America's Debt to Calvinism

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"He that will not honor the memory, and respect the influence of Calvin, knows but little of the origin of American liberty." — George Bancroft, Literary and Historical Miscellanies (1855), p. 406

The central thesis of this book — that John Calvin and his Genevan followers had a profound influence on the American founding — runs counter to widespread assumptions and rationale of the American experiment in government. — David W. Hall, The Genevan Reformation and the American Founding (2003), p. vii

On the Fourth of July, which is not only the date celebrated as the birth of the United States in 1776, but also the date on which Log College Press was founded in 2017, we pause to remember how God has dealt graciously with this nation in large part through the influence of the doctrines of grace and the principles of civil liberty which are associated with Calvinism.

American history has many streams running through it, including the Native American population, Spanish exploration, African-American slaves, and much more, but it cannot be denied that in the colonial era and in the early part of the republic, American principles and character were largely fashioned by the Protestant European settlers who came to this country and, looking to Scripture as their foundation, enacted laws, promoted education and even fought for freedom, on the basis of ideas taught in John Calvin’s Geneva.

To demonstrate this premise — which historically was unquestioned, but has been increasingly challenged in recent years — we will extract from the writings of some authors on Log College Press, and others, to show that many of America’s founding principles can be traced to the Calvinism that brought French Huguenots to Florida and South Carolina in 1562; English Anglicans and Presbyterians to Jamestown, Virginia in 1607; Pilgrims and Puritans to Massachusetts beginning in 1620; the Dutch Reformed to New Netherland (New York) in the 1620s; the Scotch-Irish, such as Francis Makemie in the 1680s, to Virginia and Pennsylvania; and the German Reformed settlers who, as did John Phillip Boehm in 1720, arrived in Pennsylvania and other ports of entry. Although painting a picture with broad strokes, and not at all unmindful of the secular character of this nation today under principles enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, it is worthwhile to consider how Geneva influenced the founding of America more than any other source. It has been well said by some that “knowledge of the past is the key to the future.”

Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, The Mayflower Compact, 1620

Egbert W. Smith writes, in a chapter titled “America’s Debt to Calvinism,” that:

If the average American citizen were asked, who was the founder of America, the true author of our giant Republic, might be puzzled to answer. We can imagine his amazement at hearing the answer given to this question by the famous German historian, [Leopold von] Ranke, one of the profoundest scholars of modern times. Says Ranke, ‘John Calvin was the virtual founder of America.’” — E.W. Smith, The Creed of Presbyterians (1901), p. 119

In a lecture given by Philip Schaff in 1854, he stated:

The religious character of North America, viewed as a whole, is predominantly of the Reformed or Calvinistic stamp…To obtain a clear view of the enormous influence which Calvin's personality, moral earnestness, and legislative genius, have exerted on history, you must go to Scotland and to the United States. — Philip Schaff, America: A Sketch of the Political, Social, and Religious Character of the United States of North America (1855), pp. 111-112

Nathaniel S. McFetridge devotes a chapter in his most famous book, Calvinism in History, to the influence of Calvinism as a political force in American history, and argues thus:

My proposition is this — a proposition which the history clearly demonstrates: That this great American nation, which stretches her vast and varied territory from sea to sea, and from the bleak hills of the North to the sunny plains of the South, was the purchase chiefly of the Calvinists, and the inheritance which they bequeathed to all liberty-loving people.

If would be almost impossible to give the merest outline of the influence of the Calvinists on the civil and religious liberties of this continent without seeming to be a mere Calvinistic eulogist; for the contestants in the great Revolutionary conflict were, so far as religious opinions prevailed, so generally Calvinistic on the one side and Arminian on the other as to leave the glory of the result almost entirely with the Calvinists. They who are best acquainted with the history will agree most readily with the historian, Merle D’Aubigne, when he says: ‘Calvin was the founder of the greatest of republics. The Pilgrims who left their country in the reign of James I., and, landing on the barren soil of New England, founded populous and mighty colonies, were his sons, his direct and legitimate sons; and that American nation which we have seen growing so rapidly boasts as its father the humble Reformer on the shores of Lake Leman [Lake Geneva].’” — N.S. McFetridge, Calvinism in History (1882), pp. 59-60

W. Melancthon Glasgow, referencing the great American historian George Bancroft, says:

"Mr. Bancroft says: 'The first public voice in America for dissolving all connection with Great Britain came not from the Puritans of New England, the Dutch of New York, nor the Planters of Virginia, but from the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians of the Carolinas.' He evidently refers to the influence of Rev. Alexander Craighead and the Mecklenburg Declaration: and this influence was due to the meeting of the Covenanters of Octorara, where in 1743, they denounced in a public manner the policy of George the Second, renewed the Covenants, swore with uplifted swords that they would defend their lives and their property against all attack and confiscation, and their consciences should be kept free from the tyrannical burden of Episcopacy....It is now difficult to tell whether Donald Cargill, Hezekiah Balch or Thomas Jefferson wrote the National Declaration of American Independence, for in sentiment it is the same as the "Queensferry Paper" and the Mecklenburg Declaration." — W. Melancthon Glasgow, History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America (1888), pp. 65-67

William H. Roberts, in a chapter on “Calvinism in America,” wrote:

Politically, Calvinism is the chief source of modern republican government. That Calvinism and republicanism are related to each other as cause and effect is acknowledged by authorities who are not Presbyterians or Reformed…The Westminster Standards are the common doctrinal standards of all the Calvinists of Great Britain and Ireland, the countries which have given to the United States its language and to a considerable degree its laws. The English Calvinists, commonly known as Puritans, early found a home on American shores, and the Scotch, Dutch, Scotch-Irish, French and German settlers, who were of the Protestant faith, were their natural allies. It is important to a clear understanding of the influence of Westminster in American Colonial history to know that the majority of the early settlers of this country from Massachusetts to New Jersey inclusive, and also in parts of Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas, were Calvinists.” — William H. Roberts in Philip Vollmer, John Calvin: Theologian, Preacher, Educator, Statesman (1909), pp. 202-203

Speaking of the Scotch-Irish, Charles L. Thompson wrote:

Did they abandon homes that were dear to them in Scotland first and then in Ireland? It was done at the call of God. They wanted homes for themselves and their children; but it was only that in them there might be a free development of the faith for which their fathers and they had suffered. Nor was their religion a thing of either forms or sentiment. It was grounded in Scripture. The family Bible was the charter of their liberties. To seek its deepest meanings was their delight. They, therefore, brought to to their various settlements in the new world a knowledge of the Calvinism which they had found in their Bibles, and a devotion to the forms in which it found expression giving definite doctrinal character to all their communities — character by which their various migrations may be easily traced. Whether in Nova Scotia, in Pennsylvania, in Kentucky and Tennessee, or wherever their pioneer footsteps led them, the stamp of their convictions, from which no ‘wind of doctrine’ and no ‘cunning craftiness’ could draw them, is seen in all their social life and on all their institutions. Almost universally they were Presbyterians and they are the dominant element in the Presbyterian Church today.

Alike among the Puritans, the Dutch and the Scotch-Irish, it was Calvinism which was the prevailing doctrine. Its relation to the life of our republic has often been recognized. — Charles L. Thompson, The Religious Foundations of America (1917), pp. 242-243

Loraine Boettner, in a section on Calvinism in America, quotes George Bancroft in regards to the American War of Independence:

With this background we shall not be surprised to find that the Presbyterians took a very prominent part in American Revolution. Our own historian Bancroft says: “The Revolution of 1776, so far as it was affected by religion, was a Presbyterian measure. It was the natural outgrowth of the principles which the Presbyterianism of the Old World planted in her sons, the English Puritans, the Scotch Covenanters, the French Huguenots, the Dutch Calvinists, and the Presbyterians of Ulster.” So intense, universal, and aggressive were the Presbyterians in their zeal for liberty that the war was spoken of in England as “The Presbyterian Rebellion.” An ardent colonial supporter of King George III wrote home: “I fix all the blame for these extraordinary proceedings upon the Presbyterians. They have been the chief and principal instruments in all these flaming measures. They always do and ever will act against government from that restless and turbulent anti-monarchial spirit which has always distinguished them everywhere.” When the news of “these extraordinary proceedings” reached England, Prime Minister Horace Walpole said in Parliament, “Cousin America has run off with a Presbyterian parson.” — Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination (1932), p. 383

Speaking of Calvinism’s influence on America, H. Gordon Harold wrote:

