An American Jeremiad by David Caldwell

Although his main aim in life was to serve the Lord as a minister of the gospel, by necessity, David Stewart Caldwell, Sr. (1725-1824) often found himself bound to serve his community in other capacities. He established a “Log College” in his home in 1767 in order to teach young people; he studied medicine and worked as a physician to attend to the medical needs of those around him where doctors were lacking; and he served (unsuccessfully) as a mediator at the 1771 Battle of Alamance between Governor Tryon and the Regulators who were resisting unjust British taxes.

Some refer to this battle as the first battle of the American War of Independence. In any case, the behavior of Tryon, who personally and impulsively executed one of the Regulators on the spot without trial, and later executed several captured prisoners, shocked and disturbed Caldwell. Also, in 1766, he had married Rachel Craighead, daughter of the first American Covenanter minister in America, Alexander Craighead, who had preached against British tyranny as early as 1743 and who had inspired the famous 1775 Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. So when Alexander MacWhorter and Elihu Spencer came to North Carolina in 1775 seeking a someone to rouse colonial resistance to British tyranny from the pulpit, they found David Caldwell willing to rise to the occasion. Sometime in early 1776, Caldwell preached a sermon based on Proverbs 12:24 (“the slothful shall be under tribute”) titled “The Character and Doom of the Sluggard.” This sermon, known to history (perhaps regrettably) as “the Sluggard Sermon,” preached shortly before John Witherspoon’s famous “The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men,” has been called “a seven-thousand word Jeremiad detailing the sinfulness of political indifference and the wickedness of cowering before a tyrant” (Robert McCluer Calhoon, Political Moderation in America’s First Two Centuries, p. 123).

Caldwell here aimed to stir up his parishioners, many of whom had previously served as Regulators, to support the early resolutions of the Continental Congress on behalf of independence:

We have therefore come to that trying period in our history in which it is manifest that the Americans must either stoop under a load of the vilest slavery, or resist their imperious and haughty oppressors; but what will follow must be of the utmost importance to every individual of these United Colonies; and should be the hearty concern of every honest American. — What will be recorded on the following page of our history must depend very much on our conduct; for if we act like the sluggard, refuse, from the mere love of ease and self indulgence, to make the sacrifices and efforts which the circumstances require, or, from cowardice and pusillanimity, shrink from dangers and hardships, we must continue in our present state of bondage and oppression, while that bondage and oppression may be increased until life itself will become a burden; but if we stand up manfully and unitedly in defence of our rights, appalled by no dangers and shrinking from no toils or privations, we shall do valiantly. Our foes are powerful and determined on conquest; but our cause is good; and in the strength of the Lord, who is mightier than all, we shall prevail.

This sermon had the rousing effect that was intended (on April 12, 1776, the Halifax Convention authorized North Carolina’s delegates to the Continental Congress to vote for independence), and North Carolina did much to embrace and support the Patriots’ cause during the War. Caldwell and his family suffered greatly for their adherence to the cause of freedom: British General Cornwallis placed a £200 bounty on Caldwell’s head, and his house was plundered, his library and livestock destroyed, and his family was mistreated by British soldiers. Before and during the 1781 Battle of Guilford, Caldwell was forced to hide in a nearby swamp. But Caldwell and his wife Rachel outlived this war and the War of 1812.

The two of them, meanwhile, resumed their Log College labors with tremendous success. “Caldwell Academy, which Reverend Caldwell began in 1767, became the most well known and longest lasting of any of the thirty-three Presbyterian log colleges that were established before the Revolutionary War. At the time the academy closed, almost all of the Presbyterian ministers in the South were either graduates of or had taught at the college, about 135 ministers in all. Five governors, fifty U.S. senators and congressmen and numerous doctors had attended Caldwell Academy. Rachel got to know all the students at the academy, was extremely kind to them and instructed them in every way possible on their salvation. It was said that ‘David Caldwell made them scholars, but Mrs. Caldwell made them preachers’” (Richard P. Plumer, Charlotte and the American Revolution: Reverend Alexander Craighead, the Mecklenburg Declaration & the Foothills Fight for Independence, p. 67).

Consecrate Our Children: G.B. Strickler

Among the addresses given to commemorate the 1888 centennial of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (which is available to read in its entirety on our Compilations page) is one by Givens Brown Strickler titled “The Children of the Covenant.” It is a brief address emphasizing the Presbyterian doctrine of covenant theology, based on the promises of God, and its outworking in the place of children within the Church. He concludes his address with an important point about the need for parents, as stewards of God’s good gift, to consecrate their children to the Lord.

Another reason for our interest in children is our belief that the Scriptures teach the duty of consecrating them to God in a covenant well ordered and sure. As we consecrate our time, and possessions, and ourselves to God, so should we consecrate our children. God never asks for the consecration of anything that He will not accept. As God accepts parents He accepts their children, and as He accepts the parents promising to be their God and Saviour, so He accepts the children as their God and Saviour. He is obliged to do so, unless we assume that God requires a consecration and then refuses to receive it. The seal of the covenant guarantees that the consecrated shall be accepted, as the rainbow that stretched across the heavens guaranteed that the world should not again be destroyed by water. So the sprinkling of the water of baptism assures parents that their consecration of their children shall not be in vain. By means like these the Presbyterian Church in every age of the world has shown its interest in its youth, and the result has been that Presbyterian children growing to manhood and womanhood have, as a rule, been characterized by clearer, stronger, and more settled views of truth than the children of any other people in the history of the world, and have been as useful, as earnest and as persevering propagators of the truth of God's Word as the world has ever seen.

A 19th century American Covenanter on the blessings of the Christian Sabbath

Writing in 1892, Reformed Presbyterian minister James Calvin McFeeters had this to say about the sweet blessings of the Christian Sabbath:

The Sabbath was ordained also for worship. It conveys two great blessings to man, — the privilege of rest and of praise. These are the "silvery wings" of this dove of peace, that hovers over our earth with a benediction for every one who will look up and receive. The Sabbath comes to anoint the soul with new strength, and lead it into the presence of God, to worship the Creator of heaven and earth. It comes as the shadow of Jesus, whose memorial it is, and his people can sit in the pleasant shade, to be regaled with the cool and balmy winds, which subdue the fever arising from protracted toil. The day is well spent, only when it is given back to God in holy services. This is rest. We worship that we may rest. The holy use of the Sabbath, by the active employment of our spiritual powers, is the best rest for both body and soul. Change of employment brings the perfect rest. To lift up the mind in contemplation of the divine, the heavenly, the eternal, and to assume the attitude of devotion — this is for most people the greatest possible change, and therefore, the greatest possible rest. Hence Covenanters have written in their Testimony, (and try to practice what they write): "The whole day is to be employed exclusively in the public and private exercises of God's worship, except so much of it as may be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy" (The Covenanters in America, pp. 167-168).

May these words be an encouragement to you, dear reader, as the Sabbath day approaches this week.

New Schaff resources at LCP

Although Philip Schaff was from Germany and originally a minister in the German Reformed Church, he later came to America, joined the Presbyterian Church in the USA, and served on the faculty of Union Theological Seminary in New York.

