An Honorable Princeton Roll Call

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Among the addresses delivered at the 1912 Centennial celebration for Princeton Theological Seminary was one given by William Lenoard McEwan titled “Princeton in the Work of the Pastorate.” In this message highlighting the contributions of Princeton-educated men to the work of the ministry, he includes a roll call of names that are also highlighted here at Log College Press. Today’s post is an extract from that address with links to pages for these men so that the 21st century reader may better acquaint themselves with their lives and labors. It is just a partial snapshot — Princeton has contributed much, much more — but it is a way to recognize some important but often-neglected names from American Presbyterian history.

Indeed if there were time to revive the memories of those who are familiar with the great movements that are written in our history, the reading of the names of the men whose influence has been great in the time of crisis or through long years of service would be sufficient— James W. Alexander, John C. Backus, for forty-eight years in Baltimore; J. Trumbull Backus, for forty-one years in Schenectady, N.Y.; George D. Baker, for a score of years in Philadelphia; Albert Barnes, forty years in Philadelphia; Charles C. Beatty, for sixty years in Steubenville, Ohio; William Blackburn; Henry A. Boardman, for forty-seven years in Philadelphia; Rob't J. Breckinridge of Kentucky; James H. Brookes of St. Louis; T. W. Chambers, nearly half a century in New York City; William C. Cattell, Joseph Christmas, founder of the American Church in Montreal; Bishop T. M. Clark; Richard F. Cleveland (father of a president of the United States); Theodore L. Cuyler, for thirty years in Brooklyn; Doak of Tennessee; J. T. Duryea, Philemon H. Fowler, Sam'l W. Fisher, P. D. Gurley of Washington, D.C; Leroy J. Halsey, A. A. Hodge, C. W. Hodge, E. B. Hodge, F. B. Hodge, William H. Hornblower, William Henry Green, Charles K. Imbrie, pastor, secretary and editor; Sheldon Jackson, Bishop John Johns, M. W. Jacobus, S. H. Kellogg, John M. Krebs, of New York; John C. Lowrie, Willis Lord, Bishop A. N. Littlejohn, J.M. Ludlow, Erskine Mason, Bishop C. B. Mcllvaine, David Magie, George W. Musgrave, Thomas Murphy, N.G. Parke, R. M. Patterson, W. S. Plumer, S. I. Prime, William M. Paxton, George T. Purves, Nathan L. Rice, Rendall of Lincoln, David H. Riddle, Stuart Robinson, Charles S. Robinson, W. D. Snodgrass, William A. Scott, W. B. Sprague, J. G. Symmes, E. P. Swift, H. J. Van Dyke, C. Van Rensselaer, Charles Wadsworth.

In this one packed paragraph, the names are easily passed over but each one represents a part of the story of the Lord’s kingdom work in this country and in the world by means of “an able and faithful ministry” (to use Samuel Miller’s words) as taught at Princeton. We are thankful for these men and take note of them here at Log College Press, also intending to add more as we are able. To God be the glory for these faithful witnesses.

American Presbyterians in Europe

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St. Augustine, when he speaks of the great advantages of travelling, says, that the world is a great book, and none study this book so much as a traveller. They that never stir from home read only one page of this book. -- John Feltham, The English Enchiridion (1799)

Like many today who might be itching to travel again, American Presbyterians in the 19th century also sought the benefits of a long voyage, and Europe was one particular favorite destination. Among the life experiences of authors found at Log College Press, trips to Europe are a recurring theme, and our Travelogue page highlights this.

The letters, journals, books and poetry that resulted from such trips are a valuable historical record of life on one side of the pond as viewed through the eyes of residents from the other side. In today’s post, we take a closer look at these memorials of their experiences.

  • James Waddel Alexander — J.W. Alexander traveled to England, France, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland on a six-month tour of Europe in 1851. He met Adolphe Monod in Paris. Later, in 1857, he returned to Europe and met Charles H. Spurgeon in England, and Thomas Guthrie in Scotland, while also visiting France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium. His reports on these travel experiences are recorded in Forty Years' Familiar Letters, and also in James W. Garretson, Thoughts on Preaching & Pastoral Ministry: Lessons from the Life and Writings of James W. Alexander.

  • Joseph Addison Alexander — J.A. Alexander spent a year in Europe (1833-1834). Time was spent in England, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy. From diary extracts given in H.C. Alexander’s The Life of Joseph Addison Alexander, we learn many fascinating details about the people he met, and the poems he wrote, inspired by his European travels.

  • Henry Martyn Baird — Baird spent much of his childhood in France and Switzerland, and then after graduating from the University of New York, lived in Greece and Italy during 1851-1853, and studied at the University of Athens. Besides his many written studies of the French Huguenots, he authored Modern Greece: A Narrative of a Residence and Travels in that Country (1856).

  • Robert Baird — Baird visited Europe many times as recorded in H.M. Baird’s biography The Life of the Rev. Robert Baird, D. D. (1866). Baird himself wrote about his travels in Visits to Northern Europe (1841) and Old Sights With New Eyes (1854). His travels also enabled him to write with personal knowledge about Protestantism in Italy.

