In the twilight of his life, Benjamin Morgan Palmer (1818-1902) was asked to give a sermon marking not only the beginning of a new year, but a new century as well. At his Presbyterian church in New Orleans, on January 1, 1901, he gave what has become known as the "Century Sermon." In it, he reminds his listeners of God's providential workings through history up until the present day, and ponders the future ahead as it lays in God's hands. While much has happened in the last century that Palmer perhaps could not have imagined, his faith in the Lord of history ought to be our faith. We can learn much from a step back in time to listen to a 19th century Presbyterian pastor's words at the cusp of the 20th century.
Happy New Year from all of us at Log College Press, and blessings upon you and yours!
Have You Read Samuel Davies' New Year's Sermons?
Samuel Davies (1723-1761), who was only 37 years old when he died, preached two New Year's Day sermons at the end of his life. Together, they constitute a remarkable examination of the brevity of life and the importance of redeeming the time - given providentially as he prepared to step into eternity. He, now being dead, yet speaketh (Heb. 11:4).
On January 1, 1760, he preached "A New Year's Gift" (see Sermons on Important Subjects, Vol. 3, Serm. 59, pp. 309 ff), using Rom. 13:11 for his text: "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed."
Listen to how he begins: "Time, like an ever-running stream, is perpetually gliding on, and hurrying us and all the sons of men into the boundless ocean of eternity. We are now entering upon one of those imaginary lines of division, which men have drawn to measure out time for their own conveniency; and, while we stand upon the threshold of a new year, it becomes us to make a solemn contemplative pause; though time can make no pause, but rushes on with its usual velocity. Let us take some suitable reviews and prospects of time past and future, and indulge such reflections as our transition from year to year naturally tends to suggest.
The grand and leading reflection is that in the text, with which I present to you as a New-Year's Gift: Knowing the time, that it is high time to awake out of sleep."
The following year, his last on earth, on January 1, 1761, Davies preached "A Sermon on the New Year" (see Sermons on Important Subjects, Vol. 2, Serm. 34, pp. 139 ff), from Jer. 28:16: "This year thou shalt die." Because Davies died just one month later, on February 4, 1761, it has often been said (even by Davies himself before he died) that here Davies preached his own funeral sermon. Interestingly, he borrowed the same text that College of New Jersey Founder and President Aaron Burr, Sr. (1716-1757) had preached on his last New Year's Day on earth.
In a most sobering sermon, Davies reminds us that "Thus it appears very possible, that one or other of us may die this year. Nay, it is very probable, as well as possible, if we consider that it is a very uncommon, and almost unprecedented thing, that not one should die in a whole year out of such an assembly as this. More than one have died the year past, who made a part of our assembly last new year's day. Therefore let each of us (for we know not on whom the lot may fall) realize this possibility, this alarming probability, 'this year I may die.'"
None of us knows how long the thread of our lives may extend on earth. Our times are in the hands of the Lord (Ps. 31:15). Therefore, as one year closes, and a New Year begins, let us take stock and heed the words of Samuel Davies: "Therefore conclude, every one for himself, 'It is of little importance to me whether I die this year, or not; but the only important point is, that I may make a good use of my future time, whether it be longer or shorter.' This, my brethren, is the only way to secure a happy new year: a year of time, that will lead the way to a happy eternity."
The Presbyterians, by Charles Lemuel Thompson
Charles Lemuel Thompson was a 19th-century Presbyterian pastor in Juneau, Wisconsin; Janesville, Wisconsin; Chicago, Illinois; Cincinnati, Ohio; Kansas City, Kansas; New York City, New York; and the Secretary of the Board of Home Missions of the PCUSA. He was a poet, a preacher, and an historian. His book The Presbyterians (1903) gives us insight into how a northern Presbyterian who ministered a good deal of his life in the west of his day, and was involved deeply in home missions, viewed the history of his church.
Log College Press exists to collect and reprint the writings of and about American Presbyterians from the 18th and 19th centuries, and works from the period that tell the story of the period are particularly interesting to the historian. Browse our site and you'll find many more books like this history by Thompson.
