Prayers of William S. Plumer

Receive our blog posts in your email by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.

For my own part, I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experience may await many others.

I believe that many who find that ‘nothing happens’ when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hands. – C.S. Lewis, “On the Reading of Old Books,” in Walter Hooper, ed., God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics (1970), p. 205

There is something remarkable in that classic 1867 volume of Christology by William S. Plumer titled The Rock of Our Salvation: A Treatise Respecting the Natures, Person, Offices, Work, Sufferings, and Glory of Jesus Christ. It is a stirring study of Christ in all his many glorious facets, and throughout this doctrinal treatise it is as if Plumer, while writing, was filled with prayerful utterances as he delves into the teaching of Christ for his readers. And his prayers are an example of what the study of God ought to lead us to do. For the theologian — or layman — when our minds are focused on Christ in all his glory, “the heart sings unbidden.”

The following prayers are extracted from the chapter on the divinity of Christ:

  • Lord Jesus, thou God over all, thou Jehovah of hosts, be thou our Friend. Bless and help each one of us. Be unto us a horn of salvation (p. 23).

  • O thou eternal Son of God, thou Father of eternity, remember that we are of yesterday and are crushed before the moth. Bring us, in the fulness of thy grace, to behold thy glory, which thou hadst with thy Father before the world was (p. 24).

  • Blessed Saviour, who art everywhere present, preside in all our solemn assemblies, large and small. Walk thou in the midst of the golden candlesticks. Be thou unto us for a little sanctuary (p. 25).

  • Blessed Saviour, we rejoice that thou art the same as when thou didst weep at the grave of Lazarus; as when thou didst pour salvation on the dying thief; as when, in ascending to glory, thou didst bless thy followers. We rejoice that thy state is changed and thy nature is immutable. Oh pity and bless us. Be unto us a sure foundation, a munition of rocks (p. 27).

  • O thou which art, and which wast, and which art to come, the Almighty, cover us in the hollow of thy hand. If our hold on thee is feeble, let thy hold on us be the grasp of omnipotence. Go forth conquering and to conquer, till earth owns thee Lord of all (p. 28).

  • Glorious Redeemer, we all were made by thee and for thee. We own thy perfect and sovereign right to us and over us. All we have and are, in soul or body, belongs to thee. Nor can any thing dissolve the ties that bind us to thee for ever (p. 29).

  • Lord Jesus, who upholdest all things by the word of thy power, bear us up, bear us on, bear us through, giving us the victory over death, and hell, and all the powers of darkness (p. 30).

  • Lord Jesus, who hast died the just for the unjust, set thy love on us, wash us from our sins in thy most precious blood, and make us kings and priests unto God (p. 31).

  • Lord Jesus, spread the skirt of thy bloody garment over our souls, and grant us repentance and remission of sins, and we shall be saved (p. 32).

  • Kind Redeemer, we cheerfully follow thee into the grave, in hope of a glorious resurrection. We would not live always. In the last day raise us up, and make our vile bodies like unto thy glorious body. Give us part in the first resurrection (p. 33).

  • Lord Jesus, when thou comest in thy glory, with all thy holy angels, and the heavens shall flee away at thy presence, by thy mercy let us have boldness in the day of judgment (p. 34).

  • Jesus, our Lord and our God, when thou shalt dissolve the frame of all sublunary things, remember and spare us according to the riches of thy grace in glory (p. 34).

  • O thou Lamb of God, grant us this one favor — to worship thee with true devotion here below, and after this life to unite with the heavenly throng in ascribing to thee blessing, and honor, and power, and glory, and salvation (p. 37).

In the chapter on the Messiahship of Jesus, Plumer concludes with this prayer:

  • O God, bring the children of Abraham to embrace Jesus Christ; and to us and to all that dwell in this land give hearts to receive thy Son, to believe on his name, to own him as our Saviour; so that all the blessings of the covenant of grace may come on us and overtake us; that we may be blessed in the city and in the field; that thy blessing may rest on the fruit of our body, and on the fruit of our ground, and the fruit of our cattle, and the increase of our kine, and the flocks of our sheep; that thy blessing may rest on our basket and on our store; that we may be blessed when we come in and blessed when we go out; and that thy who come out against us one way may flee before us seven ways. Oh that all the land and world may soon avouch the Lord Jehovah to be their God, his Son Jesus Christ to be their Saviour; his Holy Spirit to be their Sanctifier, Comforter and Guide; and unto the King eternal, immortal, and invisible, the only wise God our Saviour, be glory, and honor, dominion and power, now and for ever. Amen (pp. 98-99).

The following is Plumer’s prayer which concludes the chapter on Christ’s Glorious Reward:

  • Holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts! The whole earth is full of thy glory. Blessed be the Lord for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath, and for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon, and for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills, and for the precious things of the earth, and the fulness thereof. Still more would we bless for the good will of Him that dwelt in the bush, and for thy precious loving-kindness, and for the precious seed of gospel truth, and for the precious promises, and for precious faith to believe thy word, and for the precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, and for the precious death of thy saints, and for the precious name of Jesus, which is as ointment poured forth, and for the precious blood of the Son of God, through whom we have redemption.

Look in mercy on this dark world. Remember Zion. Make Joseph a fruitful bough, whose branches run over the wall. Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion. Bring back the captivity of thy people, that Jacob may rejoice and Israel be glad. Thou hast set thy Son on thy holy hill of Zion. Righteousness is the girdle of his reins. Hasten the time when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a child shall lead them; and the cow and the bear shall feed, and their young ones lie down together, and the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the nations shall learn war no more, and thy ancient people the Jews and the fulness of the Gentiles shall be brough in; when the kingdoms of the world shall become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ; when the Lord shall call them his people which are not now his people; when the angel shall fly in the midst f heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.

Lord God of hosts, cut short the work in righteousness. Let the ploughman overtake the reaper, and let a nation be born in a day.

“Pity the nations, O our God;
Constrain the earth to come;
Send thy victorious word abroad;
And the strangers home.”

We are indeed asking great things, but we do it at thy command. We ask no more than thou hast promised to thy Son, and no more than he has purchased by his most precious blood, and no more than he himself intercedes for in heaven. Amen (pp. 437-439).

These prayers of Plumer may inspire you, as they do this writer, to give God the glory when we read a doctrinal book such as this. Who can study the doctrines of God and not be moved to praise Him who is marvelously worthy of all glory? May we too learn to pray like Plumer, as we study Biblical doctrine, whose thoughts of Christ led him to prayer and adoration.

Some Reflections by James W. Alexander on His Father

Receive our blog posts in your email by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.

Among the “Homiletical” and “Miscellaneous Paragraphs” found in James W. Alexander’s posthumously-published Thoughts on Preaching (1861), one may discern a number of interesting reflections on his father, Archibald Alexander. He had previously authored the standard biography of his father, The Life of Archibald Alexander, D.D. (1854). These reflections, however, were collected separately from James’ private journals by his brother, Samuel D. Alexander, in the preparation of Thoughts on Preaching, and they reveal the deep appreciation he had of father — his pastoral genius, his personal counsel and his spiritual gifts.

§ 7. On Composing Sermons. — Notes on Conversations with J.A.A. — My father says a man should not begin with making a plan. Should not wait until he is in the vein. Begin, however you feel; and write until you get into the vein — however long it be. 'Tis thus men do in mining. Yon may throw away all the beginnings. Men who write with ease think best pen in hand. This applies to sermons, and also to books. It might be well to write a sermon currente calamo, and then begin again and write afresh (not copying, or even looking at the other, but), using all the lights struck out in the former exercise [pp. 3-4].

More generally still, avoid all that brings the speaker's personality before the hearer. A better model than our honoured father, in this, there could not be [p. 25].

In delivery, learn to know when to dwell on a point; let the enlargement be, not where you determined in your closet it should be; but where you feel the spring flowing as you speak — let it gush. Let contemplation have place while you speak.

For this, pauses are all important. Thus Rob. Hall preached. Thus my beloved honoured father, above all men I ever heard; his eye kindled, his face was radiant; he forgot the people; and as he was rapt in contemplation, he thought aloud.

…The best written discourse of my father is no more to his best preaching, than a black candle is to a burning flame [pp. 28-29].

I perceive my father was right, when he advised me to write my first draught current calamo, without any plan, with absolute abandon; giving free scope in every direction whenever a vein was struck, and reserving the particulars for the copy [p. 30].

§ 66. My Father. — My dear and honoured father has some excellencies as a writer, which I did not value at a proper rate when I was younger. He goes always for the thought rather than the word; and is never led along by the bait of fine language or the course of figures. I am led to think that a man must early in life make his election between these two kinds of writing, and that I have fallen into the inferior one: though I am regarded among my friends as a simple writer.

Another remarkable quality of my father, is his going for truth and reason, rather than for authority. This is the more remarkable, as he has been one of the greatest and most miscellaneous readers I ever knew; has had the most extensive knowledge of books, and the most wonderful memory of their contents, so that I have often known him to give a clear account of works which he had not seen for forty years; and yet how seldom does he make citation! The train of his thoughts is all his own, with a thorough digestion in his own mind, and reference of all things to their principles. Hence he is original in the best sense; which superficial readers would not admit, because his style had no salient points, or overbold expressions.

I attribute this in some degree to the fact that almost every day of his life, known to me, it was his habit to sit alone, in silence, generally in the twilight, or musing over the fire, in deep and seemingly pleasurable thought. At such times he was doubtless maturing those trains of reasoning, which he brought out in his discourses; and this may account for his extraordinary readiness at almost any time, to rise in extemporaneous address [p. 55].

Dr. [John M.] Mason used to say that all his theology was from [John] Owen on the Hebrews, and my father often remarked, that with all Owen’s power, erudition, and originality, he never deviated in his theology into any thing eccentric or hazardous [p. 501].

My father used to say one should read “Owen’s Spiritual Mindedness” once a year. I add his “Forgiveness of Sin;” and his “Mortification of Sin” [p. 502]

My father used to say to me: Think long and deeply on your subject, and as if nobody had ever investigated it before. I did not then know what he meant. One of the chief uses of writing sermons is, that it keeps one a-thinking. Then pen seems to recall the thoughts. Some cannot think without it; which is bad — very bad. This is all a matter of habit. The greatest other use of writing is, that the matter is preserved. For I will not include correctness, and polish of style, &c., which can be fully obtained by the other method [p. 514].

One can picture the father and the son, the mentor and the pupil, at the fireside, sharing contemplative moments, or wisdom acquired from experience. It is mentioned more than once in James’ biography of his father how students would learn from the teacher at the fireside and in his study. These personal recollections and reflections speak volumes about both men, and of lessons learned by the son. We are grateful for the fact that these private journal entries were collected and published after the author’s passing. These fireside reflections from the pen of Archibald Alexander’s son shine brilliantly indeed.