And although he was an exponent of Mercersburg Theology, he was also a very able and judicious church historian. A prolific writer, he published the first volume of his History of the Christian Church in 1858. Volumes 2-4, 6 and 7 were also published during his lifetime, and vols. 5, part 1 and 2 were edited and published by his son, David Schley Schaff, posthumously. Three volumes of The Creeds of Christendom were published in 1877. These two sets, in particular, have been republished to the present day, and remain standard works in church history and historical theology.

These, along with other volumes by these two noted church historians, are now available to read at Log College Press.

19th Century Devotionals for 21st Century Readers at Log College Press

Are you in search of a classic devotional reading for 2019? We have some to offer at Log College Press. Some are intended to provide daily meditations for prayerful consideration on each day of the year; others are general guides to studying the Bible and to Christian living; and still others are full of inspirational thoughts and poetry for the Christian reader. Consider the following:

Daily Devotional Readings for the Whole Year

• James Russell Miller has at least two such compilations of devotional readings for each day of the year: Dr. Miller's Year Book: A Year's Daily Readings (1895) and Morning Thoughts For Every Day in the Year (1906);

• William Rogers Richards published The Truth in Love: From the Sermons of William R. Richards (1912);

• Charles Adamson Salmond wrote For Days of Youth: A Bible Text and Talk For Every Day of the Year (1896) aimed at young people;

• Thomas De Dwitt Talmage authored Choice Readings for Every Day in the Year (1875); and

• Henry Jackson Van Dyke, Jr. wrote The Friendly Year (1900, 1903).

Guides to Bible Study and Christian Living

• James Waddel Alexander wrote Uncle Austin and His Nephews, or, The Scripture Guide - Being a Familiar Introduction to the Study of the Bible (1838);

• James Robert Boyd wrote Daily Communion With God on the Plan Recommended by the Rev. Matthew Henry, V.D.M., For Beginning, Spending, Concluding Each Day With God (1873);

• Charles Hodge authored The Way of Life (1841);

• James Russell Miller published a series of devotional studies covering the whole Bible, of which we have seven out of the eight volumes;

• Alfred Nevin wrote two guides to the study of the Scriptures: Guide to the Oracles; or, The Bible Student's Vade-Mecum (1858) and The Book Opened; or, An Analysis of the Bible (1873); and

• Robert Craig Reed authored Helps to Christian Devotion, Consisting of Dissertations on the Psalms (1833).

Inspirational Thoughts, Sermons and Poems

• Maltbie Davenport Babcock’s Thoughts for Every-Day Living from the Spoken and Written Words of Maltbie Davenport Babcock (1901) was posthumously published and filled with meditations, poems and inspirational thoughts;

• Henry Augustus Boardman’s Mottoes For the New Year, as Given in Texts of Sermons (1882) contains sermons given to encourage believers in the New Year; and

• William Henry Fentress, the blind Presbyterian minister who died so young, authored Love Truths From the Bible (1879), which contains sweet sermons that point to Christ on every page.

There are valuable devotional resources here that may be a help to your spiritual walk in 2019. Consider adding one or more of these volumes to your reading list in the morning or evening, and may these 19th century writers be a blessing to you in the New Year ahead.

Christian, do you experience depression? You are not alone - read this from the journal of David Brainerd

It was a Sabbath evening nearly 300 years ago when young David Brainerd wrote this in his journal:

Lord’s day, Dec, 16. [1744]

Was so overwhelmed with dejection, that I knew not how to live. I longed for death exceedingly: my soul was sunk into deep waters, and floods were ready to drown me. I was so much oppressed, that my soul was in a kind of horror; could not keep my thoughts fixed in prayer, for the space of one minute, without fluttering and distraction; and was exceedingly ashamed, that I did not live to God. I had no distressing doubt about my own state; but would have cheerfully ventured (as far as I could possibly know) into eternity.

While I was going to preach to the Indians, my soul was in anguish; I was so overborne with discouragement that I despaired of doing any good, and was driven to my wit’s-end; I knew nothing what to say, nor what course to take. But at last I insisted on the evidence we have of the truth of Christianity form the miracles of Christ; many of which I set before them: and God helped me to make a close application to those who refused to believe the truth of what I taught them. Indeed I was enabled to speak to the consciences of all, in some measure, and was somewhat encouraged to find that God enabled me to be faithful once more.

Them came and preached to another company of them; but was very weary and faint. In the evening, I was refreshed and enabled to pray and praise God with composure and affection; had some enlargement and courage with respect to my work; was willing to live, and longed to do more for God than my weak state of body would admit of.

I can do all things through Christ that strengtheth me; and by his grace, I am willing to spend and be spent in his Service, when l am not thus sunk in dejection and a kind of despair.

This great saint, the minister and missionary who spent himself in service to God and Native Americans, also struggled with bouts of depression, which is evident in reading his journal. If you are reading this, dear Christian, and you can relate, be encouraged, as Brainered was, by the promises of God for the support of his precious saints. And know that you are not alone. (HT: Victor McKinnon)

Who was the finest exegete in the history of the Church? - T.V. Moore answers

Thomas Verner Moore was a Biblical commentator of very high rank. In the introduction to his commentary on the books of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi discussed his opinion of who constitutes the best expositor of the Bible in church history.

The first expositor of real value was Calvin. His commentaries on the Minor Prophets were delivered in the form of expository lectures in a daily exercise, and extend through one hundred and eighty-two lectures, which were delivered extempore, and taken down as they were spoken. There is probably nothing that he has left behind him which gives a more distinct notion of the man and the times than these lectures. That a congregation could be formed who would take so deep an interest in such expositions admits us to the heart of the Reformation, and lays bare to us the secret of its life, which was, a living grasp of the Word of God. The style of these lectures, the allusions to passing events, and the ocassional abrupt ending of a lecture with the remarks, "we stop here until to-morrow," gives a life-like vividness, and actual presence to these daily exercises, that invest them with unusual interest. Each lecture also ends with a prayer, and these prayers for condensed energy and fervor, grasp of thought, and concentration of the whole spirit of the preceding lecture into devotional forms, are even more remarkable than the lectures themselves. The prodigous intellect of that remarkable man is felt in these prayers more intensely by a careful reader than in almost anything else he has left behind him. But the lectures are very remarkable productions. Calvin had probably one of the finest exegetical minds that God has ever granted to his Church in modern times. He had a direct looking into the heart of the passage, a fine sympathy with the mind of the writer, a freedom from all that is fanciful and foolish, and a justness of thinking that leads him almost instinctively to the correct view of the passage. To some, this may seem to be extravagant laudation, but not to those who have carefully studied his commentaries. Their merits have extorted tributes of the highest character from those whom nothing could move to give such tributes but the most unquestioned excellence. One of the most remarkable of these is from the pen of the man whose name has been embalmed in theological antagonism to his, the celebrated, acute, and learned Arminius. He says, "Next to the reading of Scripture, which I strongly recommend, I advise you to read the commentaries of Calvin, on whom I bestow higher eulogies than Helmichius did, for I consider that he is incomparable in interpreting Scripture, and that his Commentaries are of more value than all that the library of the Fathers transmits to us; so that I concede to him a spirit of prophecy superior to that of most, yea, of all others." (Commentary on Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, pp. 35-36) - HT: Rocky A. Simbaion

Charles Hodge on Meditation as a Means of Grace

In the context of discussing a recurring theme in sermons by Charles Hodge dealing with the importance of meditation in the life of the Christian believer, Andrew Hoffecker writes:

In a conference sermon on the subject “Meditation as a Means of Grace,” Hodge pointed out the main distinction between meditation and mere intellectual consideration of an idea. The object of the latter is merely to understand intellectually while the object of meditation is to experience the power of God’s Word. He outlines suggestions to aid in this exercise. Believers ought to purpose to do this faithfully, setting aside times when it might be regularly performed. It should be done concomitantly with prayer, i.e., “not only in the formal sense of the word, but also as meaning converse with God.” (W. Andrew Hoffecker, Piety and the Princeton Theologians, pp. 82-83)

Here is the text briefly and directly from Hodge:

Meditation as a Means of Grace

I. What is meditation?
It is the serious, prolonged, devout contemplation of divine things. 1. This is distinguished from mere intellectual examination or consideration. It has a different object. The object of the one is to understand, of the other to experience the power. 2. It is distinguished from casual devout thought and aspiration.

