Whatever happened to William Tennent, Jr.?

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Few figures in Reformed and Presbyterian history have had a greater cloud of mystery shrouding them than William Tennent, Jr. His first biographer, Elias Boudinot IV, wrote of him: We have never known a man in modern times concerning whom so many extraordinary things are related.” Frank R. Symmes adds: “His biography is of surpassing interest, a fascinating story of the unusual and extraordinary in spiritual life.” The son of the founder of the original Log College of Neshaminy, Pennsylvania, which was the seed that grew into the College of New Jersey (Princeton), he was trained for the ministry and then sent to New Brunswick, New Jersey for further training and theological exams under his brother Gilbert, who was already serving as a minister of the gospel.

While there, the toll of his intense studies affected his physical and emotional health greatly, so much so that his body wasted away and doubts of his salvation assailed him. In that condition, and he fainted. To all appearances he was in fact dead, and Gilbert with great sadness began the process of arranging for his funeral. A doctor arrived and thought he detected a slight tremor in one arm, but even a day later, no further sign of life was detected. Yet the doctor continued with efforts to revive him, delaying the scheduled funeral, until while Gilbert and the assembly who had gathered had grown impatient thinking the doctor’s efforts were useless, suddenly, William with a groan opened his eyes, and then relapsed into unconsciousness. This happened again and again until after a time he revived fully, though was bedridden for a year following. He experienced almost complete amnesia, which was discovered when his sister Eleanor found that he did not know what the Bible was. He had to be re-taught everything, although after more time, as he regained strength, the memory of his past life eventually returned to him.

Something else was learned of his experience. As he related it to both Elias Boudinot and separately to Dr. John Woodhull, while he was unconscious, he experienced a trance.

This was the substance of his recital: suddenly he found himself in another state of existence, with an innumerable throng of heavenly beings surrounding him, singing hallelujahs with unspeakable rapture. He was unable to define any shapes to these celestial beings, aware only of their adoration and the aura of glory enfolding them. His entire being was so pervaded with their rapture that he longed to join them, comforted by the thought that he had been redeemed and permitted to enter heaven. But at this point the guide who had led him thither told him that he must return to earth. The thought pierced his soul like a sword and at that instant he awoke to hear the doctor and Gilbert arguing above him. The three days had seemed but a few moments in length, but for three years afterward the echoes of that celestial music rang ceaselessly in his ears (Mary A. Tennent, Light in Darkness: The Life of William Tennent, Sr. and The Log College, pp. 104-105).

So William thus narrowly escaped being buried alive, and eventually was ordained to the ministry, and lived a full life until sickness and death overtook him in 1777. The story of his trance was widely discussed, with some understanding it in natural and others in supernatural terms.

Boudinot wrote: “The pious and candid reader is left to his own reflection on the very extraordinary occurrence. The facts have been stated and they are unquestionable. The writer will only ask whether it is contrary to the revealed truth or to reason to believe that in every age of the world, instances like that here recorded have occurred to furnish living testimony to the reality of the invisible world, and the infinite importance of eternal concerns” (Life of the Rev. William Tennent, p. 24).

Archibald Alexander did not view the trance as anything more than what could be “accounted for on natural principles.” Although there was other event in William’s life that led Alexander to conclude that God does still interpose in human affairs by means of dreams - a man and his wife who came from Maryland to Trenton, New Jersey after having both experienced the same dream whereby they were called to come to the aid of a Mr. Tennent who was in great distress. In fact, at the time they found him in Trenton he was facing a false charge of perjury for having served as a witness for the defense of a fellow minister accused of robbery under a case of mistaken identity. The arrival of the man and his wife from Maryland, who had previous contact with him, was helpful in establishing an alibi for William during his trial, and led to a verdict on “not guilty” on William’s behalf. It was a remarkable end to a troublesome situation (Biographical Sketches of the Founder, and Principal Alumni of the Log College, pp. 192-200, 222-231).

Back to William’s trace, Mary Tennent, writing in 1971, says: “Of course the simple explanation is that after a long and devastating illness, in a state of exhaustion and weakness, he sank into a coma from which he was at length aroused by the continuous efforts of his friend, the doctor. The vivid dream occurring during the few moments of returning consciousness was the natural result of his last conscious anxiety concerning his soul, while the tremendous surge of happiness at seeing and hearing the angelic choir was but a subconscious wish fulfillment” (Light in the Darkness: The Story of William Tennent, Sr. and The Log College, p. 105).

Many other fascinating anecdotes are recorded about William by Boudinot and Alexander. One that is mentioned by the latter, but not the former. One night he awoke from his sleep with intense pain in one foot. It seems that several of his toes had been cleanly amputated, although the toes were not to be found, nor was there any bloody trail or blade was found. There was simply no explanation for the event, which left him minus several toes. Whether he was a sleepwalker who had an accident or whether something else natural or supernatural occurred, we have no way of knowing.

This is just one of many extraordinary events in the life of an extraordinary man. The biographies consulted above are worth perusing to learn more about this remarkable figure and his place in church history.

Thomas Peck on the Acts of the Apostles is a Treasure

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If you are studying or preaching on the Acts of the Apostles, do not neglect to consult the writings of Thomas Peck. They are found in the third volume of his Works or Miscellanies. There you will find almost 200 pages of “Notes” on Acts — which he tells us do not constitutes a commentary, but rather are the product of his studies and meditations upon the texts — along with almost another 50 pages of “Briefs and Sermons” on Acts, and then another 15 pages of “Sermons Referred to in the Sermon Briefs on Acts.” Altogether, they constitute a treasure that should be greatly valued even today.

Whether discussing the place of Acts within the New Testament, the founding of the Christian Church, the Synod at Jerusalem or the remarkable tie between the Psalms and Acts (as well as between the Psalms and Christian believers today), Peck offers the reader many nuggets of wisdom. Especially golden are his sermon briefs on Acts 2:39 (“The Relation of the Church to Her Baptized Children”); his thoughts on what it means to bear the name Christian (Acts 11:26); his discussion of the claims of the ministry (Acts 6:3 and 22:10); and the practical inferences he draws for all believers from the question “What shall I do, Lord?” (Acts 22:10). It is on Acts 2:39 that he makes the profound observation that “The Psalms of David…are even now the chosen vehicles of the experience of the most advanced believers.”

When studying Acts, by all means consult commentaries such as those by Joseph A. Alexander, but do not fail to also mine the treasure that is to be found in Volume 3 of Thomas Peck’s Works.

New Addition to Log College Press: B.M. Smith & A.R. Fausset on the Poetical Books of the Bible

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The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown commentary on the Bible (1871) has been a valuable tool for student of the Bible for almost 150 years. It is so named for the Biblical scholars who collaborated to publish it: Robert Jamieson (Scottish, 1802–1880); Andrew Robert Fausset (Irish-English, 1821–1910); David Brown (Scottish, 1803–1897). It fell to Jamieson to comment upon Genesis-Esther; Fausset expounded upon Job-Malachi and 1 Corinthians to Revelation; and Brown commented upon Matthew-Acts. This work has been commended by Charles Spurgeon and many others.

Less well-known perhaps, A.R. Fausset had collaborated earlier with the American pastor-scholar Benjamin Mosby Smith (1811-1893) to publish The Poetical Books of the Holy Scriptures: With a Critical and Explanatory Commentary. Francis R. Flournoy, Smith’s grandson and biographer, tells us a little about this:

In 1859 he published, in co-operation with the Rev. A.R. Fausset, an English scholar, an edition of the Poetical Books of the Bible, with a critical and explanatory commentary, Dr. Smith preparing the sections on Psalms and Proverbs. This work was published in England, and after the Civil War it was brought out in the United States.

