A 19th Century Example of Paying it Forward

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Writing for the October 1870 issue of Our Monthly magazine, Edwin B. Raffensperger wrote a brief Reminiscence of Rev. Archibald Alexander, D.D. Having read over James W. Alexander’s biography of Archibald Alexander, he took special note of a remark on p. 605:

During his illness he dictated a paper to be taken around for subscription toward the relief of a young man whose studies had been interrupted by disease.

Raffensperberger, who himself graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1852, informed his readers that the paper referred to had been in his possession for the last 19 years. It was considered “a valuable memento of Princeton,” where he was a student at the time certain events transpired.

A fellow student from Ohio one day fell dangerously ill. Despite the advice and counsel of “eminent medical men in Philadelphia and New York,” this young student, a man of great promise we are told, lay near death’s door. At the house where he was staying, he was cared for by a brother and sister, the latter of whom would go on to marry one of the doctors who came to visit. The sick student’s illness included symptoms of spasms and feats of incredible strength (though unable to rise or walk, he could crush an apple in his bare hand).

Concern for this young man and whether he would live spread throughout the Princeton community. At the same time Archibald Alexander lay on his deathbed. One day a messenger came to Raffensperger with a request to approach the bedside of Alexander. Raffensperger tells of their conversation:

I found him very feeble. In a few touching words he expressed his deep sympathy for the poor student and regretted his inability to call and see him during the two years of his sickness. “I have asked my daughter,” said he, “to prepare a subscription paper, and the members of my family have contributed $19.00, which you will find inclosed with the paper. Will you take it and call upon the citizens and students to increase it to $50.00, and then pay half to the brother and sister who have taken such good care of him, and the other half to the student?”

I expressed my willingness to carry out his wish, but inquired whether he would restrict the sum to $50.00, as I hoped, with such a start, to raise much more. He took my hand and said, “Take the paper. Raise all you can and God bless you.”

It was a few days later that Alexander entered into his eternal rest. After Alexander was interred at Princeton Cemetery, a grand total of $300.00 was raised on behalf of the sick student and the brother and sister. Raffensperger continues:

Hear now the conclusion of the whole matter.

Contrary to all our plans for the funeral, that patient recovered, entered the ministry and has for years been laboring successfully in the West He is now one of the jolliest Doctors of Divinity in the reunited Church.

One wonders the name of this jolly minister from Ohio. Perhaps one of our readers will have an idea? In any case, this concern on Alexander’s deathbed for a poor student was an inspiration and a blessing to others, and the little-known story is worth of remembrance.

Holiness and Health: Words of Wisdom from William Nevins

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William Nevins, whose ordination sermon was preached by Samuel Miller in 1820, died at a young age (37). In the last year of his life (and ministry as pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Baltimore), while battling illness, his diary records his thoughts on health matters. In his city, the cholera raging. But what mattered more to him was faithful service to the Lord. Hear his thoughts on health and holiness from his diary, letters and from his pulpit, extracted from his Select Remains, published after his death by William S. Plumer.

In one undated letter, Nevins writes:

If all my relatives were followers of the Lord, I should feel easy about them, though in the midst of pestilence. Death, even by the cholera, is gain to the Christian.

From his diary:

August 28, 1832. The cholera is raging in the midst of us, but praised be God, I and mine are spared, not for our deserts, but for his great mercies. I feared that when 1 should be called to visit a subject of this disease, I should be appalled at the prospect; but when the summons actually came, I was enabled to obey it without the smallest hesitation or trembling, and to determine at once to comply with every similar call in future, the which I have been aided to do, God gives his servants grace just when they want it; not in anticipation of their necessities. When I think of dying, I feel, if not an unpreparedness, yet an unwillingness to leave the world now, and an inability to exclaim, 'Oh death, where is thy sting?’ but I trust it would not be so, were I actually called to die. I am persuaded there is nothing which the grace of God cannot do for me.

November 20, 1832. On the 26th of September, I was taken ill of a bilious fever, by which I have been laid aside until now, and from which, I have not yet entirely recovered. What thanks do I not owe to my preserving God, that he spared me when so many others were taken! How gracious was he, when the pangs were upon me! But now, that they are removed, how soon I forget God! I am afraid my sickness has not been sanctified to me, I find the same wicked heart in me as ever. Oh how sinfully I live from day to-day! How I suffer little matters to disturb my peace and ruffle my temper, and lead me into sin! How the very minutiae of this world affect me! I am ashamed of the petty cares and anxieties of which I am the subject. I am careful and troubled about many things, and so neglect the one thing needful; and then how many fears I have, unworthy of a Christian. Oh for that perfect love which casts out fear; oh, to know that I am one to whom the gracious God says, ' fear thou not, for I am with thee; I am thy God.’

July 9, 1833. I have been reading Baxter on our unreasonable unwillingness to die, that we may possess the saint's rest. Oh that God would make me willing to do and suffer all his will, just because it is his will. Oh that he would deliver me from all fear of death. His grace is sufficient, and his word is given, and his promise is sure. I will trust him and not be afraid. I shall not be left. He will not disappoint my confidence in him.

August 17, 1833. I have about me a dread of disease and death, such as I was not wont to have before the pestilence came, and which is very unbecoming a Christian. Oh to be delivered from it. Oh for that love which casts out fear.

September 13, 1833. I cannot bear the idea of living along from day to day, unprofitably to myself and others, without making any progress in personal holiness, and without benefiting the souls of others. I desire this day to live usefully — to do something for the glory of God and the good of man, and I resolve that with the Lord's help I will.

September 26, 1833. I would not let this day pass, without noting it as the anniversary of my sickness. This day, one year, I was attacked by that illness, which brought me nearer the grave than I ever was before. But God mercifully spared me, and has lengthened out my term, while he has cut short that of others. Poor brother Fullerton is taken in the dawning of life and usefulness.

December 21, 1833. I thank the Lord for that calm and even and happy state of mind in which I have been for the last few days. May he continue and increase my peace, making it like a river, flowing in a constant, gentle and unrippled current, increasing daily in extent and depth, until it shall reach the interminable ocean of serenity. I feel as if God will revive us. Oh may he not be offended by any act or omission. May none of us grieve the good Spirit of the Lord.

January 30, 1834. Nothing gives me more pain than the fear that I am living to no purpose, neither growing in grace myself, nor promoting the salvation of others. Oh God, let it not be so. Make me useful. Let me not live in vain. " I desire to have these several things, viz.

1. In all I do, a single eye to the glory of God.

2. A uniform and deep sense of my entire dependance on God, especially for the success of my ministry.

3. I desire to feel continually the sweet and powerful constraining of a Saviour's love. I would feel him to be ever and very precious to me.

4. I would endure as seeing him who is invisible. 1 would feel continually, 'Thou God seest me.'

5. I desire to be delivered from all sin. I would be a partaker of the meekness and gentleness of Christ. I would be sincere, upright, true.

6. I desire to be able to say, 'Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none on earth I desire besides thee.' Oh to have such a love for God and such a delight in him.

7. I desire to be willing to die, whenever the Lord wills to take me. I want to be weaned from this world before I am taken from it. I would not be driven away. I would go willingly.