Now back of every great movement lie its proponents. Who were the people that fostered rebellion and revolution in the New World? Who spoke openly against the tyrannies and indignities they experienced? Who stepped forward with ready hearts, willing to die in resistance to the injustices meted out to them in the wilderness of this remote continent? They were mostly as follows: Huguenots from France; men of the Reformed faith, presbyterians of the Continent, who had come from the Palatinate, Switzerland, and the Low Countries; Lutherans who had fled the agonies of the Thirty Years’ War; German Baptists who had endured persecution; and Presbyterians and Seceders (ultra-Presbyterians) from Scotland and Ulster; also the Puritan Congregationalists from England. Practically all of these were Calvinists, or neo-Calvinists, and a large number of them were Ulster-Scotch Presbyterians. — H. Gordon Harold in Gaius J. Slosser, ed., They Seek a Country: The American Presbyterians (1955), pp. 151-152

Douglas F. Kelly had this to say about the “Presbyterian Rebellion” of 1776:

The gibe of some in the British Parliament that the American revolution was “a Presbyterian Rebellion” did not miss the mark. We may include in “Presbyterian” other Calvinists such as New England Congregationalists, many of the Baptists, and others. The long-standing New England tradition of “election day sermons” continued to play a major part in shaping public opinion toward rebellion toward England on grounds of transcendent law. Presbyterian preaching by Samuel Davies and others had a similar effect in preparing the climate of religious public opinion for resistance to royal or parliamentary tyranny in the name of divine law, expressed in legal covenants. Davies directly inspired Patrick Henry, a young Anglican, whose Presbyterian mother frequently took him to hear Davies.” — Douglas F. Kelly, The Emergence of Liberty in the Modern World: The Influence of Calvin on Five Governments From the 16th to the 18th Centuries (1992), pp. 131-132

At Log College Press, in appreciation of this great Calvinistic heritage which was bequeathed to 21st century Americans by Geneva and those who were inspired by her to come to these shores, we wish you and yours a very happy Fourth of July! And if we have not already “taxed” our readers’ patience without their consent (this blog post is admittedly longer than most), in the spirit of the day, we offer more to read from the following blog posts from the past. Blessings to you and yours!

• July 4, 2022 - Fourth of July Celebration at Log College Press

• July 3, 2021 - American Independence and Presbyterians

• July 4, 2020 - W.P. Breed: Presbyterians and the Revolution

• July 4, 2019 - Freedom’s Cost

• July 4, 2018 - American Presbyterians Wish You a Happy Independence Day!

American Presbyterians and Freemasonry

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Anyone who has followed the National Treasure saga (two movies starring Nicolas Cage and a Disney+ show that has recently aired) will recall the Masonic background to the plot, and may recall an adventure that took place in the graveyard at the Old Pine Street Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia (where Archibald Alexander* (1772-1851) once served as pastor). The question of the relationship between American Presbyterians and Freemasonry is raised by such a story, and it turns out the connections are rather intriguing.

As a secret society, Freemasonry has fallen under the condemnation of such denominations as the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The RPCNA specifically targeted “secret oath-bound societies and orders” in the Covenant of 1871, declaring that they were “ensnaring in their nature, pernicious in their tendency, and perilous to the liberties of both Church and State.” W.M. Glasgow, in History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church (1888), wrote that “The Reformed Presbyterian Church has always excluded members of oath-bound secret societies from her Communion” (p. 135). The OPC officially expressed its disapprobation of Freemasonry in a 1942 report by a committee chaired by R.B. Kuiper titled “Christ or the Lodge?”, concluding that “membership in the Masonic fraternity is inconsistent with Christianity.” Other denominations have addressed (or continue to address) the issue membership of Christian in the Masonic fraternity, but not as decisively (see the 1987 report of the Ad-Interim Committee to Study Freemasonry in the Presbyterian Church in America, for example).

Freemasonry in America dates back to colonial times. At least nine signers of the 1776 Declaration of Independence were Freemasons, including Benjamin Franklin and Richard Stockton (1730-1781). At least nine signers of the 1787 U.S. Constitution were Freemasons, including George Washington.

Washington occasionally worshiped and attended Masonic meetings at the Old Presbyterian Meetinghouse in Alexandria, Virginia, where James Muir (1757-1820) served as pastor from 1789 to 1820. Muir also served as chaplain of the Masonic Lodge, and participated in the Masonic ceremonies that attended the death of Washington. William B. McGroarty writes that "The Old Meeting House is often spoken of as the Masonic Westminster Abbey, because of the number of distinguished Masons buried in and near it" (The Old Presbyterian Meeting House at Alexandria, Virginia, 1774-1874, p. 58).

William McWhir (1759-1851), a friend of Washington who taught some of Washington’s nephews at McWhir’s Alexandria academy preached a sermon at the Masonic Lodge in Alexandria on December 27, 1785 (source: The Lodge of Washington: A History of the Alexandria Washington Lodge, No. 22, A.F. and A.M. of Alexandria, Va. 1783-1876 (1876), p. 75).

Alexander MacWhorter (1734-1807) was a Freemason, and preached at Washington’s funeral (source: Steven C. Bullock, Revolutionary Brotherhood: Freemasonry and the Transformation of the American Social Order, 1730-1840 (1996), p. 176).

John Rodgers (1727-1811), first moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, delivered a sermon at a Masonic Lodge in 1779: Holiness the Nature and Design of the Gospel of Christ: A Sermon, Preached at Stockbridge, June 24, 1779, Before the Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, of Berkshire County, State of Massachusetts, and Published at Their Request [not yet available at LCP].

David Austin (1759-1831), who published four volumes of The American Preacher, also wrote Masonry in its Glory: or Solomon's Temple Illuminated: Discerned Through the Flashes of Prophetic Light, Now Darting Through the Region of the Blazing Star, to Lie at the Threshold of the Temple of God, During the Glory of the Latter Day: -- Waiting the Rays of the Seven Lamps, that the Light of its Existence Might Break Forth (1799) [not yet available on LCP, but it can be read here].

In 1794, David McClure (1748-1820), who also delivered a discourse at Washington’s funeral, preached two sermons at Masonic Lodges: A Sermon, Delivered at the Installation of the Morning-Star Lodge, of Free Masons: in East-Windsor, Connecticut, August 21, 1794; and A Sermon, Delivered at the Installation of Village Lodge, of Free Masons: in Simsbury, Connecticut, October 7th, 1794 [not yet available on LCP].

Samuel Miller (1769-1850), a Freemason, preached A Discourse Delivered in the New Presbyterian Church, New-York: Before the Grand Lodge of the State of New-York. And the Brethren of that Fraternity, Assembled in General Communication, on the Festival of St. John the Baptist, June 24th, 1795, a sermon that he sent to George Washington (Miller delivered a discourse upon Washington’s death as well). Miller’s son sheds valuable insight into Miller’s views on Freemasonry, which changed over time:

Before this date, probably soon after his settlement in New York, Mr. Miller joined the Masonic order; he seems to have taken, for years, an active part in its proceedings, and a deep interest in its prosperity: and he reached the dignity of a Royal Arch Mason. His discourse seems to prove, that his confidence had been already shaken, if not in some of the principles of the order, at least in its practical results. But whatever may be thus inferred as to his views of Masonry at this time, certain it is that subsequently — perhaps from the date of his removal to Princeton, where there was no Masonic lodge — he renounced all connexion with the order; at least he never attended their meetings; and that he distinctly, carefully, and emphatically advised his sons not to become Masons. Whether the abduction of Morgan, in 1826, which brought a reproach upon the institution from which it has never recovered, and probably sealed its doom in the United States, had any influence, even to deepen his disapprobation, cannot now, perhaps, be determined. But probably his more mature reflections satisfied him, that such a secret order was incompatible with the spirit of good civil government, and especially of free institutions; and that too easily it might be made a cloak for disorderly, seditious, and treasonable designs; might be abused to base party purposes: might become the active enemy of sound morals, pure Christianity, and the Church of Christ; while it must, naturally, ever prove, in some sort, and in a greater or less degree, a rival of that Church, by proposing its own principles as a sufficient religion, drawing men away from church intercourse and worship, and suggesting, by its very existence, that the institutions of Christianity were not adequate to the fulfilment of the grand philanthropic purposes, for which they were founded. If this order might interfere with the normal workings of the commonwealth, it might interfere much more with those of the Redeemer’s visible kingdom (Samuel Miller, Jr., The Life of Samuel Miller, D.D., LL.D., Vol. 1, p. 99).

Another Presbyterian who once took an active role in Freemasonry but later took on role in opposition to the Masonic Order is William Wirt (1772-1834). He took the first two degrees in the Masonic Rite at a lodge in Richmond, Virginia, but after the 1826 Morgan affair alluded to above (William Morgan had announced his intention to publish a book exposing the secrets of Freemasonry and was soon after abducted and murdered), Wirt was persuaded to accept the 1831 nomination for U.S. President from the Anti-Masonic Party. He was a reluctant nominee, and his campaign was unsuccessful. He died just a few years later.