Thus in this collaborative commentary on the Poetical Books, Fausset wrote on Job, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon, while Smith wrote on the Psalms and Proverbs. Interestingly, a comparison of the Fausset-Smith commentary with the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown commentary on the same poetical books shows that the material is largely the same. An example of this can be seen where Smith is credited for a comment upon Ecclesiastes 12:6 in the 1859/1867 FS commentary at LCP as well as within editions of the 1871 JFB commentary; and, more significantly, the introductions to Psalms and Proverbs are verbatim in both commentaries (the same is true of Fausset’s individual book introductions, although the overall introduction to the poetical books differs). Further - but not by this writer a complete - comparison between the commentaries shows that much of the commentary material on Psalms and Proverbs from the FS edition is to be found in the JFB edition as well. WorldCat shows that early editions under the title, for example, “The Holy Bible: According to the Authorised Version, with original and selected parallel references and marginal readings, an an original and copious critical and explanatory commentary” (1871) do credit B.M. Smith as an author, along with Jamieson, Fausset and Brown. Later editions, however, have simply largely or completely scrubbed out Smith’s name as a contributor. The fact remains that Benjamin Mosby Smith is today a largely uncredited and mostly forgotten contributor to to the Psalms and Proverbs portions of the more well-known JFB commentary.

Read the newly-added FS commentary for yourself here at Smith’s author page or at the Commentaries page, and if you seek to glean more from the Psalms and Proverbs, remember to consult the scholarship of B.M. Smith.

Grimké's Tribute to Theodore Roosevelt - 100 Years Ago

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Last month marked the centennial anniversary of the death of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt (October 27, 1858 - January 6, 1919). His death was commemorated exactly one hundred years ago on February 19, 1919 in an address by Francis J. Grimké, which we remember today.

The man who occupied the White House at this moment in history was the noted Presbyterian Woodrow Wilson (his father Joseph Ruggles Wilson on the occasion of Woodrow’s 1897 ordination to the office of ruling elder famously declared: "I would rather that he held that position than be president of the United States”). Meanwhile, Grimké was serving as pastor of the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. Grimké and Wilson had a difficult past history: In September 1913, Francis Grimké had written to President Wilson opposing his administration’s newly-enacted policy of segregating the federal service. Francis’ brother, Archibald Grimké, was serving at the same time as head of the D.C. branch of the NAACP, and also opposed President Wilson’s policy of racial exclusion towards African-Americans, leading a protest of 10,000 citizens to a church a few blocks away from the White House in protest of what he termed the “New Slavery.” Francis Grimké later continued to speak out against segregation of the U.S. armed forces during World War I.

While President Wilson’s tenure in office was a great disappointment to Francis Grimké on the grounds of Wilson’s treatment of African-Americans, Grimké had the utmost respect for President Theodore Roosevelt, who, as Grimké had observed in an October 1901 sermon, famously dined at the White House with Booker T. Washington, much to the dismay of many American whites. In the eulogy which Grimké delievered on February 19, 1919, he drew a distinction between the two presidents,

"What a contrast there is between Woodrow Wilson and a man like Theodore Roosevelt. How different is the impression that the two men make upon you. Mr. Roosevelt impresses you at once, not only with his extraordinary vigor of body and mind, but also with his bigness of soul, with his great-heartedness, with his broad humanitarian principles, with his interest in and desire to give every man, of whatever race or color, an even and equal chance in the race of life. You never find him standing in the way, set ting himself in opposition to the progress of any class or race of human beings: you never find him wallowing in the mire of a narrow, degrading, ignoble race prejudice. You find him always reaching out himself for the largest and the best things, and saying to every other man, be he white or black. 'Come on and do likewise, — make the most of yourself and of your opportunities.' Theodore Roosevelt possesses not only a virile personality and a big brain, but also a big heart, — a great soul, — a man who has caught the vision of what it is to be a man, animated by the spirit of Jesus Christ, built after His model, and not a mere thinking machine, cold, calculating heartless.

"The contemptible little business in which Mr. Wilson and his southern friends and admirers are engaged, of trying to keep the colored people from going forward by endeavoring to block their way, by doing everything they can to impress them with their inferiority, and to beget in them a spirit of contentment in a condition of inferiority, is in marked contrast with the high minded, liberty-loving, justice seeking, kindly, brotherly spirit of Mr. Roosevelt. Humanity is not likely to make very much progress in pushing forward the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, in enthroning in the hearts of men the great ideal of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man; and the practical realization of this great ideal in the everyday life of the world, in all the relations existing between man and man, except under such leaders as Theodore Roosevelt. Leaders of the type of Woodrow Wilson will always be a clog on the wheels of progress as humanity moves on towards the goal, — the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."

For Grimké, the difference between the two men, based largely on Roosevelt’s ability to deal with men of all colors as men, and Wilson’s evident desire to keep African-Americans within a second class status based on the color of their skin, was enormous. The text chosen by Grimké for Roosevelt’s eulogy was: “And the king said unto his servants, Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel” (2 Samuel 3:38). Theodore Roosevelt was beloved by Grimké, and the tenderness and respect which he held for the former President is as evident in this address as is the palpable bitterness and disappointment with which Grimké viewed the current president.

It is not often that God sends into the world a man like Theodore Roosevelt; only once in a great while, only once in many centuries. What Shakespeare said about Hamlet may be truly said of him,

He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again.

Surely, not in our day shall such a unique personality appear on the stage of action.

This is the tribute of an African-American Presbyterian pastor who ministered in Washington, D.C. during the administrations of two presidents whom he saw as very different men. Take time, if you will, to read his full address honoring the memory of Theodore Roosevelt, given 100 years ago today exactly, which can be found in his Works, Vol. 1, beginning at page 174 at Francis Grimké’s author page here. For more on the life of Francis Grimké, see Thabiti Anyabwile, The Faithful Preacher: Recapturing the Vision of Three Pioneering African-American Pastors (2007) at our secondary sources page here. To purchase Francis Grimké’s Meditations on Preaching, please visit our bookstore here.

Book Highlight: Presbyterian Worship in America by Julius Melton

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From time to time, we hope to highlight books from our Secondary Sources page — which is intended to serve as a wealth of secondary resources on American Presbyterianism — which are of particular meaning and interest.

For this writer, one such book is Presbyterian Worship in America: Changing Patterns in Worship Since 1787 by the Rev. Dr. Julius Wemyss Melton, Jr. (1933-2017). First published as the product of his doctoral dissertation research at Princeton University in 1967, and later expanded in 2001 with an additional chapter which was first published in 1984 as part of a festschrift to honor his mentor, Horton Davies (John E. Booty, ed., The Divine Drama in History and Liturgy: Essays in Honor of Horton Davies on His Retirement From Princeton University), this book has served me as a valuable resource for the study of how Presbyterian worship in America has changed since the founding of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUSA).

Born in Jackson, Mississippi, the author received his B.A. from Mississippi College (1955); a B.D. (1958) and Th.M. (1959) from Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia; and master’s (1962) and Ph.D. (1966) degrees in religion from Princeton University; and has worked and taught at places such Southwestern (now Rhodes College) at Memphis, Tennessee, the University of Geneva, and Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina. He has been involved in both academic and ecclesiastical work, laboring in many capacities for his presbytery and denomination (PCUSA). He was a contributor to Donald K. McKim, ed., Encyclopedia of the Reformed Faith (1992). He was also a dear friend of this writer’s family.

Presbyterian Worship in America is the single most important book known to this writer on the broad topic which is of deep interest to many. To answer the question of how mainline Presbyterians at the turn of the 19th century (that is, circa 1800) worshiped, and why their forms of worship have changed so dramatically two centuries later, there is no other individual volume that so helpfully connects the dots. The scholarly research performed by Dr. Melton is a goldmine for those who wish to dig further. His end notes are full of citations to valuable primary material. It was from the first chapter that this writer first learned of Samuel Miller’s 1796 Sketch of the Early History of the First Presbyterian Church, which was reprinted in 1937, a rare copy of which I located at the Princeton Theological Seminary and later uploaded to Log College Press. Perhaps it was this very copy that Dr. Melton consulted in his own research.

The list of worship sub-topics that is covered by this volume is extensive, including holidays, musical instruments, liturgies, psalms and hymns, offerings, sacraments, responsive readings, preaching, Sabbath observance, and so much more. The additional chapter mentioned above, which is focused on trends in American Presbyterian worship of the 20th century, perhaps inspired by a similar chart comparing liturgies found in Horton Davies’ The Worship of the English Puritans, contains a chart comparing the orders of worship found in five American Presbyterian books of worship dating from 1906, 1932, 1946, 1970 and 1983.

