If you desire to get to know the growing list of author names at Log College Press, one thing will stand out if you know a bit about Reformed church history. Many of our authors were named after eminent Reformed Christians who went before them.
Archibald Alexander (1772-1851) named several of his children after notable Christians, including James Waddel Alexander (1804-1859) (named for James Waddel, the "Blind Preacher," Archibald's father-in-law); and Samuel Davies Alexander (1819-1894) (named for Samuel Davies (1723-1761), the "Apostle of Virginia") - also William Cowper Alexander, after William Cowper, the poet.
Elias Boudinot (1802-1839), a Cherokee Indian, was born Gallegina Uwati, also known as Buck Watie, took the name of his mentor, Elias Boudinot IV (1740-1821).
Charles Hodge (1797-1878) named his son Archibald Alexander Hodge (1823-1886) after the elder Hodge's mentor, Archibald Alexander.
James Renwick Wilson Sloane (1823-1886) and James Renwick Willson (1780-1853) were both named for the Scottish Covenanter James Renwick.
Alexander McLeod Staveley (1816-1903) was likely named for Alexander McLeod (1774-1833), as was James McLeod Willson (1809-1866) (his father J.R. Willson studied theology under Alexander McLeod).
John Newton Waddel (1812-1895), son of Moses Waddel (1770-1840), was named by his parents after the Anglican minister John Newton - another son was named after the British hymn-writer Isaac Watts.
Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield's (1851-1921) middle name comes from his maternal line and honors his grandfather Robert Jefferson Breckinridge (1800-1871), and others in his distinguished family tree.
Richard Cameron Wylie (1846-1928) is named for the Scottish Covenanter Richard Cameron.
These names tell us something about the Presbyterian heritage that has been treasured and passed down. Get to know these writers, as well as who they are named for, and others here at Log College Press, who have many fascinating biographies and family trees, as well as their writings.
The Heaven of the Bible
Have you looked for a book about heaven that is grounded in what we know from the Bible and avoids mere wishful speculation beyond what Scripture teaches? Just such a volume was written in the 19th century by James Madison McDonald (1812-1876): My Father's House; or, The Heaven of the Bible (1855).
The author considers it an important subject, and so should we. He emphasizes how meditation on heaven is of great value to the Christian because this is where our true citizenship resides as we pass through this earthly vale. And he recognizes the many misconceptions of heaven and the afterlife which prevailed in his day (and ours), in part because of occultic ideas.
We are reminded by the author of what heaven is not, or rather, what it lacks - there will be no more pain, no more sorrow, no more night, no more death, and no temple. Indeed, one characteristic of heaven is that of all things that accompany the joy of the presence of God there will be no lack at all.
He addresses who will be in heaven, and who will not. He examines the issue of children who die in infancy. He responds to the question of whether the saints will know one another in heaven (also addressed by John Aspinwall Hodge here).
Several of our Log College Press authors are cited in this volume, among them Archibald Alexander, J.W. Alexander, Charles Hodge, William Armstrong Dod and Gardiner Spring. He acknowledges also the great writings on heaven that precede him by men such as Richard Baxter and John Howe.
Great pains are taken to speak to what the Bible teaches, and to leave off where the Bible does so. Not all is revealed at present, but all shall be revealed in heaven, and that is part of the reason we are to stick to the Bible on our pilgrimage to heaven. If you have sought a devotional treatise from an American Presbyterian, and fellow pilgrim, about the heaven of the Bible, which avoids the vain imaginations of men, download this book for your prayerful study and meditation.
American Presbyterian Travelogues
Have you ever wanted to travel to far-away places? Or perhaps you have traveled, and taken pictures and written a diary or journal of your experiences. So have a number of our authors here at Log College Press. Thus we have developed a Travelogues page to highlight the writings of American Presbyterian ministers about their journeys, and in some cases, the fascinating people they met along the way.