The Story of the Original Log College
Founded c. 1726, by William Tennent, Sr., (1673-1746), who saw the great for theological training in America, the story of the original Log College, which was the antecedent to the College of New Jersey / Princeton University, and the Log College Men, is a story that we think our readers will enjoy as much as we do here at Log College Press. It was the first seminary to serve Presbyterians in North America, and its alumni played important roles in the Great Awakening, the Old Side-New Side Controversy, and in the theological training of ministers for generations. The story in all its branches is bigger than can be told here, but we have the resources to help our readers dig further into it themselves.
For the first telling of this story, we look to Archibald Alexander, whose Biographical Sketches of the Founder, and Principal Alumni of the Log College, explains how the Log College was founded, and outlines the lives of the Log College Men, men such as William Tennent, Jr., Gilbert Tennent, and Samuel Davies, among others . Of these ministers, Alexander said it well: "These men may be said to have lived fast. They did much for their Lord in a short time. Being burning as well as shining lights, they were themselves consumed, while they gave light to others. Oh, that a race of ministers, like-minded, burning with a consuming zeal, might be raised up among us!" For more specimens of the writings of these Log College Men, see also, his Sermons and Essays of the Tennents and Their Contemporaries, which was published posthumously by S.D. Alexander, and has since come to be known as Sermons of the Log College.
For another valuable resource, turn to Thomas Murphy's The Presbytery of the Log College; or, The Cradle of the Presbyterian Church in America. Among the many details of the story to be gleaned here is a tribute to Catharine Tennent, née Kennedy, who Murphy describes as "the real founder of the Log College." Murphy, like Catharine, came from Ireland (as indeed did Francis Makemie, the first Presbyterian minister in America), and like her as well embraced the Presbyterian cause in America. The support she gave to the cause is worthy of remembrance. The scope of the Log College story first told by Alexander is greatly expanded in Murphy's work.
These three volumes combine to tell a story not merely of a theological school derisively termed "the Log College," but also of men who sacrificed much and gave of themselves to the ministry of the Lord in colonial America, on whose shoulders we stand today.
Happy Birthday, Charles Hodge!
Dr. Charles Hodge was born on December 27, 1797 (220 years ago today). He was one of the great leaders of the 19th century American Presbyterian church, and a very prolific writer. We continue to add works by him to Log College Press, among which are his commentaries on Romans, Ephesians and First and Second Corinthians. Less well-known, but very much worth reading still, are the study guides he prepared to go along with his commentaries on Romans and First Corinthians. Be sure to check out these works and more by a remarkable pastor-scholar.
William Swan Plumer's The Rock of Our Salvation is Well Worth Your Time
If you are looking for a work on the person and work of Jesus Christ, don't overlook The Rock of Our Salvation (1867), by William Swan Plumer. This 500-page tome is theologically robust and devotionally affective. A simple survey of the Table of Contents should whet your appetite for the rich fare you'll find within:
1. Christ All in All
2. The Divinity of Christ
3. The Sonship of Christ
4. The Incarnation of Christ
5. The Messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth
6. Christ the Mediator
7. Christ a Prophet
8. The Priesthood of Christ
9. Christ a King
10. Christ's Humiliation
11. General Views of Christ's Work
12. Redemption in Christ
13. The Atonement
14. The Folly of Objecting to the Atonement
15. Christ's Resurrection
16. Christ's Ascension and Session
17. Christ in Heaven
18. Christ's Personal Absence From This World
19. Christ on the Judgement Seat
20. Christ the Good Shepherd
21. Christ a Physician
22. The Gentleness of Christ
23. Christ Shall Yet Have a Glorious Reward
24. The Gospel of Christ is Hid From Some
25. The Sin and Danger of Not Believing in Christ
26. The Reproach of Christ
27. Conclusion
If you've never read Plumer before, you're in for a treat!
