A Word From William S. White to the Theological Student on What is Most Important

May 25, 2023

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Letters written by William Spotswood White (known to history as “Stonewall Jackson’s pastor”) to his sons were first published in The Central Presbyterian, and then assembled into one volume titled The Gospel Ministry, in a Series of Letters From a Father to His Sons (1860).

In one letter to Henry Martyn White, he wrote of the importance, as a theological student training for the ministry, of — in the midst of all the needful studies and activities — cultivating and maintaining a devotional spirit. In the vein of B.B. Warfield’s later classic The Religious Life of Theological Students (1912-1913), White writes the following (pp. 26-34):

You are most in danger from a failure to cultivate a devotional spirit. A Theological Seminary, in its external arrangements — its buildings — its lecture rooms, and its recitations; the intercourse of its students in the dining hall and upon the campus, is so much like a college, that the spirit of the college is very likely to prevail. The critical study of the Bible is likely to supplant the devotional. That all the young man says and does, even his sermons and his prayers, should be subject to the criticism of his fellow students and professors, although useful and necessary, may yet become hurtful to his spirituality. Now, whatever else he neglects, he must not neglect the throne of grace. Fail in all else sooner, than in the cultivation of deep spiritual piety. Fail in this, and whatever your attainments in other respects may be, should you live to enter the ministry, comfortless and useless you will live, labour, and die. Mere intellectual endowments, leading to popular applause, more frequently entangle, bewilder, and ruin the young preacher than all other baits of the devil combined.

White goes on to add:

One has truthfully and beautifully said, that ‘prayer is the breathing forth of that grace which is first breathed into the soul by the Holy Ghost.’ Every offering then, not made in the spirit of such prayer, is destitute of the purity and fragrance of heaven; and is not only unacceptable but hateful to God; so that prayerless study, prayerless preaching and visiting are worse than useless. What does not come from God never returns to him. All our services not baptized by the Spirit, freely given in answer to prayer, will be less acceptable to God than the offerings of paganism.

Further on in this letter White elaborates on the fountain of grace that must needs (to use an older expression) fill vessels in the service of God.

Suffer me then to enlarge on a thought already suggested. When we come really near to God, he freely grants us the sweet influences of his grace — ‘all grace comes from the God of grace’ — all that begins and completes the life of God in the soul of man. The soul enlightened and warmed by a near approach to the true altar, radiates both light and heat, and thus creates an atmosphere which refreshes, beautifies, and strengthens all who breathe it. ‘The river comes originally from the ocean, and not even the range of rocky mountains can prevent its return to the ocean. So, that alone which comes from God can return to God.’ Hence we feel and exhibit just so much of heaven, as we feel and manifest of the spirit of prayer. From this source alone can come our usefulness.
Whatever else a man may have or do, he never does, he never can become the channel through which God pours his grace upon the hill of Zion, unless he lives in constant, spiritual contact with heaven. He must bring God to his people before he can lift them to heaven.
Then whatever else you neglect, fail not to study upon your knees, such expressions of the word of God as these, ‘And this is the confidence we have in him, that if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.’ ‘Whatsoever things ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them.’ ‘Ask in faith.’

Hear White as he concludes this letter:

Such a spirit of prayer is the first, the highest endowment of the ministry to which you now look forward. It is equally essential to your present condition and pursuits. Think not that this may be acquired hereafter. Just as well defer the study of Hebrew, church history, or theology. Nay, just as well, and even better, leave the Seminary at once. As is the student, so will be the preacher. An exception to this remark occasionally occurs, but there are just exceptions enough to establish the rule. Let all you now learn be baptized in a heart burning with love to Christ, and breaking with compassion for deathless souls perishing in sin. Let every day begin and end with the thought, ‘I am here, not to acquire learning with a view to win popular applause, but through God to acquire skill in winning souls to Christ.’

This valuable counsel from a father to a son, from an experienced pastor to a young theological student, highlights the need of those training for the ministry to not allow anything to dampen or extinguish the life of God in the soul of minister of Jesus Christ. The head of a minister must needs be (as they used to say) full of academic learning, but if the heart is not united to God in the sweet communion of prayer, then the vocation itself must be reconsidered. How crucial it is then for the minister who would lead his flock in spiritual service to God to himself be on his knees seeking grace to deliver the message of grace!

