What's New at Log College Press? - June 14, 2023

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It has been a while since we have updated our readers on what’s happening at Log College Press, but there is in fact much to report. As you may know by now, Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary announced in recent weeks that it has acquired Log College Press, a partnership which is a tremendous step forward in our ministry. It is a tremendous privilege to associate with the seminary in our mutual efforts to edify the church body, in our case, by bringing American Presbyterian works from the past into the present, which makes for an exciting future.

We are very pleased to report that Caleb Cangelosi, the founder of Log College Press, will continue to serve as General Editor of the publishing side of Log College Press. Some of the planned forthcoming titles to be published include:

- A Plain and Scriptural View of Baptism, by Daniel Baker

- The Utility and Importance of Creeds and Confessions, by Samuel Miller

- The Broken Home: Lessons in Sorrow, by Benjamin Morgan Palmer

- Suicide: Its Guilt, Folly, and Sources, by Samuel Miller

- The Memoirs of John Leighton Wilson, by Hampden Coit DuBose

Andrew Myers remains the Website Manager for Log College Press. At this point in time, we are approaching 20,000 titles available to read online on the website. Members of the Dead Presbyterian Society have special access to certain features on the site, which include the Early Access and Recent Additions page, as well as the DPS quote blog.

Some highlights at the Early Access page:

• Mary McLeod Bethune, My Last Will and Testament (an article that she published shortly before her death in a 1955 issue of Ebony magazine);

• Sidney Lanier, Tiger-Lilies (1867) - this is Lanier’s one and only novel;

• A.A. Hodge, Progress in Theology (1883) - Hodge’s contribution to a symposium on the subject which appeared in The Catholic Presbyterian;

• James Kennedy, Thoughts on Prayer (1898) - Kennedy’s final publication includes a memorial of his life; and

• Geerhardus Vos, Dogmatiek, Vols. 1-5 (1896) - this is Vos’ Reformed Dogmatics, handwritten, in Dutch.

Some highlights at the Recent Addtiions page:

• William Munford Baker, Church-Planting in Texas: A Pioneer Sketch (1879);

• Thomas Bloomer Balch, Reminiscences of Presbyterian Ministers (1877-1878) - a series of personal recollections that appeared in The Central Presbyterian;

• Louis FitzGerald Benson, The Hymnody of the Christian Church (1927);

• George Washington Cable, Mark Twain and G.W. Cable: The Record of a Literary Relationship (1960);

• John Gresham Machen, Captain With the Mighty Heart: The Story of J. Gresham Machen (1967-1971), and Personal Reminiscences of J. Gresham Machen (1985) - the first being a 19-part biographical sketch by Henry W. Coray from The Presbyterian Guardian, and the second being a series of recollections by people who knew Machen personally from The Presbyterian Journal;

• Gilbert McMaster, The Upright Man in Life and at Death: a Discourse Delivered, Sabbath Evening, November 7, 1852, on the Occasion of the Decease of the Rev. Samuel Brown Wylie, D.D. (1852);

• Richard Clark Reed, The Gospel as Taught By Calvin (1896, 1979);

• John Rodgers, A Brief View of the State of Religious Liberty in the Colony of New York (1773, 1838);

• Charles Adamson Salmond, Dr. Charles Hodge (1881)

• Thomas Caldwell Stuart, “Father” Stuart and the Monroe Mission (1927); and

• Geerhardus Vos, De verbondsleer in de Gereformeerde theologie - Dutch original of The Doctrine of the Covenant in Reformed Theology] (1891).

This is an exciting year for Log College Press for many reasons, and, in our fashion, we have, this year, already taken note of John Witherspoon’s 300th birthday, Thomas Murphy’s 200th birthday, and we are looking ahead to the 200th birthday of A.A. Hodge, and the 300th birthday of Samuel Davies. 2023 is a good time to study the writings of these giants of the American Presbyterian Church. There is no time like the present to study the past.

Meanwhile, please feel free to browse the many resources available to our readers in print and in digital format. We appreciate hearing from our readers if they find matters needing correction, or if they have questions about authors or works on the site, or if they have suggestions for additions to the site. Your feedback helps the experience of other readers as well. Thank you, as always, for your interest and support. Stay tuned for more good things to come.

Balch on the Poetical Aspects of the Sabbath

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In Northern Virginia, just east of the Blue Ridge Mountains, T.B. Balch often wrote for Richmond-based periodicals from his manse at Ringwood Cottage. His prose literary productions were often poetical in nature and his knowledge of the poets, contemporary and classical, permeated his writing.

As an example of this, today we highlight his essay titled “The Sabbath in Its Poetical Aspects,” published in the April 1849 issue of The Southern Literary Messenger.

A spring morning had come. It ushered in the day of rest and Ringwood had never looked as quiet or as handsome before. The kirks round about were all closed, a thing which sometimes happens in the country when our pastors are away. As the hours into which day is divided were chasing each other off, the writer got to ruminating upon what the Sabbath had done for poetry and what poetry had done for the Sabbath. The Sabbath presents itself periodically to the poet, and invites his eye on a range among its tints, whilst some of the poets, grateful for the materials it gives, have sung its sweet repose.

Sketch of Ringwood manse.

After ruminating in this way, about twilight, my Ringwood grounds looked very sweet, dressed out in the bloom of apple and peach tree orchards. The sight recalled to mind the descriptive poetry of Mrs. [Felicia] Hemans and the fact that this noble woman always like the Sabbath. Among the bold mountains of Wales she sung the sacred day; and when dying among the shamrocks of the Emerald Isle, she indited to her amanuensis the lines with which we shall conclude —

How many groups this hour are bending
Through England’s primrose meadow-paths their way
Tow’rds spire and tower, midst shadowy elms ascending,
Whence the sweet chimes proclaim the hallowed day.