Devotional Meditations of James Waddel Alexander
James Waddel Alexander's volume on homiletics (1861, 1864) -- Thoughts on Preaching: Being Contributions to Homiletics -- is an excellent help for pastors. But it should also be noted that extracts from Alexander's private journal make up the final portion of this book, and they comprise of devotional thoughts and poetry worthy of every Christian's attention. For an example of the former, see his first of his "miscellaneous paragraphs":
"To do good to men, is the great work of life; to make them true Christians is the greatest good we can do them. Every investigation brings us round to this point. Begin here, and you are like one who strikes water from a rock on the summits of the mountains; it flows down over all the intervening tracts to the very base. If we could make each man love his neighbour, we should make a happy world. The true method is to begin with ourselves, and so to extend the circle to all around us. It should be perpetually in our minds."
Reading his journal extracts, one is struck with 1) his desire to exalt Christ even above the most godly of teachers and writers; 2) his thorough acquaintance with the great pastor-writers of centuries before (scribble down the names he mentions if they are new to you); 3) his love of books in conjunction with his understanding that of reading many books there is great weariness, and that it does a person good to step out of their library to converse with others; and 4) his poetic eloquence.
This writer aims to highlight his poetry further in the future, DV. For now, take note of his devotional meditations, in addition to his excellent homiletic counsel.
Devotional Meditations of James Waddel Alexander
James Waddel Alexander's volume on homiletics (1861, 1864) -- Thoughts on Preaching: Being Contributions to Homiletics -- is an excellent help for pastors. But it should also be noted that extracts from Alexander's private journal make up the final portion of this book, and they comprise of devotional thoughts and poetry worthy of every Christian's attention. For an example of the former, see his first of his "miscellaneous paragraphs":
"To do good to men, is the great work of life; to make them true Christians is the greatest good we can do them. Every investigation brings us round to this point. Begin here, and you are like one who strikes water from a rock on the summits of the mountains; it flows down over all the intervening tracts to the very base. If we could make each man love his neighbour, we should make a happy world. The true method is to begin with ourselves, and so to extend the circle to all around us. It should be perpetually in our minds."
Reading his journal extracts, one is struck with 1) his desire to exalt Christ even above the most godly of teachers and writers; 2) his aim to do good to those around him; 3) his thorough acquaintance with the great pastor-writers of centuries before (scribble down the names he mentions if they are new to you); 4) his love of books in conjunction with his understanding that of reading many books there is great weariness, and that it does a person good to step out of their library to converse with others; and 5) his poetic eloquence.
This writer aims to highlight his poetry further in the future, DV. For now, take note of his devotional meditations, in addition to his excellent homiletic counsel.
A 19th Century Devotional for Youth, by Charles Salmond
If you're looking for a way to get your junior high and high school children into the word of God, check out this 19th century devotional by Charles Adamson Salmond (1853-1932), For Days of Youth: A Bible Text and Talk for the Young for Every Day in the Year (1896). In this devotional, Salmond expounds a different verse each day of the year (there are even 366 entries - 1896 was a leap year), applying it to the hearts and lives of young people. The applications are somewhat dated, although the temptations and trials of young adulthood have not changed in the least, and so the principles of truth found in this book are enduring.
Here is the entry for January 1, to get a taste of Salmond's book.
January 1
The Days of Thy Youth
“Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.” (Ecclesiastes 12:1)
Thy youth! As the old preacher utters his counsel, he calls to mind his own youth with a sigh. It is for ever gone. Its days, and years too, are like a short-lived dream of the long ago. But thy youth is still thine, though its days are hurrying by. Remember God in them, he says. Let no day pass without thinking of Him, and of what you owe to Him. Hear His loving-kindness in the morning — in the morning of your life — in the free bright morning time, before the noisy voices of earth can claim and keep your ear and heart. And as you hear His loving-kindness every morning, let your life each day speak forth His praise!
“The days of thy youth” — how precious they are! They are happy days, influential days, fleeting days.
(1) Happy days — surely you feel them to be that! No doubt youth has its own troubles; its sorrows, losses, disappointments. It is not all brightness. But there is in it far more of the sunshine than of the shadow. Youth’s tears are quickly dried; and there is soon again the clear shining after rain. One thing you may be very sure of — that, if you are spared to be old, you will look back upon the days of your youth as very gladsome days. “The days of our youth” — when we looked with new eyes upon a new world that met us with a smile — when the earth seemed so beautiful, and men so true, and women all so good — when we marched to the music of hope, with few burdens upon the back, and few cares upon the heart, to make the wealth of life our own — what wonder that we who are older look back upon them even now with a peculiar pleasure! They were for us what God and all the good desire that they should be for you — happy days.
