly bless you and yours in the coming New Year!

The Service of a Faithful Sexton: Joshua Kinney

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Sexton: A sexton is an officer of a church, congregation, or synagogue charged with the maintenance of its buildings and/or the surrounding graveyard (Wikipedia definition).

There is a whole chapter in Wyndham B. Blanton, The Making of Downtown Church (1945) [not currently available at LCP], concerning the Second Presbyterian Church in Richmond, Virginia, about the role of the Sexton. And it is primarily about one special Sexton in particular: Joshua Kinney (1870-1953).

This writer once served as a sexton in his youth and has an appreciation for the labors and services of such an individual. They are often unrecognized, but happily, Joshua Kinney was very much appreciated and recognized by his church. There were congregational observances of the 25th, 35th, 40th, 45th and 50th anniversaries of his tenure, which began in 1886.

His autobiographical reflections were published in 1931 under the title My Years of Service. We have recently added this work to Log College Press at the suggestion of Wayne Sparkman.

Kinney wrote much about his first pastor, Moses D. Hoge, his second, Russel Cecil, and also his third, William E. Hill, who wrote the introduction. He recounts how there was a period of time when the pastor was named Moses, the pastor had a butler named Daniel, and the sexton was, of course, Joshua. He wrote of his deep appreciation and affection for Miss Katherine H. Hawes and her company of Covenanters. He shared about an experience when an intruder held a gun to face and threatened him. And he spoke of his occupation as a life of service to others.

Kinney’s concluding thoughts are worth highlighting:

First, let me say how happy I have been to have my home here at this church; and how many real true friends I have here. And again, how many I have seen carried out to the last resting place. Of the friends of today, what a joy they are to me, to meet and greet them on a Sunday morning, and to have a hand-shake and a little joke. Why, it is more than anything in this world to me.

So I am closing this little book of mine of this dear old church with the texts of two of its pastors and the closing words of the text of the first.

I. “Show me thy ways, O Lord, teach me thy paths.”
II. “Certainly I will be with thee.”
III. “I am going to lay my burden down when I have fought and won.”

I think that is all.

A Plea From the Psalter Itself: W.J. Robinson

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In his introduction to Joseph W. Clokey’s David’s Harp in Song and Story (1896), William J. Robinson, who served as Moderator of the United Presbyterian Church of North America in 1899, puts forth a plea as if from the very Psalter itself.

The context had to do with a request on behalf of the UPCNA and the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA) to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA) to work jointly at developing a Psalter that all Presbyterians could employ in their praise of God.

Hear the plea from the Psalter itself as Robinson put it.

To this united committee from these three leading bodies of Christians this little work goes with its silent plea. It is sent to you that the Psalms may tell their own story. They come in no spirit of dispute; they do not propose to take issue with you on any of the questions of your Psalmody over which you conscientiously differ. At present they only plead for greater prominence in the praises of Zion. We are part of God's Inspired Word, they say to you, sent down from Heaven through the movings of the Holy Spirit that we may be sung in the praises of God's people. For more than twenty-five centuries we have been in the worship of the church, and what we have done in all these long ages, in comforting and inspiring the people of God, we are still capable of doing for the ages to come. Are you, and are your difficulties and dangers, and experiences, so different from your fathers who loved us, that you can afford to consign us to an obscure corner in your Books of Song! We claim a high place in your material of praise. Read our story and consider our plea.

An Introduction to the Work of the Westminster Assembly

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To mark the tercentenary of the Westminster Assembly, the Presbyterian Historical Societies of England and America joined together in 1943 to publish a study by Samuel W. Carruthers on The Everyday Work of the Westminster Assembly with a foreword by Thomas C. Pears, Jr. This valuable contribution to Westminster studies has recently been added to Log College Press.

Pears notes: “This is an important work; by all odds the most important on the Westminster Assembly since the publication of the Baird Lectures by Alexander F. Mitchell in 1882.” He adds: “The author, Dr. S.W. Carruthers, is eminently fitted for his task. He is the greatest living authority on the text of the Confession of Faith, having served his apprenticeship in this field under the direction of his father, the late Dr. William Carruthers. In 1937, he published an account of the preparation and printing of the seven leading editions of the Westminster Confession of Faith, together with a critical text of the Confession.”

This study focuses on:

  • Relations with Parliament

  • The Solemn League and Covenant

  • Relations with the Scottish General Assembly

  • Relations with Foreign Churches

  • Procedure

  • Payment of Members

  • Devotional Exercises

  • Fasts and Thanksgivings

  • Sectaries and Heretics

  • The Thirty-nine Articles

  • The Metrical Psalms

  • Supply of Ministers

  • Chaplains

  • Universities

  • Examination of Ministers

  • Personal Matters

Students of church history will appreciate this volume, which was republished in 1994 by Reformed Academic Press. Carruthers and Pears made a tremendous contribution to the knowledge that we have today concerning Westminster and its work. Take note of their labors, and consider the legacy of this synod of most excellent divines (Richard Baxter).

