William J. Armstrong's ode to the Bible

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William Jessup Armstrong (1796-1846) ministered in Trenton, New Jersey, and in Richmond, Virginia, before serving as Secretary for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. The son of Amzi Armstrong and brother of George Dodd Armstrong, William was an eminent preacher a volume of his sermons shows. He died tragically and bravely on the steamer Atlantic in Long Island Sound in the early hours of November 27, 1846. Reports from the survivors of that wreck speak of his prayers as the ship was in peril through that night, and the spiritual comfort which he offered to his fellow passengers. His memoir records a poem of his composition which merits notice. The nautical imagery is particularly striking.

The Bible

The Bible, man’s best friend on earth,
Friend, indeed, of Heavenly birth,
Precious gift of God to man,
Who Thy excellence can scan?

In this vale, where sorrows spring,
Thou canst make the mourner sing;
In this land of darkest night,
Thou canst cheer with heavenly light.

When the heart corrodes with care,
Sweet Thy consolations are;
When the anguished spirit dies,
Springs of life are Thy supplies.

In the hour of ardent youth,
May I love Thy scared truth;
May it all my actions guide,
May it check my passions’ tide.

When advancing on life’s stage,
I arrive at middle age,
Be thou still my chosen friend,
All my footsteps to attend.

May I never, never stray,
From that calm and peaceful way,
Over life’s tempestuous sea,
Pointed out alone by Thee.

When I hear the billows roar,
As they dash against that shore
Whither all are tending fast,
At which all must end at last:

As a beacon shed Thy light,
O’er the waves, dispel the night,
Cheer the darkness, cheer the gloom,
Thickening awful o’er the tomb.

Light me to that blissful port,
Where my Saviour holds his court;
Then I’ll chant Thy praises high,
There my joys will never die.

Read more about Armstrong’s life, and his sermons, here. In fifty years of life on this earth, he gave a powerful testimony to the grace of God by word and deed. What Charles Spurgeon said of John Bunyan might well be said of Armstrong: “Prick him anywhere — his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him.”

Mrs. A.T.J. Bullard: Peeress for a Day

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In 1850, Rev. Artemas Bullard, Jr. traveled to Europe, with his accomplished wife Anne Tuttle Jones Bullard, to serve as a delegate at the International Peace Congress in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The couple spent six months traveling in Europe. She wrote letters to the Missouri Republican back home in St. Louis, Missouri, which were later published as Sights and Scenes in Europe: A Series of Letters From England, France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, in 1850 (1852), which she dedicated “to the ladies of the First Presbyterian Church, St. Louis, Mo.”

There are interesting literary connections to the Bullard family. Anne herself was a gifted writer who often published under pseudonyms. Her husband’s younger sister, Eunice Bullard, married the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher (both Eunice and Henry were noted writers), which meant that Anne also had family ties to Harriet Beecher Stowe. And, further, the Rev. Henry Bullard (son of Artemus and Anne), was a fellow transatlantic passenger with Mark Twain. It has been noted before that Anne’s Sights and Scenes in Europe bears a similarity to Twain’s Innocents Abroad (1869), inspired certainly by the 1867 voyage, but perhaps Anne’s 1852 book was known to him, since Twain also was from St. Louis and it is thought that he had heard Artemas preach (before Artemas died in 1855 during the Gasconade Bridge train disaster).

One little snapshot of the Bullards’ trip through Europe has to do with the day that Mrs. Bullard was an invited guest for a speech given by Queen Victoria to the House of Lords in London on August 15, 1850. A Mr. R . Cobden procured for her admission to the one of the most-sought after seats in the city (she writes: “A ticket of admission is obtained only from the Lord Chamberlain through a Peer”).

Mrs. Bullard’s ticket of admission to hear Queen Victoria’s speech.

Mrs. Bullard’s ticket of admission to hear Queen Victoria’s speech.

Mrs. Bullard’s description of the event takes up many pages (see Letter No. IV), but we can glean how momentous the occasion was from this extract:

The streets were lined with people to see the Queen pass. I understood it is three years since she has prorogued Parliament in person. Temporary seats, three tiers or more, were built up on each side, for which some persons paid three shillings (or seventy-five cents) each.

No gentlemen are admitted to the floor of the House of Lords except peers, Bishops, and Ambassadors, and there are seats for only about two hundred ladies. It was announced that the Queen would arrive at 2 o’clock, and to be in season I took a carriage at half-past eleven. There were about fifteen carriages in advance of mine, and as the House was not opened until 12 o’clock, the ladies must of course sit in their carriages until their turn came to be admitted. Precisely at twelve the door was opened, and when all the carriages before me were emptied and my turn came, I was allowed to pass in, but without the escort of any gentleman. Only about thirty ladies were seated before me, and I was shown one of the most desirable places for observation in the room, near the Queen, and for two hours and a half I had an admirable opportunity to scan the novel scenes before me.

The House of Lords is a most gorgeous place. The ceiling is magnificently gilded in raised figures, and the galleries are formed of very open iron-work, also gilded. The Queen’s throne, or chair of State, her canopy &c., have also all the appearance of the most elegant carved work, covered with gold. The seats, arranged lengthwise of the room in four rows, were without backs and covered with crimson morocco. One of the most beautiful young ladies in the rooms [was] at my right hand, and, very fortunately for me, she was agreeable and communicative, and pointed out many persons of rank, whom I could not have recognized but for her politeness. In answer to one of my inquiries, whether such a lady was a Peeress, my companion replied, “Oh, yes, we are all Peeresses, you know.” I smiled, but did not undeceive her, thinking as it was the first and last time I should ever pass for a Peeress, I would enjoy my rank.

She went on to enjoy the privilege of hearing Queen Victoria’s speech, which was a rare opportunity for the wife of an American Presbyterian minister. For the full story, see her account, and read about her other experiences in Europe, here. Peeress for a day!

How did "In God We Trust" come to be on American currency? A 19th century Presbyterian played a major role

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James Pollock left his mark on history. Born on September 11, 1810, he graduated from the College of New Jersey (Princeton) and became a lawyer, a judge and congressman. At one point he roomed with Abraham Lincoln and they developed an enduring friendship. He was present when Samuel Morse sent his first message by telegraph: “What hath God wrought?” and helped to support telegraph technology financially. He was the first in Congress to advocate for the construction of a transcontinental railroad. He later served as Governor of Pennsylvania, Director of the U.S. Mint, and as President of Lafayette College.

In 1861, in the midst of war, while James Pollock was serving as Director of the U.S. Mint, Mark Richards Watkinson (1824-1877), a Baptist minister from Pennsylvania, wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase.

Dear Sir: You are about to submit your annual report to Congress respecting the affairs of the national finances.

One fact touching our currency has hitherto been seriously overlooked. I mean the recognition of the Almighty God in some form in our coins.

Your are probably a Christian. What if our Republic were now shattered beyond recognition? Would not the antiquaries of succeeding centuries rightly reason from our part we were a heathen nation? What I propose is that instead of the Goddess of Liberty we shall have next inside the 13 stars a ring inscribed with the words ‘perpetual union’; within this ring the all-seeing eye crowned with a halo; beneath this eye the American flag, bearing in its field stars equal to the number of the States united; in the folds of the bars the words ‘God, liberty, law.’

This would make a beautiful coin, to which no possible citizen could object. This would relieve us from the ignominy of heathenism. This would place us openly under the divine protection we have personally claimed. From my heart I have felt our national shame in disowning God as not the least of our present national disasters.