  • John Henry Barrows — Barrows’ world travels, detailed in A World Pilgrimage (1897), included England, France, Germany, Greece and Italy.

  • Robert Jefferson Breckinridge — R.J. Breckinridge was appointed by the PCUSA General Assembly to serve as its representative in Europe, leading to a trip to England, France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. His travels are detailed in Memoranda of Foreign Travel (1839 and, in 2 vols., 1845).

  • George Barrell Cheever — Cheever’s journey though the French-Swiss Alps is recorded in Wanderings of a Pilgrim in the Shadow of Mont Blanc and the Jungfrau Alp (1848).

  • Theodore Ledyard Cuyler — Cuyler’s travels through England, France, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Greece, and the Czech Republic, are recorded in From the Nile to Norway and Homeward (1881).

  • George Duffield IV — Duffield’s travels were published in the Magazine of Travel during 1857, and later republished in Travels in the Two Hemispheres; or, Gleanings of a European Tour (1858).

  • Henry Highland Garnet — Garnet traveled to Europe in 1851, including England, Ireland Scotland and Germany. His speeches from some of those locations are found here.

  • Stephen Henry Gloucester — Gloucester, pastor of the Lombard Street Central Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, visited England and Scotland in 1847-1848. The record of his trip, and letters which he wrote home, can be found in Robert Jones, Fifty years in the Lombard Street Central Presbyterian Church (1894).

  • Charles Hodge — From 1826 to 1828, Hodge traveled to Europe, studying in Paris and and wrote a handwritten journal of his experiences (primarily in Germany) available to read here. See also A.A. Hodge’s The Life of Charles Hodge for more on these travels, including letters written to home.

  • Alexander McLeod — McLeod visited England and Scotland in 1830. His experiences are recounted in Samuel Brown Wylie’s Memoir of Alexander McLeod (1855). Wylie’s own trip to Europe in 1802-1803 is also discussed in this volume.

  • James Clement Moffat — Moffat recounts his experiences in the summer of 1872 in Song and Scenery; or, A Summer Ramble in Scotland (1874).

  • Walter William Moore — Moore recounts his experiences in England, Scotland, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands in A Year in Europe (1904, 1905).

  • James W.C. Pennington — The “Fugitive Blacksmith’s” s travels to England, Scotland and Germany are detailed in Christopher L. Webber, American to the Backbone: The Life of James W. C. Pennington, the Fugitive Slave Who Became One of the First Black Abolitionists. He was the first African-American in Europe to be awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity.

  • Samuel Irenaeus Prime — Prime’s travels were recorded in Travels in Europe and the East: A Year in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, 2 vols. (1855, 1856).

  • Joel Edson Rockwell — Rockwell’s journey through France, Germany, Italy, England, Scotland and Ireland is chronicled in Scenes and Impressions Abroad (1860).

  • William Buell Sprague — Sprague writes in the preface to his Visits to European Celebrities (1855), “In 1828, and again in 1836, I had the privilege of passing a few months on the continent of Europe and in Great Britain. In both visits, especially the latter, I was more interested to see men than things; and I not only made the acquaintance, so far as I could, of distinguished individuals as they came in my way, but sometimes made circuitous routes in order to secure to myself this gratification.” See also his Letters From Europe, in 1828 (1828).

  • Thomas De Witt Talmage — A world traveller, Talmage wrote Great Britain Through American Spectacles (1885); From the Pyramids to the Acropolis: Sacred Places Seen Through Biblical Spectacles (1892); and The Earth Girdled: The World as Seen To-Day (1896).

These are some of the men at Log College Press who spent time in Europe, and their writings often tell us about life abroad, and often inspired them in various ways, just as travels inspire us. It is human nature to want to travel, and if we are limited in our ability to do so at present, we can at least turn to others who have done so and be inspired by them.

Resources on Revival

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Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved (Ps. 80:19).

Times of chastening by the Lord are sometimes followed, in the mercy of God, by an outpouring of the Holy Spirit drawing God’s people closer and granting times of spiritual refreshing, reformation and revival. James W. Alexander notes that it was the economic collapse of 1857 that brought people to their knees which then led to a revival in New York City, and that such is often the case after “visitations” like the pestilence. It is helpful to study those periods of revival in the past, from the Reformation itself to the Great Awakening and others such times in history. At Log College Press, we have a great deal of literature for you to prayerfully consider regarding this topic.