Here you can read about Robert Baird's impressions of the West Indies and North America, his visits to Northern Europe, and his guide to the Mississippi Valley; or son Henry Baird's recounting of his experiences in Greece; or accounts of Robert Jefferson Breckinridge's travels through France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy; or a record of William Pratt Breed's travels through England in 1884; or Henry Van Dyke, Jr.'s journey through the Holy Land; or Andrew Shiland's trip across the United States in 1892 to attend the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA); and more. Also of interest is William Buell Sprague's visits to and impressions of European "celebrities," including Rowland Hill, William Orme, William Wilberforce, William Jay, Ernst Wilhelm Theodor Herrmann Hengstenberg, Thomas Hartwell Horne, Charles Simeon, Edward Bickersteth, and Thomas Chalmers.
Not all travelogue writings by our authors are fully available at our site yet. Charles Hodge spent two years studying in Europe (1827-1828), and wrote his Journal of European Travels, which exists in manuscript form at the Princeton Theological Seminary archives, which has been digitized, and in digital form on Logos (see also Paul C. Gutjahr, Charles Hodge: Guardian of American Orthodoxy, beginning with the chapter titled "The Trip to Europe"). J.G. Machen spent time in Europe during World War I, and returned later to hike in the Alps, about which we have some writings from his hand, courtesy of the PCA Historical Center. George William Pilcher's edition of Samuel Davies' diary of his travels to England and Scotland in 1753-1755 is available at our Bookstore page. The letters of James Henley Thornwell from his two trips to Europe are available on our site from Benjamin Morgan Palmer's The Life and Letters of James Henley Thornwell.
A quote attributed to Augustine, but not sourced, is given by John Feltham in The English Enchiridion (1799): "St. Augustine, when he speaks of the great advantages of travelling, says, that the world is a great book, and none study this book so much as a traveller. They that never stir from home read only one page of this book." If so, take advantage of these travel journals by our Presbyterian ministers, and travel the world via Log College Press.
Names Carved on Hearts
Charles H. Spurgeon once wrote: "A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble."
In remembrance of beloved pastors and pilgrims, many Presbyterian funeral discourses, wherein the lives and legacy of saints have been preserved, more so on hearts than marble, but also digitally, and assembled in one place at Log College Press.
They include tributes to the lives of pastors and professors, men and women, old and young, and lead into discourses on the providence of God, how one can triumph in the midst of suffering, and the doctrine of the resurrection of the body.
James M. Garrettson, author of Pastor-Teachers of Old Princeton: Memorial Addresses for the Faculty of Princeton Theological Seminary, 1812-1921, also assembled some of these memorial discourses in his valuable volume, which is available here.
Bookmark our Funeral Discourses page to learn more about these beloved saints, and the lessons that can be learned from their lives and legacies.
Moses Drury Hoge on the Relation of the Westminster Standards to Foreign Missions
On the Log College Press Compilations page, you will find the Memorial Volume of the Westminster Assembly, 1647-1897, a wonderful collection of essays about the formation and theology of the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms. One of the important articles in that book was written by Moses Drury Hoge, pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in Richmond, Virginia, entitled "Relation of the Westminster Standards to Foreign Missions." Hoge examines some of the historical reasons why the churches who adopted the Standards were not as possessed of a missionary spirit as they ought to have been; the missionary vision of the Standards; and the ministries of Alexander Duff, missionary to India, and John Leighton Wilson, missionary to western Africa. All who love to see the gospel go forth will be encouraged by Hoge's reflection.
Here's an important slice from Hoge on how the Westminster Standards ground missions in the biblical doctrine of the church: "The true theory of missions is one that clearly recognizes the fact that the great head of the church has not only committed to it the truths necessary to salvation, but has provided it with the government, the laws, the offices, and the equipment for building up the kingdom of God and extending its conquests through the world. This is in accordance with the spirit and teaching of the Westminster Standards, in proof of which we need only quote their noble testimony: "Unto this catholic, visible church Christ has given the ministry, the oracles and ordinances of God for the gathering and perfecting of the saints in this life and to the end of the world; and this he doth by his own presence and Spirit, according to his promise, made effectual thereto." Thus are the scattered sheep ''gathered" from the North and the South, the East and the West, into the safe and happy fold of the Good Shepherd. By its divine constitution the church is, therefore, qualified to secure all the spiritual ends for which it was instituted, and is in itself a missionary society of which every communicant is a member; and as each one has a recognized place in it because of its representative form of government, this very fact is calculated to enlist the sympathies, to deepen the sense of responsibility, and to stimulate to the most earnest, practical activity on the part of every member of the great household of faith."