To you first I address a subject that must be agitated.

Within a week, Secretary Chase wrote the following to Director Pollock:

Dear Sir: No nation can be strong except in the strength of God, or safe except in His defense. The trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins.

You will cause a device to be prepared without unnecessary delay with a motto expressing in the fewest and tersest words possible this national recognition.

Pollock gave an official response to Chase’s request in an 1862 report:

The distinct and unequivocal recognition of the divine sovereignty in the practical administration of our political system is a duty of the highest obligation. History unites with divine revelation in declaring that “happy is that people whose God is the Lord.” In the exercise of political sovereignty our nation should honor him; and now, in this hour of peril and danger to our country and its liberties, it is becoming to acknowledge his power and invoke his protection. Our national coinage in its devices and legends should indicate the Christian character of our nation, and declare our trust in God. It does not do this. On the contrary, ancient mythology, more than Christianity, has stamped its impress on our coins. It is, however, gratifying to know that the proposition to introduce a motto upon our coins, expressing a national reliance on divine support has been favorably considered by your department, and will no doubt be approved by an intelligent public sentiment. The subject is under the control of Congress; and without a change in existing laws, no alteration in the legends and devices of most of our national coins can be made; a motto, however, may be added without additional authority or violation of the present law.
…
In consideration of the legal provisions referred to, it will be necessary, in attempting to introduce a motto on the face of our coins, to interfere as little as possible with the present legal devices. The first difficulty to be encountered is the necessary condensation. The idea should be unmistakably expressed in our own language, and at the same time the letter should be distinctly and easily legible. To unite these desiderata within the limits presented on the face of the coin, in connexion with the required arrangement of the legal devices, demands much reflection. The motto “In God is our trust,” which has become familiar to the public mind by its use in our national hymn the “Star Spangled Banner,” would be an appropriate one, but it contains too many letters to insert in the place of the crest, without crowding - too much for good taste. For greater brevity we may substitute the words, “God our trust,” which convey the same idea, in a form of expression according with heraldic usage, and as readily understood as the more explicit form of the other…The adoption on our coin of the motto “God our trust,” or some other words expressive of national reliance upon divine support, would accord fully with the sentiment of the American people, and it would add to the artistic appearance of the coins.

In the next annual report to the Secretary (1863), Pollock followed up with these remarks:

I would respectfully and earnestly ask the attention of the department to the proposition, in my former report, to introduce a motto upon our coins expressive of a national reliance on divine protection, and a distinct and unequivocal national recognition of the divine sovereignty. We claim to be a Christian nation. Why should we not vindicate our character, by honoring the God of nations, in the exercise of our political sovereignty as a nation? Our national coinage should do this. Its legends and devices should declare our trust in God; in him who is the “King of kings and Lord of lords.” The motto suggested, “God, our trust,” is taken from our national hymn, the “Star Spangled Banner;” the sentiment is familiar to every citizen of our country; it has thrilled the hearts and fallen in song from the lips of millions of American freemen. The time for the introduction of this or a similar motto is propitious and appropriate. ‘Tis an hour of national peril and danger, an hour when man’s strength is weakness, when our strength and our nation’s strength must be in the God of battles and of nations. Let us reverently acknowledge his sovereignty, and let our coinage declare our trust in God.

Secretary Chase’s response to this report, dated December 9, 1863, was:

I approve of your mottoes, only suggesting that on that with the Washington obverse the motto should begin with the word, “Our,” so as to read, “Our God and Our Country.” And on that with the shield it should be changed so as to read, “In God We Trust.”

The first appearance of the motto “In God We Trust” on American coinage was on the obverse side of a two-cent piece.

The first appearance of the motto “In God We Trust” on American coinage was on the obverse side of a two-cent piece.

The motto for American coins “In God We Trust” was approved by Congress on April 22, 1864. It was not until July 11, 1955, that Congress authorized the use of this motto on paper currency as well. This was at the urging of Congressman Charles Bennett of Florida, known also for his role in the establishment of a national memorial near Jacksonville, Florida to commemorate the French Huguenot settlement at Fort Caroline. This writer had the privilege to correspond with Congressman Bennett on certain matters before his passing.

James Pollock was a link in the chain which led to an important statement, however symbolic, of national reliance upon God as expressed in our currency. He was a Presbyterian, and a member of the National Reform Association, and the stamp he left upon history, and upon our national coinage, endures.

The Keys Psalter

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Until the 1860’s, the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA) employed the 1650 Scottish Metrical Psalter (SMP) in its worship. But it was felt at that time that there was a need for a revised psalter.

In 1863, the RPCNA Synod minutes show that a communication was received from William W. Keys proposing the publication of a new edition of the Psalter with music settings appropriate to each Psalm. The Psalter project had apparently been initiated in 1860 (as the Preface tells us). The proposal was referred to a committee initially made up of T.P. Stevenson, A.C. Todd, N.R. Johnston and D.H. Coulter. The Psalter — known as the Keys Psalter — was published that year, and the following year Synod minutes show that Psalter had earned the endorsement of the special committee.

So in 1864, Synod recommended the Keys Psalter, which combined words and music on the same page and modernized some of the Scottish Psalter’s words (William J. Edgar, History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, 1871-1920, p. 23).

The Committee gave its report as follows (which was adopted):

Feeling the need and importance of earnest effort for the improvement of the service of song-in our church, and the desirableness of greater uniformity in the service among our congregations; appreciating, also, from our own examination, and on the testimony of competent judges, the manifold excellencies of this work, especially its retention of time honored-melodies and generally judicious adaptations of music to the sentiments of the Psalms; and believing that the employment of this book will prove a strong support in the advocacy of Scriptural Psalmody, and also a means of extending the use of the songs of inspiration throughout the churches; therefore,

Resolved, That we recommend the use of this book in all our congregations, as well adapted for the attainment of the specified ends.

We would further recommend, in this connection, that all our sessions be urged to take measures for the improvement of the service of praise in their respective congregations, and that to this end, they encourage the formation of singing classes, and attendance upon them. D. M'Allister, Chairman.

The Keys Psalter had help from some notable names, including

  • French-American composer Leopold Meignen (1793-1873) - who served as a bandmaster in Napoleon’s army before coming to the United States, and who contributed several tunes to the Keys Psalter; and

  • James M. Willson, Keys’ pastor until 1862, when Willson left First RPC in Philadelphia to fill the chair of Theology at RPTS, who helped divide Psalms into smaller sections with assigned tunes.

The tune “Keys,” composed by Dr. Leopold Meignen, is assigned to Psalms 33 and 98.

The tune “Keys,” composed by Dr. Leopold Meignen, is assigned to Psalms 33 and 98.

Keys in his Preface spoke to what he saw as the prime benefit of this new edition of The Psalms of David.

The superiority of this book over any other Psalm-Book heretofore published consists in the music being printed along with each Psalm, or portion of Psalm, throughout the entire book.

The advantage of this is two-fold: 1st. The precentor is not compelled to hurriedly select a tune at the same time that he is searching for the Psalm which has been announced. He knows that having found the Psalm, suitable music to be sung to it is there also, and all he has to think of is to have the tune properly pitched. 2d. There is no doubt or hesitation on the part of the congregation in commencing to sing, as all know precisely what tune is to be sung, and are prepared to commence as soon as the first note is given.

