Luther H. Wilson on the Charter of the Church

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Presbyterians love catechizing so much that besides the Westminster and Heidelberg catechisms, among others, they have developed ecclesiastical catechisms. These teach the principles of church government (worship and polity) that Presbyterians believe the Bible sets forth, as well as the history of Presbyterianism.

We have highlighted the ecclesiastical catechisms of Alexander McLeod and Thomas Smyth previously, as well as another by Mrs. M.W. Pratt. Today’s post concerns one by a Southern Presbyterian, Luther Halsey Wilson (1837-1914), titled The Pattern of the House: or, A Catechism upon the Constitution, Government, Discipline and Worship of the Presbyterian Church (1893). This work was added to Log College Press last year through the kind assistance of Wayne Sparkman, Director of the PCA Historical Center.

WilsonLH_1891_The_Pattern_of_the_House Title Page cropped.jpg

In pages 11-13, we find instruction concerning what Wilson calls “the charter of the church.” He is speaking of the church’s origin on earth to which Presbyterianism traces its beginning.

Q. 12. Has God always had a people upon earth from the first who were called by his name and were devoted to his service?
A. He has. [Gen. 4:26; Ps. 83:3; Is. 48:1]

Q. 13. When did this people, so far as we know, first receive its separate and distinct organization from the world?
A. In the days of Abraham.

Q. 14. When and where did Abraham live?
A. About two thousand years before the coming of Christ, and in the land of Canaan.

Q. 15. What transaction took place in Abraham’s day confirming and establishing this separation from the world?
A. God made a covenant with Abraham, bestowing certain rights and privileges upon him and his household, and upon certain conditions. [Gen. 17:1]

Q. 16. How is this covenant usually regarded by the church?
A. As the charter of the church.

Q. 17. What is a charter?
A. Any official writing or document, properly sealed and confirmed, which bestows certain rights and privileges.

Q. 18. By what other name is this covenant with Abraham sometimes known?
A. As “the household covenant.”

Q. 19. Why is it so called?
A. Because the promises and blessings of the covenant included the household as well as the believing parent.

Q. 20. Were these blessings there promised spiritual or temporal?
A. They were both spiritual and temporal.

Q. 21. How was this covenant with Abraham confirmed?
A. By the seal of circumcision.

Q. 22. What did circumcision denote?
A. The cutting off of the body of sin, and the renewing of the inward nature of man. [Deut. 10:16; Rom. 2:28-29]

Q. 23. Has this covenant ever been repealed or changed?
A. It has not.

Q. 24. Did God declare that it would ever be repealed, altered, or set aside?
A. On the contrary, he declared that it was to be an “everlasting” covenant. [Gen. 17:17; Gal. 3:17]

Q. 25. Was this covenant not repealed or changed at Mount Sinai?
A. It was not. [Gal. 3:7]

Q. 26. Nor at the coming of Christ?
A. Instead of this, it was “confirmed of God in Christ.” [Gal. 3:17]

Q. 27. Is that Abrahamic covenant, therefore, still in force, and the church now living under it?
A. Yes, it is still in force, and the church is now living under it.

Q. 28. Why, then, does not circumcision continue to be administered in the church now, as it was before the coming of Christ?
A. Because, while the same covenant is still in force, it is, nevertheless, a New Dispensation under which the church now lives, and is accompanied by a new seal.

The Abrahamic covenant of grace, of which Wilson speaks, is truly “the charter of the church,” the fundamental transaction between God and his people, which endures in the Christian era, and thus is “the Pattern of the House,” as it were.

This extract from Wilson’s catechism may whet the appetite for further reading. His treatment of where the Presbyterian church was in the pre-Reformation era is also particularly valuable, among other aspects of this fascinating work. Visit his page here and download his book to learn more.

Benjamin Rice Lacy, Jr. - the "Fighting Parson"

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The “Great War” (World War I) was a time of death but also a time of great courage. We have previously highlighted the Covenanter soldiers who served as detailed by John Wagner Pritchard (1851-1924) in Soldiers of the Church: The Story of What the Reformed Presbyterians (Covenanters) of North America, Canada, and the British Isles, Did to Win the World War of 1914-1918. Barry Waugh has edited a fascinating volume containing the correspondence of J.G. Machen titled Letters from the Front: J. Gresham Machen's Correspondence from World War 1 (2012), available here. Today’s post concerns a North Carolina-born Presbyterian who would go on to become President of Union Seminary in Richmond, Virginia and also wrote the notable work Revivals in the Midst of the Years (1943, 1968): Benjamin Rice Lacy, Jr. (1886-1981).

Lacy served in WWI as a chaplain, but the nickname he earned, the “Fighting Parson,” reveals something of his character. After having graduated from Davidson College, North Carolina, and having studied as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, England, at the time of America’s entrance into the War Lacy was serving as a chaplain in the North Carolina National Guard. He was inducted into active federal military service in July 1917. After basic training was completed at Camp Sevier, South Carolina, Lacy was sent overseas from Long Island, New York to England in May 1918. He preached for the men on his ship, and led them in the singing of hymns as well.

Lacy’s World War I service card (courtesy of the State Archives of North Carolina).

Lacy’s World War I service card (courtesy of the State Archives of North Carolina).

He and his brother Thomas A. Lacy were eventually stationed in France. He preached on the Lord’s Day, ministered to the sick and injured, helped to provide entertainment for the soldiers, and presided at funerals. Matthew M. Peek writes:

Although he stated that he would not trade his job with a man in the regular Army on the front lines, Lacy became known as the “Fighting Parson” because of his heroism in aiding the wounded before the German lines in France. On one occasion, a deserted German battery with guns and ammunition was found, but it could not be turned against the enemy because all of the instructions were in German. Chaplain Lacy — who was read German and was able to decipher the tables and symbols — took charge, and for two hours joined in operating the guns in well-directed fire.

Benjamin Lacy Jr. received the Silver Star citation for his bravery on September 26, 1918, for the following actions:

 “By direction of the President, under the provisions of the act of Congress approved July 9, 1918 (Bul. No. 43, W.D., 1918), First Lieutenant (Chaplain) Benjamin R. Lacy, Jr., United States Army, is cited by the Commanding General, American Expeditionary Forces, for gallantry in action and a silver star may be placed upon the ribbon of the Victory Medals awarded him. Chaplain Lacy distinguished himself by gallantry in action while serving with the 113th Field Artillery, American Expeditionary Forces, in action in Bois de Avocourt, France, 26 September 1918, in rendering aid to the wounded under heavy enemy fire.”

He would be twice cited for meritorious service during WWI. Lacy Jr. was involved in the following military campaigns: Saint-Mihiel offensive; Meuse-Argonne offensive; and the Lorraine offensive. He left France and arrived back in the United States on March 21, 1919, at Camp Stuart, Virginia. Lacy Jr. was honorably discharged from active military service on April 15, 1919, at Camp Jackson, S.C.