Aaron Whitney Leland (1787-1871) delivered A Discourse Delivered on the 27th, December, 1815, Before the Grand Lodge of South-Carolina.

Hooper Cumming (1788-1825) preached an Independence Day sermon before a Masonic Lodge: A Sermon, Delivered at Schoharie, Before the Grand Lodge, at the Installation of Hicks Lodge No. 305, July 4th, 1818.

One of the first publications by Robert Jefferson Breckinridge (1800-1871) was A Masonic Oration: Delivered Before the Grand Lodge of Kentucky at Its Annual Communication in Lexington, on the 26th of August, A.D. 1828. He achieved the rank of Grand Orator of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky (source: John Winston Coleman, Masonry in the Bluegrass: Being an Authentic Account of Masonry in Lexington and Fayette County, Kentucky, 1788-1933 (1933), p. 208).

William Stephen Potts (1802-1852) published A Masonic Discourse, Delivered Before the Missouri Lodge, No. 1, on St. John's Day, at St. Louis, 1828 [not yet available on LCP].

U.S. President Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) was a well-known Freemason. “Jackson was initiated into Harmony Lodge No. 1 in Tennessee. He would be instrumental in founding other lodges in the state. He was the only President to have been a Grand Master of the state until Harry S. Truman in 1945 (source).

A biographical sketch of Obadiah Jennings (1778-1832) published in the Masonic Voice Review (Jan. 1859) indicates that not only was Jennings a dedicated Mason, but also that “Through the unbounded influence of Rev. Bro. Jennings, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, when the question of Masonry was presented to them, immediately postponed its consideration for two reasons: 1st. Because some of their own excellent Divines and members were Masons, and 2d. That they had not sufficient information upon the subject.”

John Matthews (1772-1848) delivered A Sermon Preached Before a Lodge of Freemasons [not yet available on LCP] (see William B. Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, Vol. 4, p. 294).

Colin McIver (1784-1850) was a member of and chaplain for the Masonic Order (source).

George Musgrave Giger (1822-1865, translator of Francis Turretin’s Institutes, was a Freemason while at Princeton. After his death a tribute was published: Proceedings of the Sorrow Lodge: and the Address Delivered in Honor of the Memory of Bro. George Musgrave Giger, D.D., December 20, 1865.

Thomas Rice Welch (1825-1886) was a prominent Mason in Arkansas (source).

Thomas Henry Amos (1826-1869) served as Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Masonic Lodge of Liberia, which he co-founded in 1867 (source: Cheryl R. Gooch, On Africa's Lands: The Forgotten Stories of Two Lincoln-Educated Missionaries in Liberia (2014), p. 119).

Jonathan Greenleaf (1785-1865) served as chaplain of the Grand Lodge of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (source: Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of the Most Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons, of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (1856), p. 115).

James Henley Thornwell II (1846-1907) was a Grand Secretary of the Masonic Order of the Eastern Star in South Carolina (source).

Arista Hoge (1847-1923), businessman and historian of the First Presbyterian Church of Staunton, Virginia, was a “Knight Templar Mason” (source).

John Simonson Howk (1862-1942) was a prominent Indiana Presbyterian minister and a member of a Masonic Lodge (source: Lewis C. Baird, Baird’s History of Clark County, Indiana (1909), p. 792),

The Belk Brothers were both prominent Freemasons. John Montgomery Belk (1864-1928) was a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason. He had also been active in Pythian ranks in former years (source). William Henry Belk (1862-1952) was a member of the Scottish and York Rite Masons  and the Order of the Mystic Shrine (source).

Lucien V. Rule (1871-1948), a Freemason, wrote Pioneering in Masonry: The Life and Times of Rob Morris, Masonic Poet Laureate; Together With the Story of Clara Barton and the Eastern Star (1920).

Ralph Earl Prime (1840-1920) was a Freemason from 1865 forward. In 1879, he served as District Deputy Grand Master of the Ninth Masonic District, comprised of Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess Counties in New York (source: Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York (1923), p. 19).

James Naismith (1861-1939), Presbyterian minister and inventor of basketball, was also a Freemason (source).

There were some notable opponents of Freemasonry within the early American Presbyterian Church. Lebbeus Armstrong (1775-1860) was very passionate on the subject and wrote The Man of Sin Revealed, or, The Total Overthrow of the Institution of Freemasonry: Predicted by St. Paul, and Now Fulfilling: Illustrated, and Proved, in a Sermon on II. Thessalonians, II. 8 (1829); Masonry Proved to be a Work of Darkness (1831), and William Morgan, Abducted and Murdered by Masons, in Conformity with Masonic Obligations: and Masonic Measures, to Conceal that Outrage Against the Laws: a Practical Comment on the Sin of Cain: Illustrated and Proved in a Sermon (1831) [Masonry Proved to be a Work of Darkness is available on LCP].

Charles G. Finney (1792-1875) published The Character, Claims and Practical Workings of Freemasonry (1869). In this book Finney aims to thwart the spread of Freemasonry and acknowledges having once been a Mason himself.

Several Presbyterian authors have written against secret societies generally, including Thomas Smyth (1808-1873), James McCosh (1811-1894), David MacDill (1826-1903), James Harper (1823-1913), Robert J. George (1844-1911) [see his Lectures on Pastoral Theology, Vol. 3] and H.H. George (1833-1914). Robert E. Thompson (1844-1924) has written on The Origin of Free Masonry (1871).

As we have already well exceeded the length of a normal LCP blog post, we will rest here having only highlighted some particular historical connections to Freemasonry within American Presbyterianism of special interest. Much more could be said and further avenues explored (for example, the note concerning Obadiah Jennings’ efforts to have the PCUSA General Assembly table the question of Masonry). It is both a mixed picture that we present and a controversial subject for many, but we have strived to represent individuals correctly and without going beyond what can be ascertained factually. We welcome any needful corrections as to the statements above. As to the merits or not of Freemasonry, we have not attempted to analyze its distinctive teachings in this article, but we would refer the reader to Kuiper’s Christ or the Lodge?, among the many resources already cited.

* We have not confirmed that Archibald Alexander was ever a Freemason. However, there is a hint that this may have been the case in James H. Moorhead, Princeton Seminary in American Religion and Culture (2012), p. 81: “Moreover, there was the example of Freemasonry — the secret society par excellence — which was growing dramatically at this time with its promise to promote benevolent ends for all. In any event, the secrecy of the Brotherhood was scarcely seen to be subversive by the faculty, who were sometimes party to it. As one student remarked, he was taken into the inner circle — ‘a wheel within a wheel’ — of the secret society — and on several occasions ‘Dr. Alexander…met with us in this inside organization, and we got from him a great deal of useful instruction and advice.’”

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The Underground Railroad at Log College Press

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Reformed Presbyterian minister William Sommerville once wrote that “The Bible does not discourage the slave from making his escape; and the underground railroad is built in the very spirit of God's counsel” (Southern Slavery Not Founded on Scripture Warrant, p. 5). The Underground Railroad — an informal system whereby “agents” and “stations” comprised an avenue of escape for American slaves in bondage — was a tool employed by many in the North to aid slaves seeking freedom, including Presbyterians, and very often, Reformed Presbyterians (Covenanters).

Among the resources found here at Log College Press, there are many perspectives on the slavery issue which were held by 19th century century Presbyterians in various parts of the country. Today’s post focuses on those who were supportive of, active on, or otherwise connected to the Underground Railroad. We highlight a few here in alphabetical order, although more could be mentioned.

• Caroline Still Anderson — Caroline was the wife of Matthew Anderson, pastor of the Berean Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, and daughter of William Still, whose book on the Underground Railroad is a valuable record of material Caroline’s father is sometimes known as “The Father of the Underground Railroad,” and he helped over 800 slaves escape to freedom.

• Titus Basfield — Basfield, a former slave, studied at Franklin College, New Athens, Ohio, an institution founded by John Walker, Presbyterian minister and abolitionist, which was a haven for those traveling on the Underground Railroad. A friend and classmate of his, John Bingham, was the principal author of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

• Philo Carpenter — Carpenter was a Chicago pharmacist and abolitionist. His home was a station on the Underground Railroad, and it is reported that he helped approximately 200 slaves reach freedom, often by rowing them across Lake Michigan to Canada by night.

• Theodore Ledyard Cuyler — Cuyler was an outspoken abolitionist, and it is reported that his Brooklyn, New York congregation — the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church — was a hiding place for escaped slaves seeking freedom.

• Alexander Dobbin — Dobbin was a Covenanter who helped found the first Presbytery of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America, and later, the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. He died in 1809, but his house, located at the site of the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, endured, serving as a waystation along the Underground Railroad.