The Day Old Princeton Died

Receive our blog posts in your email by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.

In evaluating the history of that great institution known as Princeton Theological Seminary, many would consider that “she” died in 1929 when the seminary was reorganized on modernist terms. But in a letter to his mother dated February 20, 1921, J.G. Machen wrote these sad words (quoted in Ned B. Stone, J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir (1954), p. 310):

Dr.Warfield's funeral took place yesterday afternoon at the First Church of Princeton . . . It seemed to me that the old Princeton — a great institution it was — died when Dr. Warfield was carried out.

B.B. Warfield, the great defender of historic Protestant orthodoxy, who carried that banner for Old Princeton, entered into glory on February 16, 1921.

Born near Lexington, Kentucky on November 5, 1851, Warfield completed his undergraduate studies at the College of New Jersey at Princeton, and then, after a tour of Europe, embarked on theological studies at the seminary in Princeton. He graduated from the seminary in 1876, and then, after a period of transition, he was ordained to the ministry in 1879, and in 1880, he was inaugurated as a professor at Western Theological Seminary in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh). Eight years later, in 1888, he was inaugurated as Professor of Didactic and Polemic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, succeeding both Charles and A.A. Hodge, and he remained at Princeton for the next four decades of his life, contributing to the cause of Christ as an outstanding theologian, a remarkable teacher, and a prolific author.

He was stricken by a first heart attack on December 24, 1920 while walking in front of the home of Geerhardus Vos, which was witnessed by his son, J.G. Vos (this account came from J.G. Vos to R.C. Sproul and was repeated in the April 2005 issue of Tabletalk Magazine, although the account repeated there makes it seem as if the event was the fatal heart attack, which did not happen until February 16, 1921).

William Childs Robinson was a student in Warfield’s class on that day in February (his recollection too fudged a detail but it is worth repeating here [see his 1974 review of Warfield’s The Lord of Glory titled Warfield’s Witness to Christ]):

I was in the class he taught on Feb. 17, 1921, the day of his death. In an exposition of I John 3:16, he pointed out that for Christ to lay down His life was great, but the stupendous thing was that He — being all that He was and is, the Lord of glory — laid down His life for us, mere creatures of His hand, guilty rebels against our gracious Maker.

Up until his final hours, B.B. Warfield testified of Christ our Lord, and that, we may rightly conclude, was the true banner and testimony of Old Princeton. Warfield’s personal witness to Christ was so powerful and outstanding, and the dramatic spiritual downfall of the institution that he loved which followed soon after was so much the opposite of Warfield’s own testimony, that it seems Machen was right — when Warfield died and was laid to rest in the Princeton Cemetery, Old Princeton itself indeed died that day.

Not "Super Bowl Sunday," But the Lord's Day, or the Christian Sabbath

Receive our blog posts in your email by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.

What the world refers to as “Super Bowl Sunday” is not a designation that would have been countenanced by most 19th century Presbyterians. American football began in 1869, while professional football dates to 1920. So, of course, there was no Super Bowl around until well into the 20th century, but the issues of recreation, secularism and commercialism intruding into the Lord’s Day were well-known and widely addressed by Christians in the past.

American Presbyterians, who held to the understanding of the Fourth Commandment articulated in the Westminster Standards, believed that the whole day — that is, the first day of the week — should be devoted to the worship of God, which involves works of piety, necessity and mercy— to the exclusion of “worldly employments and recreations” (Westminster Confession of Faith 21:6-7).

That understanding is important to today’s article, but even beyond that, when considering what is widely known today as “Super Bowl Sunday,” besides the question of the lawfulness of attending to such recreation, another point of discussion centers on the terminology involved.

If words mean something — think of the words homoousios (“of the same substance” or “of the same essence”) and homoiousios (“of like essence”) and their meaning in the context of the great Arian controversy of the 4th century AD — then as Christians who are to take “into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5), we may wish to consider the voices of those in the past who have argued that the term “Sunday” is not a desirable or Biblical designation for the first day of week, much less “Super Bowl Sunday.”

First, let us hear Samuel Miller, the great defender of historic Presbyterianism from Princeton, who authored an 1836 article titled “The Most Suitable Name For the Christian Sabbath.” After addressing the objection of Quakers to the word “Sunday” (they believed the fourth commandment was abrogated and preferred to use the phrase “the first day of the week”), Miller turned his attention to the pagan origin of the term “Sunday.” After discussion of the history of the Christian observance of the first day of the week and its relationship to the Jewish Sabbath and the pagan Sunday, Miller sums up his position in a few succinct paragraphs:

We are now prepared to answer the question, “What name ought to be given to this weekly season of sacred rest, by us, at the present day?”

Sunday, we think, is not the most suitable name. It is, confessedly, of Pagan origin. This, however, alone, would not be sufficient to support our opinion. All the other days of the week are equally Pagan, and we are not prepared to plead any conscientious scruples about their use. Still it seems to be in itself desirable that not only a significant, but a scriptural name should be attached to that day which is divinely appointed; which is so important for keeping religion alive in our world; and which holds so conspicuous a place in the language of the Church of God. Besides, we have seen that the early Christians preferred a scriptural name, and seldom or never used the title of Sunday, excepting when they were addressing the heathen, who knew the day by no other name. For these reasons we regret that the name Sunday has ever obtained so much currency in the nomenclature of Christians, and would discourage its popular use as far as possible.

The Lord’s day, is a title which we would greatly prefer to every other. It is a name expressly given to the day by an inspired apostle. It is more expressive than any other title of its divine appointment; of the Lord’s propriety in it; and of its reference to his resurrection, his triumph, and the glory of his kingdom. And, what is in no small degree interesting, we know that this was the favourite title of early Christians; the title which has been habitually used, for a number of centuries, by the great majority both of the Romish and Protestant communions. Would that its restoration to the Christian Church, and to all Christian intercourse, could be universal!

The Sabbath, is the last title of which we shall speak. The objections made to this title by the early Christians no longer exist. We are no longer in danger of confounding the observance of the first day of the week with that of the seventh. Nor are we any longer in danger of being carried away by a fondness for Jewish rigour, in our plan for its sanctification. The fourth commandment still makes a part of the Decalogue. We teach it to our children as a rule still in force. It requires nothing austere, punctilious, or excessive; only that we, and all “within our gates,” abstain from servile labour, and consider the day as “hallowed,” or devoted to God. Whoever scrutinizes its contents will find no requisition in which all Christians are not substantially agreed; and no reason assigned for its observance which does not apply to Gentiles as well as Jews. As the first sabbath was so named as a memorial of God’s “rest” from the work of creation; so we may consider the Christian Sabbath as a memorial of the Saviour’s rest (if the expression may be allowed) from the labours, the sufferings, and the humiliation of the work of redemption. And, what is no less interesting, the apostle, in writing to the Hebrews, considers the Sabbath as an emblem and memorial of that eternal Sabbatism, or “rest which remaineth for the people of God.” Surely the name is a most appropriate and endeared one when we regard it in this connection! Surely when we bring this name to the test of either philological or theological principles, it is as suitable now, as it could have been under the old dispensation.

We have said, that we prefer “the Lord’s day” to any other title. We are aware, that this can never be the name employed by the mass of the community. There is something about this title which will forever prevent it from being familiar on the popular lip. The title “the Sabbath” is connected with no such difficulty. It is scriptural, expressive, convenient, the term employed in a commandment which is weekly repeated by millions, and so far familiar to all who live in Christian lands, that no consideration occurs why it may not become universal. “The Lord’s day” may, and, perhaps, ought ever to be, the language of the pulpit, and of all public or social religious exercises; meanwhile, if the phrase “the Sabbath” could be generally naturalized in worldly circles, and in common parlance, it would be gaining a desirable object.

A later Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanter) minister, Thomas M. Slater, covered much of the same ground in a tract titled “Nicknaming the Sabbath: A Protest Against Using Other Than Scriptural Names For the Lord's Day.” He too addressed the pagan nature of the term “Sunday” and argues that its usage is an affront to the Lord who set his name upon the first day of the week. For Slater, too, there was significance in the choice of terminology which ought not to be overlooked.

We grant that many sincere Christians have always called the Lord's day “Sunday,” not because they deliberately adopted that name for the Sabbath, but because they have always heard it so called, and never knew any serious objection to its use. But if such persons will reflect that “Sunday” is not the name by which God calls His day; that we have been given no authority to set aside His prescription; that this nickname originated among the foes of the Lord's day; that it was not adopted by Christians at all until pagan ideals invaded Christianity; that it has always been repudiated by a witnessing remnant of the friends of the Sabbath; and been favored by advocates of a secular day -- if a Christian who has a sincere desire to please God candidly weighs all that “Sunday” stands for, over against that all that the Scriptural names stand for, he will without question choose to call the Holy Day by its holy name, to the exclusion of all others. For “speech is the correlate of thought.”

Slater, like Miller, in the vein of Puritans before them who were sometimes known derisively as “Precisionists,” argued for expressions of thought grounded in Biblical principle, especially in a matter which Presbyterians of an earlier time viewed the importance of the Sabbath in its relation to both to the church and to civil society. It was not long before the first “Super Bowl Sunday” was held in 1967 that the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) issued this relevant warning:

Let us beware brethren: As goes the Sabbath, so goes the church, as goes the church, so goes the nation [emphasis added]. Any people who neglect the duties and privileges of the Sabbath day soon lose the knowledge of true religion and become pagan. If men refuse to retain God in their knowledge; God declares that He will give them over to a reprobate mind. Both history and experience confirm this truth” (Minutes of the Sixty-First General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, A.D. 1948, p. 183).

If words really have particular meaning, we would do well to consider the counsel of these voices from the past and take a counter-cultural approach to our choice of terminology as it pertains to the holy day of God’s appointment. The religious devotion of many to “Super Bowl Sunday” does not go unnoticed. Can it be said of Christians that the “Lord’s Day” or the “Christian Sabbath” speaks to their devotion in equally apropos terms?

John Witherspoon Was Born 300 Years Ago

Receive our blog posts in your email by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.

One of the great leaders of the early American Presbyterian church, John Witherspoon, was born 300 years ago, on February 5, 1723. We remember him as a minister, a President of the College of New Jersey (Princeton), a Founding Father of the United States of America, and as moderator of the first General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA).

Witherspoon was born in the village of Gifford, Scotland, where John Knox was also born two centuries before. He went on to attend the Haddington Grammar School, and later graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a Master of Arts in 1739, where he continued his studies in theology. He received an honorary doctoral degree in divinity from the University of St. Andrews in 1764. He ministered in Beith, Ayrshire (1745–1758), where he married Elizabeth Montgomery (they had ten children, with five surviving to adulthood), and at the Laigh Kirk, Paisley (1758-1768).