II. It is a means of grace. By means of grace is meant a divinely appointed instrumentality for promoting holiness in the soul. That meditation is such a means is proved, 1. From its being frequently enjoined in Scripture for this end. 2. From the example of the saint as recorded in Scripture. 3. From the experience of the people of God in all ages.

III. Why is it thus salutary? 1. Because God has appointed his truth as the great means of sanctification. 2. Because the truth, to produce its effect, must be present to the mind. "God is not in all his thoughts," it is said of the wicked. "Estranged from God," is the description of the ungodly. 3. The intimate relation between knowledge and feeling, between the cognition and recognition, the … (knowing), and the … (acknowledgment) of divine truth. 4. Because all unholy feelings are subdued in the presence of God, unsound principles are corrected in the light of divine truth. We become conformed to the things with which we are familiar.

IV. Subjects on which we should meditate, are, God, — his law, — his Son, — the plan of salvation, — our own state as sinners, — heaven, etc.

V. Difficulties in the way of this duty. 1. The difficulty of continuous thought. 2. Preoccupation with other things. 3. Indisposition to holding communion with God. 4. Want of method and purpose.

VI. Directions for the performance of the duty. 1. Form the purpose to be faithful in its discharge, from a sense of duty and conviction of its importance. 2. Have a time and place sacred to the duty. 3. Connect it with prayer, not only in the formal sense of the word, but also as meaning converse with God. 4. Connect it with the reading of the Scriptures. Meditate on the word. Read it slowly, with self-application, and pondering its import. 5. Cultivate the habit application, and pondering its import. 5. Cultivate the habit of controlling your thoughts. Do not let them be governed by accident or fortuitous association. Keep the rudder always in your hand. 6. Do not be discouraged by frequent failure; and do not suppose that the excitement of feeling is the measure of advantage. There may be much learned, and much strength gained when there is little emotion. 7. Consecrate the hours especially of social and public worship to this work. Let the mind be filled with God while in his house. (Charles Hodge, sermon preached on Oct. 28, 1855 in Princeton Sermons, pp. 298-299 and Conference Papers, pp. 298-299)

Plumer and Prime on the Power of Prayer

We have noted previously that James Waddel Alexander wrote a wonderful memorial of the Fulton Street prayer meeting and revival of 1857-1858. But the theme of the power of prayer stirred up by this revival was especially the province of Samuel Irenaeus Prime, who authored four volumes on this topic over the years:

• The Power of Prayer, Illustrated in the Wonderful Displays of Divine Grace at the Fulton Street and Other Meetings in New York and Elsewhere, in 1857 and 1858 (1858, 1859);

• Five Years of Prayer, With the Answers (1864);

• Fifteen Years of Prayer in the Fulton Street Meeting (1872); and

• Prayer and Its Answer: Illustrated in the First Twenty-Five Years of the Fulton Street Prayer Meeting (1882).

Prime was above all a man of prayer, and deeply impressed with both its necessity in the life of the believer, and its efficacy. In the last volume (p. 147), he shared this thought about prayer’s power:

In the Christian life and in Christian labor prayer is all powerful, for in prayer we lay hold of God's omnipotence. A minister said he had been deeply impressed with the thought that power comes from God. In the battle of Waterloo, some of the English troops were ordered to fall on their faces for a time, so as to let the deadly fire of the French artillery go over them. At the right moment the command came to spring to their feet and show fight. So it was suggested, as the soldiers of the Lord, we need often to fall flat upon our faces before Him in humiliation of heart, and wait until He calls on us for action.

In Prime’s first record of the 1857-1858 revival, several chapters are included from other contributors, such as William Swan Plumer on the efficacy of prayer. This chapter is a real gem. Plumer writes (p. 350) a truth that we do well to remember:

It is not possible to over-estimate the value of prayer. For more than thirty-five years I have had much intercourse with dying saints and sinners of various ages and conditions. In all that time I have not heard one express regret that he had spent too much time in prayer; I have heard many mourn that they had so seldom visited a throne of grace.

Why Study Natural Theology? - R.L. Dabney Answers

“It may be asked, if Natural Theology cannot save, why study it?

I answer: 1st. It teaches some truths; and no truth is valueless. 2d. When Revelation comes, Natural Theology gives satisfaction to the mind, by showing us two independent lines of proof for sundry great propositions[.] 3d. It excites the craving of the soul for a Revelation. 4th. When that comes, it assists us to verify it, because it meets the very wants which Natural Theology has discovered.” — Robert Lewis Dabney, Systematic Theology, Lecture VII, p. 77) — HT: Daniel Kok

A Conventicle in Snow Time: David McAllister

A Conventicle in Snow Time

A DEEP-TONED, bitter, sullen wind was sweeping,
Across the upland waste;
Each living thing its covert close was keeping,
Or sought it in its haste.

Yet, when the swirling, drifted snow was filling
Each cave and sheltered nook,
A solemn, plaintive strain of praise came thrilling
Up from an ice-bound brook.

A remnant, sore-bested, had come together,
To mourn, and watch, and pray,
Unmindful of the wind and dreary weather
Of that wild, wrathful day.

A valiant and a famous standard-bearer
Was lately done to death; —
One, who of many perils was a sharer,
Had spent his latest breath.

It was a time of sorrow, dread, and grieving,
To those heart-stricken men;
And they had met, their burdened souls relieving,
Up in that stormy glen.

A youth of comely form and mien arising,
The gospel message told.
In fervour nought withholding, nought disguising,
Like faithful seer of old.

All in the wintry wind and snow-drift standing,
With cold and frost distrest,
His earnest voice, the heart and ear commanding,
Moved every captive breast.

For higher gifts of hope and faith he pleaded —
For greater love and zeal;
Not vainly uttered; not unfelt, unheeded,
Passed the sublime appeal!

On him and all around the snow was falling,
Yet there they held their place.
Though, overhead, the winter-blast appalling
Pursued its rapid chase.

From morn to darkling eve they clung together,
Unwilling to depart;
The saintly love they bore to one another
Had bound them heart to heart.

And yet, a higher sentiment withheld them
From courting selfish rest;
The love of Him whose friendly eye beheld them
Unworthy thought represt.

Oh, boast not men whose heartless, cruel mission
Was tracking such as these,
To gratify a tyrant’s wrong ambition —
His bigot whims to please!