Centenarians at Log College Press

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Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come (Ps. 71:18).

The testimony of a long life lived to the glory of God is a powerful one. At Log College Press, there are at least three who lived beyond the century mark.

  • Arthur Judson Brown (1856-1963, 106) - This “missionary statesman,” a pioneer of the ecumenical and missionary movements, was ordained in 1883 and died 80 years later. He was born in the same year as Woodrow Wilson, was a friend of Herbert Hoover, and he died in the same year as John F. Kennedy. Brown left a profound mark on the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, and indeed, throughout the world.

  • William Rankin III (1810-1912, 102) - Rankin served as a ruling elder and (for 37 years) as treasurer of the PCUSA Board of Foreign Missions. At the time of his death, he was the oldest college graduate in the United States.

  • George Summey (1853-1954, 101) - A “Christian Statesman,” editor of The Presbyterian Quarterly, and church historian (whose research and labors led to A History of the Presbyterian Church in Louisiana [1961], to whom the work was dedicated by the author, Penrose St. Amant), Summey’s legacy was far-reaching in the Presbyterian world.

We may also take note of Robert Bluford, Jr., Presbyterian minister, “Virginian of the Year” for 2011, and author of Living on the Borders of Eternity: The Story of Samuel Davies and the Struggle for Religious Toleration in Colonial Virginia (2004) and The Battle of Totopotomoy Creek: Polegreen Church and the Prelude to Cold Harbor (2014), who has done so much to promote the heritage of the Historic Polegreen Church, where Davies ministered. He turned 103 years old a few days ago.

Another worthy of mention is Ralph Waldo McBurney (1902-2009), RPCNA ruling elder, beekeeper, award-winning track and field athlete and author of My First 100 Years!: A Look Back From the Finish Line (2004), who should not be forgotten. He lived to the age of 106. He wrote in his autobiography: “It is easy to earn gold medals when one has no competition in one's age group!” He, like Eric Liddell, would never race on the Lord’s Day.

Also worthy of note is Walter Alexander Soboleff (1908–2011), the first Native Alaskan to become a Presbyterian minster. He was a Tlingit scholar who did much to promote the rights of indigenous people in Alaska. He died at the age of 102.

Undoubtedly, there are many more who could be named here, but these names must suffice for the present.

Considering the length of days of such as who have lived beyond a full century of life on this mortal earth, a portion of Archibald Alexander’s Prayer For One Who Feels That He Is Approaching the Borders of Another World (see Aging in Grace: Letters to Those in the Autumn of Life, p. 35) comes to mind:

O most merciful God cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength declineth. Now, when I am old and grey-headed, forsake me not; but let thy grace be sufficient for me; and enable me to bring forth fruit, even in old age. May my hoary head be found in the ways of righteousness! Preserve my mind from dotage and imbecility, and my body from protracted disease and excruciating pain. Deliver me from despondency and discouragement, in my declining years, and enable me to bear affliction with patience, fortitude, and perfect submission to thy holy will. Lift upon me perpetually the light of thy reconciled countenance, and cause me to rejoice in thy salvation, and in the hope of thy glory. May the peace that passeth all understanding be constantly diffused through my soul, so that my mind may remain calm through all the storms and vicissitudes of life.

Log College Press and the Movies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Four Centuries Since the First Traditional American Thanksgiving

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O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever (Ps. 107:1).

Apart from the French Huguenots who celebrated a thanksgiving at Fort Caroline, near modern-day Jacksonville, Florida on June 30, 1564, and the celebration at Jamestown, Virginia on December 4, 1619, what is traditionally referred to as the first American Thanksgiving, observed by the Pilgrims at Plymouth, Massachusetts, took place in the autumn of 1621, four hundred years ago.

George B. Cheever tells us briefly about this special occasion in The Pilgrim Fathers: or, The Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, New England, in 1620 (1849), pp. 231-232.

We find in this volume the very first instance of the New England thanksgiving. It is referred to by Mr. Winslow in his letter to a friend. It was after the gathering in of the harvest, and a fowling expedition was sent out for the occasion by the Governor, that for their Thanksgiving dinners and for the festivities of the week they might have more dainty and abundant materials than ordinary. That week they exercised in arms, and hospitably feasted King Massasoit and ninety men. The Governor is said by Mr. Winslow to have appointed the game-hunt after harvest, that so the Pilgrims "might after a more special manner rejoice together, after they had gathered the fruit of their labours." This admirable annual New England custom of Thanksgiving dates back therefore to the first year of our Forefathers' arrival.

W. Carlos Martyn also recounts the tale in The Pilgrim Fathers of New England: A History (1867), pp. 132-133, also drawing on Edward Winslow.

