What's New at Log College Press? - August 16, 2022

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There is always a lot going on at Log College Press. Here is a brief report to get you up to speed.

In July 2022, we added 349 new works to the site. Today we aim to highlight 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.

Early Access:

• In 1760, a letter authored by Gilbert Tennent and signed by seventeen other Presbyterian ministers was sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury concerning William McClanachan (1714-c. 1765), a sometime Anglican, Congregational and Presbyterian minister, which proved to be somewhat ecclesiastically messy for the writers. What is particularly interesting about the “eighteen Presbyterian ministers” who jointly signed the letter is that this is one occasion when Samuel Davies and the Tennent brother (Gilbert, Charles and William, Jr.) united in a literary production. Others who also signed include John Rodgers, Abraham Keteltas, Alexander MacWhorter, John Blair, Robert Smith, John Roan, Charles McKnight; all together at least seven alumni of the Log College signed this letter, which is now available to read on our Early Access page.

• Speaking of the Tennents, we have added a volume by Mary A. Tennent titled Light in Darkness: The Story of William Tennent Sr. and the Log College (1971) to the William Tennent, Sr. page. It is a valuable study of the Tennent family and the Log College.

• In the course of our research, we came across a volume of sermons once owned by Samuel Miller. Many of the individual sermons bear his handwritten signature on the title pages. Some of the sermons were delivered in connection with the May 9, 1798 fast day appointed by President John Adams (William Linn, Ashbel Green and Samuel Blair, Jr.). Also included was another separate fast day sermon preached by Nathan Strong and an 1815 thanksgiving sermon preached by James Muir (following the end of the War of the 1812).

• We added some interesting works by John Tucker (1719-1792), including a noted 1771 election sermon and two editions (one published and one handwritten manuscript) of a 1778 sermon on the validity of Presbyterian ordination.

• Robert R. Howison, author of a noted history of Virginia, wrote a history of the War Between the States in serial fashion which was published in the Southern Literary Messenger from 1862 to 1864. We have compiled each installment into one PDF file comprised of almost 400 pages.

• Perhaps the most famous sermon delivered by Clarence E.N. Macartney was Come Before Winter, first preached in 1915 and then annually for many years after. We have added the 30th anniversary edition of that sermon to his page.

• We have also recently added more sermons and letters by Samuel Davies, some of which are now at the Recent Additions page.

Recent Addtiions:

• William Adams, On the Death of President Harrison (1841);

• Several novels by Francis R. Goulding;

• James Newton Saunders, Memorial Upon the Life of Rev. Stuart Robinson (1883);

• and many works by Theodore L. Cuyler, J.R. Miller and Julia McNair Wright, among quite a few others.

Be sure also to check out the quotes we have been adding at our blog for DPS members: Though Dead They Still Speak, including some by John Murray on the regulative principle of worship; David Rice on religious controversy; and Louis F. Benson on early Presbyterian psalmody.

As we continue to grow, please avail yourself of the many resources (both digital and in print) at Log College Press, and be sure to tell your friends about us. We hope that brushing off these old tomes will indeed enrich the 21st century church - that is our prayer. Thank you, as always, for your interest and support, dear friends.

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Log College Resources

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At Log College Press, we aim to survey the broad landscape of American Presbyterianism, from mainstream denominations to dissenting branches, both conservative and liberal, to provide insight into the history and claims of those who speak for Presbyterianism in America. But we have a special place in our heart for the original Log College, which served as the first Presbyterian seminary in the colonies.

A 19th-century sketch of the Log College with an interesting background described here.

Here is an effort to provide resources for further study on that Log College and specially connected to it. This is not a complete survey, but it is hoped that readers who wish to study the Log College more in-depth can do so ably with the material referenced below.

The Founders of the Log College (c. 1726) were William Tennent, Sr. (1673-1746) and Catherine Kennedy Tennent (1683-1753). Each of their male children were among the graduates of the Log College program of education: Gilbert, William, Jr., John, and Charles. Other famous Log College alumni include Samuel Blair, John Blair, Samuel Finley and Charles Beatty. The Log College planted seeds which later resulted in the founding of Princeton, the Log Colleges of John McMillan, David Caldwell and others.

There are many valuable works about the Log College and its alumni and influence available to read at Log College Press, including:

• Archibald Alexander - Biographical Sketches of the Founder, and Principal Alumni of the Log College (1845) and Sermons and Essays by the Tennents and Their Contemporaries (1855)

• Elijah R. Craven - The Log College of Neshaminy and Princeton University (1902)

• Nathaniel Irwin - Memoirs of the Presbyterian Church of Neshaminey (1793, 1904)

• Guy S. Klett and Thomas C. Pears, Jr. - Documentary History of William Tennent and the Log College (1940)

• Thomas Murphy - The Presbytery of the Log College; or, The Cradle of the Presbyterian Church in America (1889)

• Douglas K. Turner - History of Neshaminy Presbyterian Church of Warwick, Hartsville, Bucks County, PA, 1726-1876 (1876); Sketch of Log College (1886, 1909); and The Log College (1889)

Also of interest is Charles Spencer Richardson, Jr., A Week in Log College Country (1903), available to read here. William B. Sprague’s Annals, Richard Webster’s History of the Presbyterian Church in America, and many other biographical and historical literature is also available to read at Log College Press.