In a Preface to the second edition (published a month after the first), Keys quotes an endorsement from William Blackwood:

Every congregation in the country in which the 'Old Psalms' are used, will thank the author and publisher for this beautiful and admirably designed volume. * * * The airs are selected with taste and judgment. The harmony is delightful; and the general circulation of this book in churches would unquestionably promote in a very powerful manner the extension of congregational singing of a very high order. Every Psalm, and, in many of the longer ones, the portions of them suitable for a service, are provided with a proper air; and thus the book may be used in the pew, the lecture-room, or in the family, as well as by a precentor or leader.

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The Keys Psalter is one of a series of editions approved by the RPCNA besides the old 1650 SMP, and it was followed by an 1889 split-leaf edition, and further editions in 1911, 1919, 1929, 1950, 1973 and 2009. Many of those later revisions took into account the work by Keys. For example, the tune Arlington, paired with Psalm 1, is also associated with Psalm 1 in the 1950 and 1973 editions (the former mentions the Keys Psalter in the Preface).

The Keys Psalter is an important step along the trajectory of psalmody in the RPCNA. Many editions were published in its heyday (at least 15 by 1874). Editions published in 1864 and 1865 are now available to peruse on Log College Press. We have little biographical information as of yet regarding William Wallace Keys, but we have learned when he lived (1832-1892), and where (primarily Philadelphia, although he died in Connecticut), and we take note of his arrangement of the tunes Kilmarnock and Wilson, as well as his driving passion to bring together words and music for the improvement of psalmody in the church. This was his motto, as shown on the cover of the Keys Psalter: “'I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also" — 1 Cor. 14:15.

I trust my efforts have been well directed and that the book may tend to the honour and glory of God, and to the delight of his people, by causing all who use it to "sing with the spirit and the understanding," and "with a loud noise skilfully." If so, then my design will be accomplished. — W.W. Keys

Jenny Geddes' Day

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It was in the month of July—a month since become so memorable in the history of human freedom—on the twenty-third day of the month, that Jenny emerged from domestic obscurity to historic celebrity and renown.

From the pen of Wiliam Pratt Breed we have a reminder of an historical event of great importance to Presbyterians and all lovers of civil and ecclesiastical liberty. When authorities attempted on July 23, 1637, at St. Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh to impose the Book of Common Prayer upon the Presbyterian people of Scotland, a lady named Jenny Geddes is reputed to have started a riot by throwing her three-legged sitting stool at the prelate who was officiating the service while crying “Villian! dost thou say mass in my lug?” (meaning: “in my hearing”). This incident was pivotal in the ensuing Second Reformation of Scotland, which included the signing of the National Covenant in February 1638 and the purging of Episcopal bishops from the Church of Scotland later that year, as well as the military conflict which followed.

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For a helpful resource on the significance of this event in history, consider Breed’s Jenny Geddes, or, Presbyterianism and Its Great Conflict With Despostism (1869). As he walks the reader through those remarkable events in Scottish history, he highlights the debt that American Presbyterians and all Christians owe to Jenny and other faithful Scots during those troubled but inspiring times. As long as liberty is treasured, Jenny Geddes and her stool will be remembered.

The 1847 Edwards Quilt

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Note: Today’s guest post is by Nancy Elliott Mehne, who is the great-granddaughter of American Presbyterian minister Jonathan Edwards.

In 1847 the newly-married minister Jonathan Edwards (1817-1891) and his bride, Eliza Rice Edwards (1827-1880), were presented with a beautiful Baltimore Album–Signature quilt. It was a labor of love given to the young couple as a gift from his congregation, Somerset Presbyterian Church, Somerset, Ohio. A total of 80 different squares were made by 56 women. Each square was signed by its maker with newly-popular permanent brown ink. The signatures represented 23 families.

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Edwards had been called to pastor the two small congregations, Somerset and nearby Hopewell, just outside of Cincinnati, Ohio in 1844. He was very familiar with the area since he was born in Cincinnati in 1817. He had made profession of faith in 1828 under the ministry of Dr. Joshua Wilson at First Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati. According to the practice at that time he was expected to memorize Scripture verses. With his quick memory he readily learned 50-100 verses each week and eventually memorized the entire New Testament. As a young man, he was exposed to a lot of the theological issues of the day, was able to receive kind treatment from godly ministers and given the opportunity to further his education even though he was being raised by a widowed mother. In 1832, he became a student at Hanover College, Indiana. In 1835, he began teaching school in Walnut Hills which enabled him to become lifelong friends with the Kemper family and well acquainted with Dr. Lyman Beecher. The following years found him teaching and serving as the head of Bardstown Collegiate Institute while working under Dr. Nathan Lewis Rice. With the development of the Theological Department at Hanover College, Edwards was able to be licensed by the Presbytery of Salem in 1843, ordained by the Presbytery of Cincinnati, and installed pastor of the churches Hopewell and Somerset, Ohio on April 17, 1844.

Eliza Rice Edwards had strong Presbyterian roots. Like others traveling down the Valley of Virginia, both her Rice father’s and her Finley mother’s families became early settlers in the Danville, Kentucky area. She was related to David Rice who had been the original Presbyterian minister into Kentucky in 1784. Eliza’s father, Phineas G. Rice was a long time elder in the Danville Presbyterian Church and her pastor, John C. Young, was President of nearby Centre College. Eliza’s three uncles, Nathan Lewis Rice, John Jay Rice and William Garrett Rice were Presbyterian ministers.

When Eliza was only seven years old, her mother died in the 1833 cholera epidemic and was buried next to the Danville church. Both sides of the close-knit family then lovingly helped her father care for Eliza and her sister, Maria. As Eliza grew up “she was familiar with the fine types of Kentucky society” according to her son. There is a family story that “when Eliza would ‘go calling’ she would pick up the accent of the woman she had visited, so the family immediately knew where she had been.”

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The photo of Eliza was taken about the time she married Jonathan. They had four children who lived to adulthood: Effie Edwards, who married Presbyterian Elder Dr. Samuel O. Loughridge; the Rev. Charles Eugene Edwards; the Rev. Chauncey Theodore Edwards; and Dr. Eleanor Edwards, who married the Rev. Walter Scott Elliott and served in China.

Jonathan and Eliza faithfully gave of themselves to the Presbyterian Church and its congregations, colleges, and seminaries. Every night they would sleep under the quilt lovingly made by their first congregation. Two following generations of their descendants also regularly enjoyed it’s warmth. In the early 1900's the quilt was exhibited in a Philadelphia quilt show and was praised as being one of the largest Baltimore Album quilts ever seen. It is still in good condition and safely in the possession of the family. The quilt photos were taken in 1999.

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Much of the content of this post is derived from a biography of his father written by Charles.

Thaddeus Dod: A heart humbled before God

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Speaking of pioneer Presbyterian minister and one of the co-founders of Washington & Jefferson College Thaddeus Dod (1740-1793), Helen Turnbull Waite Coleman writes:

In his brief diary, now in the collection at Washington and Jefferson, we read throughout the thin, tenuous pages, in his fine, silvery script such words as these: “July 25, 1775, Help me to take up my cross and follow Thee…I would desire nothing but to be Thine, — and that forever…Let no corrupt design lead me astray from the paths of simplicity and truth.” His “Covenant with God” he wrote at twenty-four, and this he renewed, again and again (Banners in the Wilderness: Early Years of Washington and Jefferson College, p. 8)

Many years after Thaddeus’ death, his son Cephas Dod transcribed portions of his journal and published his father’s “Autobiography and Memoir” in The Presbyterian Magazine (August 1854). The extracts given below are centered on Thaddeus’ covenant with God, which he swore on July 25, 1764.