And, tell us not of chivalry and daring,
Or deeds of valour done;
When, at the price of cruelty unsparing,
The palm of fame was won!

Swift come the season, when the deep devotion
Of those who braved the rage
Of banded furies, roused to fell commotion,
Shall every heart engage!

Be not far hence, bright day, when holier feeling
The world wide shall control,
And love unstinted, to the heart appealing,
Shall mould each kindred soul.

For, wheresoever PIETY is cherished,
And loved by young and old,
The grand old memories of martyrs perished
Are treasured and extolled!

— David McAllister, Poets and Poetry of the Covenant, pp. 212-214

An Educated People and Ministry

“The Nineteenth Century was a great century for collegiate education in America. Colleges by the score were founded across the country, most of them by some church group. Among the churches which took the lead in this enterprise, the most outstanding were the various Presbyterian bodies. Their emphasis on an educated ministry, which was one of the universal characteristics of the Presbyterian system, made it imperative that colleges be available to train the church leadership. The high cost of travel and the relatively low cost of starting a college led to the formation of a large number of rather small colleges wherever the church became established. The United Presbyterian Church offers an excellent example of this trend. Though its constituency numbered only a few thousand, by 1890 it had a close association with no fewer than twelve colleges, not including Knoxville College for Negroes or the mission colleges overseas. Of this dozen, to be sure, there were many which were never under complete denominational control, but they all had been organized by ministers of the Church and felt a close relationship to it.” — Wallace N. Jamison, “An Educated People and Ministry,” in The United Presbyterian Story, p. 144

“The Presbyterian and Reformed Churches take pride in the fact of a trained ministry. This has marked their record. It was seen that the sum of Christian truth could be unfolded and applied only by cultured thinkers and mouth-pieces. There was also the realization that, with their democratic government, an effective leadership must be had, a leadership fitted for intelligent direction. For these reasons a thorough ministerial education was planned and sought after in all ecclesiastical bodies of the Presbyterian and Reformed type.” — John McNaugher, Theological Education in the United Presbyterian Church and Its Ancestories (1931), p. 4

B.B. Warfield and J.G. Vos on the Language of Christianity

“No one will doubt that Christians of today must state their beliefs in terms of modern thought. Every age has a language of its own and can speak no other. Mischief only comes when, instead of stating Christian beliefs in terms of modern thought, and effort is made, rather, to state modern thought in terms of Christian belief.” — B.B. Warfield, Review of Foundations: A Statement of Christian Belief in Terms of Modern Thought, by Seven Oxford Men, in Critical Reviews, The Works of Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield (1932; reprint, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1991), 10:322

“The Bible is bent or distorted when it is interpreted in terms of some system of non-biblical thought. The late Dr. Benjamin B. Warfield, one of America’s most distinguished theological scholars, said that there can be no objection to stating Christianity in terms of modern thought. Every age, said Dr. Warfield, speaks a language of its own and can speak no other. Mischief only comes, he added, when under the guise of re-stating Christianity in terms of modern thought what is actually done is to state modern thought in terms of Christian belief. In other words, when under the guise of up-dating the form, what actually happens is that the content has been tamped with, then the Bible and its teachings have been bent or distorted.” — Johannes Geerhardus Vos, “Bible Breaking, Bible Bending, and Bible Believing,” in John H. White, ed., The Book of Books: Essays on the Scriptures in Honor of Johannes G. Vos (1978), p. 6

Lays of the Cross: Charles Washington Baird

One of the great Huguenot historians, Charles Washington Baird, like so many of our Presbyterian ministers, was also a poet. Posthumously published, his Lays of the Cross constitute a series of seven poems relating to Christ on the cross, followed by one additional poem titled “Domine, Quo Vadis?” These are found in the Memorials of the Rev. Charles W. Baird, D.D. (1888). Take time to peruse his poetry because he used his gifts to point his readers to the cross. One sample:

BEARING THE CROSS

I saw the Lord with painful steps and slow
To Calvary’s height His weary course begin;
His bending shoulders bore the Cross of sin;
His fainting spirit carried all our woe;
I saw the priests in cruel triumph go;
The careless soldiers hemmed their prisoner in,
Whose pallid brow, whose visage marred and thin,
The curious crowds with sorrowing pity know.
”My suffering Lord!” with trembling voice I cried,
When first that wounded form I chanced to see:
”To me, to me, Thy shameful load confide;
Be mine the bliss to bear the Cross for Thee!”
”Nay, zealous child,” my gracious Lord replied,
”Bear thou thy cross, and come and follow Me.”

French Huguenot Blood in American Presbyterians

Ashbel Green Vermilye once wrote a work titled The Huguenot Element Among the Dutch (1877) in which he noted:

The Church of Jesus Christ is being made up in the same way "out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation." No one people, no one nation is or will be permitted to claim a monopoly of contribution to her glory. Our great Centennial Exhibition, now in progress, where Chinese and Japanese from the gate way of the East, the mighty inventive genius of the West, and so many nationalities of different complexions and grades of advancement are vying together in peaceful competitive display, is not so large and various a combination of materials as will compose the Church and its glory when it shall be seen complete in heaven. We have occasionally heard a rich brogue or accent in the pulpit, and foreign turns of thought and expression, which added greatly to the charm and effect of the sermon or prayer; just as a child's lisp or a woman's voice have sometimes given a new touch of tenderness and beauty to the Lord's prayer. And this same variety, these effects of diverse training, experience, nurture, God is now working into the consummate glory of heaven. Ah! there, too, they shall hear them speak every man in his own language, “every man in his own tongue wherein he was born" — the dear mother tongue;" and the great assembly shall be perpetually reminded of tho largeness and freeness of His grace in Christ Jesus. "Out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation!" In the history of the Church's development thus far, how many names, each name a power, come up in illustration of this thought! What fine fruitage of grace Africa presents in Monica and Augustine, devoted mother, time honored son! But Ambrose, by whose help that son is at length ripened into fruitage of grace, is a branch from distant Gaul [France]. And so, as the ages proceed, and notwithstanding the darkness of some of them, we find the “good seed, the children of the kingdom," ever more widely scattered; and producing among different people and tongues such kings of thought and kingly souls as Bernard, and Luther, and Calvin, and Wesley, and Edwards…

While many American Presbyterians can unsurprisingly trace their ancestory to the Scots-Irish, many others have different backgrounds, which, in the providence of God, combine to make a beautiful tapestry. This post examines a sampling of the writers at Log College Press who share one particular thread of the tapestry - French Huguenot ancestory:

• Elias Boudinot IV (1740-1821) - “Elias' paternal grandfather, Elie (sometimes called Elias) Boudinot, was the son of Jean Boudinot and Marie Suire of Marans, Aunis, France. They were a Huguenot (French Protestant) family who fled to New York about 1687 to avoid the religious persecutions of King Louis XIV.” - Wikipedia

• Ephraim Brevard (1744-1781) - An important Presbyterian contributor to both the 1775 Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence and the 1775 Charlotte Town Resolves, Ephraim was the grandson of Jean Paul Brevard (1664-1747), a French Huguenot émigré.