Over many years of study, this is the book that has helped this writer more than any other individual work to better understand how things historically were done in worship, and why certain aspects of worship changed over the years. It is commended to the student of early American Presbyterian church history as a most useful resource, and it can be purchased at our Secondary Sources page here.

"Jubilee of days!" - Samuel J. Cassels on the Christian Sabbath

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Providence and Other Poems (1838), historically at least, is “a pioneer work in Georgia literature” (Lawrence Huff, “Samuel Jones Cassels: A Pioneer Georgia Poet,” in The Georgia Historical Quarterly, Vol. 47, No. 4 (Dec. 1963), p. 412), one of the first books of poetry ever to be published in that state. In one section titled “The Church,” the Presbyterian minister-poet Cassels gives a special tribute to the Christian Sabbath that is worth reflecting upon as the Lord’s Day draws nigh.

The first was Sabbath Day — holiest of time.
For many ends did God this day appoint;
The first — to celebrate his glorious praise
For wise construction of the universe,
And living memory thereof transmit
To farthest sons of distant time unborn.
The man, who by the nerve of mighty arm —
By laboring long and hard with weighty care —
Has founded by his sword an Empire vast, —
And widely spread o'er all the rescued land,
The beauteous works of peace and happiness —
The massy stone erects on high and there
His own, his country's name he writes, and stamps
The date, when sheath'd his sword, the work was done.
But chief, this day now points to second birth
Of world and man — to Resurrection-morn —
When vanquished Hell, and Death are captive bound,
From rocky tomb the great Redeemer rose
And brought in triumph high the vict'ry forth.
Another end — to give to thoughtless men
A leisure time to fit their souls for Heaven —
In shadows substances to show — and thus
T' unlock their fast clenched arms, and cast away
The world, more lov'd by most than Book of God.

Loveliest of time! Jubilee of days!
In secret bower hid, the christian rais'd
His eye expecting long its dawn to hail:
And as upon the distant East it blush'd
He met with rolling tear of holy joy —
Felt through his soul diffus'd a richer light,
And bending low at holy feet divine,
His heart pour'd forth in drops of gratitude;
Then rais'd his eye, in faith he fervent ask'd,
For dawn of endless Sabbath on his soul
O'er all the land sweet stillness wide prevail'd;
And nature joyous seem'd in silent gaze
Upon her God — while ear of saint devout
The footsteps soft of angels walking hears,
And sweetest notes that from the world of light
Escaping fell from lips of Seraphim.
High Heaven and Earth seem'd join'd in union sweet,
And God with either hand encircling each
Did to his bosom bring the Archangel
And the saint that wept in penitence —
Them brothers call and Him their Father kind.

May your Lord’s Day be blessed, dear reader.

The First Book Published in Kentucky was by a Presbyterian Minister - Adam Rankin

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The first book printed in the State of Kentucky (which became a state in 1792) was published on January 1, 1793 by a Pennsylvania-born (March 24, 1755) Presbyterian minister, Adam Rankin. It is titled, A Process of the Transilvania Presbytery, which refers to the presbytery covering the territory of Kentucky within the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America, established in 1786. Adam Rankin had been charged with several offenses which involved worship and doctrinal differences between him and others. This book is his account of the matter.

In this interesting work, Rankin fired the first literary salvo in his controversy with the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA), specifically, the Transilvania (Transylvania) Presbytery of Kentucky, of which he was a member. The controversy led to the further publishing of 1) A Narrative of Mr. Adam Rankin's Trial by the Transylvania Presbytery (1793); and 2) Adam Rankin’s A Reply to a Narrative of Mr. Adam Rankin's Trial (1794). Here, in A Process, he lays out the particular charges that were leveled against him, along with his defense. Additional sections of the book set forth his reasons for separating from the PCUSA (he later joined the Associate Reformed Church); a digest of his positions on matters of controversy at that time between the PCUSA and the ARC, including the free offer of the gospel, terms of communion, national covenanting, marriage licenses and more; followed by “A Appendix on a late performance of the Rev. Mr. John Black of Marsh Creek, Pennsylvania,” in which Rankin sets forth satirically a “Modern Creed” which lays out the arguments of the opposition, largely regarding the place of the Psalms in worship.

One of the major issues between Rankin and the Transylvania Presbytery was his conviction that the Psalms of David alone were to be sung in public worship, to the exclusion of Isaac Watts’ imitations. A Process, in fact, constitutes one of the earliest published American defenses of exclusive psalmody. Following the January 1, 1793 publication of A Process, we have at Log College Press also a February 7, 1793 letter of encouragement from ARC minister Robert Annan to Rankin touching on this very issue.

Rankin is famous in church history for possessing difficult temperament. Here is an opportunity to read his own words in the heat of controversy to see for yourself how he expressed himself. Also available at LCP is his Dialogues, Pleasant and Interesting, Upon the All-Important Question in Church Government, What are the Legitimate Terms of Admission to Visible Church Communion? (1819). John Wilson Townsend, Kentucky in American Letters, 1784-1912, Vol. 1, p. 18 (1913), says: “His Dialogues …, is really his most important publication, but it has been greatly overlooked in the recent rush among Kentucky historical writers to list A Process as the first book published in Kentucky.”

Controversy followed Rankin even in the ARC in the form of a dispute with Robert Hamilton Bishop, which resulted in church discipline for both men. Eventually, Rankin left the ARC too, bidding his Lexington, Kentucky congregation farewell with plans to travel to Jerusalem. He died on the way in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on November 25, 1827. James Brown Scouller, A Manual of the United Presbyterian Church of North America, 1751-1881, pp. 493-494, writes:

There can be no question that Mr. Rankin was “encompassed with infirmities,” that he was sensitive, a little jealous, impulsive and strong of will, so that he soon put himself on the defensive, and always with his face to the foe, and he had the misfortune of living at a time when ecclesiastical things did not always run smoothly. On the other hand it is just as certain that he was loyal to the truth and valorous in its defence, however faulty his methods. He was of unquestioned piety, and commanded the full confidence of those among whom he lived. He possessed unusual eloquence and power in the pulpit, and often moved a whole congregation to tears.

A Minister's Note to His Wife: Benjamin M. Smith

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Benjamin Mosby Smith had reached the beginning of his seventh decade of his life. But his health was poor. His thoughts turned to his wife, Mary Moore Morrison Smith, to whom he had become engaged while on a picnic under the Natural Bridge in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, and to whom he had been married in 1838. The note he wrote her is recorded by his grandson and biographer, Francis R. Flournoy, in Benjamin Mosby Smith, 1811-1893, pp. 118-119.

In July, 1871, Dr. Smith wrote what he called a “Memorandum for My Dear Wife,” which reads as follows.

I am now sixty. My health is not good. I cannot expect in the course of nature to last long. I wish to put on record for a few things.

1 — I desire you to submit with Christian temper to God’s ordering if I am taken from you. Remember your blessings. Be thankful for all of them connected with our union. Do not mourn over those things which have given us trouble. Thank God He has by His restraining grace withheld from us more sorrow than has befallen us.

2 — I do not derive any comfort in view of death, from looking at myself or the recollection of any thing in me heretofore. In a far more literal sense than many use the phrase, “I am a sinner.” My only proper epitaph is “A Sinner.” If of God’s mercy may be added “saved by Grace,” it will be a most remarkable trophy of that Grace. I have been a communicant in the church for forty years and “My leanness, my leanness!” has ever been my lament.