"There was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison." The fowlers had been sent out by the governor, "that so they might, after a special manner, rejoice together, since they had gathered the fruit of their labors;" this was the origin and the first celebration of the national festival of New England, the autumnal THANKSGIVING. On that occasion of hilarity they "exercised their arms," and for three days "entertained and feasted" Massasoit and some ninety of his people, who made a contribution of five deer to the festivity. Health was restored; household fires were blazing brightly; and in good heart and hope the lonely but thankful settlers disposed themselves to meet the rigor of another winter.

As we reflect on that moment in church history which illustrates the goodness of God to his people, and the tradition that is known as the American Thanksgiving, and as we count our blessings with gratitude to God, we thank you, dear friends, once again for all of your support for Log College Press. It means a great deal to us. We wish each of a very Happy Thanksgiving, and God’s richest blessings to you and yours.

Davidson College Ties

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Davidson College historical marker

As the son of a professor who graduated from and taught at Davidson College, in Davidson, North Carolina, and whose mother lives in Davidson, this writer may hopefully be excused for looking for connections to Davidson at Log College Press. There are many to be found.

Chambers Building, Davidson College

Davidson College, named for Brigadier General William Lee Davidson (1746-1781), who served and died in the American War of Independence, was founded in 1837 under the auspices of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

It’s college seal was designed by Peter Stuart Ney, who is believed by some to have been Napoleon's Marshall Peter Ney. That is a story shrouded in mystery to this day.

Davidson College Seal

Presidents and Faculty

  • Robert Hall Morrison (1798-1889) - Morrison served as the first President of Davidson College. He was also a father-in-law of Stonewall Jackson.

  • Drury Lacy, Jr. (1802-1804) - Lacy was the third President of Davidson College.

  • John Lycan Kirkpatrick (1813-1885) - Kirkpatrick was the fourth President of Davidson College.

  • George Wilson McPhail (1815-1871) - McPhail was the fifth President of Davidson College. He is buried at the Davidson College Cemetery.

  • John Rennie Blake (1825-1900) - Prof. Blake served as faculty chairman of Davidson College who oversaw the college in the absence of a President from 1871 to 1877.

  • Andrew Dousa Hepburn (1830-1921) - Hepburn served as President of Miami University (Ohio) before becoming President of Davidson College.

  • William Joseph Martin, Sr. (1830-1896) - Col. Martin served as acting President of Davidson College from 1887 to 1888.

  • John Bunyan Shearer (1832-1919) - Shearer served as the eighth President of Davidson College.

  • Henry Louis Smith (1859-1951) - Smith served as the ninth President of Davidson College, although he was not an ordained minister, and later served as President of Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. A scientist, he is credited with pioneering the development of X-rays while at Davidson, as well as important efforts which hastened the end of World War I.

  • William Joseph Martin, Jr. (1868-1943) - The younger Martin served as the tenth President of Davidson College for 17 years.

  • Walter Lee Lingle (1868-1956) - A graduate of Davidson College, Lingle served as the college’s eleventh President.

  • John Rood Cunningham (1891-1980) - Cunningham served as the twelfth President of Davidson College.

  • Patrick Jones Sparrow (1802-1867) - Sparrow was a Presbyterian minister who served as Davidson’s first professor of ancient languages.

  • Daniel Harvey Hill (1821-1889) - Hill, a Confederate officer, served as Chair of the Mathematics Department at Davidson College. He is buried at the Davidson College Cemetery.

  • Cornelia Rebekah Shaw (1869-1937) - Shaw served as the first full-time librarian at Davidson College. This writer once worked at the E.H. Little Library at Davidson College under Mary D. Beaty, who was a respected historian, and author of Davidson: A History of the Town from 1835 until 1937 (1979); A History of the Davidson College Presbyterian Church (1987); A History of Davidson College (1988); and helped to translate Calvin’s Ecclesiastical Advice (1991).

Davidson College Presbyterian Church

Alumni and Other Connections

  • Calvin Knox Cumming (1854-1935) - Cumming was a Presbyterian missionary to Japan, who died in Davidson, North Carolina. His son, W.P. Cumming (1900-1989), was a famed professor of English, and expert on cartography, at Davidson College, who this writer interviewed in 1980.

  • Robert Lewis Dabney (1820-1898) - Dabney delivered the Davidson College Divinity Lectures for 1897, published as Christ Our Penal Substitute (1898).

  • George Howe (1802-1883) - Howe delivered an oration on The Value and Influence of Literary Pursuits at Davidson College in 1846.

  • Stonewall Jackson (1824-1863) - Stonewall Jackson, the famed Confederate general, served as a deacon in the Presbyterian Church in Lexington, Virginia. He was the son-in-law of Robert Hall Morrison, first President of Davidson College (see above).