After declining the first invitation in 1766, Witherspoon accepted the second invitation to serve as President of the College of New Jersey in 1768. Already well-respected as a theologian and author on this side of the pond, Witherspoon became an important voice in American ecclesiastical affairs, and in the political realm as well.

He taught moral philosophy and other subjects at Princeton. He helped to organize the Nassau Presbyterian Church there, and he served in the Continental Congress as a delegate from New Jersey, and as chaplain, and signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. He preached a famous fast-day sermon called The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men (1776), which includes these memorable words:

If your cause is just, you may look with confidence to the Lord, and intreat him to plead it as his own. You are all my witnesses, that this is the first time of my introducing any political subject into the pulpit. At this season, however, it is not only lawful but necessary, and I willingly embrace the opportunity of declaring my opinion without any hesitation, that the cause in which America is now in arms, is the cause of justice, of liberty, and of human nature. So far as we have hitherto proceeded, I am satisfied that the confederacy of the colonies has not been the effect of pride, resentment, or sedition, but of a deep and general conviction that our civil and religious liberties, and consequently in a great measure the temporal and eternal happiness of us and our posterity, depended on the issue. The knowledge of God and his truths have from the beginning of the world been chiefly, if not entirely confined to those parts of the earth where some degree of liberty and political justice were to be seen, and great were the difficulties with which they had to struggle, from the imperfection of human society, and the unjust decisions of unsurped authority. There is not a single instance in history, in which civil liberty was lost, and religious liberty preserved entire. If therefore we yield up our temporal property, we at the same time deliver the conscience into bondage.

In his later years, Witherspoon married for a second time and had two more children. He was elected as the moderator of the PCUSA General Assembly in 1789. He wrote the preface to the 1791 Isaac Collins Bible, the first family Bible published in America. He died at his farm Tusculum, just outside Princeton, in 1794, and was laid to rest at Princeton Cemetery.

Statues have been sculpted in his honor on both sides of the Atlantic and may be found in Washington, D.C., at Princeton University, at the University of the West of Scotland in Paisley, and at the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia. Witherspoon is remembered today as a man whose ideals included personal piety, ecclesiastical purity, and civil liberty, and who left his mark on the course of American and Presbyterian history. We honor him today as a man who contributed much to the shaping of the Presbyterian church, and whose legacy has left its mark on the whole world for good.

Matthew Anderson's Rules For Success in the Ministry

Receive our blog posts in your email by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.

Matthew Anderson was born on this day in history, January 25, 1845, in Greencastle, Pennsylvania. A fifth-generation Presbyterian raised in a devout Christian home and taught the catechism. Determined to succeed in his education in order to best serve the Lord, Anderson studied at Oberlin College in Ohio, graduating there in 1874. He began his preparation for the ministry at Western Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh before transferring to the Princeton Theological Seminary, where, after his arrival, he first mistaken as a manual laborer, rather than a student. Anderson graduated in 1877, becoming one of the first African-American students to live on campus and graduate from the seminary at Princeton.

He went to lead a very successful ministry at the Berean Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, where he also founded the Berean Savings Association and the Berean Institute to help African-Americans learn job skills and achieve financial success.

In his autobiographical Presbyterianism: Its Relation to the Negro (1897), pp. 186-188, Anderson is careful to ascribe all of his success in the ministry to the good hand of God upon him, and to certain rules that he followed in his pastoral career. Here is the list of rules that guided Matthew Anderson’s ministry:

First. Never to undertake anything without first having studied it in all its different phases, with the Spirit's guidance, and after seeing it in all its relations, and there be given a reasonable assurance of success to undertake it.

Second. After having carefully considered the subject and convinced that the work in question should be undertaken, not to allow any adverse influences whatever to divert us from our purpose.

Third. In presenting the work to others, never exaggerate it with the hope of gaining friends, or money, to assist in carrying it on, but to show it in its true light, even though the truth for the time being would tend to prejudice against the work.

Fourth. When convinced that the work is needed, and that it is the will of Providence that we should undertake it, to make use of all the means at our command temporal, intellectual and spiritual, to secure its success.

Fifth. In all our labors to keep clearly before us not only the present, but the future wants of the people and to work accordingly, even though the people themselves do not see that they are needing such work.

Sixth. That we be guided and regulated by the great and immortal principles of divine truth, rather than by sentiment, which knows no creed, race or color, and which regards all men alike redeemed by one common Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. That while by the accidents of birth and the unholy sentiment of the country, our labors are confined principally to the people of the colored race, we should nevertheless regard ourselves, ministers of Christ, as embracing a wider sphere of labor, since in God's sight there is neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free, but all related by ties of consanguinity, having sprung from common parents.

Seventh. That we ever hold sacred the great cardinal truths of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, and make them the guiding star of our life work in all of our dealings toward our fellowmen.

Eighth. That we be perfectly frank and honest in all our work, never to misrepresent it for the sake of gain, take advantage of the ignorant, but at all times try and carry out the principles of the golden rule.

Ninth. That we fear no man, nor call any man master, but be kindly affectioned towards all men, and under no circumstances to allow an insult to pass unresented which was intended to belittle our manhood, not because of ourselves personally, but because of the race with which we are identified, and which to stigmatize would be the real object of the insult.

Tenth. That we listen to the criticisms and advice of friends, and acknowledge our failures and faults, and be ever ready to apologize to others for injuries done them by us.

These ten rules, though unwritten, embrace the principles which have regulated us in all our work up to the present time, and to which we attribute whatever success may have attended our labors.

In this list, we see a man careful to seek God’s leading, scrupulous to avoid or properly respond to personal conflicts or racial prejudice that would tend to undermine his ministry, and deeply impressed by the value of following the Golden Rule in all his actions and words. Though his social situation is not exactly that of Philadelphia in the 21st century, there is much to be learned from his approach to the pastoral ministry today. Great things can be accomplished for God by first walking in humble reliance upon His Spirit. We thus remember Matthew Anderson, born on this day in history 178 years ago.

J.R. Miller: A Lesson to be Learned from Hellen Keller

Receive our blog posts in your email by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.

Helen Keller is an inspirational figure in history because of her remarkable achievements despite extraordinary handicaps. With the patient instruction of her teacher, Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller was able to overcome tremendous obstacles. Keller was religious (and counted among her friends the famous Presbyterian minister Henry Jackson Van Dyke, Jr.), but not in the orthodox sense; in her book, My Religion (1927), she claimed to be a Swedenborgian. However, despite that theological perspective, one cannot consider her remarkable life without an appreciation for her amazing story.

J.R. Miller, in his chapter on “Courage to Live Nobly,”* writes of a lesson that can be gleaned from the life of Helen Keller.

Some of us are dimly aware of the great possibilities in us, yet lack the energy and the earnestness necessary to release our imprisoned faculties and give them wing. One of the most wonderful stories of the conquest of difficulty is that of Helen Keller. She was blind, she was deaf, she could not speak. Her soul was hidden away in an impenetrable darkness. Yet she has overcome all these seemingly invincible obstacles and barriers and now stands in the ranks of intelligence and scholarship. We have a glimpse of what goes on in her brave soul in such words as these: “Sometimes, it is true, a sense of isolation enfolds me like a cold mist as I sit alone and wait at life’s shut gate. Beyond, there is life and music and sweet companionship; but I may not enter. Fate, silent, pitiless, bars the way. Fain would I question His imperious decree; for my heart is still undisciplined and passionate; but my tongue will not utter the bitter, futile words that rise to my lips, and they fall back into my heart like unshed tears. Silence sits immense on my soul. Then comes hope with a smile and whispers, ‘There is joy in self-forgetfulness.’ So I try to make the light in others’ eyes my sun, the music in others’ ears my symphony, the smile on others’ lips my happiness.”

Helen Keller, in one little sentence that she has written, discloses the secret of all that she has achieved and attained. This resolve, she herself says, has been the keynote of her life. “I resolved to regard as mere impertinences of fate the handicaps which were placed about my life almost at the beginning. I resolved that they should not dwarf my soul, but, rather, should be made to blossom, like Aaron’s rod that budded.”

Some of us, with no such hindrances, with no such walls and barriers imprisoning our being, with almost nothing in the way of the full development of our powers, with everything favorable thereto, have scarcely found our souls. We have eyes, but we see not the glory of God about us and above us. We have ears, but we hear not the music of divine love which sings all round us. It may not always be easy for us to learn to know the blessed things of God which fill all the world. But if we had half the eagerness that Helen Keller has shown in overcoming hindrances, half the energy, think how far we would be advanced to-day! We would then regard as mere impertinences of fate the handicaps which are about us, making it hard for us to reach out and find the best things of life. We would not allow our souls to be dwarfed by any hindrances, but would struggle on until we are free from all shackles and restraints, and until we have grown into the full beauty of Christ.

Sometimes young people are heard complaining of their condition or circumstances as excuse for their making so little of their lives. Because they are poor, and no rich friend gives them money to help them, or because they have some physical infirmity or hindrance, or because they have not had good early advantages, they give up and submit to stay where they are. The story of Helen Keller should shame all such yielding to the small inconveniences and obstacles that best young people in ordinary conditions. They should regard their limitations and hindrances as only impertinences, to be bravely set aside by undismayed and unconquerable energy, or rather, as barriers set not to obstruct the way but to nerve and stimulate them to heroic endeavor before which all obstacles will vanish.

* J.R. Miller, When the Song Begins (1905), pp. 192-195; J.R. Miller, The Blossom of Thorns (1905), pp. 192-195

May this meditation for the day bring inspiration to consider how we may persevere in the face of obstacles in the strength of Christ to overcome, and to see more than we did before, and hear more than we can now, and to speak and do more to the praise of God.

What's New at Log College Press? - January 10, 2023

Receive our blog posts in your email by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.

With the arrival of a New Year, we at Log College Press are continuing to expand the number of resources available to our readers. Last month, in December 2022, we added 524 new works to the site. We have close to 18,000 free works available at LCP.

This week we are highlighting some of the new free PDFs available as found on our Recent Additions and Early Access pages, two features provided to members of the Dead Presbyterians Society.