May those who live under the teaching of the Westminster Standards be impelled more and more to bring the gospel to the nations!
Will the Saints Know Each Other in Heaven?
It is a question often asked by saints in mourning - will Christians know one another in heaven? It has been addressed by many theologians in the past, for example, by the German Reformer Martin Luther after the 1542 death of his daughter Magdalena; the English Puritan Thomas Watson in his Body of Divinity; the English Puritan Richard Baxter in The Saints' Everlasting Rest; and the Dutch Puritan Wilhelmus à Brakel in The Christian's Reasonable Service; to name a few.
The American Presbyterian John Aspinwall Hodge (1831-1901), nephew of Charles Hodge, wrote a book-length volume on the subject, titled Recognition After Death (1889), to respond pastorally to the concerns of those with this common question. In this little book, he considers common objections to the idea that the saints will recognize each other in heaven. He also takes into account what it means for a man or woman, body and soul, to be made in the image of God, and how that which is immortal, spiritual and of good character is reflective of that image; he analyzes the phrase "Abraham's bosom," from the parable of the rich man and Lazarus; he studies the implications of Christ's resurrection body as they relate to the recognition issue; and he discusses the methods of recognition, and how the ability to communicate is retained in heaven.
Among his closing thoughts, he cites Archibald Alexander from his Thoughts on Religious Experience thus: "As here knowledge is acquired by the aid of instructors, why may not the same be the fact in heaven? What a delightful employment to the saints who have been drinking in the knowledge of God and his works for thousands of years to communicate instruction to the saints just arrived! How delightful to conduct the pilgrim, who has just finished his race, through the ever blooming bowers of paradise, and to introduce him to this and the other ancient believer, and to assist him to find out and recognize, among so great a multitude, old friends and earthly relatives. There need be no dispute about our knowing, in heaven, those whom we knew and loved here; for if there should be no faculty by which they could at once be recognized, yet by extended and familiar intercourse with the celestial inhabitants, it cannot be otherwise but that interesting discoveries will be made continually; and the unexpected recognition of old friends may be one of the sources of pleasure which will render heaven so pleasant."
This is a subject of great interest to many. Be sure to add this volume by John Aspinwall Hodge to your reading list.
Etchings in Verse and Other Poems
Presbyterians historically have an affinity for poetry. We have previously highlighted selections of poetry by J.W. and J.A. Alexander. But some of the writers here at Log College Press have written whole volumes of poetry.
One of our Presbyterian poets is Charles Lemuel Thompson (1839-1924), who wrote Etchings in Verse (1890). Two selections from his book are given here to whet your appetite for more by him and others.
The first is "The Sea is His":
Man claims the land, but his domain
Stops at the shore.
God's wandering acres of the main
Roll on before.
I look this vast expanse abroad,
My rest is this:
This is the blue-veined palm of God,
"The sea is His."
Far from the world men walk upon,
Why should I fear?
Across this Galilee the Son
Of God draws near.
I lie within his hand. Above
Benignant bends
The blue eye of his boundless love,
And that defends.
Another, with echoes of Tennyson, is Lying at the Bar:
The exile has been long,
And broad, too broad the sea,
Across the which my longing heart
Has beaten heavily.
And now the sunset falls
On western hills afar;
But the sails are down, the tide is out,
We are lying at the bar.
And on beyond the sunset gates
Another land I ween;
And for its friends my exiled heart
Hath longings deep and keen.
Oh! silent tide, when comest thou
Beyond yon evening star?
My thoughts, my hopes are flying on, —
I am lying at the bar.
If you enjoy Presbyterian poets and poetry, be sure to check out our new Poetry page, which is sure to grow.