At Log College Press, we have recently added a batch of his correspondence to family and loved ones which covers the time period of June - November 1918. He shares with the folks back home a full and lively account of his experiences. In a letter dated October 7, 1918, he recounts the engagement alluded to above, although the reader would not surmise that the writer would be awarded a Silver Star for his brave actions under fire. He does make this poignant remark near the end:

Too long a letter you will say. How I do wish I could write more often. Letters to bereave parents will be the order of the day tomorrow. Don’t measure my love by the number of letters I write. I took my breeches off for the first time in two weeks last night. I’ve tried to do my work, and it takes most of my time. I’ll try to write as often as I can.

Lacy ended up living a long and productive life, serving as pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, George, and as Moderator of the Synod of North Carolina and of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS). He died peacefully over 60 years after his return from the battlefields of France, and his legacy is fondly remembered today. His letters provide a snapshot of a chapter in his life which was not peaceful, but which helps us to know the man and his experiences in the midst of a great war more deeply.

When the plague comes - pastoral compassion in centuries past

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Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:…I was sick, and ye visited me:… (Matthew 25:34-36)

As cases of Coronavirus appear in China and the epidemic begins to spread around the world, concerns arise about not only physical health but also how to minister to those in need. It is an age-old question. Ministers have often asked themselves whether it is better to flee to safety or risk exposure to contagion for the spiritual well-being of those who are suffering.

There have been many plagues, many epidemics in human history, and there are many stories of compassion to the suffering. The 1665-1666 Great (bubonic) Plague of London, which killed an estimated 100,000 people in a period of 18 months, is one striking example. The event which inspired English Presbyterian Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year (1722) also inspired the ministry of English Presbyterian Thomas Vincent, highlighted in the 1993 play by Anthony Clarvoe The Living, in which Vincent was a main character and his compassion for the sick, with whom he stayed at great risk to himself (seven members of his own household died during the epidemic). Vincent later wrote God’s Terrible Voice in the City (1667), as a call for men to turn to God in repentance. Vincent’s The True Christian’s Love to the Unseen Christ (1677) also contains a description of the plague and his ministry during the pestilence. It was for the love of Christ and Christ’s flock that he stayed during the plague ministered to those in need.

I Preach'd, as never sure to Preach again,
And as a dying man to dying Men! — Richard Baxter, Poetical Fragments Heart-Imployment with God and it Self

Jonathan Edwards, among his first acts as President of the College of New Jersey (Princeton), preached a New Year’s Sermon in 1758 on Jer. 28:16 ("This year thou shalt die"), while Princeton, New Jersey was in the midst of a smallpox epidemic. He later received an inoculation, which led to his death two months later. (His predecessor, Aaron Burr, Sr., and successor, Samuel Davies, and his own son, Jonathan Edwards, Jr. all preached on the same text in the same year in which they died.)

…time ought to be esteemed by us very precious, because we are uncertain of its continuance. We know that it is very short, but we know not how short. — Jonathan Edwards, “The Preciousness of Time and the Importance of Redeeming It”

Ashbel Green, who wrote the heartfelt A Pastoral Letter, From a Minister in the Country, To Those of His Flock of Who Remained in the City of Philadelphia During the Pestilence of 1798 (1799), encouraged his flock during a yellow fever epidemic not to assemble for public worship. He lost a dear friend to the disease, John Blair Smith, in 1799, and his concern was to protect his flock as a shepherd. The pestilence visited Philadelphia several times while he ministered there and in surrounding parts. His diary entry for November 6, 1802, records this joyful note: “Thanks to God who has preserved us all from the pestilence, shown us many favours, and returned us again to our home. O let us live to his praise; I hope this day I have had some freedom at the throne of grace.”

If ever I preached with fervour, like a dying man to a dying man, it was during the time of this calamity. — Ashbel Green’s autobiography, p. 280

George Dodd Armstrong, author of The Summer of the Pestilence: A History of the Ravages of the Yellow Fever in Norfolk, Virginia (1856), made the decision to stay and serve his suffering flock during the 1855 epidemic. Barry Waugh writes:

The first cases of yellow fever occurred about mid July 1855 in Portsmouth and the source of the contagion was believed to be a steamer from the island of St. Thomas. The citizens of Norfolk were concerned that the fever would be transmitted across the Elizabeth River to infect its citizens. Their fears were confirmed in short order when cases were diagnosed in Norfolk. As the severity of the epidemic in both cities unfolded, Rev. Armstrong struggled with whether or not a minister should remain in the city or flee with the others seeking safety. He decided to stay with his family and he would pay a price for his decision. However, his decision to stay rested upon the providence and sovereignty of God.

For myself, I can say that, in the prospect of the possible spread of the fever throughout our city, I have no anxious thought. The pestilence, when raging in its most terrible violence, and when man stands appalled before it, is yet ever under God’s control, and can claim no victims but such as are given it (p. 29).

Another pastor who confronted the challenges of a yellow fever epidemic was Benjamin Morgan Palmer in New Orleans. Douglas Kelly writes in Preachers With Power: Four Stalwarts of the South, pp. 99-100:

This central motivation of Palmer’s life [a desire “to see the healing hand of the Good Shepherd laid upon the multitudes for whom he felt responsible”] is illustrated in self-sacrificial actions during perilous circumstances in both New Orleans and Columbia. In 1858 the pestilence of yellow fever struck New Orleans, and large numbers of people left the city. While this included many pastors who abandoned their flock, Dr Palmer remained in order to visit the sick and dying, and in the words of his biographer, ‘to offer the consolation of the Gospel, and any other service which it was in his power to give…’ During that year, some 4,858 people in that city died of the fever and Palmer not only visited his own people, but others, particularly those who had no pastor. Indeed, it was his custom, while on his beneficent rounds, ministering to his own people, to enter every house on the way which displayed the sign of fever within; to make his way quietly to the sick room, utter a prayer, offer the consolation of the Gospel, and any other service which it was in his power to give, and then as quietly to leave.’

Twenty years later, in 1878, Palmer was equally faithful and active in visiting those who were once again struck down by another outbreak of yellow fever. Increasing age had not affected his activity in the least. He wrote to his sister, Mrs Edgeworth Byrd, the following report on his pastoral work at that time: ‘You will form some idea of the trial, when I state that during three months, I paid each day from thirty to fifty visits, praying at the bedside of the sick, comforting the bereaved, and burying the dead; and that, too, without intermitting the worship of the Sabbath or even the prayer meeting in the week.’ Such actions prompted a famous Jewish rabbi of New Orleans to observe, ‘It was thus that Palmer got the heart as well as the ear of New Orleans. Men could not resist one who gave himself to such ministry as this.’

In the Selected Writings of Benjamin Morgan Palmer, edited by C.N. Wilborn with selections made by Caleb Cangelosi (who suggested the very topic of today’s blog post), there is an article which he published in the Southwestern Presbyterian (April 1, 1869) titled “Never Too Late,” which gives a sample of his ministerial endeavors during the epidemic of 1867. A man on his death-bed was converted by means of the prayers and earnest supplications of Palmer thus affirming an old maxim found in Matthew Henry’s commentary: “While there is life there is hope.”