Some highlights at the Early Access page:

  • James Benjamin Green, A Harmony of the Westminster Presbyterian Standards (1951); and The Distinctive Teachings of Presbyterianism (1936, 1959);

  • John Murray (1742-1793), Jerubbaal, or Tyranny's Grove Destroyed, and the Altar of Liberty Finished: A Discourse on America's Duty and Danger, Delivered at the Presbyterian Church in Newbury-Port, December 11, 1783. On Occasion of the Public Thanksgiving for Peace (1784); and Grace and Glory: or, Heaven Given Only to Saints: a Sermon Preached at the Presbyterian Church in Newbury-Port, Jan 26, 1788, Occasioned by the Death of Mr. Ralph Cross on the 4th of that Month, Aetat 82 (1788);

  • Jonathan Parsons, Wisdom Justified of her Children: A Sermon Preached at the Publick Lecture in Boston, on Thursday, September 16, 1742 (1742); and Account of the Revival of Religion in the West Parish of Lyme in Connecticut (1744);

  • articles from The Presbyterian Standard concerning the debate between psalmody and hymnody by John Thomas Chalmers [Why the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church Adheres to the Exclusive Use of the Inspired Psalter in the Worship of God (1900)]; and Alexander Jeffrey McKelway [Dr. Chalmers’ Failure (1900)];

  • and more by Francis James Grimké, some of which were contributed by a helpful reader: Colored Men as Professors in Colored Institutions (1885); Mr. Moody and the Color Question in the South (1886); The Defects of Our Ministry, and the Remedy (1886); The Secret of Power in the Pulpit (1887); The Pulpit in Relation to Race Elevation (1887); The Negro Will Never Acquiesce as Long as He Lives (1898); The Roosevelt-Washington Episode; or, Race Prejudice (1901); and The Second Marriage of Frederick Douglass (1934).

Some highlights at the Recent Addtiions page:

Also, be sure also to check out the quotes we have been adding at our blog for DPS members: Though Dead They Still Speak, including William M. Blackburn on a Sixth Point of Calvinism; A.A. Hodge on the Change of the Sabbath Day; John B. Adger on the Limits of Church Authority; Philip Lindsley on the Key to Improvement of Time; J.R. Miller on Consecration of Will; Thomas De Witt Talmage on the Christian Way of Measuring Life; Francis J. Grimké on How to Approach the New Year; William H. McGuffey, who argues that the Christian Religion is America's Religion; and T.V. Moore on The Oldest Seminary is the Family Fireside.

We appreciate hearing from our readers if they find matters needing correction, or if they have questions about authors or works on the site, or if they have suggestions for additions to the site. Your feedback helps the experience of other readers as well.

Meanwhile, please feel free to browse the many resources available to our readers in print and in digital format. The New Year is a great time to explore the many Presbyterian voices from the past. Thank you, as always, for your interest and support, dear friends, and we wish you all the very best in 2023!

Eyewitnesses to History

Receive our blog posts in your email by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.

One fascinating feature found within the writings of early American Presbyterians is the window some authors have given us to key moments in history. Amidst the doctrinal and devotional literature are records and observations, speeches, sermons, diary entries, letters and more that tell future generations, including ours, what it is like to be present at some of the most momentous historical events in the annals of America and the world.

  • One of the earliest Presbyterians in America was Alexander Whitaker, a chaplain who arrived at the Jamestown colony in Virginia in 1611, and who ministered to the Indian princess Pocahontas. He reported in a June 18, 1614 letter to his cousin William Gouge, later a Westminster Divine, concerning both her conversion to Christianity and her marriage to John Rolfe: “But that which is best, one Pocahuntas or what Matoa the daughter of Powhatan, is married to an honest and discreete English Gentleman Master Rolfe, and that after she had openly renounced her Country Idolatry, professed the faith of Jesus Christ, and was baptised; which thing Sir Thomas Dale had laboured a long time to ground in her.”

This portrait of The Baptism of Pocahontas by John Gadsby Chapman (1840), which shows Alexander Whitaker administering the sacrament, hangs in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol Building, Washington, District of Columbia.

  • Reportedly, among the 56 signers of the U.S. Declaration of Independence at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, twelve were Presbyterians, including Richard Stockton and John Witherspoon, the only clergyman present. Witherspoon also had a hand at another historical moment - the signing of the Articles of Confederation.

Signature of John Witherspoon on the 1776 U.S. Declaration of Independence (Witherspoon signed it on August 2, 1776).

Signature of John Witherspoon on the 1781 Articles of Confederation (New Jersey delegates signed the document on November 26, 1778).

  • Samuel Miller (then known as “Sammy”) was a young witness to history having been present at the State House in Philadelphia (Independence Hall) at the time of the 1787 Constitutional Convention. He watched as George Washington, and many other founding fathers, some of whom were friends of his father, John Miller, entered and departed while the work of preparing the US Constitution was going on. He was also a student at the University of Pennsylvania in 1789 while the first General Assembly of the PCUSA was meeting and working to revise the standards of the church. Miller’s friend — and later, colleague — John Rodgers played an important role at that Assembly (Miller was Rodgers’ biographer). He also developed close ties at this time to Ashbel Green, whose advice and counsel to young Miller would prove important as he entered upon his theological studies.

Junius Brutus Steams, Washington as Statesman at the Constitutional Convention (1856)

  • One of the most amazing meteor showers recorded in history took place in during the night and early morning of November 12-13, 1833. There were many who witnessed the Leonid meteor storm in which between 50,000 and 150,000 meteors fell each hour, one of whom was David Talmage, the father of Thomas De Witt Talmage, who later told his father’s story in a sermon.

Engraving of the 1833 Leonid Meteor Shower by Adolf Vollmy (1889), based on the painting by Karl Jauslin.

  • Albert Williams, who founded the First Presbyterian Church of San Francisco, California, wrote about the series of fires that plagued the city in 1851 in A Pioneer Pastorate (1879): “So frequent and periodical were these fires, that they came to be regarded in the light of permanent institutions. Fears of a recurrence of the dread evil, in view of the past, were not long in waiting for fulfilment. On the anniversary of the fire of the 4th of May, 1850, came another on the 4th of May, 1851, the fifth general fire. The city was appalled by these repeated calamities. And more, it began to be a confirmed conviction that they were not accidental, but incendiary. On the 22d of June, 1851, the sixth, and, happily the last general fire, and severest of all, occurred. The fact that the point of the beginning of this fire was in a locality quite destitute of water facilities, with other attending circumstances, left hardly a remaining doubt of its incendiary character.”

Depiction of the June 22, 1851 San Francisco Fire.

  • The summer of 1855 was devastating to the city of Norfolk, Virginia. George D. Armstrong, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, endured the epidemic of yellow fever that decimated the city. He stayed during the outbreak to minister to the sick, often serving them for over 15 hours per day, but lost his wife, one daughter, a nephew and a sister-in-law to the disease. He wrote The Summer of the Pestilence: A History of the Ravages of the Yellow Fever in Norfolk, Virginia (1856).

Market Square, Norfolk, Virginia.

  • The War Between the States saw Presbyterians on both sides of the conflict. Robert L. Dabney, Stonewall Jackson’s chief of staff and biographer, wrote What I Saw of the Battle of Chickahominy (1872) concerning the June 27, 1862 conflict also known as the Battle of Gaines' Mill in Hanover County, Virginia. Later that year, on the same day as the Battle of Antietam (or Sharpsburg, Maryland) [September 17, 1862], a terrible tragedy took place in at the Allegheny Arsenal in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania, now a neighborhood in Pittsburgh. Three consecutive explosions rocked the facility and 78 people were killed along with 150 injured, making it the worst civilian and industrial accident of the war. Presbyterian minister Richard Lea was at his church one block away, who immediately rushed over to render aid. Eleven days later, he preached a Sermon Commemorative of the Great Explosion at the Allegheny Arsenal. Before the war ended, Henry Highland Garnet made history in Washington, D.C. by becoming the first African-American to address the House of Representatives on February 12, 1865. His sermon called for the death of slavery and freedom for all American citizens.

Henry Highland Garnet preaching to Congress.

Thomas De Witt Talmage had a very successful ministry at the Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York. But the congregation was challenged by the occasions when their building was destroyed by fire, not once, but three times — in 1872, 1889, and 1894. After the third conflagration, Talmage retired from that pastorate. As he began a trip around the world, he wrote to his friends: “Our church has again been halted by a sword of flame. The destruction of the first Brooklyn Tabernacle was a mystery. The destruction of the second a greater profound. This third calamity we adjourn to the Judgment Day for explanation. The home of a vast multitude of souls, it has become a heap of ashes. Whether it will ever rise again is a prophecy we will not undertake. God rules and reigns and makes no mistake. He has his way with churches as with individuals. One thing is certain; the pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle will continue to preach as long as life and health last. We have no anxieties about a place to preach in. But woe is unto us if we preach not the Gospel! We ask for the prayers of all good people for the pastor and people of Brooklyn Tabernacle.”

Brooklyn Tabernacle after the fire.

  • On May 31, 1889, after days of heavy rain, the South Fork Dam upstream of Johnstown, Pennsylvania burst leading to the deaths of over 2,000 people. David J. Beale was one of the survivors and his account of the tragedy is gripping: Through the Johnstown Flood (1890).

Debris from the Johnstown Flood.

  • At 5:12 am local time on April 18, 1906, the city of San Francisco was rocked by one of the deadliest earthquakes ever to strike the United States. Over 3,000 people were killed and 80% of the city was destroyed. Among those affected were the Chinese girls who were being cared for at the Occidental Board of Foreign Missions after having been rescued from involuntary servitude. Superintendent Donaldina Cameron was able to, shepherd those girls to the premises of the San Francisco Theological Seminary after the earthquake. Edward A. Wicher, a professor at the seminary, wrote an appeal for emergency funds to help the suffering, which Cameron co-signed. Cameron later wrote of the blessings that God wrought in the midst of that tragedy: “‘As the night brings out the stars’ so through the shadow of disaster there shines for the Chinese Rescue Home the unfailing light of God's love and peace, and we are happy.”

The Occidental Board of Foreign Missions Headquarters after the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.

  • From 1915 to 1917, approximately 1 million Armenians were slaughtered by Ottoman forces. The Armenian Genocide was documented in part by American missionaries, such as as William Ambrose Shedd and his wife Mary Lewis Shedd, Mary A. Schauffler Labaree Platt, author of The War Journal of a Missionary in Persia (1915), and Frederick G. Coan, author of Yesterdays in Persia and Kurdistan (1939). Rev. Shedd: “It lies with us to see that the blood shed and the suffering endured are not in vain. May God grant and may we who know so well the wrongs that have been borne, so labor that the cause of these wrongs be removed. That will be done when Christ rules in the hearts of those who profess His name and is acknowledged by all, not merely as a great prophet but as the Saviour for Whose coming prophecy prepared the way, Who is the fulfillment of revelation, and in Whom human destiny will find its goal.”

Ottoman troops guard Armenians being deported. Ottoman Empire, 1915-1916.

  • Wilson P. Mills was an American missionary who served also in a diplomatic capacity during the 1937-1938 “Rape of Nanjing,” a massacre by Japanese soldiers that resulted in the deaths of somewhere between 40,000-300,000 civilians in occupied Nanjing, China. His efforts to help arrange a truce are described in letters to his wife dated January 22/24 and January 31, 1938. The story of his eyewitness account of the Japanese occupation of the city and the reign of terror that existed is told sequentially in letters from January to March 1938. For his role in protecting the 250,000 citizens of the Nanjing Safety Zone, Mills received the Order of the Green Jade, the highest honor given to Westerners by the Chinese government.

