What's New at Log College Press? - June 14, 2023

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It has been a while since we have updated our readers on what’s happening at Log College Press, but there is in fact much to report. As you may know by now, Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary announced in recent weeks that it has acquired Log College Press, a partnership which is a tremendous step forward in our ministry. It is a tremendous privilege to associate with the seminary in our mutual efforts to edify the church body, in our case, by bringing American Presbyterian works from the past into the present, which makes for an exciting future.

We are very pleased to report that Caleb Cangelosi, the founder of Log College Press, will continue to serve as General Editor of the publishing side of Log College Press. Some of the planned forthcoming titles to be published include:

- A Plain and Scriptural View of Baptism, by Daniel Baker

- The Utility and Importance of Creeds and Confessions, by Samuel Miller

- The Broken Home: Lessons in Sorrow, by Benjamin Morgan Palmer

- Suicide: Its Guilt, Folly, and Sources, by Samuel Miller

- The Memoirs of John Leighton Wilson, by Hampden Coit DuBose

Andrew Myers remains the Website Manager for Log College Press. At this point in time, we are approaching 20,000 titles available to read online on the website. Members of the Dead Presbyterian Society have special access to certain features on the site, which include the Early Access and Recent Additions page, as well as the DPS quote blog.

Some highlights at the Early Access page:

• Mary McLeod Bethune, My Last Will and Testament (an article that she published shortly before her death in a 1955 issue of Ebony magazine);

• Sidney Lanier, Tiger-Lilies (1867) - this is Lanier’s one and only novel;

• A.A. Hodge, Progress in Theology (1883) - Hodge’s contribution to a symposium on the subject which appeared in The Catholic Presbyterian;

• James Kennedy, Thoughts on Prayer (1898) - Kennedy’s final publication includes a memorial of his life; and

• Geerhardus Vos, Dogmatiek, Vols. 1-5 (1896) - this is Vos’ Reformed Dogmatics, handwritten, in Dutch.

Some highlights at the Recent Addtiions page:

• William Munford Baker, Church-Planting in Texas: A Pioneer Sketch (1879);

• Thomas Bloomer Balch, Reminiscences of Presbyterian Ministers (1877-1878) - a series of personal recollections that appeared in The Central Presbyterian;

• Louis FitzGerald Benson, The Hymnody of the Christian Church (1927);

• George Washington Cable, Mark Twain and G.W. Cable: The Record of a Literary Relationship (1960);

• John Gresham Machen, Captain With the Mighty Heart: The Story of J. Gresham Machen (1967-1971), and Personal Reminiscences of J. Gresham Machen (1985) - the first being a 19-part biographical sketch by Henry W. Coray from The Presbyterian Guardian, and the second being a series of recollections by people who knew Machen personally from The Presbyterian Journal;

• Gilbert McMaster, The Upright Man in Life and at Death: a Discourse Delivered, Sabbath Evening, November 7, 1852, on the Occasion of the Decease of the Rev. Samuel Brown Wylie, D.D. (1852);

• Richard Clark Reed, The Gospel as Taught By Calvin (1896, 1979);

• John Rodgers, A Brief View of the State of Religious Liberty in the Colony of New York (1773, 1838);

• Charles Adamson Salmond, Dr. Charles Hodge (1881)

• Thomas Caldwell Stuart, “Father” Stuart and the Monroe Mission (1927); and

• Geerhardus Vos, De verbondsleer in de Gereformeerde theologie - Dutch original of The Doctrine of the Covenant in Reformed Theology] (1891).

This is an exciting year for Log College Press for many reasons, and, in our fashion, we have, this year, already taken note of John Witherspoon’s 300th birthday, Thomas Murphy’s 200th birthday, and we are looking ahead to the 200th birthday of A.A. Hodge, and the 300th birthday of Samuel Davies. 2023 is a good time to study the writings of these giants of the American Presbyterian Church. There is no time like the present to study the past.

Meanwhile, please feel free to browse the many resources available to our readers in print and in digital format. We appreciate hearing from our readers if they find matters needing correction, or if they have questions about authors or works on the site, or if they have suggestions for additions to the site. Your feedback helps the experience of other readers as well. Thank you, as always, for your interest and support. Stay tuned for more good things to come.

Calvin on the Edge of Eternity

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It was not the head but the heart which made him a theologian, and it is not the head but the heart which he primarily addresses in his theology. – B.B. Warfield, John Calvin: The Man and His Work (1909)

The great Reformer John Calvin died on this day in history, May 27, 1564, in Geneva, Switzerland. He was only 54 years old; although he had suffered many maladies, yet had he accomplished so much in his lifetime to effect Reformation in the areas of worship, theology and civil government; in Geneva, Europe and even across the Atlantic, in sending missionaries to Roman Catholic France and to the New World; and inspiring settlers who risked all to follow them.

Today, we recall his final days as told by some authors on Log College Press who admired this great man.

Thomas Cary Johnson, John Calvin and the Genevan Reformation (1900), p. 87:

He preached for the last time on the 6th of February, 1564; he was carried to church and partook of the communion for the last time on the 2d of April, in which he acknowledged his own unworthiness and his trust in God's free election of grace and the abounding merits of Christ; he was visited by the four syndics and the whole Little Council of the republic on the 27th of April, and addressed them as a father, thanking them for their devotion, begging pardon for his gusts of temper, and exhorting them to preserve in Geneva the pure doctrine and government of the gospel; he made a similar address to all the ministers of Geneva on the 28th and took an affectionate leave of them; he had these ministers to dine in his house on the 19th of May, was himself carried to the table, ate a little with them and tried to converse, but growing weary had to be taken to his chamber, leaving with the words, 'This wall will not hinder my being present with you in spirit, though absent in the body.' [William] Farel (in his eightieth year) walked all the way to Geneva from Neuchatel to take leave of the man whom he had compelled to work in Geneva, and whose glorious career he had watched without the least shadow of envy.

With the precious word of God, which he had done so much to make plain to his own and all subsequent ages, in his heart and on his tongue, he died on the 27th of May, 1564.

Thomas Smyth, Calvin and His Enemies: A Memoir of the Life, Character, and Principles of Calvin (1856), pp. 77-82, elaborates on the story of the “last act” in Calvin’s life:

Let us, then, before we take our leave, draw near, and contemplate the last act in the drama of this great and good man's life. Methinks I see that emaciated frame, that sunken cheek, and that bright, ethereal eye, as Calvin lay upon his study-couch. He heeds not the agonies of his frame, his vigorous mind rising in its power as the outward man perished in decay. The nearer he approached his end, the more energetically did he ply his unremitted studies. In his severest pains he would raise his eyes to heaven and say, How long, Lord! and then resume his efforts. When urged to allow himself repose, he would say, 'What! would you that when the Lord comes he should surprise me in idleness?' Some of his most important and laboured commentaries were therefore finished during this last year.

On the 10th of March, his brother ministers coming to him, with a kind and cheerful countenance he warmly thanked them for all their kindness, and hoped to meet them at their regular Assembly for the last time, when he thought the Lord would probably take him to himself. On the 27th, he caused himself to be carried to the senate-house, and being supported by his friends, he walked into the hall, when, uncovering his head, he returned thanks for all the kindness they had shown him, especially during his sickness. With a faltering voice, he then added, 'I think I have entered this house for the last time,' and, mid flowing tears, took his leave. On the 2d of April, he was carried to the church, where he received the sacrament at the hands of [Theodore] Beza, joining in the hymn with such an expression of joy in his countenance, as attracted the notice of the congregation. Having made his will on the 27th of this month, he sent to inform the syndics and the members of the senate that he desired once more to address them in their hall, whither he wished to be carried the next day. They sent him word that they would wait on him, which they accordingly did, the next day, coming to him from the senate-house. After mutual salutations, he proceeded to address them very solemnly for some time, and having prayed for them, shook hands with each of them, who were bathed in tears, and parted from him as from a common parent. The following day, April 28th, according to his desire, all the ministers in the jurisdiction of Geneva came to him, whom he also addressed: 'I avow,'' he said, 'that I have lived united with you, brethren, in the strictest bonds of true and sincere affection, and I take my leave of you with the same feelings. If you have at any time found me harsh or peevish under my affliction, I entreat your forgiveness.'  Having shook hands with them, we took leave of him, says Beza, 'with sad hearts and by no means with dry eyes.'

'The remainder of his days,' as Beza informs us, 'Calvin passed in almost perpetual prayer. His voice was interrupted by the difficulty of his respiration; but his eyes (which to the last retained their brilliancy,) uplifted to heaven, and the expression of his countenance, showed the fervour of his supplications. His doors,' Beza proceeds to say, 'must have stood open day and night, if all had been admitted who, from sentiments of duty and affection, wished to see him, but as he could not speak to them, he requested they would testify their regard by praying for him, rather than by troubling themselves about seeing him. Often, also, though he ever showed himself glad to receive me, he intimated a scruple respecting the interruption thus given to my employments; so thrifty was he of time which ought to be spent in the service of the Church.'

On the 19th of May, being the day the ministers assembled, and when they were accustomed to take a meal together, Calvin requested that they should sup in the hall of his house. Being seated, he was with much difficulty carried into the hall. 'I have come, my brethren,' said he, 'to sit with you, for the last time, at this table.' But before long, he said, 'I must be carried to my bed;' adding, as he looked around upon them with a serene and pleasant countenance, 'these walls will not prevent my union with you in spirit, although my body be absent.' He never afterwards left his bed. On the 27th of May, about eight o'clock in the evening, the symptoms of dissolution came suddenly on. In the full possession of his reason, he continued to speak, until, without a struggle or a gasp, his lungs ceased to play, and this great luminary of the Reformation set, with the setting sun, to rise again in the firmament of heaven. The dark shadows of mourning settled upon the city. It was with the whole people a night of lamentation and tears. All could bewail their loss; the city her best citizen, the church her renovator and guide, the college her founder, the cause of reform its ablest champion, and every family a friend and comforter. It was necessary to exclude the crowds of visitors who came to behold his remains, lest the occasion might be misrepresented. At two o'clock in the afternoon of Sabbath, his body, enclosed in a wooden coffin, and followed by the syndics, senators, pastors, professors, together with almost the whole city, weeping as they went, was carried to the common burying ground, without pomp. According to his request, no monument was erected to his memory; a plain stone, without any inscription, being all that covered the remains of Calvin.

Such was Calvin in his life and in his death. The place of his burial is unknown, but where is his fame unheard?

The actual precise location of John Calvin’s grave is unknown, but this spot in the Cimetière de Plainpalais in Geneva honors his memory.

And thus a great man lived and died, although unwilling to have his earthly remains become a shrine, yet leaving a legacy that many still cherish.

Note: This is an updated version of a post that was first published on May 27, 2018.

A Word From William S. White to the Theological Student on What is Most Important

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Letters written by William Spotswood White (known to history as “Stonewall Jackson’s pastor”) to his sons were first published in The Central Presbyterian, and then assembled into one volume titled The Gospel Ministry, in a Series of Letters From a Father to His Sons (1860).