In all of these scenes of pastoral ministry, the love of Christ constrained these men to do what they could to help those in need, often at great risk to themselves. We are not all called to such circumstances, but we are all called to such love. And we are called further to pray for the suffering around the world. May these examples from history stir us up to greater compassion for the sake of Christ.

A word on legalism from R.B. Kuiper

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Following up on a memorable quote concerning legalism by another Dutch-American Presbyterian, Geerhardus Vos, which we shared previously, today’s post is extracted from an article by R.B. Kuiper titled “God’s Will and God’s Word,” which appeared in The Presbyterian Guardian 5:63-66.

May we ever be on guard against those who in the name of religion would add to God´s law. To be stricter than God is no evidence of piety but, contrariwise, of abominable presumption. To add to God's law is just as heinous a sin as to subtract from it. He who does either puts himself in God's place.

Therefore it is not at all strange that he who today forbids what God allows will tomorrow allow what God forbids. That is precisely what one may expect of him who sets himself up as Lawgiver in God's stead. He is sure to topple from the cliff of rigid moralism into the abyss of reeking immorality.

The deep waters of affliction, per John H. Aughey

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A 19th century Presbyterian from the South with Union sympathies — self-described as “a refugee from Mississippi” in his autobiographical account, The Iron Furnace: or, Slavery and Secession (1863) — John Hill Aughey (1828-1911) lived a remarkable life and has ensured that his name will escape oblivion, having, as he says, 1) been a parent, 2) planted a tree, 3) built a house, and 4) written a book. He served pastorates in Mississippi (6), Indiana (6), Ohio (3), Missouri (2), Iowa (1) and as a missionary for eight years in the Oklahoma and Indian Territories, before retiring to New Jersey, where he is buried. One of the several books which he wrote during his career as both pastor and author is Spiritual Gems of the Ages (1886), a compilation of nuggets of wisdom from the literature of many centuries. In some instances, attribution is given to the sources, but not in all cases. Yet, the author describes his aim in this work thus:

This volume bears the impress of every diversity of individual character. More than three thousand saints, philosophers and sages, whose lives have extended through a period of four thousand years of the world's history, have contributed, each his quota, to the formation of this volume. Thus have been secured variety, spirituality and the highest order of intellectual thought and diction. Not a single inferior or common place thought or sentiment has been suffered to enter; and if any has surreptitiously found a place, upon discovery it will be unceremoniously ejected. It is a book suited to all ages and all nations ; to all classes of men, and all states of society; for all capacities of intellect, and all necessities of the soul. It sets forth the most heavenly truths in a manner clear and convincing, and makes them comprehensible by all. All abstruse speculation is avoided. The King's highway of holiness — the way of salvation — is pointed out as with a beam of light, so that the convicted sinner needs not doubt as to what he must do to be saved. By the blessing of the Holy Spirit, the impenitent reader may be convicted of sin and led to put implicit trust in that Savior of whose ability and willingness to save he will find in this volume a complete revelation. The reader will rise from its perusal with elevated thoughts and feelings, with more ardent love of virtue, with increase of spiritual information, and with intense desire to serve more faithfully as a laborer in his Master's vineyard. This volume is unique; it is a desideratum in religious literature, and it will doubtless become the vade-mecum of many a Christian.

One of the un-sourced quotes, widely credited to Aughey on the internet today, found in this remarkable volume is as follows:

God brings men into deep waters, not to drown them, but to cleanse them.

From this writer’s research, the quote appears to originate from a sermon preached by an English Presbyterian Westminster Divine of French Huguenot descent, Edmund Calamy the Elder (1600-1666). He published a set of sermons under the title The Godly Man’s Ark in 1658. It was in the first of those sermons in which he said:

God brings his children low, not to trample upon them, but to make them low in their own eyes, and to humble them for sin, Deut. 8. 2. God brings them into the deep waters, not to drown them, but to wash and cleanse them, Isa. 27. 9. 

Calamy, the Elder, Edmund photo.jpg

Having extracted this quote from Calamy, Aughey has highlighted a bit of wisdom that has given readers comfort from the 17th century to the present day. There are many other such nuggets of great worth to be found in Aughey’s compilation. Take time to study this volume and to treasure its wisdom of the centuries.

There are no mileposts among the stars - Maltbie D. Babcock

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There are no mile posts among the stars. Light and space quite sweep away our little measurements. So some day will our years be caught up in the Eternity to which we belong. How glorious to be forever the Lord's! — Maltbie D. Babcock

When the pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City, Maltbie D. Babcock, traveled to the Holy Land by ship in February 1901, he took the occasion to jot down bits of wisdom that are preserved for us in Thoughts for Every-Day Living from the Spoken and Written Words of Maltbie Davenport Babcock (1901), pp. 121-134. There are so many nuggets of wisdom in these pages that we wish to highlight a few and encourage our readers to read them all here. They are all the more profound when we remember that he left this mortal realm in May 1901.

Written on Shipboard, February, 1901.

No one can do anything to-morrow. If I live until to-morrow and do anything, it will have been done to-day; then, if it is right, do it to-day. To-morrow may not come. Fly your flag to-day for Jesus Christ, if you have given yourself to Him. You will be stronger to fight a good fight and keep the faith to-morrow, if to-morrow ever becomes to-day.

God has promised to satisfy — but He did not promise when. God has time enough, and so have you. God has boundless resources, and His resources are yours. Can you not trust him? Trust and wait. He knows what is best for you. He has reasons for denying you now, but in the end He will satisfy.

Life is what we are alive to. It is not length, but breadth. To be alive only to appetite, pleasure, pride, money-making, and not to goodness and kindness, purity and love, history, poetry, music, flowers, stars, God and eternal hopes, it is to be all but dead.

The deeper men go into life, the deeper is their conviction that this life is not all. It is an “unfinished symphony.” A day may round out an insect’s life, and a bird or a beast needs no tomorrow. Not so with him who knows that he is related to God and has felt “the power of an endless life.”

There is no better way to show our trust than to busy ourselves with the things He asks us to do. Trusting Him to take care of his share leaves us, “at leisure from ourselves” to do our share of the “Father’s business.”

Do not let the good things of life rob you of the best things.

Evening meditation is less important than morning preparation. “Well begun is half done.”

If we show the Lord’s death at Communion, we must show the Lord’s life in the world. If it is a Eucharist on Sunday, it must prove on Monday that it was also a Sacrament.

Salvation is going to Jesus for what he can give us — adoption, forgiveness, strength — and then going into the world with what he gives, to life his life and do his work.

If you do fall, if you are overcome, He is faithful and just to forgive, and to cleanse every day from all unrighteousness.

When I want to speak let me think first, Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary? If not, let it be left unsaid.

We are like children learning to walk. We fall again and again. Sometimes we cry out; sometimes we look up and try to smile ; but we do get up again and try to go on.

Size is not strength. Reputation is not character. Outward success is not God's gauge.

What have you done to-day that nobody but a Christian would do?

Live with the light of God's love shining into your common day. Take old gifts and joys continued as though they were fresh gifts. So we can sing a new song unto the Lord every day.