(2) Influential days — yes, they are that too, even when you are least thinking of it. Youth is undoubtedly the seed-time for the harvest that is to follow. The babe has been called “a bundle of possibilities.” In youth you have already begun to determine what you are actually to be. Your heart is now open to impressions which will leave their mark on all your future life. The choices you now make, the friendships you form, the patterns you accept, the habits you acquire—tell me these, and I may with much confidence predict what sort of man or woman you will be. Now is the time for high thoughts and noble purposes. Now is the time for seeking a lifelong friendship with Him who will enable you to realize them.
(3) Fleeting days — how swiftly fleeting! You are anxious to grow quickly older? That is a wish very sure to be fulfilled. The year just gone — how short it seems to look back upon! The years will ever seem to vanish more swiftly as they go. The days of youth will speedily pass into other days. But they need not be “evil days”; and will not be, if we have Him with us who has promised to be with His people “all the days even to the end.” With a heart kept young by His presence even to old age, you will have the best of life — an immortal youth — before you still.
“Then be thou zealous in thy youth;
Fill every day with noble toils;
Fight for the victories of Truth,
And deck thee with her deathless spoils.”
Presbyterians and the 'Revolution' of 1776
Presbyterianism has always been odious to tyrants. It motivated revolts against tyrants by French Huguenots, Scottish Covenanters, Dutch Calvinists, English Puritans, American Presbyterians, and other Reformed Protestants in history. David W. Hall in The Genevan Reformation and the American Founding (2003) and Douglas F. Kelly in The Emergence of Liberty in the Modern World: The Influence of Calvin on Five Governments From the 16th to the 18th Centuries (1992) are two modern works which have studied this phenomenon.
In the 19th century, on the occasion of the centennial of the American War of Independence, William Pratt Breed (1816-1889) published several works dealing with how the the colonial American conflict with Great Britain was a war largely based on Presbyterian principles of resistance to tyranny. There were those in England who described it as a "Presbyterian Rebellion." Breed quotes Thomas Carlyle thus: "Protestantism was a revolt against spiritual sovereignties, popes and much else. Presbyterians carried out the revolt against earthly sovereignties." Even Robert Burns once wrote about the Scottish Covenanters: "THE SOLEMN League and Covenant / Now brings a smile, now brings a tear; / But sacred Freedom, too, was theirs: / If thou’rt a slave, indulge thy sneer."
Breed published: 1) Jenny Geddes, or, Presbyterianism and Its Great Conflict with Despotism (1869); 2) Presbyterianism, and Its Services in the Revolution of 1776 (1875); 3) Presbyterians and the Revolution (1876); and 4) a tribute to John Witherspoon (1877), who was the Presbyterian pastor who so largely influenced the American War of Independence and signed its Declaration. (See Witherspoon's Works here.)
For an introduction into American Presbyterian history and how our nation became an independent republic, for reasons based on Presbyterian principles of resistance of tyranny, these are works still worth reading today.
A Word to the Weary
Christian, Are you physically weary from many labors during the day, or due to sickness and troubles in this earthly tabernacle which we bear? Are you vexed in your soul due to unkind words, or at the state of the church today, or for the injustices in this world, or from spiritual warfare or persecution for the name of Christ in your life or in the lives of saints around the world? Remember the words of Christ: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matt. 11:28-30).
In that vein, then, also consider this little book of encouragement by a 19th century Southern pastor: A Word to the Weary (1874) by William Swan Plumer (1802-1880). It is a balm to the soul filled with words of comfort from the Physician of Souls. Take up and read, and be comforted, Christian.