Although Thaddeus had, as a boy of eleven years old, purposed to dedicate himself to the Lord, but had gradually instead become “most secure in sin.” Yet, in the summer of 1764, as a revival of religion was underway, and as his father passed away, the Lord began a work of grace in his heart that is manifest in his journal entries, and which culminated in a changed and covenanted life as a believer. But there were anxious moments as that work of grace progressed.

July 9th, 1764. — In the morning, rose early. Taking the Bible, I cast my eyes on these words, Ezek. 13:12: “Lo, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said unto you, Where is the daubing wherewith ye daubed it?” This spoke to my very case. My wall is fallen, and I might justly be upbraided for my folly in trusting thus to it. Before any of the family were up, I went out, and my sorrows gave full vent, which much eased my mind. I retired into a wood near to Mr. T.’s, as I imagined, very humble, where I behaved myself very proudly before that God who sees in secret, which I shall not soon forget.

In the forenoon went to meeting. Some business was to have been transacted, but nothing could be done. The whole assembly was in confusion, as to any business. All that could be done or heard was the need of a Saviour. Undoneness without Christ. This was a day of divine power. Mr. B. told Mr. T. and me, he had had us much on his mind since parted with us last night. I hope to celebrate an endless eternity with him, and that he will be amply rewarded by bounteous Heaven, though I am unable to reward his faithfulness

This afternoon, the whole house seemed to be a “Bochim” — mourning for sin, it seemed to me, was universal through the whole congregation.

I went home again with Mr. T. This was a night of the utmost consequence to me — never to be forgotten; for, if I am not deceived, it will be matter of everlasting rejoicing. If I am deceived, it is of the same everlasting concern; for if I never discover the fatal delusion, I shall have reason to bemoan the time when I was deceived in a matter of such importance. If I should be brought to see the fallacy of my hope, and to close savingly with Christ, then I shall for ever blessed the Lord, who saved me from the delusion; so that it is of the greatest importance to me and to Mr. T. And I bless God I have (though not as I ought, and then thought that I should) been in earnest for my soul’s salvation. I this time received great light. I lay no stress upon any joys, or confidence of my interest in Christ. If what I had then, and from time to time since, hath not a transforming influence upon my soul, making me more and more like the blessed God, and bringing me to a conformity to His holy, just, and good law, I pray God I may discover it, and may be saved from the fatal, delusive, and treacherous heart I have in me.

July 10th, 1764. — Went with Mr. T. to D.C.’s, where we were received with much pleasure, and had some pleasant discourse upon the things of God. Went to other places, and had some pleasant discourse upon the things of God. Went to other places, and everywhere had discourse upon the great Gospel mysteries. I would have disdained as much to have entered into discourse about the things of the world as to wallow in the dirt with the swine. The Scripture seemed new to me. Those things which seemed written for the Jews were brought home to me, and Christ was become (as I thought) my whole dependence for wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

July 16th. — I feel so prodigiously hardened and confused in my mind, that I know not what answer to give any one. Am so amazed and confused, that I cannot examine my own state — cannot tell what has been and what has not with me.

This afternoon, began to write an instrument of self-dedication to God, according to the advice of several divines, particularly Dr. Doddridge.

July 17th. — Very much distressed in mind. Much in doubt as to the state of my soul. Satan still follows me with most horrid thoughts — blasphemous, unbelieving. I am afraid to speak or write anything, lest it be wrong.

July 18th. — This morning my soul had such a visit from heaven that I felt myself quite turned about, and could scarcely believe that it had been with me as it had. I cannot describe it.

July 24th. — In a sweet frame. Had some freedom with God in prayer. O my God, give me preparedness to go through with the solemn business of to-morrow!

July 25th, 1764. — This being the day set apart to seek the eternal welfare of my soul, and for imploring divine assistance, retired into a solitary place on the mountain. Here I made my solemn engagements in writing, and in that solemn manner entered into covenant obligations to be the Lord’s. O! may divine grace be ever near for my support, without which I shall never perform one article. O my God! leave me not to a cold, dead, careless performance of duty, but help me daily to take up my cross and follow thee. Now that I am enlisted into thy service, help me to approve myself a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

As he began his soldier service for the King, he immediately again felt the spiritual struggle and warfare that all Christians know well. But having covenanted to belong to Christ, the work of grace by God in him continued. He labored for the cause of Christ as a minister of the gospel and as a teacher in a log cabin school, paving the way — with his co-laborers in the Lord — to bring the Gospel to people west of the Allegheny Mountains. When he entered into glory on May 20, 1793, his funeral sermon was preached by John McMillan, the text being “And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them” (Rev. 14:13). He found his soul’s rest, and his legacy for the cause of Christ is not to be forgotten. Read more from diary and his son’s memoir here.

J.I. Packer remembered at Log College Press

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At the age of 93, famed Christian scholar and author J.I. Packer entered into glory on July 17, 2020. Many Christians have benefited from his writings on Reformed piety — such as Knowing God and A Quest For Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life — and other topics, including “Fundamentalism” and the Word of God. He was an Anglican divine, not Presbyterian, but he had some connections to authors found on Log College Press.

  • Don J. Payne, in The Theology of the Christian Life in J.I. Packer’s Thought: Theological Anthropology, Theological Method, and the Doctrine of Salvation, p. 63, writes: “The formulation of Packer’s theology and piety was a process involving multiple influences: the Puritans, J.C. Ryle, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones and the theologians of the old Princeton Theological Seminary. He states that by 1947 he was aware of Benjamin B. Warfield (1851-1921) and had been encouraged to read him. In unpublished correspondence Packer writes, ‘There were some volumes of Warfield … including the two on perfectionism, in the OICCU library, and … the late Douglas Johnson was exhorting all who had any aptitude for theology to read Warfield, and that his name was bandied around in the circle of IVF’s Theological Students Fellowship and Tyndale Fellowship.”

  • Dr. Packer wrote this endorsement of James M. Garretson, Princeton and Preaching: Archibald Alexander and the Christian Ministry: “From Dr. Garretson comes a first-class account of a first-class delineation of the preaching ministry by a first-class theologian, mentor, and minister of the gospel – the versatile Archibald Alexander, who for its first generation virtually was Princeton Seminary in both its academic and its practical aspects, and who laid the foundation for all its future greatness. Alexander is a neglected figure, and it is high time for someone to begin to do him justice, as Dr. Garretson does. Enrichment and enjoyment in equal parts await the student of this excellent book.”

  • Packer wrote this endorsement of Gary Steward, Princeton Seminary (1812-1929): Its Leaders’ Lives and Works: “The quality and achievement of Princeton Seminary’s leaders for its first hundred years was outstanding, and Steward tells their story well. Reading this book does the heart good.”

  • Packer wrote the introduction to the Crossway Classic Commentaries edition of Charles Hodge on Romans, in which he said: “Charles Hodge (1797-1878), the greatest of Princeton Seminary’s nineteenth-century theologians, began his teaching career as Professor of Oriental and Biblical Literature in 1822, becoming Professor of Exegetical and Didactic Theology in 1840. The titles of his chairs show that for more than fifty years, up to his death in harness, he carried responsibility for interpreting the Bible, and classroom exegesis was a major part of his role. Four printed expositions resulted: on 1 and 2 Corinthians, on Ephesians, and a true masterpiece on Romans. B.B. Warfield, Hodge’s most distinguished pupil and ardent admirer, described Hodge as a teacher who, with limited philological and linguistic resources, was peerless and spellbinding in his power to pick out and display the flow of an argument, and it is this quality that sets Hodge’s Romans apart from most other expositions before and since. First published in 1835, its classic quality led to its being reprinted once already in this century (Eerdmans, 1951), and the present edited reissue should give it another lease of useful life. Hodge’s intellectual rigor, as a masterful Reformed theologian committed to state and defend his sixteenth- and seventeenth-century heritage, was a quality that all his peers respected, but his terse, springy, thrustful style of expression enabled him to write popular theology for his own era and makes his 150-year-old applicatory analysis of Romans very accessible and acceptable today.”