8. I desire to have no will of my own in any thing, but to say and feel always, ‘Thy will be done.’

February 3, 1834….I choose for my motto this, ‘To me to live is Christ.’

May 3, 1834. I returned yesterday from Philadelphia and New York, where, for three or four weeks, I have been for my health, which has failed me. The Lord has laid me aside from his active service, for how long 1 know not ; whether altogether, he knows. May his will be mine, and may they not merely accidentally coincide, but may his will be mine because it is his. On the first of May, in Philadelphia, I wrote as follows:

O Lord, let me have now, though all unworthy, a little sweet communion with thee: canst thou, with all thy care of worlds, attend to me? Thou canst, for even worlds are no cares to thee! And wilt thou? Wilt thou so condescend, not merely to such littleness, but to such guilt? O how unworthy I am of what I ask! I am convinced that no one is more unworthy than I am. How can any one be more unworthy ? If mercy were any thing merited, I should be sure of never receiving it. Oh how I spoil my actions by my motives ! My heart is not right even when my conduct is. Oh thou who ponderests hearts and weighest spirits, sanctify my motives. Make them such as thou wouldst have them.

May 6, 1834. I ask not, O Lord, that thy will may coincide with mine, but mine with thine. I am only in a very subordinate sense in the hands of physicians and other advisers. I am in the Lord’s hands. There I ought to be. There may I delight to be. O for confidence.

May 13, 1834. Will the Lord deign to restore my voice to me, and to allow me once more to preach Jesus? I am not needed; and I am unworthy. But may such he employs. I shall esteem it a great favor. I shall praise him forever for it. I am too fond of life and this world. Oh, I am too unwilling to die. I cannot say to death, ‘Where is thy sting?’ I would be weaned from earth and time. I would desire to depart and be with Christ. I would see and feel that to be far better. Oh for sweet and complete submission to the divine will.

May 20, 1834. Will the Lord dictate the means I should employ for the recovery of my health, and then bless those means. O may I love Jesus more before I preach him again, and have a clearer and more satisfactory experience of the work of grace on my own heart, that out of the abundance of the heart, my mouth may henceforth speak to sinners. I would be careful for nothing, but in every thing by prayer, &c. Phil, iv, 6. Then I shall enjoy that peace of God, which passeth all understanding.

May 24, 1834. How I am held in bondage by the fear of death ! O that Christ would deliver me ! It was one great purpose of his death, to deliver those who, through fear of death are, all their lifetime, subject to bondage. Strange that I should be afraid and unwilling to go to my Father, to my Saviour, to my home and inheritance. Ah, it is because of unbelief. Last night I waked up with a pain in my breast, and how unduly it alarmed me—how unmanly, above all, how unchristian are my fears ! O that God would say to me, ' fear thou not, for I am with thee ; be not dismayed, for I am thy God,' — that he would speak these words to my heart. O, I needed this affliction, and I ought not to desire its removal until it has answered the purpose for which it was sent. I have been an unfaithful minister. I wonder God should have borne with me so long. Wonderful is the patience of God ! To reflect on it, will be among the employments of eternity; — to contemplate and admire the long-suffering and forbearance of God ! How slow he is to anger!

My throat affection seems not so well for the last few days. But let not this distress me. I am in the best hands — in hands divine — in the very hands that were pierced for me, and from which no foreign power can pluck me. If I die, yet dying is not going out of those hands, or if it is, it is going from the hands to the bosom of God, — a gainful and blessed exchange. Will the Lord dictate what means I shall use for recovery, and bless those means, else the most wisely adapted will be of no avail.

June 1, 1834. Again, as last Sunday, I am detained from the house of God, and it is now more than two months since I preached. The Lord has some object in this affliction. May I not defeat it. O how strange it seems to me to have no voice to preach of Jesus. Shall I never again be permitted to tell sinners of him? Will the Lord counsel me in regard to going to Norfolk to-morrow. Let thy will be done. O Lord, thou canst make me well, and thou canst make me holy; speak but the word, and I shall be whole both in body and in soul. Thou art the physician of both. Thou alone canst mend thy own work. O for the privilege of preaching the gospel again! Lord sanctify this affliction to me. Help me to cast my burden on thee, and to make the best of every thing.

June 4, 1834. I am at Norfolk for the benefit of my health. How vain are all means without God’s blessing! And what slight remedies prove successful in his hands! May he bless the retirement this visit affords me to my soul! Ah, this is what is most out of order. I ask for health, but for grave I cry. Lord, hear my cry. I cannot move along without grace. Grace I ask, to be, and do, and suffer all though have me to. If Christ has no more work for me to do, how little he lets me off with; for how very little I have done for him. I have not been laborious for my Saviour; and much that I have seemed to do for him, I have reason to fear has been done for myself. Why should I not be willing to be released from further labor, if the Lord has no more for me to do. O, why so very reluctant to depart and be with Christ. Will the Lord be my wisdom and strength to-day.

June 20, 1834. I am in New York again for my health. I bless the Lord that I seem to be getting better….

I am in quest of health. How much more important to ‘follow holiness!’ I hope I desire the latter, the rather of the two — holiness, conformity, moral conformity to God, submission to his holy will.

July 11, 1834. I must record it to the praise and glory of God, that I feel better to-day than I have felt since I was taken sick. May I increase in holiness more rapidly than in health, being strengthened in the inner as well as outer man. O that God would give me the ‘earnest of the Spirit,’ that I also may be always confident, that in being absent from the body I shall be present with the Lord. I am persuaded God will be my counsellor.

It was in November 1834 that Nevins’ wife passed away and went to be with the Lord. It was nearly twelve years to the day after their wedding when she died of cholera. Six weeks later his mother-in-law also passed away. The grief, and submission to the divine will, expressed by Nevins in his diary is profound. But to keep with the particular theme of this post, we pass over this tremendous loss and resume our extracts, this time from a letter dated June 21, 1834:

Health is a precious blessing, but it is not the blessing of greatest price. Holiness is the inestimable pearl. What a wonderful book the Bible always is, but especially sometimes. How it speaks to the heart! It seems to be all alive!

After a partial recovery in the summer of 1834, Nevins’ health deteriorated especially after his wife’s death. In the spring of 1835, doctors sent him to Saint Croix in the West Indies (at that time owned by Denmark, now a part of the U.S. Virgin Islands) in hopes that the climate would benefit him. However, his body was in a long, slow decline from which he would not recover.

In September 1835, having returned to Baltimore, he made a substantial donation to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. He told a friend, “There are one hundred dollars for the Board. It is, I suppose, the last donation I shall ever make to the cause of Christ. If you see any suitable way of saying it, I would like to have it known that the nearer I get to heaven, the dearer is the cause of missions to my heart.”

He died on September 14, 1835. His last words were: “Death — death, now, come Lord Jesus — dear Saviour.”

William and Martha Nevins are buried together at Westminster Burial Ground in Baltimore, Maryland.

William and Martha Nevins are buried together at Westminster Burial Ground in Baltimore, Maryland.