A.A. Hodge's Table-Talk - By a "Scottish Princetonian"
Charles Adamson Salmond (1853-1932) came to Princeton from Scotland, and would go back to Scotland to minister there, but as a student of both Charles Hodge and A.A. Hodge, he was well-positioned to record his observations as he heard the younger Hodge speak in his classroom. The first half of Princetoniana: Charles & A.A. Hodge: With Class and Table Talk of Hodge the Younger (1888) consists of biographical sketches of these two great men. The second half -- Brevia Theologica -- reproduces Salmond's notes taken while in the same room with A.A. Hodge. This is a book with a unique insight to offer for those with an interest in Princetoniana.
Looking Back From the Sunset Land
In the twilight of his life, Reformed Presbyterian pastor Nathan Robinson Johnston (1820-1904) [according to our author, the 'n' in Robinson was silent] wrote a fascinating autobiography which touches on a wide variety of people, places and topics. Looking Back From the Sunset Land: Or, People Worth Knowing (1898) was a popular read in its day, and it is worth taking up again today to learn more about the experiences and recollections of this interesting pastor, with a heart for Chinese missionary efforts in California, and those who intersected with his life's journey.
Lineally descended from a Scottish Covenanter martyr "Sir Archibald Johnston, or Lord Warriston [(1611-1663)], whom the Scotch Covenant-breakers hung in Edinburgh" (p. 569), our Nathan Johnston makes known his interest in the family genealogy (see p. 274). The story of his ancestors (his great-grandparents were killed by Indians, and his grandfather himself killed an Indian), and his own early years and entry into the ministry is told, along with the effect of the Fugitive Slave law of 1850 on his Reformed Presbyterian abolitionist convictions. Also noted are his contributions to the publishing efforts of the leading abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison (an 1860 letter from Nathan to Garrison can be viewed here) and Frederick Douglass. Nathan would go on to serve as the publisher of The Free Press and Our Banner.
His older (by 18 years) brother, the Rev. John Black Johnston (1802-1882), who founded Geneva College, is discussed, along with his departure from the Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanter) Church (RPCNA) to join the United Presbyterian Church of North America (UPCNA). Nathan remained in the RPCNA, and the ecclesiastical division within his family took a toll. Nathan also served as president of Geneva College (1865-1867). The lesson he learned from this experience helped him in life to show grace to others with whom he might disagree theologically. (For a a remarkable example of this, see pp. 569-570, in which our exclusively Psalm-singing RP pastor recounts his "pleasant conversation" with Ira D. Sankey, known to some as the "father of modern gospel music.")
Nathan at various points in his life served as a missionary to the "contrabands" (freed slaves) in Port Royal, South Carolina; served briefly as a professor at Geneva College; and started a mission school among the Chinese in California. His biographical sketch can be pieced together from William Melancthon Glasgow's History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America and The Geneva Book; and Owen Foster Thompson's Sketches of the Ministers of the Reformed Presbyterian of North American From 1888 to 1930. But the tale of his life, his travels, and the ministers, celebrities and ordinary people that he met along the way, fleshes out a remarkable life story told by a humble Covenanter pastor.
The Gospel of the Incarnation, by William Swan Plumer
“Our Lord Jesus Christ became incarnate, was made under the law, lived, acted, obeyed, suffered died and rose again for his people.
He came down to earth that they might go up to heaven.
He suffered that they might reign.
He became a servant that they might become kings and priests unto God.
He died that they might live.
He bore the cross that their enmity might be slain, and their sins expiated.
He loved them that they might love God.
He was rich and became poor that they, who were poor, might be made rich.
He descended into the lower parts of the earth that they might sit in heavenly places.
He emptied himself that they might be filled with all the fullness of God.
He took upon him human nature that they might be partakers of the divine nature.
He made flesh his dwelling place that they might be an habitation of God through the Spirit.
He made himself of no reputation, that they might wear his new name, and be counted an eternal excellency.
He became a worm, and no man, that they, who were sinful worms, might be made equal to the angels.
He bore the curse of a broken covenant that they might partake of all the blessings of the everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure.
Though heir of all things, he was willingly despised of the people, that they, who were justly condemned, might obtain and inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away.
His death was a satisfaction to divine justice, a ransom for many, a propitiation for sin, a sweet smelling savour to God, that we, who were an offense to God, might become his sons and daughters.