  • In Knowing God, p. 134, Packer refers to the famous hymn by Samuel Davies: “The reaction of the Christian heart contemplating this, comparing how things were with how they are in consequence of the appearing of grace in the world, was given supreme expression by the one-time president of Princeton, Samuel Davies:

Great God of wonders! all thy ways
Display the attributes divine;
But countless acts of pardoning grace
Beyond thine other wonders shine:
Who is a pardoning God like Thee?
Or who has grace so rich and free?”

In these snapshots, we glean the appreciation that Packer had for some Log College Press authors that we too are fond of, and in particular, the piety of old Princeton. We remember these things about him as facets of a life lived for the glory of God. He labored long as a teacher and author, the legacy he left behind is rich; but now we rejoice that he has entered into his rest in the arms of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Joseph Patterson: A painting by the Holy Spirit

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Joseph Patterson (1752-1832) was one of the Presbyterian ministers who contributed so much to pioneer labors in Western Pennsylvania. Joseph Smith (1796-1868) recounts an anecdote, in Old Redstone (1854), towards the end of Patterson’s life, which is the subject of today’s post.

On Friday, before he died, he took the final sitting for his portrait. The artist had been expressing his purpose to visit the celebrated Sully, the great American painter, with a view to receive instructions for his own improvement. As Mr. Patterson rose from the chair, after looking for a while at his own picture, he turned to the artist, and taking him by the hand, he said to him, with great solemnity and affection, "I can recommend to you another great painter. Do you get the Holy Ghost to draw the image of Christ upon your heart, and it will last for ever. And he will charge you nothing for it!" The painter, who was of infidel sentiments, probably despised the counsel, and might soon have forgotten it, but from his hearing, a few days after, to his great surprise, of Mr. Patterson's death. He then related this remark of Mr. Patterson. He subsequently, abandoned his infidel sentiments, and made a profession of religion.

To God be the glory for Patterson’s witness to the grace of God in the final days of a life lived in His service.

James R. Boyd on the Providence of God

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James Robert Boyd employed a useful method of teaching the substance of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. First, he presented the particular question, followed by the great doctrinal truths comprehended within, supported by Scripture. Then, he listed practical lessons to be derived from those truths. Finally, he gave illustrations of these teachings to bring them home.

Today, we give an example of his method as it pertains to Q. 11 of the Shorter Catechism in The Westminster Shorter Catechism: With Analysis, Scriptural Proofs, Explanatory and Practical Inferences, and Illustrative Anecdotes (1854). It is a good subject for meditation, and Boyd’s teaching is a good reminder of a precious Scriptural truth.

Q. 11. WHAT ARE GOD’S WORKS OF PROVIDENCE?

God’s works of Providence are, his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.

What Truths are embraced in this Answer?

  1. God preserves all his creatures. — Psal. cxiv. 15. The eyes of all wait upon thee: and thou givest them their meat in due season.

  2. God governs all his creatures. — Psal. ciii. 19. His kingdom ruleth over all.

  3. God directs and governs all the actions of his creatures. — Prov. xvi. 9. A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.

  4. God’s works of providence are most holy. — Psal. cxlv. 17. The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.

  5. God’s works of providence are most wise. — Isa. xxviii. 29. The Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.

  6. God’s works of providence are most powerful. — Psal. lxvi. 7. He ruleth by his power for ever.

What Lessons do you derive from the above Doctrines?

I learn (1.) That there is no such thing as blind fate; that there is a divine agency which guides, and protects, and governs; that it reaches to all places, beings, and events. (2.) To commit myself and all other creatures to the care and guidance of my Creator, and to endeavor at all times to act in obedience to his supreme will. (3.) That events which seem accidental, are nevertheless ordered by the Lord, as when the Bible informs us (1 Kings, xxii. 34) of a certain man who drew a bow at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness. God’s providence directed the arrow to the mark. (4.) That the providence of God is merely the accomplishment of his eternal purposes concerning his creatures, and that all the circumstances of my life are regulated by his wisdom and power. Hence (5.) I must not murmur or complain when affliction befalls me, nor be ungrateful to God when he prospers me and gladdens me in my course. (6.) That the cause of religion — the church of Christ — is safe. (7.) That even the wickedness of man is overruled for good, as in the case of the envy of Joseph’s brethren, the crucifixion of our Saviour, and the sensuality of Henry VIII. of England.

What Illustrations can you give?

  1. There is a habit of saying, “Such a thing will TURN UP,” as if it depended on chance; whereas nothing will turn up but what has been ordered. When a man becomes a Christian, he is written upon, “TO BE PROVIDED FOR,” and he ought, therefore, to notice, as he goes on, how Providence does provide for him.

  2. When the Protestants in Rochelle were besieged by the French king, God, by his providence, sent in a number of small fishes that fed them, such as were never seen before in that harbor.

  3. The raven, a bird that has not natural affection enough to feed its own young, yet providentially carried nourishment to the Hebrew prophet Elijah.

  4. The Book of Esther details a series of the most wonderful providences in behalf of the Jewish people, when in great danger of a universal massacre.

  5. The Rev. Richard Cecil has correctly observed, that “we are too apt to forget our actual dependence on Providence, for the circumstances of every instant. The most trivial events may determine our state in the world. Turning up one street instead of another, may bring us into company with a person whom we should not otherwise have met; and this may lead to a train of other events, which may determine the happiness or misery of our lives.”

  6. OVERRULING PROVIDENCE. — “All these things are against me,” thought good old Jacob, when he exclaimed in the bitterness of his soul, “Joseph is not, Simeon is not, and will ye take Benjamin away?” And it did seem as if these bereavements would “bring down his gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.” But it was all cleared up when “he saw the wagons” which Joseph had sent to carry him and all his numerous family down to Egypt, and save them alive, during the terrible seven years’ famine. So Joseph himself must have thought, when his brethren cast him into the pit; when they sold him as a slave to the Ishmaelites; and when, upon the false charge of an adulterous woman, he was thrown into prison, without any hope of relief, or any prospect of it, except by a violent and ignominious death. But how was it, when he found himself suddenly raised to the vice-royalty of Egypt, and that God had sent him down to preserve the life of his venerable father, and of the very brethren who had so cruelly sold him to the passing caravan? “All these things are against us,” undoubtedly, thought our Puritan ancestors, when they were persecuted from city to city, and could find no secure resting-place short of this great Western wilderness; but God sent his angel before them, and what glorious foundations of civil and religious liberty did they lay upon these shores, for the building up of a great nation. We see in all these and numberless other striking examples, how much better care God takes of his people than they could take of themselves, and how he overrules the most adverse and trying events for their highest good. Indeed, this is a matter of every-day experience. Almost any person who has arrived at the age of forty, can recollect times when his favorite plans were thwarted, and it did seem as if the course of Providence was against him, when, as it proved in the end, it was all in his favor, and saved him from losses or calamities, in which the carrying out of his plans would inevitably have involved him. — Dr. Humphrey

An acrostic by Amos Beman

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Amos Beman was a prominent African-American abolitionist and minister, as well as a close friend of James W.C. Pennington. Pennington, a former slave — “the fugitive blacksmith” — went on himself to become a prominent Presbyterian minister, as well as the first African-American to receive a Doctor of Divinity degree in Europe. One of his biographers, Christopher L. Webber, in American to the Backbone: The Life of James W.C. Pennington, the Fugitive Slave Who Became One of the First Black Abolitionists, pp. 441-442, tells of Beman’s poetic tribute to his friend, which is a remarkable memorial to a godly man.