Scene from the Nanjing Massacre.

Examples of eyewitnesses to history among American Presbyterian could be greatly multiplied. So many of them have left us a valuable record of some of the most momentous events in our history, “all [of which] have a common place in the great scheme of Providence” (Henry A. Boardman, God's Providence in Accidents (1855).

A New Year's Gift From Samuel Davies

Receive our blog posts in your email by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.

This year marks the 300th birthday of Samuel Davies (born on November 3, 1723). Minister of the gospel, missionary known as the “Apostle to Virginia,” President of Princeton, poet and more, Davies lived a brief life, but was a candle that burned very brightly.

At the age of 36, on January 1, 1760, Davies delivered A New Year’s Gift at the College of New Jersey at Princeton, a sermon based on Rom. 13:11: "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" (see Sermons, Vol. 3 [1864 ed.], pp. 52 ff).

Time, like an ever-running stream, is perpetually gliding on, and hurrying us and all the sons of men into the boundless ocean of eternity. We are now entering upon one of those imaginary lines of division, which men have drawn to measure out time for their own conveniency; and, while we stand upon the threshold of a new year, it becomes us to make a solemn contemplative pause; though time can make no pause, but rushes on with its usual velocity. Let us take some suitable reviews and prospects of time past and future, and indulge such reflections as our transition from year to year naturally tends to suggest. 

The grand and leading reflection is that in the text, with which I present to you as a New-Year's Gift: Knowing the time, that it is high time to awake out of sleep.

The following year, his last on earth, on January 1, 1761, Davies preached A Sermon on the New Year (Sermons, Vol. 2 [1864 ed.], pp. 195 ff), from Jer. 28:16: "This year thou shalt die." Because Davies died just one month later, on February 4, 1761, it has often been said (even by Davies himself before he died) that on this occasion Davies preached his own funeral sermon. Interestingly, he borrowed the same text that College of New Jersey Founder and President Aaron Burr, Sr. (1716-1757) had preached on his last New Year's Day on earth, as well as Jonathan Edwards, his father-in-law and successor. All three men — Jonathan Edwards, Jr. too can be added to the list — died in the same year that they preached a New Year’s sermon on Jer. 28:16. Davies said:

Thus it appears very possible, that one or other of us may die this year. Nay, it is very probable, as well as possible, if we consider that it is a very uncommon, and almost unprecedented thing, that not one should die in a whole year out of such an assembly as this. More than one have died the year past, who made a part of our assembly last new year's day. Therefore let each of us (for we know not on whom the lot may fall) realize this possibility, this alarming probability, 'this year I may die.' 

Time is a precious gift, and while long life is a blessing that we all hope for, yet, our times are wholly in God’s hand (Ps. 31:15), and each day we ought to treasure, with thankful hearts, doing good while we can with the time given to us.

Therefore conclude, every one for himself, 'It is of little importance to me whether I die this year, or not; but the only important point is, that I may make a good use of my future time, whether it be longer or shorter.' This, my brethren, is the only way to secure a happy new year: a year of time, that will lead the way to a happy eternity.

Note: An earlier version of this post was published on December 30, 2017.

A New Year's Prayer

Receive our blog posts in your email by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.

James W. Weir (1805-1878) was a Presbyterian ruling elder for 44 years (from 1834 until his death in 1878) at the Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He was a godly man who made a deep impression upon many who knew him.

John DeWitt’s mention of him in an 1894 sermon on the Beginnings of Presbyterianism in the Middle Colonies speaks volumes:

I dare not trust myself to speak of the tender personal associations and the sacred memories which make a return to Harrisburg almost a holy pilgrimage. For, though I am tempted to be very free and personal to-day, I must pause before I stir up the deepest fountains of feeling in you and in myself. But I cannot forbear to say, that every Harrisburger, who is also a son of this church, must feel himself made better by returning to the place in which that man of God and friend of man, James Wallace Weir, so long did justice and loved mercy and walked humbly with his God.

He is primarily known today for the devotional manual The Closet Companion; or, Manual of Prayer: Consisting of Topics and Brief Forms of Prayer, Designed to Assist Christians in Their Devotions (1854), published with an introduction by Albert Barnes.

From this volume we extract a suggested prayer for the New Year which is worthy of meditation at the close of one year and the beginning of another.

O thou God of the rolling seasons, I thank thee for thy mercies to me during the last year. There has not been an hour nor a moment of it, which has not brought me tokens of thy care and kindness. Assist me now to bring its transactions, in which I have been engaged, in solemn review before my conscience. Though the record of them is fast wasting away from the treacherous tablet of my memory, yet they are written, as with a pen of iron, on the books of thy remembrance; where they will remain until that fearful hour of trial, when the books shall be opened, and all men shall be judged out of the things that are written therein, whether they be good or evil.

Lord, I desire to acknowledge before thee, with godly sorrow, that I have neglected many duties, and abused many privileges, during the past year. My heart, and my lips, and my hands, have often been agents of transgression. Many of thy mercies have been ungratefully perverted or forgotten; and thy chastenings have often been despised or unheeded. O, my tongue would grow weary, and my heart would sicken, if I should undertake to recite all my iniquities before thee. Help me, I pray thee, for the sake of our Great Advocate, to repent over them, to loathe and forsake them, and to look to thee for strength, that the time past of my life may suffice to have wrought the deeds of the flesh, and that henceforth I may live to the will of God.

O Lord, I desire to enter the coming year, feeling the solemn responsibilities of human life. I know not what a day may bring forth, nor what the approaching months may reveal respecting me: except that they will bring me so much nearer eternity, and be full of records of my growth in grace, or of my backslidings from thy holy law. Yet I thank thee that my span of life is still lengthened out, and that I am still permitted to enjoy the precious opportunities that have been vouchsafed to me in days past. O God, assist me, I beseech thee, to discharge aright all the duties that lie before me. Make me understand the uncertainty of time, the worth of my soul, the multiplied interests of my fellow-travellers to eternity, and the righteous claims of thy service. Make me watchful against the many dangers to which I am exposed. Strengthen my love to thee; deepen my convictions of sin; animate my desires after holiness; increase my spirit of prayer; enlarge my benevolence; and lead me in thine own way, for thy name’s sake. Protect me by thy care; supply me by thy bounty; and grant me an increasing meetness for that state, where these changing seasons will give place to an endless life.

Lord, make this opening year, a year of the right hand of the Most High. Pour the healing balm of peace on all the bleeding wounds of thy church. Spread over her the spotless mantle of purity. Invigorate her by the reviving power of truth. Awaken her to renewed efforts in doing good. O may these months stand forth in the history of redemption, as precious seasons of refreshing from thy holy and life-giving presence.

This a devotional manual full of treasures which can be read here. And, if you are seeking a devotional read for the New Year (see our recommendations from years past here and here), be sure to consult our Devotionals page (available to members of the Dead Presbyterians Society). Meanwhile, it is our prayer that the New Year would be filled with joy and peace for our readers, and that we would all, by the grace of God, walk closer with our Lord. The Lord bless and keep you in the palm of his hand.

The Presbyterian Church That George Whitefield Built

Receive our blog posts in your email by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.

Although George Whitefield was an Anglican minister who promoted the revivalism of the Great Awakening and in particular, Calvinistic Methodism, he had close ties to colonial American Presbyterians such as Gilbert and William Tennent, Sr. [Whitefield’s journal entry following his visit to the elder Tennent in 1739 is one of the earliest and most significant descriptions of the original Log College], Ebenezer Pemberton, Jonathan Parsons, Samuel Davies, among others.

Davies may have heard Whitefield preach at Faggs Manor, Pennsylvania in 1739-1740. Davies certainly heard him preach in England in late 1753 and visited him at his house, as noted in his journal. It is noteworthy that the literature acquired by Samuel Morris that helped to inspire the 1740s Great Awakening in Virginia prior to Samuel Davies’ arrival there included the published sermons of George Whitefield, who had preached previously at the Bruton Parish Anglican Church in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1739.

In 1743, following Whitefield’s ministry in Philadelphia, the Second Presbyterian Church in that city was organized, and Gilbert Tennent was called to serve as the pastor.

On another New England preaching tour, in October 1740, at New Haven, Whitefield encountered Jonathan Parsons, who, although he had studied under Jonathan Edwards, was at the time an Arminian-leaning Congregational minister at Lyme, Connecticut. The Great Awakening that Whitefield promoted also deeply affected Parsons, whose ministry changed dramatically after Parsons embraced the experimental piety that Whitefield preached. Following another Whitefield tour of New England in 1746, a congregation began meeting in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and with Whitefield’s guidance, Parsons was called to serve as the pastor. The present building of the First Presbyterian Church of Newburyport (more popularly known as Old South Church - and sometimes, as “Whitefield’s Church”) was constructed in 1756 in three days by over 100 men working together. Later, a church bell cast by Paul Revere was installed in the clock tower.

Old South had a special place in George Whitefield’s heart. He returned on occasion to preach there, and maintained a close friendship with Parsons. It was on a visit there that George Whitefield passed away suddenly on a Lord’s Day morning, September 30, 1770 at Parson’s house. Parsons was called upon to preach his funeral sermon later that day, “To Live is Christ, To Die is Gain” (published in 1771). At Whitefield’s own stated request, he was buried under the pulpit of Old South.

Parsons served as pastor of Old South from 1746 until his death in 1776, a few days after the Declaration of Independence. He, too, was buried in the vault under the Old South pulpit, as was Joseph Prince, the famous blind minister, who died in 1791.

After Parsons, John Murray ministered to the congregation from 1781 to 1793. The third pastor of Old South was Daniel Dana, who served from 1794 to 1820. The long line of faithful ministers in Newburyport includes Jonathan F. Stearns, who delivered A Historical Discourse, Commemorative of the Organization of the First Presbyterian Church, in Newburyport, Delievered at the First Centennial Celebration, Jan. 7, 1846 (1846); and Ashbel G. Vermilye, author of A Discourse Delivered at Newburyport, Mass., November 28, 1856, on Occasion of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Building of the First Presbyterian Church (1856).

To this day, those who want to see where the earthly remains of the great revival preacher George Whitefield are laid to rest will make the trek to Newburyport, Massachusetts to a Presbyterian church in which his memory is cherished, along with that of Parsons and Prince. This Presbyterian church, and the line of faithful ministers who served it for many years, may rightly be considered fruits of George Whitefield’s remarkable ministry. His labors were legendary, as was his preaching voice; he spent his life for Christ, and preached around 18,000 times to an estimated approximately 10 million listeners. When the Lord took him home it was at the house of a dear old friend, with whom he would be reunited in Christ a few years later.