Most of his written legacy was published after his death, and his writings are indeed a treasure, some of which are still in print today, particularly, his Practical Thoughts and Thoughts on Popery. Read more about the man and his writings here, and consider his words — that health is a precious blessing, but holiness is an inestimable pearl.

These concluding thoughts come from an 1832 sermon which Nevins preached to his congregation in Baltimore while the cholera epidemic was raging.

There is a great deal of dying now. And it is apprehended by many that there will be more. Death is abroad. The insatiate archer has got a new arrow in his quiver, severer and sharper than any of the rest. A new terror clothes the brow of the king of terrors. The aged are sickening and dying, nor are the young men and maidens exempt. And it is appointed to us to die. We shall be sorry to part with any of you; but if you must go, we cannot feel indifferent as to how and where you go. There is a direction we would have you take, and a conveyance we would have you employ. If you must leave earth, let it be for heaven. If you must go, go by the safe way and regard your company. There is but one safe way into eternity. There is only one rod and one staff that can comfort in death. It is not morality, nor philosophy, nor the poetry of Christianity. And there is but one companion of the way, who can give the charm of society to death. You know his name. It is Jesus. Oh, that you did but trust in him! Oh, if you only loved him! Oh, would you but obey him! Oh, that you were not ashamed of him! Into his hands I am willing to resign you.

Alexander Proudfit on our national danger and duty

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In the midst of great national tribulation — in the form of fire, drought, crop failure, and an epidemic of influenza, as well as disunity and discord both in church and state — Associate Reformed minister Alexander Moncrief Proudfit preached two sermons on the day appointed by his presbytery (November 30, 1808) for “fasting, humiliation, and prayer.” The first, titled “Our Danger,” was based on Jer. 5:29: “Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this.” The second, “Our Duty,” was based on Amos 4:12: “And because I will do this unto thee; prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.”

Proudfit, Alexander, Our Danger and Duty Title Page cropped.jpg

Proudfit begins by stating the case:

This day was set apart for the solemn exercises of fasting, humiliation and prayer on account of the alarming aspect of providence to our country. We are not called merely to deprecate that wrath which apparently hangs over our nation; they are greatly mistaken who imagine that this should be our only, or even our principal exercise: we ought to be deeply impressed that our national offences are the cause of our national calamities; we ought impartially to examine what transgression on our part has kindled this hot displeasure; to acknowledge the righteousness of Jehovah in all the judgments with which we are threatened; to improve by faith the atonement of his Eternal Son as the only mean of our reconciliation; to return to him in the exercise of unfeigned repentance, and then earnestly to plead with an offended God that in the midst of wrath he would remember mercy.

As Erasmus Darwin McMaster also said four decades later in the midst of an 1849 cholera epidemic, Proudfit argues that “our national offences are the cause of our national calamities.” And as McMaster pointed to the sin of omission found in our national constitution (failure to acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as the true King of the nation), so Proudfit points to a Biblical duty (Ex. 18:21; 2 Sam. 23:2-4) to elect only God-fearing civil rulers, although our national constitution prohibits any such religious test for public office (Art. 6, Clause 3).

There is another evidence of public corruption which I dare not pass over unnoticed: I mean the obvious prostitution of the right of suffrage. In our free government the choice of all rulers either immediately or remotely depends on the people. This right of electing our own representation is the great privilege for which our fathers fought, and which is bequeathed to us, sealed with the blood of thousands; this is a privilege for which many of you fought, and for the purchase of which some of you bled: It is the full enjoyment of this right which distinguishes the citizen from the subject; which exalts the freeman in one country above the abject insulted, degraded slave in another country: But is not this right criminally prostituted among us? What is the primary qualification which is ordinarily fought in the candidate for public office? Do we attend to the admonition prescribed by Eternal truth, He that RULETH over men must be JUST, RULING in the FEAR of Jehovah? Have we pursued the maxim delivered by the wisest of men, and the most magnificent, prosperous of Princes, RIGHTEOUSNESS EXALTETH A NATION, and offered our suffrages for those who in private life were patterns of righteousness, and as rulers would probably use their influence for promoting it among others? Have we not more generally enquired, “where is the decided, ardent partisan; the man who will most zealously adhere to that political section to which we belong,” without regard to moral, or religious, or even intellectual qualifications? In the warmth of party-spirit have we not contributed to the advancement of those who were the known enemies of religion, and have allowed themselves in falsely slandering its ministers? On this day of humiliation as the messenger of the Lord of hosts, and as I desire to be found faithful to my trust when the storm is blackening over us, I bear my testimony against the promotion of unprincipled, immoral, impious men as a most aggravated iniquity in our land; and I believe, as firmly as I believe my existence, that without speedy and special repentance on our part, this insult to the Lord of hosts will bring wrath upon our nation, until both our ears will tingle. Has he not most solemnly forewarned us that, when righteous men are in authority the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule the land mourneth? Besides, the election of men to public office who are destitute of moral rectitude, is impolitic in the extreme, and puts in jeopardy our most important interests as citizens. Hear the sentiment of a reverend member who adorned our counsels during the struggle with Great-Britain; one in whom were united the eminent divine, the enlightened statesman, and the uncorrupted, ardent patriot. “Those who wish well to the state ought to choose to places of trust men of inward principle, justified by exemplary conversation. It is reasonable to expect wisdom from the ignorant; fidelity from the profligate; or application to public business from men of dissipated life? Is it reasonable to commit the public revenue to one who has wasted his own patrimony? Those therefore who pay no respect to religion and sobriety in those whom they send to the Legislature of any state, are guilty of the greatest absurdity, and will soon pay dear for their folly. Let a man’s zeal, professions, or even principles as to political measures be what they may, if he is without personal integrity and private virtue, he is not to be trusted. I think we have had some instances of men who have roared in taverns for liberty, and been most noisy in public meetings, who have become traitors in a little time.

The public breaking of the Sabbath is another provocation of the Lord leading to our national danger, says Proudfit.

Again, is not the holy Sabbath, that rest which is ordained for the people of God; that institution which is calculated to secure health to the body, no less than happiness to the soul; that institution which is a lively memorial of the resurrection of our crucified Lord, and furnishes a constant pledge of our own resurrection, is not this day openly prostituted without a blush, and without remorse? Is it not profaned by some in idleness and amusements; by others in unnecessary visits, and by many in the deliberate prosecution of their secular employments? Is not the peaceful worshiper often interrupted and insulted as he repairs to, or retires from the temple of his God, by the wanton transgressors of that sacred institution? And does it not render our guilt more aggravated, and expose us to severer vengeance, that this profanation of the Sabbath is permitted in part by public authority? Our Legislature has explicitly provided that no man “removing his family, or household furniture” shall be detained on that day. Does not this toleration virtually make void the command of Jehovah who had enjoined, TAKE HEED TO YOURSELVES, AND BEAR NO BURDEN ON THE SABBATH DAY, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. Have we not reason to fear that the Lord God, provoked by our impiety, will execute upon us the vengeance denounced against the nation of Israel, I will draw out a sword after you, and make your cities waste. Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths as long as it lieth desolate, and ye shall be in your enemies country; even then shall the land rest and enjoy her Sabbaths.