• James Faris — A Covenanter minister from South Carolina, he attempted to have the South Carolina legislature pass a law which would encourage emancipation, but failed. After moving to Bloomington, Indiana, his home became a waystation on the Underground Railroad.

• Amos Noe Freeman — Freeman was an African-American Presbyterian minister, who was also a conductor along the Underground Railroad at his congregation in Portland, Maine.

• Henry Highland Garnet — Garnet was an African-American Presbyterian minister who was born into slavery, but escaped with the aid of others, including Underground Railroad stationmaster Thomas Garrett.

• William Hayes — Hayes was a Covenanter layman who aided slaves in Illinois who were escaping to freedom. He was successfully sued in 1843 by a neighbor, who objected to Hayes’ role in the escape of his slave, Susan “Sukey” Richardson. The well-documented story of that lawsuit and Hayes’ heroic role in the freedom of many slaves is told by Carol Pirtle, Escape Betwixt Two Suns: A True Tale of the Underground Railroad in Illinois (2000).

• Erastus Hopkins — Hopkins was a Presbyterian minister who was active politically in the Free-Soil Party. His home in Northampton, Massachusetts has been documented as a waystation along the Underground Railroad.

• John Black Johnston — A Covenanter minister, Glasgow reports that Johnston “was a fearless advocate of the cause of the slave, and was a distinguished conductor on the ‘Underground Railroad.”

• James W.C. Pennington — Pennington was a “fugitive slave” who escaped by means of the Underground Railroad before later becoming a Presbyterian minister and an outspoken abolitionist.

• John Rankin — Rankin was a Presbyterian minister and an active conductor on the Underground Railroad in Ohio. It was Rankin’s account — given to Calvin Stowe — of Eliza Harris’ 1838 escape to freedom that inspired the character Eliza in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (see below). It is reported that when “Henry Ward Beecher was asked after the end of the Civil War, ‘Who abolished slavery?,’ he answered, ‘Reverend John Rankin and his sons did.’"

• Thomas Smith — Smith was a Covenanter layman who Bloomington, Indiana home was a station on the Underground Railroad.

• Calvin & Harriet Beecher Stowe — Calvin was a Presbyterian minister, and his wife Harriet achieved fame with the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), a fictionalized account of a slave who escaped on the Underground Railroad. The Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Brunswick, Maine is officially part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.

• Theodore Sedgwick Wright — Wright was an African-American Presbyterian minister who studied (and suffered — see his 1836 letter to Archibald Alexander) at Princeton. His home in New York City was a waystation for the Underground Railroad.

These connections to the Underground Railroad at Log College Press may serve to whet the appetite for further study of a fascinating and heroic chapter in American history, and shows how passionately some Presbyterians felt about the cause of freedom for those bondage.

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RP Minister Nathan R. Johnston's 200th Birthday

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Horace Greeley said that "no man should die without planting a tree or writing a book." I have planted many a tree and I have written much in various forms; why should I not write a book also? The only apology I feel like making is that it has in it so much about myself. But if I had not written it the book would never have been written. — Nathan R. Johnston, Preface to Looking Back From the Sunset Land: Or, People Worth Knowing

It was 200 years ago today that Reformed Presbyterian minister Nathan Robinson Johnston was born on October 8, 1820. He lived a remarkable life, as told in his 1898 autobiography, Looking Back From the Sunset Land: Or, People Worth Knowing, and in biographical sketches found in the histories of the Reformed Presbyterian Church by W. Melancthon Glasgow and Owen F. Thompson.

Nathan R. Johnston — younger brother of John Black Johnston (1802-1882) — was born near Hopedale, Ohio, studied at Richmond Academy and Miami University, and ultimately graduated from Franklin College in 1843. Before commencing his seminary studies, he served as Principal of the Academy in St. Clairsville, Ohio for two years. He also edited the New Concord, Ohio Free Press in 1848. Johnston was ordained as a minister in the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA) in 1852, and his first of many pastorates was at Topsham, Vermont.

With a heart for reaching the lost, he served as a missionary at Port Royal, South Carolina in 1863. He also engaged in missions work in Minnesota and founded a missions school for the Chinese at Oakland, California. In Johnston’s autobiography, he writes about a missionary tour he took through the Southern United States, including Selma, Alabama. His thoughts on the RP Mission to Syria are expressed as well (he was called to serve there but declined).

He served as Principal of Geneva College for two years, thus helping to revive that institution founded by his brother. He later served briefly as a Professor there. He also opened his own academy, located variously at New Castle, Blairsville and New Brighton, Pennsylvania.

As a Covenanter, Johnston was a committed abolitionist. His support for the cause of freedom and activities of the Underground Railroad are evident in his autobiography, and in correspondence with his friend William Still, who included Johnston’s letters in his important work The Underground Railroad. His heart bled, as he himself says, for those in bondage, and both before and after the War, he made every effort to aid those suffering oppression.

What stands out particularly in his autobiography is the notice he takes of the people he met and formed friendships with over the years. His observations and reflections are valuable as they reveal insights about the famous and those who ought to be more so. They include William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Samuel May; Chinese ministers Jee Gam and Chan Hon Fan; Covenanter ministers such as Lewis Johnston and George Elliott, James Renwick Willson, John M. Armour, J.R.W. Sloane, Samuel O. Wylie, Alexander McLeod Milligan, and others. They are not biographical sketches but a record of the interactions with and thoughts concerning those of great interest to church history and history in general, as well as an appreciation of the times in which Johnston lived. He crisscrossed the country in the service of the church, and met many along the way. As a journalistic editor and correspondent, as a pastor and missionary, and as an educator, his experiences are well-rounded and varied. And the people he met are, as he says, “people worth knowing.” So is Johnston himself, who, in a lifetime of contributions to the cause of Christ, “planted” many trees and wrote a book.

In his later years, he returned to Topsham, Vermont, where he entered into glory on March 21, 1904.

Get to know Nathan R. Johnston, Reformed Presbyterian minister and author, by reading his fascinating autobiography and other writings here. Happy birthday to a saint now at rest after a long and valuable life of service.

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Political Dissent by Early American Covenanters

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“John Ploughman says, Of two evils choose neither. Don't choose the least, but let all evils alone.” — Charles Spurgeon, The Salt-Cellars: Being a Collection of Proverbs, Together with Homely Notes Thereon (1889), p. 297

“...instead of being fixed by their favourite poster, 'of two evils choose the least,' I say,... when you give me the choice of two moral evils, I can choose neither of them. If I have the choice of two physical evils, I will choose the least. If I am asked whether I would choose to lose a toe or a leg, I would choose to part with a toe; but if I am asked whether I would desecrate the Sabbath by steam or by horse power, I say I would do neither. There is a dangerous and deadly fallacy lurking beneath this common maxim, against which I would warn all; for of two moral evils we must choose neither — we are not at liberty to do evil that good may come.” — William Symington, Speech of the Rev. Dr. Symington at the great meeting, for protesting against the desecration of the Sabbath by the running of trains on the Edinburgh and Glasgow railway on the Lord's day, held in the City Hall, Glasgow, February 26, 1842

“There is one political maxim that comforts me: ‘The Lord reigns.’” — John Newton, Letter III to Mrs. P., August 1775

When the Testimony of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America (RPCNA) was adopted in 1806 (published in 1807 under the title Reformation Principles Exhibited), a full chapter was included on the subject, in addition to the one on civil government, concerning “the right of Dissent from a Constitution of Civil Government.” Because American Covenanters view the scope of Christ’s dominion as King to include all things — nations as well as the church — they historically considered it sinful to omit (as the U.S. Constitution does) allegiance to him as King (Ps. 2:10-12). And further, oaths such as that required of elected officials (and often voters) by the same Constitution were consequently considered unlawful.

William Gibson, one of the early Covenanter ministers in America, who was involved in the preparation of Reformation Principles Exhibited, had in fact fled Ireland because of his refusal to swear an oath of allegiance to the government during the Irish Rebellion of 1797. Alexander McLeod, author of Messiah, Governor of the Nations of the Earth — a classic statement of Covenanter doctrine concerning the Mediatorial Kingship of Christ over all things — wrote about political dissent in the historical section of the RP Testimony. These men, as well as James Renwick Willson, Samuel B. Wylie and others, were confronted early on with issues of what it meant to be a loyal, patriotic civic-minded American citizen in the newly-formed republic of the United States of America.

For many Covenanters — and abolitionists in general, such as William L. Garrison, who described the U.S. Constitution as “a covenant with death and an agreement with hell” — the founding charter of this country, rather than manifesting Biblically-required submission to the laws of Christ, mandated sinful involvement by all who voted or swore oaths of allegiance to a document that exalted “We, the people” at the expense of Christ’s honor, and positively required endorsement of, a system that upheld the wicked practice of enslaving human beings. Thus, early American Covenanters declined to vote, or serve on juries, or to participate in any political activity that required them to sanction the political process as it then existed.