Theological students, pastors and others will do well to read the full collection of White’s letters on The Gospel Ministry. They serve as a wise reminder of what is of chief importance to such a noble vocation. To know more about White’s own personal piety, and the success of his ministry, be sure also to peruse Rev. William S. White, D. D., and His Times: An Autobiography (1891), edited by the recipient of some of the letters in The Gospel Ministry, Henry Martyn White, as a testimony to his beloved father and pastoral mentor.

Able and Faithful Presbyterian Ministers

May 17, 2022

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It was in trying to fulfill my responsibilities as pastor of a Presbyterian Church in the farming country of Pennsylvania that I first became interested in the question of what worship according to the Reformed tradition should be. As I tried to search out the meaning of Reformed worship, I became more and more convinced that I must travel to those lands in which the Reformation had taken place, learn the languages the Reformers spoke and search the documents they left behind. So it was that I found myself living as a foreigner in Europe for almost seven years. -- Hughes Oliphant Old, preface to "The Patristic Roots of Reformed Worship”

Most of us do well to know our primary language sufficiently to communicate with those around us. Bilingual ability is a great blessing. In keeping with the Presbyterian tradition of promoting a learned and educated ministry, ministers do well to know their primary language, plus Hebrew and Greek. Latin was the language of scholars of the past, and knowledge of same has its significant benefits today. But there are some whose linguistic abilities are so special as to be regarded as extraordinary gifts.

Among our Log College Press authors, there are many who could be highlighted as noteworthy in this area. James Robert Boyd, for example, was fluent in six languages. There are many missionaries whose fluency in native tongues led them to write grammar-dictionaries that have since served as valuable reference works. B.B. Warfield knew — besides English, Hebrew and Greek — Latin, German, French, and certainly had some familiarity with Dutch, if not more. Isidor Loewenthal, the famous missionary and Bible translator, who was born in Poland, educated at Princeton and died in India, “could preach with facility in the Pushtu, Persian, Hindustani and Arabic languages.” According to one biography, he was “a master of the classical languages of Europe as well as of Hebrew and its cognate languages Arabic and Chaldee.” Robert Dick Wilson is said to have mastered 45 languages. Many more examples could be given, but there is one particular gifted linguist which we intend to highlight especially today.

We can thank Henry C. Alexander for the detailed list which follows concerning his uncle Joseph Addison Alexander’s knowledge of languages (Henry C. Alexander, The Life of Joseph Addison Alexander, Vol. 2, pp. 862-865).

Arabic: of which he was a consummate master, from a child, and wrote with some ease, but which he could scarcely be said to speak.
Hebrew: ditto.
Latin: which he knew profoundly, from a child, and wrote and spoke.
Persian: which he knew intimately, from a child, and wrote, but did not speak.
Syriac: which he knew intimately, from a child, and perhaps wrote, but did not speak.
Chaldee: which he knew as well, or nearly as well, as he did Hebrew, and read with rapidity without a lexicon.
Greek: which he knew profoundly, from a child, and wrote, but did not attempt to speak.
Italian: which he read with the same facility he did English, and spoke.
German: which he knew profoundly, from his youth, and wrote and spoke.
Spanish: which he knew thoroughly, and probably wrote and spoke.
French: which he read, wrote and spoke with ease.
English: which he knew no less profoundly than familiarly.
Ethiopic: which he knew philologically and profoundly, and could read without difficulty.
Chinese: of which, in its innumerable details, he had but a smattering, but knew pretty well philologically.
Romaic: which he read and wrote with ease.
Portuguese: which he read with ease, but perhaps did not attempt to speak.
Danish: which he says he soon “read fluently with a dictionary,” and probably in time, without one.
Turkish; and
Sanscrit: which (soon after he acquired them) he says were “becoming quite familiar,” and doubtless became more so.
Polish: which he read with ease, though probably with the aid of the lexicon.
Malay: which he began in connection with Chinese, and probably read with a dictionary.
Coptic: which he knew philologically and, I think, profoundly, and read, though perhaps not with ease.
Swedish: which he read with ease; at least with the dictionary.
Dutch: which he read, perhaps with ease; at least with the dictionary.