The Reformation - James W. Alexander, The Reformation in Hungary and Transylvania; Henry M. Baird, Theodore Beza: The Counsellor of the French Reformation, 1519-1605; The Protestant Reformation and Its Influence, 1517-1917; Thomas C. Johnson, John Calvin and the Genevan Reformation; William C. Martyn, The Dutch Reformation; B.B. Warfield, The Theology of the Reformation;

The First Great Awakening - Samuel Blair, Account of the Revival of Religion; William Tennent, Jr., An Account of the Revival of Religion at Freehold and Other Places in the Province of New-Jersey;

The Kentucky Revival of 1800 - George A. Baxter, January 1, 1802 Letter re: the Kentucky revival; Lyman Beecher, Letters of the Rev. Dr. Beecher and Rev. Mr. Nettleton on the "New Measures" on Conducting Revivals of Religion; William Speer, The Great Revival of 1800;

The Princeton Revival of 1814-1815 - Ashbel Green, A Report to the Trustees of the College of New Jersey: Relative to a Revival of Religion Among the Students of Said College, in the Winter and Spring of the Year 1815;

The Baltimore Revival of 1823-1824 - William C. Walton, Narrative of a Revival of Religion, in the Third Presbyterian Church, of Baltimore: With Remarks on Subjects Connected With Revivals in General;

The New York City Revival of 1857-1858 - James W. Alexander, The Revival and Its Lessons; Samuel I. Prime, The Power of Prayer, Illustrated in the Wonderful Displays of Divine Grace at the Fulton Street and Other Meetings in New York and Elsewhere, in 1857 and 1858, Five Years of Prayer, With the Answers, Fifteen Years of Prayer in the Fulton Street Meeting, and Prayer and Its Answer: Illustrated in the First Twenty-Five Years of the Fulton Street Prayer Meeting;

The 1904 Pittsburgh Revival - Austin H. Jolly, The Pittsburg Revival;

Lectures, letters, reviews and sermons on revival - Daniel Baker, A Series of Revival Sermons and Revival Sermons (Second Series); John Breckinridge, Sprague on Revivals; and William B. Sprague, Lectures on Revival (included are letters by Archibald Alexander, Samuel Miller, Ashbel Green, Moses Waddel and many others).

Secondary Sources - In our Secondary Sources page, see Joel R. Beeke, Forerunner of the Great Awakening: Sermons by Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen; Richard J.J. Chacon and Michael Charles Scoggins, The Great Awakening and Southern Backcountry Revolutionaries; Linford D. Fisher, The Indian Great Awakening: Religion and the Shaping of Native Cultures in Early America; Wesley M. Gewehr, The Great Awakening in Virginia, 1740-1790; David Harlan, The Clergy and the Great Awakening in New England; Thomas S. Kidd, The Great Awakening: A Brief History With Documents and The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America; Perry Miller and Alan Heimert, The Great Awakening: Documents Illustrating the Crisis and Its Consequences; Kimmy Nelson, The Great Awakening and Princeton; Lisa Smith, The First Great Awakening in Colonial American Newspapers: A Shifting Story; and Marilyn J. Westerkamp, Triumph of the Laity: Scots-Irish Piety and the Great Awakening, 1625-1760.

There is much of value in these writings that not only speaks to the time periods from which they originated, but also to us today. We also have sermons, letters and more from some of the great preachers of the First Great Awakening, such as Samuel Davies and Gilbert Tennent. Take time to study this body of literature, and learn more about God’s dealings with his people, especially in the outpouring of His Spirit for the reviving of His saints.

Plumer and Prime on the Power of Prayer

We have noted previously that James Waddel Alexander wrote a wonderful memorial of the Fulton Street prayer meeting and revival of 1857-1858. But the theme of the power of prayer stirred up by this revival was especially the province of Samuel Irenaeus Prime, who authored four volumes on this topic over the years:

  • The Power of Prayer, Illustrated in the Wonderful Displays of Divine Grace at the Fulton Street and Other Meetings in New York and Elsewhere, in 1857 and 1858 (1858, 1859);

  • Five Years of Prayer, With the Answers (1864);

  • Fifteen Years of Prayer in the Fulton Street Meeting (1872); and

  • Prayer and Its Answer: Illustrated in the First Twenty-Five Years of the Fulton Street Prayer Meeting (1882).

Prime was above all a man of prayer, and deeply impressed with both its necessity in the life of the believer, and its efficacy. In the last volume (p. 147), he shared this thought about prayer’s power:

In the Christian life and in Christian labor prayer is all powerful, for in prayer we lay hold of God's omnipotence. A minister said he had been deeply impressed with the thought that power comes from God. In the battle of Waterloo, some of the English troops were ordered to fall on their faces for a time, so as to let the deadly fire of the French artillery go over them. At the right moment the command came to spring to their feet and show fight. So it was suggested, as the soldiers of the Lord, we need often to fall flat upon our faces before Him in humiliation of heart, and wait until He calls on us for action.

In Prime’s first record of the 1857-1858 revival, several chapters are included from other contributors, such as William Swan Plumer on the efficacy of prayer. This chapter is a real gem. Plumer writes (p. 350) a truth that we do well to remember:

It is not possible to over-estimate the value of prayer. For more than thirty-five years I have had much intercourse with dying saints and sinners of various ages and conditions. In all that time I have not heard one express regret that he had spent too much time in prayer; I have heard many mourn that they had so seldom visited a throne of grace.