Even after the War Between the States — or, the “Late Rebellion” as it was termed by some — political dissent was viewed as a crucial aspect of Covenanter testimony to the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ upon America. It was not until the 1960’s that the doctrine of political dissent was dropped as a term of communion within the RPCNA. The current RP Testimony allows for voting in American civil elections if candidates meet certain criteria involving fidelity to Christian moral and doctrinal standards. However, a consistent application of the even current standard teaching of the RPCNA would prohibit a Covenanter from voting for most (all?) candidates standing for the 2020 election, if principle rather than pragmatism holds sway.

At the heart of this historic dissent from political activity in America is not an Anabaptistic rejection of all involvement in civil affairs. Covenanters confess (see the Westminster Confession of Faith chap. 23) that civil government is a good and needful ordinance of God. Their political activity in American history with regard to opposition to slavery (and other current forms of legal but immoral conduct such as Sabbath-breaking and abortion), is well-documented (see Joseph S. Moore, Founding Sins: How a Group of Antislavery Radicals Fought to Put Christ into the Constitution). The concern of Covenanters for godly civil government has always been at the forefront of their core convictions; so much so that their unpopular stand regarding political dissent has led them to suffer persecution for their unwillingness to embrace American political ideals. James R. Willson was once burned in effigy after he published Prince Messiah's Claims to Dominion Over All Governments; and the Disregard of His Authority by the United States, in the Federal Constitution (1832). Covenanters have historically considered it a noble and worthy sacrifice to decline to avail themselves of the political privilege of voting as long as the oath of allegiance to the U.S. Constitution is a part of the process of the elective franchise. But these were the same body of people who — beginning with Alexander Craighead, who was the first Presbyterian in America to publicly justify armed rebellion against Great Britain in 1743, and whose principles inspired the 1775 Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence — were front and center in the fight for American Independence, and in the fight for freedom for American slaves. Their desire for reformation encompassed both church and state.

Much more could be said about the Covenanter principle of political dissent, but to read them in their own words, it is helpful to consult the following:

• Thomas Houston Acheson, Why Covenanters Do Not Vote (1912) - In this brief two-part article, Acheson gives six reasons that are NOT the reason why Covenanters do not vote; his six-fold reason why Covenanters do not vote; and the response to twelve objections to the Covenanter position.

• George Alexander Edgar, The Reformed Presbyterian Catechism (1912) - In this catechism of RP principles (a reprise of Roberts’ 1853 catechism cited below), it is taught that nations and their constitutions are morally accountable before God, and that Christians therefore have a duty to dissent from immoral constitutions.

• Finley Milligan Foster, What Voting Under an Unchristian Constitution Involves (n.d.) - This tract sketches the basic arguments of Covenanters that the U.S. Constitution is immoral, the act of voting involves acceptance of an immoral constitution, and that such is a sin against the King of the nations.

• James Mitchell Foster, Shall We Condemn the Aggravated Guilt of This Nation in Vitiating the Consciences of its Christian Citizens by Requiring Them to Swear Allegiance to the Secular Constitution of the U.S. as the Condition of Exercising Their Political Privileges in the Governing Body? (1909) — No summary is needed after reading the title.

• William Melancthon Glasgow, History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America - Political dissent is a recurring theme throughout Glasgow’s standard history of the denomination.

• Nathan Robinson Johnston, “Political Dissent” (1892) - This is a letter to the editor of the Christian Instructor, reprinted in Political Dissenter, which responds to an article critiquing the Covenanter position on political dissent. Johnston responds to several points made by the author of that article in defense of political dissent.

• James Calvin McFeeters, The Covenanters in America: The Voice of Their Testimony on Present Moral Issues (1892) - This testimony by McFeeters includes a chapter on “The Covenanters and Political Dissent.”

• Alexander McLeod, Reformation Principles Exhibited (1807) - As mentioned above, this first Testimony of the RPCNA contains an historical section as well as a doctrinal outline, both of which articulate a position of political dissent from constitutions which omit and oppose allegiance to Christ.

• John Wagner Pritchard, Soldiers of the Church: The Story of What the Reformed Presbyterians (Covenanters) of North America, Canada, and the British Isles, Did to Win the World War of 1914-1918 (1919) - This volume, of which we have written before, examines the contributions of RP members to the war effort in World War I in light of the issue of the usual requirements of soldiers to swear an oath of allegiance to their government. He writes: "People who do not understand, marvel that a Covenanter will give his life for his country but withholds his vote at election time. A Covenanter will give his life because of his loyalty to his country, and withholds his vote at election time because of his loyalty to Christ. To become a soldier he is required to swear loyalty to his country, and that he is always eager to do; but to vote at an election he is required to swear to a Constitution of Civil Government that does not recognize the existence of God, the authority of Christ over the nation, nor any obligation to obey His moral law; and that his conception of loyalty to Christ will not permit him to do."

• William Louis Roberts, The Reformed Presbyterian Catechism (1853) — In this catechism of RP principles, “The right and duty of dissent from an immoral constitution of civil government” is identified as one of the twelve distinctive teachings of the RPCNA.

• James McLeod Willson, Bible Magistracy; or, Christ's Dominion Over the Nations (1842) - After sketching fundamental principles of civil government and Christ’s Kingship over the nations, Willson applies those principles to the situation in the United States and affirms the need for political dissent.

• James Renwick Willson, Prince Messiah's Claims to Dominion Over All Governments; and the Disregard of His Authority by the United States, in the Federal Constitution (1832) - This is perhaps the most detailed critique of the U.S. Constitution and its flaws from the Covenanter perspective.

• Richard Cameron Wylie, Dissent From Unscriptural Political Systems (1896) - An address delivered at the First International Convention of Reformed Presbyterian Churches, held in Scotland, outlines reasons why Covenanters held to the doctrine of political dissent.

Although the doctrine of political dissent from immoral constitutions is not widely understood or accepted today among Christians and even among some Reformed Presbyterians, it is helpful to consider what early Covenanters believed in this country concerning involvement in civil affairs. There are some today who may abstain from voting because of indifference or apathy; those Covenanters did so out of a deep abiding conviction that Christ must be honored in the halls of government and at the ballot box. In this election year, it is worth pondering those convictions in the light of Scripture, and seeking to understand whether these principles remain relevant. There are many avenues to reformation, but the means as well as the end must be able to stand in the light of God’s word in order for a nation to be blessed. As A.A. Hodge (not a Covenanter, but a vice-president of the National Reform Association) said:

In the name of your own interests I plead with you; in the name of your treasure-houses and barns, of your rich farms and cities, of your accumulations in the past and your hopes in the future, — I charge you, you never will be secure if you do not faithfully maintain all the crown-rights of Jesus the King of men. In the name of your children and their inheritance of the precious Christian civilization you in turn have received from your sires; in the name of the Christian Church, — I charge you that its sacred franchise, religious liberty, cannot be retained by men who in civil matters deny their allegiance to the King. In the name of your own soul and its salvation; in the name of the adorable Victim of that bloody and agonizing sacrifice whence you draw all your hopes of salvation; by Gethsemane and Calvary, — I charge you, citizens of the United States, afloat on your wide wild sea of politics, There is Another King, One Jesus: The Safety Of The State Can Be Secured Only In The Way Of Humble And Whole-souled Loyalty To His Person and of Obedience His Law (Popular Lectures on Theological Themes, p. 287).

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Three African-American Covenanter Ministers: A Tribute

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Today we pay tribute to three African-American Presbyterian ministers associated with Selma, Alabama. Each of these was also a part of the Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanter) Church of North America (RPCNA); two of them later joined the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS). The information we have about their lives is limited, but intriguing. Yet they were ground-breaking pioneers who are worthy of remembrance.

• Lewis Johnston, Jr. (1847-1903) - Johnston was the first African-American ordained to the ministry in the RPCNA, on October 14, 1874, as learn from his entry in William Melancthon Glasgow’s History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America (see also Glasgow’s The Geneva Book) and William J. Edgar, History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, 1871-1920, p. 57. His father also served as a ruling elder with him at the RPCNA congregation in Selma. He founded Geneva Academy (soon renamed Knox Academy) in Selma, Alabama on June 11, 1874. An educator, a court clerk, a newspaper editor and publisher and a published poet as well as a minister, his death was widely noticed in the newspapers, including John W. Pritchard’s The Christian Nation for June 3, 1903. The following was written by Edward P. Cowan, Secretary of the Board of Freedmen (PCUSA). Tragically, four of Johnston’s sons were later killed in the Elaine Massacre of 1919.

