De Witt Talmage: Seek the God of the Pleiades and Orion

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Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion (Amos 5:8).

Some of Thomas De Witt Talmage’s sermons are so rich in word-pictures that they appear to us as a bright as the night sky far away from any electric lights. A case in point comes from his discourse on “The Pleiades and Orion” in New Tabernacle Sermons (1886).

A country farmer wrote this text—Amos of Tekoa. He plowed the earth and threshed the grain by a new threshing-machine just invented, as formerly the cattle trod out the grain. He gathered the fruit of the sycamore-tree, and scarified it with an iron comb just before it was getting ripe, as it was necessary and customary in that way to take from it the bitterness. He was the son of a poor shepherd, and stuttered; but before the stammering rustic the Philistines, and Syrians, and Phoenicians, and Moabites, and Ammonites, and Edomites, and Israelites trembled.

Moses was a law-giver, Daniel was a prince, Isaiah a courtier, and David a king; but Amos, the author of my text, was a peasant, and, as might be supposed, nearly all his parallelisms are pastoral, his prophecy full of the odor of new-mown hay, and the rattle of locusts, and the rumble of carts with sheaves, and the roar of wild beasts devouring the flock while the shepherd came out in their defense. He watched the herds by day, and by night inhabited a booth made out of bushes, so that through these branches he could see the stars all night long, and was more familiar with them than we who have tight roofs to our houses, and hardly ever see the stars except among the tall brick chimneys of the great towns. But at seasons of the year when the herds were in special danger, he would stay out in the open field all through the darkness, his only shelter the curtain of the night, heaven, with the stellar embroideries and silvered tassels of lunar light.

What a life of solitude, all alone with his herds! Poor Amos! And at twelve o'clock at night, hark to the wolf's bark, and the lion's roar, and the bear's growl, and the owl's te-whit-te-whos, and the serpent's hiss, as he unwittingly steps too near while moving through the thickets! So Amos, like other herdsmen, got the habit of studying the map of the heavens, because it was so much of the time spread out before him. He noticed some stars advancing and others receding. He associated their dawn and setting with certain seasons of the year. He had a poetic nature, and he read night by night, and month by month, and year by year, the poem of the constellations, divinely rhythmic. But two rosettes of stars especially attracted his attention while seated on the ground, or lying on his back under the open scroll of the midnight heavens—the Pleiades, or Seven Stars, and Orion. The former group this rustic prophet associated with the spring, as it rises about the first of May. The latter he associated with the winter, as it comes to the meridian in January. The Pleiades, or Seven Stars, connected with all sweetness and joy: Orion, the herald of the tempest.

Talmage goes on to say:

In the first place, Amos saw, as we must see, that the God who made the Pleiades and Orion must be the God of order. It was not so much a star here and a star there that impressed the inspired herdsman, but seven in one group, and seven in the other group. He saw that night after night and season after season and decade after decade they had kept step of light, each one in its own place, a sisterhood never clashing and never contesting precedence. From the time Hesiod called the Pleiades the "seven daughters of Atlas" and Virgil wrote in his Aeneid of "Stormy Orion" until now, they have observed the order established for their coming and going; order written not in manuscript that may be pigeon-holed, but with the hand of the Almighty on the dome of the sky, so that all nations may read it. Order. Persistent order. Sublime order. Omnipotent order.

What a sedative to you and me, to whom communities and nations sometimes seem going pell-mell, and world ruled by some fiend at hap-hazard, and in all directions maladministration! The God who keeps seven worlds in right circuit for six thousand years can certainly keep all the affairs of individuals and nations and continents in adjustment. We had not better fret much, for the peasant's argument of the text was right. If God can take care of the seven worlds of the Pleiades and the four chief worlds of Orion, He can probably take care of the one world we inhabit.

Truly, what a great comfort it is to place our trust in the One who creates and governs the stars, as well as the Earth upon which we live.

In your occupation, your mission, your sphere, do the best you can, and then trust to God; and if things are all mixed and disquieting, and your brain is hot and your heart sick, get some one to go out with you into the starlight and point out to you the Pleiades, or, better than that, get into some observatory, and through the telescope see further than Amos with the naked eye could—namely, two hundred stars in the Pleiades, and that in what is called the sword of Orion there is a nebula computed to be two trillion two hundred thousand billions of times larger than the sun. Oh, be at peace with the God who made all that and controls all that—the wheel of the constellations turning in the wheel of galaxies for thousands of years without the breaking of a cog or the slipping of a band or the snap of an axle. For your placidity and comfort through the Lord Jesus Christ I charge you, "Seek Him that maketh the Seven Stars and Orion."