If one makes the trip to see where Whitefield and Parsons are buried, consider not only the happy fruit of their ministry, but also the very words of the Apostle Paul chosen by Parsons to preach on after Whitefield’s death: “To live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Old South was but a waystation for them, and a very special one at that.

What's New at Log College Press? - December 20, 2022

Receive our blog posts in your email by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.

At the close of 2022, Log College Press is staying very active as we continue to expand the site and make accessible even more literature from early American Presbyterians.

Last month, in November 2022, we added 582 new works to the site. There are currently over 17,000 free works available at LCP. Today we are highlighting some of the new free PDFs available as found on our Recent Additions and Early Access pages, two features provided to members of the Dead Presbyterians Society.

Some highlights at the Early Access page:

  • Two works by Thomas Cleland, A Familiar Dialogue Between Calvinus and Arminius (1805, 1830); and The Socini-Arian Detected: A Series of Letters to Barton W. Stone, on Some Important Subjects of Theological Discussion, Referred to in His "Address" to the Christian Churches in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio (1815);

  • Abraham Brooks Van Zandt, God's Voice to the Nation: A Sermon Occasioned by the Death of Zachary Taylor, President of the United States (1850);

  • Cornelius Van Til, The Defense of the Faith (1955); and Christianity and Barthianism (1962);

  • John Murray, The Reformed Faith and Modern Substitutes (1935-1936); and The Application of Redemption (1952-1954) [a series of many articles which served as the basis for his 1955 book Redemption Accomplished and Applied];

  • Geerhardus Vos, A Song of the Nativity (1924, 1972) [a Christmas poem]; and

  • early sermons by Francis James Grimké, Our Duty to the Poor — How We Observed It on Christmas (1881); Wendell Phillips: A Sermon Delivered Sunday, Feb. 24, 1884, at the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church, Washington, D.C. (1884); Our Future as a People (1890), each of which was contributed by a reader.

Some highlights at the Recent Addtiions page:

Also, be sure also to check out the quotes we have been adding at our blog for DPS members: Though Dead They Still Speak, including John Holmes Agnew: The Lord Loves the Gates of Zion; B.B. Warfield on Theological Study as a Religious Exercise and on What it Means to Glorify and Enjoy God; William H. Green on How the Child of God May Rightly Undergo Frowning Providences; John Murray: To the Calvinist Who Once Struggled With the Arminian Idea of Free Will; E.C. Wines: Christ is the Fountain of the Promises; James Gallaher on the Difference Between Calvinism and Fatalism; William S. Plumer's Suggested Guidelines for Making Family Worship More Profitable; Elizabeth Prentiss on Dying Grace; and T. De Witt Talmage: The Sabbath a Taste of Heaven.

We appreciate hearing from our readers if they find matters needing correction, or if they have questions about authors or works on the site, or if they have suggestions for additions to the site. Your feedback helps the experience of other readers as well.

Meanwhile, please feel free to browse the many resources available to our readers in print and in digital format. There is a lot to explore, and many Presbyterian voices from the past to hear. We look forward to seeing what the Lord has in store for Log College Press in 2023. Thank you, as always, for your interest and support, dear friends, and best wishes to you in the New Year!

American Presbyterians and Freemasonry

Receive our blog posts in your email by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.

Anyone who has followed the National Treasure saga (two movies starring Nicolas Cage and a Disney+ show that has recently aired) will recall the Masonic background to the plot, and may recall an adventure that took place in the graveyard at the Old Pine Street Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia (where Archibald Alexander* (1772-1851) once served as pastor). The question of the relationship between American Presbyterians and Freemasonry is raised by such a story, and it turns out the connections are rather intriguing.

As a secret society, Freemasonry has fallen under the condemnation of such denominations as the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The RPCNA specifically targeted “secret oath-bound societies and orders” in the Covenant of 1871, declaring that they were “ensnaring in their nature, pernicious in their tendency, and perilous to the liberties of both Church and State.” W.M. Glasgow, in History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church (1888), wrote that “The Reformed Presbyterian Church has always excluded members of oath-bound secret societies from her Communion” (p. 135). The OPC officially expressed its disapprobation of Freemasonry in a 1942 report by a committee chaired by R.B. Kuiper titled “Christ or the Lodge?”, concluding that “membership in the Masonic fraternity is inconsistent with Christianity.” Other denominations have addressed (or continue to address) the issue membership of Christian in the Masonic fraternity, but not as decisively (see the 1987 report of the Ad-Interim Committee to Study Freemasonry in the Presbyterian Church in America, for example).

Freemasonry in America dates back to colonial times. At least nine signers of the 1776 Declaration of Independence were Freemasons, including Benjamin Franklin and Richard Stockton (1730-1781). At least nine signers of the 1787 U.S. Constitution were Freemasons, including George Washington.

Washington occasionally worshiped and attended Masonic meetings at the Old Presbyterian Meetinghouse in Alexandria, Virginia, where James Muir (1757-1820) served as pastor from 1789 to 1820. Muir also served as chaplain of the Masonic Lodge, and participated in the Masonic ceremonies that attended the death of Washington. William B. McGroarty writes that "The Old Meeting House is often spoken of as the Masonic Westminster Abbey, because of the number of distinguished Masons buried in and near it" (The Old Presbyterian Meeting House at Alexandria, Virginia, 1774-1874, p. 58).

William McWhir (1759-1851), a friend of Washington who taught some of Washington’s nephews at McWhir’s Alexandria academy preached a sermon at the Masonic Lodge in Alexandria on December 27, 1785 (source: The Lodge of Washington: A History of the Alexandria Washington Lodge, No. 22, A.F. and A.M. of Alexandria, Va. 1783-1876 (1876), p. 75).

Alexander MacWhorter (1734-1807) was a Freemason, and preached at Washington’s funeral (source: Steven C. Bullock, Revolutionary Brotherhood: Freemasonry and the Transformation of the American Social Order, 1730-1840 (1996), p. 176).

John Rodgers (1727-1811), first moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, delivered a sermon at a Masonic Lodge in 1779: Holiness the Nature and Design of the Gospel of Christ: A Sermon, Preached at Stockbridge, June 24, 1779, Before the Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, of Berkshire County, State of Massachusetts, and Published at Their Request [not yet available at LCP].

David Austin (1759-1831), who published four volumes of The American Preacher, also wrote Masonry in its Glory: or Solomon's Temple Illuminated: Discerned Through the Flashes of Prophetic Light, Now Darting Through the Region of the Blazing Star, to Lie at the Threshold of the Temple of God, During the Glory of the Latter Day: -- Waiting the Rays of the Seven Lamps, that the Light of its Existence Might Break Forth (1799) [not yet available on LCP, but it can be read here].

In 1794, David McClure (1748-1820), who also delivered a discourse at Washington’s funeral, preached two sermons at Masonic Lodges: A Sermon, Delivered at the Installation of the Morning-Star Lodge, of Free Masons: in East-Windsor, Connecticut, August 21, 1794; and A Sermon, Delivered at the Installation of Village Lodge, of Free Masons: in Simsbury, Connecticut, October 7th, 1794 [not yet available on LCP].

Samuel Miller (1769-1850), a Freemason, preached A Discourse Delivered in the New Presbyterian Church, New-York: Before the Grand Lodge of the State of New-York. And the Brethren of that Fraternity, Assembled in General Communication, on the Festival of St. John the Baptist, June 24th, 1795, a sermon that he sent to George Washington (Miller delivered a discourse upon Washington’s death as well). Miller’s son sheds valuable insight into Miller’s views on Freemasonry, which changed over time:

Before this date, probably soon after his settlement in New York, Mr. Miller joined the Masonic order; he seems to have taken, for years, an active part in its proceedings, and a deep interest in its prosperity: and he reached the dignity of a Royal Arch Mason. His discourse seems to prove, that his confidence had been already shaken, if not in some of the principles of the order, at least in its practical results. But whatever may be thus inferred as to his views of Masonry at this time, certain it is that subsequently — perhaps from the date of his removal to Princeton, where there was no Masonic lodge — he renounced all connexion with the order; at least he never attended their meetings; and that he distinctly, carefully, and emphatically advised his sons not to become Masons. Whether the abduction of Morgan, in 1826, which brought a reproach upon the institution from which it has never recovered, and probably sealed its doom in the United States, had any influence, even to deepen his disapprobation, cannot now, perhaps, be determined. But probably his more mature reflections satisfied him, that such a secret order was incompatible with the spirit of good civil government, and especially of free institutions; and that too easily it might be made a cloak for disorderly, seditious, and treasonable designs; might be abused to base party purposes: might become the active enemy of sound morals, pure Christianity, and the Church of Christ; while it must, naturally, ever prove, in some sort, and in a greater or less degree, a rival of that Church, by proposing its own principles as a sufficient religion, drawing men away from church intercourse and worship, and suggesting, by its very existence, that the institutions of Christianity were not adequate to the fulfilment of the grand philanthropic purposes, for which they were founded. If this order might interfere with the normal workings of the commonwealth, it might interfere much more with those of the Redeemer’s visible kingdom (Samuel Miller, Jr., The Life of Samuel Miller, D.D., LL.D., Vol. 1, p. 99).

Another Presbyterian who once took an active role in Freemasonry but later took on role in opposition to the Masonic Order is William Wirt (1772-1834). He took the first two degrees in the Masonic Rite at a lodge in Richmond, Virginia, but after the 1826 Morgan affair alluded to above (William Morgan had announced his intention to publish a book exposing the secrets of Freemasonry and was soon after abducted and murdered), Wirt was persuaded to accept the 1831 nomination for U.S. President from the Anti-Masonic Party. He was a reluctant nominee, and his campaign was unsuccessful. He died just a few years later.

Aaron Whitney Leland (1787-1871) delivered A Discourse Delivered on the 27th, December, 1815, Before the Grand Lodge of South-Carolina.

Hooper Cumming (1788-1825) preached an Independence Day sermon before a Masonic Lodge: A Sermon, Delivered at Schoharie, Before the Grand Lodge, at the Installation of Hicks Lodge No. 305, July 4th, 1818.

One of the first publications by Robert Jefferson Breckinridge (1800-1871) was A Masonic Oration: Delivered Before the Grand Lodge of Kentucky at Its Annual Communication in Lexington, on the 26th of August, A.D. 1828. He achieved the rank of Grand Orator of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky (source: John Winston Coleman, Masonry in the Bluegrass: Being an Authentic Account of Masonry in Lexington and Fayette County, Kentucky, 1788-1933 (1933), p. 208).

William Stephen Potts (1802-1852) published A Masonic Discourse, Delivered Before the Missouri Lodge, No. 1, on St. John's Day, at St. Louis, 1828 [not yet available on LCP].