Samuel Miller's Definition of Presbyterianism
"Presbyterians believe, that Christ has made all ministers who are authorized to dispense the word and sacraments, perfectly equal in official rank and power: that in every Church the immediate exercise of ecclesiastical power is deposited, not with the whole mass of the people, but with a body of their representatives, styled Elders; and that the whole visible Church Catholic, so far as their denomination is concerned, is not only one in name, but so united by a series of assemblies of these representatives, acting in the name, and by the authority of the whole, as to bind the whole body together as one Church, walking by the same principles of faith and order, and voluntarily, yet authoritatively governed by the same system of rule and regulation...That is a Presbyterian Church, in which the Presbytery is the radical and leading judicatory; in which Teaching and Ruling Presbyters or Elders, have committed to them the watch and care of the whole flock; in which all ministers of the word and sacraments are equal; in which Ruling Elders, as the representatives of the people, form a part of all ecclesiastical assemblies, and partake, in all authoritative acts, equally with the Teaching Elders; and in which, by a series of judicatories, rising one above another, each individual church is under the watch and care of its appropriate judicatory, and the whole body, by a system of review and control, is bound together as one homogeneous community. Wherever this system is found in operation in the Church of God, there is Presbyterianism."
-- Samuel Miller, Presbyterianism (Lord willing, a future publication of Log College Press!)
Happy Birthday to James Renwick Willson!
James Renwick Willson, Reformed Presbyterian minister, was born near Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, just outside of Pittsburgh, on April 9, 1780. He studied for the ministry under Alexander McLeod, whom he later succeeded to the pastorate at Coldenham-Newburgh Reformed Presbyterian Church. The current pastoral intern at Coldenham-Newburgh RPC is our very own Zach Dotson, who has ably written a biographical sketch of J.R. Willson here.
Willson's fascinating life includes the fact that he edited The Evangelical Witness for many years; he was, perhaps, the first to translate (a portion of) Francis Turretin's Institutes of Elenctic Theology into English; and he was burned in effigy for his sermon on Prince Messiah, which was also publicly burned in a bonfire.
He died on September 29, 1853, and is buried at the Coldenham-Newburgh RPC. His son, James McLeod Willson, another distinguished minister and author, wrote a biographical sketch of his father. J.R. Willson is remembered today as a faithful American Covenanter pastor, who dedicated his life to serving the King of kings, and Lord of lords, in both church and state.
The Westminster Standards at Log College Press
Presbyterianism is historically a confessional tradition. Samuel Miller has ably elaborated on The Importance and Utility of Creeds and Confessions. For Presbyterians, that creed and confession is summarized in the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms, and related formularies.
American Presbyterians have written extensively on the Westminster Standards, and Log College Press has assembled many of these resources. We invite you to bookmark this page for further study. There are books here for children and parents (Jonathan Cross' Illustrations of the Shorter Catechism; Joseph Engles' Catechism for Young Children; James Robert Boyd's The Child's Book on the Westminster Shorter Catechism); there are books on the background and legacy of the Westminster Assembly (including B.B. Warfield's "trilogy" on the making and printing of the Westminster Standards, and the work of the Westminster Assembly); and there are expositions of the Confession and Catechism, including volumes by Francis Robert Beattie and Edward Dafydd Morris on the major Standards together. We hope to add further works to page in the future.
This is rich material for prayerful study and meditation. May this page be a blessing to students of God's Word.
19th Century Presbyterian Ecclesiology
At Log College Press, we are beginning to develop topical pages on subjects of interest as addressed by our authors such as Biographies and Systematic Theologies. One particular page to highlight at present is our Ecclesiology page.
Among the many writers who have written Presbyterian church government, or the offices of the church, or the boundaries of church authority, are Charles Hodge, Robert Jefferson Breckinridge, Thomas Smyth, and John Lafayette Girardeau. Among the topics considered are:
- the place of ruling elders, and deacons;
- what is Presbyterian law as defined by church courts?;
- what are the duties of church members?;
- where can one find a collection of church acts and deliverances?;
- and, what exactly is Presbyterianism?