Our preacher continues further:

Oh, what a mercy it is that in the text and all up and down the Bible God induces us to look out toward other worlds! Bible astronomy in Genesis, in Joshua, in Job, in the Psalms, in the prophets, major and minor, in St. John's Apocalypse, practically saying, "Worlds! worlds! worlds! Get ready for them!" We have a nice little world here that we stick to, as though losing that we lose all. We are afraid of falling off this little raft of a world. We are afraid that some meteoric iconoclast will some night smash it, and we want everything to revolve around it, and are disappointed when we find that it revolves around the sun instead of the sun revolving around it. What a fuss we make about this little bit of a world, its existence only a short time between two spasms, the paroxysm by which it was hurled from chaos into order, and the paroxysm of its demolition.

And I am glad that so many texts call us to look off to other worlds, many of them larger and grander and more resplendent. "Look there,' says Job, "at Mazaroth and Arcturus and his sons!" "Look there," says St. John, "at the moon under Christ's feet!" "Look there," says Joshua, "at the sun standing still above Gibeon!" "Look there," says Moses, "at the sparkling firmament!" "Look there," says Amos, the herdsman, "at the Seven Stars and Orion!" Don't let us be so sad about those who shove off from this world under Christly pilotage. Don't let us be so agitated about our own going off this little barge or sloop or canal-boat of a world to get on some "Great Eastern" of the heavens. Don't let us persist in wanting to stay in this barn, this shed, this outhouse of a world, when all the King's palaces already occupied by many of our best friends are swinging wide open their gates to let us in.

There is a reason why the Scriptures call us to look heavenward, at the celestial. In the words of John Calvin, “Job's intent here is to teach us to be astronomers” (commentary on Job 9). Although given dominion over this beautiful blue globe, and called to till the ground and give a good account of our stewardship, we who are created in the image of God are called to not be satisfied with the earthly and temporal, but to long for the heavenly and eternal. We are called to seek the God of the Pleiades and Orion. Read Talmage’s full sermon on this topic and many more here, and pause to meditate upon not only the wonders of creation, especially in the skies above, but to ponder the love of our God for such as we.

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? (Ps. 8:3-4)

Archibald Alexander's 250th Birthday

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Today marks the 250th anniversary of the birthday of Archibald Alexander, one of America’s most notable theologians, born near Lexington, Virginia, on Friday, April 17, 1772. His son and biographer, James W. Alexander, records the location of his entrance to this world in Archibald’s own words (written in 1839):

The house in which I was born was built of square logs, as were most of the houses at that time. The place is rough, and is near a little mountain stream, called the South River, which, after joining the North River, falls into the James River, just above its entrance into the mountains. Nearly opposite to the place, Irish Creek, a bold stream from a gorge of the mountain, falls into the South River. This my birthplace was at that time in Augusta County, which was unlimited to the west; it is now in Rockbridge County, and is about seven miles from Lexington, in an eastern direction.

Sherman Isbell adds this bit of information:

William's son Archibald was born on his grandfather's land on South River, nearly opposite the mouth of Irish Creek. Just north of Irish Creek, a private bridge on the left crosses to the west side of the South River. Dr. Archibald Alexander was born in a log house on the west side of the river, on April 17, 1772. An historical plaque to mark the area where Dr. Alexander was born was set up about 1958, but has been repeatedly washed out by local flooding, and until recently was stored in the basement of the Rockbridge Historical Society's Campbell House at 101 East Washington Street in Lexington. We have received a report that the plaque has now been mounted on a rock by Dr. Horace Douty at the intersection of Irish Creek and South River Road, not far from its previous location.

From a log cabin on the farm owned by his father, William Alexander, Archibald went on serve the kingdom of God as a missionary, a pastor, a college president, moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, and as the first theological professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, not to mention as a husband and a father. He was a man of eminent piety, diligent in his labors, and fruitful in his service.

Although we commemorate his earthly birth on this date, which we consider a tribute to this man of God, yet he would say that it is regeneration, that is, the new birth of the soul by the power of the Holy Spirit, that ought to be of the greatest concern to every individual in this world: “There is no more important event which occurs in our world than the new birth of an immortal soul” (A. Alexander, Thoughts on Religious Experience, p. 53).