Other works known to the writer, but not yet available on Log College Press include:

• George H. Ingram - The Story of the Log College (1927) and Biographies of the Alumni of the Log College (1929-1930)

• Clarence E.N. Macartney - The Log College and the Beginning of Princeton (1946-1947)

• Richard McIlwaine - The Influence of the Log College in the South (1889)

• Thomas C. Pears, Jr. - History by Hearsay or New Light on William Tennent: A Footnote on the 'Documentary History of William Tennent (1940)

• Gary E. Schnittjer - William Tennent and the Log College: A Common Man and an Uncommon Legacy (1992) and The Ingredients of Effective Mentoring: The Log College as a Model for Mentorship (1994)

Books which directly treat aspects of the Log College from the Secondary Sources page at Log College Press include:

• Milton J. Coalter, Jr. - Gilbert Tennent, Son of Thunder (1986)

• S. Donald Fortson III - Colonial Presbyterianism: Old Faith in a New Land (2006)

• John F. Hansen - The Vision That Changed a Nation: The Legacy of William Tennent (2007)

• Margaret Adair Hunter, Education in Pennsylvania Promoted by the Presbyterian Church, 1726–1837 (1937)

• Alexander Leitch - A Princeton Companion (1978)

• Howard Miller - The Revolutionary College: American Presbyterian Higher Education, 1707-1837 (1976)

• Mary A. Tennent - Light in Darkness: The Story of William Tennent, Sr. and the Log College (1971)

There is a great deal of literature on Princeton which can be read online at Log College Press, or ordered from the Secondary Sources page, which touches on the history of the Log College. Many titles are not mentioned here, but could be included in a more thorough compilation. But it is hoped that the resources highlighted here will provide the student of colonial American Presbyterian history with readily available information to assist in their studies of a remarkable chapter of church history.

And let us remember that “the past is not dead,” because the story of the Tennents and the Log College is but prologue to the present. The William Tennent House Association continues its work in a different direction to make this history and legacy alive and accessible to visitors as well. One Log College, and the many others which followed, did so much to leave a godly legacy for America. We are glad to help others learn more about the story, and we are thankful to God for the legacy.

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A 19th century Presbyterian publisher whose name you might know

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The subject of today’s post had an elder brother, William, who became a Presbyterian minister. The story is told, by Rev. William Hammil, the Principal of the Boys’ School at Lawrenceville, New Jersey, of William’s conversion, followed by that of his brother days later.

He [William] came to me,” says Mr. Hammil, “ and said, ‘I have found the Saviour, and I wish you would tell my companions.’ I said to him, ‘William, you had better tell them yourself. It will do them and you both good.’ He stood up and said, ‘My dear schoolmates, you have, perhaps, not understood why I have not been out upon the playground as much as usual for some days past. I have been seeking the salvation of my soul, and trust I have found my Saviour, and wish to tell you how much joy I have.’ After prayers, William came to me and said, ‘ I wish you would speak to my brother…, and pray for him.’ I promised to do so. Like Andrew the Apostle, he was desirous that his brother should see Jesus. In a few days, … his younger brother, was indulging a good hope of an interest in Christ.

James W. Alexander once wrote in a preface to his Discourses on Common Topics of Christian Faith and Practice that “The appearance of these Discourses is due to the kind importunity of the Publisher, once my pupil and since my esteemed friend, who has for several years asked this contribution.”

The man who would one day became a publisher whose name is known around the world studied at Princeton, graduating in 1840. After health issues derailed an initial venture into the legal profession, he instead went into the business of publishing books. His first base of operations was in meeting rooms leased from the Presbyterian Brick Street Chapel in New York City for $600 annually. Shepherd Knapp, Jr., in his sketch of this famous historical congregation, tells us that:

In 1846 another publishing house became the church's tenant, that of …, whose successors, …, and the present … have continued the firm's long relationship to the Brick Church by becoming the publishers of the principle works of the church's ministers during the last half century.

J. David Hoevelter, Jr., in James McCosh and the Scottish Intellectual Tradition: From Glasgow to Princeton, p. 308), adds:

The firm had an eclectic list of works, but it excelled in high scholarly, and especially theological, works. These included books by Horace Bushnell, Henry B. Smith, Noah Porter, and others that especially illustrate the Princeton connection — Archibald and James Waddel Alexander, Charles Hodge, and then McCosh.

The list of works by Log College Press authors published by this man and his company is voluminous. Some of the names and titles can be noted on this Princeton chronology here. The publisher’s name remains well-known today, in the 21st century: Charles Scribner (1821-1871). Although he died at the age of 50, his work was carried on under the name Charles Scribner’s Sons. One of his sons, who later led the family business, was John Blair Scribner - named after a former Log College student, John Blair. His legacy has endured, and we at Log College Press are grateful for the many Presbyterian works that he and his family published during the 19th century.