U.S. President Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) was a well-known Freemason. “Jackson was initiated into Harmony Lodge No. 1 in Tennessee. He would be instrumental in founding other lodges in the state. He was the only President to have been a Grand Master of the state until Harry S. Truman in 1945 (source).

A biographical sketch of Obadiah Jennings (1778-1832) published in the Masonic Voice Review (Jan. 1859) indicates that not only was Jennings a dedicated Mason, but also that “Through the unbounded influence of Rev. Bro. Jennings, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, when the question of Masonry was presented to them, immediately postponed its consideration for two reasons: 1st. Because some of their own excellent Divines and members were Masons, and 2d. That they had not sufficient information upon the subject.”

John Matthews (1772-1848) delivered A Sermon Preached Before a Lodge of Freemasons [not yet available on LCP] (see William B. Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, Vol. 4, p. 294).

Colin McIver (1784-1850) was a member of and chaplain for the Masonic Order (source).

George Musgrave Giger (1822-1865, translator of Francis Turretin’s Institutes, was a Freemason while at Princeton. After his death a tribute was published: Proceedings of the Sorrow Lodge: and the Address Delivered in Honor of the Memory of Bro. George Musgrave Giger, D.D., December 20, 1865.

Thomas Rice Welch (1825-1886) was a prominent Mason in Arkansas (source).

Thomas Henry Amos (1826-1869) served as Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Masonic Lodge of Liberia, which he co-founded in 1867 (source: Cheryl R. Gooch, On Africa's Lands: The Forgotten Stories of Two Lincoln-Educated Missionaries in Liberia (2014), p. 119).

Jonathan Greenleaf (1785-1865) served as chaplain of the Grand Lodge of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (source: Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of the Most Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons, of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (1856), p. 115).

James Henley Thornwell II (1846-1907) was a Grand Secretary of the Masonic Order of the Eastern Star in South Carolina (source).

Arista Hoge (1847-1923), businessman and historian of the First Presbyterian Church of Staunton, Virginia, was a “Knight Templar Mason” (source).

John Simonson Howk (1862-1942) was a prominent Indiana Presbyterian minister and a member of a Masonic Lodge (source: Lewis C. Baird, Baird’s History of Clark County, Indiana (1909), p. 792),

The Belk Brothers were both prominent Freemasons. John Montgomery Belk (1864-1928) was a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason. He had also been active in Pythian ranks in former years (source). William Henry Belk (1862-1952) was a member of the Scottish and York Rite Masons  and the Order of the Mystic Shrine (source).

Lucien V. Rule (1871-1948), a Freemason, wrote Pioneering in Masonry: The Life and Times of Rob Morris, Masonic Poet Laureate; Together With the Story of Clara Barton and the Eastern Star (1920).

Ralph Earl Prime (1840-1920) was a Freemason from 1865 forward. In 1879, he served as District Deputy Grand Master of the Ninth Masonic District, comprised of Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess Counties in New York (source: Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York (1923), p. 19).

James Naismith (1861-1939), Presbyterian minister and inventor of basketball, was also a Freemason (source).

There were some notable opponents of Freemasonry within the early American Presbyterian Church. Lebbeus Armstrong (1775-1860) was very passionate on the subject and wrote The Man of Sin Revealed, or, The Total Overthrow of the Institution of Freemasonry: Predicted by St. Paul, and Now Fulfilling: Illustrated, and Proved, in a Sermon on II. Thessalonians, II. 8 (1829); Masonry Proved to be a Work of Darkness (1831), and William Morgan, Abducted and Murdered by Masons, in Conformity with Masonic Obligations: and Masonic Measures, to Conceal that Outrage Against the Laws: a Practical Comment on the Sin of Cain: Illustrated and Proved in a Sermon (1831) [Masonry Proved to be a Work of Darkness is available on LCP].

Charles G. Finney (1792-1875) published The Character, Claims and Practical Workings of Freemasonry (1869). In this book Finney aims to thwart the spread of Freemasonry and acknowledges having once been a Mason himself.

Several Presbyterian authors have written against secret societies generally, including Thomas Smyth (1808-1873), James McCosh (1811-1894), David MacDill (1826-1903), James Harper (1823-1913), Robert J. George (1844-1911) [see his Lectures on Pastoral Theology, Vol. 3] and H.H. George (1833-1914). Robert E. Thompson (1844-1924) has written on The Origin of Free Masonry (1871).

As we have already well exceeded the length of a normal LCP blog post, we will rest here having only highlighted some particular historical connections to Freemasonry within American Presbyterianism of special interest. Much more could be said and further avenues explored (for example, the note concerning Obadiah Jennings’ efforts to have the PCUSA General Assembly table the question of Masonry). It is both a mixed picture that we present and a controversial subject for many, but we have strived to represent individuals correctly and without going beyond what can be ascertained factually. We welcome any needful corrections as to the statements above. As to the merits or not of Freemasonry, we have not attempted to analyze its distinctive teachings in this article, but we would refer the reader to Kuiper’s Christ or the Lodge?, among the many resources already cited.

* We have not confirmed that Archibald Alexander was ever a Freemason. However, there is a hint that this may have been the case in James H. Moorhead, Princeton Seminary in American Religion and Culture (2012), p. 81: “Moreover, there was the example of Freemasonry — the secret society par excellence — which was growing dramatically at this time with its promise to promote benevolent ends for all. In any event, the secrecy of the Brotherhood was scarcely seen to be subversive by the faculty, who were sometimes party to it. As one student remarked, he was taken into the inner circle — ‘a wheel within a wheel’ — of the secret society — and on several occasions ‘Dr. Alexander…met with us in this inside organization, and we got from him a great deal of useful instruction and advice.’”

Sampson's Essay on Qualifications For Faithful Interpreters of Scripture

Receive our blog posts in your email by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15).

An interesting gem to be found in a posthumously-published commentary on the Book of Hebrews by Francis S. Sampson (edited by Robert L. Dabney) is the introductory essay on the critical interpreter of the sacred Scriptures. Sampson served as a professor of Oriental literature and languages in the Union Theological Seminary, Virginia, and was a colleague and dear friend of Dabney, who was also his biographer.

Sampson highlights the importance of the faithful interpreter of Scripture in the context of the Satan’s war against Christ and His Church. He argues that one of greatest means by which the devil causes harm to the Church is through the efforts of unfaithful theological professors and preachers who undermine the foundations of the Church. By the mangling and perversion of God’s Word, such sabotage from within greatly aids his efforts, by suppressing and distorting the truth, to derail the advancement of Christ’s kingdom. But to the contrary, faithful interpreters of Scripture who handle God’s Word with wisdom are indispensable instruments in the work of the Church to advance the cause of the gospel in the world.

Here is a brief summary of the qualifications which Sampson gives for the faithful interpreter of Scripture:

  1. The first qualification which I shall mention is, that he have a thorough conviction that the Scriptures are indeed the Word of God: in other words, that he be a firm believers in the plenary inspiration of the Sacred Scriptures.

  2. The next essential qualification for the sacred Scriptures which I shall mention is, that he be truly enlightened and regenerated by the Spirit which gave them.

  3. The third qualification, which I mention as essential to the critical interpreter of the Scriptures, is a thorough knowledge of the original languages in which they are written, as well as a good knowledge, at least, of their cognates.

  4. But not only is a thorough knowledge of the original and cognate languages of the Scriptures necessary to the interpreter; he has need, in the fourth place, of a very extensive and often minute acquaintance with various collateral knowledge.

  5. The next requisite to the interpreter of the sacred Scriptures which I shall mention is, a thorough and comprehensive acquaintance with the Scriptures themselves.

  6. The last qualification of the interpreter of the sacred Scriptures which I shall mention, is, that he possess correct principles of interpretation, and have the skill and judgment to apply them.

In the last discussion, Sampson highlights the importance of the principle of “historico-grammatical system of interpretation.” He adds: “In this last qualification, we only allow what, in strict accordance with the true nature of language, is allowed to all writings, — that they be interpreted according to themselves and according to the nature of the subjects of which they treat.”

The full essay explores the the value of each of these criteria for sound interpretation of what the Scriptures teach. It is remarkable that, though each point is so fundamental and basic as to seemingly go without saying, yet, departures from each of these points are widespread in the Church today with consequent harmful effects.

Read the full essay at Sampson’s page or Dabney’s and consider the importance of faithful teachers of God’s Word. Such men who meet those qualifications are treasures worthy of the great honor to handle the Word of God rightly.

Introducing the Century Club at Log College Press

Receive our blog posts in your email by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.

Among the nearly 2,000 authors found at Log College Press there are at least three centenarians (Arthur Judson Brown [1856-1963, 106]; William Rankin III [1810-1912, 102]; and George Summey [1853-1954, 101]), as well as at least three authors who were 99 years old when they entered into their eternal rest (Littleton Purnell Bowen, David Caldwell, and Maria Fearing). But the Log College Press Century Club which we are introducing today has to do with something a little different.

To be a member of this club, there must be at least 100 works by (and sometimes about) the author on their particular pages. At this point in time, there are 27 such individuals in the LCP Century Club, as follows:

There are some other prolific writers who we anticipate may join this club at some point in the future, such as Isabella Macdonald Alden, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Finley Milligan Foster, Robert Jefferson Breckinridge and Cleland Boyd McAfee, to name a few. As the Lord gives us strength and ability, we continue to add works by these and many other writers. We still have our work cut out for us, especially, for example, with respect to T.L. Cuyler, who penned over 4,000 separate published articles. Meanwhile, if viewed as a snapshot of our most prolific authors, the LCP Century Club invites readers to explore a representative cross-section of early American Presbyterianism. We hope you will take this opportunity to see what’s available among these prolific writers’ pages (as well as those not-so-prolific), and to enjoy a visit to the past, which we trust will be a blessing to you in the present.

Happy Thanksgiving From Log College Press!

Receive our blog posts in your email by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.

The history of Thanksgiving is always a fascinating (and sometimes, controversial) topic. The site of the first Protestant Thanksgiving in America is usually associated with the Pilgrims of Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621, but Virginia also puts forth a claim to an earlier observance of Thanksgiving at Jamestown in 1610, and even prior to that, Thanksgiving, including the singing of a psalm, was observed by the French Huguenots at Fort Caroline, near modern-day Jacksonville, Florida in 1564.

Moving forward to the colonial and early American eras, magistrates began to follow these earlier examples of gathering to give thanks at appointed occasions and they issued Thanksgiving proclamations. Two notable Presbyterians who had a hand in this were John Witherspoon and Elias Boudinot IV.

Witherspoon served on a committee which drafted the Thanksgiving proclamations by the Confederation Congress for 1781 and 1782. Boudinot, who served as President of the Confederation Congress, and later, as a representative of New Jersey in the U.S. House of Representatives, signed the Congressional Thanksgiving Proclamation for 1783, and also proposed the resolution calling upon President George Washington to issue a Thanksgiving proclamation in 1789.