On the Birth of a Son to Samuel Davies

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This writer was blessed yesterday by the birth of a son. Mother and baby are doing very well, by the grace of God. The happy occasion brought to mind an extract from a poem by Samuel Davies, which is found in the third volume of his sermons. To God be the glory for blessing families with sweet covenant children!

ON THE BIRTH OF JOHN ROGERS DAVIES,*
The Author’s Third Son

THOU little wond'rous miniature of man,
Form'd by unerring Wisdom's perfect plan;
Thou little stranger, from eternal night
Emerging into life's immortal light;
Thou heir of worlds unknown, thou candidate
For an important everlasting state,
Where this young embryo shall its pow'rs expand,
Enlarging, rip'ning still, and never stand.
This glimm'ring spark of being, just now struck
From nothing by the all-creating Rock,
To immortality shall flame and burn,
When suns and stars to native darkness turn;
Thou shalt the ruins of the worlds survive,
And through the rounds of endless ages live.
Now thou art born into an anxious state
Of dubious trial for thy future fate:
Now thou art listed in the war of life,
The prize immense, and O! severe the strife.

Another birth awaits thee, when the hour
Arrives that lands thee on th' eternal shore;
(And O! 'tis near, with winged haste 'twill come,
Thy cradle rocks toward the neighb'ring tomb);
Then shall immortals fay, "A son is born,"
While thee as dead mistaken mortals mourn;
From glory then to glory thou shalt rise,
…

…
A being now begun, but ne'er to end,
What boding fears a Father's heart torment,
Trembling and anxious for the grand event,
Lest thy young soul so late by Heav'n bestovr'd,
Forget her Father, and forget her God!

From Psalm 139:

14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

15 My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

17 How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!

* John Rogers Davies was born in 1752 and was named for Davies’ close friend, John Rodgers.

Boyd McCullough's Cheerful Cottage

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Boyd McCullough (1825-1899) was an Irish-American minister who served in the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA) and the United Presbyterian Church of North America (UPCNA). He traveled extensively, serving pastorates in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin; and he spent time with the Covenanters in England, Ireland and Scotland. He was a poet as well, publishing in 1882, The Shamrock; or, Erin Set Free: A Poem on the Conversion of the Irish From Paganism (not yet available on Log College Press). Appended to this remarkable epic poem are other prose and poetic compositions. They speak of not only his native Ireland, but also experiences from places such as Kansas and Canada, as well as on the sea.

Photo credit: R. Andrew Myers

Photo credit: R. Andrew Myers

The following poem is selected for today’s consideration because it represents the appreciation he had, as one who traveled extensively, for the virtues of family, home, hospitality and hearth. One can imagine Rev. McCullough traveling through the prairie on his horse and stopping at a home for some hospitality along the way.

The Cheerful Cottage

While wandering through the lonely West,
Till man and beast were weary,
I found a soothing spot of rest,
Which female hands made cheery.
A fasting ride of twenty miles
Made every dish a dainty;
And then where cordial welcome smiles
A crust can serve for plenty.

Her table-cloth might snow surpass,
The bread was almost whiter,
The butter smelled of fragrant grass,
No gold was ever brighter.
Her notes in softest accents fell,
The ear with rapture filling,
As ancient songs, with skillful swell,
Upon her tongue were trilling.

The rustic bed allured to sleep,
Dispersing care and cumber,
Till dreams of friends beyond the deep
Made paradise of slumber.
Next morn when passing o’er the plain,
Or threading through the valley,
Or watching geese, a noisy train,
From out the marshes sally,

I mused upon that pleasant spot
That graced the western prairies,
And many a tale to mind it brought
Of cave-adorning fairies.
Let magic halls the fancy stir
With all the fire of Byron;
A simple housewife I prefer
To mermaid, fay or siren.

The First Hundred Years of American Presbyterian History

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Much of our knowledge of American Presbyterianism is focused on the 300+ year period dating from the establishment of the first Presbytery in Philadelphia in 1706 under the leadership of Francis Makemie, known as the “Father of American Presbyterianism.” The title of D.G. Hart and John R. Meuther’s Seeking a Better Country: 300 Years of American Presbyterianism, a wonderful book, is illustrative of this focus, which is a natural one given the nature of the event in 1706, and the challenges in documenting Presbyterianism in the earlier colonial era. But the organization of that Presbytery, which is an important historical marker in our timeline, presupposes the existence of Presbyterians and Presbyterian congregations which preceded it, a period which encompasses a full century prior. And there is much that we do know, or may reasonably conclude, about the first hundred years of Presbyterianism in America.

In fact, it is believed that colonial Jamestown, Virginia — the first permanent English settlement in North America, founded in 1607 — included among its company Puritan Anglican ministers of the Presbyterian persuasion, such as Robert Hunt (c. 1568-1608), Alexander Whitaker (1585-1616) and George Keith (c. 1585-?). These were men who did not conform to all of the rites and ceremonies of the Anglican church, but neither did they separate from it. Whitaker — most famous for baptizing Pocahontas and possibly officiating her marriage to John Rolfe — was a cousin to William Gouge, a member of the Westminster Assembly, and his June 18, 1614 letter to Gouge, constitutes the first written description of English ecclesiastical polity in America.

The colony on the James River, in Virginia, was established in 1607, by the Virginia Company of London. This company was to a great extent under the control of English Puritans who remained within the Established Church and were seeking to reform it from within. Some of the colonists sent to Virginia by the company were Puritans. Among these was the Rev. Alexander Whitaker, the “Apostle of Virginia,” son of Dr. William Whitaker, Puritan Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, and cousin of Dr. William Gouge, member of the Westminster Assembly of divines. Whitaker organized a congregational presbytery in the colony as may be seen from a letter written by him in June, 1614: “Every Sabbath day we preach in the forenoon, and catechize in the afternoon. Every Saturday, at night, I exercise in Sir Thomas Dale’s house. Our church affairs may be consulted on by the minister and four of the most religious men. Once every month we have communion, and once a year a solemn fast.” — Henry Alexander White, Southern Presbyterian Leaders, p. 12

The Collegiate (Dutch Reformed) Church in New Amsterdam (New York City) in 1619 was the first in America to be organized under the “Presbyterian Plan,” according to Robert L. Welsh, The Presbytery of Seattle, 1858-2005: The “Dream” of a Presbyterian Colony in the West, p. 14. This fact highlights the close relationship between Dutch Reformed and Presbyterian polity. Willem Apollonius (d. 1657), for example, was a “Dutch Presbyterian,” who won the approbation of the Westminster Assembly for his 1644 treatise on church government. The New Castle Presbyterian Church in New Castle, Delaware, one of the oldest Presbyterian congregations in America, had its origins due to the labors of the Dutch Reformed Church.