  • Benjamin Rice Lacy, Jr. (1886-1981) - Lacy is the grandson of Drury Lacy, Jr., who served as President of Davidson College (see above). He studied at Davidson and was a star quarterback for the football team. He went on to become President of Union Seminary in Richmond, Virginia.

  • Alexander Jeffrey McKelway (1866-1918) - McKelway received an honorary D.D. degree from Davidson College in 1900. Three generations later, this writer studied piano in the McKelway household.

  • Julius W. Melton (1933-2017) - Melton, a family friend of the writer, worked at Davidson College, and wrote the valuable study on Presbyterian Worship in America: Changing Patterns Since 1787 (1967, 2001), which we have highlighted previously here.

  • Wilson Plumer Mills (1883-1959) - Mills graduated from Davidson College with a B.A. in 1903, and after long missionary service in the Far East, received an honorary D.D. degree from Davidson in 1951.

  • Walter William Moore (1857-1926) - Moore graduated from Davidson College with an A.B. in 1878. He went on to become the first President of Union Seminary in Richmond, Virginia.

  • LeRoy Tate Newland (1885-1969) - Newland graduated from Davidson College with a B.A. in 1908.

  • J.W. Rosebro (1847-1912) - Rosebro studied at both Davidson College and Princeton. He also served as President of Fredericksburg College (Virginia); director of Union Seminary, Richmond; and as a professor at Southwestern Presbyterian University in Clarksville, Tennessee. He was the son-in-law of B.M. Smith.

  • Jethro Rumple (1827-1906) - Rumple graduated from Davidson College in 1850 and “in 1887 he edited the First Semi-Centenary Celebration of Davidson College, Addresses, Historical and Commemorative, Delivered at the Annual Commencement, Wednesday, June 13, 1887, which includes a forty-six page address by Rumple on the history of the college” (Barry Waugh, Presbyterians of the Past).

  • Omar ibn Said (1770-1864) - Ibn Said’s Arabic translation of the Bible is currently held at the Davidson College Library Rare Book Room.

  • Charles Alphonso Smith (1864-1924) - Smith studied at Davidson College, earning his A.M. degree in 1887. He was a brother of Henry Louis Smith (see above) and Egbert Watson Smith (see below).

  • Egbert Watson Smith (1862-1944) - Smith graduated as valedictorian of Davidson’s class of 1882. He was a brother of Henry Louis Smith and Charles Alphonso Smith (see above).

  • Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) - Wilson attended Davidson for the 1873-1874 school year before transferring to Princeton (he later served as President of Princeton). He was a a Presbyterian ruling elder, and later served as President of the United States.

  • B.B. Warfield (1851-1921) - Warfield received an LL.D. degree from Davidson College in 1892.

Davidson College Cemetery

There are likely many more ties to Davidson College at Log College Press. Davidson’s place in American Presbyterian church history should not go unnoticed. Many individuals have traveled through Davidson, and Davidson has left its mark on many. Its library alone is a treasure, and its cemetery honors many who have ended their mortal journey there. Small though the town and college is, Davidson is a waystation to take note of for students of history. May this brief introduction inspire further study and appreciation.

Nevin's Presbyterian Encyclopedia

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There are some wonderful modern dictionaries and encyclopedias of Presbyterianism (D.G. Hart & Mark Knoll’s Dictionary of the Presbyterian and Reformed Tradition in America [2005], and Donald K. McKim’s Encyclopedia of the Reformed Faith [1992] come to mind). But in this writer’s view, though somewhat limited in usefulness to the modern student of church history by its late 19th century date of publication, still nothing compares to the magnificent Encyclopedia of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, Including the Northern and Southern Assemblies (1884) by Alfred Nevin.

Alfred Nevin’s Presbyterian Encyclopedia.

It is a treasure that spans over 1,200 pages, and includes many illustrations, and also Henry C. McCook’s Historic Decorations at the Pan-Presbyterian Council: A Lithographic Souvenir, a collection of beautiful tributes to the people and places of the First and Second Reformations which were a highlight of the 1880 Pan-Presbyterian Council. The Encyclopedia itself is full of biographical sketches of noted Presbyterian ministers, and articles on different aspects of church history, in rich detail.

Noted contributors to Nevin’s Presbyterian Encyclopedia include B.B. Warfield, Charles A. Stillman, A.A. Hodge, James C. Moffat, W.A. Scott, Sheldon Jackson, Henry Van Dyke, Sr., J. Aspinwall Hodge and others.

Title page.

We at Log College Press often return to this volume as we work to expand our knowledge of American Presbyterianism and make accessible the men and women and their writings which are reflected therein to all. Take note of this remarkable resource for your own studies of church history and biography, which is available to read online at the Alfred Nevin page.