He no doubt had an inkling of the nature, and a glimpse into the structure of many others, which he has not named, and knew part of the vocabulary of others.

Summary: He knew profoundly, not only philologically but linguistically, i.e., read, wrote, and spoke well —

English.
Latin.
German.
French.
(Almost certainly) Italian.
(Almost certainly) Spanish.
(Probably) Portuguese.

It is quite possible that he knew several others in this way. He knew profoundly as a philologist, and read without helps, and wrote, but did not speak — i.e., not familiarly —

Arabic.
Hebrew.
Persian.
Greek (which, however, he may have spoken a little.)
Romaic: ditto.
Chaldee: which he knew as well, or nearly as well, as he did Hebrew, and read with rapidity without a lexicon.
(Probably) Ethiopic, which he certainly read, though perhaps with difficulty.
(Probably) Dutch, which he certainly read, though perhaps not with ease.
(Possibly) Sanscrit, which he certainly read, though perhaps with some difficulty.
(Possibly) Syraic, which he read with perfect ease, but probably did not write.
(Possibly) Coptic, which he read, and I think easily, but probably did not write.
(Possibly) Danish, which he read without a lexicon, but probably did not write.
(Probably) Flemish.
(Possibly) Norwegian.

He knew profoundly as a philologist, and read with ease with the help of lexicons —

Polish: which it is barely possible he came to read without a dictionary, and even to write.
Swedish: ditto.

He knew well philologically, and pretty well I suppose, but had but a smattering of its details:

Chinese: and 2, I think he had some knowledge of Hindostanee.

He also had a masterly acquaintance with the Rabbinical Hebrew, and several dialects of languages which are mentioned in this catalogue.

He no doubt, too, had some slight acquaintance with several other proper languages, as distinguished from mere dialectical variations of one language. He may, indeed, have acquired a few languages of which there is no record.

He was thus a perfect master of probably eight or ten languages; though it is not possible to determine in every instance precisely what ones. Dr. Sears testifies, that when a student in Germany he spoke about as many as Tholuck, which was at least six. He knew profoundly, as a philologist, and wrote, certainly thirteen, probably fourteen or fifteen, possibly nineteen, or even by chance, over twenty. He knew profoundly as a philologist at least, and read with ease, with the help of the lexicons, almost certainly twenty-one, and well, probably twenty-four. He knew in all, at least slightly, and in one way or another, probably between twenty-five and thirty. He knew, at least well enough for him to claim to know something of them, twenty-five, including English, and excluding mere dialectical variations of any one language.

And herein is an insight to J. Addison Alexander’s extensive linguistic knowledge which is evident in his articles, Biblical commentaries, and other writings. What a gift to know languages, and what a blessing to readers even today who benefit from such knowledge. In the words of Roger Bacon (Opus Tertium), “Knowledge of languages is the first gateway to wisdom.”

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Occupy Till He Comes: Warfield on doing all to the glory of God

January 11, 2021

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And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come (Luke 19:13).

An important theme in the life and teaching of B.B. Warfield is that we ought to do all to the glory of God. Not only in the seminary classroom, but in every work to which we put our hands, we ought to aim at the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31). In an October 1911 address to the seminary students at Princeton, published later under the title The Religious Life of Theological Students, Warfield not only spoke against falsely dichotomizing theological study and religious devotion, but also affirmed that in whatever we do in life, in our studies and beyond them, we should be aiming to glorify our God.