He was made sin for his people that they might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Though Lord of all He took the form of a servant, that they, who were the servants of sin, might prevail like princes with God.
He, who had made swaddling-clothes bands for the sea, was wrapped in swaddling-clothes that they, who were cast out in their blood, might be clothed in linen white and clean, which is the righteousness of the saints.
He had not where to lay His head that they who otherwise must have laid down in eternal sorrow, might read the mansions in His Father’s house.
He was beset with lions and bulls of Bashan, that his chosen might be compassed about with an innumerable company of angels and of the spirits of just men made perfect.
He drank the cup of God’s indignation that they might for ever drink of the river of His pleasures.
He hungered that they might eat the bread of life.
He thirsted that they might drink the water of life.
He was numbered with the transgressors that they might stand among the justified, and be counted among the jewels.
He made His grave with the wicked that they might sleep in Jesus.
Though He was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was, yet He became a helpless infant, that creatures of yesterday, sentenced to death, might live for ever.
He wore a crown of thorns that all, who love His appearing, might wear a crown of life.
He wept tears of anguish that His elect might weep tears of repentance not to be repented of.
He bore the yoke of obedience unto death that they might find His yoke easy and His burden light.
He poured out His soul unto death, lay three days in the heart of the earth, then burst the bars of death, and arose to God, that they, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage, might obtain the victory over the grave and become partakers of His resurrection.
He exhausted the penalty of the law that His redeemed might have access to the inexhaustible treasures of mercy, wisdom, faithfulness, truth and grace promised by the Lord.
He passed from humiliation to humiliation, till He reached the sepulcher of Joseph, that His people might be changed from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord.
He was matchless in grace that they might be matchless in gratitude.
Though a Son, He became a voluntary exile, that they, who had wickedly wandered afar off, might be brought nigh by His blood.
He was compassed about with all their innocent infirmities that He might perfect His strength in their weakness.
His visage was so marred more than any man, that His ransomed might be presented before God without spot, or blemish, or wrinkle, or any such thing.
For a time He was forsaken of His Father that they, whom He bought with His blood, might behold the light of God’s countenance forever.
He came and dwelt with them that they might be forever with the Lord.
He was hung up naked before His insulting foes that all, who believe on His name, might wear a glorious wedding garment, a spotless righteousness.
Though He was dead, He is the firstborn among many brethren.
Through His sorrow His people obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing flee away.
Though He endured the worst things, they do and shall forever enjoy the best things
Wonderful mystery! God was manifested in the flesh! Here is no absurdity, no contradiction, no fiction, and yet a mystery that baffles all attempts to solve it, and dazzles all human and angelic vision. Blessed is he, who is not offended in Jesus. Blessed is he, who loves the incarnate mystery, and rests upon it. It is a mystery of love, of power, of salvation. It is the mystery of Godliness. It is the great study of the inhabitants of heaven, and shall be while immortality endures.”
-- From The Grace of Christ, chapter 21
How Shall I Live?
Leo Tolstoy once asked, "What then must we do?" (based on the question asked on Luke 3:10). The Westminster Assembly asks us: "What is the chief end of man?" (Shorter Catechism Q. 1) Today's highlighted writer at Log College Press is James Beverlin Ramsey (1814-1871), who asked a similar question: "How Shall I Live?" He answers on the basis of the Apostle Paul's statement in Phil. 1:17: "To me to live in Christ."
It is a question of eternal importance: How should we live? What is the most important reason for living, and what should we be doing about it? Read this short tract by Pastor Ramsey to see what he had to say about this most important question which every man should both ask and answer.
19th Century Counsel for Businessmen
Everyone is engaged in buying and selling in some way, shape, or form. Yet businessmen have been called by God to labor in these skills in a peculiar way for His glory and the good of their fellow men. With this calling comes great responsibilities, privileges, perplexities, and temptations. The 1856 book The Man of Business: Considered in His Various Relations, with contributions from a variety of men (including James Waddel Alexander), focused entirely on this calling and its particular spiritual needs.