Here one can begin to investigate the question of whether the baptism of Rome is valid; here one can read ecclesiastical catechisms by Alexander McLeod and Thomas Smyth; and here one can review Samuel Miller's series of three published works on the office of the ruling elder. Here one can study Alexander Taggart McGill's treatise on church government; and much more.
Have you bookmarked Log College Press yet? Take time to peruse this page, and return on occasion, as we hope to add many more relevant works. We are growing daily. Thank you for your interest, and may these resources be a blessing to you.
The American Sabbath One Century Ago
Echoing a line from William Cowper ("When nations are to perish in their sins, / 'tis in the Church the leprosy begins), the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States once affirmed: "Let us beware brethren: as goes the Sabbath, so goes the church, as goes the church, so goes the nation" (1948). The same ecclesiastical body stated in 1933: "This nation cannot survive unless the Christian Sabbath is observed."
With that principle in mind, in 1905, a fascinating volume was published by the National Reform Association, which was authored by Richard Cameron Wylie (1846-1928), a Reformed Presbyterian minister and long-term lecturer on behalf of the NRA, with an introduction by NRA President Sylvester Fithian Scovel (1835-1910), a Presbyterian minister and also President of Wooster University, regarding the state of the Christian Sabbath in America, along with the Biblical rationale for its public and civil establishment therein: Sabbath Laws in the United States.
Beginning with a look at the colonial history of Sabbath laws in America, Wylie goes on to analyze the status of each states (there were 45 in 1905) and territory within the jurisdiction of the United States. This detailed study is followed by the Biblical grounds for the need to uphold the Fourth Commandment in modern American civil legislation.
A documented study of this sort, authored by those who themselves advocated public and civil Sabbath-keeping, is rare to find. This particular volume, which precedes the efforts of the National Football League to largely dismantle US Sabbath laws beginning as early as the 1920's, provides a snapshot of the spiritual state of the country in 1905, just over one century ago. It is a window into the soul of America's past, and worth prayerfully comparing with America's present.
The Pastor in the Mirror
“Take heed to yourselves, lest your example contradict your doctrine, and lest you lay such stumbling-blocks before the blind, as may be the occasion of their ruin...Take heed to yourselves, lest you live in those sins which you preach against in others, and lest you be guilty of that which daily you condemn” (Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, pp. 63, 67.
Few remember that Joseph Ruggles Wilson, the father of President Woodrow Wilson, was a Presbyterian pastor in 19th century America. In an article in The Southern Presbyterian Review entitled "In What Sense Are Preachers To Preach Themselves," he discusses the power and importance of the individual in the act and ethos of preaching. A snippet:
"[The agency of preaching] is, so far as it possesses visibility, entrusted to men, who are to wield it, in God's name, each according to his own idiosyncracies of mental and moral character. The preacher's power over those to whom he addresses the word of salvation,(whilst, indeed, it could be nothing—certainly nothing very valuable—were he not sent and sustained by the Almighty, whose servant he is yet,) greatly depends upon what he himself is. That is, there is a sense in which the preacher preaches himself. He is more than a mere instructor. His work does not terminate in the mere act of imparting information, of opening up truth, and causing people to know what they were before ignorant of. If he stopped here, there might be no necessity for his office; books could convey instruction as well, or better, and a general distribution amongst men of plain treatises upon religious subjects, might probably take the place of the living teacher. Indeed, the inquiry has been started in certain quarters, where now is the use of so much public preaching, seeing that the press is so active in sending forth ever-increasing multitudes of cheap printed volumes, whose pages teem with all the knowledge of Scripture that is needed by the reading masses? The answer to this query is not alone to be found in the fact that there are many who cannot read, and therefore must be orally taught; or in the very different fact that God having instituted preaching as the means for drawing souls to himself, will own only his own ordinance in effecting this great result. The truer and profounder answer is, that they who favor this suggestion altogether mistake the nature of a preaching office; regarding it as nothing more than a teaching office. They leave this entirely out of the account, viz.: that the preacher is a man who employs sacred truth as a vehicle through which he brings his own peculiar distinctive self to bear upon his fellow-men. That truth is with him not mere knowledge, but this knowledge woven into his own experiences, and it is these experiences which he seeks to impress upon others in a way that shall make them their experiences as well. He publishes salvation as he himself understands it, and as he has come to understand it thoroughly by having imbibed it into his own soul. Hence he says, "I believe, therefore I speak.'' From the storehouse of his own convictions he strives to convince. It is these convictions that constitute him a preacher at all; and in proportion to their warmth and strength is he a mighty preacher."