While there is nothing in myself to encourage me, I can truly say I have for several years felt more and more my need of a Saviour — a complete, sole Saviour and I can and do now and then, find comfort in a simple resting on an all sufficient sacrifice, an all teaching Prophet, and an all interceding and ever prevalent mediator and an almighty King. This is all my Hope. I say not there is comfort in the past nor do I rest on my resolutions or endeavours for the future but my sole rest is in Christ’s finished work and in His daily hourly supply of grace. I have no raptures nor deep mournings or repentings on which to rest and would not rest on them if I had. Christ is all. If He rejects, I am rejected — if He accepts all is well. His infinite love encourages my trust while my infinite demerit discourages me and I fall back on a simple implicit unqualified trust. In that I daily seek to live and trust to die…

“The meek will He guide in the judgment, the meek will He teach his way.” “Trust in the Lord and do good.” “Blessed are all they who put their trust in the King in Zion.” May the God of the widow and the fatherless be the God of those I love, for whom I have laboured and to whom my heart will ever turn with ineffable fondness…

The apprehension of his approaching end, however, proved groundless. His health improved, and his busy, useful life was prolonged until his eighty-second year.

The mortal remains of both husband and wife today reside in the Union Theological Seminary Cemetery at Hampden-Sydney, Virginia, where they await the glorious return of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. This little note provides a snapshot of the faith, hope and charity (love) of a man towards his wife that may be an encouragement to husbands and wives today. Flournoy’s biography of B.M. Smith is a valuable read about the life of this Southern Presbyterian worthy and one can purchase a copy through our secondary sources bookstore page here.

Samuel Miller Defends the Puritans and Pilgrims on Christmas

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In December of 1825, Samuel Miller had occasion to write to the editor of the New York Commercial Advertiser. The paper had made a point of defending the observance of Christmas, which in that era was a significant break from Protestant practice in America, and chose to criticize the Puritans for their opposition to it as well. Miller was serving as Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Government at the College of New Jersey (Princeton) at the time. His father, John Miller, though a Presbyterian by conviction had joined the Old South Church (Congregational) in Boston, Massachusetts under the ministry of the Rev. Joseph Sewall, son of the Puritan Samuel Sewall. Christmas observance in Massachusetts was banned from 1659 to 1681, but did not become popular in New England until the mid-nineteenth century (it was made a federal public holiday in 1870). Miller, “one of the descendants of those venerable men” (as he describes himself), took upon the task of writing a letter in response to the paper in defense of the views and practices of the Puritans and Pilgrims who opposed Christmas. He signed his letter using a pseudonym, “Biblicus.” He begins thus:

As you have, in your paper of yesterday, availed yourself of your editorial privilege, to plead in behalf of the religious observance of Christmas, and undertaken, moreover, to “condemn the error” of the Puritans in refusing to observe this festival themselves (for in no other sense, that I know of did they ever “prohibit” the observance of it),* will you allow a subscriber to your paper, and one of the descendants of those venerable men, to say a word in their vindication? No controversy on this subject is intended; and if I know how to pen these few lines in such a manner as to preclude the possibility of any further discussion, I should be glad to do it. I assure you, sir, it makes no part of my present plan to “condemn,” or even to find the least fault with, those who think it their duty to observe Christmas, and other holy days. “Let every one be fully persuaded in his own mind.” I venerate and love many who are of that opinion, though I cannot think with them. But you, surely, will not deny me the privilege of saying a word, the only object of which is to alleviate, if not to advert, the sentence which you have passed against a body of men “of whom the world was not worthy,” and whose example I wish many were as willing to follow as to praise.

The Pilgrims of Plymouth, Massachusetts were known for their opposition to the observance of this extra-Biblical holy day. William Bradford wrote in Of Plymouth Plantation:

And herewith I shall end this year [1621]. Only I shall remember one passage more, rather of mirth then of waight. One ye day called Christmas-day, ye Govr [William Bradford] caled them out to worke, (as was used,) but ye most of this new-company excused them selves and said it wente against their consciences to work on yt day. So ye Govr tould them that if they made it mater of conscience, he would spare them till they were better informed. So he led-away ye rest and left them; but when they came home at noone from their worke, he found them in ye streete at play, openly; somepitching ye barr, & some at stoole-ball, and shuch like sports. So he went to them, and tooke away their implements, and tould them that was against his conscience, that they should play & others worke. If they made ye keeping of it mater of devotion, let them kepe their houses, but ther should be no gameing or revelling in ye streets. Since which time nothing hath been atempted that way, at least openly.

Miller then laid out the main reasons why the Pilgrims and Puritans were opposed, on Biblical grounds, to the observance of Christmas:

The “Pilgrims,” then, for themselves only, refused to observe Christmas, and other holy days, for the following reasons.

I. They thought that no warrant for any such observance was to be found in Scripture. They believed that every institution of this nature, pertaining to the Old Testament economy, was abolished at the coming of Christ; that no similar days were appointed in their place; that neither the Savior nor his inspired Apostles gave the least countenance, either by precept or example, to the sanctification of any other day than the Sabbath.

II. They considered the Bible as the only infallible rule of faith and practice. They denied that the Church, or any member of it had a right to institute new rites or ceremonies. They were persuaded that the Lord Jesus Christ alone was the Supreme Head and King of the Church; and had no doubt that He, and those Apostles whom He inspired by his own Spirit, were as competent judges of what was proper, and for the edification of the Church, as any individual or body of individuals have been since; and, of course, that for uninspired, and therefore fallible men, to undertake to add to the number of Christ's appointments, is a measure, to say the least, of very questionable propriety.

III. They were confident that, for a long time after the death of the Apostles, no stated festival or Fast Days whatever were observed in the Church. Justin Martyr, who wrote a little after the middle of the second century, and who gives a particular account of the institutions and habits of the Christians, gives no hint of any day being kept holy, excepting the first day of the week, or the Christian Sabbath. Before the time of Origen, who flourished about the middle of the third century, the Christians had introduced several holy-days, partly to gratify the converts from Paganism; who, on coming into the Church, wished to have some substitute for the Pagan festivals which which [sic] they had abandoned. But even at this time, the observance of Christmas was unknown. — Origen give a list of the holy-days observed at the time in which he wrote; but says nothing about a festival for Christ's nativity; from which Lord Chancellor King, in his “inquiry into the Primitive Church within the first three hundred years after Christ,” confidently infers that no such festival was observed till after the time of Origen. Indeed the Christians during the first three centuries, differed so widely concerning the month and day of the Savior's birth; some placing it in April, others in May, etc. that there is an utter improbability, on this ground alone, that they commemorated the event by an ecclesiastical festival.

IV. The Puritans attached no little importance to another consideration. Supposing, (what they could not admit) that the church possesses the power to institute observances, which Christ and his Apostles never knew: supposing that [“]teaching for doctrines the commandments of men,” or in other words, adopting “human inventions in the worship of God,” could be justified; what limit they asked, could be set to this power? How far may it be carried? When the door to uncommanded observances is once opened, by whom or when will it be effectually closed? You, and a few others, Mr. Editor, might think two or three well-adjusted church festivals, besides fifty-two Sundays in the year quite sufficient. The Protestant Episcopal Church, however, in this country, has appointed about thirty stated festivals, besides a still larger number of Fast-days. The Church of England has a greater number, it is believed, both of fasts and festivals. The Church of Rome, from whom the Church of England selected her list, observes a far greater number than either. In favor of every one of these days, serious, respectable men have something very plausible to say; and have actually uttered very contemptuous, and even indignant things against plain, simple-minded Protestants, who could not easily allow such a mass of superstition. Is it any wonder, then, that the Puritans, perceiving the tendency in all churches to go to extremes in multiplying such observances, whenever they began to be introduced; and knowing that there was no way to prevent this, but by shutting them out altogether: deliberately preferred the latter as the safer course? — and truly, if there be no Bible warrant for festivals; — no solid warrant for them in the practice of the Christian Church for the first 300 years, and, above all, none for Christmas; if the whole business of bringing institutions into the Church for which there is no Divine authority, be unlawful and of dangerous tendency; and if, whenever the practice has been admitted, it has been almost always abused, that is, carried much further than it ought to have been, I cannot help thinking that the Puritans had at least plausible, if not conclusive, reasons for taking the course which they did.

The editor added a rejoinder to Miller’s letter, arguing that Puritan Massachusetts had indeed made the observation of Christmas illegal, but did not attempt to justify its observance on Biblical grounds.