For more biographical information concerning the life of Archibald Alexander, consider the following resources at Log College Press:

The semiquincentennial of Archibald Alexander’s birth falls on the Lord’s Day this year, and we give glory to God for the remembrance of his most excellent of divines, who called Alexander to the ministry and caused him to leave a lasting spiritual legacy that endures. May his life of faithful service to the King of kings inspire many even in our day and beyond to dedicate themselves to the work of the kingdom for the advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Samuel Blatchford: Heaven is an Eternal Sabbath

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When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise, than when we'd first begun. — John Newton, “Amazing Grace”

A sermon delivered by Samuel Blatchford (1767-1828) not long before his passing from this life to the next still speaks to a truth of great importance to our own generation almost two centuries later. Preached on November 27, 1825 and published the following year, the sermon was titled The Sanctification of the Sabbath. Among the points made in conclusion (p. 20), we find a powerful argument for adhering to the Fourth Commandment in the recognition that the Christian Sabbath is in fact a foretaste of heaven.

A very great part of the exercises of the Sabbath, duly sanctified on earth, bears a strong resemblance to the employments of the heavenly world. Heaven is an eternal Sabbath. There the spirits of just men made perfect approach with delight the seat of the infinite Jehovah. With adoring praise, they pour forth their lively gratitude. With exquisite pleasure, they contemplate the Author of all things, who governs and actuates the immensity of beings, which occupy the universe of life. The hallelujahs of praise break forth in uninterrupted harmony from every angel, and every redeemed sinner. And, my brethren, in the due sanctification of this holy day on earth; in a general consent to worship God; not to speak our own words, nor to think our own thoughts; to have our meditation of God; to croud [sic] about his altars; to esteem a day spent in the courts of the Lord’s house preferable to a thousand elsewhere: O! this is to congregate with the hosts of glory, and to constitute a heaven upon the earth. Hereby we shall know him who hath sanctified the Sabbath, and be maturing for those enjoyments, where there remaineth a rest, a Sabbatismos, for the people of God.

What a profound thought it is to recall that our exercises of worship on the Lord’s Day are but prelude to joining the heavenly choir itself, to glorify God in heaven even more perfectly forever than we aim to do on earth each week. When we exalt the name of God together from one Sabbath to the next, we begin to taste the delight that awaits us where we will praise Him unceasingly. Read Blatchford’s full sermon on The Sanctification of the Sabbath here, and consider the reward of keeping God’s day holy on earth, which is a but a taste of heaven.

An Update on B.B. Warfield

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B.B. Warfield was one of the most prolific American Presbyterian writers, if not the most prolific. Recently, at Log College Press, we reached a milestone — there are now over 400 works on his page.

Many newly-added articles pertain to the Didache, the Biblical doctrine of inspiration, textual criticism, and the Westminster Assembly. One noteworthy article, currently available to read at the Early Access page for members of the Dead Presbyterians Society, is one not found in John E. Meeter & Roger Nicole, A Bibliography of Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, 1851-1921 (1974) — Presbyterians and Their Creed (1901).

Some of the writings added in recent weeks include reviews by Warfield, from various periodicals, of writers such as Anselm, Augustine, Herman Bavinck, Louis F. Benson, Robert L. Dabney, Émile Doumergue, Charles E. Edwards, D. Hay Fleming, Henry C. Minton, A.F. Mitchell, George T. Purves, Edwin W. Rice, W.G.T. Shedd, Charles H. Spurgeon, Pierre Viret, Geerhardus Vos, and many others.

Although the internet is a big place and not every site pertaining to Warfield has been fully reviewed, it is believed that the Log College Press Warfield page currently constitutes the largest available resource of Warfield’s writings in one place on the internet, and the project of adding more of his writings is ongoing. Meanwile, take time to peruse the page, and enjoy!

Justice Harlan and a Place for Dissent

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Yesterday, in the midst of a Senate confirmation hearing for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who has been nominated to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, the question was posed: “What do you think is the purpose of a dissent?” In her response, Judge Jackson made reference to a famous dissenting opinion by a noted Presbyterian jurist whom we have written about previously on Log College Press. She said,

There are actually many justices in history who have used the dissent mechanism to discuss the law in ways that others find, over time, to be more persuasive,” Jackson said. “I’m thinking of the first Justice Harlan, who dissented famously in Plessy v. Ferguson [1896]. He dissented alone. All of the other justices agreed with the proposition of ‘separate but equal,’ and he said ‘no’ in a dissent. And his dissent generations later became … the blueprint for Justice Marshall to make arguments that led to Brown v. Board [of Education of Topeka, 1954].