You can read the entire article here.
(You will also see on Wilson's page an unfortunate sermon advocating the righteousness of American slavery; as with many of our Presbyterian forefathers, Wilson believed that slavery was a Biblical institution. Log College Press in no way affirms or advocates these views, but includes these writings in an attempt to collect on our site all the 18th-19th century American Presbyterian writings that are available digitally, for historical reference, and as a humbling reminder that all men have feet of clay.)
[The majority of this post was first published on July 29, 2017.]
The Story of William Sheppard, African-American Presbyterian Missionary to the Congo, is Amazing
If you're a Presbyterian and you've never heard of William Henry Sheppard, that isn't surprising. But it is disappointing. He was a black Southern Presbyterian missionary to the Congo, who overcame prejudice and segregation to bring the gospel to the Congolese. At times perhaps he seems to have been more explorer and artifact collector than Christian missionary, but his impact on Presbyterian and world history was significant in both church and state. You can read his account of his missionary journeys here.
[This post was originally published on July 26, 2017. See also Pagan Kennedy, Black Livingstone: A True Tale of Adventure in the Nineteenth-Century Congo here.]
Happy 300th Birthday to John Cuthbertson, Pioneer Covenanter Missionary!
The name of John Cuthbertson is greatly renowned in both the history of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of America, and that of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. He was born on April 3, 1718, near Ayr, Ayrshire, Scotland. Having studied theology under the auspices of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland, he was licensed 1745, ordained in 1747, and served as Moderator of the RPCS in 1750. The following year, he was sent as the first Scottish Covenanter missionary to America.
He landed in Newcastle, Delaware, where he began a diary, which still survives. "It is a small leather-bound volume, recording his day-to-day activities, sometimes in English, sometimes in Latin, often abbreviated, with some shorthand, portraying a magnificent life of travel and service" (David M. Carson, Transplanted to America: A Popular History of the American Covenanters to 1871, p. 11). Cuthbertson went on to settle at Middle Octorara, Pennsylvania, where Alexander Craighead had previously ministered, and also renewed the Scottish Covenants in 1743.
With Middle Octorara as his base, Cuthbertson traveled throughout the middle American colonies on horseback, through Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia, and so ministered widely to the scattered Scots-Irish in these places. "His ministry spanned the forty years after his 1751 arrival, and he traversed a remarkable 70,000 miles in his preaching tours through at least seven colonies" (Joseph S. Moore, Founding Sins: How a Group of Antislavery Radicals Fought to Put Christ into the Constitution, p. 44). Extracted from his diary by S. Helen Fields is a Register of Baptisms and Marriages performed by Rev. John Cuthbertson. "According to his diary, during the thirty-nine years he was engaged in active service, he preached on two thousand four hundred and fifty-two days; baptized one thousand eight hundred and six children; married two hundred and forty couples; rode on horseback seventy thousand miles, or nearly equal to three times around the world. And this traveling was done in those days when there were no roads or bridges" (William M. Glasgow, History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America, p. 478). His travels and trials are recorded in this diary with brevity ("Slept none. Bugs." "Give all praise to my gracious God." "l.D. [laus Deo, praise to God]") and with humility: "a real conviction of one's original guilt; actual transgressions of childhood; riper years, especially in the great office of the ministry; pride, carnality, indifference, want of true zeal for Christ's cause and the welfare of Immortal souls..." [after reading a sermon by Ralph Erskine].