For these and other corporate sins which are enumerated, Proudfit attributes the visitation of God in widespread appearances of the pestilence, and other scourges upon the land.

Has not a Holy God often plead his controversy with our land by a fearful pestilence? Receiving its commission from on high, has not this scourge gone abroad through our country, and visited in their turn our cities from the northern to the southern extremities of the union? In its hostile career has it not desolated for a season the sanctuaries of God; driven from their abodes thousands of our citizens, and mingled in sudden promiscuous ruin the babe, the youth and the hoary head?

The warning of impending national judgment comes from both the word and providence of God, says Proudfit.

The great God warns the wicked by his word, raising up messenger after messenger; by his providence, inflicting lesser judgments as a mean of reclaiming and saving them from more awful visitations. He thus proves to the satisfaction of every rational spectator, that he is merciful, and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth; that he has no pleasure in temporal destruction of nations, or in the everlasting ruin of individuals, but would rather that both should repent, and return and live. 

And thus, he chose the Amos text in order to prepare his hearers to “meet” God in the way of his visitations by personal and corporate repentance and reformation.

Where is there any evidence that either our mercies or our judgments have proved effectual for reclaiming or reforming us? Are the living oracles more generally read, or more deeply revered? Is the sanctuary attended now by those who formerly lived in the neglect of its ordinances? Are the praises of God resounding now in houses, where that celestial melody was formerly unheard? Is the holy Sabbath more conscientiously sanctified through our land, or does the power of Godliness shine more illustrious in the lives of those who possess the form? Is the charge of pride, extravagance, injustice between man and man, and ingratitude to the God of our mercies less applicable now than in years that are past? Nay, has not the tide of our impiety and profligacy risen with the tide of our prosperity, and when the divine hand has been stretched out for our correction we have not seen it, neither have we trembled under these displays of the majesty of Jehovah. Is such the fact, beloved brethren, then I cannot address you in language more appropriate than the admonition of the prophet to his nation, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.

God is slow to anger and rich in mercy, says Proudfit, and therefore delights in the repentance of sinful men and nations.

The dealings of a sovereign God toward individuals and nations obviously correspond. He spares the particular person notwithstanding numerous provocations; he affords him the means of repentance, and the offers of life; he alternately alarms and allures; he tries him now with mercies, then with judgments, before he gives commission to cut him off as utterly incorrigible: And such also is his conduct toward nations in general. He admonishes them for their impiety; he forewarns them now by his messengers, again by the movements of his providence of calamities that are approaching; he executes one threatening as a mean of awakening them to repentance, and saving them from other and severer scourges: He thus entreated with the old world one hundred and twenty years by the ministry of Noah; he thus reproved the cities of the plain by Lot as his messenger, before it turned them into ashes, making them public monuments of his vengeance. With what long-suffering did he expostulate with the nation of the Jews before he finally marked them out as the people of his wrath? How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboim? My heart is turned within me: my repenting are kindled together. And upon their partial reformation in the days of Samuel, of Asa, of Josiah he immediately suspended the execution of his judgments, and wrought salvation in their behalf.

For Proudfit, our duty as a people is clear. From danger incurred by our sinful ways, the only remedy is to return to the Lord by means of repentance and reformation, and to make him our refuge in times of calamity.

All should prepare for this event, by fleeing without delay to Jesus-Jehovah as their city of refuge. He is a hiding place from every storm, and a covert from the tempest…We ought to prepare for meeting our God by awakening to greater diligence in the discharge of every duty, and abounding more eminently in the work of the Lord. When the tumult of war is heard, and the enemy appears in view, the prudent soldier instantly arises; he collects his armor; he fastens every part of it in its proper place; he arranges himself in order for battle, and thus stands ready every moment for the arduous onset: When a storm is expected on the ocean; when the clouds collect and blacken; when the distant thunder is heard and the lightnings begin to blaze around, the vigilant mariner takes the alarm, and makes the requisite preparation. Such should be the christian’s conduct when the judgments of Almighty God are commissioned to pass through a nation. Of whatever kind the calamity be, whether war or famine, or pestilence; on whatever that he esteems precious the assault may be made, whether on his liberty, or religion, or life, he should aim at standing prepared; at shaking off his spiritual sloth; at having his lamp carefully trimmed and replenished with oil, from Jesus Jehovah the anointed one, burning with the purest flame; he ought to become more fervent in prayer; more edifying in his conversation; more sincere in repentance for his own iniquities, and the iniquities of the nation with which he is connected; more abundant in all the duties which are incumbent upon him as a man and a Christian. This is the best possible preparation for all the calamities of life. To all such the Lord God will become a little sanctuary when the sword of his vengeance is drawn, and his wrath consumes a guilty land. The angel spreads his pavilion around the pious Lot, when the cities of the plain are turned into ashes; the houses of the Israelites were passed over without injury, when the first born was slain in every family of the Egyptians, and the minister of justice never disclosed his commission against Jerusalem, until a mark was set upon the forehead of the men that sighed and cried for all the abominations that were done in the midst of the land. The providence of God has even miraculously interposed for the protection of his faithful followers; he has proved a wall of fire around the individual, the families, the settlements that have cleaved to him in the hour of general apostacy.

Proudfit’s concluding remarks are in fact a prayer that echoes today:

O Lord, thou sittest upon the floods, thou sittest king forever, look with a compassionate eye, on our guilty miserable world, and shorten these days of calamity; proclaim to every scourge that has desolated our earth, it is enough, stay thine hand; may the thunder of war expire; may the sword of slaughter return to its scabbard, no more to be bathed in the blood of man; let not nation any longer rise up as the destroyer of nation, but may the peaceful banner of Messiah wave in triumph around the globe; hasten the period when creation shall become one sanctuary, and men of all kindreds one assembly, in doing homage to the God of Israel. Amen, even so come LORD JESUS.

Samuel Miller and the Yellow Fever

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In keeping with a recent theme of exploring pastoral responses to epidemics centuries ago, which includes examples by men such as Ashbel Green, George Dodd Armstrong, Benjamin Morgan Palmer, E.D. McMaster, Francis J. Grimké, and William Marshall, we turn now to the story of Samuel Miller and his experience with the yellow fever in New York City.

In March 1798, from the nation’s capital (Philadelphia), U.S. President John Adams issued a proclamation declaring May 9th of that year to be a national day of “solemn humiliation, fasting and prayer.” An outbreak of the dreaded yellow fever had again struck Philadelphia, and New York City as well, and the need for fasting and prayer was widely recognized. On the appointed day, among those who delivered sermons was Ashbel Green in Philadelphia (Obedience to the Laws of God, the Sure and Indispensable Defence of Nations - not yet available to read at Log College Press) and Samuel Miller in New York (A Sermon Delivered May 9, 1798, Recommended by the President of the United States to be observed as a Day of General Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer). Miller affirms in his sermon that:

TO notice the dispensations of Providence, to examine their connexion, and to trace, as far as possible, their design, are among the most important duties of man. Through the medium of these dispensations God exhibits his own glories and our duty to us; and, of course, to neglect them is to incur the character and the guilt of those who do not regard his work, neither consider the operations of his hands.