• James Caldwell (1734-1781) - According to Norman F. Brydon’s biography of “the Fighting Parson,” Reverend James Caldwell: Patriot, 1734-1781, the Caldwell family originated from French Huguenot stock, which emigrated to Scotland to seek religious freedom, where they found instead Episcopal persecution. Ultimately, the Caldwell family made it to America where James became a distinguished hero of the faith in the fight for spiritual and political independence.

• Samuel Jones Cassels (1805-1853) - “Cassels' father was a South Carolinian, a descendant of the Huguenots.” - Lawrence Huff, “Samuel Jones Cassels: A Pioneer Georgia Poet,” The Georgia Historical Quarterly, Vol. 47, No. 4 (Dec. 1963), p. 408.

• Robert Lewis Dabney (1820-1898) - Dabney’s biographer, T.C. Johnson, says: “The Dabneys are numerous in Massachusetts, in Virginia and in the Mississippi Valley. It is commonly believed amonst them that they are all related, and it is prevalently held amongst them that their origin, on this side the Atlantic, was in three brothers — Robert Dabney, or d'Aubigne, who came to Boston a short time previous to 1717, and John and Cornelius Dabney, or d'Aubigne, who came to Virginia between 1715, perhaps, and 1720. It is also their prevalent belief that these brothers came to this country from England; that the family had fled thither from France on occasion of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Finally, many in all branches of this widespread family claim descent from the old confessor, Theodore Agrippa d'Aubigne.” (The Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney, p. 2)

• Hampden Coit Dubose (1845-1910) - The famous Southern Presbyterian missionary to China is a direct descendant of the French Huguenot émigré Isaac Du Bosc (1661-1718), who in 1685 following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes settled in Charleston, South Carolina, where Hampden was born 160 years later.

• George Duffield II (1732-1790), and his descendants, including George Duffield IV (1794-1868), and George Duffield V (1818-1888) [and perhaps other notable Duffields, such as John Thomas Duffield (1823-1901) and Samuel Willoughby Duffield (1843-1887)] “were of Huguenot origin, their forefathers having escaped from France on account of religious persecution. The name was originally Du Fielde, but became Anglicised after the family settled in England.” (Biographical Annals of Franklin County, Pennsylvania, Vol. 1, p. 362)

• John Lafayette Girardeau (1825-1898) - George A. Blackburn, citing records from Charles W. Baird’s History of Huguenot Emigration to America, affirms that “In this illustrious company were the ancestors of John L. Girardeau.” (The Life Work of John L. Girardeau, D.D., LLD., pp. 7-8)

• Francis James Grimké (1850-1937) - One of the most interesting stories found here is that of the son of Henry Grimké, a white slaveowner from Charleston, South Carolina, and Nancy Weston, a slave of European and African descent, with whom Henry Grimké, as a widower, had a common-law relationship. Henry was the grandson of John Faucheraud Grimké (1752-1819), an eminent member of Charleston society, whose maternal grandparents emigrated from France to South Carolina to escape persecution after the 1685 Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. When Henry died in 1852, his will directed that Francis (and his brothers Archibald and John) be treated as members of the family. But, after they were claimed as slaves by their half-brother Montague in 1860, it was not until 1868, when a an address by Archibald at Lincoln University that was highlighted in The Anti-Slavery Standard received attention from Henry’s sisters, the abolitionists Sarah Grimké (1792-1873) and Angelina Grimké Weld (1805-1879), that Francis and his brothers were officially welcomed with open arms into the family and given financial support to pursue their higher education, which, for Francis, enabled him to graduate from Princeton and become a Presbyterian minister.

• Charles Hodge (1797-1878) — and other notable Hodges, such as Archibald Alexander Hodge (1823-1886); Caspar Wistar Hodge, Sr. (1830-1891); and John Aspinwall Hodge (1831-1901) — had a connection to the French Huguenot diaspora through Charles’ great-aunt “Aunt Hannah.” A.A. Hodge writes in his biography of his father: “Mrs. Hannah Hodge, known for many years in the family as Aunt Hannah, was recognized in all the city as a mother in Israel. She was born in Philadelphia, January, 1721, the daughter of John Harkum, of English descent. Her mother, whose maiden name was Doz, was the child of a Protestant who fled from France on account of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantz, 1685, and afterward with other French Protestants, was principally instrumental in founding the First Presbyterian Church, then standing on Market Street above Second, of which the Rev. Jedidiah Andrews was pastor.” (The Life of Charles Hodge, p. 2)

There are likely many more American Presbyterians on our site with French Huguenot heritage, but this sampling gives an idea of the interesting stories that highlight the providence of God in building his Church. Get to know these men and their writings, and the various threads of God’s tapestry.

Songs From the Soul: Geerhardus Vos

In 1994, when Banner of Truth republished Geerhardus Vos’ 1922 collection of sermons titled Grace and Glory, which originally contained six sermons, they added 10 more to the reprint. Sinclair Ferguson explains:

In possessing a copy of Grace and Glory the reader has in his or her hands a book of sermons which are almost as rare as they are remarkable. Not only so, but in addition to the six sermons which originally constituted the volume Grace and Glory the present edition includes a further nine sermons which Vos preached in the Chapel of Princeton Theological Seminary between 1896 and 1913, as well as an undated exposition of Ephesians 2:4-5 translated from Dutch. This additional material has been provided to the publishers by James T. Dennison, the Librarian of Westminster Theological Seminary in California and the editor of the journal Kerux, in which the bulk of has already been published. Mr. Dennison originally uncovered Vos’s personal sermon book in 1971 in the Heritage Hall Archive of Calvin Theological Seminary and transcribed the material. As heirs of his labours the publishers are also indebted to the Heritage Hall Archive of Calvin Seminary for the privilege of reproducing the material in this more permanent form.

One of those additional sermons is titled “Songs From the Soul,” based on Psalm 25:14: “The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.” In this sermon, Vos speaks to the experimental piety of the Psalter in eloquent terms (pp. 169-171).

The Psalter is of all books of the Bible that book which gives expression to the experimental side of religion. In the law and the prophetic writings, it is God who speaks to his people; but in the Psalter we listen to the saints speaking to God. Hence the Psalter has been at all times that part of Scripture to which believers have most readily turned and upon which they have chiefly depended for the nourishment of the inner religious life of the heart. I say that part of Scripture and not merely that part of the Old Testament, for even taking the Old and New Testament together the common experience of the people of God affirms that there is nothing in Holy Writ which in our most spiritual moments — when we feel ourselves nearest to God — so faithfully and naturally expresses what we think and feel in our hearts as these songs of the pious Israelites. Our Lord himself, who had a perfect religious experience and lived and walked with God in absolute adjustment of his thoughts and desires to the Father's mind and will, our Lord himself found his inner life portrayed in the Psalter and in some of the highest moments of his ministry borrowed from it the language in which his soul spoke to God, thus recognizing that a more perfect language for communion with God cannot be framed.