The first Presbyterian religious service in what is now Delaware appears to have been conducted in New Amstel (New Castle), in 1654, by the Dutch Domine Johannes Theodorus Polhemus, on his way to New Amsterdam from Brazil. The first pastor sent to this church by the Classis (Presbytery) of Amsterdam was Everardus Welius, in 1657. Previous to Welius’ coming Evert Pietersen, sent out as a schoolmaster, had opened there Delaware’s first school, enrolling twenty-five children. This church had a precarious existence, being without a pastor for long periods. After the English took the colony from the Dutch in 1664 some of its services were conducted in English. The last recorded services under Dutch religious auspices were in midsummer 1690, when Domine Rudolphus Varick preached three Sundays, and administered the communion. As was natural the next pastor was not Dutch. He was the Rev. John Wilson, from New England. He arrived in 1698, and preached in the court house, because the old Dutch church building had gone to decay. In 1707 a new church was erected. The New Castle church, therefore, appears to be the oldest Presbyterian church, and its building the oldest fabric still in use as a Presbyterian church, in Delaware. -- John W. Christie, Presbyterianism in Delaware

The Puritan emigration from Old England to New England in the late 1620s and early 1630s included thousands of Presbyterians. John White, the Patriarch of Dorchester, and a Westminster Divine, helped to establish a Presbyterian colony at Salem, Massachusetts in 1629 (C.A. Briggs, American Presbyterianism, p. 93). A Presbyterian group under the leadership of Abraham Pierson and Edward Howell left Lynn, Massachusetts in 1640, landed at Conscience Point, and ultimately established a Presbyterian congregation in Southampton, New York, paving the way for other Presbyterian congregations to be built on Long Island or near there: Southold (1640); Hempstead  (1643); East Hampton (1648); New Castle, Delaware (1651); Newtown (1652); Huntington (1658); Setauket (1660), and Jamaica (1662). The Long Island congregations, some of the oldest Presbyterian congregations in America, did not unite to form the Long Island Presbytery until 1717, but there is no doubt that their Presbyterian beginnings long preceded that date.

The names of John Youngs, Sr. (1598-1672); Richard Denton (1603-1662); Francis Doughty, Jr. (1605-1683); John Moore (1620-1657); Thomas James, Jr. (1621-1696); Nathaniel Brewster (1622-1690); Matthew Hill (?-1679); Zechariah Walker (1637-1699); among others, represent Presbyterian ministries in the middle colonies that all, mostly, predate those of Francis Makemie. The story of the first 100 years of American Presbyterianism spans the Eastern Seaboard, includes many heroic pioneers and brave heroes and heroines of the faith, whose adventures are known in part, and paved the way for the establishment of that first Presbytery in 1706. The 1640 Declaration of the Company by Edward Howell and the Southampton colonists, a document worthy of comparison to the Mayflower Compact, signified the goal of those early Presbyterians:

Our true interest and meaning is that when our Plantation is laid out by those appointed that there shall be a Church gathered and constituted according to the mind of Christ, that there we do freely lay down our power of ordering and disposing of the Plantation and of receiving inhabitants thereof or any other thing that may tend to the good and welfare of the inhabitants at the feet of Christ and His Church.

The English Puritan-Dutch Reformed-Scottish Presbyterian roots of what became a distinctly American form of Presbyterianism over the first century of the colonial era constitute a chapter much larger than what has been written here. But at Log College Press, we aim to shine the spotlight on that first hundred years, as well as on the three centuries since the founding of the first Presbytery. It is a rich history worthy to be more fully explored.

Some authorities consulted in the writing of this post include:

Freedom For All

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Jacob Green once famously declared in a 1778 sermon delivered in the midst of America’s War of Independence: “Can it be believed that a people contending for liberty should, at the same time, be promoting and supporting slavery?” Not all American Presbyterians have shared his sentiment at all times, and few issues historically have divided the Presbyterian Church like the issue of slavery; but generally speaking, a review of the early deliverances of the Presbyterian Church in this country — including the Reformed Presbyterian of North America (RPCNA) in 1800 which barred membership to slaveholders — reveals a stand against slavery and in favor of freedom for all.

An overture by a committee of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia made this memorable statement in 1787:

The Creator of the world having made of one flesh all the children of men, it becomes them as members of the same family, to consult and promote each other's happiness. It is more especially the duty of those who maintain the rights of humanity, and who acknowledge and teach the obligations of Christianity, to use such means as are in their power to extend the blessings of equal freedom to every part of the human race.

The final approved version of the 1787 Synodical statement was worded differently - encouraging religious education and supporting the eventual abolition of slavery. This final 1787 statement was republished by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA) in 1793. The following year, and for over two decades afterwards, an explanatory clause on the sin of man-stealing in connection with Question 142 (on the Eighth Commandment) in the Westminster Larger Catechism was published along with the Constitution of the PCUSA. For more details on this chapter in early American Presbyterian church history, see the relevant appendix in George Bourne’s Picture of Slavery in the United States of America, and Charles Hodge’s The Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church, as well as this earlier Log College Press blog post about Bourne and RPCNA pastor Alexander McLeod regarding man-stealing. Also, the deliverances of Synod and the General Assembly on this subject may be consulted at our Minutes page.

Meanwhile, the profound and Biblical simplicity of the original 1787 statement on freedom for all remains worthy of remembrance. Even 155 years after ratification of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the struggle for freedom for all in America and around the world continues in some respects, and as God “hath made of one blood all nations of men” (Acts 17:26), we need not ask, as the lawyer did in Luke 10, “Who is my neighbor?” - not only is all mankind our neighbor, but especially the oppressed and those in need, such as the one to whom the Good Samaritan rendered aid. May the words of a committee in 1787 ring in the ears of Christians today, which call us to “use such means as are in [our] power to extend the blessings of equal freedom to every part of the human race.”

The Christian's "Cordon Bleu" - E.D. Warfield

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For your own comfort's sake, and for the sake of your growth in grace, if you be a Christian, be a Christian, and be a marked and distinct one. — Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening (Oct. 14th)

“Cordon bleu” — “of the highest class.” While the world encourages us by one sort of standard, Christians have a different sort of standard to which we ought to aspire. So says Ethelbert Dudley Warfield in his devotional work, At the Evening Hour: Simple Talks on Spiritual Subjects (1898), in a chapter titled The Christian’s “Cordon Bleu.”

There is a striking scene in Cooper's "Last of the Mohicans" where the young captive chieftain, Uncas, is about to be taken to torture by his own kinsmen, the Delawares. He is taken from the prison tent and led to the stake, and there, his clothing being stripped off him, his fellow-tribesmen find upon his breast the totem of the royal house of their people, and at once recognize in him, instead of an enemy, a rightful ruler, and promptly yield to him the recognition which belonged to his birth.

So may it be with those who belong to the royal household of faith that when their own righteousness, which the prophet says is but filthy rags, is stripped away from them, their real character may be found stamped upon their lives — the simple yet sublime evidence of Christian faith. Then it will be that men will take knowledge of them, that they have been with Jesus. Then it will be that they will receive the promised reward of those who have been faithful over a few things.

Have we a proper realization of how important it is, we being Christians, that men shall take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus ? Such witness-bearing is not merely an inevitable result of such companionship, but a precious privilege as well. It is not necessary to hang upon our breasts a service medal such as the soldiers of imperial France so proudly wore, such as you will find upon the breast of every battle-scarred veteran in Europe to-day, telling how he fought at Sedan or Gravelotte, how he rode with Scarlett and his gallant six hundred in the Crimea, or faced the fearful Arab charge at Tel-el-Kebir. But it is necessary that by loyalty to truth, constancy in temptation, and gentleness of life we shall let all men see and know that we have been with Jesus, and from him have learned the secret of a godly life.