On March 10, 1774, along with two other ministers and some ruling elders, Cuthbertson helped to establish the first Reformed Presbytery in America. His diary entry for March 9, 1774 states "Conversed with Messrs. Lind, Dobbin & until 1 o,clock," and on the following day he wrote "After more consultation, & prayer, Presbytery." On July 2, 1777, Cuthbertson swore allegiance to the cause of the American colonies in their conflict with Great Britain. Formal discussions with the Associate Church in that same year, and in 1782, these two ecclesiastical bodies merged to become the Associate Reformed Church, taking with them most members of both churches. This union between the Covenanters and the Seceders was not without challenges to Cuthbertson -- he wrote to his nephew that "Our coalescence with ye Seceders, I apprehend, is almost at an end...Was told that ye Covenanters in ye north of Ireland...had appointed a minister to come over here. Should divine Providence favor this, I expect ye true Covenanting cause might again lift up ye head in ys western world" (Letter to John Bourns, Aug. 19, 1789) -- but he never rejoined the Covenanter (Reformed Presbyterian) Church before his passing.
When he died on March 10, 1791, he was buried in the church cemetery at Middle Octorara. There is a fine sketch of his life in William M. Glasgow's History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America. On the occasion of his 300th birthday, this pioneer Covenanter missionary is worthy of remembrance.
The First African-American to Speak in the US House of Representatives was a Presbyterian Pastor!
Henry Highland Garnet (1815-1882) had been the pastor of the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., for less than a year, when in 1865 the Chaplain of the US House of Representatives, William H. Channing, requested him to preach a memorial discourse on the occasion of the approval of the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution, abolishing slavery in the country. In so doing he became the first African-American man to speak in the US Capitol building. Garnet had been educated classically in New York, having escaped Southern slavery with his family when he was nine years old. He came into contact with the Presbyterian church through the ministry of Theodore Sedgwick Wright, and eventually became a Presbyterian pastor in New York, and then Washington, D.C.
His life story and memorial discourse is found here, and is important reading for Presbyterians today.
[This post was originally published on August 7, 2017.]
The Necessity of Christ's Resurrection, by John Franklin Cannon
Did Jesus have to rise from the dead? Every Christian would say "Yes" - but would we know any reasons why? In 1896, John Franklin Cannon, pastor of the Grand Avenue Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Missouri, preached a sermon entitled "The Necessity of Christ's Resurrection," published on page 287 of Southern Presbyterian Pulpit: a Collection of Sermons by Ministers of the Southern Presbyterian Church (you can find this book on the Compilations page of the Log College Press website). We won't steal Cannon's thunder, but suffice it to say that the reasons he gives are theological robust, Christ-exalting, and spiritually invigorating. Read it today to have your faith in the resurrection of Jesus solidified and strengthened!
Biblical Fasting
Have you wondered if fasting is still an ordinance of God for Christians today? Samuel Miller (1769-1850) provides sound teaching on this extraordinary element of worship prescribed in the Westminster Confession of Faith (21.5) and in the Westminster Directory of Public Worship. It is, as he affirms, a duty, and a blessing, to those who seek to draw near to God in a special way. His 1831 sermon on The Duty, The Benefits, and the Proper Method of Religious Fasting remains a faithful witness to an ordinance that is much-neglected today.
Consider his words concerning Daniel and how they resonate today: "Religion was at a low ebb among the professing people of God. Even their deep adversity had not led them to repentance and reformation. ... But this holy man trusted in God; and in the exercise of faith, saw, beyond the clouds which encircled him and his people, a ray of light which promised at once deliverance and glory. He perceived nothing, indeed, among the mass of his Jewish brethren which indicated a speedy termination of their captivity; but he 'understood by books,' that is, he firmly believed, on the ground of a recorded prophecy, delivered by Jeremiah, that the period of their liberation was drawing nigh. In this situation, what does he do? Instead of desponding, he 'encourages himself in the Lord his God.' And, instead of allowing himself to indulge a spirit of presumption or indolence, on account of the certainty of the approaching deliverance, he considers himself as called to special humiliation, fasting and prayer; to humble himself before God under a sense of the deep unworthiness of himself and his companions in captivity; and to pray with importunity that their unmerited emancipation might be at once hastened and sanctified. Such is the spirit of genuine piety."