Here is the introduction: "The following Essays have been written expressly for this work. They are intended to bear upon a very important class of the community—a class which in this
country is constantly increasing. The walks of business become more ramified and extended as the luxuries of civlization and the skill of human inventions become more multiplied and more widely displayed. Every description of commercial, mechanical, and executive business, excited and created by the new wants and new imaginations of advancing society, will call for the creation and extension of new agencies to accomplish the labors which they must demand. Thus the variety and number of business agencies of every kind must spread out in a constant increase. The earnestness of competition and the fertility of invention which characterize the walks of trade will also encroach more and more upon the previous comparative tranquillity of professional life. And men of all descriptions will, to a great degree, be transformed into business men. Their temptations, their principles of action, their rules of enterprise, their responsibilities, and their peculiar aspects of influence, will become, to a great degree, the common, aspects of the community of which, in earlier times, they have formed only a part. Such a work as the one now prepared for the publisher, who has assumed the responsibility of issuing this, will be one of general interest and usefulness. It will form an appropriate guide for the young man in his start in life. It will be an useful gift to a business friend in any period of his life of experiment. It will exercise an influence for the benefit of men, only limited by its own adaptation to usefulness; for the field upon which it enters is boundless, and the persons for whom it is calculated to be a guide and a friend, are innumerable. The
value of this particular book must be tested by the experiment of its character. It is fully believed by the publisher to be in an eminent degree adapted to be useful. He thinks that no reflecting person can read the table of contents, and remark the subjects proposed, and the character of the gentlemen who have severally written upon them at his request, without a thorough conviction of the value of the work, and the likelihood of its usefulness to those for whom it is designed. It is, therefore, with great confidence that he sends it forth, sincerely believing he is doing a public good in the provision of such a work for sale, which is far beyond the value of any personal advantage in the particular line of his own BUSINESS, or his private profit in honorable trade."
A Pioneer Preacher Who Preached to Himself
John Craig (1709-1774) was the first Presbyterian minister settled in Virginia west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. He was born in County Antrim, Ireland, but chose to immigrate to America by way of Delaware in 1734. He studied for the ministry in Pennsylvania, and affiliated with Old School Presbyterianism. He was ordained to the ministry at the Triple Forks of the Shenandoah in Augusta Country, Virginia, in 1740, taking on a dual pastorate at Augusta Stone Presbyterian Church in Fort Defiance, Virginia, and at Tinkling Spring Presbyterian Church in Fishersville, Virginia (this writer visited both sites recently). Augusta Stone is Virginia's oldest Presbyterian church, and is where John Craig was buried. His autobiography, titled A Preacher Preaching to Himself From a Long Text of No Less Than Sixty Years: On Review of Past Life (1769), is not easy to locate, but an extract can be read within William Henry Foote, Sketches of Virginia, Historical and Biographical (Second Series), pp. 28–33. It is worth a read to get a glimpse of the experimental piety of a pioneer Presbyterian minister of the 18th century.
December 11, 1947: A Presbyterian Pastor-Teacher-Writer Entered Glory
One hundred and fifty years ago this month, John McNaugher (December 30, 1857 - December 11, 1947) was born, and seventy years ago today he entered into glory. Nicknamed "Mister United Presbyterian," he served the United Presbyterian Church of North America as a pastor, professor of New Testament literature, seminary president and as a writer and teacher. At the seminary he served -- Allegheny Theological Seminary, and its successors, Pittsburgh Seminary, and Pittsburgh-Xenia Seminary -- in his dual capacity of President and Professor, he led and shaped the theological education of over 1000 men in the UPC. Theological education was very much his primary mission in life, and he was to write an interesting book titled The History of Theological Education in the United Presbyterian Church and Its Ancestories. He was President and Professor Emeritus after his retirement in 1943 until his death. A hall at the seminary (now called Pittsburgh Theological Seminary) still bears his name: John McNaugher Memorial Hall.
He is known both for editing a remarkable compilation of papers presented at two 1905 conferences held in Pittsburgh and Chicago on the subject of exclusive psalmody -- The Psalms in Worship (1907) -- in which he personally wrote an exegesis of Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 that led to the conclusion that Paul's use of the terms "psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs" applied uniformly to the Psalter and not to the compositions of David and the imitations of Isaac Watts; and for serving as the principal drafter of the 1925 UPC Confessional Statement which, by omission of exclusive psalmody, allowed for the introduction of uninspired hymns into the worship of the UPC. He would go on to supervise the production of Psalter-Hymnals and Bible Song Books for the denomination.