Let no man rob you of your right. It is the most glorious and most honorable distinction that can be awarded by man: that men shall take knowledge of you, that you have been with Jesus.

Words to consider as we live out our Christian walk day by day in reliance upon the Holy Spirit. May it be said of us that we have been with Jesus.

Charles Hodge: No claim to originality

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Innovation in theology ought to be a red flag to Christians that signals a warning of trouble. Charles Hodge certainly thought so, as Ralph J. Danhof tells us in Charles Hodge as a Dogmatician, p. 43 (1929). We see this very clearly in a letter that Hodge wrote to the great Scottish Presbyterian William Cunningham dated August 24, 1857, which may be found in A.A. Hodge’s The Life of Charles Hodge, p. 430 (1880):

I have had but one object in my professional career and as a writer, and that is to state and to vindicate the doctrines of the Reformed Church. I have never advanced a new idea, and have never aimed to improve on the doctrines of our fathers. Having become satisfied that the system of doctrines taught in the symbols of the Reformed Churches is taught in the Bible, I have endeavored to sustain it, and am willing to believe even where I cannot understand.

At the semi-centennial celebration of Dr. Hodge’s professorship at Princeton Theological Seminary, on April 24, 1872, Hodge took the occasion to state:

I am not afraid to say that a new idea never originated in this Seminary.

While decrying any claim to originality in his ideas, Hodge was indeed gifted in his ability to articulate and to systematically summarize that which was Biblical and orthodox. For this gift, we in the 21st century, who continue to study the writings of this great theologian, give thanks to God.

Presbyterianism in Catechetical Form

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A recent acquisition of interest from the library of the late Dr. Morton Smith is a small booklet titled Presbyterianism in Catechetical Form, compiled by Mrs. M.W. Pratt and published by the Presbyterian Committee of Publication in Richmond, Virginia (1893). This work has not yet been uploaded to Log College Press, but it is hoped that we can do so in the future.

Pratt, Mrs. M.W., Presbyterianism in Catechetical Form.jpg

It is written for the Presbyterian in the pews and others who desire to better understand the system of doctrine and polity embraced by our church and articulated in its standards. A particular extract concerning the Westminster Assembly may serve to whet the appetite for this valuable and rare little work.

Question 1. What are the names of the Presbyterian standards of faith and government?
Answer. “The Confession of Faith,” “The Larger and Shorter Catechisms,” and “The Book of Church Order.”

Q. 2. When were the Confession of Faith and Catechisms written?
A. In 1643-1649.

Q. 3. Where?
A. In England, in Westminster Abbey.

Q. 4. By whose order?
A. The British Parliament.

Q. 5. Who composed the Assembly that wrote them?
A. One hundred and forty-two divines, including four from Scotland, thirty-two laymen, including two from Scotland. (Hetherington’s Hist. Westminster, pp. 98, 99.)

Q. 6. Of what denominations were they?
A. Presbyterians and Independents.

Q. 7. Were they learned and good men?
A. Yes; they were among the most learned and godly men who ever adorned the British empire.

Q. 8. What did Richard Baxter of them?
A. That the Christian world since the days of the apostles had never had a Synod of more excellent divines than this and this and the Synod of Dort.

Q. 9. What vow did they take before beginning their work?
A. I do sincerely and solemnly protest, in the presence of Almighty God, that in the Assembly of which I am a member I will not maintain anything in matters of doctrine but what I think in my conscience to be the truth, or in point of discipline but what I consider to conduce most to the glory of God and the good and peace of the church.

Q. 10. How long were they in preparing this work?
A. More than five and a half years.

Q. 11. What did they was their object in thus formulating their doctrine and form of church government?
A. That a scheme of doctrine and form of church government pure and scriptural would be the most excellent means for establishing the rights for which they were contending, and forming the virtues by which freedom is blest.

Q. 12. Has their work proved them wise prophets?
A. Yes, it has done more good for the world than any other books ever written except the Bible.

Q. 13. What country approved and adopted their work?
A. Scotland, in their General Assemblies of 1647-1648.

Q. 14. Were these standards adopted by the church in America?
A. Yes, in Philadelphia, in May, 1788, with a slight change in regard to civil government.

S.J. Fisher: "Within is More!"

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Today’s post comes in the form of a meditation by African-American pastor and poet Samuel Jackson Fisher (1847-1928) found in The Romance of Pittsburgh or Under Three Flags, and Other Poems.

“Within is More!”

In famous Bruges — quaint old Flemish town —
On which the lofty belfry tower looks down,
There stands with fair and stately front a house
Whose legend ever must the thought arouse,
For this strange motto long it proudly bore,
Carved on its doorway beam: “Within is more;”
And he who reads it feels this cryptic word
His eager questioning has deeply stirred.

Yet may we not to this strange mystery
Find at our hand the long-sought key?
Fair is the front — without it charms the eye —
But home’s great charm and treasure inside lie.
No outside gaze can measure all the store
Of joys so hidden, for “Within is more.”

And so I love to think as to our eyes
The golden walls and domes of Heaven arise;
Tho’ fair is all now seen, and blest the view,
That still for us the ancient words are true.
And when in Love’s good time we pass the door,
Entranced we shall confess, “Within is more.”

Twins of Genius and the Sabbath Day

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In 1884 and 1885, Mark Twain went on a series of lectures throughout the Northeast and even in Canada with the Presbyterian writer George Washington Cable, whom Twain described as “the South’s finest literary genius.” Cable had begun his career as a journalist, and had already established himself as a novelist also at that point. He was also controversial in the South for his support for racial equality. This popular series of lectures was billed as the “Twins of Genius Tour” and it had a profound effect on both men, as well as their audiences.

Their friendship began in 1881. Twain once wrote a high commendation of Cable to the editor of the Hartford, Connecticut Daily Courant (March 30, 1883).

On the evening of the fourth of April the gifted southerner whose name appears above, will deliver at Unity Hall, in Hartford, a lecture upon "Creole Women," sauced with illustrative readings from "The Grandissimes" and other of his books. Since he compliments us by choosing Hartford as the scene of his first experiment upon the northern platform, I trust we shall return him the compliment of a full house, and a hearty greeting. Mr. Cable is a reader and speaker whose matter is of the finest quality and whose arts of delivery are of distinguished excellence. It seems well to state this, in order that the public may know that Mr. Cable has something more to offer his audience, as an attraction, than his celebrated person alone. I heard him read in New Orleans last spring and in the proof-sheets of my forthcoming book I find this reference to that experience: "Mr. Cable is the only master in the writing of French dialects that the country has produced; and he reads them in perfection. It was a great treat to hear him read about Jean-ah Poquelin, and about Innerarity and his famous 'pigshoo' representing 'Louisihanna Rif-fusing to Hanter the Union,' along with passages of nicely-shaded German dialect from a novel which was still in manuscript."