Undoubtedly it is in the Psalter that the specific work of inspiration which the Holy Ghost performs in inditing the Scriptures and the more general task which he carries out in sustaining, directing, stimulating and guiding the religious thoughts and aspirations of believers are most closely united. Inspiration for the disclosure of truth is not always accompanied by the subjective appropriation of the truth in a saintly experience (a Balaam and a Caiaphas were among the prophets); but nevertheless it remains the more natural and ordinary procedure of God that the instrument through which his truth is brought to man should be a mind in intimate touch with his own; a mind responsive to that personal revelation of God himself which lives and throbs in the truth. And consequently we see that the great prophets (like a Moses, an Isaiah or Jeremiah) appear at the same time as the outstanding examples of a wonderfully rich and tender religious intercourse with God. But in the Psalms we can more clearly than anywhere else observe the interaction of these two things: supernatural reception of the truth and spiritual nearness to God. Possibly the fact that in David's case the prophetic disclosures of truth that he received were so vitally connected with his own life and destiny may have something to do with the presence of this feature in the Psalms, whereas the other prophets sometimes stood more or less apart from the development of things to which their words applied. And then the prophets, of course, in many instances spoke to and for the nation collectively, whereas in the Psalter it is the individual soul which comes face to face with God.

Hence the lessons and encouragements which we obtain from other parts of the Old Testament are frequently drawn indirectly by a process of inference, for which we are not always in the right frame of mind and the proper spiritual mood. But the in Psalms, whatever our mood, whether we are exultant or downcast, vigorous or weary, penitent or believing, we can always find our hearts mirrored there. It needs no process of reasoning to make their sentiments our own. Here the language of the Bible comes to meet the very thoughts of our hearts before these can even clothe themselves in language and we recognize that we could not have expressed them better than the Spirit has here expressed them for us. At first sight, this may easily seem strange to us when we remember that the the psalmists lived under the conditions of a typical and preparatory dispensation; that on many points they saw through a glass darkly, whereas we, who live in the full light of the complete gospel, see face to face. But for the very reason that the Psalms reflect that experimental religion of the heart, which is unvarying at all times and under all circumstances, we need not greatly wonder at this. The influx of the divine light, whether more or less strong, must always produce the identical effect of joy, hope and peace in every soul to which it comes. The well at which we drink may flow more abundantly than that at which the psalmists drank, but the experience of thirst, of drinking and of satisfaction must still be the same as it was in the time of David.

19th Century American Presbyterian Writings About the Waldensians

If one reads the writings of Samuel Miller, one of the most prolific American Presbyterian authors of the 18th-19th centuries, one may notice just how often he references the Waldensians, a stream of proto-Protestant Christianity centered in the Alps of France and Italy, in his many works on church history, church government and baptism.

Often Miller addresses the assertions of those Baptists who claim the Waldensians for their own, while showing that in fact they were paedobaptist in their sacramentology and Presbyterian in their understanding of ecclesiology.

The Waldensians (known as the Vaudois in French) began as a movement of conscience which practiced resistance against Papal authority in Lyon, France under the leadership of Peter Waldo in the 12th century, and they suffered tremendous persecution for centuries. They officially embraced the Protestant Reformation at the Synod of Chanforan in 1532. John Milton famously wrote a sonnet about their sufferings during the Piedmontese Easter of 1655, and in fact, worked on behalf of Oliver Cromwell and with Andrew Marvell to apply diplomatic pressure to assist the Waldensians in their need. Later, as noted by Walter H. Conser, Jr. and Robert J. Cain in Presbyterians in North Carolina: Race, Politics, and Religious Identity in Historical Perspective (p. 176), a body of Waldensians who had settled in Valdese, North Carolina joined the Southern Presbyterian Church in 1895, taking as their name the Waldensian Presbyterian Church. The Waldensians have long had a special place in the hearts of American Presbyterians because of their courage and faithfulness beginning centuries before Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany, thus launching the Protestant Reformation.

Miller, who was a professor of ecclesiastical history at Princeton, wrote specifically about the Waldensians in the following works:

• “The Doctrine and Order of the Waldenses,” The Virginia Evangelical and Literary Magazine (five articles appeared in 1820 and 1821) [these articles are not yet available to read at Log College Press, but it is hoped they will be in the future];

• Appendix to James Wharey’s Sketches of Church History, Concerning the History and Doctrine of the Waldensians (1838, 1840); and

• Recommendatory Letter to History of the Ancient Christians Inhabiting the Valleys of the Alps [an English translation of Jean Paul Perrin’s history of the Waldensians] (1845, 1847).

But Miller was not alone among the American Presbyterian writers of his day in taking note of the story and situation of the Waldensians.

Robert Baird spent time among the Waldensians of Italy in 1837 and 1851. His sons, Charles and Henry, who became noted Huguenot historians, both imbided his appreciation for the cause of Protestants in Europe, including the Waldensians. Henry’s biography of his father makes mention of the contacts Robert made with them, as well as his deep love for the people. And Henry would go on to speak of the Waldensians in more depth in his History of the Rise of the Huguenots of France, Vol. 1. Charles argued in his History of the Huguenot Emigration to America that a number of Waldensians settled in the Huguenot community of Manakintowne, Virginia (near Richmond). Both Robert and Charles introduced or translated the writings of Jean Henri-Merle D’Aubigné, whose histories of the Reformation and essays often highlighted the Waldensians. Robert wrote:

• Sketches of Protestantism in Italy, Past and Present, Including a Notice of the Origin, History, and Present State of the Waldenses (1845); and

• “The Modern Vaudois” (1847), an essay appended to the aforementioned History of the Ancient Christians Inhabiting the Valleys of the Alps.

William Craig Brownlee also wrote Saint Patrick and the Western Apostolic Churches: or, The Religion of the Ancient Britains and Irish, not Roman Catholic: and The Antiquity, Tenents and Sufferings of the Albigenses and Waldenses (1857).

Thomas Smyth wrote “The Waldenses—Were They Pedobaptists?” (Works, Vol. 6).

William Maxwell Blackburn has a great to say about the Waldensians in his History of the Christian Church From Its Origin to the Present Time (1879).

Robert Pollock Kerr has a chapter on the Waldenses in The People’s History of Presbyterianism in All Ages (1888).

Richard Clark Reed makes mention of the Waldensians in his History of the Presbyterian Churches of the World (1912).

Madison Monroe Smith wrote An Epitome of the Doctrines and Practice of the Old Waldenses and Albigenses (1866).

Joel Tyler Headley wrote History of the Persecutions and Battles of the Waldenses (1853).

These are really just to name a few of the works that are available here. Many more American Presbyterian works have been written about the Waldensians, and we at Log College Press continue to assemble them. Their memory is sacred, and they continue to inspire us; we do well even in the 21st century to learn all we can about them.

The Sermon That Landed Francis Makemie in Jail

As Francis Makemie himself wrote on March 3, 1707: “This is the Sermon, for which I am now a prisoner.” He spoke of the sermon he preached in New York City on January 19, 1707 titled “A Good Conversation.” It was based on Psalm 50:23: “To him that ordereth his Conversation aright, will I shew the Salvation of God.” The texts cited on the cover page when it was published were Matthew 5:11 and Acts 5:29, which deal with persecution for the faith, and obedience to God over man. It was the preaching and publishing of this sermon without a license in Anglican New York that led to the imprisonment of the Presbyterian minister Francis Makemie. The case became a major landmark in the history of religious liberty in America.

Also of note is that this sermon is “probably the earliest Presbyterian sermon in America now extant, and was certainly the first preached in the City of New York.” It is certainly the earliest sermon currently available to read at Log College Press.