A Reformation Day Remembrance

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To commemorate what is arguably the greatest event in church history since Pentecost, Log College Press wishes to highlight select works by early American Presbyterians which relate to the 504th anniversary of the Reformation:

  • Archibald Alexander (1772-1851) — The Doctrine of Original Sin as Held by the Church, Both Before and After the Reformation (1830) and Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms (1836) — These articles speak to important issues and moments related to the Protestant Reformation.

  • James Waddel Alexander (1804-1859) — Martin Luther Incognito (1836) and The Reformation in Hungary and Transylvania (1837) — The second article covers an important but less well-known aspect of the Reformation; the first is a translation from Philip Konrad Marheineke’s History of the German Reformation dealing with the period between Luther’s appearance at the Diet of Worms and his return to the Castle Wartburg.

  • Henry Martyn Baird (1832-1906) — Theodore Beza: The Counsellor of the French Reformation, 1519-1605 (1899) – The classic biography of the French Reformer Theodore Beza, who became Geneva’s spiritual leader after the death of John Calvin.

  • William Maxwell Blackburn (1828-1898) — Aonio Paleario and His Friends, With a Revised Edition of "The Benefits of Christ's Death" (1866) — This is an interesting work which contains both a biography of the Italian Reformer, Paleario, and an edited version of the great Italian spiritual classic that was long attributed to him (modern scholarship now attributes authorship of “The Benefit of Christ” to Benedetto Fontanini, also known as Benedetto da Mantova (1495-1556)). — William Farel, and the Story of the Swiss Reform (1867) — A fascinating look at the life of the Swiss Reformer, William Farel, who with his friend John Calvin, so influenced Geneva and the world. —Ulrich Zwingli (1868) — The life of another great Swiss Reformer, Ulrich Zwingli.

  • Ezra Hall Gillett (1823-1875) —The Life and Times of John Huss (1864) — This is a good introduction to the Bohemian (Czech) proto-Reformer, John Huss.

  • Joel Tyler Headley (1813-1897) — Luther and Cromwell (1850) — Two famous Reformers and the parallels in their stories.

  • Thomas Cary Johnson (1859-1936) — John Calvin and the Genevan Reformation (1900) — An important biography of the great French Reformer and spiritual leader of Geneva, John Calvin. — Martin Luther: Who Was He, That the World Should Remember Him From Time to Time With Praise to God? (1909-1910) - A valuable sketch of the great Reformer.

  • Frederick William Loetscher, Sr. (1875-1966) — Luther and the Problem of Authority in Religion Parts 1-2 (1917) — Loetscher addresses (on the 400th anniversary of the Reformation) a fundamental issue with which the Reformers wrestled.

  • William Carlos Martyn (1841-1917) — The Life and Times of Martin Luther (1866) — A great 19th century biography of the German Reformer. —The Dutch Reformation (1868) – A good overview of the Reformation in the Netherlands.

  • John William Mears (1825-1881) — The Beggars of Holland and the Grandees of Spain: A History of the Reformation in the Netherlands, From A.D. 1200 to 1578 (1867) — This is another comprehensive look at the Dutch Reformation, and in particular, what lead up to it.

  • Samuel Miller (1769-1850) — Introductory Essay to Charles de Viller's An Essay on the Spirit and Influence of the Reformation (1833) — As Miller writes, “The Reformation from Popery is a theme which can never grow old.”

  • Thomas Ephraim Peck (1822-1893) — Martin Luther (1895) — This biographical lecture about the great Reformer was originally delivered in 1872, and is here found in Vol. 1 of Peck’s Miscellanies.

  • Richard Clark Reed (1851-1925) — Calvin’s Contribution to the Reformation (1909) — This was Reed’s part in the Southern Presbyterian Church’s celebration of the 400th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth.

  • William Childs Robinson (1897-1982) — The Reformation: A Rediscovery of Grace (1962) — Valuable alumni lectures delivered at Columbia Theological Seminary on various aspects of the Reformation.

  • Robert Fleming Sample (1829-1905) — Beacon-Lights of the Reformation; or, Romanism and the Reformers (1889) — The story of the long combat against Romanism.

  • David Schley Schaff (1852-1941) — Martin Luther and John Calvin, Church Reformers (1917) — Written for the 400th anniversary of the Reformation, the younger Schaff highlights the two great Reformers.

  • Philip Schaff (1819-1893) — Calvin’s Life and Labors (1875) — The elder Schaff looks at the life and legacy of the French Reformer. — History of the Christian Church, Vol. 6 (1888, 1904) and History of the Christian Church, Vol. 7 (1892) — These volumes cover the history of the German and Swiss Reformation.

  • Thomas Smyth (1808-1873) - Calvin and His Enemies: A Memoir of the Life, Character, and Principles of Calvin (1856) — An important memoir of one the greatest Reformers, which covers challenging aspects of his life and career, including the case of Servetus.