A prolific writer, his biographer (and former student of his), Paul R. Coleman, notes that his "finest" work was published shortly before his death of throat cancer in 1947: Jesus Christ: The Same Yesterday, Today and Forever. Its chapters cover the deity, humanity, virgin birth, miracles, atonement, resurrection, ascension and witnessing spirit of Christ. This writer has read this volume and concurs that it is an excellent summary of who Jesus Christ and what He has accomplished and continues to accomplish in the earth. It won a 1947 denominational book award as well. Another work by him, published in 1940, Quit You Like Men, is a rather interesting volume made up of valedictories to theological graduates which address various topics of interest, including aspects of the ministry and concerning worship. Other titles he wrote include The Virgin Birth, The Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and The Authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews; the complete list of his writings, published and unpublished, is too long for purposes of this blog post, however.
His life very much tracked in many ways that of the denomination he was affiliated with for essentially all of his 90 years. While McNaugher was born in 1857, the UPC was born in 1858; he served in the ministry from 1887 to 1943 (56 years); and while he died in 1947, his denomination would merge in 1958 with the PCUSA to become the UPCUSA. As of yet, Log College Press only has The Psalms in Worship available to read on our site. But we hope to add more works in the future by this most interesting theological educator ("Mr. United Presbyterian"), who is worthy of remembrance.
Happy Birthday to James Henley Thornwell!
It was 205 years ago today that James Henley Thornwell (Dec. 9, 1812 - Aug. 1, 1862) was born in Marlboro County, South Carolina. He would go on to become one of the giants of the 19th century Southern Presbyterian church. A leading apologist for the Southern cause at the time of the War Between the States, it is less well-known that he studied for a season at Harvard University. Later, he served as moderator of the PCUSA (1847), and would take a prominent role in the establishment of the Confederate Presbyterian Church. A man who was born during the War of 1812 and who died during the War that split North and South politically and ecclesiastically, Thornwell's career marked by controversy and conflict. His positions on slavery, the validity of Roman baptism, and the ruling elder are among the topics that generated the most heat during his ecclesiastical conflicts. He served a pastor, professor of theology at Columbia Theological Seminary, as a president of South Carolina College. He founded the Southern Presbyterian Review, and edited the Southern Quarterly Review. His collected writings span four volumes. Benjamin Morgan Palmer published his biography: The Life and Letters of James Henley Thornwell, which reveal its subject to be a man in whom great intellect and great piety were wedded, with many other facts of a remarkable personality (see also John Bailey Adger's Memorial of Thornwell too). Thornwell's "Relation of the State to Christ," which appears in Vol. 4 of his Collected Writings, is, in this writer's opinion, an outstanding example of what constitutes godly civil government. His writings remain worthy of study whether or not one agrees with him on all points (have you read Thornwell on missions? it is worth a look!), and so today, we remember the birth of a Southern Presbyterian giant.
James Waddel Alexander on the Christian's Duty to the Poor
James Waddel Alexander, the son of Archibald Alexander, was fond of telling stories to make theological and pastoral points. Much like the Lord Jesus, Alexander sought to drive home his point in compelling ways - particularly to young people in his churches. His 1844 book Good - Better - Best is a wonderful example of this practice. It is even more wonderful in its subject matter: how may Christians do good to those in need around us?
In the preface, the purpose of Alexander's work is explained: "In a world, burdened as ours is, with manifold sufferings, one of the first questions suggested to a renewed soul is, How may these sufferings be lessened or removed? To do good and to communicate, is the grand aim of every sincere believer in that blessed Redeemer, who left us his example, in regard to body as well as soul. It is to answer this inquiry, that the following pages are made public." And this was in 1844! How much more do we need to think about this question in 2017.
I won't spoil the mystery of the title for you: to what does "Good - Better - Best" refer? You'll have to read to find out.