Take time to read what Miller wrote in this letter here, as well as elsewhere in Presbyterianism the Truly Primitive and Apostolical Constitution of the Church of Christ and The Worship of the Presbyterian Church, on the subject of holy days. In his words, “Presbyterians do not observe holy days [excepting the Christian Sabbath or Lord’s Day].”

The graveyard of worthy words, per B.B. Warfield

(If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)

What B.B. Warfield had to say about words that were being drained of their meaning in an article that he wrote for The Princeton Theological Review just over a century ago in April 1916 (“Redeemer” and “Redemption”) seems as if it could be equally applicable to the situation we find in today’s society.

It is sad to witness the death of any worthy thing, — even of a worthy word. And worthy words do die, like any other worthy thing — if we do not take care of them. How many worthy words have already died under our very eyes, because we did not take care of them! Tennyson calls our attention to one of them. “The grand old name of gentleman,” he sings, “defamed by every charlatan, and soil’d with all ignoble use.” If you persist in calling people who are not gentlemen by the name of gentlemen, you do not make them gentlemen by so calling them, but you end by making the word gentleman mean that kind of people. The religious terrain is full of the graves of good words which have died from lack of care — they stand as close in it as do the graves today in the flats of Flanders or among the hills of northern France. And these good words are still dying all around us. There is that good word “Evangelical.” It is certainly moribund, if not already dead. Nobody any longer seems to know what it means. Even our Dictionaries no longer know….the official name of the Protestant Church in a large part of Germany is “The Evangelical Church.” When this name was first acquired by that church it had a perfectly defined meaning, and described the church as that kind of church. But having been once identified as that kind of church, it has drifted with it into the bog. The habit of calling “Evangelical” everything which was from time to time characteristic of that church or which any strong party in that church wished to make characteristic of it — has ended in robbing the term of all meaning. Along a somewhat different pathway we have arrived at the same state of affairs in America. Does anybody in the world know what “Evangelical” means, in our current religious speech? The other day, a professedly evangelical pastor, serving a church which is certainly committed by its formularies to an evangelical confession, having occasion to report in one of our newspapers on a religious meeting composed practically entirely of Unitarians and Jews, remarked with enthusiasm upon the deeply evangelical character of its spirit and utterances.

But we need not stop with “Evangelical.” Take an even greater word. Does the word “Christianity” bear a definite meaning? Men are debating on all sides of us what Christianity really is. Auguste Sabatier makes it out to be just altruism; Josiah Royce identifies it with the sentiment of loyalty; D.C. Macintosh explains it as nothing but morality. We hear of Christianity without dogma, Christianity without miracle, Christianity without Christ. Since, however, Christianity is a historical religion, an undogmatic Christianity would be an absurdity; since it is through and through a supernatural religion, a non-miraculous Christianity would be a contradiction; since it is Christianity, a Christless Christianity would be — well, let us say lamely (but with a lameness which has perhaps it own emphasis), a misnomer. People set upon calling unchristian things Christian are simply washing all meaning out of the name. If everything that is called Christianity in these days is Christianity, then there is no such thing as Christianity. A name applied indiscriminately to everything, designates nothing.

The 1838 PCUSA (Old School) General Assembly's Pastoral Letter to Foreign Missionaries

(If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)

Samuel John Baird, in his famous Digest of the Minutes of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (officially titled A Collection of the Acts, Deliverances, and Testimonies of the Supreme Judicatory of the Presbyterian Church From its Origin in America to the Present Time) includes a beautiful pastoral letter from the General Assembly to its foreign missionaries in 1838. It is signed by William Swan Plumer, the Moderator of that Assembly, and John M. Krebs, the Assembly’s Permanent Clerk. Plumer, presumably the author of the letter, calls the attention of the missionaries to eight points of importance (I encourage the reader to read the entirety of each point, found on pages 358-362 of Baird’s Digest):

1. He earnestly exhorts them to aim continually at a high standard of personal piety.
2. He calls them, in imparting a knowledge of the gospel to the heathen, to be careful to communicate its pure and simple doctrines, without any of those additions or modifications which human philosophy, falsely so called, is apt to suggest.
3. He urges them to be careful to let their example at all times manifest the power and purity of the religion you teach.
4. He entreats them to bear in mind that all their labors will be in vain, unless they are accompanied and made effectual by the power of the Holy Spirit.
5. He encourages the foreign missionaries to let the heathen among whom they labor see that they [the missionaries] love them, and that they are intent on promoting their best interest.
6. He recommends to their attention, and to their unceasing prayers, the children of the heathen.
7. He exhorts them to be careful to maintain in all their missions, the worship and order, as well as the doctrine of the Presbyterian Church.
8. He asks them to be diligent in collecting all the information of every kind, which can be considered as bearing on the missionary cause.

Plumer concludes with this word of encouragement:

"Finally, dear brethren, you are engaged in the noblest cause that can employ the attention and efforts of mortals. Be faithful unto death, and you shall receive a crown of life. And unite with us in prayer that the whole Church may, with one heart and one soul, come up to the performance of this great work. We pledge ourselves, in the fear of God, to you and to the heathen world, that, by the favour of the Almighty King of Zion, we will go forward in this cause, and employ all the means which He may put at our disposal, in prosecuting the enterprise before us. May the Lord inspire you with wisdom, and gird you with strength ! And may the Spirit of Missions be poured out in large measures upon all the Churches, that they may all feel their obligation, and all, with one consent, and with united Strength, come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty!”

Do you know a foreign missionary? Forward this post to them, and let them know that you are praying for them with all your heart.

A Trip to Hampden-Sydney College

Having the opportunity in God’s providence, this writer made a recent trip to visit Hampden-Sydney College in Hampden-Sydney, Virginia. Founded in 1775 (see the advertisement for the academy published in the October 7, 1775 issue of the Williamsburg Virginia Gazette at Founding President Samuel Stanhope Smith’s page here), this Presbyterian institution has contributed greatly to the church and to society at large in the centuries since. Archibald Alexander once served as president of the college from 1797 to 1806. I prepared for my visit by brushing up on some reading, including:

• John Luster Brinkley, On This Hill: A Narrative History of Hampden-Sydney College, 1774-1994;

• William B. Sweetser, Jr., A Copious Fountain: A History of Union Presbyterian Seminary, 1812-2012; and

• Walter Lee Lingle, Union Seminary Cemetery at Hampden-Sidney.

Thus prepared, after arriving at the beautiful campus, having passed through rain and seeing the clouds part and the sun shining again, we (my family and I) first visited the College Chapel and met the current pastor, who very kindly told us about the history and architecture of the building.

“To a man connected with Union Seminary the most sacred spot at Hampden-Sidney is the Seminary cemetery, where our beloved and distinguished dead are buried. This has also come to be the most beautiful spot in Hampden-Sidney.” — Walter L. Lingle

There is a cemetery adjacent to the chapel which we explored before driving past Venable Hall and the library to visit Union Theological Seminary Cemetery, where the mortal remains of some remarkable Christians were laid to rest, including:

• John Holt Rice (1777-1831);

• Benjamin Holt Rice (1782-1856);

• George Addison Baxter (1771-1841);

• Robert Lewis Dabney (1820-1898);

• Thomas Ephraim Peck (1822-1893);

• Benjamin Mosby Smith (1811-1893);

• Francis Smith Sampson (1814-1854);

• and Ernest Trice Thompson (1894-1985).

“Remember his holy life, and happy death; and follow him as he followed his Redeemer. So shall your lives be useful and honorable, your deaths peaceful, and perhaps triumphant; and, beyond the grave, you shall be with him in Paradise; and, in the morning of the resurrection, you shall stand with him again there on the right hand of Jesus Christ, and receive the crown of life which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give at that day — to Paul — and to Rice — and not to them only — but to all them also who love his appearing. Amen!” — William Maxwell, An Oration Commemorative of the late Rev. John Holt Rice, D.D.

Walter L. Lingle on Knowing Where to Find Knowledge

Are you a student in seminary? Or, are you perhaps a layman seeking to build your theological library? If so, today’s post is for you.