In one letter to Henry Martyn White, he wrote of the importance, as a theological student training for the ministry, of — in the midst of all the needful studies and activities — cultivating and maintaining a devotional spirit. In the vein of B.B. Warfield’s later classic The Religious Life of Theological Students (1912-1913), White writes the following (pp. 26-34):

You are most in danger from a failure to cultivate a devotional spirit. A Theological Seminary, in its external arrangements — its buildings — its lecture rooms, and its recitations; the intercourse of its students in the dining hall and upon the campus, is so much like a college, that the spirit of the college is very likely to prevail. The critical study of the Bible is likely to supplant the devotional. That all the young man says and does, even his sermons and his prayers, should be subject to the criticism of his fellow students and professors, although useful and necessary, may yet become hurtful to his spirituality. Now, whatever else he neglects, he must not neglect the throne of grace. Fail in all else sooner, than in the cultivation of deep spiritual piety. Fail in this, and whatever your attainments in other respects may be, should you live to enter the ministry, comfortless and useless you will live, labour, and die. Mere intellectual endowments, leading to popular applause, more frequently entangle, bewilder, and ruin the young preacher than all other baits of the devil combined.

White goes on to add:

One has truthfully and beautifully said, that ‘prayer is the breathing forth of that grace which is first breathed into the soul by the Holy Ghost.’ Every offering then, not made in the spirit of such prayer, is destitute of the purity and fragrance of heaven; and is not only unacceptable but hateful to God; so that prayerless study, prayerless preaching and visiting are worse than useless. What does not come from God never returns to him. All our services not baptized by the Spirit, freely given in answer to prayer, will be less acceptable to God than the offerings of paganism.

Further on in this letter White elaborates on the fountain of grace that must needs (to use an older expression) fill vessels in the service of God.

Suffer me then to enlarge on a thought already suggested. When we come really near to God, he freely grants us the sweet influences of his grace — ‘all grace comes from the God of grace’ — all that begins and completes the life of God in the soul of man. The soul enlightened and warmed by a near approach to the true altar, radiates both light and heat, and thus creates an atmosphere which refreshes, beautifies, and strengthens all who breathe it. ‘The river comes originally from the ocean, and not even the range of rocky mountains can prevent its return to the ocean. So, that alone which comes from God can return to God.’ Hence we feel and exhibit just so much of heaven, as we feel and manifest of the spirit of prayer. From this source alone can come our usefulness.

Whatever else a man may have or do, he never does, he never can become the channel through which God pours his grace upon the hill of Zion, unless he lives in constant, spiritual contact with heaven. He must bring God to his people before he can lift them to heaven.

Then whatever else you neglect, fail not to study upon your knees, such expressions of the word of God as these, ‘And this is the confidence we have in him, that if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.’ ‘Whatsoever things ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them.’ ‘Ask in faith.’

Hear White as he concludes this letter:

Such a spirit of prayer is the first, the highest endowment of the ministry to which you now look forward. It is equally essential to your present condition and pursuits. Think not that this may be acquired hereafter. Just as well defer the study of Hebrew, church history, or theology. Nay, just as well, and even better, leave the Seminary at once. As is the student, so will be the preacher. An exception to this remark occasionally occurs, but there are just exceptions enough to establish the rule. Let all you now learn be baptized in a heart burning with love to Christ, and breaking with compassion for deathless souls perishing in sin. Let every day begin and end with the thought, ‘I am here, not to acquire learning with a view to win popular applause, but through God to acquire skill in winning souls to Christ.’

This valuable counsel from a father to a son, from an experienced pastor to a young theological student, highlights the need of those training for the ministry to not allow anything to dampen or extinguish the life of God in the soul of minister of Jesus Christ. The head of a minister must needs be (as they used to say) full of academic learning, but if the heart is not united to God in the sweet communion of prayer, then the vocation itself must be reconsidered. How crucial it is then for the minister who would lead his flock in spiritual service to God to himself be on his knees seeking grace to deliver the message of grace!

Theological students, pastors and others will do well to read the full collection of White’s letters on The Gospel Ministry. They serve as a wise reminder of what is of chief importance to such a noble vocation. To know more about White’s own personal piety, and the success of his ministry, be sure also to peruse Rev. William S. White, D. D., and His Times: An Autobiography (1891), edited by the recipient of some of the letters in The Gospel Ministry, Henry Martyn White, as a testimony to his beloved father and pastoral mentor.

The Pueblo Dwellings of Manuelito Canyon

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One holiday morning, several years ago, I turned southeast from Highway 66 at Manuelito, New Mexico, six miles east of the Arizona-New Mexico state line. Nothing was more remote from my mind than archaeology. I was bound for some buttes, visible from the highway, in search of pictures. After driving nearly five miles the trail led around an immense Pueblo III ruin measuring about four hundred by six hundred feet.

It developed that the ruins were known to a few local traders and ranchers and were a matter of record to the Smithsonian Institution to the extent that the area was listed as of archaeological interest though, so far as is known, it had never been intensively investigated by an archaeologist. - D.W. Vandevanter, “The Proposed National Monument at Manuelito, New Mexico,” American Antiquity, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Jan. 1940).

One of the particularly fascinating aspects of the work we do at Log College Press is that our research concerning American Presbyterian authors often leads us into unexpected and enjoyable avenues of history. The quote referenced above is from the beginning of an article about a photographer’s account of how he came to discover, and then advocate for the Pueblo ruins at Manuelito Canyon to be designated as an historic national monument. That individual, Decatur Woodbridge Vandevanter (1886-1949), was a pastor’s son, his father being James Nicholas Vandevanter (the name is sometimes spelled Van Devanter), longtime (26 years) pastor of the Old Augusta Stone Presbyterian Church in Fort Defiance, Virginia, and author of History of the Augusta Church, From 1737 to 1900 (1900).

Rio Puerco of the West, Sandstone cliffs and Route 66, Manuelito, New Mexico (photo by A. Whittall).

D.W. Vandevanter was raised in that church, but did not follow his father’s footsteps into the ministry. Instead, he first became a mail carrier, and then discovered a passion and a talent for photography that led him out west. It was in 1937 that he discovered the Manuelito Canyon Pueblo ruins in New Mexico, and that discovery was to impact the rest of his life significantly.

Manuelito Canyon as viewed from Highway 66.

As Vandevanter continued to explore, he found many more from the Pueblo III period, constructed between 1150-1300 AD, and wind caves whose walls were covered with pictographs. He reported his findings to the director of the U.S. National Park Service, which in 1938 recommended to President Franklin D. Roosevelt that the area should be designated as a national monument. Vandevanter himself helped negotiate the purchase of some of the private property involved for that purpose. But it was not until 1964 that the designation finally happened for the area now known as the Manuelito Complex, or the Manuelito Canyon Historic District. D.W. Vandevanter had already passed away in 1949 at the age of 62, so he did not live to see that milestone accomplished, but his passion for the history of this special place was the driving force that made it happen.

In pursuit of some good pictures, he found something even more remarkable - a valuable piece of history worth preserving. Both the elder and the younger Vandevanters are buried at the Augusta Stone Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Fort Defiance, not far from where this writer lives. The church history that we at Log College Press work to preserve likewise may lead our readers in all sorts of unexpected directions. There are many diverse stories, not unlike this one, waiting for our readers to discover as well.

William H. McGuffey Entered Into Glory 150 Years Ago

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The young are on the voyage of life; the old have reached the harbor. - William H. McGuffey

It was 150 years ago today on May 4, 1873 that Presbyterian minister and educator William Holmes McGuffey entered into glory. Author of McGuffey’s Readers, his name lives on in many ways, and today we remember the man who has been referred to as “America’s Schoolmaster.”

Born on September 23, 1800, in Washington County, Pennsylvania, to a family of Scottish emigrants, he was educated at Greersburg Acadamey in Darlington, Pennsylvania. By the age of 14, he was working as a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse in Calcutta, Ohio. In 1826, he graduated from Washington College in Washington, Pennsylvania, and went on to join the faculty there. Three years later, he was ordained as a Presbyterian minister by Robert H. Bishop.

After teaching at Washington College, he joined the faculty of Miami University at Oxford, Ohio. In 1836, he became President of Cincinnati College. Three years later, he became President of Ohio University. In 1843, he became President of the Woodward Free Grammar School in Cincinnati. After serving as a professor at Woodward College from 1843 to 1845, he accepted an invitation to serve as the chair of moral philosophy and political economy in the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he remained for the rest of his life.

It was in 1835, while teaching at Miami University — at the recommendation of his friend Harriet Beecher Stowe — that a Cincinnati publisher asked him to to create a series of four graded readers for young students. Thus, the eclectic series of McGuffey’s Readers was born. He authored the first four readers, while his brother Alexander H. McGuffey authored two more after that. These volumes were the first early reading books to gain wide-spread popularity in the American educational system. The series consisted of stories, poems, essays, and speeches. They included extracts from John Milton, Lord Byron, Daniel Webster and other highly-regard writers, as well as frequent allusions to the Bible. From 1836 to 1960, over 120 million copies were sold, and they remain in print today. They were a favorite of Henry Ford who in 1934 relocated the actual Pennsylvania log cabin where McGuffey was born to Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan to create a McGuffey schoolhouse. Frequently seen in the popular TV show, Little House on the Prairie, McGuffey’s Readers have long been a household name symbolizing Christian education, much like Noah Webster’s Dictionary.

McGuffey spent nearly three decades in Charlottesville where an elementary school built in 1915 was named after him (it is now known as the McGuffey Art Center). His name adorns other institutions and buildings, and a state in his honor can be seen at Miami University. After he died there was some talk of burying his body alongside that of his first wife, Harriet, who in 1850 was buried in Dayton, Ohio, but the University of Virginia prevailed upon his family to have his earthly remains laid to rest at the University of Virginia Cemetery and Columbarium.

For McGuffey, the bond between religion and education was sacred. Christians were people of the Book, and education was essential to reading the Scriptures and understanding the world which God made. We are thankful for his labors in promoting both education and the Christian religion in a busy, productive life on earth, which came to a peaceful end 150 years ago today.

A Classic of English Literature Was Born on This Day in History: April 25, 1719

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“All our Discontents about what we want, appeared to me, to spring from the want of Thankfulness for what we have….‘Tis never too late to be wise.” — Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719, 1868), pp. 131-132, 178

The classic tale of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe was first published on April 25, 1719. Supposedly inspired by the real-life experiences of castaway Alexander Selkirk, Defoe’s novel pioneered the literary genre now known as the Robinsonade.

While the story of Crusoe’s adventures on the island and his later travels all around the world are legendary, the life of the author is in many ways just as intriguing, as James O. Murray tells us in The Author of Robinson Crusoe (1890). Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) lived through tumultuous times in English politics, and used his pen to craft some of the most memorable stories in English literature, often with a satirical wit biting enough to land him in prison. He was a Protestant dissenter who seems to have borrowed the last name of his protagonist from his friend and classmate, Puritan Timothy Cruso, author of God the Guide of Youth (1695), a sermon whose passages in some cases are mirrored in Robinson Crusoe.