Miller did indeed notice the events connected with the outbreak in his city as shown in the journal he wrote on his birthday later that year.

October 31, 1798. Never have I had more occasion to bless God for the return of my birth-day than now. I have just passed through the most awful scene of epidemic sickness and mortality that I ever witnessed. The Yellow Fever has been raging in the city for more than two months past. From the middle to the 25th of this month was the most mortal time. Though the city was deserted by, perhaps, two-thirds of its regular inhabitants, more than two thousand persons fell victim to the disease. I remained with a brother — a beloved brother — a practitioner of medicine — a bachelor as well as myself. We were both mercifully borne through the raging epidemic without any serious attack. Our housekeeper died of it, and I attended her funeral between midnight and day. To attempt to describe the scenes of mourning and horror which this epidemic presented — I dare it. The task transcends my power of expression. I preached every Sabbath; but only a few attended public worship; and I know not that any sensible — certainly no conspicuous — good was done (Samuel Miller, Jr., The Life of Samuel Miller, D.D. LL.D., Vol. 1, p. 118).

The following year, Miller was in a position to preach a sermon of thanksgiving: A Sermon, Delivered February 5, 1999; Recommended by the Clergy of the City of New-York, to be Observed as a Day of Thanksgiving, Humiliation, and Prayer, on Account of the Removal of a Malignant and Mortal Disease, Which Had Prevailed in the City Some Time Before. In this sermon, Miller called for joy at the relief New York had begun to experience as the horrors of the epidemic were abated to be tempered with trembling (Ps. 2:11). The voice of the rod had spoken, calling many to repentance, but now people were called upon to refrain from careless security, and forgetfulness of the awfulness of what had just transpired. They were called to give renewed appreciation and thankfulness to the mercy of God. Miller gave a detailed account of the number of deaths, including churches affected. Of the more than 2,000 fatalities which he noted, almost two hundred members from his own United Presbyterian Church alone were taken during the recent plague from August to November 1798. He notes the wisdom of many who left New York for safety.

It is pleasing to find, that the scruples which were formerly prevalent and strong, against flying from pestilence, are now entertained by few. There seems to be no good reason why those who consider it sinful to retire from a place under this calamity, should not have the same objection to flying from famine, from the ravages of fire, or from war, which are equally judgments of God. And yet those who reprobate the former, never think of condemning the latter. In fact, if it be criminal to retire from a city in which the plague rages, it must be equally criminal to send for a Physician, or to take medicines in any sickness; for they are both using means to avert danger to which the Providence of God has exposed us [Jer. 21:6-9]. It is hoped, therefore, if Providence should call us to sustain a similar stroke of affliction in future, there will be a more general agreement than ever, in the propriety of immediate removal; and that all will escape without delay, who are not bound to the scene of danger, by special and indispensible ties. Had all the inhabitants of New-York remained in the city, during the late epidemic, probably four or five times the present number, on the lowest computation, would have been added to the list of its victims. As every diseased individual or family adds force to the malignity of the atmosphere, it appears that the most benevolent principles conspire with the selfish, in prescribing immediate and general flight.

Miller’s son notes in his biography:

The city had, in 1798, somewhere about fifty thousand inhabitants. At least half of these fled from the scene of pestilence. Of the twenty-five thousand left, more than two thousand were swept into the grave between the 1st of August and the 10th of November. From the two Collegiate churches one hundred and eighty-six persons died, and Mr. Miller was himself twice slightly affected with the disease.

As Miller concluded his message, he called for his hearers to make good use of the affliction sent by God in His providence:

I cannot, however, dismiss the subject, without seriously asking, each individual in this audience, how they have profited by the solemn dispensation of Providence which they have lately passed through? Brethren, have you been led by this affliction to consider your ways; or has it left you more hardened? Have you been brought by it to repentance, love, and new obedience; or has it made you more secure, careless, and deaf to the voice of heaven? Have you come out of the furnace purified and refined; or more full of dross and corruption than before? Did none of you make vows and resolutions in the day of adversity? And are these vows remembered and fulfilled, or disregarded and forgotten? Have you turned from your evil way, and put away the accursed thing from the midst of you; or is all that guilt which drew down the judgments of God, still resting in its dreadful weight upon you? My hearers, these are not vain questions, they are even your life. Let me entreat you to answer them without partiality and without evasion; for they will be speedily asked before a tribunal where all things will be naked and open before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

When I look round this populous city, which was, a few weeks since, clothed in mourning, and contemplate the criminal dissipation, and the various forms of wickedness, which have so soon taken the place of those gloomy scenes, I am constrained, with anxious dread, to ask — Shall not God be avenged on such a people as this? Shall he not send greater judgments, and yet greater, in an awful succession, until we either be made to hear his voice, or be utterly consumed before him? Do not hastily imagine, from this strain of address, that because we have been lately afflicted, it would be my wish to see every innocent amusement discarded, and the gloom and sadness of the pestilential season, still remaining upon every face. By no means. To lighten the cares, and to dispel the sorrows of life, indulging in occasional and innocent amusements is at once our privilege and our duty. But do we see no other than innocent amusements prevailing around us? Are the lewdness, the blasphemy, the gaming, the unprincipled speculation, the contempt of Christian duties, and the violation of the Christian Sabbath, so mournfully prevalent in our city and land — are these innocent? Then were the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah innocent. Then are the impious orgies of infernal spirits harmless in the sight of God.

Upon each of us, then, as individuals, there is a task incumbent — the task of personal reformation and personal holiness. If it be true that one sinner destroyeth much good; it is equally true, that the fervent prayer, and the exemplary virtue of a righteous man avail much. Remember that if there had been ten righteous persons in Sodom, God would have spared the city for their sake. On the same principle, be assured, that every righteous person in a community adds to its security, and renders it less probable that Jehovah will visit it with consuming judgment. Let those who are strangers to religion, therefore, be entreated, if they regard their own welfare or that of their country, to return to God with penitence and love through Jesus Christ, and to walk before him in newness of life. Sinners! every hour that you continue impenitent, you not only endanger your own souls, but you add to the guilt of the community of which you are members. Awake from your fatal dream! Behold, now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation! To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. And let the people of God be persuaded, in these solemn times, to grow more watchful, diligent and holy. Christians! You are the salt of the earth. The importance of your example and of your prayers is beyond calculation. If there be any who have an interest at the throne of grace, and who are encouraged to repair to it with an humble boldness, it is YOU. If there be any who are under special obligation to rouse from their lethargy, and to profit by the late awful dispensation, it is YOU. Let the present season, then, form a new era in your spiritual life. Be sober and watch unto prayer. Sigh and mourn for all the abominations that are done in the land. For Zion’s sake do not be quiet, until the righteousness go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.