I may not tread

With them those pathways — to the feverish bed
Of sickness bound — yet O my God I bless
Thy mercy that with Sabbath peace hath filled
My chastened heart.

His essay expresses appreciation of the silence of the day as he experienced it in the rural Northern Virginia horse country when labor was reduced to a minimum, deplores the sound of war heard elsewhere around the world on the Lord’s Day, and yet wistfully longs for the sound of the chimes of church bells. It is a poetic rumination that wanders over the countryside and through the human heart with a spiritual gaze as immense as the view of the Virginia piedmont from Hazel Mountain.

If in search of inspiration from some thoughtful Sabbath reading, pause for a moment at Ringwood manse, read over his brief essay, and consider the blessed poetical aspects of the Lord’s Day.

T.B. Balch on the Agency of Providence in Small Events

Have you heard it said — or perhaps said it yourself — “That was providential!"? We often apply this expression to cases where the extraordinary providence of God is evident. But are not the small things in life as well as the great all part of God’s providence?

Thomas Bloomer Balch explores this thought within The Ringwood Discourses under the title “The Agency of Providence in Small Events” using Matt. 10:29 as his text: “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one shall not fall to the ground without your Father.”

As Balch notes, the glory of God was promoted by Galileo looked upward to the heavens to take of celestial bodies with his telescope; but God would be equally glorified had he instead looked downward through a microscope at the small, invisible things all around us. Each has its meaningful place within God’s creation and providential plan.

In the providence of God, as Balch shows, “from diminutive incidents, great results have arisen.” Thus, our view of providence ought not to be restricted to those great results, but should encompass the little things as a marvelously-fashioned chain that connects all.

In this way, God is most glorified, when we see His hand in the mundane, the accidental, the seemingly inconsequential, as well as the earth-shaking and life-changing events that mark our lives and mark history.

Peruse this discourse by Balch and follow along as he helps us to trace God’s providence from the small to the great. His insights are worthy of consideration. May God be glorified as we better understand what His providence means for us all, even in every-day things.

Thoughts on Literature by Thomas Bloomer Balch

“Some have well and truly observed that the interest of religion and good literature hath risen and fallen together.” – Increase Mather

“Visit many good books, but live in the Bible.” — Charles Spurgeon

These two maxims were certainly taken to heart by Thomas Bloomer Balch, a Southern Presbyterian (1793-1878). Son of the well-known Georgetown Presbyterian minister, Stephen Bloomer Balch, both men were graduates of Princeton. T.B. Balch was ordained to the ministry in 1816, and served pastorates in Georgetown; Maryland; and northern Virginia. Carrying forward Princeton’s goal of providing for “an able and faithful ministry,” Balch did much to promote a love of pious learning (“Daniel Webster said of Dr. Balch that he was the most learned man that he had ever known,” Thomas Willing Balch, Balch Genealogica, p. 364). He contributed articles both to the Southern Literary Messenger and The Christian World. He wrote Christianity and Literature: In a Series of Discourses (1826). Also, one of his Ringwood Discourses (1850) is titled “An Outline of Christian Reading.”

Consider the table of contents for Christianity and Literature:

• Discourse I: The Temptations of Literature

• Discourse II: The Literature of the Scriptures

• Discourse III: Obstacles to the Piety of Literary Men

• Discourse IV: Christianity Miscellaneously Applied

• Discourse V: The Relation of Christianity to Polite Literature

• Discourse VI: The Superior Value of Christianity to Literature

• Discourse VII: Humility an Ornament to Literary Men

• Discourse VIII: The Church a Field for Literary Men

Balch’s “Outline for Christian Reading” was written with the aim of guiding Christians in the choice of their evening or Sabbath afternoon reading. He encourages the Christian reader to consulate the best commentaries on Scripture (“for individuals, no commentary is to be preferred before old Matthew Henry’s”). To Balch, the study of the early church was important, but he cautions against delving into the early church fathers directly; he does commend Samuel Miller’s Presbyterianism the Truly Primitive and Apostolic Constitution of the Church of Christ. He recommends histories of the Reformation, and Robert Baird on the Waldenses. Among the great Christian classics, he commends Richard Baxter, A Call to the Unconverted and The Saints’ Everlasting Rest; Joseph Alleine, An Alarm to the Unconverted; and John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress. Further, he highlights the writings of Anglican divines, Scottish Covenanters, French Huguenots, and Seceding Scottish divines, such as Thomas Boston, and Ralph and Ebenezer Erskine. And he commends the reading of Christian biographies, such as those of Thomas Halyburton, Robert Leighton, Thomas Boston, Thomas Scott, Henry Martyn, John Calvin, David Brainerd and many others. Additionally, for Balch, who was a poet himself, Christian poetry is to be included in the reading list - for example, he cites James Grahame on the Sabbath. (A suitor to his daughter Julia, E.P. Miller, was inspired to write Ringwood Manse: Pastoral Poem (1887), as a tribute to T.B. Balch.)

“This, my Christian friend, is a reading age,” Balch wrote in 1850. And hence, the Christian has every reason to “give attendance to reading” (I Tim. 4:10, his text for this particular discourse). With a view toward extending his usefulness to the kingdom of God, equipping himself in defense of the faith, discerning error from truth, and promoting the glory of God and the happiness of man, the reading of edifying literature is a necessary component of the Christian life.

As one of his recommended writers, Richard Baxter, said, "It is not the reading of many books to make a man wise or good, but the well-reading of a few, could he be sure to have the best." Balch has given principles and specific guidance to attain this goal, which we would do well to heed even in this internet age. Log College Press very much shares this vision.