Witherspoon’s 1781 Thanksgiving proclamation called upon Americans to:

assemble on that day, with grateful hearts, to celebrate the praises of our gracious benefactor; to confess our manifold sins; to offer up our most fervent supplications to the God of all grace, that it may please Him to pardon our offences, and incline our hearts for the future to keep all his laws; to comfort and relieve all our brethren who are in distress or captivity; to prosper our husbandmen, and give success to all engaged in lawful commerce; to impart wisdom and integrity to our counsellors, judgment and fortitude to our officers and soldiers; to protect and prosper our illustrious ally, and favor our united exertions for the speedy establishment of a safe, honorable and lasting peace; to bless all seminaries of learning; and cause the knowledge of God to cover the earth, as the waters cover the seas.

Boudinot’s 1789 Thanksgiving resolution called upon President Washington to

recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably a Constitution of government for their safety and happiness.

Corporate giving of thanks to God as Creator and Governor of the Nations, through Christ, King of the Church and the Nations, has been the practice of Christian families, churches and nations for centuries, but as the holiday of Thanksgiving is a peculiarly American institution, it is helpful to reflect on its early history in colonial times leading up to the foundation of our republic.

Theodore L. Cuyler once wrote:

Thanksgiving Day is a fitting time to inventory your mercies and blessings. Set all your family to the pitch of the one hundred and third Psalm; and hang on the wall over your Thanksgiving dinner these mottoes -- 'A merry heart is a good medicine' -- and 'He that is of a cheerful heart hath a continual feast' ["'A Merry Heart Doeth Good': A Talk For Thanksgiving Day" (1897)].

We at Log College Press are thankful for our readers and their support, and we wish each of you a very joyful and Happy Thanksgiving. May God bless you and yours richly!

What's New at Log College Press? - November 15, 2022

Receive our blog posts in your email by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.

As the year winds down, Log College Press remains in high gear as we continue to expand the site and make accessible more and more literature from early American Presbyterians.

Last month, in October 2022, we added 494 new works to the site. There are currently over 16,000 free works available at LCP. Today we are highlighting some of the new free PDFs available as found on our Recent Additions and Early Access pages, two features provided to members of the Dead Presbyterians Society.

Some highlights at the Early Access page:

Some highlights at the Recent Addtiions page:

  • Philip Schaff edited both The American Church History series and A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church (first and second series). All of the above has now been added to Log College Press (approximately 23,000 pages of material);

  • Working for the Presbyterian Board of Publication, William M. Engles edited the 12-volume British Reformers series, which has now been added to his page;

  • The full run of The Penn Monthly Magazine under Robert E. Thompson’s editorship (13 volumes);

  • Dozens of works by Theodore L. Cuyler, Benjamin M. Palmer and Thomas DeWitt Talmage;

  • Joshua L. Wilson’s 1845 first sermon on witchcraft; and much more.

Also, be sure also to check out the quotes we have been adding at our blog for DPS members: Though Dead They Still Speak, including George Howe on the importance of a well-educated spiritual ministry; E.S. Ely on the duty of civic rulers to "kiss the Son"; Alexander Proudfit on the Biblical qualifications for public office; and Robert D. Wilson’s life plan to defend the Old Testament.

We appreciate hearing from our readers if they find matters needing correction, or if they have questions about authors or works on the site, or if they have suggestions for additions to the site. Your feedback helps the experience of other readers as well.

Meanwhile, please feel free to browse the many resources available to our readers in print and in digital format. There is a lot to explore, and many Presbyterian voices from the past to hear. Thank you, as always, for your interest and support, dear friends.

R.L. Dabney: Poet

Receive our blog posts in your email by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.

When we think of Robert Lewis Dabney, most associate him with his systematic theology or the War Between the States. He was one of the most prominent American theologians of the 19th century, and notably served as chief of staff for Gen. Stonewall Jackson during the War. He wore many others hats as well as a farmer, an architect, a professor, a pastor, and a poet.

The last hat mentioned is one that — contrary to popular impressions of Presbyterian divines as disinclined to artistic interests — is shared by many authors on Log College Press: B.B. Warfield, Geerhardus Vos, J. Addison Alexander, Samuel Davies, Charles L. Thompson, Henry J. Van Dyke, Jr., and many more come to mind, who were all known for their poetry. Dabney is a name rarely included in such a list, but it should be.

In Dabney’s case, there are some remarkable and fascinating poetic compositions that are very much worth noting, which help us today to better understand the many facets of his character. Some of his poems were published — in periodicals and/or Thomas C. Johnson’s biography of Dabney — and some were instead shared privately. His biographer notes that his poetry was not of the highest quality, but often expressed his passion. Few would say that Dabney's poetry was his forte, but he certainly applied himself to verse in his "leisure hours."

If the art of poetry be the art of apprehending and interpreting ideas by the faculty of the imagination, the art of idealizing in thought and expression, then Dr. Dabney possessed the art. That he had the necessary constructive imagination, and the power of expressing himself in the concrete, simply and sensuously, there is no ground for doubt. He usually attempted poetical composition, too, only on subjects on which he felt very deeply. In consequence, most of his work of this sort had the ring of passion. (T.C. Johnson, The Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney, p. 455)

Recently, we have made an effort to identify and compile many of his known, published poems to provide a glimpse into his powers of imagination. Today, we will look briefly at some of his poems as found on Log College Press.

  • Tried, But Comforted — First published in The Central Presbyterian in 1863, this poem is also found in Johnson’s biography. It was written after the death of his five-year-old son, Tom, who died in 1862 and was buried in the same cemetery in which his father would later be laid to rest. Dabney’s heart was “bursting,” but he had hope that he would follow little Tom “to Christ, our Head.”

  • The Christian Womans Drowning Hymn: A Monody — Written in 1886, this poem was published in his Discussions, Vol. 4 (1897). The story behind the poem is this: “(A Christian lady and organist, went July 1886, with, and at the request of her sister, for a few days" excursion to Indianola. They arrived the day before the great night storm and tidal wave, which submerged the town. Both the ladies and children, after hours of fearful suspense, were drowned, the house where they sought refuge being broken to pieces in the waves. A survivor stated that the organist spent much of the interval in most moving prayer. Their re- mains were recovered on the subsidence of the tempest, and interred at their homes., amidst universally solemn and tender sympathy. The following verses are imagined, as expressing the emotions of the Christian wife, sister and mother, during her long struggle with the waters.”

  • Dream of a Soldier — This poem was written in 1886, but only referenced, not included, in Johnson’s biography, apparently because it was so dark and bitter (reflecting Dabney’s feelings about the War) that Dabney’s biographer thought it best to not publish it.

  • General T.J. Jackson: An Elegy — Written in 1887 (over two decades after the death of his beloved general), this tribute appeared in Discussions, Vol. 4. (1897). It is a noble lament for his dear friend, highlighting the loss keenly felt by Robert E. Lee and the South.

  • The Texas Brigade at the Wilderness — Written in May 1890, this poem also appeared in Discussions, Vol. 4 (1897). It memorializes the valor of the Texas Brigade at the Battle of the Wilderness, which took place in central Virginia in May 1864.

  • The Death of Moses — This poem was published in the Jan.-Feb. 1891 issue of The Union Seminary Magazine. It is largely an imagined speech delivered by Moses before his entrance into the Heavenly Canaan.

  • Annihilation — This eschatological defense of traditional views of heaven and hell as opposed to the idea of “soul sleep” (an idea refuted by John Calvin in his Psychopannychia, but which nevertheless lingers) appeared in the January 1893 issue of The Presbyterian Quarterly.

  • The San Marcos River — Dabney’s time spent in central Texas inspired this poetic composition, which is found in Discussions, Vol. 4 (1897).

  • A Sonnet to Lee — This tribute to General Robert E. Lee appeared in Discussions, Vol. 4 (1897).

  • Lines Written on the Illness of His Granddaughter — Dictated in 1897 (he was blind by then), these verses were composed when his beloved granddaughter Marguerite lived with him for a time at Asheville, North Carolina. She died in 1899, a year after Dabney, at the age of 17.

  • Conquest of the South — An extract from this poem is given in Johnson’s biography (1903) which expresses his his angst at “the present and impending degradation of his country.”

  • Christology of the Angels — This epic poem, reminiscent of Milton’s Paradise Lost, remained unpublished in manuscript form until it was included in Discussions, Vol. 5 (1999). It is a 115-page long celestial discourse between Gabriel, Michael and other angels on the second night after Jesus’ crucifixion.

The poetic side of Dabney is not well-known, but is worth exploring. Take time to peruse his poetry at Log College Press here, and to look at more Presbyterian poetry here.

What's New at Log College Press? - October 18, 2022

Receive our blog posts in your email by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.

Here is an October report on what’s been going on lately at Log College Press.

In September 2022, we added 370 new works to the site. There are now over 16,000 free works available at LCP. Today we are putting the spotlight on some of the new free PDFs available as found on our Recent Additions and Early Access pages, two features provided to members of the Dead Presbyterians Society.

Some highlights at the Early Access page:

  • John Moorhead and Ebenezer Pemberton, Jr. were among several New England ministers who attested to the originality of the 1773 landmark volume of poetry by Phillis Wheatley titled Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral;

  • James Porter Smith, An Open Door in Brazil: Being a Brief Survey of the Mission Work Carried on in Brazil Since 1869 by the Presbyterian Church in the United States (1925);

  • Charles Stelzle’s autobiography, A Son of the Bowery: The Life Story of an East Side America (1926);

  • Some new discourses by William B. Sprague; and

  • several works by James Renwick Willson, including the complete run of The Evangelical Witness (1822-1826).

Some highlights at the Recent Addtiions page:

  • John Breckinridge, The Annual of the Board of Education of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, Vol. 1 (1832), a remarkable compilation of valuable discourses;

  • Dozens of new works — including many biographical sketches — by Louis Meyer, the Jewish Reformed Presbyterian minister, who also served as an editor for The Fundamentals;

  • Dozens of articles and sermons by Thomas Smyth; and

  • Thomas Cary Johnson, God’s Answer to Evolution (1924).

Be sure also to check out the quotes we have been adding at our blog for DPS members: Though Dead They Still Speak, including A.A. Hodge on God’s moral law; C.W. Grafton on the design of the Christian Sabbath; and a set of quotes from the ecclesiastical catechisms of Alexander McLeod and Thomas Smyth on the divine right of Presbyterianism.

In general, we have also been seeking to add biographical information and photos to author pages that have been around for a while, giving many of them a fresh look and more usefulness to our readers.

Please feel free to browse the many resources available to our readers in print and in digital format. There is a lot to explore, and many Presbyterian voices from the past to hear. Thank you, as always, for your interest and support, dear friends.