I am monarch of all I survey,
My right there is none to dispute;
From the centre all round to the sea
I am lord of the fowl and the brute.
O Solitude! where are the charms
That sages have seen in thy face?
Better dwell in the midst of alarms
Than reign in this horrible place.
…
There's mercy in every place,
And mercy, encouraging thought!
Gives even affliction a grace,
And reconciles man to his lot. — William Cowper, Verses, Supposed to be Written by Alexander Selkirk, During His Solitary Abode in the Island of Juan Fernandez (1793)

An 1820 edition of Robinson Crusoe was published in Latin by Joseph P. Engles, author of the Catechism For Young Children. As a young man, Timothy Flint “was extravagantly fond of books of voyages and of travels. He disliked the cities and delighted to imagine himself in the position of Robinson Crusoe” (Timothy Flint: Pioneer, Missionary, Author, Editor, 1780-1840 [1911], p. 33). Robinson Crusoe was a favorite read of the future pastor of the Old Pine Street Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Thomas Brainerd (Life of Rev. Thomas Brainerd, D.D., For Thirty Years Pastor of Old Pine Street Church, Philadelphia [1870], p. 21). Missionary William P. Alexander once visited “Juan Fernandez, the famous residence of Alexander Selkirk, alias Robinson Crusoe” in 1832 (Mission Life in Hawaii: Memoir of Rev. William P. Alexander [1888], p. 31). Southern Presbyterian minister and author F.R. Goulding was directly inspired by Defoe to write Robert and Harold: or, The Young Marooners on the Florida Coast (1852). W.G.T. Shedd’s edition of the works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Vol. 4 [1856]) includes Coleridge’s notes on Robinson Crusoe. Thomas Smyth wrote of the literature he enjoyed in his youth, remarking that “Robinson Crusoe was a great favourite” (Autobiographical Notes, p. 11, [1914]). Henry H. Jessup reports sharing an Arabic translation of Robinson Crusoe with a gentleman in Fifty-Three Years in Syria, Vol. 1 (1910). James F. and Harriet H. Holcomb wrote of the influence of Robinson Crusoe in their missionary experiences in In the Heart of India; or, Beginnings of Missionary Work in Bundela Land (1905), pp. 186-187.

These are but a fraction of the known references to this literary classic among Presbyterian authors at Log College Press. A book whose influence has spanned the globe and inspired millions is worthy of remembrance on this day in history. Happy birthday, Robinson Crusoe!

Balch on the Poetical Aspects of the Sabbath

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In Northern Virginia, just east of the Blue Ridge Mountains, T.B. Balch often wrote for Richmond-based periodicals from his manse at Ringwood Cottage. His prose literary productions were often poetical in nature and his knowledge of the poets, contemporary and classical, permeated his writing.

As an example of this, today we highlight his essay titled “The Sabbath in Its Poetical Aspects,” published in the April 1849 issue of The Southern Literary Messenger.

A spring morning had come. It ushered in the day of rest and Ringwood had never looked as quiet or as handsome before. The kirks round about were all closed, a thing which sometimes happens in the country when our pastors are away. As the hours into which day is divided were chasing each other off, the writer got to ruminating upon what the Sabbath had done for poetry and what poetry had done for the Sabbath. The Sabbath presents itself periodically to the poet, and invites his eye on a range among its tints, whilst some of the poets, grateful for the materials it gives, have sung its sweet repose.

Sketch of Ringwood manse.

After ruminating in this way, about twilight, my Ringwood grounds looked very sweet, dressed out in the bloom of apple and peach tree orchards. The sight recalled to mind the descriptive poetry of Mrs. [Felicia] Hemans and the fact that this noble woman always like the Sabbath. Among the bold mountains of Wales she sung the sacred day; and when dying among the shamrocks of the Emerald Isle, she indited to her amanuensis the lines with which we shall conclude —

How many groups this hour are bending
Through England’s primrose meadow-paths their way
Tow’rds spire and tower, midst shadowy elms ascending,
Whence the sweet chimes proclaim the hallowed day.

I may not tread

With them those pathways — to the feverish bed
Of sickness bound — yet O my God I bless
Thy mercy that with Sabbath peace hath filled
My chastened heart.

His essay expresses appreciation of the silence of the day as he experienced it in the rural Northern Virginia horse country when labor was reduced to a minimum, deplores the sound of war heard elsewhere around the world on the Lord’s Day, and yet wistfully longs for the sound of the chimes of church bells. It is a poetic rumination that wanders over the countryside and through the human heart with a spiritual gaze as immense as the view of the Virginia piedmont from Hazel Mountain.

If in search of inspiration from some thoughtful Sabbath reading, pause for a moment at Ringwood manse, read over his brief essay, and consider the blessed poetical aspects of the Lord’s Day.

A Lesson From the Apostles by R.E. Thompson

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No course of lectures which I have ever heard has been a greater source of guidance and strength than the Stone Lectures of 1891. The lecturer was Professor Robert Ellis Thompson, of the University of Pennsylvania, one of our ablest economists and the foremost advocate, among university teachers of his time, of the theory of protective tariffs. He was also a devoted Christian minister and we had few preachers in America who could equal him in the weight and originality of his sermons. He had one famous sermon on “The Sending of the Apostles Two by Two.” After preaching it in the Walnut Street Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia a friend urged him to repeat it. Dr. Thompson replied: “Why, Sparhawk, that is the one hundred and fifty-third time I have preached that sermon.” It was a sermon worthy of an even longer tenure. — Robert E. Speer, The Finality of Christ (1933), p. 11

It was indeed a notable sermon that Robert Ellis Thompson preached and a theme that he developed over the years regarding the Apostles. He published:

• The Sending of the Apostles, Two by Two: A Sermon (1890)

• What Became of the Apostles (1890)

• The Sending of the Apostles (1894)

• The Apostles as Everyday Men (1910)

In these works, Thompson spoke of the individuality of each Apostle, and their respective contributions to the church, but also how they meshed together to help the Church united. They were fishermen, weak, impetuous, full of character and foibles, essentially ordinary men like all of us. Distinctive in their character, but not spiritual supermen of faith, they needed the grace of God as much as we do.

Why, you find that these twelve apostles were just men like ourselves, men of our frailties, men of our weaknesses, our failures, our doubts. We can look upon the story and see how Christ chose just such men as we are to take part in His ministry and form His first church, and we can feel that there is a place for us in His church. We can feel that we were represented in that first little company, that our doubts were met and overcome — our questions were answered, and that such as we are still welcome to His company as He goes on to do and to teach what He "began to do and to teach" in the Church of the Apostles (The Sending of the Apostles Two by Two (1890), p. 3).

Each Apostle has a name, and the list of names makes up a company that “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). But in examining the names one by one, we find that each character, standing alone, has little to commend itself to the wisdom of God in calling such men to such an important task. Yet, “Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:24) called these men and in doing so confounded the wise of this world, and brought remarkably unexpected unity to the early Church.

Who would have thought that Doubting Thomas and Matthew the Publican would have made good partners in the project to advance God’s kingdom in the earth? Or that zealous Peter and cautious Andrew would both as brothers have their particular contributions to make towards the Apostolic mission? But we see in the calling of particular men, somewhat unalike in comparison, but with traits and characteristics having much in common with the rest of humanity, that the Apostolic team has much to teach us about the nature of the Church and God’s wisdom in assembling such a diverse tapestry of men for one noble task.

So the Master made one whole man out of two halfmen. And so his chugch should go forth, two by two, each with the one most unlike himself, and therefore best able to help him. The sect spirit bids them separate on the ground of these innocent differences of temper and disposition. Christ bids them unite the closer through such differences, When we heed him, and become “rooted and grounded in love,” then shall we “be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge” (The Sending of the Apostles (1894)).

This is the great lesson for the Church taught by the calling of such unique, yet everyday, men. We are many, and we are not much to look at individually, but we are one in Christ, and Christ is “altogether lovely” (Song of Solomon 5:16) to behold. Our differences in personality and in gifts ought not to divide us, but rather to unite us in common cause as they did in the case of the Apostles. Having all been raised out of the same “miry clay” (Ps. 40:2), there is no room for pride, but there is plenty of work to be done in the Lord if we, by the grace of God, would once again “turn the world upside down.”

Jonathan Edwards Remembered

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You are pleased, dear Sir, very kindly to ask me, whether I could sign the Westminster Confession of Faith, and submit to the Presbyterian form of Church Government; and to offer to use your influence to procure a call for me, to some congregation in Scotland. I should be very ungrateful, if I were not thankful for such kindness and friendship. As to my subscribing to the substance of the Westminster Confession, there would be no difficulty; and as to the Presbyterian Government, I have long been perfectly out of conceit of our unsettled, independent, confused way of church government in this land; and the Presbyterian way has ever appeared to me most agreeable to the word of God, and the reason and nature of things; though I cannot say that I think, that the Presbyterian government of the Church of Scotland is so perfect, that it cannot, in some respects, be mended. — Jonathan Edwards, The Works of President Edwards: With a Memoir of His Life (1830), Vol. I, p. 412 (Letter from Jonathan Edwards to John Erskine dated July 5, 1750)

Jonathan Edwards was not a Presbyterian, but as a leader in the Great Awakening his sentiments were favorable to Presbyterianism, and his life touched the lives of many authors on Log College Press, including the missionary David Brainerd, and his son-in-law, Aaron Burr, Sr.

As President of the College of New Jersey (Princeton), Edwards is closely associated with one of the great Presbyterian institutions in America and, in fact, was laid to rest at Princeton Cemetery. It was on this date in history, March 22, 1758, that Jonathan Edwards entered into glory. G.B. Strickler wrote (Jonathan Edwards [1903]):

…he was one of the most remarkable men the American church has produced, and as, although a Congregationalist, his history often touched and influenced that of the Presbyterian Church….

Historical marker located in South Windsor, Connecticut.

Edwards is widely thought of as America’s foremost theologian. John DeWitt spoke of him as “our greatest American Divine” (Jonathan Edwards: A Study [1904]). He was born on October 5, 1703, in East Windsor Connecticut. He had a spiritual awakening early in life, and after studying at Yale University, went on to serve as pastor of the church in Northampton, Massachusetts from 1727 to 1751. It was on July 8, 1741, that he preached one of the most famous sermons in American history: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.

The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University today holds many of Edwards' surviving manuscripts, including over one thousand sermons, and other materials, and his works — which currently total 26 volumes — continue to be published. Some of the most significant include A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls in Northampton (1737); A History of the Work of Redemption (based on sermons preached in 1739, first published in 1774; see the 1793 edition published by David Austin here); The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God (1741); A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections (1746); The Freedom of the Will (1754); and The Great Christian Doctrine of Original Sin Defended (1758). The 70 personal resolutions he wrote in his diary from 1722 to 1723 (300 years ago) have often been republished and have inspired countless thousands, if not millions.

Being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God’s help, I do humbly entreat him by his grace to enable me to keep these Resolutions, so far as they are agreeable to his will, for Christ’s sake.

1. Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God’s glory, and my own good, profit and pleasure, in the whole of my duration, without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriad’s of ages hence. Resolved to do whatever I think to be my duty and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many and how great soever.

Following Burr’s death in 1757, Edwards assumed the presidency of the College of New Jersey on February 16, 1758, and immediate set an example to the students by getting a smallpox inoculation, as a result of which he died just over one month into his presidency. One month later, his daughter of Esther died, and later that same year, his wife Sarah also passed away.

Jonathan Edwards is buried at Princeton Cemetery, Princeton, New Jersey.

Henry C. McCook said this of one of his classic works (Jonathan Edwards as a Naturalist [1890]):

His work on “ The Will ” still keeps rank as one of the greatest books written by an American.

R.C. Reed once wrote of him (Jonathan Edwards [1904]):

He thought as we still think on the great doctrines of grace, being a zealous Calvinist, and was in accord with the Presbyterian Church in his views of government, though he lived and wrought and died in the Congregational Church. If, therefore, any class of persons should honor the name and cherish the memory of Edwards, those should do so who hold Calvinistic views of doctrine, and Presbyterian principles of polity.

Samuel Miller explains why we remember such a man as Jonathan Edwards (Lives of Jonathan Edwards and David Brainerd [1837]):

We owe to the dead themselves the duty of commemorating their actions, of cherishing their reputation, and of perpetuating, as far as possible, the benefits which they have conferred upon us.

As we likewise cherish the legacy of those great men and women who have gone before us and whose contributions to the kingdom of God on earth have left such an enduring mark, Jonathan Edwards stands out among the roll call of the saints, and it is with pleasure, and with thanks to God, that we take time today to honor his memory.

J.R. Miller: A Brief Remembrance

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It was said of J.R. Miller, the Presbyterian minister and devotional writer that “he kept a complete record of all the important dates in the lives of his people — birthdays, wedding anniversaries, et cetera — and he marked each of these by sending a short letter of remembrance” (J.T. Faris, The Life of Dr. J. R. Miller: "Jesus and I are Friends” [1912], p. 168).

At Log College Press, we too try to remember the important dates in the lives of “our people,” those men and women from the past whose lives and writings continue to live on and touch our readers today. Today we remember J.R. Miller who was born on this day in history, March 20, 1840.

He was born in Beaver County, Pennsylvania and raised in a Presbyterian home where he was taught Scripture, the Shorter Catechism and Matthew Henry’s Bible commentary, while family worship was practiced daily. His profession of faith was made in an Associate Presbyterian church in 1857, which became part of the United Presbyterian Church (UPCNA) a year later.

During the War Between the States he served in the U.S. Christian Commission from 1863 to 1865. He studied at Westminster College and at Allegheny Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania before entering the ministry and becoming ordained in the UPCNA in 1867. He later came to have scruples about the practice of exclusive psalmody to which his family and his church held. And thus he joined the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA), the denomination in which he remained for the rest of his life, just nine days after the Old and New School branches reunited in 1869.

In 1880, he began editorial work for the Presbyterian Board of Publication in Philadelphia, and he also published his first book, Week Day Religion. He would go on to write many more books, and numerous articles. He was extremely popular in his day for his devotional contributions to Christian literature. His biographer wrote in 1912 that copies of his published books had sold over 2 million copies.

Throughout his life and his careers as a pastor and an author, Miller reflected the values that were instilled in him and which were important to him. He loved the Lord Jesus Christ and as a consequence loved others well. A younger minister once asked him the secret of success in the ministry. He replied thus in a letter:

Cultivate love for Christ and then live for your work. It goes without saying that the supreme motive in every minister’s life should be the love of Christ. ‘The love of Christ strengtheneth me,’ was the keynote of St. Paul’s marvellous ministry. But this is not all. If a man is swayed by the love of Christ he must also have in his heart love for his fellow men. If I were to give you what I believe is one of the secrets of my own life, it is, that I have always loved people. I have had an intense desire all of my life to help people in every way; not merely to help them into the church, but to help them in their personal experiences, in their struggles and temptations, their quest for the best things in character. I have loved other people with an absorbing devotion. I have always felt that I should go anywhere, do any personal service, and help any individual, even the lowliest and the highest. The Master taught me this in the washing of His disciples’ feet, which showed His heart in being willing to do anything to serve His friends. If you want to have success as a winner of men, as a helper of people, as a pastor of little children, as the friend of the tempted and imperilled, you must love them and have a sincere desire to do them good (The Life of Dr. J. R. Miller: "Jesus and I are Friends,” pp. 87-88).

And this illustration speaks to the eternal truth of what Dr. Miller lived and practiced:

Love is never lost. Nothing that love does is ever forgotten. Long, long afterwards the poet found his song, from beginning to end, in the heart of a friend. Love shall find some day every song it has ever sung, sweetly treasured and singing yet in the hearts into which it was breathed. It is a pretty legend of the origin of the pearl which says that a star fell into the sea, and a shellfish, opening its mouth, received it, when the star became a pearl in the shell. The words of love’s greeting as we hurry by fall into our hearts, not to be lost, but to become pearls and to stay there forever (The Life of Dr. J. R. Miller: "Jesus and I are Friends,” pp. 204).

In his last days, while he was ill, the General Assembly of the PCUSA sent him a message of sympathy and encouragement. In fact, he himself was still working on The Book of Comfort when the end came and he entered into his eternal rest. J.R. Miller died on July 2, 1912, and was laid to rest at the West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. A simple service was held for the occasion which included prayer, the recitation of the Twenty-Third Psalm, the singing by a soloist of “He Will Lead His Flock Like a Shepherd” from Handel’s Messiah, and the congregational singing of a favorite hymn.

Several of his books were devotionals meant to be read throughout the year. It seems fitting to conclude this brief remembrance of J.R. Miller with an extract from one of them, Dr. Miller's Year Book: A Year's Daily Readings (1895), from the very date of his birthday.

What to Think About St. Patrick?

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Every year as Spring is about to commence, the world seems to turn green as celebrations of St. Patrick of Ireland take place (in some Protestant locales, such as Ulster, orange is the preferred color). But what are we to make of St. Patrick himself, a man who is venerated by the Roman Catholic Church but also greatly admired by Protestant historians too? Was he in fact, as Sheldon Jackson claimed in the Moderator’s Opening Sermon at the 1892 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, “Saint Patrick, Father of Presbyterianism in Ireland”? It may be challenging to discern, but in the words of George Macloskie, Princeton professor of biology and Presbyterian minister, “The St. Patrick of legend and superstition is not attractive, but the historical Patrick is a beautiful personage, whose memory should be revered by all Irishmen and by all Christians” (The Presbyterian and Reformed Review, Vol. 8, No. 8 (Apr. 1897), p. 330). A few of our Log College Press authors chime in with these further thoughts.

William D. Howard, A History of the Origin of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church (1872):

I would like to speak of Patrick, who was not, as many suppose, a Roman Catholic saint, but an earnest evangelical missionary, and his successful labors among the Druids of Ireland; and of his successors—Columba, Columbanus, and Gallus — who, long before Gregory the Great had, whilst yet an humble priest, seen the fair-faced Angles in the slave mart at Rome and, of course, long before as Pope he had sent Augustine as a missionary to Britain, had conveyed the Gospel to Scotland and England, Gaul and Germany, Switzerland and Lombardy.

William Craig Brownlee, Saint Patrick and the Western Apostolic Churches: or, The Religion of the Ancient Britains and Irish, not Roman Catholic: and The Antiquity, Tenents and Sufferings of the Albigenses and Waldenses (1857), p. 4:

It is proper to remark, in reference to his title of "Saint," that among primitive Christians, in the early ages, the word Saint seems to have been used, perhaps invariably, as our modern word Reverend. It expressed, at first, veneration for the real virtues of godly pastors; by degrees it became a general title of men in the sacred office. Hence Saint Ibar, the predecessor of Saint Patrick in Ireland; hence St. Cormic, and St. Columbkille. This title, in those apostolic times, was as different, in its use and design, from that of modern Popery, as the title of St. Paul is from the title of Judas.

The Saint Patrick of the primitive and ancient Irish Church is a totally different character from the Roman Catholic Irish Saint Padraig.

E.C. Murray, Presbyterianism: A Historical Sketch (1907), p. 10:

Do you know that Saint Patrick, whom the Irish Catholics worship as their patron saint, was really a Scotch Presbyterian missionary? In the fifth century he evangelized Ireland, organizing 365 churches and ordaining over them 365 bishops or pastors and 3,000 elders.

William M. Blackburn, Preface to Saint Patrick, and the Early Church of Ireland (1869):

No concession is made to superstition by giving the title of "saint" to the man whose name has become so popular, and, after fourteen hundred years, is still as fresh as the shamrock and green as the emerald. Without the title he would hardly be identified or seen in his distinctive character. A good gospel word was abused when Rome assumed to confer upon eminent Christians the honour of being saints, and limited the term to them. By the New Testament charter we may claim it for all true Christians, however humble or unknown.

T.V. Moore, The Culdee Church (1868), p. 36:

St. Patrick or Patricius, the son of a Scottish deacon of Roman blood, indeed a patrician, as his name indicates, was a very successful missionary in Ireland, but not the introducer of Christianity there.

Thomas Smyth, Presbytery and Not Prelacy: The Scriptural and Primitive Polity, Proved From the Testimonies of Scripture;... also, The Antiquity of Presbytery; Including an Account of the Ancient Culdees, and of St. Patrick (1843), 463:

Perhaps the true solution of the difficulties presented by the case of St. Patrick, is that adopted by Dr. Brownlee and others, that while the Romish saint, St. Patrick, or, as Butler has it, 'Padraig,' is a mere creature of the imagination, like many others in the calendar, and his whole history a fabrication, and an absurd and incredible legend, there was, nevertheless, a man named Succathers, born near Glasgow, at Kilpatrick, and a Roman citizen of noble family, and hence called Patricius, a nobleman, which was contracted into Patrick. That this Patrick did labor among the inhabitants of Ireland, and that he did much towards spreading Christianity in the country, we believe; but that he was ever at Rome, that he was related to St. Martin, that he was ordained bishop and afterwards archbishop by the pope, or that he introduced into Ireland the system of prelacy or popery, either as it regards church polity or doctrine, we do not believe. All this we regard as pure fiction, and based upon the contradictory fabrications of the inventors of such ready-made biographies.

In closing we would highlight these lines from a poetic tribute to the legacy of the true St. Patrick by Irish-American Reformed Presbyterian minister Boyd McCullough, The Shamrock; or, Erin Set Free. A Poem on the Conversion of the Irish From Paganism by Succat, or St. Patrick. And Other Poems (1882), p. 80:

This wisdom your auspicious hand
Bestowed on this benighted land.
The blessing crossed the Irish sea
And rendered Scotia Minor free;
Then passing southward o'er the Tweed
Bade every hill and dale, God speed.
The glory brightens as it flies,
Like morning's blush on April skies.
Even now your work God prospers well;
Its fruit the day of doom will tell.

The real St. Patrick, an eminent evangelical minister who spread the true gospel on the Emerald Isle, is worthy of great honor and respect, if not veneration, if you ask American Presbyterians.