Rev. Lewis Johnston, a member of White River Presbytery and principal of Richard Allen Institute, of Pine Bluff, Ark., died on the morning of March 7th 1903.

Mr. Johnston was born in Allegheny City, Pa., December 12th, 1847. His parents were Presbyterians and they brought him up in the fear of God in that faith. He finished in the public schools at an early age and enlisted in the army. At the close of the war he received an honorable discharge, after which he returned home and entered Geneva College, near Bellefontaine, Ohio. After finishing his college education he entered the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Allegheny City and finished his course there in four years.

His first two year’s work as a missionary was at Selma, Ala. Leaving there, he went to Pine Bluff, Ark., where he spent twenty-five years in active and earnest service, teaching for several years in county and city schools. After that he commenced a missionary school, which grew so rapidly that with the good people of Pine Bluff a school building was erected. At that time his work was under the care of the Southern Presbyterian Church. The school continued to grow until friends of the work were compelled to provide a larger building for its accommodation. By this time his work had been transferred to the Board of Missions for Freedmen.

During the years of his ill health he only failed to preach one Sabbath. He did much for his race and worked for the Master even to the last day of his life. He leaves a wife and seven children to mourn his loss. The citizens of Pine Bluff of both races paid marked tribute to his memory. “He being dead, yet speaketh.” [The Assembly Herald, Vol. 8, No. 5 (May 1903), p. 201]

The Richard Allen Institute was founded in 1886 by Rev. Lewis Johnston and his wife, Mercy.

• George Milton Elliot (1849-1918) - While Johnston was the founder and first principal of the Richard Allen Institute (named for Richard Allen, another secretary of the Board of Freedmen, PCUSA), Elliot served as its third principal. Born near Isle of Wight, Virginia, he later studied with Johnston at Geneva College and at RPTS. He also ministered in Beaufort, South Carolina; and founded the St. Augustine Industrial Institute in St. Augustine, Florida, serving as its first principal; among other travels and accomplishments. He was also one of the founders and a President of the Alabama State Teachers Association. Nathan R. Johnston considered Elliot to be a good friend and provides interesting anecdotal information about him, as well as his portrait, in Johnston’s autobiographical work Looking Back From the Sunset Land: Or People Worth Knowing. In one instance, N.R. Johnston speaks warmly of Elliot’s 1888 address to the ASTA where we know, from other sources, that Elliot told his audience: “Teachers, you are the shapers of thought and the molders of sentiment, not of this age and of this generation alone, but of ages and generations to come. You are making history by those you teach….You are the few that are moulding the masses.” biographical details are given to us in Glasgow’s History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America and The Geneva Book, and in Owen F. Thompson’s Sketches of the Ministers of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America From 1888 to 1930, but Edgar sums up the story (p. 108) of Elliot, who began with the RPCNA, but later joined the PCUS.

The first pastor of the Selma RP Church was George Milton Elliot, a black man born in Virginia in 1849 and a graduate of Geneva College in 1873 and of Allegheny Seminary in 1877. Pittsburgh Presbytery ordained him in 1877, and he was installed as the pastor of the Selma RP Church that year. Elliot had already become Principal of Knox Academy in 1876, so he oversaw both the church and the school in their earliest days. In 1886, Elliot resigned both positions and became a missionary in different locations in the American South for the rest of his life, working with the Presbyterian Church.

• Solomon Ford Kingston (1860-1934) - In addition to tributes about Kingston from the pens of Rev. J.M. Johnston, Rev. R.J. McIsaac, and Rev. W.J. Sanderson which appeared in the May 23, 1934 issue of The Covenanter Witness, Kingston’s biography is told in Thompson’s Sketches and in Alvin W. Smith, Covenanter Ministers, 1930-1963. Further details are given in Glasgow’s The Geneva Book, and in David M. Carson, Pro Christo et Patria: A History of Geneva College, which includes pictures of Kingston and informs us that as a student there he was “a noted athlete and a talented entertainer” (p. 27). Thompson begins:

S.F. Kingston, son of [Benjamin] and Betty Kingston, was born in October, 1860, near Selma, Alabama. His parents were born in slavery and were uneducated. They were members of the Baptist Church. He united with the Reformed Presbyterian Church at Selma, Alabama, in 1877, under the pastorate of the Rev. Lewis Johnston. He attended Burell Academy, Knox Academy and Geneva College, graduating from the latter in 1885. He entered the Reformed Presbyterian Seminary in Allegheny (now North Side Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania, in 1888 and completed the course in 1891. He was licensed to preach the Gospel by Pittsburgh Presbytery April 9, 1890, and was ordained to the Gospel Ministry by the same Presbytery at Wilkinsburg on March 27, 1891. He was appointed to work in Selma, and took up work in that Mission as Stated Supply. Later a regular Gospel call was made upon him by the congregation and on May 13, 1903, he was installed pastor over that congregation by a Commission of Illinois Presbytery. He resigned from that charge in 1927, and has been employed since by organizations engaged in social and charitable service. He was born a Baptist and united with the Reformed Presbyterian Church as a young man. He spent two years in Birmingham, Alabama, as City Missionary. He also taught two years at Greensboro, Alabama. In 1893 he was united in marriage with Miss Anna Rose Patterson of New Brighton, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Kingston died March 1, 1922, at Selma, Alabama, her home.

Smith concludes Kingston’s biographical sketch:

S.F. Kingston, whose biographical sketch appears in Thompson's Sketches of the Ministers up to the year 1930, when that volume was published, was in that year living in Selma, Alabama, and was employed by organizations engaged in social and charitable service. He had resigned his charge as pastor of the Selma congregation in 1927, after having served the Lord and the church in the Southern Mission about thirty-six years. During the years which followed his resignation, there was no letting up of his interest in the advance of Christ's kingdom. He departed this life on March 28, 1934.

Edgar adds the following concerning Kingston (p. 108):

The second pastor of the Selma RPC was Solomon Kingston. The son of illiterate slaves, Kingston joined the Selma congregation in 1877 at age seventeen, attended Knox Academy, finished Geneva College in 1885, and graduated from the Allegheny RP Seminary in 1891. His wife, Anna Rose Patterson from New Brighton, Pennsylvania, conducted Sabbath school at Valley Creek, and their daughter was principal of the East Selma School for a time. Kingston was stated supply in the Selma RPC from 1891-1903 and then its officially installed pastor from 1903-1927, for a total of thirty-six years in Selma.

These three men did much to teach and preach the gospel, and advance the kingdom of God in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Their names are not widely known, but they should be. It is wished that more was known about them, but taking what we have, we give God the glory for their place and part in church history. Let us remember and appreciate their labors for God’s glory. Their legacy in Selma endures.

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National judgments call for national repentance: E.D. McMaster

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Erasmus Darwin McMaster (sometimes spelled MacMaster) [1806-1866], son of Gilbert McMaster, was a notable leader in the Presbyterian Church In the United States of America (PCUSA). Raised in a Covenanter (Reformed Presbyterian) home, he had occasion once to speak of his thankfulness to God for such a heritage as a child of the covenant, along with his ecumenical (in the best sense of the word) desire to see all branches of the Church united as one:

God gave me my birth as a Presbyterian; and I am not ashamed of my ecclesiastical lineage. Without any invidious disparagement of other families of the great Christian commonwealth, I reckon the Presbyterian to be some of the best blood in Christendom. At any rate, the fact that I am born such, is in the predicable of inseperable accidents. I can’t help it. As I was born, so I expect to live and to die, a Presbyterian; - unless God should in mercy, before that event come to me, hasten the day, earnestly hoped for by all the good, when the watchmen upon the walls of Zion shall see eye to eye, and together lift up the voice; and when, as there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all, so there shall be visibly, as there is spiritually, but one body; and all these party names shall be sunk in the one catholic and glorious name, The church of the living God, the ground and pillar of the truth [Inaugural Address as President of Miami University, Ohio, 1845].

Born in Mercer, Pennsylvania, McMaster served the church in many ways - as pastor of the Ballston Centre Presbyterian Church in Ballston, New York (1831-1838); President of Hanover College, Indiana (1838-1845); President of Miami University, Ohio (1845-1849); Professor of Systematic Theology at the Presbyterian Seminary in New Albany, Indiana (later McCormick Theological Seminary) (1849-1858); and later, again, as Professor of Systematic Theology at the same seminary when located in Chicago (1866). More about his remarkable life can be found in L.J. Halsey’s A History of the McCormick Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church (1893); and in W.M. Glasgow’s History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America (1888), who wrote that “He was confessedly one of the great men of the Presbyterian Church in America….As a scholar, theologian and preacher, he was of the first rank.”