  • Joseph Ross Stevenson (1866-1939) — The Reformation: A Revival of Religion (1917) — A reminder of what reformation means.

  • Cornelius Van Til (1895-1987) — Review of Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will (1931) — A fresh look at a classic of Christian literature.

  • B.B. Warfield (1851-1921) — John Calvin: The Man and His Work (1909) — Warfield’s homage to the French Reformer on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of Calvin’s birth. — The Ninety-Five Theses in Their Theological Significance  (1917) — Originally published in The Princeton Theological Review in honor of the 400th anniversary of the Reformation, this is a fascinating study of the document by Martin Luther that launched the Reformation on October 31, 1517. — The Theology of the Reformation (1917) — Warfield looks at the key doctrines that figured in the thinking of Martin Luther. — Review of four works by D. Hay Fleming: The Story of the Scottish Covenants (1905); The Scottish Reformation (1905); The Reformation in Scotland (1910); and The Last Days of John Knox (1914) — An appreciation of the writings of a great Reformation scholar.

  • Robert Alexander Webb (1856-1919) — The Reformation and the Lord’s Supper (1917) — Webb looks at a crucial aspect of worship that was important to the Reformation.

  • Julia McNair Wright (1840-1903) — Her series of biographies for young people published in 1870 includes sketches of George Wishart, John Knox, Martin Luther, Queen Margaret, John Calvin, Renée, William Tyndale, Richard Baxter, John Huss and Gaspard de Coligni.

We have much reason to be thankful for the men and women both of the 16th centuries and those more recent who all contributed to the cause of Reformation in their own ways. From Log College Press, we wish you a Happy Reformation Day, and happy reading!

Note: This blog post was originally published on October 31, 2017, and has been edited and expanded.

An American Presbyterian Missionary Who Was Knighted by an English King

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It is not every day that one finds an American Presbyterian minister who was knighted by a British monarch. Billy Graham comes to mind — he was awarded an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II in 2001. But the subject of today’s post was knighted by King George V on January 1, 1923.

The reason for such an honor in the case of Sir James Caruthers Rhea Ewing (1854-1923) was to acknowledge Ewing’s 43 years of service as a missionary in what was then British-controlled India. King George at that time was not only king of the United Kingdom and British dominions, but also Emperor of India.

Ewing had previously been titled Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire in 1915, but in 1923, he gained the title of Honourary Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire and was henceforth known as “Sir James.”

A graduate of Washington & Jefferson College in Western Pennsylvania, Ewing went on to serve in the missionary field, but also as Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Punjab and as President of the Forman Christian College. An educator as well as a missionary, Ewing labored many decades for the cause of Christ to shine a bright light in a dark place.

Read more about his life story in the biography by Robert E. Speer: Sir James Ewing, For Forty-Three Years a Missionary in India: A Biography of Sir James C.R. Ewing, M.A., D.D., LL.D., Litt.D. C.I.E, K.C.I.E. (1928).

Psalm Tunes by J.K. Robb

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O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation (Ps. 95:1).

Some of the tunes in the 1929, 1950, 1973 and 2009 editions of the psalters authorized by the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA) were composed or arranged by Rev. John Knox Robb (1868-1960).

Dr. Paul D. McCracken paid the following tribute to Robb:

Dr. Robb was a man of many talents. He was an experienced carpenter, an able preacher, a wise counselor, a faithful shepherd, and a warm friend. He will long be remembered for his rare musical ability. With his mellow voice, his "absolute pitch," and his keen sense of harmony and beauty, he served the Church on Psalter Revision Committees in 1929 and again in 1950, and our present Psalter contains originals and 4 arrangements that bear his name.

The tune Syracuse by Robb is perhaps his most famous. In the two most recent psalters, Robb is credited thus:

  • The Book of Psalms For Singing (1973) - Psalm 4A (Wallace); 31G (Saints’ Praise); 46B (Hetherton); 86A (Conwell); 104B (Emsworth); 104D (Bradford); 115B (Scott); 126B (Rutherford); and 127A (Syracuse)

  • The Book of Psalms For Worship (2009) - 4A (Wallace); 86A (Conwell); 104B (Emsworth); 107H (Conwell); 112A (Hetherton); 115B (Scott); 118D (Hetherton); and 127A (Syracuse).

One may listen to these tunes here.

On This Day in History - October 22

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Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee (Deut. 32:7).

On this day in church history, several Log College Press men are noted:

  • Archibald Alexander (April 17, 1772 — October 22, 1851) — This date marks 170 years since Archibald Alexander entered into glory.

  • James W.C. Pennington (1809 — October 22, 1870) — It was just last year that we commemorated the 150th anniversary of his passing into glory.

  • William Swan Plumer (July 26, 1802 — October 22, 1880) — A memorial tribute, which speaks of Plumer’s last days, written by his daughters, was recently added to the Log College Press. His entering into glory has been highlighted here previously. Many of his writings remain in print today; meanwhile, take a moment to review his published writings at LCP here.