Prayers of William S. Plumer

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For my own part, I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experience may await many others.

I believe that many who find that ‘nothing happens’ when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hands. – C.S. Lewis, “On the Reading of Old Books,” in Walter Hooper, ed., God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics (1970), p. 205

There is something remarkable in that classic 1867 volume of Christology by William S. Plumer titled The Rock of Our Salvation: A Treatise Respecting the Natures, Person, Offices, Work, Sufferings, and Glory of Jesus Christ. It is a stirring study of Christ in all his many glorious facets, and throughout this doctrinal treatise it is as if Plumer, while writing, was filled with prayerful utterances as he delves into the teaching of Christ for his readers. And his prayers are an example of what the study of God ought to lead us to do. For the theologian — or layman — when our minds are focused on Christ in all his glory, “the heart sings unbidden.”

The following prayers are extracted from the chapter on the divinity of Christ:

• Lord Jesus, thou God over all, thou Jehovah of hosts, be thou our Friend. Bless and help each one of us. Be unto us a horn of salvation (p. 23).

• O thou eternal Son of God, thou Father of eternity, remember that we are of yesterday and are crushed before the moth. Bring us, in the fulness of thy grace, to behold thy glory, which thou hadst with thy Father before the world was (p. 24).

• Blessed Saviour, who art everywhere present, preside in all our solemn assemblies, large and small. Walk thou in the midst of the golden candlesticks. Be thou unto us for a little sanctuary (p. 25).

• Blessed Saviour, we rejoice that thou art the same as when thou didst weep at the grave of Lazarus; as when thou didst pour salvation on the dying thief; as when, in ascending to glory, thou didst bless thy followers. We rejoice that thy state is changed and thy nature is immutable. Oh pity and bless us. Be unto us a sure foundation, a munition of rocks (p. 27).

• O thou which art, and which wast, and which art to come, the Almighty, cover us in the hollow of thy hand. If our hold on thee is feeble, let thy hold on us be the grasp of omnipotence. Go forth conquering and to conquer, till earth owns thee Lord of all (p. 28).

• Glorious Redeemer, we all were made by thee and for thee. We own thy perfect and sovereign right to us and over us. All we have and are, in soul or body, belongs to thee. Nor can any thing dissolve the ties that bind us to thee for ever (p. 29).

• Lord Jesus, who upholdest all things by the word of thy power, bear us up, bear us on, bear us through, giving us the victory over death, and hell, and all the powers of darkness (p. 30).

• Lord Jesus, who hast died the just for the unjust, set thy love on us, wash us from our sins in thy most precious blood, and make us kings and priests unto God (p. 31).

• Lord Jesus, spread the skirt of thy bloody garment over our souls, and grant us repentance and remission of sins, and we shall be saved (p. 32).

• Kind Redeemer, we cheerfully follow thee into the grave, in hope of a glorious resurrection. We would not live always. In the last day raise us up, and make our vile bodies like unto thy glorious body. Give us part in the first resurrection (p. 33).

• Lord Jesus, when thou comest in thy glory, with all thy holy angels, and the heavens shall flee away at thy presence, by thy mercy let us have boldness in the day of judgment (p. 34).

• Jesus, our Lord and our God, when thou shalt dissolve the frame of all sublunary things, remember and spare us according to the riches of thy grace in glory (p. 34).

• O thou Lamb of God, grant us this one favor — to worship thee with true devotion here below, and after this life to unite with the heavenly throng in ascribing to thee blessing, and honor, and power, and glory, and salvation (p. 37).

In the chapter on the Messiahship of Jesus, Plumer concludes with this prayer:

• O God, bring the children of Abraham to embrace Jesus Christ; and to us and to all that dwell in this land give hearts to receive thy Son, to believe on his name, to own him as our Saviour; so that all the blessings of the covenant of grace may come on us and overtake us; that we may be blessed in the city and in the field; that thy blessing may rest on the fruit of our body, and on the fruit of our ground, and the fruit of our cattle, and the increase of our kine, and the flocks of our sheep; that thy blessing may rest on our basket and on our store; that we may be blessed when we come in and blessed when we go out; and that thy who come out against us one way may flee before us seven ways. Oh that all the land and world may soon avouch the Lord Jehovah to be their God, his Son Jesus Christ to be their Saviour; his Holy Spirit to be their Sanctifier, Comforter and Guide; and unto the King eternal, immortal, and invisible, the only wise God our Saviour, be glory, and honor, dominion and power, now and for ever. Amen (pp. 98-99).

The following is Plumer’s prayer which concludes the chapter on Christ’s Glorious Reward:

• Holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts! The whole earth is full of thy glory. Blessed be the Lord for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath, and for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon, and for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills, and for the precious things of the earth, and the fulness thereof. Still more would we bless for the good will of Him that dwelt in the bush, and for thy precious loving-kindness, and for the precious seed of gospel truth, and for the precious promises, and for precious faith to believe thy word, and for the precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, and for the precious death of thy saints, and for the precious name of Jesus, which is as ointment poured forth, and for the precious blood of the Son of God, through whom we have redemption.

Look in mercy on this dark world. Remember Zion. Make Joseph a fruitful bough, whose branches run over the wall. Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion. Bring back the captivity of thy people, that Jacob may rejoice and Israel be glad. Thou hast set thy Son on thy holy hill of Zion. Righteousness is the girdle of his reins. Hasten the time when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a child shall lead them; and the cow and the bear shall feed, and their young ones lie down together, and the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the nations shall learn war no more, and thy ancient people the Jews and the fulness of the Gentiles shall be brough in; when the kingdoms of the world shall become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ; when the Lord shall call them his people which are not now his people; when the angel shall fly in the midst f heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.

Lord God of hosts, cut short the work in righteousness. Let the ploughman overtake the reaper, and let a nation be born in a day.

“Pity the nations, O our God;
Constrain the earth to come;
Send thy victorious word abroad;
And the strangers home.”

We are indeed asking great things, but we do it at thy command. We ask no more than thou hast promised to thy Son, and no more than he has purchased by his most precious blood, and no more than he himself intercedes for in heaven. Amen (pp. 437-439).

These prayers of Plumer may inspire you, as they do this writer, to give God the glory when we read a doctrinal book such as this. Who can study the doctrines of God and not be moved to praise Him who is marvelously worthy of all glory? May we too learn to pray like Plumer, as we study Biblical doctrine, whose thoughts of Christ led him to prayer and adoration.

Some Reflections by James W. Alexander on His Father

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Among the “Homiletical” and “Miscellaneous Paragraphs” found in James W. Alexander’s posthumously-published Thoughts on Preaching (1861), one may discern a number of interesting reflections on his father, Archibald Alexander. He had previously authored the standard biography of his father, The Life of Archibald Alexander, D.D. (1854). These reflections, however, were collected separately from James’ private journals by his brother, Samuel D. Alexander, in the preparation of Thoughts on Preaching, and they reveal the deep appreciation he had of father — his pastoral genius, his personal counsel and his spiritual gifts.

§ 7. On Composing Sermons. — Notes on Conversations with J.A.A. — My father says a man should not begin with making a plan. Should not wait until he is in the vein. Begin, however you feel; and write until you get into the vein — however long it be. 'Tis thus men do in mining. Yon may throw away all the beginnings. Men who write with ease think best pen in hand. This applies to sermons, and also to books. It might be well to write a sermon currente calamo, and then begin again and write afresh (not copying, or even looking at the other, but), using all the lights struck out in the former exercise [pp. 3-4].

More generally still, avoid all that brings the speaker's personality before the hearer. A better model than our honoured father, in this, there could not be [p. 25].

In delivery, learn to know when to dwell on a point; let the enlargement be, not where you determined in your closet it should be; but where you feel the spring flowing as you speak — let it gush. Let contemplation have place while you speak.

For this, pauses are all important. Thus Rob. Hall preached. Thus my beloved honoured father, above all men I ever heard; his eye kindled, his face was radiant; he forgot the people; and as he was rapt in contemplation, he thought aloud.

…The best written discourse of my father is no more to his best preaching, than a black candle is to a burning flame [pp. 28-29].

I perceive my father was right, when he advised me to write my first draught current calamo, without any plan, with absolute abandon; giving free scope in every direction whenever a vein was struck, and reserving the particulars for the copy [p. 30].

§ 66. My Father. — My dear and honoured father has some excellencies as a writer, which I did not value at a proper rate when I was younger. He goes always for the thought rather than the word; and is never led along by the bait of fine language or the course of figures. I am led to think that a man must early in life make his election between these two kinds of writing, and that I have fallen into the inferior one: though I am regarded among my friends as a simple writer.

Another remarkable quality of my father, is his going for truth and reason, rather than for authority. This is the more remarkable, as he has been one of the greatest and most miscellaneous readers I ever knew; has had the most extensive knowledge of books, and the most wonderful memory of their contents, so that I have often known him to give a clear account of works which he had not seen for forty years; and yet how seldom does he make citation! The train of his thoughts is all his own, with a thorough digestion in his own mind, and reference of all things to their principles. Hence he is original in the best sense; which superficial readers would not admit, because his style had no salient points, or overbold expressions.

I attribute this in some degree to the fact that almost every day of his life, known to me, it was his habit to sit alone, in silence, generally in the twilight, or musing over the fire, in deep and seemingly pleasurable thought. At such times he was doubtless maturing those trains of reasoning, which he brought out in his discourses; and this may account for his extraordinary readiness at almost any time, to rise in extemporaneous address [p. 55].

Dr. [John M.] Mason used to say that all his theology was from [John] Owen on the Hebrews, and my father often remarked, that with all Owen’s power, erudition, and originality, he never deviated in his theology into any thing eccentric or hazardous [p. 501].

My father used to say one should read “Owen’s Spiritual Mindedness” once a year. I add his “Forgiveness of Sin;” and his “Mortification of Sin” [p. 502]

My father used to say to me: Think long and deeply on your subject, and as if nobody had ever investigated it before. I did not then know what he meant. One of the chief uses of writing sermons is, that it keeps one a-thinking. Then pen seems to recall the thoughts. Some cannot think without it; which is bad — very bad. This is all a matter of habit. The greatest other use of writing is, that the matter is preserved. For I will not include correctness, and polish of style, &c., which can be fully obtained by the other method [p. 514].

One can picture the father and the son, the mentor and the pupil, at the fireside, sharing contemplative moments, or wisdom acquired from experience. It is mentioned more than once in James’ biography of his father how students would learn from the teacher at the fireside and in his study. These personal recollections and reflections speak volumes about both men, and of lessons learned by the son. We are grateful for the fact that these private journal entries were collected and published after the author’s passing. These fireside reflections from the pen of Archibald Alexander’s son shine brilliantly indeed.

The Day Old Princeton Died

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In evaluating the history of that great institution known as Princeton Theological Seminary, many would consider that “she” died in 1929 when the seminary was reorganized on modernist terms. But in a letter to his mother dated February 20, 1921, J.G. Machen wrote these sad words (quoted in Ned B. Stone, J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir (1954), p. 310):

Dr.Warfield's funeral took place yesterday afternoon at the First Church of Princeton . . . It seemed to me that the old Princeton — a great institution it was — died when Dr. Warfield was carried out.