Miller helps us to understand that fasting has its place in the life of a Christian. Take time to study this religious duty, and to find the blessing that God has ordained for those who practice it in faith.
Philadephia Presbyterianism
Some cities have a religious connection that endures even today in secular American society, such as Boston and the Puritans. For American Presbyterians, more than any other (and there are others that have close ties to the Presbyterian Church) that city is Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1682, by the Quaker William Penn, it was here in 1706 that Francis Makemie organized the first American presbytery - the Presbytery of Philadelphia - in 1706. The first American Synod - the Synod of Philadelphia - was established in 1717. The first American General Assembly met here in 1789. As we have noted before, one of Philadelphia's greatest icons, Benjamin Franklin, did much to publish colonial Presbyterian literature. The first black Presbyterian church in America - First African Presbyterian Church, pastored by John Gloucester - was established here in 1807. Since 1857, the Presbyterian Historical Society has been situated in Philadelphia, and continues to serve as a repository of valuable records.
In 1888, Alfred Nevin published an History of the Presbytery of Philadelphia, and of Philadelphia Central. A few years later, another thorough study of Philadelphia Presbyterianism was published by William Prescott White and William H. Scott, The Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia: A Camera and Pen Sketch of Each Presbyterian Church and Institution in the City (1895). These volumes are still referred to by historians today, and they can be read by clicking on the author links above. Take time to get to know the work of the Lord in the city of Philadelphia from the earliest days of colonial America forward. Philadelphia is not just the home of the Liberty Bell and the birthplace of the Constitution. It has a spiritual heritage that is dear to Presbyterians and indeed all American Christians.
What Are the Limits of Church Authority?
As we have noted before, few questions are more important than to understand the nature and limits of church power. How do we distinguish between circumstances of worship and prescribed elements? May the Church authorize ceremonies in worship not commanded in Scripture?
The answer is clear from the Westminster Assembly: "God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in any thing contrary to his Word, or beside it in matters of faith or worship. So that to believe such doctrines, or to obey such commandments out of conscience, is to betray true liberty of conscience; and the requiring an implicit faith, and an absolute and blind obedience, is to destroy liberty of conscience, and reason also" and "But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation or any other way not prescribed in the holy Scripture" (Westminster Confession of Faith 20:2; 21:1).
On this topic, we have previously highlighted John Bailey Adger (1810-1899)'s 1884 article on "Church Power." He affirms: "Our doctrine, our discipline, our worship, are all divine and revealed things, to which the Church can add, from which she can take away, nothing. No more discretion has the Church in regulating those who compose her membership. She can make no new laws to bind their conscience. Neither contrary to, nor yet beside the Scripture, can she impose any new duties not imposed on men by the Word. On the other hand, she cannot make anything to be sinful which God himself has not forbidden. In fine, the Church has no lawmaking power, except as to circumstances of time and place, order and decency, which, from the nature of the case, Scripture could not regulate, and which must needs be left, and have therefore been left, to human discretion. All the power which the Church has about laws is declarative and ministerial. Her officers are servants of the Lord, and declare not their own will, but the Lord's, and that only as he makes it known in the Word, which is open to all men, and which every man is entitled to judge of and interpret for himself."
We would also bring your attention two additional works by John Lafayette Girardeau (1825-1898): 1) The Discretionary Power of the Church (a sermon preached in 1875, found in his Sermons, wherein he quotes James Henley Thornwell so profoundly; and 2) Individual Liberty and Church Authority, a sermon preached in 1889.
These works help to clarify that ecclesiastical authority is ministerial and delegated, not authoritative in itself. Adger and Girardeau have correctly and helpfully exposited the nature and limits of church authority, limiting it to what God has authorized, and not going beyond that. Take time to study these works, and to address what a very important question that every Christian must face.