The poem raises a puzzle that is at present unsolved. What abbreviation “C” in Pennington’s name stand for? As Webber tells us, he was born as James Pembroke. In the autobiographical The Fugitive Blacksmith, we are told of a name change to James W.C. Pennington, but we are not told why. The obvious inference is that a name change would be helpful to a fugitive slave. But what do to the abbreviations stand for? That Pennington does not explain. We have no writings by him that provide full names without abbreviations in his own hand. The degree given to him at Heidelberg University does give a full name (in Latin) of James William Charles Pennington. Some have speculated that “W” would stand for William Wright, who first harbored the escaped slave. No suggestion has been offered for name “Charles.” Amos Beman, however, uses “Cox” in the acrostic below, thinking, perhaps, of the Rev. Samuel H. Cox, “the man who welcomed [Pennington] into the Christian Church.” In any case, Beman’s tribute is a noble attempt to answer the age-old question, “What’s in a name?”

Pennington, James W.C. DD photo.jpg

REV, J.W.C. PENNINGTON

J ustified by wisdom’s high behest
A slave no more—a man confessed—
M any have read from thy eloquent pen,
E nnobling thoughts for the freedom of men.
S till upward and onward is thy way.

W hich thousands admire, blessing God for the day
I n which you have toiled, so nobly and true—
L ike Garnet and Douglass, and Delaney, too—
L ifting the bondman from darkness and death—
I nvesting him with rights—inspiring him with breath,
A nd sending him forward in virtue’s career,
M ajestic and noble, divested of fear.

C ontinue then faithful and true to the end;
O n God you rely—He is strong to defend.
X ylographican skill let others unfold.

P resent thou thy record to ages untold,
E mblazoned with the deeds of light and love;
N one will deny thee a mansion above.
N ow awaiting to crown thee in thy new field,
I n heart and in hope as your power you wield,
N ew honors shall deck thee as in distant lands,
G iving thee joy amid the work of thy hands.
T o heaven we commend thee in all the way
O n which thou goest from home far away—
N one can more warmly adieu to thee say.

Sturge's Cherry Tree

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No one can have visited Japan, with its lovely landscapes and dainty cherry blossoms and magnificent Buddhist temples and sequestered Shinto shrines, without ever afterwards having the deepest interest in the future of that almost fairyland of the east; and no one can have come into close contact, as the writer of this has done, with the Japanese character, with its picturesque naivitè and ceremonial politeness and charming gentleness of manners, without having that interest greatly deepened and enhanced. Dr. Sturge's work only needs to be better known to the Christian people of our own churches in order that it may be more highly appreciated by them. His work is not so much for to-day as for to-morrow; not so much directly for the few thousand Japanese people in California now as indirectly for the millions of Japanese in their native land.

So wrote Henry Collin Minton in his introduction to The Spirit of Japan: With Selected Poems and Addresses (1903) by Ernest Adolpus Sturge, American medical doctor and missionary, and long-time General Superintendent of the Japanese Presbyterian Church. Sturge’s poems capture the beauty of a place, and the spirit of a people, who were dear to him. Today, we consider the cherry tree, through Sturge’s eyes.

Cherry Blossom Tree, Japan.jpg

The Cherry

The cherry is grown for beauty alone;
The fruit that is left behind
Is bitter and small, and not eaten at all;
The petals that whirl in the wind
Like beauiful snow, seem to say as they go,
When called by each summoning blast:
“A lesson we give to people who live,
That beauty like ours will not last."

Long ages ago, in old Yamato,
These blossoms that quickly fall,
Taught brave Samurai to be ready to die
At once, at their master 's call;
To die by the sword for their feudal lord;
So cherries, wherever they blow,
With fragrance they fill the air, while they thrill
The spirit of Yamato.

Happy birthday to John Calvin!

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If you are Reformed, you probably know something about John Calvin. He is widely recognized as the author of the Institutes of Christian Religion (1536, 1559), and as the leader of the Reformed wing of the Reformation (in contrast to Martin Luther’s Lutheran wing). He was born in Noyon, France on July 10, 1509. Today is his birthday, and thus, Log College Press is celebrating with select resources about the man and his theology. Consider these works for an in-depth study of the man and his legacy.

John Calvin.jpg

As Calvin would say,

I have always been exceedingly delighted with the words of Chrysostom, “The foundation of our philosophy is humility;” and still more with those of Augustine, “As the orator, when asked, What is the first precept in eloquence? answered, Delivery: What is the second? Delivery: What the third? Delivery: so, if you ask me in regard to the precepts of the Christian Religion, I will answer, first, second, and third, Humility (Institutes 2.2.11).

As Reformed Christians, we do not exalt Calvin beyond measure, but we are thankful for the grace of God that accomplished so much good in his life. He was a very humble man, and that is seen in the writings referenced above which explore his life and many contributions to the world, and to the kingdom of God. We remember a good man today who was born over 500 years ago.

Henry Kollock: Christ Must Increase

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When Henry Kollock delivered a sermon before the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he was just 24 years old and newly-appointed to serve as a Professor of Divinity at the College of New Jersey at Princeton. His sermon was titled Christ Must Increase. A Sermon Preached Before the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America; by Appointment of Their Standing Committee of Missions, May 23, 1803, which can be found in Vol. 4 of Sermons on Various Subjects, and it left a mark on his hearers.

Kollock, Henry, Christ Must Increase Title Page.jpg

In this sermon, based on John 3:30, Kollock argues that it is a definite truth that Christ and his kingdom will increase, and that this truth gives both consolation to believers and a direction to duty.

Drawing from the Psalms, Isaiah, Daniel, Malachi and the writing of John in Revelation, among other Scripture texts, Kollock argues that as the kingdom of God grows on earth — like a mustard seed — every nation will be blessed to call Jesus Lord.

And what a consolation this is to those who love Jesus, to know that His work will advance and none can hinder it. When we look around and see so many people lying in darkness, void of the gospel, it is heartbreaking. But the promises of God assure us that the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection will reach every land, and that people all around the world will indeed praise him.

This knowledge leads to our duty as believers, for “we are workers together with God,” who must needs accomplish his purposes in the earth. We have a duty to pray for the extension of Christ’s kingdom in the world, and a duty to labor for the same, according to our place and calling. We can contribute to the work of missionaries, even if we are not called to be missionaries. An obligation is upon us to be missionary-minded.

Take time to read this missionary sermon by Henry Kollock, which is over 200 years old. It will still stir the hearts of any today who love the name of Jesus and desire to see his name magnified to the furthest ends of the earth. It is promised that “He will increase,” and this sermon offers assurance, consolation and direction to every believer to whom this promise is precious.

Joseph Bullen was born 270 years ago

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It was on July 8, 1750, in Brimfield, Massachusetts, that pioneer Presbyterian missionary Joseph Bullen was born. He studied at Yale, graduating in 1772, and became pastor of a Congregational church two years later, in Westminster, Vermont. He also worked as a teacher, a miller, and a farmer, and served as a chaplain in the American War of Independence, and later was elected to serve in the Vermont legislature. He and his wife Hannah had nine children.