B.B. Warfield, the great defender of historic Protestant orthodoxy, who carried that banner for Old Princeton, entered into glory on February 16, 1921.

Born near Lexington, Kentucky on November 5, 1851, Warfield completed his undergraduate studies at the College of New Jersey at Princeton, and then, after a tour of Europe, embarked on theological studies at the seminary in Princeton. He graduated from the seminary in 1876, and then, after a period of transition, he was ordained to the ministry in 1879, and in 1880, he was inaugurated as a professor at Western Theological Seminary in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh). Eight years later, in 1888, he was inaugurated as Professor of Didactic and Polemic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, succeeding both Charles and A.A. Hodge, and he remained at Princeton for the next four decades of his life, contributing to the cause of Christ as an outstanding theologian, a remarkable teacher, and a prolific author.

He was stricken by a first heart attack on December 24, 1920 while walking in front of the home of Geerhardus Vos, which was witnessed by his son, J.G. Vos (this account came from J.G. Vos to R.C. Sproul and was repeated in the April 2005 issue of Tabletalk Magazine, although the account repeated there makes it seem as if the event was the fatal heart attack, which did not happen until February 16, 1921).

William Childs Robinson was a student in Warfield’s class on that day in February (his recollection too fudged a detail but it is worth repeating here [see his 1974 review of Warfield’s The Lord of Glory titled Warfield’s Witness to Christ]):

I was in the class he taught on Feb. 17, 1921, the day of his death. In an exposition of I John 3:16, he pointed out that for Christ to lay down His life was great, but the stupendous thing was that He — being all that He was and is, the Lord of glory — laid down His life for us, mere creatures of His hand, guilty rebels against our gracious Maker.

Up until his final hours, B.B. Warfield testified of Christ our Lord, and that, we may rightly conclude, was the true banner and testimony of Old Princeton. Warfield’s personal witness to Christ was so powerful and outstanding, and the dramatic spiritual downfall of the institution that he loved which followed soon after was so much the opposite of Warfield’s own testimony, that it seems Machen was right — when Warfield died and was laid to rest in the Princeton Cemetery, Old Princeton itself indeed died that day.

Not "Super Bowl Sunday," But the Lord's Day, or the Christian Sabbath

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What the world refers to as “Super Bowl Sunday” is not a designation that would have been countenanced by most 19th century Presbyterians. American football began in 1869, while professional football dates to 1920. So, of course, there was no Super Bowl around until well into the 20th century, but the issues of recreation, secularism and commercialism intruding into the Lord’s Day were well-known and widely addressed by Christians in the past.

American Presbyterians, who held to the understanding of the Fourth Commandment articulated in the Westminster Standards, believed that the whole day — that is, the first day of the week — should be devoted to the worship of God, which involves works of piety, necessity and mercy— to the exclusion of “worldly employments and recreations” (Westminster Confession of Faith 21:6-7).

That understanding is important to today’s article, but even beyond that, when considering what is widely known today as “Super Bowl Sunday,” besides the question of the lawfulness of attending to such recreation, another point of discussion centers on the terminology involved.

If words mean something — think of the words homoousios (“of the same substance” or “of the same essence”) and homoiousios (“of like essence”) and their meaning in the context of the great Arian controversy of the 4th century AD — then as Christians who are to take “into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5), we may wish to consider the voices of those in the past who have argued that the term “Sunday” is not a desirable or Biblical designation for the first day of week, much less “Super Bowl Sunday.”

First, let us hear Samuel Miller, the great defender of historic Presbyterianism from Princeton, who authored an 1836 article titled “The Most Suitable Name For the Christian Sabbath.” After addressing the objection of Quakers to the word “Sunday” (they believed the fourth commandment was abrogated and preferred to use the phrase “the first day of the week”), Miller turned his attention to the pagan origin of the term “Sunday.” After discussion of the history of the Christian observance of the first day of the week and its relationship to the Jewish Sabbath and the pagan Sunday, Miller sums up his position in a few succinct paragraphs:

We are now prepared to answer the question, “What name ought to be given to this weekly season of sacred rest, by us, at the present day?”

Sunday, we think, is not the most suitable name. It is, confessedly, of Pagan origin. This, however, alone, would not be sufficient to support our opinion. All the other days of the week are equally Pagan, and we are not prepared to plead any conscientious scruples about their use. Still it seems to be in itself desirable that not only a significant, but a scriptural name should be attached to that day which is divinely appointed; which is so important for keeping religion alive in our world; and which holds so conspicuous a place in the language of the Church of God. Besides, we have seen that the early Christians preferred a scriptural name, and seldom or never used the title of Sunday, excepting when they were addressing the heathen, who knew the day by no other name. For these reasons we regret that the name Sunday has ever obtained so much currency in the nomenclature of Christians, and would discourage its popular use as far as possible.

The Lord’s day, is a title which we would greatly prefer to every other. It is a name expressly given to the day by an inspired apostle. It is more expressive than any other title of its divine appointment; of the Lord’s propriety in it; and of its reference to his resurrection, his triumph, and the glory of his kingdom. And, what is in no small degree interesting, we know that this was the favourite title of early Christians; the title which has been habitually used, for a number of centuries, by the great majority both of the Romish and Protestant communions. Would that its restoration to the Christian Church, and to all Christian intercourse, could be universal!

The Sabbath, is the last title of which we shall speak. The objections made to this title by the early Christians no longer exist. We are no longer in danger of confounding the observance of the first day of the week with that of the seventh. Nor are we any longer in danger of being carried away by a fondness for Jewish rigour, in our plan for its sanctification. The fourth commandment still makes a part of the Decalogue. We teach it to our children as a rule still in force. It requires nothing austere, punctilious, or excessive; only that we, and all “within our gates,” abstain from servile labour, and consider the day as “hallowed,” or devoted to God. Whoever scrutinizes its contents will find no requisition in which all Christians are not substantially agreed; and no reason assigned for its observance which does not apply to Gentiles as well as Jews. As the first sabbath was so named as a memorial of God’s “rest” from the work of creation; so we may consider the Christian Sabbath as a memorial of the Saviour’s rest (if the expression may be allowed) from the labours, the sufferings, and the humiliation of the work of redemption. And, what is no less interesting, the apostle, in writing to the Hebrews, considers the Sabbath as an emblem and memorial of that eternal Sabbatism, or “rest which remaineth for the people of God.” Surely the name is a most appropriate and endeared one when we regard it in this connection! Surely when we bring this name to the test of either philological or theological principles, it is as suitable now, as it could have been under the old dispensation.

We have said, that we prefer “the Lord’s day” to any other title. We are aware, that this can never be the name employed by the mass of the community. There is something about this title which will forever prevent it from being familiar on the popular lip. The title “the Sabbath” is connected with no such difficulty. It is scriptural, expressive, convenient, the term employed in a commandment which is weekly repeated by millions, and so far familiar to all who live in Christian lands, that no consideration occurs why it may not become universal. “The Lord’s day” may, and, perhaps, ought ever to be, the language of the pulpit, and of all public or social religious exercises; meanwhile, if the phrase “the Sabbath” could be generally naturalized in worldly circles, and in common parlance, it would be gaining a desirable object.

A later Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanter) minister, Thomas M. Slater, covered much of the same ground in a tract titled “Nicknaming the Sabbath: A Protest Against Using Other Than Scriptural Names For the Lord's Day.” He too addressed the pagan nature of the term “Sunday” and argues that its usage is an affront to the Lord who set his name upon the first day of the week. For Slater, too, there was significance in the choice of terminology which ought not to be overlooked.

We grant that many sincere Christians have always called the Lord's day “Sunday,” not because they deliberately adopted that name for the Sabbath, but because they have always heard it so called, and never knew any serious objection to its use. But if such persons will reflect that “Sunday” is not the name by which God calls His day; that we have been given no authority to set aside His prescription; that this nickname originated among the foes of the Lord's day; that it was not adopted by Christians at all until pagan ideals invaded Christianity; that it has always been repudiated by a witnessing remnant of the friends of the Sabbath; and been favored by advocates of a secular day -- if a Christian who has a sincere desire to please God candidly weighs all that “Sunday” stands for, over against that all that the Scriptural names stand for, he will without question choose to call the Holy Day by its holy name, to the exclusion of all others. For “speech is the correlate of thought.”

Slater, like Miller, in the vein of Puritans before them who were sometimes known derisively as “Precisionists,” argued for expressions of thought grounded in Biblical principle, especially in a matter which Presbyterians of an earlier time viewed the importance of the Sabbath in its relation to both to the church and to civil society. It was not long before the first “Super Bowl Sunday” was held in 1967 that the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) issued this relevant warning:

Let us beware brethren: As goes the Sabbath, so goes the church, as goes the church, so goes the nation [emphasis added]. Any people who neglect the duties and privileges of the Sabbath day soon lose the knowledge of true religion and become pagan. If men refuse to retain God in their knowledge; God declares that He will give them over to a reprobate mind. Both history and experience confirm this truth” (Minutes of the Sixty-First General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, A.D. 1948, p. 183).

If words really have particular meaning, we would do well to consider the counsel of these voices from the past and take a counter-cultural approach to our choice of terminology as it pertains to the holy day of God’s appointment. The religious devotion of many to “Super Bowl Sunday” does not go unnoticed. Can it be said of Christians that the “Lord’s Day” or the “Christian Sabbath” speaks to their devotion in equally apropos terms?

John Witherspoon Was Born 300 Years Ago

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One of the great leaders of the early American Presbyterian church, John Witherspoon, was born 300 years ago, on February 5, 1723. We remember him as a minister, a President of the College of New Jersey (Princeton), a Founding Father of the United States of America, and as moderator of the first General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA).

Witherspoon was born in the village of Gifford, Scotland, where John Knox was also born two centuries before. He went on to attend the Haddington Grammar School, and later graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a Master of Arts in 1739, where he continued his studies in theology. He received an honorary doctoral degree in divinity from the University of St. Andrews in 1764. He ministered in Beith, Ayrshire (1745–1758), where he married Elizabeth Montgomery (they had ten children, with five surviving to adulthood), and at the Laigh Kirk, Paisley (1758-1768).

After declining the first invitation in 1766, Witherspoon accepted the second invitation to serve as President of the College of New Jersey in 1768. Already well-respected as a theologian and author on this side of the pond, Witherspoon became an important voice in American ecclesiastical affairs, and in the political realm as well.