The “conversation” spoken of by Makemie, who utilized the King James Bible, is an older word for “conduct” or “manner of life.” As Makemie says,

A Conversation agreeable to First Table Commands and Second Table Commands, and to Gospel Precepts, is the only regular Conversation. How much therefore is it the concern of every Soul, to be acquainted with this Law, and to make conscience of conforming their Lives thereunto.

3. A Well-ordered Life and Conversation, consists in being adorned with the shining Grace, and gracious fruits of the Spirit of God; wherein the Gifts and Graces of the Renewing Spirit of God are legible and conspicuous, even in all parts of Conversation. This distinguishes the life of a Christian, from the Conversation of the most refined and polished Moralists in the world, and renders the Conversation of a true sincere Christian, to surpass by far the lives of Pagans.

The sermon is a lengthy treatise (originally designed for two discourses, as the author states) on how to live well for the glory of God and to make one’s calling and election sure. Far from being unorthodox, and far from being seditious, it was a testimony to lawful, submissive Christian living. Yet, without a license to preach, the sermon (especially being preached by an Irish-American) became, in the eyes of Lord Cornbury, the royal governor of New York, an intolerable symbol of resistance to the Crown.

Makemie further wrote about his experience in his “Narrative of the Imprisonment of Two Non-Conformist Ministers” (1707). In his account we learn about the time he spent in prison (two months) on the charge of preaching without a license before being released on bail, and the fact that during his trial he was able to produce the preaching license he was given previously in Barbados, after which he was acquitted and released, at great personal financial cost.

Both the sermon and the narrative are fascinating reads, and they give insight into the situation that Presbyterians in early America under British colonial rule faced. Take time to study these works, for your edification and understanding. They represent a window into a time and a heritage that America should never forget.

A Children's Sermon by Samuel Davies

Samuel Davies once preached a sermon to youth in 1758 (260 years ago) titled Little Children Invited to Jesus Christ (reprinted by the American Tract Society in 1826). It was an argument not to delay but to come to Jesus, and to embrace him by faith.

In this sermon, Davies clarifies what he means by “coming to Christ” (based on this text: “But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little Children to come unto me, and forbid them not: For of such is the Kingdom of God,” Mark 10:14). The truths he lays out in this sermon are timeless and applicable to all, young or old.

You have a right, and that it is your duty, to Come to Jesus. Therefore, oh! come to him: come to him this very day, without delay.

But here, I hope, you start a very proper question, "What is it to come to Christ? or in what sense are we to understand this phrase, as it may be applied to us now, since he is removed from our world?"

Coming to Christ, in my text, did indeed mean a bodily motion to him: and this was practicable, while he tabernacled in flesh among men. But even then, it signified much more. It signified coming to him as a divine teacher, to receive instruction; as a Saviour, to obtain eternal life; and as the only Mediator, through whom guilty sinners might have access to God. It signified a motion of soul towards him, Correspondent to the bodily motion of coming: a motion of the desires, a flight of tender affections towards him. In this view it is still practicable to come to Christ; and it is our duty in these latter days, as much as it was theirs who were his contemporaries upon earth. It is in this view, I now urge it upon you: and in this view, it includes: the following particulars.

1. A clear conviction of sin; of sin in heart, in word, and in practice; of sin against knowledge; against alluring mercies and fatherly corrections; of sin against all the strongest incitements to duty. Without such a conviction of sin, it is impossible that you should fly to him as a Saviour: for he "came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

2. An affecting sense of danger, upon the account of sin. You cannot fly to him as a Saviour, till you see your extreme need of salvation; and you cannot see your need of salvation, till you are sensible of your danger; sensible that you are every moment liable to everlasting condemnation, and have no title at all to the divine favour.

3. A humbling sense of your own inability to save yourselves by the merit of your own best endeavours. I do not mean, that you should neglect your best endeavours; or that you should not exert your utmost strength in every good work, and in the earnest use of all the means of grace: for you never will come to Christ, till you are brought to this. But I mean, that while you are doing your utmost, you must be sensible, that you do not deserve any favour at all from God on that account, and that you neither can, nor do make any atonement for your sins by all your good works; but that God may justly condemn you notwithstanding. Till you are sensible of this, you will weary yourselves in vain, in idle self righteous efforts to perform the work which Jesus came into the world to perform, and which he alone was able to do; I mean, to make atonement for your sin, and to work out a righteousness to recommend you to God. It is an eternal truth, that you will never come to Christ as a Saviour, till you are deeply sensible there is no salvation in any other; and particularly that you are not able to save yourselves.

4. An affecting conviction, that Jesus Christ is a glorious, all sufficient and willing Saviour: that his righteousness is perfect, equal to all the demands of the divine law, and sufficient to make satisfaction for all our sins, and procure for us all the blessings of the divine favour; that he is able and willing to "save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him;" and that he is freely offered in the Gospel to all that will accept him, however unworthy, and however great their sins. Indeed it is an eternal truth, that though multitudes perish, it is not for want of a Saviour. There is a Saviour all sufficient, and perfectly willing; and this you must be convinced of before you can come to him.

5. An entire dependence upon his merits alone for acceptance with God. Sensible that you have no merit of your own; on which to depend; and sensible also that Jesus is a sure foundation, on which you may safely venture your eternal all, you must cast all your dependence and fix your entire trust on him. You will as it were hang about him, as the only support for your sinking soul, and plead his righteousness as the only ground of your acceptance with God. This is so unnatural to a proud self-confident sinner, that you must be brought very low indeed, thoroughly mortified and self-emptied, before you will submit to it.

6. A cheerful subjection to him as your ruler; and a voluntary surrender of yourselves to his service. If you come to him at all, it will be as poor penitent rebels, returning to duty with, shame and sorrow, and fully determined never to depart from it more. To embrace Christ as a Saviour, and yet not submit to him as our ruler; to trust in his righteousness, and in the mean time disobey his authority; this is the greatest absurdity, and utterly inconsistent with the wise constitution of the Gospel.

And now, my dear young friends, I hope even your tender minds have some idea what it is to come to Christ. And therefore, when I exhort you to it, you know what I mean. Come then, come to Jesus.

God's Providence in the Deaths of Log College Press Saints

Henry A. Boardman once had occasion to preach a funeral sermon for several individuals who perished in a railroad accident. In his 1855 sermon titled "God’s Providence in Accidents,” he said:

That death is among the objects of his providence, is a necessary corollary from his sovereignty. It is one of his inalienable prerogatives to create life, and he alone can destroy it. “I kill; and I make alive." Such is the concatenation of events, that the death of an obscure individual, or of an infant, at a different time or place from that which he had prescribed, might disorganize the entire scheme of terrestrial things, and even spread confusion through the whole boundless domain of his administration. "Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth?" "Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee: thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass." "Thou turnest man to destruction, and sayest: 'Return, ye children of men.'“

And this implies that the mode, and all the attending circumstances of death, are appointed in every instance. We may no more exempt one class of deaths from God's control, than another. The sword, the poison, the accident, are as much his instruments as the paralysis and the fever — the battle is no less his than the pestilence. The murder of Abel, and the tranquil death of Jacob; Joseph dying in Egypt, and Moses in Mount Nebo; Jonathan slain in battle and David peacefully expiring in the bosom of his family; John the Baptist beheaded, and Stephen stoned to death; all have a common place in the great scheme of Providence.