"He also read conversations occurring between those charming Creole women of 'The Grandissimes' and in his mouth and through his art the music of their quaint and crippled English acquired a new and richer melody."

From such high authority as the voice of President Gilman of John's Hopkins university come praises of Mr. Cable's recent reading in Baltimore, which render this added testimony of mine next to unnecessary.

That this forthcoming lecture is not without interest outside of Hartford is evidenced by the fact that considerable deputations of well-known Bostonians and New Yorkers are coming here to attend it, and have already ordered their tickets. Also, I may state that Mr. Cable has been invited to repeat this entertainment in the Madison Square theatare, New York, at an early day, MARK TWAIN.

Yet, despite their friendship, Mark Twain remains famous for his loathing of his friend’s religion — Presbyterianism — and one prominent example of this appears in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, published in December 1884, while on tour with Cable. In Chapter XVIII, Huck visits a Presbyterian church.

Next Sunday we all went to church, about three mile, everybody a-horseback. The men took their guns along, so did Buck, and kept them between their knees or stood them handy against the wall. The Shepherdsons done the same. It was pretty ornery preaching -- all about brotherly love, and such-like tiresomeness; but everybody said it was a good sermon, and they all talked it over going home, and had such a powerful lot to say about faith and good works and free grace and preforeordestination, and I don't know what all, that it did seem to me to be one of the roughest Sundays I had run across yet.

Indeed, Cable’s commitment to keeping the Lord’s Day holy was a thorn in Twain’s side during the whole tour. Cable insisted that the pair not travel by railroad and not engage in lectures on the Sabbath day. James Stacy, the Southern Presbyterian minister, highlighted such transgressions of the Lord’s Day in his 1885 treatise on the Sabbath, Day of Rest: Its Obligations and Advantages.

Cable caused MT much irritation during their several months tour that involved shared platforms and hotel rooms in many states. At the outset, MT was unaware that Cable had fully retained the Sabbatarianism of their similar religious upbringing. Cable accepted without reservation from the Presbyterian standards that the Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days, and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God’s worship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy…To the great annoyance of his tour partner, Cable refused to use a train on Sunday even in an emergency situation. MT wondered if the legalist would even be willing to travel to heaven on Sunday should he die on the first day of the week! One Saturday while on tour, Cable abruptly left a reception in order to scurry back to his hotel room before his self-imposed midnight curfew. An elder, choir member, and Sunday school superintendent in a New Orleans Presbyterian church, he attended Sunday School and two church services each Sunday without fail. At the beginning of the tour, eh read the Bible aloud to MT each evening. This activity, among others led MT to call him a “pious ass” and a “Christ-besprinkled psalm-singing Presbyterian.” (William E. Phipps, Mark Twain’s Religion, pp. 138-139).

After the tour was over, Twain wrote to William Dean Howells (Feb. 27, 1885), the following memorable reflection of Cable, which perhaps says more about himself than his friend:

It has been a curious experience. It has taught me that Cable’s gifts of mind are greater and higher than I suspected. But . . . you will never, never know, never divine, guess, imagine, how loathsome a thing the Christian religion can be made until you come to know and study Cable daily and hourly. Mind you I like him . . . but in him and his person I have learned to hate all religions. He has taught me to abhor and detest the Sabbath-day and hunt up new and troublesome ways to dishonor it.

The tour covered many cities in many states, and their divergent views of the Sabbath day did have some positive impact as well as negative (for Twain).

On Saturday, December 6, 1884, about a month into their “Twins of Genius” reading tour, Mark Twain and George Washington Cable were walking in Rochester, New York, when a sudden rain drove them to take shelter in a bookstore. Cable was a Sabbatarian who refused to travel on Sundays, so while on tour Twain usually spent that day in his hotel room resting up, and he needed something to read in Rochester. On Cable’s recommendation he left the bookstore with a copy of Le Morte D’Arthur, Thomas Mallory’s tales about the Round Table. The rest, as they say, is Mark Twain’s version of medieval history — A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Cable proudly proclaimed the “godfathership of that book,” but that title only begins to indicate his role in the novel Twain wrote, and the influence that the reading tour had on its genesis and development. The novel, in turn, can help us appreciate the relationship between these “Twins” (Stephen Railton in Peter Messent and Louis J. Budd, eds., A Companion to Mark Twain, p. 172).

At the end of the tour, Cable wrote to his wife, “I got him out to church at last!” But Cable was saddened by some articles attacking his character which appeared in the Boston Herald in May 1885 and which appeared to be sourced by Twain; yet their friendship endured, and prior to Twain’s death, Cable referred to their joint tour as “one of the most notable experiences of my life.”

The intersection of these two writers’ lives is a moment in history worthy of study and reflection, and the crucial role of the Christian Sabbath in that convergence especially should not be forgotten.

Holiness defined - and encouraged - by Samuel Davies

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Holiness, to which all Christians are called — “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14) — is defined by Samuel Davies succinctly in words that have been quoted by others* writing on the nature of the “practice of piety.”

Preaching on that verse, Davies explains in a sermon titled “The Connection Between Present Holiness and Future Felicity” (Sermons, Vol. 1):

The most intelligible description of holiness, as it is inherent in us, may be this: “It is a conformity in heart and practice to the revealed will of God.” As the Supreme Being is the standard of all perfection, his holiness in particular is the standard of ours. Then we are holy when his image is stamped upon our hearts and reflected in our lives; so the apostle defines it, and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Eph. iv. 24. Whom he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. Rom. viii. 29. Hence holiness may be defined, “A conformity to God in his moral perfections.” But as we cannot have a distinct knowledge of these perfections but as they are manifested by the revealed will of God, I choose to define holiness, as above, “A conformity to his revealed will.” Now his revealed will comprises both the law and the gospel; the law informs us of the duty which we as creatures owe to God as a being of supreme excellency, as our Creator and Benefactor, and to men as our fellow-creatures; and the gospel informs us of the duty which we as sinners owe to God as reconcilable through a Mediator. Our obedience to the former implies the whole of morality, and to the latter the whole of evangelical graces, as faith in a Mediator, repentance, &c.

From this definition of holiness it appears, on the one hand, that it is absolutely necessary, to see the Lord; for unless our dispositions are conformed to him, we cannot be happy in the enjoyment of him; and on the other hand, that they who are made thus holy, are prepared for the vision and fruition of his face, as they can relish the divine pleasure.

But as a concise definition of holiness may give an auditory but very imperfect ideas of it, I shall expatiate upon the dispositions and practices in which it consists, or which naturally result from it; …

Even the best, most succinct, definitions require further elucidation, as the rest of Davies’ sermon illustrates (which can be read here). But as it helps to define the topic under consideration, and because this topic is crucial to the Christian life, we do well to start with Davies’ definition in our understanding of what holiness consists. In conformity to God’s revealed will, may his image indeed be stamped upon our hearts and reflected in our lives.

* For example, Charles D. Cashdollar, “The Pursuit of Piety: Charles Hodge's Diary, 1819-1820.” Journal of Presbyterian History (1962-1985), vol. 55, no. 3, 1977, p. 267; Hughes Oliphant Old, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church, Vol. 5, p. 163; Elwyn Allen Smith, The Presbyterian Ministry in American Culture: A Study in Changing Concepts, 1700-1900, p. 148.