In 1796, he answered the call of the New-York Missionary Society to serve as a missionary to the Chickasaw Indians in the Mississippi Territory. A charge was given to him in March 1799 by John Rodgers. Later that year, he made his way through wilderness to reach his destination, receiving a letter of safe passage from Chickasaw chief William Colbert. Robert M. Winter writes, “On June 2, 1799, Bullen preached the first sermon in the Chickasaw Nation, also the first Presbyterian sermon in Mississippi” (Outposts of Zion: A History of Mississippi Presbyterians in the Nineteenth Century, p. 10).

This photo shows the reconstructed log cabin church known as the Bayou Pierre Presbyterian Church, at Port Gibson, Mississippi, organized by Joseph Bullen, as it stood in 1807. It was one of several Presbyterian congregations organized by Bullen in …

This photo shows the reconstructed log cabin church known as the Bayou Pierre Presbyterian Church, at Port Gibson, Mississippi, organized by Joseph Bullen, as it stood in 1807. It was one of several Presbyterian congregations organized by Bullen in the Mississippi Territory.

Bullen recorded his experiences in a journal, extracts of which from the year 1800 were published by the New York Missionary Magazine and Repository of Religious Intelligence. He returned to New England briefly and was re-authorized to continue serving as a missionary to the Chickasaw Indians, which he did, organizing a school, and planting churches in the Mississippi Territory. Other missionaries came and, by their combined labors, the Presbyterian Church obtained a foothold in the “Old Southwest.” In 1816, the Presbytery of Mississippi was organized, and Bullen was chosen as its first Moderator. He died on March 26, 1825, and is buried in Jefferson County, Mississippi. Today, we remember his labors on behalf of the kingdom of Christ, especially as the first pioneer Presbyterian missionary in Mississippi.

Family Religion in Clarence E.N. Macartney's Boyhood Home

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Clarence Edward Noble Macartney (1879-1957) was an American Presbyterian clergyman and author who played an important role in the PCUSA’s “fundamentalist-modernist” controversy of the 1920s and 1930s. Macartney is known, for example, for his famous 1922 sermon “Shall Unbelief Win?” — a response to Harry Emerson Fosdick’s "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?” Both of these significant sermons have recently been added to Log College Press.

From his posthumously-published The Making of a Minster: The Autobiography of Clarence E. Macartney (1961), pp. 63-64, we glean some insight into the background of this staunch defender of the faith. What is particularly interesting is the place that family worship held in his home as he grew up in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. His family was members of the RPCNA congregation pastored by Robert James George (whose address on family religion is available to read on Log College Press). In this extract, Macartney speaks of his first religious impressions.

I received my earliest and most abiding religious impressions where they are always first received, in the home. Family worship was universal in the homes of our neighborhood, and we had “worship” every morning before breakfast and at night before going to bed. Father would say to one of the children, “Bring the books,” whereupon the black-bound Bibles were brought from the shelf in the dumbwaiter which now serves as a closet. After we had sung a Psalm we then read around the circle the verses of the chapter for the day, after which we knelt for prayer, by Father when he was at home, or, if he was away, by Mother. My first lessons in religion and in reading I had on those mornings at family worship, sitting on my father’s knee as he, with his long forefinger, pointed out the words to me. The 121st Psalm was a favorite. We always sang that great “Traveler’s Psalm” when any of the family was starting off to college, or on a journey. The benediction of that family altar has, I am sure, followed all of us through life thus far, and will, I hope, follow us up to the gate of heaven. Father was wont to conclude his petitions at the family altar with the prayer, “May we all get home at last!” Still on life’s pilgrimage, the children who remain can hear the music of that grand 121st Psalm as we sang it in the Scottish metrical version:

“I too the hills will lift mine eyes,
From whence doth come mine aid
My safety cometh from the Lord,
Who heaven and earth hath made.”

The most treasured recollection of my mother’s religious training is that of singing by our bedside at night in her clear, sweet voice the words of the hymn,

“There is a happy land,
Far, far away.”

On Sabbath afternoons in the springtime and summer mother took us down to a moss-covered rock under the sassafras trees on the hillside and told us the deathless tales of the Bible. She had a little red-bound hymn book out of which we sang with her some of the hymns. Covenanters were not supposed to sing the hymns; only the Psalms of David, and those Psalms are, indeed, the sweetest music this side of heaven. Yet Mother was always free in her religious life, and did not hesitate, on occasions, to sing the hymns. I am sure that the singing of those hymns on the summer afternoons on that moss-covered rock on the hillside in the long ago did much to introduce us to the warmth and tenderness of personal religion.

Family worship as boy left a deep impression on the man who later devoted his life to the ministry of the gospel, and as a witness to Old School, Biblical religion. Seeds planted early may, in the providence and mercy of God, bear much good fruit.

Presbyterians and the Revolution

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In 1876, on the centennial anniversary of America’s birth as a nation, William Pratt Breed published a volume titled Presbyterians and the Revolution, which examined the historic connection between Presbyterianism and resistance to tyranny.

As Breed notes, Calvinism has imbued a spirit of civil and ecclesiastical liberty into the freedom-loving peoples of Switzerland, France, Scotland, England, the Netherlands, and the American colonies, not to mention the Waldenses and others. Presbyterians have long stood at the forefront of the struggle for “lex rex,” or limited, just government, in opposition to tyranny both in the state and in the church. The heritage of the Scottish Covenanters and French Huguenots in this regard contributed much to the American Presbyterian witness on behalf of Biblical liberty.

Here is the Table of Contents for Breed’s work:

  1. Presbyterians and the Centennial

  2. Presbyterianism A Representative Republican Form of Government

  3. Presbyterianism Odious to Tyrants

  4. Presbyterians Spirit in Harmony With That of the Revolution

  5. The Westmoreland County Resolutions

  6. The Mecklenburg Declaration

  7. Presbyterian Zeal and Suffering

  8. Formal Action of the Presbyterian Church

  9. Declaration of Independence and Dr. John Witherspoon

  10. Organization of the Confederacy

  11. Monument to Witherspoon

Breed quotes from a classic work by Ezra H. Gillett (History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States) to show how closely allied Presbyterianism and the cause of American liberty were:

To the privations, hardships and cruelties of the war the Presbyterians were pre-eminsntly exposed. In them the very essence of rebellion was supposed to be concentrated, and by the wanton plunderings and excesses of the marauding parties they suffered severely. Their Presbyterianism was prima facie evidence of guilt. A house that had a large Bible and David's Psalms in metre in it was supposed, as a matter of course, to be tenanted by rebels. To sing "Old Rouse" was almost as criminal as to have leveled a loaded musket at a British grenadier.

Breed quotes Gillett further to list the heroic sacrifices of Presbyterian clergymen who served and suffered during the war. Among the names listed are John Rodgers, Azel Roe, Jacob Green, Henry Pattillo, David Caldwell, William Tennent III, Hugh McAden, Alexander MacWhorter and many others. We shared an honor roll of Presbyterians who served the cause of American liberty last year as well.

Breed pays special attention to the role of John Witherspoon, who was the only clergyman to sign the 1776 Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation.

The Calder statue of John Witherspoon at the Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (photo by R. Andrew Myers).

The Calder statue of John Witherspoon at the Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (photo by R. Andrew Myers).