Certainly, every man who aspires to a religious man must begin by doing his duty, his obvious duty, his daily task, the particular work which lies before him to do at this particular time and place. If this work happens to be studying, then his religious life de pends on nothing more fundamentally than on just studying. You might as well talk of a father who neglects his parental duties, of a son who fails in all the obligations of filial piety, of an artisan who systematically skimps his work and turns in a bad job, of a workman who is nothing better than an eye-servant, being religious men as of a student who does not study being a religious man. It cannot be: you cannot build up a religious life except you begin by performing faithfully your simple, daily duties. It is not the question whether you like these duties. You may think of your studies what you please . You may consider that you are singing precisely of them when you sing of "e'en servile labors,” and of “the meanest work.” But you must faithfully give yourselves to your studies, if you wish to be religious men. No religious character can be built up on the foundation of neglected duty…
A truly religious man will study anything which it becomes his duty with “devotion” in both of these senses. That is what his religion does for him: it makes him do his duty, do it thoroughly, do it “in the Lord.”

Thomas Hugh Spence, Jr. wrote about the effect of this sort of teaching on one particular student of Warfield’s in the 1890s in The Historical Foundation and Its Treasures (1956, 1960), p. 3:

While a student at Princeton, Mr. [Samuel Mills] Tenney had been impressed with the insistence of Professor Benjamin B. Warfield upon the importance of making the most of time. He once described to the writer how he repeatedly stood for hours by night in the rocking railway coaches of that pre-streamliner era in order to devote those periods of travel to reading by the ineffectual oil lamps then provided byway of token illumination in such cars.

An older writer's famous maxim says much the same thing:

Be thou never without something to do; be reading, or writing, or praying, or meditating, or doing something that is useful to the community. -- Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ (1.19)

Warfield certainly practiced what he preached: always writing, always teaching, always lovingly caring for his wife at home - he exemplified the ethic called for in the Scriptures to do all to the glory of God whether the task was menial or seemed to be of the greatest import for advancing the kingdom of God. Kingdom work is truly made up of the small as well as the great. We have business to accomplish in this life for our King and Master, who both give talents and gifts, and enables us to turn every occasion of using them as a means to glorify Himself and do others and ourselves much good. How we may then joyfully anticipate hearing those precious words: “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Matt. 25:23).

John B. Reeve: A man of many books, and the Book

March 5, 2020

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Visit many good books, and live in the Bible. — Charles H. Spurgeon

Beloved to many, pastor and professor John Bunyan Reeve was especially dear to Francis James Grimké. It was Reeve who presented Grimké to the Presbytery of Philadelphia as a candidate for the ministry. The two remarkable ministries of these men were intertwined in God’s providence in many ways and over many decades. Three addresses by Grimké testify to the profound impact that Reeve had on his own life, and that of many others. These include: 1) “Remarks at the Semi-Centennial of the Ordination to the Ministry of the Reverend John B. Reeve, June 4, 1911;” 2) “Rev. John B. Reeve, January 20, 1916;” and 3) “A Short Address delivered at Howard University, November 11, 1930, in Connection with the Presentation of a Portrait of the Rev. John B. Reeve” [all found in Vol. 1 of Grimké’s Works].

Although Presbyterian by conviction, it is perhaps not surprising that a man named after John Bunyan, would take to Spurgeon’s maxim noted above. Reeve was an avid reader. Grimké describes him as '“an omnivorous reader.” A man knowledgeable in the Word, a man of prayer, a remarkable preacher - but a man who labored to bring that Word to the flock under his care.

As the under-shepherd of the flock, he realized that his great mission was to lead the flock into green pastures and by the side of still waters. And he knew that these green pastures and still waters were not stumbled upon, but had to be searched for, came as the result of careful, diligent, persistent effort. The scriptures must be searched; the truth must be digged for; waters out of the wells of salvation must be drawn out; there must be effort put forth, constant, persistent painstaking effort.

Reeve knew that after all the planting, watering and effort, “the increase comes from God.” But he did his job, searched the Scriptures, and studied to bring forth the Word faithfully. It is apt that such a man would help, along with Matthew Anderson and others, to establish the Berean School of Philadelphia (as well as the Department of Theology at Howard University).

The man that Grimké describes in his addresses is a man who loved God’s Word, and valued the study of good books to aid in the understanding and preaching of that Word.