When Justice Harlan dissented from the Plessy “separate but equal” doctrine, he wrote:

But in view of the constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. The law regards man as man, and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved. It is, therefore, to be regretted that this high tribunal, the final expositor of the fundamental law of the land, has reached the conclusion that it is competent for a State to regulate the enjoyment by citizens of their civil rights solely upon the basis of race. In my opinion, the judgment this day rendered will, in time, prove to be quite as pernicious as the decision made by this tribunal in the Dred Scott case.

Fifty-eight years later, in Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court repudiated Plessy in favor of the principle that racial segregation, even regarding otherwise equal facilities, is unjust, and finally affirmed the dissenting opinion of Justice Harlan, giving encouragement to those who, taking the long view, and trusting in God, believe that justice and truth will ultimately prevail.

E.P. Humphrey: Where is the spirit of those faithful ministers of old?

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And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me (2 Kings 2:9)

Our Theology in Its Developments is a sermon preached before the General Assembly (Old School) of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA) which met at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1852, by Moderator Edward Porter Humphrey (1809-1887) and later published in 1857. From this interesting sermon, which lays out seven particular aspects of “our theology,” we have a poignant concluding clarion call to consider the past in light of the present (pp. 83-85).

Let no man say that within the precincts of a church which has gathered into a single graveyard [Princeton Cemetery] the ashes of Samuel Davies, Archibald Alexander, and Jonathan Edwards; the first memorable for the awakening power of his sermons; the second trying the spirits and discerning even the thoughts of our rising ministry; and the third preaching a sermon on the doctrine of election, which was mighty in the conversion of sinners, and delivering another, so instinct with the terrors of the Lord as to bring his audience to their feet, and compel the preacher, who sat behind him in the pulpit, to start up with the exclamation, “Mr. Edwards! Mr. Edwards, is not God merciful too?” The sepulchres of these men are with us until this day, and so is their theology; but where is the spirit of profound meditation and importunate prayer with which they prepared their sermons? Where is their vehemency and tenderness of utterance? Where their annihilating reply to the disputers of this world, their masterly appeal to the understanding, and their onset on the conscience?

May these words serve to remind us almost two centuries later that we may have the theology of our fathers in our heads and in the books we read, but we must also seek after their heart, their passion and join ourselves to their piety and prayers. It is not enough to admire the tombstones in a cemetery such as Princeton, but we ought to consider the example set by those men who went before us and left a godly legacy that we might, by the help of the Holy Spirit, preach, pray and live as they did.

Sabbath Night by J.H. Bocock

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On the Lord’s Day, or Christian Sabbath, it is good to contemplate the comforts that are given to us by our blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. After the day’s devotions, which are a taste of heaven, with cognizance of our failures to keep the day holy as we ought, we may nevertheless take refuge in Him who gives rest and peace, not as the world gives, but from above. Consider a poem by John Holmes Bocock (1813-1872) as found in Selections From the Religious and Literary Writings of John H. Bocock, D.D. (1891), pp. 546-547, which highlights such an appreciation of Sabbath blessings and comforts.

Sabbath Night

Rest, weary spirit, rest,
From toil and trouble free;
Lean on the Saviour’s breast
Who giveth rest to thee!

Lie there, ye cares and fears,
I cast you at his feet;
From all my fears and cares
I take this sure retreat.

Beneath his wings I crowd,
Close to his side I press:
None such was e’er allowed
To perish without grace.

O sprinkle me with blood!
My heart would feel the stream
From out thy side that flowed,
Us, sinners, to redeem!

Yet closer still I come!
Reveal thyself to me:
O let me feel that home
Is at thy feet to be.

I calmly seek repose;
Pardon my Sabbath sin,
And to my dreams disclose
That heaven thou dwellest in.

A 19th Century Example of Paying it Forward

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Writing for the October 1870 issue of Our Monthly magazine, Edwin B. Raffensperger wrote a brief Reminiscence of Rev. Archibald Alexander, D.D. Having read over James W. Alexander’s biography of Archibald Alexander, he took special note of a remark on p. 605:

During his illness he dictated a paper to be taken around for subscription toward the relief of a young man whose studies had been interrupted by disease.