All of these names — their stories, their service, their sacrifices — recalled to mind by Breed, are worthy of remembrance today, just as they were in 1876. The cause of freedom, both civil and ecclesiastical, is always linked to the right honor of Christ the King, who rules the nations. The record of American Presbyterian contributions to civil liberty constitutes a noble history, though filled with flaws and inconsistencies, but that history is sometimes shrouded in mist, and is in danger of being forgotten. Presbyterians and the Revolution is book worth reading, especially on this Independence Day.

Andrew W. Blackwood: How Christ Enables Me to Solve My Problems

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The noted Presbyterian preacher and homiletics professor Andrew Watterson Blackwood (1882-1966) was a tireless worker for Christ. But twice in his life he was sidelined by “nervous breakdowns,” the first of which occurred while he was studying at Princeton. Later in life, he wrote an account of the lessons learned from those experiences. It appears in Jay E. Adams, The Homiletical Innovations of Andrew W. Blackwood, pp. 42-43.

HOW CHRIST ENABLES ME TO SOLVE MY PROBLEMS

In 1905 I suffered a nervous and physical breakdown, which lasted almost a year. In 1936 I had another breakdown, much worse, which kept me from teaching and preaching for a year and a half. Partly through a kind physician who loved the Lord, I regained health and strength of body and mind. During the past 18 years the Lord has enabled me to carry a full-time load as a professor, to conduct divine services almost every Lord’s Day in the past few years, and to write 18 books, 15 of them for ministers, and all 15 still on the active list. Now I am four years beyond the seminary’s age of retirement, and still He gives me work to do, with strength to do it, day by day, and peace of heart.

So I gladly accept an invitation to testify, not in a spirit of boastfulness, but of gratitude. As our late friend and neighbor Albert Einstein once told Mrs. Blackwood, with reference to his work in science, “I have nothing but what I have received.” He was thinking about greatness in the eyes of men; I am giving thanks for goodness from the hand of God….

…Gradually the Lord has taught me how to live from day to day, as ever in His sight. He has been teaching me what I should have learned as a young minister. Once I asked an older man, active and honored in state and church, “How is it that in a day, a year, or a lifetime you can do more work and better work than any person I have ever known?” He smiled as he told me, “My Lord taught me a long while ago to live without worry, work without hurry, and look forward without fear.” That sounds like Philippians 4:6, 7.

Looking back, I can see that apart from physical causes my breakdowns came from my shortcomings and failures, due no doubt to ambition. I had not learned to live and work and hope in the spirit of my older friend. Neither had I gained mastery over despondency, insomnia, and related disorders, which ought to have no place in a life where the Spirit dwells. I had not even learned how to deal with my body as my father, a horse-and-buggy doctor, took care of his team, and as I, a typical Scotsman, try to take care of my automobile. I do not mean that I ever drank, or abused my body in various other ways, but that I suffered from stress and strain, self-imposed, with resulting worry and waste. Friction in my soul!

Now as I look forward the sunset years I trust that I shall keep on learning how to live day by day, as ever in His sight. With Paul I hope that I shall always feel able to say, “for me to live is Christ”; and with Browning, “The best part is yet to be.” “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood .and righteousness.” Hence I look forward to the unseen world with peace, with hope, and with more than a few foretastes of heaven’s joy. I hope, too, that I shall not meet my Lord with empty hands and a broken heart.

Andrew W. Blackwood

Ruling Elder Moderators: A Sermon (or Address) by Ralph E. Prime

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To introduce this new addition to Log College Press, we quote from Joan S. Gray and Joyce C. Tucker, Presbyterian Polity For Church Officers, p. 42:

One fascinating document from the last decade of the nineteenth century is a pamphlet titled “A Sermon or Address on the Elder Moderator and the Ruling Elder.” This sermon was delivered before the Presbytery of Westchester of the Synod of New York at its meeting in Stamford, Connecticut, in 1894. Ralph E. Prime began by recounting his experience as the first elder to moderate his presbytery. One of the first questions which arose was whether he would preach the sermon, even though he titled it “A Sermon or Address.” The sermon was a learned lecture on the history of presbyterian polity and of the Presbyterian Church. Prime told story after story of elders serving as moderators of various judicatories in various places. About one-third of the way through his sermon Prime concluded that in matters related to polity it is, indeed, right to make changes! Having reached that conclusion, he turned to the text from Romans 11:13: “I magnify mine office.” And indeed Prime did! He called on elders to exercise their office according to the highest standards of faithfulness.

Ralph E. Prime, Sr. (1840-1920) was a remarkable man. Born in Matteawan, New York, Prime went on to fight for the Union in the War Between the States, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel (he was nominated by President Lincoln to serve as brigadier general), and practiced law after the war was over for more than four decades. He was a city attorney for the town of Yonkers, New York, and served as deputy attorney general for the State of New York. He was a member of the New York Society of Military Order of the Loyal Legion, the Society of the War of 1812, the Empire State Society of Sons of the American Revolution, the Order of the Founders and Patriots of America, and as President of the American Flag Association. He was also a long-time Presbyterian ruling elder who served as clerk of his session, and as a delegate to five Pan-Presbyterian Alliance council meetings in Europe and the United States. He was a church historian, a published author and a Mason. To the point for this post, he was the first ruling elder to serve as moderator of his presbytery (Westchester) and synod (New York).

Being the first ruling elder of his presbytery to serve as moderator, Prime was forced to confront the question of whether it was proper for him as a ruling elder (and not a minister) to deliver the traditional moderator’s sermon. In fact, as he recounts the event, he was asked that very question (but it remain unanswered) before the vote to elect him to the position was taken.

In his discourse, Prime takes his audience through an historical tour of the precedents for him serving in the capacity of moderator. He relates the story of George Buchanan in Scotland, and others in England, and in the PCUSA and the PCUS, who all served as ruling elder moderators. He also examines the relevant portions of the book of church order, and affirms his conviction that there is one office of elder, teaching and ruling, before proceeding to “magnify” that office by expounding on what the Scriptures teach about the duties of elders, and stirring up his fellow presbyters to faithful service to the kingdom.

Recently, we have obtained a copy of this discourse, photographed it, and uploaded it to Log College Press. It is an interesting read to be sure, and it shows both the knowledge and passion of the author for this subject. We nevertheless take note of the ambiguity of the title - is it a sermon or is it an address? Read it for yourself and decide.

A poem for the last day of June by Lucien V. Rule

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As the first half of 2020 comes to a close, here is a sweet reminder that no matter what our lot, we have reason to fall to our knees with thanksgiving and offer praise to our Maker and Redeemer. This poem was published by Lucien V. Rule in 1903.

Worship

The passing days are full of pain
Unless she sweetly smiles on me;
And I would give all worldly gain
One kindly look of love to see,
Dear heart,
One kindly look of love to see.

The fields of June are golden fair,
The skies above are blissful blue;
But song is dumb with dark despair
Unless my love is fond and true,
Dear heart,
Unless my love is fond and true.

She guards her holy secret well,
Her trembling lips have naught to say;
But tender eyes more truly tell
The tale of love than poet’s lay,
Dear heart,
The tale of love than poet’s lay.

Ah, God, I thank Thee, and am glad
Again; and I will doubt no more;
My soul shall sing where it was sad,
And from its lowly sackcloth soar,
Dear heart,
And from its lowly sackcloth soar.

Sure, Heaven itself hath peace like this;
Sure, angels feel a love so sweet!
O sacred trust, O speechless bliss!
I fall silence at thy feet,
Dear heart,
I fall in silence at thy feet.