Introducing the Century Club at Log College Press

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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.

An "Exile Song" by an Eastern Shoreman: L.P. Bowen

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If you have visited, or lived on, the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia before, you may relate to the song of an “exile” who wrote Makemieland Memorials (1910). L.P. Bowen, who was born in Berlin, Maryland (1833), and ministered in Lewes, Delaware and Pocomoke City, Maryland, was noted for his biographical study of Francis Makemie, widely credited as the “Father of American Presbyterianism,” and who did much to confirm where Makemie was buried, and who discovered Makemie’s desk, which now resides at Union Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, was also a poet, as well as a homesick Eastern Shoreman. Bowen’s writings very often reflected his historical interests in early American Presbyterianism and its growth on the Eastern Shore, as well as his love for the land itself. He entered his eternal rest just shy of reaching the 100 years old mark, and his body was laid to rest in Marshall, Missouri, but a commemorative tablet in his hometown reads: “In memory of Rev. L.P. Bowen, D.D., June 5, 1833 - Apr. 8, 1933. A loyal son of Berlin, author, Poet, Historian, Preacher, Finder of Makemie’s grave.”

This statue marks the spot on Holdens Creek, Temperanceville, Virginia where Francis Makemie is buried.

Written in landlocked Missouri, this song resonates with all other “exiles” from the Eastern Shore. Here is “The Exile’s Song” by L.P Bowen.

Old Eastern Shore, dear Eastern Shore,
An exiled son of thine
Sends loyal greetings from afar
And loves to call thee mine
Land of the laurels and the pine,
Land of the spicy fox-grape vine,
Land where the water-lilies twine,
‘Mid maiden’s heart as pure
Fair Eastern Shore, rare Eastern Shore,
My fatherland, my Maryland,
My dreamland and my fairyland,
Delightsome Eastern Shore!

Old Eastern Shore, dear Eastern Shore,
The heart is sometimes sad,
And oft leans back to days of yore
A little barefoot lad;
Land of the oyster-banks and shad,
Land of the terrapin and crab,
Land where the welcomes make all glad—
With larders brimming o’er;
Fair Eastern Shore, rare Eastern Shore,
My fatherland, my Maryland,
My dreamland and my fairyland,
Delightsome Eastern Shore

Old Eastern Shore, dear Eastern Shore,
Thy glories I will speak
The Ocean’s sweetheart evermore
The bride of Chesapeake
The beaches and the smiling creek,
The curlew’s song, the osprey’s shriek,
I listen—teardrops course my cheek,
And recollections soar
Fair Eastern Shore, rare Eastern Shore,
My fatherland, my Maryland,
My dreamland and my fairyland,
Delightsome Eastern Shore!

Old Eastern Shore, dear Eastern Shore,
Loved by no feeble race
Ancestral blood distilling pure
From far Colonial days
Old Churches where our kinsmen praise,
Old graveyards where tradition strays,
Old homes where in life’s twilight haze
Skies smile with open door;
Fair Eastern Shore, rare Eastern Shore,
My fatherland, my Maryland,
My dreamland and my fairyland,
Delightsome Eastern Shore

Holdens Creek on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

William Traill's Advice

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When Col. William Stevens wrote to the Presbytery of Laggan in Scotland in 1680 requesting that a godly pastor be sent to minister to the faithful on the Eastern Shore, that call was answered first by William Traill (1640-1714), and soon after, by Francis Makemie. While Makemie is known to history as the “Father of American Presbyterianism” for his pioneer ministry and labors to establish the first Presbytery in America, William Traill is far less known than he should be today. He was the brother of Robert Traill, the famous Scottish Covenanter, and served as clerk and as a Moderator of the Laggan Presbytery. Robert addressed his noted letter on Justification to his older brother, William. Both Robert and William, as well as their father, suffered persecution; William, having been imprisoned for preaching in Ireland, came to America after his release from prison in 1682, where he ministered to the people of Rehoboth, Maryland, possibly serving as their first pastor, until his return to Scotland in 1690.

Today we consider an extract from some spiritual counsel written by William Traill for a private lady in 1708, which was abridged and republished in 1841 under the title “Necessary and Excellent Advice About Some Duties.”

Follow Christ, by taking up the cross that he has appointed for you , and by faith lean upon him for strength and succour, to bear you up under its burden from day to day. Observe your daily deficiencies and short-comings, and press forward that you may know more of the spirit, life, and power of every duty. Keep constant watch against your easily-besetting sins, and take heed that, by a sudden surprisal, they do not prevail against you. Particularly inquire whether you are not tempted to unbelief, and calling in question almost every truth — whether you are not sinfully jealous of the love of God to your soul, after the multiplied evidences of his care — whether affected diffidence, impatient haste, rash and uncharitable censures of others, are not found in your heart— whether you regard the proper season for every duty, and daily labour to “redeem the time" — whether in circumstances of difficulty you ask yourself, what would my Lord and Saviour have done in this case? and do likewise whether you mind his own blessed rule, “Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you , do ye even so to them .” Learn to remember your latter end, “to die daily" — adventure upon nothing but what appears to be your duty, both lawful and seasonable, and such as you would adventure upon, if you had but a day to live.

Read the rest of his spiritual counsel here, and take note of this remarkable pioneer Presbyterian who helped pave the way for the planting of the Presbyterian Church in America. More about Traill can be found in L.P. Bowen’s The Days of Makemie (1885) and Makemie and Rehoboth (1912); J.W. McIlvain, Early Presbyterianism in Maryland (1890); C.A. Briggs, American Presbyterianism (1885); Alfred Nevin, History of the Presbytery of Philadelphia (1888); among other records of pioneer Presbyterianism in America.

HT: Matthew Vogan