He was a man of scholarly attainments. He never ceased to be a student; he never lost his taste for study; he never allowed himself by pressure from the outside to deprive him of his study hour. He was always delving; always seeking to enlarge the stores of his knowledge, to get a broader vision of things, and a greater store of information from which, not only to enrich his own intellectual and spiritual life, but also from which to draw supplies for his pulpit ministrations. He was an omnivorous reader. I don’t know any man among us who was as widely read as he was, who, during his lifetime, read as many books as he did. He was reading, always reading, and reading in many directions — history, poetry, philosophy, fiction, books of travel — books religious and books secular.
Very early in his college and seminary life he came to realize with Milton the value of good books. “As good almost kill a man as a good book;” you remember is what Milton said; “who kills a man kills a reasonable creature God’s image; but he who destroys a good book kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were in the eye.” “A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond.” Yes, good books; and he knew what the friendship of good books was; and that friendship was sedulously cultivated — continued to the very end.
The last time I was with him, we talked about books; and when I was coming away, he spoke about the sermon he had heard me preach just the day before, and of the interest which he felt in the line of thought discussed in it, and handed me a package containing two books, which he said, he wanted me to accept, and which dealt with one aspect of the same subject which I had treated in my sermon. He was able to put his hand, at once, upon books bearing upon the subject discussed. I mentioned this incident to show how wide was his reading, how he kept in touch through the printed page, with almost every phase of thought. And here, too, the younger men who are coming up, and are just forming habits, and the older men also, in many instances, might learn an important lesson from him as to keeping up their habits of study, and of cultivating an ever-growing friendship for good books.

Whether to the young or to the old, Grimké’s words — and Reeve’s example — ring as true today as they did over a century ago. The friendship of good books, in right proportion and for the right ends, is a valuable support to the study of the Good Book, the Holy Scriptures. That is the Berean way.

G.M. Giger on Religious Retirement

December 29, 2019

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The busyness of a 24/7 news cycle, the pressing demands of work, the noise of children and neighbors - and much more - all conspire, it seems, to crowd out the quiet times that are so necessary to spend with God, and to gain peace of mind and enrich our souls. Just as the body needs sleep at periodic intervals, so the soul needs time apart from the cares of the world, even the necessary ones, to commune with God in prayer, to be fed by God’s Word, and to ponder deeply the things most needful to be considered in life.

Christ Himself shows us by example the great importance which we ought to place upon such times apart from the noise and bustle of the world: “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, He went out and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed” (Mark 1:35).

Preaching from this text, George Musgrave Giger (most famous for translating Francis Turretin’s Institutes of Elenctic Theology) reminds us of the value of Religious Retirement, that is, the need to be alone with God for purposes of prayer, study and meditation. This sermon, published in John T. Duffield’s The Princeton Pulpit (1852), while warning against the opposite extreme of monastic-like separation from the world, emphasizes the following motives to and benefits of such religious retirement.

Christ’s own frequent and habitual example;
Christ’s precept regarding private worship that “when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly” (Matt. 6:6);
God’s creation of day and night, and times of action and stillness;
The example of Old Testament saints, such as David and Daniel, who sought out and regularly kept times of private devotion;
The example of early Christians who sought sanctuary for prayer away from their persecutors;
The cases of John Milton and John Bunyan, for example, whose times of private devotion in the study and in the prison cell led to such rich spiritual writings by which the Church and the world have been blessed;
Private devotion, apart from distraction, provides the best means for the study necessary to gain religious knowledge, which is key to our spiritual life and sanctification;
Religious retirement provides the opportunity for profitable self-examination, which is needful for correction in life and the amendment of our ways, and necessary for daily confession of sin and repentance before God;
Times apart from the world help us to get perspective on the world and its cares by viewing temporal concerns through the light of an eternal lens; and
Contemplation of eternal things stirs our affection towards and increases our attachment to heaven.

While the 21st century world encourages a “coming out of the closet,” Giger’s 19th century message to return regularly to the closet for private devotion is a reminder needed more now than ever. We all need such times apart from the cares of this world to commune with our God, and to enrich our souls through prayer and study and meditation. Read his full message here and be encouraged, especially as a new year approaches, to follow the example of Christ and regularly seek out religious retirement.

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