One of the features that makes Log College Press’ database of American Presbyterian writers so special is that — as often as possible — we have included photographs of these men, along with pictures of where they are laid to rest, as well as biographical information. Reviewing the lives and deaths of our Log College Press men, it is worth taking note of some of the unusual ways that some of them have finished their earthly course.

Maltbie Davenport Babcock — Composer of the famous hymn “This Is My Father’s World,” “Babcock died at age 42 in Naples, Italy, on May 18, 1901, returning from a trip to the Holy Land. According to a New York Times report of May 20, 1901, and widely carried by newspapers coast-to-coast, he committed suicide by slitting his wrist and ingesting ‘corrosive sublimate’ or mercuric chloride. He was being treated in the International Hospital in Naples for what was called ‘Mediterranean fever,’ an archaic term for brucellosis. Several of his travel companions suffered from this bacterial infection which causes fever, pain and depression. Babcock had been hospitalized for ‘nervous prostration’ (depression) in Danville, New York, ten years before his death.” — Wikipedia

Hezekiah James Balch — Presbyterian minister and one of the three primary authors of the 1775 Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, it is not known precisely how he died, merely that he died in early 1776, around the age of 30.

Elias Boudinot — After signing the Treaty of New Echota (1835), which ceded all Cherokee land east of the Mississippi to the U.S. federal government, Boudinot was assassinated at his Oklahoma home on June 22, 1839, by a group of Cherokees who were angry about his role in the removal of the tribe.

Ephraim Brevard - The reputed author of the 1775 Mecklenburg Resolutions and the scribe who penned the 1775 Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence spent time in British custody as a prisoner of war at Charleston, South Carolina, where the unwholesome air and diet crushed his health. After his release, he reached the home of his friend John McKnitt Alexander, in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, only to breathe his last shortly thereafter in 1781.

William Jennings Bryan, Sr. — This Presbyterian statesman and lawyer is most famous today for his role in the 1925 Scopes Trial in Tennessee regarding the teaching of evolution. He won the case for the prosecution (contra evolution), which was decided on July 21, 1925, though he lost in the court of public opinion. However, he passed away in his sleep just five days later on July 26, 1925.

Aaron Burr, Sr. — Burr was the second president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton). Like the next two succeeding presidents (Jonathan Edwards and Samuel Davies), Burr preached a New Year’s sermon on Jeremiah 28:16 and died later that same year on September 24, 1757.

James Caldwell — The “Fighting Parson” of the American War of Independence, “Rev. Caldwell was picking up a traveler in his buggy. After carrying the baggage to the horse-drawn buggy, he went back to pick up a package. An American sentry ordered him to stop but distance precluded the command from being heard. With that, the sentry fired and killed Rev. Caldwell on November 24, 1781. At the trial and subsequent hanging of the sentry, there were rumors that he had been bribed by the British to kill the soldier parson. At any rate, he was buried beside his wife in the cemetery of the First Presbyterian Church of Elizabethtown, New Jersey. A monument was placed up honoring him in 1846. Three towns in New Jersey are named after him, including an educational facility.” — This Day in Presbyterian History

Samuel Davies — Davies was the fourth president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton). Like each of the prior two presidents (Aaron Burr, Sr. and Jonathan Edwards), Davies preached a New Year’s sermon on Jeremiah 28:16 (“This Very Year Thou Shalt Die!”), and by February 4, 1761, Davies had passed away from pneumonia.

Moses Drury Hoge — “On Friday, November 4, 1898, Moses Drury Hoge was heading home after consoling a bereaved family when he suddenly heard the clanging bell of a trolley as it rammed into his buggy. He was thrown into the air and landed on his right side on the stone pavement and was severely injured. Dr. Hoge suffered with his injuries until he died on January 6, 1899.” — Presbyterians of the Past

George Howe — "In the case of George Howe, his fatal injury occurred after the Lord’s Day service. He was riding home when he was thrown from his carriage resulting in the breaking of one of his legs. He survived through two weeks of suffering before dying on April 15, 1883.” — Presbyterians of the Past

James Latta — An Irish-American Presbyterian who served as the third moderator of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, “The circumstances of his death, as related by one of his daughters, were as follows: — Riding to church one Sabbath with his daughter Mary, he was thrown from the carriage, and falling on his head, he was somewhat stunned. He observed to her, — ‘I am killed; but do not tell your mother.’ He proceeded to church, preached with some difficulty, and returned home. He soon after fell into a sleepy, comatose state, until his daughter, the next day, alarmed, related to her mother what had happened. Help was immediately called in, but in vain. He continued a few days, almost insensible, and then died.” — This Day in Presbyterian History

John Greshem Machen — After traveling to North Dakota in December 1936, Machen developed an inflammation of the lungs, and then was hospitalized for pneumonia. Before he passed away on January 1, 1937, at the age of 55, he dictated a telegram to his friend and colleague John Murray in which he stated: “I'm so thankful for active obedience of Christ. No hope without it."

Nathaniel Smyth McFetridge — In 1881, McFetridge was seriously injured in a railroad accident, and never fully recovered. He passed away on December 3, 1886 at Minneapolis, Minnesota at the age of 44.

Benjamin Morgan Palmer — “Palmer was struck by a streetcar in New Orleans on May 5, 1902, and died twenty days later.” — Wikipedia

Charles Henry Parkhurst — Parkhurst died on September 8, 1933, by sleepwalking and walking off the porch roof of his Ventnor City, New Jersey, home.

David Ramsay — Famed Presbyterian historian David “Ramsay was appointed by a court to examine one William Linnen, a tailor known for serial litigation and nuisance suits, after Linnen had attempted to murder his attorney. Ramsay reported to the court that Linnen was ‘deranged’ and that it would be ‘dangerous to let him go at large.’ After apparently regaining his sanity, Linnen was released; though he threatened Ramsay, the latter did not take the threat seriously.

On May 6, 1815, at 1:00 p.m., Ramsay passed Linnen on Broad Street in Charleston. Linnen took out a ‘horseman's pistol’ that he had concealed in a handkerchief, and shot Ramsay twice, in the back and hip. According to a contemporary source:

Having been carried home, and being surrounded by a crowd of anxious citizens, after first calling their attention to what he was about to utter, he said ‘I know not if these wounds be mortal; I am not afraid to die; but should that be my fate, I call on all here present to bear witness, that I consider the unfortunate perpetrator of this deed a lunatic, and free from guilt.’

Ramsay died at 7 a.m. on May 8, 1815.” — Wikipedia

Robert Lodowick Stanton - “Stanton died en route to Europe and was buried at sea on May 28, 1885, at the age of seventy-six.” — Wikipedia

William Tennent III — “In 1777, upon the death of his minister father, he sought to bring his surviving mother to South Carolina. In that trip, he was seized with fever and died on the way. It was said that his mind was calm at the sudden turn of events and that he was willing to die. Thus, on this Day in August 11, 1777, he went into the presence of his heavenly Father.” — This Day in Presbyterian History

Samuel Hall Young — This pioneer missionary who survived an accident on an Alaskan glacier decades previously was hit and killed by a streetcar in Clarksburg, West Virginia on September 2, 1927.