He taught moral philosophy and other subjects at Princeton. He helped to organize the Nassau Presbyterian Church there, and he served in the Continental Congress as a delegate from New Jersey, and as chaplain, and signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. He preached a famous fast-day sermon called The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men (1776), which includes these memorable words:

If your cause is just, you may look with confidence to the Lord, and intreat him to plead it as his own. You are all my witnesses, that this is the first time of my introducing any political subject into the pulpit. At this season, however, it is not only lawful but necessary, and I willingly embrace the opportunity of declaring my opinion without any hesitation, that the cause in which America is now in arms, is the cause of justice, of liberty, and of human nature. So far as we have hitherto proceeded, I am satisfied that the confederacy of the colonies has not been the effect of pride, resentment, or sedition, but of a deep and general conviction that our civil and religious liberties, and consequently in a great measure the temporal and eternal happiness of us and our posterity, depended on the issue. The knowledge of God and his truths have from the beginning of the world been chiefly, if not entirely confined to those parts of the earth where some degree of liberty and political justice were to be seen, and great were the difficulties with which they had to struggle, from the imperfection of human society, and the unjust decisions of unsurped authority. There is not a single instance in history, in which civil liberty was lost, and religious liberty preserved entire. If therefore we yield up our temporal property, we at the same time deliver the conscience into bondage.

In his later years, Witherspoon married for a second time and had two more children. He was elected as the moderator of the PCUSA General Assembly in 1789. He wrote the preface to the 1791 Isaac Collins Bible, the first family Bible published in America. He died at his farm Tusculum, just outside Princeton, in 1794, and was laid to rest at Princeton Cemetery.

Statues have been sculpted in his honor on both sides of the Atlantic and may be found in Washington, D.C., at Princeton University, at the University of the West of Scotland in Paisley, and at the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia. Witherspoon is remembered today as a man whose ideals included personal piety, ecclesiastical purity, and civil liberty, and who left his mark on the course of American and Presbyterian history. We honor him today as a man who contributed much to the shaping of the Presbyterian church, and whose legacy has left its mark on the whole world for good.

Matthew Anderson's Rules For Success in the Ministry

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Matthew Anderson was born on this day in history, January 25, 1845, in Greencastle, Pennsylvania. A fifth-generation Presbyterian raised in a devout Christian home and taught the catechism. Determined to succeed in his education in order to best serve the Lord, Anderson studied at Oberlin College in Ohio, graduating there in 1874. He began his preparation for the ministry at Western Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh before transferring to the Princeton Theological Seminary, where, after his arrival, he first mistaken as a manual laborer, rather than a student. Anderson graduated in 1877, becoming one of the first African-American students to live on campus and graduate from the seminary at Princeton.

He went to lead a very successful ministry at the Berean Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, where he also founded the Berean Savings Association and the Berean Institute to help African-Americans learn job skills and achieve financial success.

In his autobiographical Presbyterianism: Its Relation to the Negro (1897), pp. 186-188, Anderson is careful to ascribe all of his success in the ministry to the good hand of God upon him, and to certain rules that he followed in his pastoral career. Here is the list of rules that guided Matthew Anderson’s ministry:

First. Never to undertake anything without first having studied it in all its different phases, with the Spirit's guidance, and after seeing it in all its relations, and there be given a reasonable assurance of success to undertake it.

Second. After having carefully considered the subject and convinced that the work in question should be undertaken, not to allow any adverse influences whatever to divert us from our purpose.

Third. In presenting the work to others, never exaggerate it with the hope of gaining friends, or money, to assist in carrying it on, but to show it in its true light, even though the truth for the time being would tend to prejudice against the work.

Fourth. When convinced that the work is needed, and that it is the will of Providence that we should undertake it, to make use of all the means at our command temporal, intellectual and spiritual, to secure its success.

Fifth. In all our labors to keep clearly before us not only the present, but the future wants of the people and to work accordingly, even though the people themselves do not see that they are needing such work.

Sixth. That we be guided and regulated by the great and immortal principles of divine truth, rather than by sentiment, which knows no creed, race or color, and which regards all men alike redeemed by one common Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. That while by the accidents of birth and the unholy sentiment of the country, our labors are confined principally to the people of the colored race, we should nevertheless regard ourselves, ministers of Christ, as embracing a wider sphere of labor, since in God's sight there is neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free, but all related by ties of consanguinity, having sprung from common parents.

Seventh. That we ever hold sacred the great cardinal truths of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, and make them the guiding star of our life work in all of our dealings toward our fellowmen.

Eighth. That we be perfectly frank and honest in all our work, never to misrepresent it for the sake of gain, take advantage of the ignorant, but at all times try and carry out the principles of the golden rule.

Ninth. That we fear no man, nor call any man master, but be kindly affectioned towards all men, and under no circumstances to allow an insult to pass unresented which was intended to belittle our manhood, not because of ourselves personally, but because of the race with which we are identified, and which to stigmatize would be the real object of the insult.

Tenth. That we listen to the criticisms and advice of friends, and acknowledge our failures and faults, and be ever ready to apologize to others for injuries done them by us.

These ten rules, though unwritten, embrace the principles which have regulated us in all our work up to the present time, and to which we attribute whatever success may have attended our labors.

In this list, we see a man careful to seek God’s leading, scrupulous to avoid or properly respond to personal conflicts or racial prejudice that would tend to undermine his ministry, and deeply impressed by the value of following the Golden Rule in all his actions and words. Though his social situation is not exactly that of Philadelphia in the 21st century, there is much to be learned from his approach to the pastoral ministry today. Great things can be accomplished for God by first walking in humble reliance upon His Spirit. We thus remember Matthew Anderson, born on this day in history 178 years ago.

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J.R. Miller: A Lesson to be Learned from Hellen Keller

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Helen Keller is an inspirational figure in history because of her remarkable achievements despite extraordinary handicaps. With the patient instruction of her teacher, Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller was able to overcome tremendous obstacles. Keller was religious (and counted among her friends the famous Presbyterian minister Henry Jackson Van Dyke, Jr.), but not in the orthodox sense; in her book, My Religion (1927), she claimed to be a Swedenborgian. However, despite that theological perspective, one cannot consider her remarkable life without an appreciation for her amazing story.

J.R. Miller, in his chapter on “Courage to Live Nobly,”* writes of a lesson that can be gleaned from the life of Helen Keller.

Some of us are dimly aware of the great possibilities in us, yet lack the energy and the earnestness necessary to release our imprisoned faculties and give them wing. One of the most wonderful stories of the conquest of difficulty is that of Helen Keller. She was blind, she was deaf, she could not speak. Her soul was hidden away in an impenetrable darkness. Yet she has overcome all these seemingly invincible obstacles and barriers and now stands in the ranks of intelligence and scholarship. We have a glimpse of what goes on in her brave soul in such words as these: “Sometimes, it is true, a sense of isolation enfolds me like a cold mist as I sit alone and wait at life’s shut gate. Beyond, there is life and music and sweet companionship; but I may not enter. Fate, silent, pitiless, bars the way. Fain would I question His imperious decree; for my heart is still undisciplined and passionate; but my tongue will not utter the bitter, futile words that rise to my lips, and they fall back into my heart like unshed tears. Silence sits immense on my soul. Then comes hope with a smile and whispers, ‘There is joy in self-forgetfulness.’ So I try to make the light in others’ eyes my sun, the music in others’ ears my symphony, the smile on others’ lips my happiness.”

Helen Keller, in one little sentence that she has written, discloses the secret of all that she has achieved and attained. This resolve, she herself says, has been the keynote of her life. “I resolved to regard as mere impertinences of fate the handicaps which were placed about my life almost at the beginning. I resolved that they should not dwarf my soul, but, rather, should be made to blossom, like Aaron’s rod that budded.”

Some of us, with no such hindrances, with no such walls and barriers imprisoning our being, with almost nothing in the way of the full development of our powers, with everything favorable thereto, have scarcely found our souls. We have eyes, but we see not the glory of God about us and above us. We have ears, but we hear not the music of divine love which sings all round us. It may not always be easy for us to learn to know the blessed things of God which fill all the world. But if we had half the eagerness that Helen Keller has shown in overcoming hindrances, half the energy, think how far we would be advanced to-day! We would then regard as mere impertinences of fate the handicaps which are about us, making it hard for us to reach out and find the best things of life. We would not allow our souls to be dwarfed by any hindrances, but would struggle on until we are free from all shackles and restraints, and until we have grown into the full beauty of Christ.

Sometimes young people are heard complaining of their condition or circumstances as excuse for their making so little of their lives. Because they are poor, and no rich friend gives them money to help them, or because they have some physical infirmity or hindrance, or because they have not had good early advantages, they give up and submit to stay where they are. The story of Helen Keller should shame all such yielding to the small inconveniences and obstacles that best young people in ordinary conditions. They should regard their limitations and hindrances as only impertinences, to be bravely set aside by undismayed and unconquerable energy, or rather, as barriers set not to obstruct the way but to nerve and stimulate them to heroic endeavor before which all obstacles will vanish.

* J.R. Miller, When the Song Begins (1905), pp. 192-195; J.R. Miller, The Blossom of Thorns (1905), pp. 192-195

May this meditation for the day bring inspiration to consider how we may persevere in the face of obstacles in the strength of Christ to overcome, and to see more than we did before, and hear more than we can now, and to speak and do more to the praise of God.

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What's New at Log College Press? - January 10, 2023

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With the arrival of a New Year, we at Log College Press are continuing to expand the number of resources available to our readers. Last month, in December 2022, we added 524 new works to the site. We have close to 18,000 free works available at LCP.

This week we are highlighting some of the new free PDFs available as found on our Recent Additions and Early Access pages, two features provided to members of the Dead Presbyterians Society.

Some highlights at the Early Access page:

• James Benjamin Green, A Harmony of the Westminster Presbyterian Standards (1951); and The Distinctive Teachings of Presbyterianism (1936, 1959);

• John Murray (1742-1793), Jerubbaal, or Tyranny's Grove Destroyed, and the Altar of Liberty Finished: A Discourse on America's Duty and Danger, Delivered at the Presbyterian Church in Newbury-Port, December 11, 1783. On Occasion of the Public Thanksgiving for Peace (1784); and Grace and Glory: or, Heaven Given Only to Saints: a Sermon Preached at the Presbyterian Church in Newbury-Port, Jan 26, 1788, Occasioned by the Death of Mr. Ralph Cross on the 4th of that Month, Aetat 82 (1788);

• Jonathan Parsons, Wisdom Justified of her Children: A Sermon Preached at the Publick Lecture in Boston, on Thursday, September 16, 1742 (1742); and Account of the Revival of Religion in the West Parish of Lyme in Connecticut (1744);

• articles from The Presbyterian Standard concerning the debate between psalmody and hymnody by John Thomas Chalmers [Why the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church Adheres to the Exclusive Use of the Inspired Psalter in the Worship of God (1900)]; and Alexander Jeffrey McKelway [Dr. Chalmers’ Failure (1900)];

• and more by Francis James Grimké, some of which were contributed by a helpful reader: Colored Men as Professors in Colored Institutions (1885); Mr. Moody and the Color Question in the South (1886); The Defects of Our Ministry, and the Remedy (1886); The Secret of Power in the Pulpit (1887); The Pulpit in Relation to Race Elevation (1887); The Negro Will Never Acquiesce as Long as He Lives (1898); The Roosevelt-Washington Episode; or, Race Prejudice (1901); and The Second Marriage of Frederick Douglass (1934).