It was several decades later that Miller’s sermons on The Duty, the Benefits, and the Proper Method of Religious Fasting (1831) were published. They contain his mature thought on the duty to join prayer and fasting, with repentance, especially in times of public calamity. These sermons have been reprinted by various publishers over the years, and they continue to testify to a duty to which God’s people are called in their proper season (see the Westminster Larger Catechism #108 on the duties required by the second commandment). According to Miller, Christians and indeed all human beings, have a duty to give heed to the voice of God in his providential mercies and afflictions, and to answer that call appropriately, by repentance, fasting, thankfulness and renewed personal reformation and holiness. The experience and teaching of Samuel Miller has great value today in the midst of such providential dealings of the Lord in the United States and the world. Read Miller’s writings on these matters both on his page, and in the biography written of him by his son, Samuel Miller, Jr.

HT: Ryan Bever

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.

S.J. Cassels: Our frail tabernacles should make us value that Good Land

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In the months before Presbyterian minister and poet Samuel Jones Cassels passed away in Savannah, Georgia at the age of 47, probably of tuberculosis, he was very busy with his pen, writing a number of articles for the Southern Presbyterian Review, including one which was published posthumously.

The editors of SPR published a bit of his correspondence after his death which tells us something of the sufferings of this saint, and his longing for heaven. In a letter dated April 20, 1853, Cassels wrote:

Rev. and Dear Brother, — I am gratified that there is prospect of having another article published. Not that I desire to appear so often before the public, but because I am so shut out of life by infirmity. Ah, my Brother, few know my daily sufferings. As the Apostle said, “I die daily." The pen is the almost only means of a little diversion from bodily pain. Whenever I can be so absorbed in thought as to forget the body, I have ease, sometimes exhilaration. But, for the most part, I only struggle and struggle with the decays of my frail tabernacle. But I should not thus speak, lest I seem to murmur, — for I can feebly testify, that in all my afflictions, no good word of God has failed. For the past week, I have been much afflicted; and yesterday, — fell sick, and is very sick to-day. Oh, how such things should make us value that good Land, where thorns and thistles grow not, tears are not shed, and sin has no existence!

You will find the article hastily written , and of course disfigured by bad-spelling , bad punctuation, and bad grammar, it may be. — Anything of this kind you may see, please correct, as if it were your own. I have had to erase much for the same reason. Please see that the proofs are correct.

Yours in the Gospel, and in the hope of a blessed immortality.

S.J. Cassels

On June 15, 1853, Cassels entered into that Good Land, and all his bodily sufferings came to an end. No more thorns and thistles! Only blessed peace and immortality in the presence of his beloved Savior.

William Marshall on an age-old question: "Should I stay or should I go?"

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In recent weeks, we have written of pastoral responses to epidemics centuries ago, including examples by men such as Ashbel Green, George Dodd Armstrong, Benjamin Morgan Palmer, E.D. McMaster, and Francis J. Grimké. In today’s post, we look at William Marshall, an Associate Presbyterian minister, who, like Ashbel Green, faced the question of what to do in response to the yellow fever which raged in Philadelphia during the late 18th century.

James B. Scouller, in his Manual of the United Presbyterian Church of North America, p. 486, writes of Marshall:

When the yellow fever was in Philadelphia he wrote a “Theological Tract on the Propriety of removing from places where the yellow fever prevails.” As he was leaving the city at this time, because of the yellow fever, a friend on the other side of the street accosted him, saying: “The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.” He immediately replied: “A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished.”

The tract spoken of here is available to be read at Log College Press. In it, Marshall begins by stating what the question is not:

  • it is not “Whether we can fly from God?” - God is omnipresent;

  • it is not “Whether the pestilential fever be a judgment from God?” - Scripture declares large-scale pestilence to be a scourge or judgment of the Lord; and

  • it is not “What is the duty of every individual, where the pestilence rages?” - acknowledging the general normal duty to assemble for public worship, Marshall says, quoting Thomas Boston, “That what God forbids is at no time to be done; what he commands is always duty, and yet every particular duty is not to be done at all times.”

The question Marshall aims to answer is this: “What is the duty of those who live in a place where the pestilence is spreading? Should they not remove to a more healthy situation if it is in their power?” This Marshall answers in the affirmative, for several reasons, particularly on the basis of the Sixth Commandment, which requires that we engage in “all lawful endeavours to preserve our own life, and the life of others.”

After providing his reasons in favor of people “removing” from a city afflicted by the plague for safety reasons — the title page of Marshall’s treatise cites Jeremiah 38:2: “He that remaineth in the city shall die — by the pestilence: but he that goeth forth — shall live” — he responds to five objections to this position.

Marshall concludes his essay with an encouragement to trust in the Lord but not to run rashly with presumption into danger. Read the full work — titled A Theological Dissertation, on the Propriety of Removing From the Seat of the Pestilence: Presented to the Perusal of the Serious Inhabitants of Philadelphia and New-York (1799) — here and consider how one leading 18th century Presbyterian in response to a yellow fever epidemic answered the question, “Should I stay or should I go?”

Reflections by Francis J. Grimké on the 1918 "Spanish Flu"

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Between October 1, 1918 and February 1, 1919, over 33,000 residents of Washington, D.C. contracted what was known as the “Spanish Flu” — 2,895 citizens of the city passed away during that time period. It was a devastating time for the city as well as the rest of the world, leading officials to ban, among other things, all church services in Washington, D.C. for the month of October 1918.

When the ban on such public gatherings was lifted, Francis J. Grimké, pastor of the Fifteenth Presbyterian Church, delivered a discourse on November 3, 1918 in which he offered his thoughts about the situation, which was published soon after under the title Some Reflections, Growing Out of the Recent Epidemic of Influenza That Afflicted Our City: A Discourse.

There were several takeaways for Grimké that may well serve Christians a century later to consider as well. To begin with, it is good to be reminded of the power of God.

I have been impressed with the ease with which large portions of the population may be wiped out in spite of the skill of man, of all the resources of science. Suddenly this epidemic came upon our city and country, and though every physician has been employed and every available nurse has been at work day and night, thousands have died, the awful death toll continued. Through all history we find populations thinned out in this way, not in ordinary, but in extraordinary ways. One night in Egypt death found its way into every Egyptian home. In Numbers 16:49, we read of a plague that broke out among the people in which 14,700 perished. In 2 Samuel 24:15, we also read of another plague that broke out in the reign of David in which, during three days, 70,000 perished. Thousands also have perished suddenly as the result of volcanic eruptions or earthquake shocks. How easy it would be for God to wipe out the whole human race, in this way, if he wanted to; for these terrible epidemics, plagues, the mighty forces of nature, all are at His command, are all His agents. At any moment, if He willed it, in this way, vast populations or portions of populations could be destroyed.

Grimké also wondered to himself, Why is it that the pestilence was fatal for some while others recovered?

The reason may be found, in one sense, in purely natural causes— some were physically better prepared to resist the disease, were stronger in vital power, and so pulled through. Others, not having sufficient vitality, went down under the strain; but I believe there is also another reason, and is to be found in the will of God. For some, the time of their departure had come, the limit of their earthly existence had been reached, and this was God's way of removing them out of this world into the next. Some day we have all got to go, but how, or when, or where, we do not know; that is with God alone.