In 1849, a cholera epidemic was raging throughout the United States. Not long after former President James K. Polk died of the disease in June, President Zachary Taylor declared a national day of fasting and prayer to be observed on August 3, 1849. E.D. McMaster, in his final days as President of Miami University in Ohio, preached a sermon that day titled Impending Judgments Averted by Repentance. In that sermon — based on Jeremiah 18:1-10, 17 — he speaks not only of personal and family repentance needed, but also corporate and national repentance called for, before the Lord. And, further, McMaster argues that the Lord has promised in His Word mercy, rather than judgment, for those who do personally and corporately repent.

At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them (Jer. 18:7-8).

Because to the Lord Jesus Christ, as a reward for his faithfulness, is given, in his mediatorial office of King, authority over all things (Matt. 28:18), all families, all nations, all societal associations, which are created and established by God, are encompassed under that authority, and have a duty to “Kiss the Son” (Ps. 2:12), that is, to confess subjection and loyalty to Him. This is the argument made by McMaster.

Pre-eminently is it true, that when God establishes a people, either as a Church, or as a nation, or as an aggregation of individuals bound together in the various relations of the society of comity, and associations of business and of pleasure, under peculiar advantages, especially in respect to the knowledge and means of the true religion, he claims a peculiar property in and dominion over them, that they shall subserve the interests of his kingdom….

And is not this equally true of us as a people? Has not God established us under peculiar advantages? I cannot wait to recount all his gracious dealings toward us, in our origin, in all the circumstances connected with our planting as a people, the achievement of our independence as a nation, the establishment of our institutions, political, ecclesiastical, and social, and the manifold blessings which, with so bountiful a hand, he has poured upon us through our whole unexampled career of prosperity. It is not true that God has signally marked us out by the bestowment of peculiar advantages, physical, intellectual, moral, social, political, and religious; especially in the possession of Christianity in its truest and purest forms, untrammeled by the commandments and ordinances of men? Surely must we say, he hath not dealt so with any other people. And is not all this that he may claim a special and peculiar property in and dominion over us as a people, and as a Church in the nation, that in all the different characters, capacities, and relations which we sustain, we shall exist, shall live, shall spend our being and be spent, in carrying through our own land and over the earth the triumphs of that heavenly reign by which the world shall be reclaimed to God, and to true happiness, honour and glory? Confused and mistaken ideas about the peculiar nature of the Israelitish Theocracy, so common even among writers of reputation, may perplex the minds of the ill-instructed and undiscriminating, and strengthen the hands of the wicked in seeking to deny and cast off the dominion of God and his Anointed. Other men will do as they choose, will believe as they choose, about this. For one, I believe and assert, that God’s Christ is as truly this day king of Ohio as he was ever the king of Judea; as truly the king of this whole Confederacy of States as he was ever the king of the twelve tribes of Israel. Say who will, “Who is Jehovah, that we should serve him? who is lord over us?” — who will, “We will not have this man to reign over us:” Jehovah, he is God; and this is the will of the Father, that all men honour the Son even as they honour the Father.

III. When a people peculiarly favored of God, especially in respect to the knowledge and means of the true religion, by a departure from God into sin are failing to accomplish, in the promotion of his kingdom, the end for which he has raised them up, then the destroying judgments of God are impending over that people.

McMaster goes on to discuss distinctions between the chastening of the Lord intended to correct and destroying judgments.

It is of these calamities, which are the execution of Heaven’s vindicatory justice, God’s destroying judgments because of sin, that we here speak. These, we say, are impending over a people, who, peculiarly favoured of the Lord, turn away from him, transgress his law, refuse his dominion, and so are failing to accomplish, in the promotion of his kingdom, the end for which he has raised them up. Much more is this so, if such a people are, not failing merely to accomplish the end for which God has planted and built them up, — but acting in opposition to that end; setting themselves to counterwork, to thwart, as much as in them lies, to defeat that end….

The plan and obvious principle upon which God proceeds in this is, that Jehovah is God the Lord; he has made all things for his own glory; and he will have service of his creatures, or he will reject and cast them away; he will have fruit of the work of his hands, or he will destroy it. So we are taught in the parable of the fig-tree; If it bear fruit, well: if not, cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? Such is the method in which God deals with a sinful people.

After laying out the principles by which God deals with nations in particular, McMaster brings home the point that the people of Ohio, and the the people of the United States, who — having been established by God under peculiar advantages, especially in respect to the knowledge and means of the true religion,” and been the recipients of the gracious blessings of God in so many ways — were at that time experiencing the effects of the dreaded cholera, were called upon “as a people, in all relations, individual, domestic, social, political, ecclesiastical, explicitly, truly, and practically to recognize both God and his Christ, and to enter into and prosecute that which is the appointed end of our being as a people.”

McMaster highlights in this sermon the fact that the Constitution of the United States, by a great and grievous omission, neglects to honor God and, specifically, Jesus Christ, as King over this nation. He also highlights the prevailing (at that time) sin of slavery that both existed and was allowed by that same Constitution. He further raised the question of the morality of the Mexican-American War. But especially McMaster addressed the prevalence of idolatry and superstition across the land and in the churches of 19th century America. Taking no delight in pointing out the sins of his own people, McMaster nevertheless implored his hearers to consider how blessed they were, and how greatly they had, as a people, departed from the commandments of the Lord, and how great their need of repentance was that a great and weighty judgment, which was hanging over their heads at present, might yet be averted.

…the Rule according to which God deals with a people in such a case is; that Repentance shall avert his threatened judgments; perseverance in disobedience to his voice shall upon them his judgments in sure and terrible destruction….

This turning of a people to God must be by them in all the different characters, capacities, and relations which they sustain, and in which they have sinned in departing from him. Individuals in concerns private and personal, families in concerns domestic, churches in concerns ecclesiastical, states and nations in concerns political and national, — all, — all, in their several places, capacities and relations, must return unto Him whose they are, and who claims an absolute and unlimited property in and dominion over them, and yield themselves in their whole being to receive the law of God in Christ, and to promote the ends of his kingdom. In this course there is safety. It is no where else to be found. God is, indeed, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. But he is God, and his honour he will not suffer to be taken from him.

The rod of his anger is a voice calling to America today, and it did in 1849. It calls us to repentance, corporate and personal, and such repentance is the only means by which we may find refuge from distress - in the ark of God, which is Jesus Christ. McMaster’s 1849 sermon is not a short read, but it is a valuable exposition of Biblical principles and analysis of a situation not unlike that which America faces in 2020. Take time to study this call to repentance on every level with prayerful consideration. God is indeed glorified in the repentance of his people, for true repentance on the part of his people, as a rule, leads to mercy on the part of our gracious God.

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John W. Pritchard's Covenanter Bookshelf

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In 1921, John Wagner Pritchard, author of Soldiers of the Church: The Story of What the Reformed Presbyterians (Covenanters) of North America, Canada, and the British Isles, Did to Win the World War of 1914-1918 (1919), and the editor of The Christian Nation, a weekly publication associated with the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America and the National Reform Association, which is published in New York City, conceived the idea of creating a catalog of Covenanter literature. He wrote on March 2: “We are going to try to compile a complete list of all the books written by Covenanters or written about Covenanters.”

Over the next several months, with suggestions contributed by readers in America and overseas, his ambitious goal resulted in a list that exceeded 250 titles. He wrote on June 8: “Columbus thought he had found a group of islands, and did not live long enough to learn that he had discovered a new continent. W'e started in search of sufficient books written by or about Covenanters to fill a shelf, and did not need to live but a few months to learn that there were enough of such books to fill a good sized room.”

Among the sources utilized in this research was James Calvin McFeeteter’s address at the First International Convention of Reformed Presbyterian Churches held in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1896 titled Reformed Presbyterian Literature (American) [available to read here]; and John C. Johnston’s marvelous compendium titled Treasury of the Scottish Covenant (1887), of such usefulness that it is listed twice (#195 and #259), which was unknown to Pritchard at the beginning of this endeavor.

Pritchard’s catalogue met with such success that the 1921 RP Synod ruled that “Authority was conferred to collect as far as possible one copy each of books, catalogued in the Covenanter Book Shelf, for College and Seminary.” The library at the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to this day is the great repository of Covenanter literature in America.

We have recently added Pritchard’s “Covenanter Book Shelf” to his page recently, and it is truly a valuable resources for Covenanters and students of the Covenanters on both sides of the Atlantic. One will find the names of Scottish Covenanters such as Cameron, Cargill, Gillespie, Guthrie, Knox, Melville, Rutherford, Peden, Symington and many others highlighted; as well as American Covenanters Dodds, George, Glasgow, Kennedy, McAllister, McFeeters, McLeod, McMaster, Scott, Sommerville, Sproull, Willson, Wylie and more. As we work our way through this catalogue, we hope to add more and more of the American titles listed to Log College Press. If you have an interest in Covenanter literature, be sure to check out Pritchard and McFeeters and you will benefit from their research.