After graduating in 1896 from Union Seminary in Hampden-Sydney, Virginia, Walter Lee Lingle, future president emeritus of Davidson College in North Carolina, continued his post-graduate studies while serving as a tutor in Hebrew and Greek. He contributed an editorial to the March-April 1897 issue of The Union Seminary Magazine titled “About Books.” It is a short, valuable read that will profit the student of theological literature even — perhaps especially — in the age of Google. It is not enough to read, or to read a lot, but we must choose what we read with great care.

The Library of Union Seminary contains over fifteen thousand volumes. These books, for the most part, have been selected with the greatest care, and form one of the choicest Theological collections in the country. The best thoughts of the great religious teachers for twenty centuries are stored up here. The Divinity student can find almost anything he may wish from the works of the Ante-Nicene fathers to the latest refutation of the Kuenen-Wellhausen theory. What a rare opportunity he has of forming the acquaintance of books and authors! Yet how few seminary students avail themselves of this great opportunity.
…
We do not mean that the student should read through every book in the library. That were impossible even were it desirable. But we do mean that he should take advantage of this opportunity of learning who are the great authorities on great subjects. When the student leaves seminary he certainly should know who have written the great treatises on Theology from the Calvinistic standpoint, and the comparative merits of each. He should know which are the best commentaries on the various books of the Bible, the best discussion of the parables, the best monographs on such great themes as the Person of Christ, the Atonement, Justification, Baptism, etc. In short, he should learn in what books to look for the best discussion of those great themes with which he will be occupied all the remainder of his life. To know where to look for knowledge is a great accomplishment. Horace Walpole called it the sixth sense and coined the clumsy and infelicitous word “serendipity” to describe it. It is to be regretted that so many of us are lacking in that sense. The man who has it to the most remarkable degree of any one living is Dr. [Richard] Garnett [Jr. (1835 – 1906)], the present keeper of the printed books in the British Museum. It is said that at a half hour’s notice he can refer to anything that any man ever knew. We may never hope to become such walking encyclopedias. We may, however, by a little painstaking, learn much of books while we are yet in the seminary.
…
Every man must choose his own books, just as every man must choose his own friends. Others cannot choose for us. Never again will the student have such a rare opportunity of cultivating the acquaintance of books and of learning which he wishes to choose as his friends as he was while in the seminary. Shall we waste the opportunity?

Your time is finite but of the choice of books there is no end (Eccl. 12:12). Tolle lege (take up and read), but read with discernment, and read well!

"Where the Sparrow May Find a House" -- Moses D. Hoge

“Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.” (Ps. 84:3)

The Second Presbyterian Church of Richmond, Virginia is a remarkable architectural achievement that is largely the product of a vision by Moses Drury Hoge, its first pastor.

His nephew and biographer, Peyton Harrson Hoge, references a letter written by Moses to Mrs. Mary Parson Greenleaf in 1846, in which he laid out his dream of a new church building:

Source: Peyton H. Hoge, Moses Drury Hoge: Life and Letters, p. 90.

“I go in for a stone Gothic, rubble walls, crevices for moss and ivy; holes where old Time may stick in his memorials; cozy loop-holes of retreat, where the sparrow may find a house for herself … and the swallow a nest for her young.”

The reader will note Peyton’s historical reference to the arrival of English (House) Sparrows to America from Europe in the 1850’s, which became perhaps the first introduction of an invasive species in the United States. Construction of the Second Presbyterian Church was completed in 1848.

Source: Peyton H. Hoge, Moses Drury Hoge: Life and Letters, pp. 98-99.

Julius Melton, citing Wyndham B. Blanton, The Making of a Downtown Church, p. 79, adds to our understanding of Moses as a romantic visionary:

Even after getting such a building in 1848, Hoge’s romanticism was not abated. Some years later, after preaching before Queen Victoria, he declined her gift of a handsome Bible, requesting instead a slip of ivy from Westminster Abbey, which he carried home and planted at the base of his Gothic church (Presbyterian Worship in America: Changing Patterns Since 1787, p. 68).

Francis J. Grimké on the great honor of preaching the gospel anywhere

On November 19, 1916, Francis James Grimké delivered a 75th Anniversary Address to the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church of Washington, D.C., of which he was the pastor. In this address he took note of a former pastor of the same congregation, Henry Highland Garnet, who had the honor in 1865 to become the first African-American pastor to preach a sermon before the U.S. Congress. Grimké’s words on the subject, in which he addresses considerations of race and the preaching of the gospel, are profound (The Works of Francis J. Grimké, Vol. 1, pp. 541-543).

At a meeting held March 2, 1864, Rev. Henry Highland Garnet, of New York City, was nominated and unanimously elected pastor. His salary was fixed at $800. The call was accepted by Dr. Garnet, and he entered upon his duties in July of the same year, and continued to serve the church until October, 1866, covering a period of a little over two years. Dr. Garnet at that time was at the height of his fame as a pulpit orator and anti-slavery lecturer. His ministry here attracted, therefore, many of both races to hear him. He was a man of commanding presence and had a magnificent voice. It was while here that he preached in the National House of Representatives. It was the first time, and the only time, I believe, that that honor, if it be an honor, has been accorded to a colored man. I say, if it be an honor, and I mean just that. According to my notion the honor lies in being permitted to preach the Gospel, and not in the place where it is preached or to whom it is preached. It is just as great an honor — no more, no less, in my estimation — to preach to the humblest as to the greatest; for, in the sight of God, there is no difference. They are all sinners, standing alike in need of the Gospel. I know we are prone to think otherwise — to think that it is a great honor to be invited to preach before distinguished people. I have never been able to bring myself to look at it that way. The honor in preaching is, as the Apostle Paul expresses it, in being entrusted with the Gospel by Jesus Christ, and in giving the message. Unless we recognize this and lose sight of these earthly distinctions — unless we get out of our minds entirely the thought of great and small, high and low — we won't be able to give the message effectively. I remember some time ago hearing a member of our race say : Such and such a man, calling him by name, was invited to preach in a certain white church. It was a great honor, he said. It was the first time a colored man had ever occupied that pulpit. A great honor to preach in a white church! Is that so? Is it any more of an honor to preach in a white church than in a colored church? Any more of an honor to preach to white people than to colored people? Are white people any better than colored people? Are they not all sinners alike? To my way of thinking, it is just as great an honor to preach in a colored church as it is to preach in a white church; just as great an honor to preach to colored people as it is to preach to white people. I can't see that the color of the audience can possibly have anything to do with it. I remember when Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan died, the colored papers spoke of the great honor that was conferred upon Mr. Burleigh in that he was permitted to sing at Mr. Morgan's funeral. In my judgment — and I said so at the time — it was no more of an honor for Mr. Burleigh to have sung at the funeral of J. Pierpont Morgan than for him to have sung at the funeral of the humblest member of his own race, or of any other race. If there was any honor in it, it was the splendid manner in which Mr. Burleigh acquitted himself. The fact that Mr. Morgan was rich and that he was white did not make it any more of an honor to sing at his funeral than at the funeral of anybody else, and the sooner we come to see it in that light, the better it will be for all. The Rev. Henry Highland Garnet, as I was saying, was invited to preach in the National House of Representatives, and had among his auditors Senators and Representatives. Well, what of that? Those Senators and Representatives were sinners, just as we are, and there was no more honor in speaking in that hall, and to that audience, than in speaking from this pulpit, and to the audiences that greeted Dr. Garnet here Sabbath after Sabbath.

I have referred to this incident in this anniversary address, not because I attach any personal importance to it, but simply because it was regarded, at the time, and is still regarded, as a great honor that a member of our race should have had such a courtesy extended to him, and because this man so honored happened to be the pastor of this church at the time. It was not, of course, because he was the pastor of this church that he was invited, though it occupied a conspicuous place in the community, but it was because of his prominence as a national character. He was a man that stood side by side with Frederick Douglass, in the popular estimation, and was almost as widely known.