In Grimké’s words, “We speak of accidental deaths, at times, but there are no accidents with God. All things are within the scope of His providence.” He continued to wonder, though, “Why are some taken with the disease and others not?” In meditating on the promise of preservation from illness in Psalm 91, Grimké acknowledged with humility that he didn’t know the secret will of God, but he did trust in the sovereign will of God.

He went on to address the problem of restricted civil liberties during the ban.

Another thing that has impressed me, in connection with this epidemic, is the fact that conditions may arise in a community which justify the extraordinary exercise of powers that would not be tolerated under ordinary circumstances. This extraordinary exercise of power was resorted to by the Commissioners in closing up the theaters, schools, churches, in forbidding all gatherings of any considerable number of people indoors and outdoors, and in restricting the numbers who should be present even at funerals. The ground of the exercise of this extraordinary power was found in the imperative duty of the officials to safeguard, as far as possible, the health of the community by preventing the spread of the disease from which we were suffering. There has been considerable grumbling, I know, on the part of some, particularly in regard to the closing of the churches. It seems to me, however, in a matter like this it is always wise to submit to such restrictions for the time being. If, as a matter of fact, it was dangerous to meet in theaters and in the schools, it certainly was no less dangerous to meet in churches. The fact that the churches were places of religious gathering, and the others not, would not affect in the least the health question involved. If avoiding crowds lessens the danger of being infected, it was wise to take the precaution and not needlessly run in danger, and expect God to protect us. And so, anxious as I have been to resume work, I have waited patiently until the order was lifted. I started to worry at first, as it seemed to upset all of our plans for the fall work; but I soon recovered my composure. I said to myself, Why worry? God knows what He is doing. His work isn’t going to suffer. It will rather be a help to it in the end. Out of it, I believe, great good is coming. All the churches, as well as the community at large, are going to be the stronger and better for this season of distress through which we have been passing.

Grimké was also led to reflect on the color-blind nature of the illness which swept his city and the world. It made no difference to the “Spanish Flu” whether those afflicted were white, black or brown; rich or poor; or in what class of society or locale they resided. All residents of Washington, indeed all human beings, were equally at risk of this disease - a fact which Grimké hoped would help those in power to see the foolishness of racial prejudice, or “colorphobia.”

Under such circumstances of what avail is the color of a man's skin, or his race identity? What does the lightning, the thunderbolt, the burning lava, the sea, care about color or race? White and black alike are dealt with indiscriminately; the one is smitten as readily as the other; the one is swallowed up as readily as the other. And that is the lesson which God is teaching everywhere through the operation of natural laws. And it is the great lesson which He also teaches in His inspired word; and which Jesus Christ, who said, "I am the light of the world. He that followeth after Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life," sought constantly to emphasize both by [precept] and example.

Grimké reminds us that we are called to love our neighbor as ourselves, no matter what may be a person’s skin color or background. Are we not all made in the image of God? This is the commandment of Christ, and we are to follow Christ’s own example.

Further, Grimké reflected on the importance of the church to the community at large. It was indeed a hardship for churches to be closed for a season.

The fact that for several weeks we have been shut out from the privileges of the sanctuary has brought home to us as never before what the church has really meant to us. We hadn't thought, perhaps, very much of the privilege while it lasted, but the moment it was taken away we saw at once how much it meant to us. One of the gratifying things to me, during this scourge, has been the sincere regrets that I have heard expressed all over the city by numbers of people at the closing of the churches. The theater goers, of course, have regretted the closing of the theaters. I do not know whether the children or the teachers have regretted the closing of the schools or not; I have heard no regrets expressed, but I do know that large numbers of people have regretted the closing of the churches. I hope that now that they are opened again, that we will all show our appreciation of their value by attending regularly upon their services. It would be a great calamity to any community to be without the public ministrations of the sanctuary. There is no single influence in a community that counts for more than the Christian church. It is one of the institutions, particularly, that ought to be strongly supported; that ought to be largely attended, and that ought to have the hearty endorsement and well-wishes of every right thinking man and woman within it. It is a great mistake for any one to stand aloof from the Christian church. Everybody in the community ought to have a church home, and ought to be found in that church home Sabbath after Sabbath.

Another profound consideration that Grimké raised is the importance of keeping eternal matters before our minds.

There is another thing connected with this epidemic that is also worthy of note. While it lasted, it kept the thought of death and of eternity constantly before the people. As the papers came out, day after day, among the first things that every one looked for, or asked about, was as to the number of deaths. And so the thought of death was never allowed to stay very long out of the consciousness of the living. And with the thought of death, the great thought also of eternity, for it is through death that the gates of eternity swing open. We don't as a general thing think very much about either death or eternity. They are not pleasant things to think about, and so we avoid thinking of them as much as possible. It is only when we are forced to that we give them any consideration, and even then only for the moment. They are both subjects of vital importance, however, involving the most momentous consequences. For after death is always the judgment. The grim messenger is God's summons to us to render up our account. That there is an account to be rendered up we are inclined to lose sight of, to forget; but it is to be rendered all the same. The books are to be opened, and we are to be judged out of the books. During the weeks of this epidemic — in the long list of deaths, in the large number of new-made graves, in the unusual number of funeral processions along our streets, God has been reminding us of this account which we must soon render up; He has been projecting before us in away to startle us, the thought of eternity.

Thus, Grimké implored all, especially those outside the household of faith, to weigh carefully the question of eternal life, and to seek the Lord while He may yet be found. In the midst of death, there is true and eternal life in Jesus Christ. And this true life gives great peace.

There is only one other thought that has come tome in connection with this epidemic; it is of the blessedness of religion, of the sense of security which a true, living, working faith in the Lord Jesus Christ gives one in the midst of life's perils. I felt, as doubtless you all felt, who are Christians, the blessedness of a firm grip upon Jesus Christ — the blessedness of a realizing sense of being anchored in God and in His precious promises. While the plague was raging, while thousands were dying, what a comfort it was to feel that we were in the hands of a loving Father who was looking out for us, who had given us the great assurance that all things should work together for our good. And, therefore, that come what would — whether we were smitten with the epidemic or not, or whether being smitten, we survived or perished, we knew it would be well with us, that there was no reason to be alarmed. Even if death came, we knew it was all right. The apostle says, "It is gain for me to die." Death had no terrors for him. He says, The hour of my departure is at hand: I .have fought the good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of glory which the Lord the righteous judge shall give at that day. And not to me only but to all them that love His appearing. And it was this same apostle who flung in the face of death the defiance, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory?" The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law; but thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

In the presence of such a faith, in the realization of God's love, as revealed in Jesus Christ, in the consciousness of fellowship with him, what are epidemics, what are scourges, what are all of life's trials, sufferings, disappointments? They only tend to work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. But, of course, if faith is to help us; if it is to put its great strong arms under us; if we are to feel its sustaining power under such distressing circumstances, it must be a real, living faith in God — it must be the genuine article — a faith that works, that works by love, and that purifies the heart. Any other faith is of absolutely no value to us in the midst of the great crises of life. And I said to myself while the epidemic was on, and while I was examining my own heart to see how far my religion was helping me to be calm, self-possessed. It is a good time for those of us who are Christians to examine ourselves to see exactly how it is with us, whether the foundation upon which we are building is a rock foundation — whether our faith is really resting upon Christ, the solid Rock, or not. And I still feel that one important function of this epidemic will be lost if it fails to have that effect upon us, if it does not lead to careful heart-searching on our part.