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A Reformed Presbyterian Brotherly Covenant

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Thomas Sproull, in a September 1879 issue of The Reformed Presbyterian and Covenanter, recounted the circumstances of a joint fast and “Brotherly Covenant” subscribed to by James Renwick Willson and himself, both serving as professors at the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, located then at Allegheny, Pennsylvania, some three decades previously.

I have in my possession a document written by him [James Renwick Willson], of which I briefly give the history. During the session of the seminary, in the winter of 1842 and 1843, the condition of affairs seemed not to be as prosperous as we wished. On an occasion when he and I were together, this was spoken of and the inquiry was, what can be done to secure the divine blessing, which we realized as the great need. It was his suggestion that we observe a day of fasting, to confess our sins, and seek the favor of God, and unite in an act of covenanting. The suggestion met my cordial approval, and at my request he prepared the confession of sins, as causes of fasting, and the bond which we used in our act of covenanting. On January 5, 1843, we met, spent the forenoon of the day in fasting and prayer, and fervently confessed our sins, and engaged in covenanting, using the following formularies that he had prepared…

In their “Causes of Fasting Prepafatory to an Act of Covenanting,” Willson and Sproull identified seven particular sins for which they confessed and mourned:

1. Unbelief and mistrust of God’s promises;

2. Lack of love toward God and the brethren;

3. Unworthy and carnal ambition;

4. Backwardsness in the study of God’s Word and in the means of grace;

5. Relying on their own strength;

6. Lack of holy and enlightened zeal in carrying forward the attainments of their spiritual fathers; and

7. Not wisely applying gospel truth, precepts and rebukes to ourselves before we teach, preach and apply them to others.

Following this time of fasting and prayer, the two men together entered into a “Brotherly Covenant” which we give here in full:

Brotherly Covenant Made and Ratified Before the God of our Covenant Fathers, for our Mutual Strengthening in the Faith, by Jas. R. Willson and Thos. Sproull, January 5, 1843

We hereby renounce all reliance on the deeds of the law for our justification; all the errors against which the church has borne testimony; all worldly maxims and practices as contrary to the word of God; and cast off forever all allegiance to the corrupt civil institutions of these United States; and renounce all ecclesiastical fellowship with such churches as own allegiance to these governments; as also everything, both in church and state, that is either against or beside the Holy Scriptures, and not in accordance with the church's past covenanted attainments.

Again, we avouch the Lord Jehovah to be our God, taking God the Father, for our Father ; Christ His eternal Son for our Mediator, as a prophet to instruct us in personal and official duty, as our great High Priest for our justification by his imputed righteousness, and as our King whose mediatorial power extends over all creation, for the sake of his body which is the church, to whom we promise to render obedience in all his commands, and to whom we do look for protection against all our foes; and the Holy Ghost, the Spirit that proceedeth from the Father and the Son, we take for our sanctifier and comforter.

As also, we renew in this our covenant, our engagements to God in baptism, the Lord's supper, our ordination vows, and our solemn self-dedication to God on entering on the professorship.

We likewise promise and vow, that we will constantly and without deviation in one jot or tittle adhere to all the terms of communion adopted by the Reformed Presbyterian church in relation to her doctrines, worship, government and testimony, and that in ministerial and professional duty w e will never teach anything contrary to them, and that we will never withhold any truth, form of worship, government, point of discipline, or item of testimony through fear of man or to avoid trouble.

Moreover, we will cover one another's infirmities with the mantle of charity; we will never listen to tales of detraction; we will protect each other's reputation; promote one another's usefulness, while continuing in life; pray for each other and in all things "strive together for the faith of the gospel."

Likewise; we will discountenance with all our might, all causes calculated to divide the body of Christ, and to cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which we have learned, and we will avoid all such as pursue these divisive courses.

Finally; we rely on the aid of the Holy Ghost, in the Spirit of our most blessed and precious Redeemer, to impart strength for the faithful performance of this vow and covenant, and call on a three-one God in Christ to bear witness to our integrity of heart in making this most solemn engagement.

This “Brotherly Covenant” was a means of strengthening the faith of these two men and the work of the seminary. “Reformed Presbyterians hold that social religious Covenanting is an ordinance of God to be entered into by the individual, the church, and the nation” (William M. Glasgow, History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America, p. 56). Here we have a 19th century American example on the individual level.

The Historical Sketches of Thomas Sproull

Thomas Sproull (1803-1892) was one of the nineteenth-century giants of the American Covenanter Church. As both a pastor and a professor (emeritus) of theology for the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, he spent his life in the service of “Christ’s Crown & Covenant.”

A frequent contributor to The Reformed Presbyterian and Covenanter magazine, in 1875 he authored a series of 10 articles titled “The Reformed Presbyterian Church in America: Historical Sketches.” This is a valuable history of the RPCNA from the first arrival of Covenanters from Scotland in New Jersey around 1685 up to the regrettable disruption of 1833. In 1876 and 1877, he further published a series of 13 articles titled “Reformed Presbyterian Church in America: Sketches of Her Organic History,” which constitutes an effort to extend the history of the RPCNA during this time period through her official judicial records.

Sproull covers much interesting ground his articles, discussing its Testimony and the distinctives of the RPCNA, its internal strife, the establishment of its seminary, its missionary labors, and its many contributions to the kingdom of God on the earth. The two series of articles were relied upon by William Melancthon Glasgow when he compiled his History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America (1888), and as consolidated PDF files here at Log College Press, they will assist the student of early American Covenanter church history greatly.

May 27, 1871: The Reformed Presbyterian Covenant of 1871

The Reformed Presbyterian Church of North American in its Directory of Public Worship teaches about the principle of covenanting: 

"Covenanting with God is a solemn act of worship in which individuals, churches, or nations declare their acceptance of Him as their God and pledge allegiance and obedience to Him. Public covenanting is an appropriate response to the Covenant of Grace. The 'Covenant of Communicant Membership' is to be accepted by individuals who profess faith in Christ and unite with the Church. Ordinarily, such individuals are to give public assent to this covenant in the presence of the congregation. When circumstances warrant, churches and nations also may produce statements of responsibility arising from the application of the Word of God to the times in which they are made. Such covenants have continuing validity in so far as they give true expression to the Word of God for the times and situations in which believers live. (For a fuller discussion of vows and covenanting see Testimony, chapter 22 ['Of Lawful Oaths and Vows'], especially paragraphs 8 and 9.) Examples of such covenants are the Scottish National Covenant of 1638, the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643, and the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America’s Covenant of 1871."

On May 27, 1871, the Synod of the RPCNA, meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, entered into a solemn covenant and confession of sins before the Lord. The history of this event as well as the text of the Covenant itself is recorded by William Melancthon Glasgow in his History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of America. Glasgow notes concerning Samuel Oliver Wylie (1819-1883) that "He was the Chairman of the Committee which drafted the Covenant of 1871, and, with a few changes, was adopted as it came from his pen." The Covenant has six sections - section 5 is reproduced here. The history and full text of the 1871 Covenant (also known as the "Pittsburgh Covenant") from Glasgow can be read here. 

"5. Rejoicing that the enthroned Mediator is not only King in Zion, but King over all the earth, and recognizing the obligation of His command to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, and to teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and resting with faith in the promise of His perpetual presence as the pledge of success, we hereby dedicate ourselves to the great work of making known God's light and salvation among the nations, and to this end will labor that the Church may be provided with an earnest, self-denying and able ministry. Profoundly conscious of past remissness and neglect, we will henceforth, by our prayers, pecuniary contributions and personal exertions, seek the revival of pure and undefiled religion, the conversion of Jews and Gentiles to Christ, that all men may be blessed in Him, and that all nations may call him blessed."

Of this section it has been noted: "We hail with delight one special feature of this Pittsburgh Covenant—its recognition of the obligations to missionary and evangelistic effort. There is particular allusion, it is true, to this duty in the Solemn League and Covenant, but it is entirely overlooked in subsequent renovations of it, or the Bonds of Adherence which the Churches, from time to time, have adopted. It is here brought out with a clearness and prominence worthy of its great importance. There is something touching in the express references to past shortcomings on this head. They furnish evidence that the men who framed and subscribed this Covenant are not moving in the mere groove of antiquated forms and traditions, but are alive and awake to the momentous responsibilities of the present hour" (The Reformed Presbyterian Magazine, Oct. 2, 1871).

The RPCNA entered into a briefer Covenant subsequently on July 18, 1954. But it was the Covenant of 1871 that signified a distinctly American application of the principle of covenanting within the RPCNA. Take time to read the six sections, and Glasgow's history of a special day in the history of Reformed Presbyterianism in America here.