Some highlights at the Recent Addtiions page:

• Articles by John Williamson Nevin and Philip Schaff from the Mercersburg Review;

• articles by William Childs Robinson from The Southern Presbyterian Journal [including the articles that make up his exposition of The Shorter Catechism (1949-1950) and The Ten Commandments According to the Shorter Catechism (1951)];

• articles by John Alexander Mackay from The Princeton Seminary Bulletin;

• articles by Robert Magee Downie and Richard Cameron Wylie from The Christian Statesman;

• articles by Charles Henry Parkhurst and Henry Jackson Van Dyke, Jr. from the New York Observer;

• articles by Cleland Boyd McAfee from The Continent;

• articles by Francis James Grimké from The Southern Workman;

• articles by William Maxwell Blackburn from The Sabbath at Home;

• articles by William Armstrong Dod from The Biblical Repertory and Princeton Review and The Mercersburg Review on church architecture;

• sermons by Robert Hamilton Bishop from The American National Preacher;

• Compilations, The Alexander Memorial (1879); and much more.

Also, be sure also to check out the quotes we have been adding at our blog for DPS members: Though Dead They Still Speak, including William M. Blackburn on a Sixth Point of Calvinism; A.A. Hodge on the Change of the Sabbath Day; John B. Adger on the Limits of Church Authority; Philip Lindsley on the Key to Improvement of Time; J.R. Miller on Consecration of Will; Thomas De Witt Talmage on the Christian Way of Measuring Life; Francis J. Grimké on How to Approach the New Year; William H. McGuffey, who argues that the Christian Religion is America's Religion; and T.V. Moore on The Oldest Seminary is the Family Fireside.

We appreciate hearing from our readers if they find matters needing correction, or if they have questions about authors or works on the site, or if they have suggestions for additions to the site. Your feedback helps the experience of other readers as well.

Meanwhile, please feel free to browse the many resources available to our readers in print and in digital format. The New Year is a great time to explore the many Presbyterian voices from the past. Thank you, as always, for your interest and support, dear friends, and we wish you all the very best in 2023!

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Eyewitnesses to History

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One fascinating feature found within the writings of early American Presbyterians is the window some authors have given us to key moments in history. Amidst the doctrinal and devotional literature are records and observations, speeches, sermons, diary entries, letters and more that tell future generations, including ours, what it is like to be present at some of the most momentous historical events in the annals of America and the world.

• One of the earliest Presbyterians in America was Alexander Whitaker, a chaplain who arrived at the Jamestown colony in Virginia in 1611, and who ministered to the Indian princess Pocahontas. He reported in a June 18, 1614 letter to his cousin William Gouge, later a Westminster Divine, concerning both her conversion to Christianity and her marriage to John Rolfe: “But that which is best, one Pocahuntas or what Matoa the daughter of Powhatan, is married to an honest and discreete English Gentleman Master Rolfe, and that after she had openly renounced her Country Idolatry, professed the faith of Jesus Christ, and was baptised; which thing Sir Thomas Dale had laboured a long time to ground in her.”

This portrait of The Baptism of Pocahontas by John Gadsby Chapman (1840), which shows Alexander Whitaker administering the sacrament, hangs in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol Building, Washington, District of Columbia.

• Reportedly, among the 56 signers of the U.S. Declaration of Independence at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, twelve were Presbyterians, including Richard Stockton and John Witherspoon, the only clergyman present. Witherspoon also had a hand at another historical moment - the signing of the Articles of Confederation.

Signature of John Witherspoon on the 1776 U.S. Declaration of Independence (Witherspoon signed it on August 2, 1776).

Signature of John Witherspoon on the 1781 Articles of Confederation (New Jersey delegates signed the document on November 26, 1778).

• Samuel Miller (then known as “Sammy”) was a young witness to history having been present at the State House in Philadelphia (Independence Hall) at the time of the 1787 Constitutional Convention. He watched as George Washington, and many other founding fathers, some of whom were friends of his father, John Miller, entered and departed while the work of preparing the US Constitution was going on. He was also a student at the University of Pennsylvania in 1789 while the first General Assembly of the PCUSA was meeting and working to revise the standards of the church. Miller’s friend — and later, colleague — John Rodgers played an important role at that Assembly (Miller was Rodgers’ biographer). He also developed close ties at this time to Ashbel Green, whose advice and counsel to young Miller would prove important as he entered upon his theological studies.

Junius Brutus Steams, Washington as Statesman at the Constitutional Convention (1856)

• One of the most amazing meteor showers recorded in history took place in during the night and early morning of November 12-13, 1833. There were many who witnessed the Leonid meteor storm in which between 50,000 and 150,000 meteors fell each hour, one of whom was David Talmage, the father of Thomas De Witt Talmage, who later told his father’s story in a sermon.

Engraving of the 1833 Leonid Meteor Shower by Adolf Vollmy (1889), based on the painting by Karl Jauslin.

• Albert Williams, who founded the First Presbyterian Church of San Francisco, California, wrote about the series of fires that plagued the city in 1851 in A Pioneer Pastorate (1879): “So frequent and periodical were these fires, that they came to be regarded in the light of permanent institutions. Fears of a recurrence of the dread evil, in view of the past, were not long in waiting for fulfilment. On the anniversary of the fire of the 4th of May, 1850, came another on the 4th of May, 1851, the fifth general fire. The city was appalled by these repeated calamities. And more, it began to be a confirmed conviction that they were not accidental, but incendiary. On the 22d of June, 1851, the sixth, and, happily the last general fire, and severest of all, occurred. The fact that the point of the beginning of this fire was in a locality quite destitute of water facilities, with other attending circumstances, left hardly a remaining doubt of its incendiary character.”

Depiction of the June 22, 1851 San Francisco Fire.

• The summer of 1855 was devastating to the city of Norfolk, Virginia. George D. Armstrong, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, endured the epidemic of yellow fever that decimated the city. He stayed during the outbreak to minister to the sick, often serving them for over 15 hours per day, but lost his wife, one daughter, a nephew and a sister-in-law to the disease. He wrote The Summer of the Pestilence: A History of the Ravages of the Yellow Fever in Norfolk, Virginia (1856).

Market Square, Norfolk, Virginia.

• The War Between the States saw Presbyterians on both sides of the conflict. Robert L. Dabney, Stonewall Jackson’s chief of staff and biographer, wrote What I Saw of the Battle of Chickahominy (1872) concerning the June 27, 1862 conflict also known as the Battle of Gaines' Mill in Hanover County, Virginia. Later that year, on the same day as the Battle of Antietam (or Sharpsburg, Maryland) [September 17, 1862], a terrible tragedy took place in at the Allegheny Arsenal in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania, now a neighborhood in Pittsburgh. Three consecutive explosions rocked the facility and 78 people were killed along with 150 injured, making it the worst civilian and industrial accident of the war. Presbyterian minister Richard Lea was at his church one block away, who immediately rushed over to render aid. Eleven days later, he preached a Sermon Commemorative of the Great Explosion at the Allegheny Arsenal. Before the war ended, Henry Highland Garnet made history in Washington, D.C. by becoming the first African-American to address the House of Representatives on February 12, 1865. His sermon called for the death of slavery and freedom for all American citizens.

Henry Highland Garnet preaching to Congress.

Thomas De Witt Talmage had a very successful ministry at the Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York. But the congregation was challenged by the occasions when their building was destroyed by fire, not once, but three times — in 1872, 1889, and 1894. After the third conflagration, Talmage retired from that pastorate. As he began a trip around the world, he wrote to his friends: “Our church has again been halted by a sword of flame. The destruction of the first Brooklyn Tabernacle was a mystery. The destruction of the second a greater profound. This third calamity we adjourn to the Judgment Day for explanation. The home of a vast multitude of souls, it has become a heap of ashes. Whether it will ever rise again is a prophecy we will not undertake. God rules and reigns and makes no mistake. He has his way with churches as with individuals. One thing is certain; the pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle will continue to preach as long as life and health last. We have no anxieties about a place to preach in. But woe is unto us if we preach not the Gospel! We ask for the prayers of all good people for the pastor and people of Brooklyn Tabernacle.”

Brooklyn Tabernacle after the fire.

• On May 31, 1889, after days of heavy rain, the South Fork Dam upstream of Johnstown, Pennsylvania burst leading to the deaths of over 2,000 people. David J. Beale was one of the survivors and his account of the tragedy is gripping: Through the Johnstown Flood (1890).

Debris from the Johnstown Flood.

• At 5:12 am local time on April 18, 1906, the city of San Francisco was rocked by one of the deadliest earthquakes ever to strike the United States. Over 3,000 people were killed and 80% of the city was destroyed. Among those affected were the Chinese girls who were being cared for at the Occidental Board of Foreign Missions after having been rescued from involuntary servitude. Superintendent Donaldina Cameron was able to, shepherd those girls to the premises of the San Francisco Theological Seminary after the earthquake. Edward A. Wicher, a professor at the seminary, wrote an appeal for emergency funds to help the suffering, which Cameron co-signed. Cameron later wrote of the blessings that God wrought in the midst of that tragedy: “‘As the night brings out the stars’ so through the shadow of disaster there shines for the Chinese Rescue Home the unfailing light of God's love and peace, and we are happy.”

The Occidental Board of Foreign Missions Headquarters after the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.

• From 1915 to 1917, approximately 1 million Armenians were slaughtered by Ottoman forces. The Armenian Genocide was documented in part by American missionaries, such as as William Ambrose Shedd and his wife Mary Lewis Shedd, Mary A. Schauffler Labaree Platt, author of The War Journal of a Missionary in Persia (1915), and Frederick G. Coan, author of Yesterdays in Persia and Kurdistan (1939). Rev. Shedd: “It lies with us to see that the blood shed and the suffering endured are not in vain. May God grant and may we who know so well the wrongs that have been borne, so labor that the cause of these wrongs be removed. That will be done when Christ rules in the hearts of those who profess His name and is acknowledged by all, not merely as a great prophet but as the Saviour for Whose coming prophecy prepared the way, Who is the fulfillment of revelation, and in Whom human destiny will find its goal.”

Ottoman troops guard Armenians being deported. Ottoman Empire, 1915-1916.

• Wilson P. Mills was an American missionary who served also in a diplomatic capacity during the 1937-1938 “Rape of Nanjing,” a massacre by Japanese soldiers that resulted in the deaths of somewhere between 40,000-300,000 civilians in occupied Nanjing, China. His efforts to help arrange a truce are described in letters to his wife dated January 22/24 and January 31, 1938. The story of his eyewitness account of the Japanese occupation of the city and the reign of terror that existed is told sequentially in letters from January to March 1938. For his role in protecting the 250,000 citizens of the Nanjing Safety Zone, Mills received the Order of the Green Jade, the highest honor given to Westerners by the Chinese government.

Scene from the Nanjing Massacre.

Examples of eyewitnesses to history among American Presbyterian could be greatly multiplied. So many of them have left us a valuable record of some of the most momentous events in our history, “all [of which] have a common place in the great scheme of Providence” (Henry A. Boardman, God's Providence in Accidents (1855).

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