These reflections by Francis J. Grimké may well speak to our hearts a century after they were delivered. Pestilence is not new, and every generation must confront challenges to their faith, as well as their very lives and well-being. But our God changes not, and the lessons shared by Grimké in the midst of one epidemic are lessons that we who are in the midst of another do well to prayerfully consider.

When the plague comes - pastoral compassion in centuries past

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Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:…I was sick, and ye visited me:… (Matthew 25:34-36)

As cases of Coronavirus appear in China and the epidemic begins to spread around the world, concerns arise about not only physical health but also how to minister to those in need. It is an age-old question. Ministers have often asked themselves whether it is better to flee to safety or risk exposure to contagion for the spiritual well-being of those who are suffering.

There have been many plagues, many epidemics in human history, and there are many stories of compassion to the suffering. The 1665-1666 Great (bubonic) Plague of London, which killed an estimated 100,000 people in a period of 18 months, is one striking example. The event which inspired English Presbyterian Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year (1722) also inspired the ministry of English Presbyterian Thomas Vincent, highlighted in the 1993 play by Anthony Clarvoe The Living, in which Vincent was a main character and his compassion for the sick, with whom he stayed at great risk to himself (seven members of his own household died during the epidemic). Vincent later wrote God’s Terrible Voice in the City (1667), as a call for men to turn to God in repentance. Vincent’s The True Christian’s Love to the Unseen Christ (1677) also contains a description of the plague and his ministry during the pestilence. It was for the love of Christ and Christ’s flock that he stayed during the plague ministered to those in need.

I Preach'd, as never sure to Preach again,
And as a dying man to dying Men! — Richard Baxter, Poetical Fragments Heart-Imployment with God and it Self

Jonathan Edwards, among his first acts as President of the College of New Jersey (Princeton), preached a New Year’s Sermon in 1758 on Jer. 28:16 ("This year thou shalt die"), while Princeton, New Jersey was in the midst of a smallpox epidemic. He later received an inoculation, which led to his death two months later. (His predecessor, Aaron Burr, Sr., and successor, Samuel Davies, and his own son, Jonathan Edwards, Jr. all preached on the same text in the same year in which they died.)

…time ought to be esteemed by us very precious, because we are uncertain of its continuance. We know that it is very short, but we know not how short. — Jonathan Edwards, “The Preciousness of Time and the Importance of Redeeming It”

Ashbel Green, who wrote the heartfelt A Pastoral Letter, From a Minister in the Country, To Those of His Flock of Who Remained in the City of Philadelphia During the Pestilence of 1798 (1799), encouraged his flock during a yellow fever epidemic not to assemble for public worship. He lost a dear friend to the disease, John Blair Smith, in 1799, and his concern was to protect his flock as a shepherd. The pestilence visited Philadelphia several times while he ministered there and in surrounding parts. His diary entry for November 6, 1802, records this joyful note: “Thanks to God who has preserved us all from the pestilence, shown us many favours, and returned us again to our home. O let us live to his praise; I hope this day I have had some freedom at the throne of grace.”

If ever I preached with fervour, like a dying man to a dying man, it was during the time of this calamity. — Ashbel Green’s autobiography, p. 280

George Dodd Armstrong, author of The Summer of the Pestilence: A History of the Ravages of the Yellow Fever in Norfolk, Virginia (1856), made the decision to stay and serve his suffering flock during the 1855 epidemic. Barry Waugh writes:

The first cases of yellow fever occurred about mid July 1855 in Portsmouth and the source of the contagion was believed to be a steamer from the island of St. Thomas. The citizens of Norfolk were concerned that the fever would be transmitted across the Elizabeth River to infect its citizens. Their fears were confirmed in short order when cases were diagnosed in Norfolk. As the severity of the epidemic in both cities unfolded, Rev. Armstrong struggled with whether or not a minister should remain in the city or flee with the others seeking safety. He decided to stay with his family and he would pay a price for his decision. However, his decision to stay rested upon the providence and sovereignty of God.

For myself, I can say that, in the prospect of the possible spread of the fever throughout our city, I have no anxious thought. The pestilence, when raging in its most terrible violence, and when man stands appalled before it, is yet ever under God’s control, and can claim no victims but such as are given it (p. 29).

Another pastor who confronted the challenges of a yellow fever epidemic was Benjamin Morgan Palmer in New Orleans. Douglas Kelly writes in Preachers With Power: Four Stalwarts of the South, pp. 99-100:

This central motivation of Palmer’s life [a desire “to see the healing hand of the Good Shepherd laid upon the multitudes for whom he felt responsible”] is illustrated in self-sacrificial actions during perilous circumstances in both New Orleans and Columbia. In 1858 the pestilence of yellow fever struck New Orleans, and large numbers of people left the city. While this included many pastors who abandoned their flock, Dr Palmer remained in order to visit the sick and dying, and in the words of his biographer, ‘to offer the consolation of the Gospel, and any other service which it was in his power to give…’ During that year, some 4,858 people in that city died of the fever and Palmer not only visited his own people, but others, particularly those who had no pastor. Indeed, it was his custom, while on his beneficent rounds, ministering to his own people, to enter every house on the way which displayed the sign of fever within; to make his way quietly to the sick room, utter a prayer, offer the consolation of the Gospel, and any other service which it was in his power to give, and then as quietly to leave.’

Twenty years later, in 1878, Palmer was equally faithful and active in visiting those who were once again struck down by another outbreak of yellow fever. Increasing age had not affected his activity in the least. He wrote to his sister, Mrs Edgeworth Byrd, the following report on his pastoral work at that time: ‘You will form some idea of the trial, when I state that during three months, I paid each day from thirty to fifty visits, praying at the bedside of the sick, comforting the bereaved, and burying the dead; and that, too, without intermitting the worship of the Sabbath or even the prayer meeting in the week.’ Such actions prompted a famous Jewish rabbi of New Orleans to observe, ‘It was thus that Palmer got the heart as well as the ear of New Orleans. Men could not resist one who gave himself to such ministry as this.’

In the Selected Writings of Benjamin Morgan Palmer, edited by C.N. Wilborn with selections made by Caleb Cangelosi (who suggested the very topic of today’s blog post), there is an article which he published in the Southwestern Presbyterian (April 1, 1869) titled “Never Too Late,” which gives a sample of his ministerial endeavors during the epidemic of 1867. A man on his death-bed was converted by means of the prayers and earnest supplications of Palmer thus affirming an old maxim found in Matthew Henry’s commentary: “While there is life there is hope.”

In all of these scenes of pastoral ministry, the love of Christ constrained these men to do what they could to help those in need, often at great risk to themselves. We are not all called to such circumstances, but we are all called to such love. And we are called further to pray for the suffering around the world. May these examples from history stir us up to greater compassion for the sake of Christ.