We also note that the College of New Jersey (Princeton) was granted a charter on October 22, 1746. Additionally, the Synod of Virginia met for the first time on October 22, 1788 at the New Providence Presbyterian Church in Raphine, Virginia.

Georgia Scholar C.C. Jones, Jr. on the Native American History of His State

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Charles Colcock Jones, Jr. (1831-1893) was the son of Presbyterian pastor C.C. Jones, Sr. (1804-1863). Although he was not a minister, but instead a Harvard-educated lawyer by profession, and a mayor of Savannah, Georgia for a time, his reputation rests largely on his prolific historical writings and as an respected antiquarian. He was nationally known for his collection of portraits, books, manuscripts and autographs, including those of every signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Perhaps best-known for his “magisterial” History of Georgia (2 vols., 1883), which was dedicated to his father, he developed early on a fascination for the early Native American tribes who inhabited his home state, and the mounds and artifacts they left behind. In this passion, he was joined by his brother, Dr. Joseph Jones (1833-1896), who pioneered archeological studies in Tennessee, as C.C. Jones, Jr. did in Georgia. Both men prepared reports for the Smithsonian Institute of their studies, and C.C. Jones, Jr. made donations from his extensive collection of antiquities — estimated at around 20,000 artifacts — to the American Museum of Natural History, while Joseph’s collection now resides at the National Museum of the American Indian.

At Log College Press, we have assembled some of C.C. Jones, Jr.’s antiquarian writings, which remain of great interest to anthropologists, archeologists, linguists and ethnologists today. Here are some of the titles which reflect his dedication to the study of Native Americans of the Southeast.

  • Indian Remains in Southern Georgia: Address Delivered Before the Georgia Historical Society, on Its Twentieth Anniversary, February 12th, 1859 (1859);

  • Monumental Remains of Georgia (1861);

  • Historical Sketch of Tomo-Chi-Chi, Mico of the Yamacraws (1868);

  • Antiquities of the Southern Indians, Particularly of the Georgia Tribes (1873);

  • Aboriginal Structures in Georgia (1877, 1878);

  • Primitive Manufacture of Spear and Arrow Points Along the Line of the Savannah River (1880); and

  • Silver Crosses From an Indian Grave-Mound at Coosawattee Old Town, Murray County, Georgia (1883).

To this list may be added his discussion of the sixteenth century Native Americans in The History of Georgia, Vol. 1 (1883), and similar discussions in History of Savannah, GA.: From Its Settlement to the Close of the Eighteenth Century (1890), Memorial History of Augusta, Georgia (1890), and other historical writings.

There is a rich amount of material to search through for those interested in not only the history of the indigenous peoples of the Southeast before the arrival of Europeans, but also with respect to the early interactions between Native Americans and Europeans in Georgia and the surrounding territory. The pioneer antiquarian studies of both C.C. Jones, Jr. and his brother Joseph did much in the nineteenth century to elevate an appreciation for that history.

James Bradley's Brief Account of an Emancipated Slave

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The story of James Bradley has many curiosities, unanswered questions and fascinating details. Born around 1810 in Guinea, Africa, he was enslaved at a very young age and transported to the United States via Charleston, South Carolina, before he was purchased by a Mr. Bradley of Kentucky (whose last name he assumed), before the family moved to the Arkansas Territory.

There the Mr. Bradley passed away, but James continued to toil in servitude. Although he had not been taught of God, he longed for liberty, and began the laborious effort — by working at night to make horse collars, and by means of growing tobacco and selling pigs — to purchase his own freedom, which after eight years, he accomplished in 1833 for the sum of just under $700. In his own words, he tells of where he went next as a free man.

As soon as I was free, I started for a free State. When I arrived in Cincinnati, I heard of Lane Seminary, about two miles out of the city. I had for years been praying to God that my dark mind might see the light of knowledge. I asked for admission into the Seminary. They pitied me, and granted my request, though I knew nothing of the studies which were required for admission. I am so ignorant, that I suppose it will take me two years to get up with the lowest class in the institution. But in all respects I am treated just as kindly, and as much like a brother by the students, as if my skin were as white, and my education as good as their own. Thanks to the Lord, prejudice against color does not exist in Lane Seminary! If my life is spared, I shall probably spend several years here, and prepare to preach the gospel.

Bradley’s Brief Account of an Emancipated Slave, published in 1834, reveals a man who, in the Lord’s providence, despite many obstacles, managed to learn how to read and write, became knowledgeable of his need for a Savior, and with a longing for liberty, achieved his personal goal of emancipation from slavery and sought rather to serve the Lord.