T.V. Moore on "God's University"

In 1853, the Board of Managers for the House of Refuge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania organized a contest to draw attention to the problem of juvenile delinquency. Prize money was offered and, ultimately, three prize essays were published in 1855, which dealt with the problem in dramatically different ways, as evidenced by at least the first two titles: (1) “The State's Care of Its Children: Considered as a Check on Juvenile Delinquency;” (2) “God’s University; or, The Family Considered as a Government, a School, and a Church, the Divinely Appointed Institute for Training the Young, for the Life that Now is, and for that which is to Come”; and (3) “An Essay on Juvenile Delinquency.” The author of the second essay, which is highlighted here, is Thomas Verner Moore.

Whereas the first essay emphasizes the role of the state in restraining juvenile delinquency, and the third essay emphasizes education as the chief remedy for the problem, Moore takes the Biblical position that we should look to the Scriptures to understand both the problem and the remedy. And in doing so, he focuses our attention squarely on the role of the family, God’s institution, designed especially for the good of society and the seminary of the church. (In the words of the English Puritan William Gouge, “The family is a seminary of the church and commonwealth”)

To the extent that the youth of Moore’s day were involved in the common vices of the era, he began exploring the problem by looking at the failure of the family to train its young people in the ways of piety and obedience in the Lord. And although he speaks with conviction about the necessity for parents to inculcate obedience in their children at an early age, he also emphasizes above all love as the guiding principle of family well-being.

The grand agent in executing family laws, is love. This should manifest itself in words, looks, and tones, to be properly effective. The parent whose cold and repulsive manner represses all confiding familiarity in the child, is building a wall of ice between himself and his offspring, which even the warmth of love cannot penetrate. The child should be early taught to confide his feelings freely to his parent, by the open and loving manner of the parent, or he will seek companions and confidants elsewhere.
…
But family religion involves more than family worship. As all religion is included in love, so all family religion is contained in family love; and where there is this genuine love to God and one another, the family is not only a church, but an earthly type of heaven.

As the family is the nursery of society and the church, he tells us that education is happening whether intended or not, and that the memory of childhood lessons is of such importance and its influence of such longevity that:

There is a species of parchment manuscripts called palimpsest, which contain some recent monkish work of devotion, written over a copy of some ancient classic, but which, by a little care in removing the later writing, will give back the original copy in clear and legible distinctness. Every human soul is such a palimpsest, in which, beneath its superficial con tents, there lies an earlier and more indelible tracing of what was written on the heart, in the fresh, unblotted susceptibility of childhood and youth.

Moore concludes his essay with a summary of his points that we shall list here because in a few words of Biblical wisdom addressed to parents that are timeless he points us to Scriptural principles that will help any family.

We therefore sum up a few hints in conclusion, that embody the principles of the foregoing essay, attention to which will tend to make a happy home and a virtuous family.

1. Learn to govern yourselves, and to be gentle and patient.

2. Guard your tempers, especially in seasons of ill-health, irritation, and trouble, and soften them by prayer, penitence, and a sense of your own short comings and errors.

3. Never speak or act in anger, until you have prayed over your words or acts, and concluded that Christ would have done so, in your place.

4. Remember that valuable as is the gift of speech, the gift of silence is often much more so.

5. Do not expect too much from others, but re member that all have an evil nature, whose developments we must expect, and which we should forbear and forgive, as we often desire forbearance and forgiveness ourselves.

6. Never retort a sharp or angry word. It is the second word that makes the quarrel.

7. Beware of the first disagreement.

8. Learn to speak in a gentle tone of voice.

9. Learn to say kind and pleasant things whenever an opportunity offers.

10. Study the character of each one, and sympathize with them in their troubles, however small.

11. Do not neglect little things, if they can affect the comfort of others in the smallest degree.

12. Avoid moods and pets, and fits of sulkiness.

13. Learn to deny yourself, and to prefer others.

14. Beware of meddlers and tale-bearers.

15. Never charge a bad motive, if a good one is conceivable.

16. Be gentle but firm with children.

17. Do not allow your children to be away from home at night, without knowing where they are.

18. Do not allow them to go where they please on the Sabbath.

19. Do not furnish them much spending money.

20. Remember the grave, the judgment seat, and the scenes of eternity, and so order your home on earth, that you shall have a home in heaven.

Take time to read Moore’s prize essay on the family, and with application, you and your family will be greatly blessed.

Ashbel Green on the Best Way to Spend the Christian Sabbath

When the Westminster Confession of Faith says that “the whole time [of the Lord’s Day, or Christian Sabbath]” should be taken up in the public and private exercises of His worship (and in the duties of necessity and mercy, which is a topic for another post), how are we to understand this? Ashbel Green tackles this question in his Lectures on the Shorter Catechism, Vol. 2 (1841):

That our whole time, on the Sabbath, is to be spent in "the public and private exercise of God's worship," with no other exceptions, than those which we are afterwards to notice.

"God's worship," you will observe, includes in it, not only acts of prayer and praise, in which it immediately and more especially consists, but also every thing calculated to dispose us to those acts, and enable us to perform them with enlightened and holy ardour; and indeed, whatever has a tendency to promote the honour and glory of God.

The exercises suitable for the Sabbath are so many, that I can do little more than name them, and furnish you with some hints, on which you must enlarge for yourselves.

Green then lists the chief devotional activities that are consistent with Biblical Sabbath-keeping, such as:

1. Meditation. — This is a duty too little practised, or thought of, by Christians generally. The Psalmist says — "My meditation of thee shall be sweet, I will be glad in the Lord." Meditation, intermingled with devout ejaculations and aspirations of soul, is exemplified in many of the Psalms, and should form a part of a Christian's exercises on every Lord's day. The subjects of meditation are the works, the government, and the providence of God, his providence in relation to our own lot in life particularly, and more than all, the glorious plan of redemption, as a whole, and in its various parts and aspects.

2. Self-examination. — This is a duty which no Christian should neglect on the Lord's day. He should, if I may so speak, settle his spiritual account with himself, on the regular return of this day. He should examine, generally, whether he is in a gracious state, consider whether he is gaining or losing in religion; and should particularly go over the past week, to mark his defects, to observe the temper he has been in, the example he has set, to repent of what was wrong, and to form good resolutions for the future.

3. Secret prayer and praise. — Although no real Christian can neglect secret prayer, habitually, on any day of the week, yet he should perform this duty more frequently, particularly, and extensively, on the Sabbath, than he ordinarily can on other days, unless they be days specially set apart for the purpose of prayer. It is in secret prayer and praise, that the soul of the believer holds converse and communion with God; and what so proper as this, on the day which he claims as his own: and when this converse and communion is very sensible, no exercise so fully antedates heaven, the sabbatical "rest which remaineth for the people of God."

4. Reading the Holy Scriptures, and other books of devotion. — This, although it should be, to some extent, and as circumstances favour, an employment of a portion of our time on other days, yet it demands a special attention on the Sabbath. As far as practicable, method should be adopted in this, as in every other important concern. Let me advise you, my young friends, to confine yourselves principally, if not wholly to reading, studying, and meditating, on the word of God, in the former part of his day; to read some sound, doctrinal and practical writer, in the latter part; and to leave sacred poetry (except psalms and hymns,) with religious periodicals, to the evening. By pursuing this course, you will avoid the danger, which seems to be real and imminent at the present time, that the numerous publications of a periodical kind, will exclude almost every other sort of religious reading. Should this unhappily be realized, the rising generation, whatever zeal they may possess, will be greatly deficient in that sound doctrinal knowledge, which is the only sure basis of consistent, stable and exemplary piety.