Raffensperberger, who himself graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1852, informed his readers that the paper referred to had been in his possession for the last 19 years. It was considered “a valuable memento of Princeton,” where he was a student at the time certain events transpired.

A fellow student from Ohio one day fell dangerously ill. Despite the advice and counsel of “eminent medical men in Philadelphia and New York,” this young student, a man of great promise we are told, lay near death’s door. At the house where he was staying, he was cared for by a brother and sister, the latter of whom would go on to marry one of the doctors who came to visit. The sick student’s illness included symptoms of spasms and feats of incredible strength (though unable to rise or walk, he could crush an apple in his bare hand).

Concern for this young man and whether he would live spread throughout the Princeton community. At the same time Archibald Alexander lay on his deathbed. One day a messenger came to Raffensperger with a request to approach the bedside of Alexander. Raffensperger tells of their conversation:

I found him very feeble. In a few touching words he expressed his deep sympathy for the poor student and regretted his inability to call and see him during the two years of his sickness. “I have asked my daughter,” said he, “to prepare a subscription paper, and the members of my family have contributed $19.00, which you will find inclosed with the paper. Will you take it and call upon the citizens and students to increase it to $50.00, and then pay half to the brother and sister who have taken such good care of him, and the other half to the student?”

I expressed my willingness to carry out his wish, but inquired whether he would restrict the sum to $50.00, as I hoped, with such a start, to raise much more. He took my hand and said, “Take the paper. Raise all you can and God bless you.”

It was a few days later that Alexander entered into his eternal rest. After Alexander was interred at Princeton Cemetery, a grand total of $300.00 was raised on behalf of the sick student and the brother and sister. Raffensperger continues:

Hear now the conclusion of the whole matter.

Contrary to all our plans for the funeral, that patient recovered, entered the ministry and has for years been laboring successfully in the West He is now one of the jolliest Doctors of Divinity in the reunited Church.

One wonders the name of this jolly minister from Ohio. Perhaps one of our readers will have an idea? In any case, this concern on Alexander’s deathbed for a poor student was an inspiration and a blessing to others, and the little-known story is worth of remembrance.

Why is Charles G. Finney at Log College Press?

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Some of our readers may wonder why certain writers are found on the Log College Press website. There are writers within various streams of American Presbyterianism with whose views those who are associated with Log College Press certainly do not agree; Charles G. Finney is one notable example of such a person. We have many of his published works available, including his autobiography, which makes for fascinating reading, especially, for example, in regards to his ordination and complete unawareness at the time of the Westminster Confession of Faith and what it teaches (Memoirs, p. 239).

But we also have writings available which critique Finney’s unorthodox views and practices. B.B. Warfield refers to “his Pelagian doctrine of salvation,” for example. Take note of these particular examples:

At Log College Press, we recognize that American Presbyterianism has never been monolithic, and thus we have the goal of representing early American Presbyterianism as it actually appeared, warts and all. That includes persons with views that were unorthodox, racist, feminist, and otherwise out of accord with the Scriptures and the Confession and Catechisms to which we hold. We even have a female “pastor” on the site. There is, we believe, a benefit to being able to accurately study such writings and to quote them fairly and honestly, as — for example — Finney’s reviewers have themselves done.

Log College Press has this to say about the range and diversity of views represented on the site:

Because this site is an historical archive and an educational resource, we do not agree with every opinion or argument expressed in the writings on our site or in our published materials - indeed, the authors on our site contradict one another in many points of theology and practice. However, we trust that our readers will use their discernment in the strength of the Holy Spirit to separate the wheat from the chaff, and so we post and reprint the works by and about 18th-19th century American Presbyterians with the prayer that they will benefit the 21st century church, even if that benefit it to show us what not to believe and how not to live.

We do hope that readers will understand the goals of Log College Press as not an endorsement of views which are wrong and unBiblical, but as an effort to make accessible those writers and writings from the past which are worthy of study and in some cases, rebuttal, but in all cases true to history.

Halsey's Notable Women of Christianity

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Writing for the journal Our Monthly in 1870-71, Prof. Leroy J. Halsey of McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago provided readers with a set of biographical sketches of Notable Women of Christianity. The six sketches include:

  • Helena, the Mother of Constantine — Halsey makes the case that Roman Empress Helena (d. 330 AD) was a Christian believer and spiritually influenced her son Constantine the Great before and after his conversion, contrary to the account of Eusebius that she was only converted after Constantine.