Addressed to a Student of Divinity: A Poem by Annis Stockton

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One of the first published female poets in America was Annis Boudinot Stockton, daughter of Elias Boudinot IV, wife of Richard Stockton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Her correspondence with and poetic tribute to George Washington is noteworthy, but she wrote poems on many subjects. Today’s post will highlight a poem she is thought to have sent to Princeton student and fellow poet Benjamin Young Prime (1733-1791) around 1757. It may be found, along with all of her known compositions, in Carla Mulford, ed., Only for the Eye of a Friend: The Poems of Annis Boudinot Stockton.

Addressed to a Student of Divinity

How blest the youth whom Genius deigns to guide,
Thro paths of Science to fair wisdoms Seat —
Where virtue and philosophy preside —
And trample error underneath their feet.
Whose Steady mind can from the croud retire —
In Search of truth to turn the historic page —
The rise and fall of empire to admire —
And mark the effect of vice on ev’ry age. —
Whose taste and fancy urge him to the groves —
O’er craggy rocks or mountain steep to climb
Or thro the secret haunts of nature roves —
And deeply meditates on themes sublime.
There taught by reason to controul the will —
And hush the Jarring passions into peace —
Their vast extent and influence to feel —
And how Combin’d with human happiness.
But happies he whom piety Controuls —
To shun a flattering worlds decietful way —
To break the bread of life to hungry souls —
And prompt the path of bliss to those that stray.

Genius and Science polish and refine —
Philosophy and virtue lend their aid —
While truth and wisdom mark the true divine —
Be this the path and this the pattern too —
Then follow on with all your noblest powers —
Nor let your Secret foes your mind subdue —
But to your Saviour dedicate your hours. —

Devotionals for a New Decade

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A good way to start the New Year in 2020 is just the way 19th century American Presbyterians started it - with a yearly devotional. Here are some options available for use at Log College Press:

Other devotional works to take special note of:

  • James Robert Boyd - Daily Communion With God on the Plan Recommended by the Rev. Matthew Henry, V.D.M., For Beginning, Spending, Concluding Each Day With God (1873); and

  • William Henry Fentress - Love Truths From the Bible (1879).

These resources will enrich your 2020 spiritual walk just as they enriched the lives of Christians in centuries past. Blessings to you and yours from Log College Press!

Out with the old, in with the New: Sermons for a New Year

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As 2019 comes to a close, and a new year dawns, we at Log College Press want to thank all of our readers for all of your support in the past year. We are most grateful for your interest, appreciation, feedback and encouragement. It is a joy for us to dust off old Presbyterian works and make them accessible to a new generation, and we, along with our readers, are learning much along the journey as well. As we round out this year and prepare, with the mercy and blessing of God, to enter another, we wish to highlight some special sermons from the past which are worthy of consideration.

  • Henry Augustus Boardman (1808-1880) - Mottoes For the New Year, as Given in Texts of Sermons (1882);

  • George Barrell Cheever (1807-1890) - A New Year’s Sermon (1843);

  • Samuel Davies (1723-1761) - On January 1, 1760, he preached "A New Year's Gift" (see Sermons on Important Subjects, Vol. 3, Serm. 59, pp. 309 ff), using Rom. 13:11 for his text: "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed." On January 1, 1761 (his last year of life), Davies preached "A Sermon on the New Year" (see Sermons on Important Subjects, Vol. 2, Serm. 34, pp. 139 ff), from Jer. 28:16: "This year thou shalt die";

  • Elias Harrison (1790-1863) - New Year’s Day Sermon (1817);

  • Erskine Mason, Sr. (1805-1851) - The Approach of Death: A New Year’s Sermon (1845) and New Year’s Sermon for 1848: Dependence on the Future (1848);

  • Benjamin Morgan Palmer (1818-1902) - Century Sermon (1901), preached on January 1, 1901; and

  • Gardiner Spring (1785-1873) - Something Must Be Done: A New Year’s Sermon (1816).

Each of these sermons has a message that is good for 21st century readers to consider as we stand at the same point on the calendar between years that Christians have done before. New Year’s is always an appropriate time to review the past and consider our resolve to walk closer with the Lord in the future. We close with this meditation and resolution from Gardiner Spring’s “Reflections on the New Year” in Fragments from the Study of a Pastor (1838):

In entering on another year, I know not from what unexpected quarter, or at what an unguarded hour, difficulties and dangers may come. O that I could enjoy more of the favour of God, more of the presence of the Saviour, more of the sealing of the ever blessed Spirit! O for more of a calm, approving conscience, and more of the delightful influence of the peace-speaking blood of Jesus Christ!

G.M. Giger on Religious Retirement

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The busyness of a 24/7 news cycle, the pressing demands of work, the noise of children and neighbors - and much more - all conspire, it seems, to crowd out the quiet times that are so necessary to spend with God, and to gain peace of mind and enrich our souls. Just as the body needs sleep at periodic intervals, so the soul needs time apart from the cares of the world, even the necessary ones, to commune with God in prayer, to be fed by God’s Word, and to ponder deeply the things most needful to be considered in life.

Christ Himself shows us by example the great importance which we ought to place upon such times apart from the noise and bustle of the world: “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, He went out and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed” (Mark 1:35).

Preaching from this text, George Musgrave Giger (most famous for translating Francis Turretin’s Institutes of Elenctic Theology) reminds us of the value of Religious Retirement, that is, the need to be alone with God for purposes of prayer, study and meditation. This sermon, published in John T. Duffield’s The Princeton Pulpit (1852), while warning against the opposite extreme of monastic-like separation from the world, emphasizes the following motives to and benefits of such religious retirement.

  • Christ’s own frequent and habitual example;

  • Christ’s precept regarding private worship that “when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly” (Matt. 6:6);

  • God’s creation of day and night, and times of action and stillness;

  • The example of Old Testament saints, such as David and Daniel, who sought out and regularly kept times of private devotion;

  • The example of early Christians who sought sanctuary for prayer away from their persecutors;

  • The cases of John Milton and John Bunyan, for example, whose times of private devotion in the study and in the prison cell led to such rich spiritual writings by which the Church and the world have been blessed;

  • Private devotion, apart from distraction, provides the best means for the study necessary to gain religious knowledge, which is key to our spiritual life and sanctification;

  • Religious retirement provides the opportunity for profitable self-examination, which is needful for correction in life and the amendment of our ways, and necessary for daily confession of sin and repentance before God;

  • Times apart from the world help us to get perspective on the world and its cares by viewing temporal concerns through the light of an eternal lens; and

  • Contemplation of eternal things stirs our affection towards and increases our attachment to heaven.

While the 21st century world encourages a “coming out of the closet,” Giger’s 19th century message to return regularly to the closet for private devotion is a reminder needed more now than ever. We all need such times apart from the cares of this world to commune with our God, and to enrich our souls through prayer and study and meditation. Read his full message here and be encouraged, especially as a new year approaches, to follow the example of Christ and regularly seek out religious retirement.