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The monumental labors of Rev. James Williams Marshall (1882-1964) to document the history of the Presbyterian Church in Alabama are legendary. His 8,000 page typewritten manuscript is held by the Presbyterian Historical Society, along with many other materials collected and donated by him. But it was largely through the determined quest of his wife, Marion (who passed away in 1983), and the editorial labors of others, that led to the posthumous publication of his history.

Rev. Marshall had a vision to do for the Presbyterian Church in Alabama what George Howe had done for the history of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina. In the preface to Marshall’s history he wrote:

I like to think that the work may prove a link in the chain which began to be forged by our forefathers. Dr. Charles Hodge issued his Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America from his home in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1840, which brought the story down to 1788. Dr. George Howe by order of the Synod of South Carolina almost completed his History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina before he died in Columbia, 1883, ending the story at 1850. Dr. James Stacy almost completed his History of the Presbyterian Church in Georgia before he died in Newnan, 1912. Next in the line geographically and chronologically stands Alabama.

Yet Rev. Marshall entered into his rest in 1964 leaving a request to his life-long companion, Marion, to see the work of getting his history published through to completion. Below is a letter which shines a light on the challenges involved in that process. Rev. C.G. Partridge of Troy, Alabama wrote to Rev. William C. Robinson in 1965 on behalf of Marion Marshall to consult about how to accomplish the goal of publishing a condensed version of that 8,000 page manuscript. Rev. Partridge alludes to his discussions with Dr. Thomas H. Spence of the Historical Foundation at Montreat, North Carolina about it. (Rev. Marshall’s preface makes reference to the contributions of Dr. Thomas H. Spence, Dr. Samuel M. Tenney, and Dr. Guy S. Klett in his work.) We share this letter which was found in a copy of the 2-volume History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina by George Howe owned by the writer which comes from the library of Rev. Marshall and contains his handwritten notes.

November 4, 1965 Letter from Rev. C.G. Partridge to Rev. William C. Robinson (photo credit: R. Andrew Myers).

Ultimately, a dozen years later, the Presbyterian Historical Society of Alabama, with Robert Strong as editor, published The Presbyterian Church in Alabama (1977). Another edition was published in 1985 under the title Presbyterian Churches in Alabama, 1811-1936, with Kenneth J. Foreman as editor. These volumes comprise a rich store of church history. John W. Kuykendall, in a 1981 review of the 1977 volume, says as much, while also critiquing its readability. His point is certainly valid, and the 1985 volume includes among the introductory matter a piece titled “Marshall’s History and How to Get the Most Out of It,” which addresses the different sorts of interests that would lead one to pick up the book, and how each sort of reader can benefit best from the work. But be assured the benefits are many. These works are not available on Log College Press, but the student of church will enrich themselves greatly by searching out their own copies to read and study.

Quoting George Howe, Rev. Marshall writes of the Church of God that “History is her memory.” We cherish the labors of such men who have spent their time and energy to bring to remembrance the works of God in the lives of men, women and children who went before us in service to Christ’s kingdom.

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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).

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