Bradley’s admission to a Presbyterian seminary in 1834, came just a few years after Theodore S. Wright, a free African-American, graduated from Princeton in 1828, and later was ordained as a Presbyterian minister. It was in 1837 that Titus Basfield graduated from the Canonsburg Theological Seminary of the Associate Presbyterian Church and went on to serve as a minister in that denomination. Sadly, events transpired at Lane which would derail Bradley’s aspirations to pursue the gospel ministry.

In 1834, a series of debates were held among students and faculty concerning the appropriateness of immediate abolition of slavery, and the question of the work of the American Colonization Society, which aimed to send free blacks to Africa, to build the new nation of Liberia. Although the general sentiment of opposition to slavery was held by many at Lane, these were controversial matters which raised tensions at the seminary and in the surrounding area, which were magnified by nationwide newspaper coverage. Many notable people were present, including Lyman Beecher, President of the seminary; Calvin Ellis Stowe, a professor, and his future wife, Harriet Beecher; John Rankin; and others. James Bradley spoke at these debates, and he was the only black person and only former slave to do so; although some slaves, owned by Southern students, were also present at the debates. He recounted the oppression he experienced, and answered objections to immediate abolition, such as the concern that slaves would be unable to care for themselves.

In a March 10, 1834 letter, fellow student Henry B. Stanton recount Bradley’s role at the Lane Debates:

James Bradley, the emancipated slave above alluded to, addressed us nearly two hours; and I wish his speech could have been heard by every opponent of immediate emancipation, to wit: first, that “it would be unsafe to the community;” second, that “the condition of the emancipated negroes would be worse than it now is; that they are incompetent to provide for themselves; that they would become paupers and vagrants, and would rather steal than work for wages.” This shrewd and intelligent black, cut up these white objections by the roots, and withered and scorched them under the sun of sarcastic argumentation, for nearly an hour, to which the assembly responded in repeated and spontaneous roars of laughter, which were heartily joined in by both Colonizationists and Abolitionists. Do not understand me as saying, that his speech was devoid of argument. No it contained sound logic, enforced by apt illustrations. I wish the slanderers of negro intellect could have witnessed this unpremeditated effort. I will give you a sketch of this man's history. He was stolen from Africa when an infant, and sold into slavery. His master, who resided in Arkansas, died, leaving him to his widow. He was then about eighteen years of age. For some years, he managed the plantation for his mistress. Finally, he purchased his time by the year, and began to earn money to buy his freedom. After five years of toil, having paid his owners $655, besides supporting himself during the time, he received his “free papers,” and emigrated to a free State with more than $200 in his pocket. Every cent of this money, $855, he earned by labour and trading. He is now a beloved and respected member of this institution. Now, Mr. Editor, can slaves take care of themselves if emancipated? I answer the question in the language employed by brother Bradley, on the above occasion. “They have to take care of, and support themselves now, and their master, and his family into the bargain; and this being so, it would be strange if they could not provide for themselves, when disencumbered from this load.”

Bradley acquitted himself admirably at the debates, but the seminary trustees were soon moved to ban further discussion of these controversial issues. Local threats of violence against abolitionists were a great concern. Unable to abide by these restrictions, the so-called “Lane Rebels” resigned from the school en masse in October 1834, publishing A Statement of the Reasons Which Induced the Students of Lane Seminary, to Dissolve their Connection with that Institution, signed by 51 persons, including James Bradley.

Bradley moved to Oberlin, Ohio, where he studied at the Sheffield Manual Labor Institute. But after 1837 nothing further is known of Bradley, except that he assisted in the liberation of other slaves possibly via the Underground Railroad. He never became a gospel minister. We do not even have a picture of the man or a physical description, although a statue was erected in his honor at Covington, Kentucky in 1988. Bradley was portrayed by Jaylen Marks in the 2019 docudrama Sons & Daughters of Thunder.

Although he was lost to history, in that the final chapters of his life are unknown, he is remembered still, as a passionate advocate of freedom for all, and the autobiographical account of his emancipation is a brief but stirring read. Read more about and by James Bradley here.

Forgotten Founding Fathers of the American Church and State

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There is a volume of biographical sketches that is well worth the read - William T. Hanzsche’s Forgotten Founding Fathers of the American Church and State (1954). It highlights some of the most significant colonial Presbyterians found on Log College Press. These include: Francis Makemie (“the Father of American Presbyterianism”); William Tennent, Sr. (founder of the Log College); Jonathan Dickinson (first President of the College of New Jersey in Princeton); David Brainerd (the “Apostle to the North American Indians”); Gilbert Tennent (“Son of Thunder”); Samuel Davies (the “Apostle to Virginia”); and John Witherspoon (the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation).

Hanzsche’s study is a great introduction to these men and their legacies. Their contributions to early American Presbyterianism, and indeed, to the history of the United States and the world, are worthy of notice and appreciation. This volume helps students of history to better understand the significance of each of these American Presbyterian worthies.