  • Vittoria Colonna - Colonna (1492-1547) was an Italian noblewoman and poet, who, as Halsey notes, evidenced “Calvinistic” views in her poetry. She is said also to have been both a muse and spiritual guide to Michelangelo.

  • Marguerite of Navarre - Marguerite (1492-1549) was a Princess of France and Queen of Navarre. She was highly educated and a gifted poet, and, though she ever officially left the Church of Rome, she did what she could to support the Reformation, and corresponded often with John Calvin.

  • Olympia Fulvio Morata - Morata (1526-1555) was an Italian scholar who was a friend to Vittoria Colonna, Marguerite of Navarre, John Calvin and others in Protestant circles. Indeed, she lectured on the works of Calvin. The account of her faith on her deathbed (she was stricken down at the age of 29 by the plague) given by Halsey is very moving.

  • Lady Huntingdon - Selina Hastings (née Shirley), Countess of Huntingdon (1707-1791) was an English lady prominent in the Methodist movement. She served as principal of Trevecca College, Wales and did much to support the work of the Methodist Church financially and otherwise.

  • Hannah More - More (1745-1833) was an English poet, playwright and philanthropist who was moved by her Christian faith to act on behalf of the poor and oppressed. Halsey writes of her life of service, and her world-wide influence (she was visited by William B. Sprague on one of his tours of the continent as noted in Visits to European Celebrities (1855)).

In this series of sketches, Halsey aimed to highlight not only noble women but the nobility of women. The virtues of education, love and, above all, faith are the characteristics which stand out in Halsey’s biographies. Take note of these Christian women through the centuries, and their stories, which speak to us yet today.

Celebrating Thomas E. Peck's 200th Birthday

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It was 200 years ago today that Thomas Ephraim Peck was born in Columbia, South Carolina on January 29, 1822. Clement Read Vaughan’s biographical sketch, found on his page on Log College Press and in Vol. 3 of Peck’s Miscellanies, edited by Thomas Cary Johnson, tells the story of his life (take note also of Iain H. Murray’s sketch in Vol. 1 of the same, as republished by Banner of Truth in 1999).

After training for the ministry at Columbia Theological Seminary, Peck served pastorates in Baltimore, Maryland, and collaborated with Stuart Robinson in an editorial capacity, before spending the final 33 years of his life as a professor at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia. His preaching was highly regarded and his literary endeavors show him to be a man great intellect and deep spirituality. He died on October 2, 1893, and his body was laid to rest in the Union Theological Seminary Cemetery, Hampden Sydney, Virginia.

Peck was truly notable leader in the 19th century Presbyterian church, whose life and ministry are to be remembered on this bicentennial anniversary of his birth. Vaughan said of him, “As an expositor of truth, as an exegete of Scripture, as a philosophic student of history, he was probably without a rival in his day.” Read his works online here, and get to know Thomas E. Peck, a Southern Presbyterian worthy.

James R. Willson Warns of Political Danger

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In 2009, Crown & Covenant Publications published a volume edited by RPCNA minister Gordon J. Keddie titled Political Danger, containing sermons, essays, letters and more by RPCNA minister James Renwick Willson. It is a valuable compendium of Willson’s works. Most of the material in that volume — and much more — is now available to read online at Log College Press, including the 1825 fast sermon Political Danger.

Based on three Scriptural passages (Ps. 12:8; Prov. 28:15; and Prov. 29:2), this sermon — originally titled Political Danger: A Sermon Preached on January 6, 1825, on the Occasion of a Fast Observed by Several Churches in Newburgh, N.Y., and Its Vicinity and originally published in The Evangelical Witness — warns of the danger to society when wicked men are exalted to high places in civil government (Ps. 12:8). Vice is defended, promoted and eventually imitated by citizens when wicked rulers shape wicked policies and call evil good. Willson goes on to explain how this principle is true in all times and places, and how the nation that embraces such wicked rulers incurs the wrath of God. After recounting the national sins of his day, Willson implored his hearers to humble themselves before God and seek His mercy. At this annual fast, he called upon Christians to “in prayer call upon Jehovah, invoking His blessing upon us during the present year and for all time to come.”

One wonders what Rev. Willson would think of the condition of the United States almost 200 years later. We do well to heed his admonition to humble ourselves before the Lord both in the church and in civil society. Take up this sermon and hear Willson’s voice preaching to us today with prayerful consideration.

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).