5. Family devotion and catechetical instruction. Family devotion, you are aware, consists of prayer and praise, connected with the reading of the Holy Scriptures. These exercises should, ordinarily, be somewhat more extended on the Sabbath than on secular days: and the reading of some pious commentator, such as Henry, Burkitt, or Scott, on a portion of the divine word, will also he profitable. By catechetical instruction, I mean especially a due attention to the Shorter Catechism of our church, which every member of the family should be able accurately to repeat without book, and which the younger members should recite, and hear a portion of it explained by the head of the family. It will be well, if they can add the scripture proofs, and better still, if they can add to both the Larger Catechism. These were once common attainments, in pious families of our church; and I am persuaded that whatever has taken their place, is not for the better, but the worse. But in catechetical instruction, I also include a questioning of the children of the family, on a previously prescribed portion of the Bible; requiring an account of what other books they have read; and examining them, as to what they can remember of the discourses they may have heard in public. It is this family instruction, which must, in most cases, be principally communicated and acquired on the Lord's day, and which more than any thing — I had almost said, more than every thing beside — contributes to raise up a generation of well in- formed and steadfast Christians. It was this which long distinguished the best reformed churches, and for it, I am persuaded, no adequate substitute ever has been, or will be found

6. Public worship. — This is an important and essential part of the exercises of the Sabbath, to all who can avail themselves of it. Alas! that there are so many parts of our country, in which the privileges of the sanctuary cannot be enjoyed. But great is the criminality of those who neglect these privileges, when placed within their power. The command to such is explicit, " Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is;" and the pretence too often made, that the Sabbath may as well be employed without going to the sanctuary, as by attending there, is utterly vain and inexcusable. Nothing but the want of health and opportunity, can justify the omission. In religion, the blessing of God is every thing, and he will not confer it on those who disobey his command. Nor is it a formal attendance, but one truly devout, that God requires. We should, in ordinary circumstances, always make special prayer for a blessing to ourselves and others from the ser- vices of the sanctuary, immediately before going to them, if this be practicable; and for a blessing on what we have heard, immediately on our return to our retirements. But although I thus inculcate the duty of public worship, I cannot forbear to say, that I think there are some Christians, who greatly err, in endeavouring to spend almost the whole of the Sabbath in public. Much of it should be spent in private, in those exercises which I have already specified. Two attendances on public worship are, as a habit, as many as will be profitable, to those who seek to employ their holy time in the most advantageous manner.

7. Religious conversation is the last exercise, that I shall mention as proper for the Lord's day. This should take place when Christian friends are together on this day, and whenever we go to, or return from, the house of God in company, unless we pass the time in silence. Conversation on news, or politics, or other secular subjects, though mournfully common, is a real profanation of the day, in any part of it, and peculiarly so, immediately before, or after, the services of the sanctuary. By this evil practice, all serious thought and good impressions are often prevented; or banished or effaced, after they have been received. The conversation of Christian families, while taking their meals together, ought also to be on religious subjects. Often a profitable topic may be furnished by the sermons they have heard — not however if they be subjected to severe criticism, but when so treated as to impress the sacred truths which have been heard in public.

As Sabbath-time is the most precious time of the week, may we consider how best to spend the whole day in these activities listed by Ashbel Green and so to honor the Lord on his holy day.

Learning to pray through the Psalms: Francis J. Grimké

Francis James Grimké on the value of learning to pray through the Psalms:

In studying the psalms we get a pretty good idea of what prayer is. It is talking to God; telling him all about ourselves, our cares, our anxieties, our troubles, vexations, disappointments, in a word, unbosoming ourselves to him as we would to a confidential friend. We not only learn what prayer is, but also the comforting assurance that God wants us to come to him, wants us to confide in him, to roll our burdens upon him. We need never hesitate therefore about going to him at all times and under all circumstances.

This devotional thought comes from The Works of Francis J. Grimké, Vol. 3: Stray Thoughts and Meditations (p. 3), which is a real treasure. This volume is full of references to the Book of Psalms, which were both an inspiration and a comfort to Rev. Grimké, especially during a particularly reflective period of his life. If you appreciate his devotional work as well as his pastoral ministry, be sure to also check his Meditations on Preaching, available at Log College Press here.

William Graham and the Lost State of Franklin

Following the American War of Independence, the US Congress (operating under the Articles of Confederation) was in great financial debt. As a result, the State of North Carolina, in 1784, voted to offer a grant of land on its western frontier to Congress as a way of paying off some of its debt. Congress would be obligated to assert its control of the area within two years, which it was reluctant to do. Peace had not yet been made with the Cherokee Indians, and the settlers there were in need of a solid government. North Carolina rescinded its offer later that year, and a movement bearing the name of Benjamin Franklin, under the leadership of John Sevier, aimed to fill the power vacuum by proclaiming independence for the territory to which they originally gave the name of the State of Frankland (they later changed it to the State of Franklin).

Source: Wikipedia

There were many famous men associated with the Frankland / Franklin movement for an independent free state in what is now Tennessee. At least three Presbyterian ministers were actively involved in the movement, including the Rev. Samuel Houston (1758-1839) [uncle of the famous Virginian-Texan general and governor Sam Houston]; the Rev. Samuel Doak (1749-1830); and the Rev. William Graham (1745-1799), founder of Liberty Hall, near Lexington, Virginia, where he tutored Archibald Alexander.

It was William Graham, according to Kent Wilcox, author of The Lost History of Washington and Lee: New Discoveries: A Historical Performance Audit (2018), who authored a remarkable document titled A Declaration of Rights, along with a proposed constitution for the State of Frankland (this proposed constitution differs from that which was actually adopted later). This document, promoted by Rev. Houston, was published in Philadelphia, and demonstrates the principles of civil government to which the patriotic Presbyterian pastor adhered. Consistent with the address to Virginia’s General Assembly, also authored by Graham in 1785, neither the Declaration of Rights nor the proposed Constitution affirm or seek an established church for the “Commonwealth of Frankland,” but the proposed Constitution does assert that

…no person shall be eligible or capable to serve in this or any other office in the civil department of this State, who is of an immoral character, or guilty of such flagrant enormities as drunkenness, gaming, profane swearing, lewdness, Sabbath breaking, and such like; or who will, either in word or writing, deny any of the following propositions, viz:

1st. That there is one living and true God, the Creator and Govern or of the universe.
2nd. That there is a future state of rewards and punishments.
3rd. That the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are given by divine inspiration.
4th. That there are three divine persons in the Godhead, co-equal and co-essential.

A petition was made to Congress for statehood in 1785, but although seven states voted in favor, the required two-thirds threshold for passage was not met. The Congressional delegation went so far as to changed the name from Frankland to Franklin with the aim of soliciting more active support for the project from Benjamin Franklin himself (it is thought that Graham was not particularly favorable to the man, likely because of Franklin’s religious views, and that he originally chose the term “Frankland” to reflect this), but to no avail. In 1786, Graham, as a “citizen of Frankland,” authored an Essay on Government (not yet available at Log College Press). Although not accepted as a state, the government of Franklin attempted to operate as an independent republic until conflicts with the Cherokees and the State of North Carolina over taxes and other issues resulted in the 1788 “Battle of Franklin,” soon after which the State of Franklin collapsed, except for one county (“Lesser Franklin”) which continued its claims of independence until 1791. The territory in dispute eventually became part of a new State of Tennessee, and Sevier himself would serve as Governor of Tennessee.

For more on the life of William Graham, consult Archibald Alexander’s biographical notice which appears in Vol. 3 of William B. Sprague’s Annals of the American Pulpit. He was a fascinating and influential man in American civil and ecclesiastical history. Although the State of Franklin was short-lived, Graham’s spiritual legacy lives on through the spiritual and political lessons he taught others, including Archibald Alexander.

What should we call God's holy day? Samuel Miller answers

In January, 1836, Samuel Miller, writing for The Biblical Repertory and Theological Review, addressed a question with which many Christians today still wrestle. What should we properly call the first day of the week, that is, God’s holy day? His ten-page article is titled “The Most Suitable Name for the Christian Sabbath.”

As Miller reviews the history of the title of this day of the week, he considers the Jewish Sabbath, and certain modern objections to a Christian association with that term; distinctions observed in the early Church between “Sabbath,” “Lord’s Day,” and “Sunday;” the Quaker preference for no other designation than “first day of the week;” and the Anglican and Puritan understandings of both the purpose of the day and its appropriate title.

Finally, Miller weighs the origin and meaning of the terms “Sunday,” “Sabbath,” and “Lord’s Day,” and makes his own preference known, giving solid arguments as to why. Consider his reasoning for yourself here. There is much food for thought for us today from a 19th century Presbyterian pastor who loved God’s holy day.